Staffing Employment Practices HRIS This week we delve into specific and more “traditional” HR functions. Reflect for a moment on our week 1 discussions focused on the strategic nature of HR. We determined that for an organization to be successful today, HRMs need to be part of the corporate strategic planning process. Once the organization’s strategic goals have been identified, HRMs then work with their team to develop the HR Strategic (Long term) plan. Based upon the HR strategic plan, HRM’s next develop the HR operational or day-to-day policies and procedures for recruiting, hiring, compensating and developing the organization’s employees. There should be a process flow cascading from the corporate strategic policy to the HR strategic policy which then determines the HR policies and procedures for the organization.

Staffing Employment Practices HRIS Recruiting and selection are the functions most people consider as the “typical” HR functions, as we have said. What I hope you will develop as you read the text and think about our discussion questions, is an appreciation for how the recruitment process has changed over time. Today’s HRMs use metrics and detailed analyses to develop specific job descriptions and determine the fitness of the applicant during the recruitment process. HRMs plan and manage the employee recruitment efforts and activities based upon their well-defined job analyses. Think of the job analysis effort as the scaffolding upon which the recruitment effort is built. We will explore these topics very generally this week.  UMGC offers HRMN 400: Staffing, Recruiting, and Performance Management for a more in-depth study of recruiting and selection.

Staffing Employment Practices HRIS Your text begins the job analysis discussion on page 4 and the author does a good job explaining the job analysis process. What they don’t do is give you an organizational context or a sense of the scope of the process development exercise. Imagine for a moment conducting a job analysis for Marriott or Delta Airlines? What about Cisco Systems or Microsoft? These are huge corporations with thousands of employees working both nationally and internationally. Of course these giant corporations have large HR departments tasked with implementing HR policies, but the same job analysis process supports every effort. Make sure you develop your understanding of this important HR function.

Staffing Employment Practices HRIS Once the job analysis is complete, an HRM begins writing specific job descriptions. I think we are most familiar with these. We see them in newspapers and on Linkedin. A well-written job description means the organization has a better chance of recruiting the “right” employee for the job. Be sure to check-out the great diagram in Figure 4.5 on page 20. That flow is exactly how the recruitment process works.

Staffing Employment Practices HRIS In addition to the technical skills in developing job descriptions, HRMs need to understand the employment laws that affect hiring practices. The EEOC commission oversees workplace equality. HRMs want to ensure our corporations are in compliance with EEOC laws. (Some of the recommended articles last week focused on the EEOC laws. If you didn’t read them, now is a good time to do so!)

Staffing Employment Practices HRIS Finally, all of this data needs to be effectively organized and managed in a human resource information system, which is essentially a type of database that tracks employee and applicant data.  This data can help HRMs generate reports and relevant metrics for  analysis and planning. For example, HRMs want to be cost effective in their recruitment process. The HRIS can help them calculate important metrics such as time-to-hire and cost-per-hire.

DISCUSSION INSTRUCTIONS:

Staffing Employment Practices HRIS To respond to this week’s questions you have a choice. You want to develop your ideas in response to either Question 1 or Question 2. Everyone must respond to Question 3.

Begin a new thread for each Discussion response. Take your time and develop each question thoroughly. In the Title line identify the response with the question number. Example: Question 1 or Question 2. When you Reply to another student, simply, click on Reply, review your title and being typing your response into the text box.