Staffing
Staffing is the process through which an organization ensures that it always has the proper number of employees with the appropriate skills in the right jobs, at the right time, to achieve the organizational objectives. The primary tasks involved to achieve this goal are job analysis, human resource planning, recruitment and selection.
A job analysis gathers information about various aspects of a job, including reporting relationships, interactions with others, exemption status of the position, qualifications, work environment, and knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs) need to perform the job successfully. Merely knowing that the company requires 1,000 new employees to achieve a certain organizational goal is insufficient. The different level of knowledge, skills, and ability levels required of each job must be identified in order to prepare an updated job description and specifications. This information from job analysis is crucial to good staffing decisions. Recruiters need to know the exact requirements of position to make good recruitment and selection choices.
Using the job description and job specifications documents above, we can now we can now place an advertisement in the newspaper and the internet as we know the points to highlight to attract the type of staff that we need. These documents will also be extremely important in our selection process so that we can choose the best applicant suited for our vacancies
Human Resource Development
Human resource development planning is a major part of HRM function that consists not only of training and development but also individual career planning and development activities and performance appraisal, an activity that emphasizes training & development needs. Human resource development (HRD) helps individuals, groups, and the entire organization become more effective. It is essential because people, technology, jobs, and organizations are always changing.
Through performance appraisal, employees and teams are evaluated to determine how well they are performing their assigned tasks. Performance appraisal affords employees the opportunity to capitalize on their strengths to overcome identified deficiencies, thereby becoming more satisfied and productive employees.
Although employee training and employee development are similar in training methods, their time frame differs.
Training is designed to provide learners with knowledge and skills needed for their present job making one more efficient in his current job. Despite having education certification such as diploma in hotel/restaurant management, the manager needs to learn about the company's policies and practices, product information and other pertinent selling practices. As training aims at providing solutions for short term needs and designed to solve immediate problems, customer relationship management program or communications & interpersonal training may be relevant in relation to the job specifications.
Development involves learning that goes beyond today's job; it provides long term solutions that are designed to meet the organization's future needs. Development activities include training that increases knowledge or skills, job assignments in various functions to build broader knowledge, mentoring from senior executives and formal education such as Bachelor of Science degree in hotel/restaurant management. These development activities increase an employee's value to the organization.
Career planning is an ongoing process whereby an individual sets career goals and identifies the means to achieve them. This process is likely that career planning happens several times in our life time as we change our goals. The career planning process is comprised of four steps:
(a) Self-assessment which includes identifying one's interests, value, roles, skills, preferred environment, developmental needs. Eg: strength & weakness balance sheet or likes & dislikes survey.
(b) Career exploration which includes determining the career opportunities, research the industries in which you would like to work in as well as the present labor market.
(c) One needs to determine their career choice by identifying the possible occupations, evaluate the occupations, exploring alternatives and choosing both a short term and long term option.
(d) Action plan which includes investigating if additional training and education is required, writing a resume, gathering company information, composing cover letters and preparing for job interviews.
Career development is a formal approach taken by the organization to ensure people with the proper qualifications and experience is available when needed. With career development, the organization identifies paths and activities for individual employees as they develop and this process ensures that the organization's structure and the production processes remained viable and competitive in the future. Today, career development opportunities had become more than receiving a greater pay. To retain the organization's best workers, career planning and career development must work closely parallel even though career planning rests with the employee.
The career development methods include:
(a) Manager/Employee self-service whereby online abilities are provided for managers to assist employees in planning their career paths and developing required competencies.
(b) Discussions with knowledgeable individuals whereby superior and subordinate jointly agree on career development activities are best.
(c) Specific company materials which are tailored to the firms needs are provided to assist career development. Job description will give an idea if a match exists between their strengths and weaknesses and specific positions.
(d) Performance appraisals system assesses an employee's strengths and weaknesses and determines the person's potential. Such information can be used by manager to identify if developmental needs exist or alternative career path may be a solution.
(e) Workshops are conducted to help employee define and match their specific career objectives with the needs of the company.
Performance appraisal is a formal system of review and evaluation of individual or team performance. Conducting performance appraisals are essential as managers need to make decisions about developmental needs, promotions, pay raises, terminations, transfers, admission to training programs and other legal ramifications.
Performance appraisal process includes:
(a) Identifying the specific performance appraisal goals which are perceived as most important and achievable by managers
(b) Establish performance criteria and communicate them to employee. Then the work is performed by the employees and the supervisor appraises the performance.
(c) At the end of the appraisal period, the appraiser and the employee together review work performance and evaluate it against established performance standards. This review helps determine how well employees have met these standards, determines reasons for deficiencies, and develops a plan to correct the problems. At this meeting goals are set and the next evaluation period, and the cycle repeats.
Safety & Health
The Health & Safety function of the human resource department is to be responsible for providing a safe and healthy work environment for employees and their customers. The areas generally considered to be part of this outlook include cleanliness, behavior-based safety, disease prevention, and others.
The human resource function should encompass the following actions as related to the health and safety of employees, customers, etc.
- Safety inspections;
- Investigating safety incidents, accidents, illnesses and deaths,
- Evaluating accident and illness prevention programs,
- Establishing training programs for the identification and reduction of hazards in the workplace which damage the reproductive system of employees, and
- Establishing training programs to assist committee members in understanding and identifying the effects of employee substance abuse on workplace accidents and safety.
Employee & Labor Relations
Labor Relations explores such topics as management-union relationships, remaining non-union, collective bargaining, the potential contribution of a union representative, the advantages of a represented work place and grievances.