Human Resource Management

Aims of this Unit

People may be considered a key competitive advantage for organisations. How Human Resource Management (HRM) is used in an organisation can make a key difference to the success of business by keeping engagement, retention and productivity high while minimising HR risks, for example work health and safety and other legislative breaches as well as maintaining a positive employee brand. This unit will assist managers to understand the need for a strategic approach to HRM and how to maximise this important function to achieve successful outcomes for their team and business.

Studying HRM enables you to:
a. Manage employees confidently
b. Understand the legislative framework and your responsibilities
c. Build better relationship with HRM as a business partner
d. Contribute positively to performance/productivity improvements in your organisation
e. Plan for dealing with the changing nature of the workplace and work

This unit aims to:
• Introduce managers to the principles that underpin the HRM function of an organisation which directly impact people and performance
• Facilitate the learning of concepts and practices of HRM as a mechanism for translating business strategies into sound strategic and operational HRM practices
• Examine the links between business strategy and HRM and some of the frameworks and techniques used for a number of HRM aspects, including HRM strategies and plans, workforce planning, attraction, recruitment and selection, managing diversity and work/life blend, human resource development, performance management, retention, and evaluating the effectiveness of the HRM function

Knowledge and Understanding

This unit is designed to provide students with an understanding of:

The Human Resource Environment and Context:
a. Political, Economic, Societal and Ethical
  • The current environment relevant to HRM and challenges to the ethicality of HRM in organisations
b. Legislative
  • The legal context, including consideration of major EEO laws and Workplace Health and Safety and their application
c. Strategic HRM
  • How work is evolving and the future of work
  • The pivotal relationship between the business plan, strategic human resource management and HR business planning
  • Foundations of HRM, key roles and activities, consideration of ‘best practice’ HRM models/frameworks
  • Strategic HRM and how to align HR strategy with the company’s strategic directions including identification of relevant environmental trends and risks and HR planning

Productivity:
a. Organisational climate
  • Important elements of how organisational climate improves job satisfaction
b. Employee engagement
  • Current research on strategies for the retention of staff including factors that facilitate engagement and motivation
 
c. Diversity, attrition and retention
  • The business benefits of managing diversity and work/life blend, including identification of current practices and strategies in diversity management and flexible workplace arrangements
d. Job design
  • Factors relating to job analysis and design
e. Workforce planning
  • Workforce planning models and approaches -uses, benefits, risks
f. Technology
  • The need and uses of HR information systems including HR dashboards

Strategy, Design and Operations for People Management:
a. Attracting, recruiting and selecting staff
  • Recruitment and selection - approaches, selection methods, and ways to optimise validity and reliability are analysed
  • Induction and probation issues
b. Performance management
  • Key drivers of individual performance, critical success factors for effective performance management systems and approaches to managing and developing high performance in organisations
c. Compensation, reward and recognition
  • Financial and non-financial incentives
  • Approaches to rewarding and recognising employees, including factors to consider in the development and management of reward strategies
  • Managing compensation and factors to consider in applying performance related pay
d. Learning and Development
  • Range of learning and career development strategies aligned with adult learning models, including the 70:20:10 principle
  • Current trends in learning and development, including coaching and mentoring, as well as succession planning
e. Talent Management
  • Ways to manage talent including promotion and top talent development

Evaluation of HRM
a. Improving the HR function
  • Approaches to evaluating effectiveness of the HR function in an organisation, bearing in mind ‘best practice’ HRM models identified at the outset of the topic
  • Ways to measure the effectiveness of HR activities and practices as well as common HR metrics and strategies to improve HR effectiveness in an organisation

Learning Outcomes

Following completion of this course, participants should be able to:
1. Understand the complexities of the HR operating environment
2. Understand the strategic significance and relationship between the business plan and HRM
3. Align an organisation’s HR policies, strategies and tools with the business’ strategic direction and priorities
4. Identify HRM models and frameworks and the relevant roles and activities of managers and HR departments in an organisation
5. Understand key features of relevant legislation and how to embed relevant legislative principles into organisations
6. Analyse an organisation’s HRM strategies and apply relevant tools for attraction, selection, development, engagement, management, reward and retention of staff
7. Discuss current issues and emerging trends relevant to HRM
8. Evaluate the HRM capability and effectiveness, in and of, an organisation