Your Assessment(you need to score 60% or more to pass)
Instruction: Attempt at least 4 questions. each question has a second part to it. Read carefully, then scroll down to the comment section at the end of the page to submit your answers.
1. What are the primary functions and responsibilities of an HR manager within an organization?
- Provide examples to illustrate how these responsibilities contribute to effective human resource management.
2. Explain the significance of communication in the field of Human Resource Management.
- How does effective communication contribute to the success of HRM practices, and what challenges might arise in the absence of clear communication?
3. Outline the steps involved in developing a comprehensive compensation plan.
- Consider factors such as market trends, internal equity, and employee motivation. Provide an example or case study to illustrate your points.
4. Enumerate and briefly describe the essential stages in the recruitment process.
- Highlight the significance of each stage in ensuring the acquisition of the right talent for an organization.
5. Provide a comparative analysis of various recruitment strategies.
- Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of strategies such as internal promotions, external hires, and outsourcing. Include real-world examples to support your discussion.
6. Detail the stages involved in the selection process, starting from reviewing applications to making the final job offer.
- Discuss how each stage contributes to identifying the best candidates for a given position.
7. Identify and explain various interview methods used in the selection process.
- Compare and contrast methods such as behavioral interviews, situational interviews, and panel interviews. Highlight the considerations for choosing the most appropriate method for different roles.
8. Discuss the various tests and selection methods used in the hiring process, including skills assessments, personality tests, and situational judgment tests.
- Compare their strengths and weaknesses, and provide recommendations on when to use each method based on the job requirements.
Submit your answer below
QUESTION 1
Functions and Responsibilities of Human Resource Manager
1.Recruit and selection
2. Manages employee to enhance their performance so that the organization can reach its goal.
3. Build a culture that helps the organization to reach its goal.
4. Employees to build skill needed for high performance
5. Helps employees to get all benefits and compensation that they employees are entitled to.
6. Helps to manage technology and people data within the organization.
1B. Then mentioned above responsibilities contribute to an effective Human Resource Management because an HR manager that doesn’t know his responsibilities will invariably affect the growth of the employees and the organization. An HR manager that only recruit but doesn’t know how to select the right candidate for a specific job or selected a wrong employee and no form of training given or job description given will definitely affect the organization negatively.
QUESTION 2
Communication skill is very essential in the field of Human Resource Management.
An effective communication contribute immensely to the success of HRM practice in the following ways:
1. It helps and improves productivity
2. It contributes to good ethic and morale in the workplace.
3. It foster an environment for corporation.
4. Employees are well trained and skills improved.
5. HR manager that is an active listener build good relationship and confidence between the H.R.M and employee.
6. Prevent misunderstanding
However, without an effective communication in the field of HRM, the organization will experience;
1. Low productivity
2. Brings misunderstanding between the HRM and employee
3. It could bring an hostile environment
4. Employees will lack roper training either on the job or ethics that guides the organization.
5. Employees will lack confidence in the HRM.
6. Employees will lack ethics and good morals that guides the organization because no proper training is given.
QUESTION 4
Essential Stages in Recruitment Process
1. Staffing Plans: Business should project how many staff they need base on revenue expectation.
2. Develop Job Analysis: This is a formal system developed to determine the tasks of employees or their job description.
3. Write Job Description: This is when the HR manager outline the list of tasks, duties and responsibilities of the job.
4. Job Specification Development: This is the outline of the skills and abilities an employees must possess.
5. Know law Relation to Recruitment: An HRM must know and apply the law in all activities in HR department which include all the people applying for a job.
6. Develop Recruitment Plan: This is the strategy or action plan map out to ensure that the right talent and people are employed.
7. Implement a Recruitment Plan: This is the stage whereby the actions outlined in the recruitment are being implemented.
8. Accept Application: This is the first step in selection to start receiving resume. Standard for evaluation must be put in place and job description must be clearly spelt out.
9. Selectin Process: HR professional must determine the selection method and organize how to interview suitable candidates.
4B) Acquisition for The Right Talent Include
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and other Characteristics(KSAOs)
QUESTION 7
Various interview methods include:
1. Traditional Interview: This is the type of interview that consist the interviewer and the candidate in an office setting with series of questions asked and answered.
2. Telephone Interview: This is usually done to narrow down the numbers of candidate if they are many before eventually calling the successful candidates for physical or traditional interview.
3. Panel Interview: This is an interview where numerous interviewers interview candidate at the same time.
4. Information Interview: This is the type of interview conducted when there isn’t a specific job opportunity but the applicant is looking into potential career paths. This helps an employer find an excellent individuals before a position opens up.
5. Video Interview: This is the type of interview where the video technology is adopted and the same information are gathered like the traditional method of interview.
7B) Behavioral Interview is when the past experience or behavior are predictive behavior while Situational Interview is inquired to evaluate the candidate’s ability, knowledge, experience and judgement. On the other hand, Panel Interview is the method of interview where numerous people are interviewing a candidate at the same time either using behavioral or situational interview to gather information from candidates.
Great learning course secession
1. An HR professional working for an organisation is saddled with the following responsibilities:
*Organisation Culture management
*Employee performance management
*Recruitment and selection of best fit talents for a current or future job.
*Development of compensation and benefits for employees with optimum performance.
*Information storage and analytical function
Let’s say, for instance, that an HR professional who is committed to ensuring the business strategy of a company being achieved, wants to hire people, ensuring that an employee performance evaluation criteria is the same quality you look for when hiring new talents to join the workforce makes achievement of the company’s business strategy achievable.
2. Communication serves the following purposes in the field of human resource management:
*It enhances effective communication of concepts with the HR customers.
*It also enhances how well we are understood.
*It also enhances how well we get along
In a situation where the HR manager doesn’t understand the different styles of communication, for both verbal and nonverbal communications, optimization of less performing talents in the organisation might be difficult and unachievable, because the employee might be giving you a “No” for a request but not communicated in words. Besides, in the case of hiring new talent, the supervisors must have a suitable and comprehensive means of communication that would help an interviewing panel, for instance, know when the best talent is identified.
3. A compensation plan refers to all the aspects of a compensation package (wages, salary, and benefits). To develop a comprehensive compensation plan, the HR professional must answer the following questions:
*From the employee’s perspective, what’s a fair wage?
*Are wages too high to achieve financial health in your organisation?
*Does the pay scale reflect the importance of various job titles within the organisation?
*Is the compensation good enough to retain employees in the organisation?
*Are state and federal laws being met with your compensation package?
*Is your compensation philosophy evolving along with the changes in the labor market, the industry and the organisation?
When employees are given equal chances to ascend to a higher position with a higher compensation, it helps an organisation motivate the employees to upscale their performance in order to attain that height in the organisation, which in turn expands the profit margin of the organisation.
4. Recruitment is the process that provides an organisation with the pool of candidates from which to choose. Stages involved in the recruitment process includes:
*Staffing Plans:
This shows the assessment the HR must have conducted before recruitment, which includes how many individuals needed, what jobs they are to do, and when they need to be hired, based on the organisation’s expected revenues.
*Job Analysis Development:
Job analysis is a formal system developed to determine what tasks people perform in their jobs. The information obtained from the job analysis is utilised to create the job description and job specifications.
*Job Description Writing:
The next stage of the recruitment process is to develop a job description, which should outline a list of tasks, duties, and responsibilities of the job.
*Job Specifications Development
A job description is a list of a position’s tasks, duties, and responsibilities. Position specifications, on the other hand, outline the skills and abilities required for the job. The two are tied together as job descriptions are usually written to include job specifications.
*Know laws relation to recruitment
One of the most important parts of H.R.M is to know and apply the law in all activities the HR department handles. Specifically, with hiring processes, the law is very clear on fair hiring that is inclusive to all people applying for a job. Given this, it is the responsibility of the HR professional to research and apply the laws relating to recruitment in their respective industry and country.
*Recruitment plan development:
A successful recruitment plan includes actionable steps and strategies that make the recruitment process efficient. Although it might seem easy, recruitment of the right talent at the right place and at the right time takes skill and practice, but more importantly, it takes strategic planning. HR professionals should develop a recruiting plan before posting any job description.
*Recruitment plan implementation:
This stage requires the implementation of the actions outlined in the recruitment plan.
*Applications Acceptance
The first step in selection is to begin reviewing résumés. But even before you do that, it’s crucial to create standards by which you’ll evaluate each applicant. Both the job description and the job requirements might provide this information.
*Selection process
This stage will require the HR professional to determine which selection method will be used. The next step of the selection process is to determine and organize how to interview suitable candidates.
When all the above mentioned are observed sequentially, the candidates who are not qualified won’t apply due to job descriptions and specifications, neither would they be accepted due to CV reviews before the final selection process which is done according to the laws governing operation of an organisation within a particular country or culture.
5. HR professionals must have a recruiting plan before posting any job description. The proposal calls for the use of documents like résumé. Part of the plan should also include the expected cost of recruitment. The primary ways of recruitment are listed below.
1. Recruiters
Some organisations choose to have specific individuals working for them who focus solely on the recruiting function of HR. Recruiters use similar sources to recruit individuals, such as professional organisations, websites, and other methods discussed in this chapter. Recruiters are excellent at networking and usually attend many events where possible candidates will be present. Recruiters maintain a steady pipeline of potential applicants in case a position that might be a suitable match arises.
There are three main types of recruiters:
1. Executive search firm – These firms are primarily interested in high-level positions such as management and CEO. They often charge 10-20% of the first year’s pay, making them highly costly.
2. Temporary recruitment or staffing firm – Assist in locating skilled candidates ready to work on shorter-term contracts. Typically, the employer pays the employee’s salary and the recruitment firm, so you do not need to add this person to your payroll.
3. Corporate recruiter – A corporate recruiter is a corporation employee solely responsible for recruiting for their organisation. Corporate recruiters work for the business they are seeking candidates to represent. This type of recruiter may specialise in a particular field, such as technical recruiting.
Number 2. Campus Recruiting
Colleges and universities can be excellent sources of new candidates, usually at entry-level positions. Universities can provide people that may lack experience but have formal training in a specific field. Many companies use their campus recruiting programs to develop new talent, who will eventually develop into managers.
3. Professional Associates
Typically nonprofit organizations and professional associations work to advance a particular profession. There is a professional organization for almost every profession. In most cases, there is a price, and membership in this organization could be necessary to post jobs. For example, in the field of human resources, the Society for Human Resource Management in the U.S. allows companies to post jobs relating to HR
4. Websites
If you have ever had to look for a job, you know there are numerous websites to help you do that. From the HR perspective, there are many options to place an ad, most of which are inexpensive. The downside to this method is the immense number of résumés you may receive from these websites, all of which may or may not be qualified. Many organisations, to combat this, implement software that searches for keywords in résumés, which can help combat this problem.
5. Social Media
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are excellent places to obtain a media presence to attract numerous workers. The goal of using social media as a recruiting tool is to create a buzz about your organisation, share stories of successful employees, and promote an appealing culture.
Even smaller businesses might benefit from this technology by posting job openings as status updates. This technique is relatively inexpensive, but there are some things to consider. For example, tweeting about a job opening might spark interest in some candidates, but the trick is to show your personality as an employer early on
6. Events
Recruiting at special events such as job fairs is another option. Some organizations have specific job fairs for their company, depending on the size. Others may attend industry or job-specific fairs to recruit specific individuals.
7. Referrals
Most recruiting plans include asking current employees, “Who do you know?” The quality of referred applicants is usually high since most people would not recommend someone they thought incapable of doing the job.
E-mailing a job opening to current employees and offering incentives to refer a friend can be a quick way of recruiting individuals. Because most formal referral programs are successful, it is recommended that programs be incorporated into the H.R.M strategic plan and recruitment strategy. However, be wary of using referrals as the only method, as this can lead to a lack of diversity in the workplace.
8. Traditional Advertisement
Newspaper and radio advertisements are also common kinds of traditional job advertising. This method can allow you to target specific segments such as demographics (e.g. local newspaper or radio station advertisements.) However, it can be an expensive form of advertising. For example, a TV advert campaign may not be the most appropriate or cost-effective method if hiring for one job role.
Recruitment strategies for a new role or job might be done internally by promotion of lower staffs to higher position and training them to perform optimally in the job, whereas the external prefers to source for the talents from the job applicants who may have the required qualities.
Internal candidates
Advantages
– Rewards contributions of current staff.
– Can be cost-effective, as opposed to using a traditional recruitment strategy.
– Knowing the past performance of the candidate can assist in knowing if they meet the criteria.
Disadvantages:
– Can produce “inbreeding,” which may reduce diversity and different perspectives.
– May cause political infighting between people to obtain promotions.
– Can create bad feelings if an internal candidate applies for a job and doesn’t get it.
External Candidates
Advantages:
– Brings new talent into the company.
– Can help an organisation obtain diversity goals.
– New ideas and insight brought into the company.
Disadvantages:
– Implementation of a recruitment strategy can be expensive.
– Can cause morale problems for internal candidates.
– Can take longer for training and orientation.
6. The actions involved in selecting persons with the required qualities to fill a current or future job opening is known as the Selection process. The processes undergone before a candidate is selected includes the following:
*Criteria development
*Application and résumé/CV review
*Interviewing
*Test administration
*Making the offer
*Criteria development
The first step in the selection process is to plan the interview procedure, which includes developing criteria. Choosing which information sources to utilise and how to grade those sources during the interview is part of the generating criteria process. The criteria selection should be related directly to the job analysis and specifications which may include personality and culture fit.
By developing the criteria before reviewing any résumés, the HR manager or manager can be sure if they are being fair in selecting people to interview.
* Application and CV review
Once the criteria have been developed (step one), applications can be reviewed. People have different methods of going through this process, but there are also computer programs that can search for keywords in résumés and narrow down the number of résumés that must be looked at and reviewed.
* Interviewing
The HR manager and/or management must choose those applicants for interviews after determining which applications match the minimal requirements. Most people do not have time to review twenty or thirty candidates, so the field is sometimes narrowed even further with a phone interview.
* Test administration
Various exams may be administered before making a hiring decision, after a candidate has passed the interview. These consist of physical, psychological, personality, and cognitive testing. Some businesses also do reference checks, credit reports, and background checks.
The major employment categories of tests include the following:
-Cognitive ability tests.
-Personality tests.
-Physical ability tests.
-Job knowledge tests.
-Work sample.
* Making the offer
The last step in the selection process is to offer a position to the chosen candidate. Development of an offer via e-mail or letter is often a more formal part of this process.
7. Interview is vital to identify the candidate KSAOs required for a job. The various interviewing methods used in the selection process includes:
i. Traditional Interview
This type of interview usually takes place in the office. It consists of the interviewer and the candidate, and a series of questions are asked and answered.
ii. Telephone Interview
A telephone interview is often used to narrow the list of people receiving a traditional interview. It can be used to determine salary requirements or other data that might automatically rule out giving someone a traditional interview.
For example, if you receive two hundred résumés and narrow these down to twenty-five, it is still unrealistic to interview twenty-five people in person. At this point, you may decide to conduct phone interviews of that twenty-five, which could narrow the in-person interviews to a more manageable ten or so people.
iii. Panel Interview
A panel interview takes place when numerous persons interview the same candidate at the same time. While this interview style can be stressful for the candidate, it can also be a better use of time.
Consider businesses that want three to four persons to interview job candidates. It makes sense for them to be interviewed by everyone at once because it would be unreasonable to ask the candidate to come in for three or four interviews.
iv. Information Interview
Informational interviews are typically conducted when there isn’t a specific job opportunity, but the applicant is looking into potential career paths. These kinds of interviews have the advantage of helping employers find excellent individuals before a position opens up.
v. Group Interview
Two or more candidates are interviewed concurrently during a group interview. This type of interview can be an excellent source of information if you need to know how they may relate to other people in their job.
vi. Video Interview
Video interviews are the same as traditional interviews, except that video technology is used. This can be cost saving if one or more of your candidates are from out of town. Skype, Zoom or Google Meets, for example, allows free video calls. An interview may not feel the same as a traditional interview, but the same information can be gathered about the candidate.
Behavioural interviews, Situational interviews and Panel interviews are all structured interviews because they ask selected questions only. On the contrast, Situational interview and behavioural interview features one interviewer and a a candidate respectively, while the panel interview features several members of an organisation meeting to interview one candidate. Panel interview provides the organisation with unbiased judgement about a candidate in selection process, but Situational and behavioural interviews might provide biased judgement about a candidate since the candidate is rated by the discretion of the interviewer.
8. Various tests could be administered upon successful completion of an interview. These employment tests can gauge a person’s KSAOs (Knowledge, Skills, Ability and Other Characteristics) about another candidate.
The major categories of tests include the following:
-Cognitive ability tests
-Personality tests
-Physical ability tests
-Job knowledge tests
-Work sample
Cognitive Ability Tests
A cognitive ability test measures intelligence, such as numerical ability and reasoning. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is an example of a cognitive ability test. Some sample test categories might include the following:
– Mathematical questions and calculations
– Verbal and/or vocabulary skills
Mechanical aptitude and clerical aptitude are two examples of aptitude exams (e.g., speed of typing or ability to use a particular computer program). Typically, an aptitude test will offer specific questions about the job needs.
Personality Tests
Meyers-Briggs and the “Big Five” personality traits can be tested and compared to effective employee scores. The Big Five test focuses on these personality traits: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness.
Self-assessment statements might include the following:
– I have an assertive personality
– I am generally trusting
– I am not always confident in my abilities
– I have a hard time dealing with change
Physical Ability Tests
Some institutions also require physical ability tests; for example, to earn a position in a fire department, you may have to be able to carry one hundred pounds up three flights of stairs.
If you use tests in your hiring processes, the key to making them useful is to determine a minimum standard or expectation specifically related to the job requirements. An HR manager should also consider the legality of such tests.
Job Knowledge Tests
A job knowledge test measures the candidate’s understanding of a particular job.
For example, a job knowledge test may require an engineer to write code in a given period or may ask candidates to solve a case study problem related to the job.
Work Sample
Work sample tests ask candidates to show examples of work they have already done. Work sample tests can be a beneficial way to test for KSAOs.
For example, in the advertising business, this may include a portfolio of designs, or for a project manager, this can contain past project plans or budgets.
These work samples can often be a good indicator of someone’s abilities in a specific area. As always, the interviewer should have explicit expectations or criteria defined before looking at samples to ensure that each candidate is evaluated equally.
STAGES INVOLVE IN SELECTTION PROCESS
1. Criteria development: The procedures of defining criteria, interview question, weighing the prospect is of essential to be familiarise by all those involve in the hiring process. Plan the criteria such as skills, culture, abilities, personal characters etc.
2. CV review: once the criteria have been developed, the application can be review
3. Interview: choose the applicants to be interviewed.
4 Test administration: administer various exams before making hiring decisions Here we ascertain cognitive, personality, physical, jib knowledge (KSAO) and wok sample( previous work)
5. Making the offer…. St this point , the job offer is given a d there is room for negotiation.
Q7
After the selection process, w need to plan the interview to be intentional and question types are very important
Situational ….We bring real life scenarios to been. How one can manage events and bring people,events etc under control
Behavioral…. These to a large extent , will let us determine the Big 5( openness, neuroticism, consciousness, etc)
Panel….. One can read and see some hidden traits, emotions, psychological traits , passion, sincerity.
Q5
TYPES OF INTERVIEW
This process is cost effective. It could be structured or unstructured.
Traditional…Set test of standardized questions are given
Telephone.. used to seal the deal with the applicant for more information.
Panel…. There 2 or more judges perusing the applicant
Group… More applicants are interviewed at the same time.
Video…. The use of Skype, zoom due to the distance or urgency of the jod opening.
Q1
The duties of the HRM is not restricted to the following
* Recruitment and selection
* Performance management
* Culture management
* Information analytics
* Compensation and benefits
* Learning and development
*Performance Reviews
*Talent pipeline.
Q5
Strategies for HR Recruitment
*Recruiters.
This can come on form of executive, staffing firm, corporate recruiter . They are sometimes expensive
* Campus recruiter… They get fresh young undergraduates but they may need to be trained for the job
* Websites.. It is cheap and sometimes you get loads of unnecessary applications.
*Events….. You don’t have to go to an engineering seminar to advertise for the post of an EYFS tutor.
* Referrals…. They sometimes appear expensive but good to fill up an urgent vacancy.
INTERNAL CANDIDATE
Angry if they do not get the promotion
Past assessment could be a barrier
Less expensive
Sometimes less qualified
EXTERNAL CANDIDATE
Expensive
More qualified
More ideas
Ready to work/ learn
I
2. Effective communication is very important in any field especially in HRM. This is the more reason why HR mangers must have good communication skills as this is essential for their day to day operations. The significance of this is that it creates a peaceful work environment in the organization where job responsibilities, initiatives among others are clearly defined to all employees. Feedbacks are essential in communication because it helps to have a clear meaning to what was previously misunderstood.
There are four types of communication: Expresser, Drier, Relater, Analytical
-Expresser: These category of people tends to get excited and rely heavily on hunches and feelings.
– Driver: They tend to have their way and be decisive as well.
– Relater: They prefer positive attention and desire to be treated with respect.
-Analytical: They’re deliberate and ask countless inquiries.
Listening to is another significant part of communication.
There are three types of listening:
-Competitive/combating: These category of listeners focused on sharing their point of view rather than listening to someone else.
– Passive listening: These category of listeners are interested in hearing others and assume they hear and understand what the other person is saying without verifying.
-Active listening: This category of listeners are engaged in what the other person is saying and confirms if their interpretation of what the other person is saying is right.
Effective communication contribute to the success HRM practices through the following:
– It’s the duty of HR Managers to identify this types of communication and listeners so that they can be carried along on important things to be communicated.
_ employees relations: effective communication ensure and foster good relationship among employees.
– Organization culture: effective communication foster a good work culture where employees are open to each other, not keeping grievances, a culture where employees are open to share ideas and new initiatives.
– risk and compliance: effective communication helps HR Managers to optimize risk and ensure compliance in the organization, every HRM practices must be in accordance with the country’s law.
Challenges that might arise in absence of good communication are:
-Poor employee relations: consequences of good communication is that it will lead to lack of corporation among team members in organizations.
-Under Performance: Ineffective communication leads to employees not performing at their best in their jobs because their job duties are not clearly defined, lack of feedbacks also leads to underperformance.
Unachievable organization’s goals: ineffective communication leads to organization’s goals not been achievable as employees are not constantly reminded on these goals and how to make it achievable so they tend to do what they like.
Q5. COMPARATVE ANALYSIS OF RECRUITMENT STAGES
Recruitment is defined as a process that provides the organisation with a pool of qualified job candidates from which to choose for effective activities and goals achievement.
The comparative analysis of various recruitment stages involves:
Staffing plans: the first step in recruitment an organisation is the projections to predict how many people will be required, this gives insight on how many people they should hire based on revenue expectations development of policies to encourage multiculturalism in an organisation.
Job analysis development: is an analysis carried out to describe what tasks people performs in their jobs and the information can be used to derived job description.
Job Description: this the outline of a list of tasks, duties and responsibilities of the job.
Development of Job specifications: This outline the skills and abilities required for the job.
The knowledge of laws relation to recruitment: it is essential for HRM to research, that HRM handles know and apply the Laws in all activities and inclusive to all people applying for the job.
Implement a recruitment plan: the careful implementation of actions outlined in the recruitment plan.
Accept Applications: At this stage; create a standard by which to evaluate each applicant and start review of resumes.
Selection process: apply the suitable selection process to be used and proceed to determine and organize how to interview the candidate.
ADVANTAGES AND DISAVANTAGES OF INTERNAL PROMOTION AND EXTERNAL HIRES
Advantages
In internal promotion, it rewards in contribution of current staff.
No need to use traditional recruitment strategy as the past performance of the candidate can assist in know his criteria.
In external candidates, it is essential as it brings new talent into the organisation. It aids the organisation to obtain diversity goals, new ideas and insight into the company.
Disadvantages
Internal promotion may reduce diversity and different perspective as the result of inbreeding. It may also cause infighting between people to obtain the promotion.
It cost the organisation as it must implement recruitment strategy. It may also cause morale problems for internal candidates.
Real-world example:
The recruitment of internal promotion strategy is essential in an instance whereby the position of a staff if vacant and there is emergence need of someone to fill in to keep the organisation running without a stop which may cause loss in the company.
External hiring is essential in an instance whereby the company needs an improvement in certain areas, the new candidate may be carefully source who has the skills and knowledge to resolve the issue in ground.
The disadvantage of both may result to company’s stagnation due to either routine of perspective of the internal promotion and morale problem due to the external candidate.
Q1 CORE FUNCTION AND RESPONSIBITIES OF HRM
Human resource manager is an individual who effectively manages people to help them perform the best of their abilities and as a result, achieve a better performance for the organisation.
The following are the functions of the Human resource manager:
Recruitment and selection of employees: for instance, HRM is responsible to recruit and select the best candidate among all the applicants for the better performance by using the tools of interview, assessments, reference checks and work.
Performance management: it is the responsibility of the human resource manager to boost people’s performance so that the organisation can reach its goals. Example, in a situation where employees comes to work late, HRM implement a strategy rewarding those who comes early with a bonus package to boost other employees’ performances.
Learning and development: the world gets new ideas every day, it’s the responsibility of the HRM to get updated as it aids his performance in managing people.
Compensation and Benefits: this is essential as employee’s aim in working is to get rewarded. HRM should not delay in rewarding employees based reward schedule. And benefits should also be included such as health care, gadgets etc. to boost the performance of the employees.
Information and analytics: managing Human resource technology and people’s data is essential role of the human resource manager.
Examples: when an organisation is in need of staff, HRM is in the best position to carefully select the best candidate fitted for the job through his strategic system of interviewing the candidates, assessing them, and evaluating the experiences and skills.
The poor and excellent performance of any organisation depends on the management system of the HRM. The better the management system, the better the performance of the staff, hence, the organisation achieves its goals.
Development of the HRM skills aids to effectively discharge his duties for the company to achieve its goals through the employees.
Q2 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COMMUNICATION IN THE FIELD OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Communication is connection that allows access between persons or group of people. It is an intercourse by words, letters or messages. It is the interchange of thoughts or opinions.
The role of communication in the field of human resource management is essential as required system to reach out the human resources. Communication style can influence how successfully we communicate with others, how we are understood and how well we get along. The effective duties of employees depends on how well they understood the message passed from the HRM.
How effective communication contributes to the success of HRM practices.
The entire duty of HRM is reaching out to people, passing out important messages required for the success of the organisation. Ability to communicate well and be clearly understood with effect of the message intention show the success of HRM practices.
Ineffective communication by the HRM may results to employees’ failure to carry out their respective responsibilities. Any uncommunicated message of responsibility, is the responsibility that is never carried out.
Q6 STAGES INVOLVE IN SELECTTION PROCESS
1. Criteria development: The procedures of defining criteria, interview question, weighing the prospect is of essential to be familiarise by all those involve in the hiring process. Plan the criteria such as skills, culture, abilities, personal characters etc.
2. CV review: once the criteria have been developed, the application can be review
3. Interview: choose the applicants to be interviewed.
4 Test administration: administer various exams before making hiring decision such as cognitive ability tests, personality tests, physical ability tests, job knowledge tests, and work sample.
5. Making the offer: The last step is to develop an offer via e-mail or letter for formal process.
1. Core functions and responsibilities of HR manager within an organization.
The HR department first of all is an integral part of the organization that manages risk and compliance. Therefore, human resource managers should be well versed in business laws, ethics statistics, problem solving in order to help manage the company’s risk.
The core functions and responsibilities of HR Manager include:
(a) Recruitment and Selection: This is a very crucial function of HR Managers and it’s the first HRM activity, the goal is to recruit and select the most suitable candidates for employment, to make sure the right people are employed in the organization. The common selection methods includes: interviews, assessments, reference checks and work tests. For example, in order to carry out this recruitment and selection activity, there must be effective workforce planning, that’s to align workforce strategies with organizations goals by enquiring from various dept where there is vacancy how many employees needs to be recruited, the qualifications and requirements needed, the years of experience each candidate must possess and what a view, all these will ensure the right people are employed in the organization.
(b) Performance Management: The goal of this is to continuously manage employees performance on their job, to boost employees’ job performance towards achieving organization’s goals and objectives. For example: This can be done through continuous reviews, feedbacks, job appraisals etc. once this is done, it will help the organization in knowing which employee is underperforming and those meeting up with the standard and proffer solutions by organizing training, coaching etc for such employee (s)
(c) Cultural Alignment: HR Managers are known as change agents, where they are to align organization’s culture with it’s goals. HR Managers are to help organizations build a work culture that is flexible and welcome new initiatives, foster team work and collaborations, as this will help organizations maintain it’s standard in the market. Different organization culture attract different people according to their various organizations culture.
(d) Learning and Development: this is another crucial part of HR Managers as they are to ensure employees develop skills, knowledge, that will enhance their job performance. HR Managers are also to implement effective budget plan that will be used for training, conference, coaching etc.
(e) Compensation and Benefits: This is another core functions and responsibilities of HR Managers. Compensation is the direct, monetary payment given to an employee for a job done. This payment can be hourly, weekly or monthly. Benefits is an indirect, non-monetary reward given to an employee. Such benefits include: pension plan, Insurance plan ,HMO plan, bonuses, paid leave, vacation,laptop, company car, daycare for employee’s kids and what a view. This serves as a motivation for employees to improve their job performance.
The technical functions and responsibilities of HR Managers is:
(f) Information and Analytics: This involves managing HR technology and people data. Gathering of data is essential in HR because it help to know the impact of HR initiatives within the organization through the use of HR metrics and analytics.
For example, in order for HR Manager to know the cost per hire ratio during recruiting process, this cost per hire ratio formula can be used to know if the HR department spent more than the amount budgeted or within the range budgeted.
The selection process is a huge and cost effective process.
It starts first with identifying the JOB VACANCY,then the job analysis (WHAT) thereby setting the JD(HOW)
In the selection process, this is where the right guy candidate is sieved and hired. It takes the following procedures,
CRITERIA DEVELOPMENT…..The job is identified and criteria are ste in the tasks to be done, skills needed etc. The mode of advert is decided and applications are collated.
APPLICATION/CV REVIEW……These are collated and reviewed through various processes that is most convenient for the HRM and the organization.
INTERVIEWING….This part must be handled with much”eagle -eyed”operations.
1a.HR professionals play a pivotal role in how successful an organization is.
And good Human Resource Management is essential for businesses of all sizes.
i. Recruitment and Selection: These are the most visible elements of HR. It is the sole responsibility of HRM to select the best candidates that will be employed in the organization.
ii. Performance management: The responsibility of HRM is to help boost people’s performance so that the organization can reach its goals. This happens through feedback and performance reviews. Another key aspect of managing performance is succession planning.
iii. Culture management: HR has a responsibility to build a culture that helps the organization reach its goals. A governmental organization that’s over a century old may have a very different company culture compared to a technology startup. Different organizational cultures attract different people, and cultivating an organization’s culture is a way to build a competitive advantage.
iv. Learning and development: Its purpose is to help an employee build skills that are needed to perform today and in the future. Many organizations have a dedicated l&d budget. This budget can be used for training courses, coaching, attending conferences, and other development activities. A difficult challenge for HRM is to distribute a limited learning budget to all employees. This requires tough choices.
v. Compensation and benefits: this is about rewarding employees fairly through direct pay and benefits. Benefits include health care, pension, holidays, daycare for children, a company car, a laptop, and other equipment, and so on. Creating an enticing package for employees will help keep them motivated and keep them with the organization.
vi. Information and analytics: which involves managing HR technology, and people data. Most HR data is stored in a human resource information system or HRIS.
1b. When HRM is able to employ most qualified candidates to hasten the achievement of the organizational goals because the employees will be focysed in their job description and put in more efforts in order to achieve their targeted goals.
2a. Communication is a matter of fact, is one of the essential aspects of HRM, this is because it helps in fostering good and healthy relationships between the staff abd the management of the company. Moreso, there are different types of communication which when applied diligently will aid in the company’s growth. The significance of communication in the field of HRM can never be overemphasized.
2b. Effective communication aids HRM responsibilities to be easy and very effective this is because the employees are already aware of the company’s code of conducts and targets so they’re most likely to focus on them to achieve a common goal.
3a. i. Are salaries higher or lower depending on the location of the business?
ii. Are salaries lower or higher than the average in your region or area?
iii. Should there be a specific pay scale for each position in the organisation, or should salaries be negotiated on an individual basis? If there is no set pay scale, how can you ensure individual salary offers are non-discriminatory?
iv. What balance of salary and other rewards, such as bonuses, should be part of your compensation package?
V. When giving raises, will the employee’s tenure be a factor, or will pay increases be merit-based only or a combination of both?
3b. Market trends, internal equity and employee motivation, all these will enable the HRM to adjust and make amends in decision making.
4a.
i. Staffing Plans:
Before recruiting, businesses must execute proper staffing strategies and projections to predict how many people they will require. This plan allows H.R.M to see how many people they should hire based on revenue expectations and can also include the development of policies to encourage multiculturalism at work.
ii. Develop Job Analysis:
Job analysis is a formal system developed to determine what tasks people perform in their jobs. The information obtained from the job analysis is utilised to create the job description and job descriptions.
iii. Write Job Description:
The next stage of the recruitment process is to develop a job description, which should outline a list of tasks, duties, and responsibilities of the job.
iv. Job Specifications Development:
A job description is a list of a position’s tasks, duties, and responsibilities. Position specifications, on the other hand, outline the skills and abilities required for the job. The two are tied together as job descriptions are usually written to include job specifications.
v. Know laws relation to recruitment:
One of the most important parts of H.R.M is to know and apply the law in all activities the HR department handles. Specifically, with hiring processes, the law is very clear on fair hiring that is inclusive to all people applying for a job. Given this, it is the responsibility of the HR professional to research and apply the laws relating to recruitment in their respective industry and country.
vi. Develop recruitment plan:
A successful recruitment plan includes actionable steps and strategies that make the recruitment process efficient. Although it might seem easy, recruitment of the right talent at the right place and at the right time takes skill and practice, but more importantly, it takes strategic planning. HR professionals should develop a recruiting plan before posting any job description.
vii. Implement a recruitment plan:
This stage requires the implementation of the actions outlined in the recruitment plan.
viii. Accept Applications
The first step in selection is to begin reviewing résumés. But even before you do that, it’s crucial to create standards by which you’ll evaluate each applicant. Both the job description and the job requirements might provide this information.
ix. Selection process:
This stage will require the HR professional to determine which selection method will be used. The next step of the selection process is to determine and organize how to interview suitable candidates.
5a. a. Recruiters: some organisations choose to have specific individuals working for them who focus solely on the recruiting function of HR. Recruiters use similar sources to recruit individuals, such as professional organisations, websites, and other methods discussed in this chapter. Recruiters are excellent at networking and usually attend many events where possible candidates will be present. Recruiters maintain a steady pipeline of potential applicants in case a position that might be a suitable match arises.
b.Campus Recruiting:
Colleges and universities can be excellent sources of new candidates, usually at entry-level positions. Universities can provide people that may lack experience but have formal training in a specific field. Many companies use their campus recruiting programs to develop new talent, who will eventually develop into managers.
c. Professional Associates:
Typically nonprofit organizations and professional associations work to advance a particular profession. There is a professional organization for almost every profession. In most cases, there is a price, and membership in this organization could be necessary to post jobs. For example, in the field of human resources, the Society for Human Resource Management in the U.S. allows companies to post jobs relating to HR
d. Websites:
If you have ever had to look for a job, you know there are numerous websites to help you do that. From the HR perspective, there are many options to place an ad, most of which are inexpensive. The downside to this method is the immense number of résumés you may receive from these websites, all of which may or may not be qualified. Many organisations, to combat this, implement software that searches for keywords in résumés, which can help combat this problem.
e. Social Media:
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are excellent places to obtain a media presence to attract numerous workers. The goal of using social media as a recruiting tool is to create a buzz about your organisation, share stories of successful employees, and promote an appealing culture.
f. Events:
Recruiting at special events such as job fairs is another option. Some organizations have specific job fairs for their company, depending on the size. Others may attend industry or job-specific fairs to recruit specific individuals.
g. Referrals:
Most recruiting plans include asking current employees, “Who do you know?” The quality of referred applicants is usually high since most people would not recommend someone they thought incapable of doing the job.
h. Traditional Advertisement
Newspaper and radio advertisements are also common kinds of traditional job advertising. This method can allow you to target specific segments such as demographics (e.g. local newspaper or radio station advertisements.) However, it can be an expensive form of advertising. For example, a TV advert campaign may not be the most appropriate or cost-effective method if hiring for one job.
6a. Details the stages involved in the selection process, starting from reviewing applications to making the final job offer.
Answer:
The selection stages consist of the following:
1. Criteria development: This is the stage where interview procedures are well planned out and everyone is taught the process. The criteria selection should be related directly to the job analysis and specifications.
2. Application and resume/CV review: This stage involve going through the resumes submitted, different people have different ways of doing that.
3. Interviewing: at this stage interview is scheduled after a proper analysis has been done on all submitted applications.
4. Test Administration: some exams can be administered to determine the level of understanding of an applicants, some of the test modalities could be the following: cognitive ability test, personality test, physical ability test, job knowledge test and work sample.
5. Making the offer: the last stage in the selection process is to offer a position to the chosen candidate. Development of an offer via email or letter is often a more formal part of this process.
6b.
A successful recruitment plan implies steps and strategies that make the recruitment process efficient. Although it might seem easy, recruitment of the right talent at the right place and at the right time takes skill and practice, but more importantly, it takes strategic planning. HR professionals should develop a recruiting plan before posting any job description.
7a. Traditional Interview: This type of interview usually takes place in the office. It consists of the interviewer and the candidate, and a series of questions are asked and answered.
2. Telephone Interview: A telephone interview is often used to narrow the list of people receiving a traditional interview. It can be used to determine salary requirements or other data that might automatically rule out giving someone a traditional interview.
3. Panel Interview: A panel interview takes place when numerous persons interview the same candidate at the same time. While this interview style can be stressful for the candidate, it can also be a better use of time.
4. Information Interview: Informational interviews are typically conducted when there isn’t a specific job opportunity, but the applicant is looking into potential career paths. These kinds of interviews have the advantage of helping employers find excellent individuals before a position opens up.
5. Group Interview: Two or more candidates are interviewed concurrently during a group interview. This type of interview can be an excellent source of information if you need to know how they may relate to other people in their job.
6. Video Interview: Video interviews are the same as traditional interviews, except that video technology is used. This can be cost saving if one or more of your candidates are from out of town. Skype, Zoom or Google Meets for example, allows free video calls. An interview may not feel the same as a traditional interview, but the same information can be gathered about the candidate.
6b. Behaviorial Interview: Its aim is to know how a candidate can work under diverse setting and how he/she would handle or has handled a particular situation on the premise that someone’s past experience is predictive of future behavior.
(b) Situational Interview: aids in evaluating potential employer’s ability, knowledge, experience and judgment. In this case, hypothetical situation are used (like to mimic a work environment) and the candidate is asked how they would handle it.
(c) Panel Interview: the potential employees are also examine how they can cope with pressure given the numerous questions that may come from more than one interviewer. Candidates will be thrown with several questions in different areas, confidence will be an attribute to look out for.
8a.
1. Cognitive Ability: Tests
A cognitive ability test measures intelligence, such as numerical ability and reasoning. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is an example of a cognitive ability test. .
2. Personality Tests:
Meyers-Briggs and the “Big Five” personality traits can be tested and compared to effective employee scores. The Big Five test focuses on these personality traits: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness.
3. Physical Ability Tests
Some institutions also require physical ability tests; for example, to earn a position in a fire department, you may have to be able to carry one hundred pounds up three flights of stairs.
If you use tests in your hiring processes, the key to making them useful is to determine a minimum standard or expectation specifically related to the job requirements. An HR manager should also consider the legality of such tests.
4. Job Knowledge Tests
A job knowledge test measures the candidate’s understanding of a particular job.
For example, a job knowledge test may require an engineer to write code in a given period or may ask candidates to solve a case study problem related to the job.
Work Sample
Work sample tests ask candidates to show examples of work they have already done. Work sample tests can be a beneficial way to test for KSAOs.
For example, in the advertising business, this may include a portfolio of designs, or for a project manager, this can contain past project plans or budgets.
These work samples can often be a good indicator of someone’s abilities in a specific area. As always, the interviewer should have explicit expectations or criteria defined before looking at samples to ensure that each candidate is evaluated equally.
QUESTION 6:
The Selection Process is the action involved in selecting persons with the needed KSAOs and necessary qualities to fill in a current position or future job opening.
The Selection Processes include:
1. Criteria Development: This is the first part of the process which forms part of the interview procedure, examining resumes, developing interview questions which everyone involved should be taught and then the criteria selection should be related to the job analysis and description.
2. Review Applications and Resumes/CVs: Once the selection criteria is established, applications sent in needs to be reviewed in accordance with resumes and CVs.
3. Interviewing: Applicants whose applications meets the minimal requirements as specified on the job description must be chosen for test.
4. Test Administration: Test and exams such as the Cognitive, Physical, Psychological, Personal test are then administered to the selected applicants.
5. Making an Offer: This completes the process and it is very crucial in rounding off a successful selection process. This entails making an offer to the chosen applicants.
QUESTION 7:
(a) An Interview allows for the selection of the right candidate for a position. Interviews can be structured and unstructured, however, they are carried out in different methods. Some of which are:
1. Traditional Interview method: This holds in an office environment between an applicant and the interviewer with series of questions and answers in the session.
2. Telephone Interview method: This type of interview is most times used to narrow down the list of applicants towards a position to manageable size for a traditional interview.
3. Panel Interview: This interview involves a number of interviewers interviewing the same candidate at the same time.
4. Information Interview: I like to call it futuristic interview because it helps employers find a suitable candidate for a position before it is open. Applicants here are those looking for a potential career path.
5. Group Interview: In this interview method, two or more candidates are interviewed concurrently for a particular position.
6. Video Interview: This is a traditional type of interview except that the video technology is used in this case. Example is Zoom, Skype or Google Meet.
(b) Behaviorial Interview: In the instance that this interview is adopted, it is aimed at knowing how a candidate can work under diverse setting and how he/she would handle or has handled a particular situation on the premise that someone’s past experience is predictive of future behavior.
(b) Situational Interview: On the other hand aims to evaluate a candidate’s ability, knowledge, experience and judgment. In this case, hypothetical situation are used (like to mimic a work environment) and the candidate is asked how they would handle it.
(c) Panel Interview: In this case, the candidates are also examine how they can cope with pressure given the numerous questions that may come from more than one interviewer. Candidates will be thrown with several questions in different areas, confidence will be an attribute to look out for.
QUESTION 1:
Human Resource Management (HRM) is the management of people to help them perform to the best of their abilities which an organization benefits from with better results.
Below are some of the functions of HRM to an organization:
1. Culture Management: which means helping an orga build a culture that helps it reach her goals as different cultures attracts different people, thus, cultivating organization culture can build and keep the organization in competitive advantage.
2. Performance Management: The success of an organization can be measured by the output of its workforce, thus the HRM uses feedbacks, succesion plan and performance reviews to boost the performance of employees and build talent opening for the organization recruitment.
3. Recruitment and Selection: These are the processes involved hiring and continuous assessment or the workforce in an organization. HRM carry out job interviews, conference checks and work test to ensure that the right talents are being recruited for a company.
4. Learning and Development: After hiring talents for the company, the HRM doesn’t stop there, it goes ahead to ensure and help employees build up the needed skills they require to be able to perform their day-to-day and future activities within an allotted budget.
5. Information and Analytics: The HRM also manages data both of people and human resources technology with the help of Human Resource Information System. This function helps the HRM keep tracks of key performance indicators (KPIs) within the company’s employees.
6. Compensation and Benefits: A Happy workforce is a workforce that is Motivated. This the HRM ensures by rewarding employees with such benefits that keeps them happy with relation to Labor Unions, work councils through Employee Relation Management.
QUESTION 4:
The Recruitment Process avails an organization a pool of qualified candidates from which to choose from. Below are the stages involved in the recruitment process.
1. Staffing Plans: This has to do with proper staffing strategy that projects how many people a company will be needing, what job will they be needed for and when they will need to hire them in line with the company’s budget.
2. Develop a Job Analysis: The job analysis which could be either Tasked based and Competency based is geared at determining what task people are expected to perform in their job.
3. Develop Job Description: Created from utilizing Job Analysis, this outlines the list of tasks, duties and responsibilities of a particular job.
4. Develop Job Specification: This outlines the Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other characteristics (KSAOs) required for the job.
5. Knowledge of Recruitment Laws: There are laws guiding the recruitment process thus, the human resource professionals will need to research and apply these laws when doing so in order to know what the labor market offers at a particular time.
6. Develop Recruitment Plan: Part of the recruitment laws is a recruiting plan which serves as an actionable steps and strategy to achieve an efficient recruitment process which fall within the company’s cost.
7. Impement Recruitment Plan: This involves putting into action the recruitment strategies as outlined in the recruitment plan.
8. Accept Applications: The ball to selection is rolled from this point as applications will be accepted base on the job description and specifications the company needs to hire talents.
9. Selection Process: This is determined by the available selection methods and then organize interviews for the applicants into vacant positions.