Tag: HRM Dissertations

HRM Dissertations

Understanding Performance Management

Understanding Performance Management

Explain formal and informal performance management evaluation in the workplace

Performance Management – A mentor’s role is to guarantee that informal evaluations are conducted regularly in the course of their work relationship and that their employees’ progress can be tracked in real-time. This form of evaluation can be accomplished through job-related conversations, a casual get-together over coffee, or an on-site inspection of a particular piece of work. Employees can benefit from less formal assessments by gaining as much information as possible without causing delays or mistakes.

This increases their chances of changing their behaviour (Aboalshamat et al., 2020). It is possible to avoid such surprises since informal feeds to employees are noted in the official assessment. Formal assessments should never take the place of informal ones, even if the latter is more convenient.

As part of a worker’s yearly performance assessment, this is commonly used for more official discussions between a manager and an employee. Maintaining a fresh annual evaluation is a priority for me as a line manager. This form of evaluation focuses on the employee’s accomplishments as well as their efforts to correct any flaws they may have.

In performance management, explain the job of the first-line manager

It is the first-line manager’s responsibility to make sure that his team accomplishes its goals. A first-line manager is responsible for providing consistent direction to the members of his staff to ensure that his team performs properly and that its members comprehend both their individual and collective goals, as well as how they contribute to the advancement of the business.

When they see their employees succeed, they may promote their feedback and help guide their development (Phillips et al., 2016). As a new employee, you may support them by saying “up to date” to help them feel more confident in their role, or you can give them input or assign them tasks to help them rise to a specific position. As a manager, I believe that performance is just as important, whether it’s a simple “thank you” or a more formal thank you.

Identifying the fundamental reason for a team member’s noncompliance with requirements is critical. Everyone who is straining to deliver resources and equipment should report to you as their first-line manager.

Identify ways to ensure fair and objective formal assessment

To determine remuneration, incentive, promotion, and transfer choices, an assessment of employee performance is necessary. As a result, it has a profound effect on staff morale and motivation (Yu et al., 2020). But when it comes to making judgments on employee transfers, salary, advancement, and recognition, supervisors must use extreme caution. Employee morale suffers when they see their efforts and contributions go unnoticed. The approaches listed below allow managers to conduct performance reviews that are both fair and objective.

Fair Progress System

It is the primary objective of doing an employee evaluation to enhance the performance of the employee and to provide assistance to them. Identifying and correcting implementation hurdles is a joint responsibility of both management and staff ( Bozer et al., 2021). If employees aren’t included in the decision-making process, it might be unreasonable to expect them to return to high levels of performance.

Fair Performance Review

For the assessors to grasp the aims of performance evaluation, the organisation must train them. They should be aware of how the performance review system operates, be able to provide constructive comments and maintain a focus on capabilities and behaviour as opposed to personalities (Yu et al., 2020). When it comes to evaluating their performance, employees should be given the freedom to do so at will.

Fair Report

Even before conducting interviews, managers may reflect on what they’ve seen of their staff in the real world (Bozer et al., 2021). Because a superficial assessment of an employee’s performance cannot provide sufficient and correct information, the management should spend more time observing and recording data to get a more complete picture.

Fair Assessment

Each employee’s job description and how their performance is being evaluated should be clearly stated in an evaluation assessment. Employees and employers benefit from open communication when this type of information is shared.

Explain how to set SMART objectives for a team member

Goals that are measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound are referred to as SMART. An organization’s key success statistics, such as earnings, or the accomplishment of a specific objective are all examples of typical metrics (Jones, 2016).

Good public health practice involves solid objectives to assess improvement in the direction of reaching goals and results. Various programmes and services are supported by awards that involve planning, executing, and achieving goals to guarantee success for future funding. Organizations strive to set meaningful goals that effectively evaluate improvement in the direction of a goal.

  • The aim must be explicit and not vague or nonspecific, e.g., safety
  • To determine whether a project is a success, you must first determine whether it can be measured, e.g., patient care
  • It must be possible to fulfil a goal with the money that is available, e.g., efficiency
  • The goal or target specified is related to the organization’s objectives and will have an impact on the business, e.g., accuracy
  • A date is required to compute the mission’s duration, e.g., learning and development

Explain how to set performance standards for a team member

Managers must keep tabs on and establish expectations for their workers’ performance to help them grow professionally. Both managers and team members should be involved in defining and setting performance criteria to guarantee that everyone is on the same page and ready to commit. There is a greater sense of accountability and incentive when employees have a say in determining their performance criteria.

Evaluation

It is of the utmost importance to analyse and revise the job requirements with the workforce and to discuss the kinds of objectives employees should set for themselves. The benchmark must be measurable so that managers can monitor and compare the performance of their employees over time. Comparing performance amongst employees in the same role is made easier when they are measured using metrics.

Past Data

Before setting new performance objectives, it is critical to undertake a thorough analysis of all available historical data on existing goals.

Keeping track of your progress

Make sure everyone knows what they’re expected to accomplish and how they can help the team achieve it. By the end of the month, for example, the salesman must raise sales by 15%.

Frequent Meetings and Open Debate

Regular meetings to discuss and execute new performance requirements should be held on a monthly or every six-week cycle, as appropriate. The end-of-month meeting at Milltech, for example, is used to discuss issues and areas that require development. Regular meetings allow team members to share their thoughts and suggestions for enhancing their work performance.

Performance Management HRM Project
Performance Management HRM Project

Explain how to measure performance against agreed standards

Continual Examination

Many businesses choose to conduct performance evaluations regularly rather than once every few months or once a year. As a result, regular feedback aids in the early detection of issues and the implementation of corrective measures before they worsen.

Checklist

With the use of a checklist, it is simple to track employee performance and identify those employees who are under-performing and may require more support. In addition, it aids in identifying people who require further education and training to perform at a higher level.

Self-Evaluation

To get the greatest results, you should ask your staff to do a self-assessment. Employees who are held accountable for their work may be more concerned about it than the team’s leaders. With the use of this exam, team leaders may help their employees better understand how well they’re performing.

360 Feedback

Using the system, employees from all departments and levels of the organisation may provide input on their ideas, thoughts, comments, and assessments of their performance. When using 360- degree feedback, you may assess input from a wide range of sources, allowing you to see both good and negative trends as well as areas in need of improvement.

Visual Ratings

When it comes to evaluating employee performance, the typical graphical scale employs the digits 1-10. Decision-making and comprehending certain activities can be placed on a scale of one to ten.

Explain the importance of feedback to improve performance

Achieve the expected results and obtain timely feedback from your team members by clearly defining their roles and responsibilities. You’ll gain more self-confidence and feel better about your work if you conduct daily evaluations. It would be a wonderful learning experience for the team member to take advice on failures and faults so that they may reflect on whatever went down and what they can do to avoid making the same mistake again ( Yu et al., 2020).

You must communicate clearly and succinctly with anyone who isn’t meeting the basic criteria of success to be conscious of the necessity for change, and it’s also an excellent beginning point for an open debate about productivity and what the group member can do to improve performance with the support of the manager.

Describe how to give effective feedback during performance management reviews

As a manager, I prefer to use the CORBS feedback approach when I must give an employee feedback.

  • Make a concise and unambiguous description of the situation or actions
  • If you’re referring to someone else, use terms and vocabulary like “I feel,” “I believe,” or “you are” instead of “you.”
  • The default behaviour is to deliver the information to the case in the simplest form imaginable so that it will be remembered
  • In place of having things go in one direction alone, it is healthy to incorporate both negative and positive feedback
  • At its most fundamental, the feedback should be concentrated on the enforcement
  • When confronted with negative feedback in the structured framework, I turn to the BEEF model for support
  • How a person acts or behaves is known as their comportment
  • A single illustration of a problem or activity is referred to as an example
  • The impact is either the impact that something has on someone else or the consequence of something happening
  • You can have everything you desire in the future, starting right now

Identify potential areas of under-performance in the workplace

Since under-performance may be so costly and detrimental, any organisation should consider addressing the issue. Under-performance can be caused by a variety of factors, including the following:

Lack Of Space For Growth

It’s not uncommon to have employees that don’t care about their performance and are content to show in, do their thing, and go home. Others, on the other hand, are aware of the company’s potential for growth. The lack of room for advancement can have a detrimental influence on an employee’s overall performance. Consequently.

Motivation

There are several common workplace issues, such as employee dissatisfaction, that contribute to under-performance.

Inspiration

It’s impossible to expect good performance from personnel if they aren’t enthused about what they do. Having inspiring executives in the firm, for example, can lead to more motivated employees, which can have a favourable effect on productivity.

A Lack Of Praise And Acknowledgement

When employees feel valued and recognised via the use of incentives, they are more productive. They may, for example, decide to leave and seek employment with another satisfying organisation.

Inadequate Leadership and Effective Performance Management

Disengaged and disorganised managers are less expected to provide a positive work environment, which in turn has a negative influence on team performance and productivity.

Determine the root reasons for performance management shortfalls

An essential part of training is A member of staff who may not be equipped to do their tasks due to a lack of relevant experience or competence. Adding a new task or having a new employee who is unable to learn how to do this work might be to blame.

An example of an impetus is someone on the team who is qualified yet unable to do their duties. Lack of rapport with the supervisor, disinterest in routine tasks, or an unwillingness to complete them is all possible explanations (Bozer et al., 2021). A problem with capacity occurs when a person in our team is doing everything they can and knows to do to finish their task, yet it is still not enough.

This may be the result of problems at work or home, both of which hurt the individual’s performance at work. A systematic problem, such as several teams that don’t operate properly. It’s possible that sharing information or providing services can cause you some headaches.

Describe actions to restore performance management to acceptable levels

To get the results back on track, you need to identify and address the error with your teammate. You should gather evidence to support your claims of under-performance. Recommendation: Copies of previous assessments, ideas, and proposals to enhance performance have also been suggested (Crocker et al., 2016).

A meeting with your team member is necessary once the data has been collected so that you may explain your findings and present the proof you’ve gathered. Try to interact with the member of the team and listen to what they have to say because they are already familiar with the problem and have ideas about how it may be improved. It is possible to work out a plan of action with your supervisor and your team member after this initial discussion (Green et al., 2020).

Retraining on a new task, mentorship and supervision from managers, or a reduction in the workload of team members are all options. Team members who fail to follow and finish this approach, such as through disciplinary measures that might lead to their dismissal, must be fully informed of the consequences.

References

Aboalshamat, K., Al-Zaidi, D., Jawa, D., Al-Harbi, H., Alharbi, R. and Al-Otaibi, S., 2020. The effect of life coaching on psychological distress among dental students: interventional study. BMC psychology, 8(1), pp.1-8.

Arena, D., Perini, S., Taisch, M. and Kiritsis, D., 2018. The Training Data Evaluation Tool: Towards a unified ontology-based solution for industrial training evaluation. Procedia Manufacturing, 23, pp.219-224.

Bozer, G. and Jones, R.J., 2018. Understanding the factors that determine workplace coaching effectiveness: A systematic literature review. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 27(3), pp.342-361.

Bozer, G. and Jones, R.J., 2021. Introduction to the special issue on advances in the psychology of workplace coaching. Applied Psychology, 70(2), pp.411-419.

Crocker, J., Shields, K.F., Venkataramanan, V., Saywell, D. and Bartram, J., 2016. Building capacity for water, sanitation, and hygiene programming: Training evaluation theory applied to CLTS management training in Kenya. Social Science & Medicine, 166, pp.66-76.

Green, S., Grant, A.M. and Rynsaardt, J., 2020. Evidence‐based life coaching for senior high school students: Building hardiness and hope. Coaching Researched: A Coaching Psychology Reader, pp.257-268.

Jones, R., 2016. The effectiveness of workplace coaching: A meta-analysis of learning and performance management outcomes; scale development; theoretical model of individual differences and longitudinal study (Doctoral dissertation, Aston University).

Jones, R.J., Woods, S.A. and Guillaume, Y.R., 2016. The effectiveness of workplace coaching: A meta‐analysis of learning and performance outcomes from coaching. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 89(2), pp.249-277.

Phillips, J.J. and Phillips, P.P., 2016. Handbook of training evaluation and measurement methods. Routledge.

Yu, N., Collins, C.G., Cavanagh, M., White, K. and Fairbrother, G., 2020. Positive coaching with front-line managers: enhancing their effectiveness and understanding why. Coaching Researched: A Coaching Psychology Reader, pp.269-283.

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Workplace Violence Legal Consequences

Workplace Violence is one of the prevalent issues that the world is facing today because of the diversity in the workforce brought about by the globalization. The term globalization may seem positive for major reasons, but in some note, it could create problems in the society, even in the work force. Since the organizations are now composed of people from different races, different backgrounds, opinions, philosophy and level of education, rift between parties are not a surprise.

Since it’s inevitable that workers in the organization may have some disagreements on the ideas or point, it is therefore important for employees, management and all members of the organization to understand the concept and definition of workplace violence in order to create a benchmark if the arguments are just plain arguments or it already falls under the category of violence. In this way, management will now be able to design the best strategy to address this certain issue.

Workplace violence is not only happening in your organization or in your friend’s organization. It can happen in everyone, anytime and anywhere. Therefore, it is just important that companies have policies with regards to the situation and appropriate consequences for the perpetrator or assistance such as counseling, training, experts’ opinion for the victim.

To better understand of what is workplace violence, the root causes of why this is happening, this research aims to address this issue and seeks to recognize the real cause of violence in the workplace. This paper also contains information that will give additional information for employees on how to overcome workplace violence or how to defend themselves when they’re faced with such kind of situation.

This paper also address company’s hurdle with regards to workplace violence and  some strategies on how to monitor the behavior of employees (e.g. CCTV) and methodologies to address workplace violence in the organization (e.g. seek experts opinion, design policies, etc). At the near end of this paper, the researcher also discussed the legal issues with regards to the topic in order to supply information to the reader that there are laws that address workplace violence. Lastly, at the very end of this paper, the researcher highlighted some bigger challenges with regards to this issue. Thus, after reader reading this paper, the researcher hopes that the reader will gain new insight about workplace violence and spread the knowledge gained to help lessen the occurrence or incidence of this practice.

Introduction

Globalization has greatly affected our lives and our lives processes. Goods and services from one country are now widely available in other countries and workers from one country are now welcomed to work in other countries. This phenomenon allowed other workers of different races to work in one company, which now comprise the diverse workforce in the world. Businesses are composed of diverse people working together for the success of the company. These people working for the company comes from different background and place of origin.

It’s inevitable to have complications and rift among the attitudes of the people in the organization because of these differences, this rift may be one of the causes of Violence in the Workplace. Violence is happening in our surrounding though sometimes we are not aware of it. Violence may happen in school, organization, work place and even in our own house. In this regard, we will be discussing work place violence and relate it to strategic management of each company. In this paper, we will also be discussing on how to overcome

Understanding Workplace Violence

Work Place is defined by the United States Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as any violence that happened in the place of work against a co-worker or any staff that works for the same organization or event from other firms. It can be a form of threat, physical violence, homicide, verbal arguments or any other unspoken gestures.

This workplace violence may be the result of differences that are not settled, jealousy over co-employee or just a simple understanding because of the differences in opinion, ideas and ranks. Due to changes in company structures, people and the organization of functions, workplace violence is one of the growing concerns of companies nowadays. According to the US Department of Justice, in the year 1987 up to 1992, the number of work-related violence has increased gradually and reported that one of six violent crimes are actually happening in the workplace either co-employee being attacked, harassed or abused. The growing number of workplace violence poses threat to employees that’s why some are actually seeking for work from home jobs in order to avoid such incident may happen to them.

According to the article of Sharif, B. (2003) of the California State University at Los Angeles entitled Understanding and Managing Job Stress: A Vital Dimension of Workplace Violence Prevention, one of the prevalent causes of Workplace Violence is the Job Stress experienced by an employee. Job Stress may be the result of changes in the organization, workloads, pressing deadlines for proposal; technology used job function, sales quota and others which may add burden to the employee.

According to the article of Sharif, Job Stress is one of the Top ten causes of health problems and violence in the workplace as job stress triggers physiological, emotional, and even psychological difficulties for the employees and according to the researches of Blix, Cruise, Mitchell and Blix (1993), it caused the firm about $150 billion annual loss because of absenteeism, hospitalization and other medical benefits. In this regard, companies are continuously seeking for professional advices on how to prevent, stop or avoid workplace violence in the organization.

How to Overcome Workplace Violence and its legal issues

Workplace violence is now one of the issues or challenges that the companies are facing. No companies are spared with this violence, even small companies are actually experiencing these problems and up until now some of them are still searching for alternatives or solutions to overcome this problem. However, since the structure of each organization is unique and the culture, practices and customs are different from that of the others, laying out resolution for this type of problem or issue is very hard for each organization needs to suit the solution to their own protocol and based on the issue that arise in the company.

Therefore, there is no fix or one single strategy to resolve this kind of problem in the organization, hence, every organization should design their resolution in relation to their company policies and the type of violence they are experiencing. Thus, each organization needs to have multi disciplinary approach to the workplace related violence. Also, there’s no organization that can make single approach to different type of violence in the office for different violence may need different solution and needs to be given different level of attention by the management or the human resource department (e.g. attention to sexual harassment and bullying).

Therefore, in order for the concerned agencies to identify the best solution to the issue, they should understand first the root cause of the behavior or the instance that had happen in the workplace. In order to address this issue, companies are designing module which contains readings and things to remember by employees when they are faced with such issues.

According to the article of Rita Rizzo & Don Philpott about workplace violence, companies can actually design a model of violence-prevention protocols for the whole organization along with proper training, orientation and hand out materials to be given to the employees; companies can conduct awareness programs in the office or drill so that the employees will become familiarize with the defense mechanisms; or companies can put up counseling group that would help the victim recover from the trauma.

Workplace Violence Project
Workplace Violence Project

The US Department of Labor also suggests that companies should provide employees enough education about the issue and on how to protect themselves; securing the workplace by installing CCTV or surveillance cameras on all the corners of the workplace to monitor employee actions; and just by developing set of do’s and don’ts that all employee should follow to avoid issues or problems, thus, avoiding workplace violence. Other agencies are also proposing several ways on how to prevent or avoid workplace violence, however, the best weapon still depends on the employee or the victim themselves – knowing the proper defense mechanism or strategies when cornered in certain situation. Lastly, reporting the incident will also be a huge help for the management to give certain attention to the issue and correct the behavior of the doer or lay out appropriate punishment to the perpetrator.

In some cases, Workplace violence up to some extent already falls on the legal action. There are actually laws that protect an individual in the workplace or even the company from the situation. In Australia for example, under the occupational health and safety laws designed for their workers, employers are the one that should ensure the safety of each worker especially during work and in the constitution of Australia especially in the Work Cover New South Wales, an employer shall be punished in failure to perform the duty of protecting the employees. The penalty according to their legislation is $550,000 for the first offense and about $55,000 for other cases.

The Biggest Challenge in resolving Workplace Violence

In the US, there are 20 million workers who worked for non-governmental offices which most workers works for firms that have 20 employees or fewer. Though some researchers said that employees in small firms are getting the least paid and is composed of lowest status worker, they are not spared from workforce violence than any other type of business.

Since these companies are small, they don’t usually have budget or programs for workforce violence, less training capabilities and they offer less security for employees making the employees more at risk and they are the ones who received less prevention from workforce violence. Also, owners of small businesses tend to have less knowledge on human resources issues, legal matters and other workplace violence resources that they could use when they are faced with this kind of situation.

Since these small businesses employs large chunk in the workforce statistics, the government and even non-governmental organization are seeking a bigger challenge on how to protect the people working in this segment and up until now, it is still on the debate on who should protect the workers for small businesses.

Conclusion

I am aware that there are violence that are happening in my surrounding but honestly, I don’t have the idea on what are the causes of these violence and what triggers a person to harm a co-worker or just commit that kind of actions. As innocent as it may be, I just know that since people are just working for the company, they just basically do their job for the whole day then go in and out of the office.

The primary purpose of a person to go to the office is work on the job he/she is assigned based on the job description presented on the date of employment. However, after reading articles about workplace, I came to understand that in the workplace, people also socialize with his/her co-workers, and thus, they get to exchange ideas with each other.

I do know that globalization has greatly affected our ways of living, our culture, customs and tradition. Everything is changing from the clothes we wear and the languages we speak, this is because of globalization. Since change is inevitable in this type of world, people, the academe and even the businesses are going with the flow or adopting to this change in order to not to be stock in the past and discover possible benefits of this changes in our world.

Being able to adapt to changes also means that the personality or the company is flexible enough and are expected to last for sometime because it is able to adapt to its environment. In business, there are also gradual changes that happened in the operation, work force, customs and practices, technology and even with the management which poses threats, stress and burden to the employees and anyone who are part of the organization. Some may be able to adapt to this changes without any flaws, some are not, thus, they often result to bad habit and later on, they are committing violence which does not only hurt the themselves through their performance, they are also hurting the company customs.

After reading the articles related to workforce violence, I have learned that workplace violence isn’t contain on physical violence inflicted on other person but also involves verbal abuse, bullying, nonverbal communication and others. An employee might not notice at first that he/she is facing certain degree of workplace violence because of some unspoken violence because of non-verbal form of violence.

Because of this critical present issue, companies are on the rush on designing their own mechanisms and strategies on how to overcome this so-called workplace violence in order to protect their core employees and as well protect their company’s reputation. Based on my readings and based on the writings above, I have learned that businesses are designing policies; methods to supply more information for their employees, conduct trainings for employees, and consult legal experts about the issue and other companies even install numerous CCTV or surveillance cameras in the office in order to monitor the behavior of its employees. In such way, companies are hoping to resolve the issue as they occur and be able to keep their employees aware of how to defend themselves when they’re faced with such kind of situation.

Though the world is facing a greater challenge in the future because of the proliferation of small businesses who are less likely to implement a violence protection program for their employees, I am still confident that as of the moment, there are lots of concerned organization that will take care of that up until these small companies will be able to design their own protocols with regards to this issue. Thus, addressing this issue in casual or legal ways is still very important for employees in order for them to fell secured when they’re at their place of work.

References

Chauhan, D.S. ()Bowling Green State University. Preventing Violence in the Workplace: Threat Assessment and Prevention Strategies. Public Administration & Management: An Interactive Journal 4, 3, 1999, pp. 370-374

Isaacs, Arnold R. (2001). Workplace Violence: Issues in Response. US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Critical Incident Response Group National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia. Edited by Eugene A. Rugala, Supervisory Special Agent Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2001

Philpott, Don and Rizzo, Rita. Workplace Violence: A Seven-Step Process to Address and Manage Potentially Violent Situations in the Workplace, Covering the full life-cycle of the event from Prevention – Threat Recognition – Mitigation – Response. Published by Government Training Inc. ISBN: 978-0-9844038-7-5

Sharif, Behjat A. Ph.D., CHES (2000), Associate Professor, California State University at Los Angeles . Understanding and Managing Job Stress: A Vital Dimension of Workplace Violence Prevention. Posted in the International Electronic Journal of Health Education, 2000; 3(2):107-116

U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (2002). Workplace Violence: OSHA Factsheet

WorkCover. Workplace violence and legal consequences. Work Cover New South Wales and the National Children’s and Youth Law Centre ACN 062 253 874

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HR Metrics Workforce Analytics Business

HR Metrics and Workforce Analytics

In the current business environment where competition and technological advancement is on the rise, it is imperative for the HR function to be on the forefront in enhancing the success of the business. One of the ways in which the HR function can help improve the work-ability of the business is by ensuring the workforce and the activities that relate to it bring the maximum returns to the company. As such it is pivotal to use the HR metrics and job analytics to track the return on investments channeled to the workforce. In the recent past, organizations have realized the importance of a balanced scorecard for the HR department (Smith, 2013). It is through this score card that the organizations have adopted the use of HR metrics and job analysis to measure the efficiency and the effectiveness of the workforce and use this information in decision-making.

One of the reasons that have led to an increased interest in HR metrics is the use of the data obtained from the metrics and job analytics towards improving the effectiveness of the company. The data obtained from the metrics acts as a basis in which the management can make major decisions for the improvement of the company and achieving the company’s goals. As such, the data acts as a thermostat that can measure the current situation and use the information in decision-making (Smith, 2013). Since the workforce comprises a major asset to the company, it is critical to ensure that decisions based on HR have facts that back them.

HR Metrics Workforce Analytics Business
HR Metrics Workforce Analytics Business

Additionally, organizations have realized that the use of technology in analyzing the HR function has the ability to save time and resources. Essentially the human resource department has the obligation of ensuring that the value of money and time spent in HR activities has major returns for the company. Therefore, it is their duty to provide the management with essential information that they can use to make decisions based on efficient use of the organization’s time and money (Sullivan, 2003). Using the HR metrics and job analytics, the HR department is able to track down the changes and trends in the workforce variables. Further, organizations can monitor the effectiveness of the activities based on people, process, and productivity. Thus it becomes easy to measure the value of time and money spent by the organization in the HR department.

The cost of HRIS is usually a debatable issue among organizations. However, it is important to realize the benefits that come with the use of HRIS in the HR department. For instance, when the HR uses the metrics and job analysis to analyze the cost per hire, the organization gets the facts on the amount it is using to hire. As such, it gives the organization the opportunity to find out whether the amount of money used in hiring is spent on the right people. In essence using the job analytics during the hiring process saves the company the situation where it could hire the wrong people for the job and consequently reducing the turnover rate in the organization (Sullivan, 2003). Primarily this justifies the cost of HRIS.

Additionally, the HR function spends the highest money in most organizations in terms of pay and allowances. Therefore, it is imperative for the organizations to ensure that they reap the most from the services offered by the workforce. Through the use of HRIS, the department can account for the training ROI in which the company spends money (Sullivan, 2003). The training returns on investment ensure that there are maximum financial gains from a training function to the employees. Without the use of this HRIS the company may make losses in training.

It is a significant loss to lose a valued employee by the organization. Therefore, it is important for the organization to have a functional HRIS that keeps track of the employees’ performance and improvements (Smith, 2013). For instance, using the manual employee tracking system may be compromised due to the human nature of being faulty. Such instances may lead to increased turnover and talent mismanagement. Thus a good HRIS saves the company all these losses.

References

Smith, T. (2013). HR analytics. Create-Space Independent Publishing Platform

Sullivan, J. (2003). HR metrics, the world-class way. Peterborough, NH: Kennedy Information.

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Barriers Women UK Construction

Barriers to Women in the UK Construction Industry

Title: HRM Dissertation Barriers to Women in the UK Construction Industry. In the 21st Century the idea of women in the workplace has become a widely accepted notion not just by society but also being enshrined in law with the introduction of the Equal Pay Act (1970), the Sex Discrimination Act (1975), and the Equality Act (2010). As a result of this, many sectors within the UK economy have seen an increase in the equal representation of men and women in the workplace with occupations such as elementary education resulting in women forming 46% of workers, in the professional sector women make up 50% and within management and senior official roles women constitute only 33%. However, in stark contrast of these progressive figures, women form only 11% of the entire construction Industry with 80% of these roles that women occupy being in fact merely support roles carrying out things like secretarial work; only 15% of women are actually part of the professional body of employees- this constitutes just 1.5% of professionals in the entire industry.

Women-Construction-Industry
Women-Construction-Industry

In 2006, Greed went so far as to say that these secretarial roles are not contributing to, or not being part of the construction process. It appears that although the construction industry has innovated in terms of methods and practices the same old ideas of it being a male-dominated world still remains. In order for the industry to thrive and remain relevant in these modern times it must adapt itself, and let go of this man’s world culture by encouraging and recruiting more women. It is on this basis that more Investigation must be done as to why there is such a lack of female presence within the construction industry and how as an industry it can attract the young girls of today’s society so that the industry will have a more representative and diverse future.

Dissertation Aims and Objectives

The aim of this research is to look into and analyse why there is such a lack of females within the UK construction industry, what can be done to change the perception of the industry as being a man’s world and attract the future generation of women to consider the industry as a viable career choice.

  • To investigate and evaluate if there is an actual need for women within the professional sector of the UK construction industry.
  • To compare the lack of women in the construction industry with other industries in the UK, and then with other EU member countries as a whole.
  • To examine the reasons why there is a severe lack of women within the UK built environment profession in the modern era.
  • To assess how those in secondary schools view construction and ascertain if they see a future within the industry.
  • To evaluate how the industry is trying to tackle this issue and whether these are having a positive impact or if more needs to be done.

Dissertation Contents

1 – Introduction
Aim
Objectives
Proposed Methods

2 – Literature Review
The need for women in professional roles within construction
Benefits to more women in construction
Comparison within UK and EU
Profession comparison
Comparison with the medical profession
Comparison of UK construction industry to the of Europe
Hurdles to women in construction
The choice between career or children
Flexibility and maternity leave
The construction Industry as sexist
Lack of female role models
The views of secondary pupils
Efforts of the construction industry
Employers role
Female construction organisations

3 – Methodology
Primary research
Quantitative research
Qualitative research
Selected Methodology
The Questionnaire
Selection criteria
Structure
Structured interview
Selection criteria
Structure
Desk Research

4 – Data Analysis
Questionnaire results
Interview results
Background information
University Life
Social aspects of university
Post university

5 – Discussion of Results
Preconception about construction
Role models
Sexism in the industry
Efforts of the construction industry
Employers role
Female construction organisations
Enthusiasm of female students

6 – Results and Conclusions
Limitations
Analysis of Research Objectives
Final conclusion

References

Appendices
Questionnaire

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Employee Satisfaction

Employee Satisfaction Levels in HRM and in CPM

To adapt to new demands and ensure business success, organizations have initiated profound processes of transformation, aiming to add value to its shareholders (stakeholders), customers, employees, suppliers, ultimately the entire value chain. The central point of this value chain lays with peoples especially employees of the organization. If technology demands change in core business processes, it also expects to change in the traditional methods of dealing organizational human resources (Dunn, 2010, pp. 02).

A contemporary vision of people management, assumes that the world is changing, people are changing and hence the organizations are in the process of change. Just as people today have more and better access to information, knowledge, new technologies, companies are also changing their old concepts or paradigms in constant learning process. The learning organizations understand the importance of their employees and for them it is often necessary to unlearn in order to learn.In the management of people, the need for change is constant and urgent. The old paradigms of the industrial era and the military model for management of people has completely transformed and the contemporary era of knowledge, cooperation, sustainability and the new information technologies has taken place in modern business organization (Pučėtaitė et al., 2008, pp. 325).

Traditional human resources practices revolve around employee motivation and satisfaction and his performance. But with the rapid changes in business environment and phenomenal growth of technological advancement, such methods become incapable to produce the results. Contemporary People Management (CPM) has provided the solution. CPM has gone ahead of merely satisfying employees to making them satisfied. An organization with contemporary vision of Personnel Management, has strategic clarity inmaking the mission, vision, values ​​and objectives and is assimilated and practiced by all employees consciously and unconsciously creating an alignment and cooperation among the employees (Pinnington et al., 2007, pp. 267).

Employee Satisfaction Discussion

In postmodern business environment, moral values and ethical standards have become increasingly complicated. This has affected the practices of HR, where a decision by HR manager can significantly produce drastic impacts on people’s job and their future employment opportunities.

The practice and theoretical framework of Human resource management is facing several challenges and most important of them are globalization challenge, HR innovation challenge, the sustainability challenge and the challenge of attracting and retaining people. These four challenges can be transformed into a competitive strength of the organization through CPM (Bartram, 2010, pp. 26). The challenge of HR innovation itself is a course to achieve Contemporary people management. Now business organizations are moving towards knowledge management, which include the transformation of techniques, processes, structures and systems, which can lead to the creation and sharing of knowledge throughout the organization. Resultantly, Global knowledge economy starts to develop which helps to increase the knowledge about different cultures, globalization process and intensify the knowledge about production processes. Australian federal government has since 1970 supported and implemented several such schemes and proposals which help to internationalize Australian business.

Changing business practices and innovation in HR practices and policies has created different ethical dilemmas. HR does not take place in isolation. It affects the life of employees and the ethical consideration of organization as well as of HR manager hassignificant impact of the performance of the employees.As the process of internationalization has started to increase its pace, we can see the dominance of neo liberal moral and ethical standards, which are regulated by a balance between alternative ends and scarce resources. It is simply based on utilitarian approach in order to select best method for the maximum number of people. When interests of people are satisfied with the help of common good, it will produce environment of return of favour.State of common good that can be achieved through utilitarian approach, not only benefits employee but it also produce good results for organization (Klikauer, 2012, pp. 74).

Several ethical theories have elaborated the impact of ethical principles on business practices. Utilitarianism approach is rooted in consequentialism and according to it; the rightness or wrongness of our action is described best by the consequence of that action. An action is said to be morally right if it has produced satisfaction to the majority of the people. In consequentialism, there is no universal moral standard unlike virtue ethics. But it depends on the situational awareness and the will of the majority of the people. Some critics believe that it has some demerits and in extreme cases, the will of the people can be unjust and illegitimate.Despites its flaws business manager apply utilitarian approach in their organization because this propagates the goodness of the people at large (Greenwood, 2013, pp. 357).

The concept of utilitarianism has subjective matter and it is very difficult to determine accurately the level of maximum utility.It involves situational assessment and awareness and considers only available information. In this situation, it is difficult to evaluate the impact of decision based on utilitarian in long terms aspect. Similarly, it is very difficult to accurately determine the majority of people. So like other ethical and moral standards, utilitarianism has some weaknesses (Audi, 2007, pp. 596).

The objective of the management is to produce a satisfied employee so that he/she can perform better and an organization can produce profit. Well-being of the employee in this case is a mean to an end but it is not an end itself. However it does not simply mean that an organization is interested in the wellbeing of employee, but it is more interested in a productive employee. Utilitarianism approach does not simply mean that producing greatest good for the large number of people, but it motivates management to produce satisfaction among the employees. If 10 per cent annual increase in the salary fails to bring any kind of satisfaction within the organization, it simply would be rendered as increase in the cost of organization.In the context of utilitarianism, bringing satisfaction is not the total objective of the management, but satisfaction principle in ethical model is to prevent employees from any damage or problems. Power can only be exercised on employees in the situation so that harm to the majority of the people can be avoided.In this way, management creates a civilized community within the organization (Klikauer, 2010, pp. 51).

Employee Satisfaction
Employee Satisfaction

We have seen the paradigm shift in the practices and policies of traditional human resource management. In classical human resource management, employees were considered as a liability where as in contemporary people management, employees are regarded as an asset.As the organizations are moving towards learning organization and are based on knowledge, highly educated and independent employees demands cooperative attitude and no longer they are considered for granted. This trend demands in operational procedures of HR. classical HR practices cannot boost the performance of such employees and the sharp edges of traditional HR practices, in result are have been removed (Van Marrewijk et al., 2003, pp. 175).

Contemporary practices of HR has taken strategic position among the organization and is regarded the change agent and facilitator for transformation and restructuring processes. It has manifested itself as a strategic partner between the employee and organization. Modern practices of HR are based on knowledge and constant learning process. It pays individual attention on human asset management, human culture management and human potential management. Cultural diversity is no longer regarded as a problem. Contemporary human resource practice transformed cultural diversity into a strength through strong communication skill and motivating their employees to seek knowledge from different cultures (Worland &Manning, 2005, pp. 07). Traditionally, HRM works closely with the bosses and managers but contemporary people management works closely with employees. The role of HR practices has changed. Now making employee satisfied is not sufficient and efficient for business managers. Employees need to feel the real satisfaction and they all should be prevented from harm and injustice. Utilitarianism approach of satisfaction for all has become the central point of contemporary people management.

Conclusion

We can safely conclude that HR has occupied the strategic position in the organizational structure and conventional methods of HR are no longer effective to accommodate the needs of employees as well as organizational objectives.It should not be implied that the classical HR framework and practices have completely become useless and obsolete, but it has provided a basic structure for contemporary people management. Because organization itself is nothing without employees and he/she is an active agent of transferring raw material into a finished good, he/she must be satisfied and happy, so that his performance bring satisfaction to organization and its customers.

Postmodern economy is based on knowledge and learning. Organization that understand the importance of knowledge, keep on changing their HR policies.The classical concept of employee’s high performance with lowest cost of employees has failed to fulfil the business objectives. Employees are no longer regarded as liabilities. They are considered the asset and the value of the asset increase with the time. satisfaction of employees has preceded employee satisfaction. This demands changes in the ethical values of organization. It is through Utilitarianism approach that the goodness of majority of the people can be achieved.It becomes the duty of the manager to increase the total volume of satisfaction of employees. Similarly, utilitarianism approach encourages all those actions which can produce wellbeing for the majority of the people.

References

Academic Books

Bartram, T., Kramar, R., & De Cieri, H. (2010). Human resource management: strategy, people, performance. North Ryde, N.S.W., McGraw-Hill Education.

Klikauer, T. (2010). Critical management ethics.Houndmills, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Klikauer, T. (2012). Seven management moralities.Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pinnington, A. H., Macklin, R., & Campbell, T. (2007). Human resource management: Ethics and employment. Human Resource Management: Ethics and Employment, xii.

Redman, T., & Wilkinson, A. (Eds.). (2009). Contemporary human resource management: text and cases. Pearson Education.

Academic Journals

Audi, R. (2007). Can utilitarianism be distributive? Maximization and distribution as criteria in managerial decisions. Business Ethics Quarterly, 17(4), 593-611.

Dunn, B. H. (2010). Human Resource Management: The Importance of Getting It Right Employee Satisfaction. Rangelands, 32(4), 2-3.

Greenwood, M. (2013). Ethical analyses of HRM: A review and research agenda. Journal of business ethics, 114(2), 355-366.

Greenwood, M., & Freeman, R. E. (2011).Ethics and HRM. Business and Professional Ethics Journal, 30(3/4), 269-292.

Pučėtaitė, R., &Lämsä, A. M. (2008).Developing organizational trust through advancement of employees’ work ethic in a post-socialist context Employee Satisfaction. Journal of Business Ethics, 82(2), 325-337.

Simmons, J. (2008). Ethics and morality in human resource management. Employee Satisfaction Social responsibility journal, 4(1/2), 8-23.

Van Marrewijk, M., &Timmers, J. (2003). Human capital management: New possibilities in people management. Journal of Business Ethics, 44(2-3), 171-184.

Worland, D., & Manning, K. (2005). Employee Satisfaction, Strategic human resource management and performance.

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