Human Resources A Four Section View of Human Resource Management

The Traditional vs. The New

The traditional view is personnel management which is a group within the organization that helps employees by seeing to their welfare and by seeking to help them perform on the job. Personnel management is involved in recruitment of individuals to fill staffing holes and to make sure that those employees have all the tools they need to be successful in their position within the company (Bach & Sisson, 2000, 3).

The new view that most organizations have is that they should focus more in human resources than personnel management. Human resources traditionally is a part of the organization that is more concerned with assisting behind the scenes than being involved directly with employees (Mathis & Jackson, 2007, 6). They give the employee the information that they need and no other. Of course, human resources has undergone a transformation in recent years with a total quality approach. Human resources now is less focused on the output of the company and has gone back to more of the focus on the employee that was a facet of personnel management. This means that the company is concerned with the quality of the products that they produce, but they are more focused on increasing the quality of the employees, and interactions with employees, because the new belief has gone back to a happy employee is a productive employee (Hakes, 1991, 24).

Since the company has now become more concerned with what the employee thinks, every individual shares in the decision making that goes on with the company. The employee then feels more engaged and is willing to give more of themselves to the employer. They feel ownership in the company because they have more input into their own situation. They know how the business operates and they are given the ability to react to situations that affect them.

This is also an anti-union response from many employers. Since many in the management team would like to keep the layers between them and their employees to a minimum, they would rather not have union interference. If the company treats the employees with the respect that they deserve, then they will be able to keep this direct line to them. The company will also run better because there is more ownership from the employs and a closer relationship with management.

Section Two: Recruiting and Selecting Suitable Employees

Every company uses job descriptions that give employees, or potential employees, an idea of what is expected of them. These are usually considered the minimum requirements and the employee may be required to give more if they are going to progress in the company.

The recruiting process requires many facets, and it involves different hiring methods for different types of employees and for employees from different generational backgrounds. This means that recruiting older employees, who probably already have experience in the industry, is a different matter than recruiting young people directly from college or a trade school.

Arthur (1998, 8) says that, "the recruiting of older workers may require some deviation from customary hiring practices." This means that older workers are not interested in the same things that younger workers are. Older workers want stability and they want to know what they will be doing to the smallest detail. Therefore, recruiting the older age group may mean a more directed recruiting plan.

Younger workers have grown up with the advances in technology that most companies work with these days. Thus it may be a good to use "methods for recruiting younger workers [that] include using interactive techniques, such as CD-Rom's, and revising company brochures to focus on new technology, promotional opportunities, geographic alternatives, and family leave policies" (Arthur, 1998, 9). Even the CD is outdated. Many recruiters, who are hip to the new ways of disseminating information, will use such tools as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to advertise a need for employees. The old standby that has worked for many years, help wanted ads, has also gone electronic. Many older and younger workers are using such tools as craigslist to find openings. The company that wants to have the best employees will use all methods of recruiting that are available to them and not just job fairs or want ads.

The ways that a company have recruited primarily though have not changed all that much. Small companies and those which have felt the pinch of the recent downturn may want to use cost-saving measures. "If money is a primary concern when it comes to recruiting, explore the possibility of using job...

These avenues will give the recruiter a much larger base to work with.
Selecting the best employee may still require some additional screening prior to hire. "Tests certainly seem to be useful recruitment and selection tools." (Arthur, 1998, 251). With the number of prescreening instruments available, a company should be able to find one that fits the pool they wish to recruit from. Also, "selecting employees from a pool of pretrained candidates generally works best in plant or manufacturing environments requiring the operation of equipment or machinery." (Arthur, 1998, 67). This means that the employees that are available right now who have had the required training on the machines used, may be the best employees possible. There are a lot of people, especially from manufacturing, who are currently unemployed. These people need jobs that they can just step into, and the employer, needing to cut down on training costs, wants that also.

Section Three: Monitoring and Rewarding Employees

Monitoring of employees has a bad connotation. It harkens back to the totalitarian view of people management seen in "1984" and the works of Charles Dickens a century earlier. The employee of today is a well trained, valuable member of a complex team. The employee needs to understand that monitoring of their performance is to help them upgrade so that they can have better financial rewards in the future. As Bowen (2000, 65) says, "Smart managers…realize people are their business and go about establishing standards, setting goals, planning objectives, training, and monitoring progress against plan." The smart manager also realizes that employees who are engaged and self-monitoring make the manager's and supervisor's jobs easier.

"In the new workplace, employee involvement is a must, whether it's in planning and measuring individual and group performance or in monitoring a pay-for-performance program" (Bowen, 2000, 94). This sort of involvement would have been ridiculous to think about just a very few decades ago. Companies believed that employees and managers should be kept apart, in that way the authority of the manager would be assured. These days, employees are truly thought of as a valuable asset. Those words are not just lip service given to make people shut up and do their work. Employees are seen as able to perform many of the functions that managers and supervisors once fulfilled. This makes for a stronger, smarter, more streamlined workforce.

The function of rewarding employees for their service to the company is not new. But, the idea has been taken to a new level. The loyalty that employees used to feel to a particular employer is gone for the most part. Employees are looking out for their own interests more and realize that if one company does not satisfy their needs, there are others who can. That attitude has quieted a little in the past few years, but employees need to feel that their work is rewarding. As a matter of fact, placing "your emphasis on "work as its own reward" [can be accomplished] by designing work that is inherently rewarding!" (Bowen, 2000, 37). This may seem like a cliche, but it is true. If the employer believes that the work is rewarding, so will the employee. Because "their choice to work for you and your organization should prove rewarding in and of itself." (Bowen, 2000, 160)

Of course, there are monetary rewards, advancement and other types that human resources and other management types can implement in their company, but these other types do not have to have a physical value. "In the new workplace, appealing to an employee's integrity is intrinsically rewarding" (Bowen, 2000, 175). People like to think that they are valued as human beings. An intrinsic reward can be given simply to an employee, by applauding their good work in front of others.

Section Four: Rights and Procedures on Exit from an Organization

When an employee needs to separate from s company there are certain procedures that the human resources manager or other appropriate manager must perform. Bizmanualz (2008, 225) recommends that the human resource manager;

"Complete and exit interview; review and update the positions duties and responsibilities; review the medical insurance and other employee benefits continuation/conversion; escort the employee to clean out their desk area and then out of the building (if the employee is terminated); ensure that all company property has been retrieved; the human resource manager should last prepare a statement that will be made to the…