HR- Management

Human Resource Management I learned is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training. They have many different aspects and which they control or are a part of designing and developing the proper programs for employees.
Human Resource Management is also a strategic and comprehensive approach to managing people and the workplace culture and environment. Effective HRM enables employees to contribute effectively and productively to the overall company direction and the accomplishment of the organization's goals and objectives.

Human resource management is concerned with the development of both individuals and the organization in which they operate. HRM, focus is more than on securing and developing the talents of individual workers, but also in implementing programs that enhance communication and cooperation between those individual workers in order to improve or increase organizational development.

This link is to an article titled: The importance of human resource management...
The HRM activities in modern organizations are typically performed in communication with the General Management in an effort to provide a variety of views when a decision must be taken. In that way, decision making is not subject to the individual perceptions of the HR or the General Manager, but it becomes the outcome of strategic consensus.http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1488488/the_importance_of_human_resources_management.html?cat=3

Labor-Relations...

Every business strategy or decision, from mergers and acquisitions to downsizing and outsourcing, has the potential to be affected by labor issues. The labor relations manager handles all employees' negotiates collective bargaining agreements, and coordinates grievance procedures to handle complaints resulting from management disputes with employees. The labor relations managers interpret and administer the contract with respect to grievances, wages and salaries, employee welfare, healthcare, pensions, union and management practices, and other contractual stipulations. In the absence of a union, industrial relations personnel may work with employees individually or with employee association representatives. Dispute resolution or contractual agreements has become significant as parties to a dispute attempt to avoid costly litigation, strikes, or other disruptions. Dispute resolution also has become more complex, involving employees, management, unions, other firms, and government agencies. Labor relations managers involved in dispute resolution must be highly knowledgeable and experienced, and often report to the director of industrial relations.

This link is how labor managers should define their employees for labor relations and contracts....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eury3tWpyQg

Benefits...

Workers' compensation benefits can include medical care, rehabilitation expenses, and disability coverage to compensate you for lost wages. Benefit plans are designed to accomplish specific human resource objectives. It is important to measure your labor market competitors, as well as which benefits will attract and retain the best staff. HR/managers should also explore ways to differentiate compensation in order to attract, motivate and retain various groups. One strategic issue is an organization's stage of development; a start-up venture will offer low base pay and benefits but high incentives, mature firm will offer generous pay and benefits with moderate incentives.
The first step is to imagine the benefit plan design from the employees’ perspective. Each benefit feature should be related to employee needs so that you can identify which aspects of the benefit program are valuable to them. Benefit features that cannot be linked to employee needs should be noted for careful review.
A second aspect of benefit value relates to how efficient the benefit plan is at concentrating the benefits budget on directly satisfying employee and employer needs. Claim payments and expense charges that do not satisfy needs could be considered waste and eliminated. You can improve the cost-effectiveness of your benefits program by analyzing supplier agreements, risk management, plan design and claims adjudication practices. The following techniques can produce long-term cost savings by reducing the leakage of funds to inappropriate claims, excessive charges and unnecessary services. Actively manage your supplier agreements to produce immediate costs savings.
This article is about Cost Control and Flexibility; Today, cost control requires the ability of a health plan to effectively manage claims, monitor use of health care services, and empower employees to accept more responsibility for their health care...
http://www.asrhealthbenefits.com/content/public/default.aspx?id=332

Compensation...

Salary structures are an important component of effective compensation programs and help ensure that pay levels for groups of jobs are competitive externally and equitable internally. A well-designed salary structure allows management to reward performance and skills development while controlling overall base salary cost by providing a cap on the range paid for particular jobs or locations. Both merit systems and incentive pay programs are both designed to motivate employees and improve their job performance. Merit systems are applied to exempt employees in the form of permanent increases to their base pay. Properly designed programs work because they are based on two well accepted principles: increased motivation improves performance and recognition is a major factor in motivation. The plan has to be simple, be specific, be attainable, and be measurable in order to work correctly and for employees to understand the link between profits and performance. Higher management/ HR should also teach supervisors how to do appraisals and how to give feedback, also develop an accurate performance appraisal systems.

This link is to an artlice showing the largest increase in merit pay since the start of the financial crisis, in mid-large sized firms...

http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/compensation/Articles/Pages/MeritRaisesUp.aspx

Employee Empowerment...

Last semester in Organizational behavior and Theory, I remember we spoke about self-managing teams. I think self-managing teams give individuals that power to make decisions and be apart of the company process by making a difference and being involved. The  This is the total opposite of being in a workplace that has lots of micromanaging, which I think can hinder productivity and employees belief that their managers trust them. Sometimes I think teams may struggle with the boundaries of its authority and trouble with developing methods to manage its performance. I see it as having "too many cooks in the kitchen". Self-management for teams involves a team assuming a set of new roles and responsibilities; roles and responsibilities that have traditionally been the exclusive duties of managers.
Everyone in the group is encouraged to contribute by communicating and promoting their ideas, by adding on to the ideas of others and by exercising judgment to narrow down ideas or options.  Everyone recognizes that since the group makes decisions and develops action plans, the group will also be held accountable for the outcomes of their management actions. I think giving individuals this type of empowerment can help with productivity and progress of the individuals and the company itself.

This article is about the 10 principles of employee empowerment...It goes step by step giving examples to management.

http://humanresources.about.com/od/managementandleadership/tp/empowerment.htm

Performance Appraisal...

Performance appraisal is an interesting concept. I think that the reports are can be helpful and eye-opening to employees. They can figure out what their strengths and weaknesses are and what type of skills and knowledge they would need to obtain in order to become better and more productive part of the company. But having a performance appraisal/ performance management should be a constant thing, there should be open and comfortable communication between management, HR and employees. Showing someone a piece of paper just doesnt cut it, most people need explanations and situations where something as occurred and how they handled it properly or how they can learn how to perform better. Every employees should have goals either daily, weekly, monthly etc. on what they should accomplish, then measures of those goals, future advancement, commission, raise in pay, etc. Last assessment, regular appraisals lets employees/teams know where they stand, what is expected and this helps with progress and building communication between management and employees.

This link is to a website giving a definition for performance appraisal, why companies should consider them, and how to construct a performance pay structure. There are also additional resources such as SMART goals...
http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/HR/performance-appraisal.html

Training...

Training for employees is important for any type of business. If the people that are running the day to day sales, services, and purchases do not know what they are doing, or how to properly do their job by being effective and efficient how is a company going to stay profitable and productive. There has to be training of the job, not just a job description; a hands on guide and physical training session to show new hires and current employees how to be successful at their jobs and involved in company. With this the individual and the company interests are parallel to each other.

Individual training and team building are both important within a workplace. A team strongly depends on the expertise of each of its members, if one link in the chain is rusty or is loose this causes a weak bond and loss of productivity, time, and profitability.  I think cross-training is the most important, it provides exposure and practice with other teammates' tasks, roles, and responsibilities. This training is an effort to increase shares understanding and knowledge among team members. Training in the end should help increase employees' desire to perform well and management should always provide feedback whether positive or negative, so employees can see their strengths and weaknesses.

This link is to an article that explains the importance of job training and how different departments i.e. HR needs to look at different skills and qualities than another department.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Importance-of-Job-Training-For-Businesses&id=2750384