Module 5: Workforce Planning And Talent Management

Front 1

The Charter of Right and Freedoms and Canadian and Provincial Human Rights Act/Code

Back 1

-legislation (either provincial, federal or territorial) prohibits discrimination in employment related to: race, national or ethnic origin, colour, age, sex (including pregnancy and birth), marital status, family status, mental or physical disability (including previous or present drug or alcohol dependence, pardoned conviction and sexual orientation.

- some variation between provinces and with federal and territorial legislation.

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Employment equity

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-legislation is almost exclusively within the federal jurisdiction and or companies and org. that contract with federal government. I is designed to eliminate historical employment discrimination against 4 "target groups:" women, aboriginals, people with disabilities and members of visible minorities.

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Labour Relations and Employment Standards Act

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- although not nearly as important as human rights and employment equity legislation to the staffing process, labour relations and employment standards law are relevant and can potentially impact the staffing process.

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Direct discrimination

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-Occurs when the org. or indiv. within the org intentionally penalize a person on prohibited grounds. This discrimination may be "malicious" or "non-malicious" depending upon intentions of those who are responsible for the discrimination. Direct discrimination that is done for a bona fide occupational requirement - such as baring vision impaired indic. from work as airline pilots or bus drivers - is permitted (knowing).

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Indirect or Adverse Effect Discrimination

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-occurs when an org. adapts a policy, in good faith, that indirectly leads to discriminatory practices unintentionally. This form of discrimination is much harder to detect because it is "build into" a company's recruitment and selection practices. Examples are the use of referrals by existing employees - who may be predominantly from one racial or ethnic group- as the only or primary source of candidates when recruiting.

- or requiring candidates to complete tests that do not correlate with the job requirements and yet discriminate against certain groups of employees.

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Systemic discrimination

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- a pattern of behaviour, policies, or practices that are part of the structures of an org.and which create or perpetuate disadvantages to the protected groups. It can include both intentional and unintentional discrimination but most often pertains to unintentional or indirect situations whereby the discriminatory impact is a result of something built into the way business is conducted.

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Adverse impact

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- occurs when the selection rate of a protected of tarot group is lower than that for the relative comparison group.

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Target group

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- Generally assoc. with Federal Employment Equity requirements, the four target groups are: women, persons with disabilities, aboriginal s and visible minorities.

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Bona fide Occupational Requirement (BFOR)

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- a legitimate basis for discriminatory practices on the grounds that the practice or requirement was adopted in good faith and is necessary in order to have properly qualified persons in the position for which the recruitment and selection is taking place, BFOR is a very important legal concept for HR professionals because it is through best practice HR that job qualifications and requirements are est. and recruitment and selection methods developed.

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Accommodation

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- the employer's duty to accommodate individuals - normally with a disability bit it may also apply to other areas such as religious beliefs, gender or seal orientation - short of "undue hardship."

-requirement to accommodate may result in the modification of: work practices, job procedures, policies, hours of work and work schedules or facilities such that the target idiv. is able to perform the work.

- When considering whether the duty to accommodate results in undue hardship, the following are considered:

1. costs relative to the sir of the workforce
2. administrative and supervisory burden
3. Economic benefits that the employer recovers for accommodating (it. government grants)
4. Disruption or legal liability to other employees or to the trade union.
5. Health and safety
6. Overall economic hardship

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The Meiorin Ruling

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- Est. an important precedent concerning the duty to accommodate. It is a Supreme Court decision involving a female Attack Forest Fire Fighter who failed to complete a 2.5 km fitness run in under 11 minutes. It was argued by the org. that being able to complete this run in the required time was a bona fide occupational requirement for safety reasons. In the ruling, it was est. that the test was not BFOR and that because men are inherently better able to pass the test due to a higher aerobic capacity it discriminates against women, and that accommodating women who are not able to pass the test did not impose an undue hardship on the employer.

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Meiorin Ruling - When dealing with the legal aspects of the staffing process the following guidelines are useful

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1. Ensure selection criteria and tools are valid
2. Ensure all information provided to candidates accurately reflects job and working conditions.
3. Obtain a written authorization to contact references
4. Save al records resulting from the recruitment process
5. Ensure recruitment process and assessment tools are administered consistently to increase reliability of process.

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Strategic alignment

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- any HRP, to be credible and of value to the org., has to align with the overall strategy of the company.

- It is from the strategy that essential competencies are identified and actual numbers of positions are determined.

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Competency focused

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- competencies should form the basis of the process because having well-known, understood and accepted competencies can greatly enhance the process both from a quality and speed of execution perspective.

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Reality Based

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- the HR planning process needs to be based on the reality of the current org. and the make-up of the existing workforce.

-Therefore, employee demographics, turnover rates, skill levels and flexibility - particularly where there is a collective agreement - are all elements that need to be considered.

- Similarly, the realities of the labour market need to be included in any HRP analysis.

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Cost Effective

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-For many org., particularly those in the service and public sectors, human resources represent their greatest expense.

-Therefore, approaches to the planning and deployment of these resources have to be cost effective.

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The labour force

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-everyone of working age who are participating workers, that is people actively employed or seeking employment.

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The labour force participation rate

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- is the ration between the labor force and the overall size of their cohort (national population of the same age range).

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the unemployment rate

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the number of unemployed individuals divided by all indic. currently in the labor force.

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Frictional unemployment

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is short-term unemployment that is not related to a business cycle. For example, people who are unemployed while waiting to start a different or better job, people re-entering the labour force, or perhaps people looking for their fist jobs.

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Structural unemployment

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- results from a mismatch of available jobs and the skills of the available labour force. For example, if the construction industry collapsed int he East, while it was growing in the West, skilled workers may consider relocating as a result of "structural unemployment," or as a result of new technology the demand for a particular occupation declines resulting in "structural unemployment" This type of unemployment leads to retraining.

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Inflation

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-results in the average of all prices of goods and services is greater than the supply, resulting in process increasing.

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Demand-pull Inflation

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-occurs when the demands for goods and services is greater than the supply, resulting in prices increasing.

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Cost-push inflation

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- is triggered by increases in production costs, including the cost of labour, resulting in higher prices

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Consumer Price Index (CPI)

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-is the measure used to track the rate of inflation. Annual compensation adjustments are often tied to CPI to ensure employees retain the same label of purchasing power.

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Monetary policy

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- in which interest rates and the amount of money circulating in the economy is controlled.

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Fiscal policy

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- in which the government uses taxation and government spending to affect the economy.

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Trend analysis

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a method that extrapolates from historical data

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Delphi technique

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- a method that uses questionnaires to collect the input of experts, summarize and issue this information back to them for additional insights, and recommendations.

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Impact analysis

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- a method in which experts predict the probability of future events based on past trends.

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Scenario Planning

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a method that involves the creation of multiple possible future situations that are different that the forecast that would normally result from the extrapolation of present trends.

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Changing demographics

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- also has an impact on the supply of labour

-one of the greatest challenges facing HR is the changing demographics in our workforce.

- 5 trends identified by H Schwind:

1. increasing number of women in the workforce
2. shift toward knowledge workers
3. education attainment of workers
4. employment of older workers
5. more part-time, contract and contingent workers

- additional increased globalization and generational differences have resulted in cultural challenges related to: work-related attitudes, ethnic diversity, and attitudes toward government ad those in power.

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Traditionalists

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1925-1945

- want to build legacy

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Baby boomers

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1946-1964

- want to build a stellar career

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Gen X

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1965-1978

-want to build a portable career

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Gen Y (millennials)

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1979-2000

-want to build parallel (multiple) careers

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Job analysis and design

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- Job analysis involves the collection of all the information pertaining to a job in order to determine its duties, tasks and activities, and results in the creation of a job description and normally includes: the job purpose, job context, types of cutie and responsibilities, knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) required to perform the job and job performance standards.

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Position Analysis Questionnaires (PAQ)

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- is a quantifiable data collation method covering 194 different worker-oriented tasks. Focus on the general behaviour that make up a job by org. job elements into six dimensions (information input, mental processes, work output, relationships, job context and of the characteristics).

- PAQ is best suited for assessing lower level jobs. One disadvantage is that it requires a college-level reading comprehension to complete it properly.

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Structured job analysis questionnaire or inventories

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- workers and other subject-matter experts respond to written questions about the activities and tasks, tools and equipment, and working conditions involved in their jobs.

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Critical incident technique

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- is a job analysis method that generates behaviourally focused descriptions of work activities based not he use of critical incidents that occur in the perforce of the job.

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Task inventory analysis

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- a task analysis using a task inventory questionnaire that is customized to each org. (as opposed to the PAQ which is standardized).

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Competency-based analysis

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-jobs are defined in terms of tasks, duties, processes and skills necessary for job success, with a focus on identifying the key competencies for org. success. This approach is more realistic in today's environments of constant change and technological advances.

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Worker Trait Inventories

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-focus on the treats required of job incumbents based on the job incumbents based on the job analysis data. They are sometimes referred to as threshold traits analysis systems.

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Job Element Method

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- a work orient method focused on the human attributes needed for superior performance, used to match what employees can do against what the work calls for.

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Fleishman job analysis survey

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a system for identifying employee characteristics that influence job performance and assumes that job tasks differ with respect to the abilities required to perform them successfully.

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Functional job analysis

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-quantitative approach to job analysis that originally examined three broad worker functions - data, people and things. More recent functional job analysis methodology also includes an examination of worker instruction, reasoning, math and language.

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Job design

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- the process of assigning tasks, responsibilities and authority inherent in a job in order to achieve the desired results. As identified in the module on OE, the design and org. of jobs can have a major impact on employee motivation and performance. It also has an impact on the determination of job worth in the "enriched or enlarged" jobs inherently have more worth from a compensation perspective.

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Transaction-based forecasting

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- a method focused on tracking internal change.

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Event-based forecasting

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- a method focused on changes in the external environment

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Process-based forecasting

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-a method focused on the flow or sequencing of several work activities.

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Nominal technique

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- a face-to-face method for collecting information from experts

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Staffing tables

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-illustrating the total demand for labour to fulfill operational requirements

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Envelope / scenario forecasts

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-involve projections of future demand based on different assumptions

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Regression analysis

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- examining the relationship between an independent variable (ie. sales or production volume) and a dependent variable (number and type of staff needed).

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Skills inventories

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-record of current skill within the org's labor force

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Mgmt inventories

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-record of professional and managerial talent within the org. current labour force.

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Succession and replacement charts

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- tools for identifying the risk and readiness assoc. with succession planning.

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Markov analyisis

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- the analysis of the flow of people through the org. in terms of where they come from, how they progress from job to job and where they go.

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Linear programming

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- a method for determining the best-suppyly mix to minimize costs and/or constraints.

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Movement analysis

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-used to analyze the ripple effect that promotions of job losses have not he movements of other personnel.

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Vacancy, renewal or sequencing model

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- a method that considers the movement of people at each hierarchical or compensation level (grade) of the org.

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Attrition

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a form of 'natural' turnover in that it refers to unforced employee departures due to "natural" causes such as: retirement, voluntary departure, death, or disability.

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Contingent workforce

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- employees who do not have regular full-time or part-time status.

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Diversity

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-the notion that the make-up of an org. workforce should reflect the communities in which it operates. The particular focus of diversity initiatives is to increase the proportion of members of the 4 target groups (women, visible minorities, aboriginals and persons with disabilities) such that their participation at all levels of the org. are proportional to Canadian society.

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Employee leasing

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-when employees are transferred to the payroll of an Employee Leasing company or professional Employer Org. (PEO) in an explicit joint-employement relationship.

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Headcount, trend and ratio analysis

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- the process of analysis employee numbers; can include data collection and analysis on a wide variety of areas such as: demographics, skills levels, turnover, (good and bad), training activities, movement - promotions, demotions, transfers, secondments, etc.

- this information provides a basis for planning and determining whether the HRP function is achieving its goals.

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HR deficit

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- when the deans for people exceeds the current resources available within the org.

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HR surplus

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- when the supply of people exceeds the organization's requirement for resources.

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Markov analysis

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- a form of headcount analysis that forecasts the internal supply of possible candidates based upon tracking the internal movement of employees and developing a transitional probability matrix according to certain characteristics such as: gender, educational background or position.

-A qualitative tool focusing on the supply side

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Replacement charts

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- are a succession planning tool that identifies positions int he org. that same as an org. chart but in terms of the potential candidate for succession to those positions.

- a qualitative tool focusing on the demand side

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skils/mgmt inventories

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- comprehensive information banks on the skills available in the org. by indiv.

these inventories are used to develop replacement chart.

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Transition matrix

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- describes the probability of how quickly a job position turns over and what an incumbent employee may do, over a forecast period of time, from that job situation, such as stay in the current position, move another position within the org. or accept another job in another org.

- relicts the "stock" and "flow" of employees.

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Job sharing

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- where employees, with the agreement of mgmt, voluntarily agree to share the work involved in a job and receive pay and benefits in proportion to their share of the job.

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Work sharing

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- an arrangement approved y Employment and immigration Canada in an effort to reduce the requirement for a layoff due to lack of work.

- employees agree to reduce their hours and share the work with other employees in return for receiving EI benefits for hours lost.

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Golden parachute and golden handcuffs

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- these terms apply to pre-arranged severance benefits and are normally reserved for exec.

- as the names imply they are generous benefits provided to keep exec. with an org. and to provide a "soft landing" in the event of termination. They are usually assoc. with the sale or merger of a company.

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Human Resources Hoarding

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- whereby mgmt in certain department or areas of an org. deliberately discourage or prevent their employees from leaving in order to retain their skills and knowledge and to avoid the problem of re-staffing vacated positions.

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Layoff

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- a concept usually reserved for unionized environments.

- refers to the temp termination of employment with the employee retaining certain rights related to: recall, retention of service, benefit and pay entitlement upon re-instalment. Normally, an employee;s layoff status has a time limit attached to it.

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Notice

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- the amount of time between when employees are informed of their termination and the actual date of termination. Term notice times are a statutory requirement under labour standards legislation in Canada, although due to common law court decisions most companies provide an amt. of notice (or severance in lieu of notice) greater than what is called for in the statutes.

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Outplacement / downsizing /rightsize

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- the process of reducing employee headcount through non-voluntary termination of employment. Generally it is accompanied by the payment of severance pay and the provision of relocation counselling.

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Offshoring

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- moving work to foreign entities outside the company, usually as part of a workforce reduction program.

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Severance pay

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- the amt. of salary or pay continuance a company provides to terminated employees in lieu of notice.

- Outside of any collective agreement stipulations, the amt. of severance is usually determined by the employee's length of services with the org., age and position.

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Seniority and reverse seniority or juniority

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-normally assoc. with unionized environments, these three terms relate to the deployment rights an employee has int he event of layoff or termination.

- in each case, the term gives preferential transfer an job preservation rights to the employee with the longer service.

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Supplemental Unemployment benefits (SUBs)

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- benefits an employee would receive in addition to what they are eligible through government employment insurance (EI) programs.

- usually represent the difference between what an employee receives from EI and their normal salary and need to be approved by the government in order for employees to retain their EI benefits.

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Survivor syndrome

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- the psycho-sociological phenomenon that occurs with employees who are retrained by the org. when there has been a termination or a number of terminations within their employee group. Characterized by feeling of guilt, betrayal, detachment, alienation, anxiety and stress.

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Turnover

Back 85

an important concept in the HRP process is turnover or the rate at which employees leave the company (or org. unit) relative to the number of employees who stay with the org.

-2 kinds of turnover:

good turnover - when an employee leave and the departure is seen as a benefit to the company.

bad turnover - occurs when employees who are seen as assets and are good performers leave the org.

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Work redesign

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- a strategy where workflow, processes and tasks are assessed with the intention of redesigning and/or eliminating specific functions, products and/or services, also known as continuous improvement (or process re-engineering.)

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Employer brand

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- reflects the reputation of an org.

- an org. with a high reputation is likely to have a constant stream of qualified applicants, regardless of the job market.

- Should be managed as well as the company's brand in order to best attract talent and retain their top performing employees.

- Employers with strong employer brand tend to have a higher bottom line as a result.

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Value proposition

Back 88

- employer brand is expressed through a value proposition.

- effective value proposition answers the question "why would a talented person want to work here?"

- Key candidates would typically be attracted to value proposition that focus on one of these four areas:

1, 'winning' org, characterized by growth and dev't

2. "big risk, big reward" org., characterized by advancement and compensation.

3. "save the world" org, characterized by a bigger purpose and mission.

4. "lifestyle" org, characterized by flexibility and a good relationship with the boss

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Weighted assessments / weighted application blanks (WAB)

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assigns values to different elements that are most strongly required to perform successfully.

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Biographical information blank (BIB)

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- a pre-selection questionnaire in which applicants are asked to provide job-related information on their personal background and life experiences.

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Concept of validity

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- a measure of whether the selection method appropriately, meaningfully and usefully measures the competency, knowledge or skill desired in the candidate.

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Content validity

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- degree to which the content of the test is representative of the competency that it is intended to measure.

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Construct validity

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-the degree to which a given test successfully measures an abstract trait (ie. personality)

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Criterion-related validity

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- the degree to which a particular selection device accurately predicts the important elements of work behavior (ie. relationships between a test score and job performance)

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Predictive validity

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- a process of validating tests by assessing prospective applicants prior to employment, than assessing their performance sometimes in the future to determine whether the test accurately "predicted" their successful suitability for the position.

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Concurrent validity

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-Process of validating tests by assessing current employees who are performing well to determine whether the results of the assessment test are correlated with actual performance.

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Validity coefficient

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- expressed as either a positive or negative number where a minus 1.00 means there is a perfect, negative correlation in the validity between the test and what it is trying to predict and a plus 1.00 means there is a perfect, positive correlation. Correlation numbers equal to or greater than + or -.35 are considered to represent satisfactory validity.

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reliable

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- dependable or consistent from one time to another is used with the same group of indiv.

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internal consistency

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- where there are a number of questions designed to measure one competency or vocational interest, the result for each of the questions should be similar.

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inter-rater reliability

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- issue is whether there is consistency between two raters.

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False positives or negatives

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- occur when the selection technique either identifies an applicant does not possess a competency when he/she does not (false positive), or identifies the candidate does not possess the competency even through they may very well have it.

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Personality assessments

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5 general personality traits that have been identified as predictors of job performances are: Openness to new experiences,

Conscientiousness,

Emotional stability,

Agreeableness, and

extroversioN

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Polygraph/honestly/integrity tests

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- have been found to be somewhat valid, however can result in false positives and can be seen as invasive.

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Graphology

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- indiorect method of assessing personality through the response to an ambiguous stimulus like an ink blot, drawing or picture - no scientific evidence.

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Cognitive Ability and Aptitude Tests

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- general intelligence and knowledge, EI, psychomotor tests, interest inventories, physical ability test, and sensory/perceptual ability tests.