BSBHRM501 Student Workbookpdf 2001

1st Edition
Manage human
resources services
BSBHRM501B
Student Workbook

Student Workbook
BSBHRM501B Manage human
resources services
1st Edition 2014
Part of a suite of support materials for the

BSB07 Business Services Training Package
Acknowledgment
Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council (IBSA) would like to acknowledge
Impact Training and Development Solutions for their assistance with the original
development of the resource for BSBHRM501A.
Writer: Joanna Hull Industry reviewer: Kristen Miller
This resource for BSBHRM501B was developed by IBSA.
Copyright and Trade Mark Statement
2014 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd
All rights reserved. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher, Innovation and Business Industry Skills
Council Ltd (IBSA).
Use of this work for purposes other than those indicated above, requires the prior written permission of IBSA. Requests
should be addressed to Product Development Manager, IBSA, Level 11, 176 Wellington Pde, East Melbourne VIC 3002
or email sales@ibsa.org.au.
Innovation and Business Skills Australia, IBSA and the IBSA logo are trade marks of IBSA.
Disclaimer
Care has been taken in the preparation of the material in this document, but, to the extent permitted by law, IBSA and
the original developer do not warrant that any licensing or registration requirements specified in this document are
either complete or up-to-date for your State or Territory or that the information contained in this document is error-free
or fit for any particular purpose. To the extent permitted by law, IBSA and the original developer do not accept any
liability for any damage or loss (including loss of profits, loss of revenue, indirect and consequential loss) incurred by any
person as a result of relying on the information contained in this document.
The information is provided on the basis that all persons accessing the information contained in this document
undertake responsibility for assessing the relevance and accuracy of its content. If this information appears online, no
responsibility is taken for any information or services which may appear on any linked websites, or other linked
information sources, that are not controlled by IBSA. Use of versions of this document made available online or in other
electronic formats is subject to the applicable terms of use.
To the extent permitted by law, all implied terms are excluded from the arrangement under which this document is
purchased from IBSA, and, if any term or condition that cannot lawfully be excluded is implied by law into, or deemed to
apply to, that arrangement, then the liability of IBSA, and the purchasers sole remedy, for a breach of the term or
condition is limited, at IBSAs option, to any one of the following, as applicable:
(a) if the breach relates to goods: (i) repairing; (ii) replacing; or (iii) paying the cost of repairing or replacing, the goods;
or
(b) if the breach relates to services: (i) re-supplying; or (ii) paying the cost of re-supplying, the services.
Published by: Innovation and Business Industry 1st edition published: January 2014
Skills Council Ltd
1st edition version: 1
Level 11
176 Wellington Parade Release date: January 2014
East Melbourne VIC 3002
Phone: +61 3 9815 7000
Fax: +61 3 9815 7001
Email: reception@ibsa.org.au
www.ibsa.org.au
ISBN: 978-1-925123-10-4
Stock code: BSBHRM501B1D
Table of Contents
Introduction .........................................................................................................................1
Features of the training program .................................................................................1
Structure of the training program ................................................................................1
Recommended reading ................................................................................................1
Section 1 Develop Human Resources Delivery Strategies............................................3
What skills will you need? ............................................................................................3
Human resources requirements ..................................................................................4
Strategic and operational plans ...................................................................................7
Review external business environment.................................................................... 13
Consult with managers .............................................................................................. 17
Human resources service delivery models and strategies ..................................... 18
Develop models ......................................................................................................... 27
Assess costs and benefits for delivery options ........................................................ 31
Develop strategies and action plans ........................................................................ 35
Section summary ....................................................................................................... 46
Further reading .......................................................................................................... 46
Section checklist ........................................................................................................ 47
Section 2 Deliver Human Resources Services ............................................................ 48
What skills will you need? ......................................................................................... 48
Develop service level agreements ............................................................................ 49
Negotiate service level agreements ......................................................................... 52
Document service level agreements ........................................................................ 58
Training requirements ............................................................................................... 65
Quality assurance ...................................................................................................... 66
Identify and rectify underperformance ..................................................................... 72
Section summary ....................................................................................................... 73
Further reading .......................................................................................................... 74
Section 3 Evaluate Human Resources Service Delivery ............................................ 75
Establish systems for monitoring and evaluation .................................................... 76
Client feedback .......................................................................................................... 79
Analyse client feedback............................................................................................. 85
Evaluate business impact ......................................................................................... 89
Recommend variations ............................................................................................. 91
Section summary ....................................................................................................... 94
Further reading .......................................................................................................... 94
Section 4 Integrate Business Ethics in Human Resources Practices ....................... 96
What are business ethics? ........................................................................................ 97
Codes of ethics and codes of conduct ..................................................................... 99
Human resources policies and practices ............................................................... 103
Human resources team member behaviour .......................................................... 104
Observe confidentiality requirements .................................................................... 106
Deal with unethical behaviour ................................................................................ 107
Section summary ..................................................................................................... 112
Further reading ........................................................................................................ 112
Section checklist ...................................................................................................... 113
Glossary .......................................................................................................................... 114
Appendix DuPonts new HR model ............................................................................ 119
Student Workbook Introduction
Introduction
Features of the training program
The key features of this program are:
Student Workbook Self-paced learning activities to help you to understand key
concepts and terms. The Student Workbook is broken down into several sections.
Facilitator-led sessions Challenging and interesting learning activities that can be
completed in the classroom or by distance learning that will help you consolidate
and apply what you have learned in the Student Workbook.
Assessment Tasks Summative assessments where you can apply your new skills
and knowledge to solve authentic workplace tasks and problems.
Structure of the training program

This training program introduces you to performance outcomes, skills and knowledge
required to plan and oversee and deliver human resources services. Specifically, you will
develop the skills and knowledge in the following topic areas:
1. Develop human resources strategy.
2. Deliver human resources services.
3. Evaluate human resources service delivery.
4. Integrate business ethics and human resources practices.
Your facilitator may choose to combine or split sessions. For example, in some cases, this
Training Program may be delivered in two or three sessions, or in others, as many as eight
sessions.
Recommended reading
Some recommended reading for this unit includes:
Anthony, W., Kacmar K. and Perrewe, P., 2005, Human resource management: A
strategic approach, 5th edn, Cengage South-Western, Ohio.
Barry, V. and Shaw, W., 2001, Moral issues in business, Wadsworth, California.
Cole, K., 2001, Supervision: The theory and practice of first-line management,
Pearson Education Australia, NSW.
Compton, R., Morrissey, W. and Nankervis, A. 2009, Effective recruitment and
selection practices, 5th edn, CCH Australia, Sydney.
Josefowitz, O., 2008, The Global HR Delivery Model (Diploma thesis, Haute cole de
Gestion de Genve) viewed January 2014, retrieved from:
<http://doc.rero.ch/lm.php?url=1000,41,9,20090123123638-
DM/Travail_de_Diplome_Olivier_Josefowitz_V1_2.pdf>.
BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services 1st edition version: 1

2014 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd Page 1 of 120
Introduction Student Workbook
Kramar, R., Bartram, T., De Cieri H., Noe, R., Hollenbeck, J., Gerhart, B. and Wright,
P., 2013, Human Resource Management in Australia, 5th edn, McGraw-Hill
Australia.
Sullivan, J., 2008, Selecting an HR strategy, WorkInfo.com, viewed January 2014,
<http://www.workinfo.com/Free/Downloads/138.htm>.
Ulrich, D., Younger, J., Brockbank, W. and Ulrich, M., 2012, HR from the outside in:
Six competencies for the future of human resources, McGraw-Hill, USA.
1st edition version: 1 BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services

Page 2 of 120 2014 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd
Student Workbook Section 1 Develop Human Resources Delivery Strategies
Section 1 Develop Human Resources

Delivery Strategies
This section is about the skills and knowledge required to develop a human resources
strategy that meets organisational needs.
Scenario: Aligning HR to the business vision at Australian Hardware
Australian Hardware (a simulated business) is a large and expanding hardware and

homeware retailer with approximately 140 stores located across Australia. In its vision
statement, Australian Hardware outlines that it intends to lead the hardware and home-
improvement market in Australia within five years. In order to realise this vision, the
organisation will take the following strategic approaches outlined in its business plan:
increase sales revenue and gross profit
maintain or increase market share
control direct and indirect operational costs
maintain superior product and service quality standards
establish reputation of Australian Hardware as a socially and environmentally

responsible company.
As part of supporting these strategic approaches, Australian Hardware intends to review

and revamp human resources (HR) practices to better align the companys vision and
strategy and contribute to the ongoing success of the business.
Connie is newly employed as HR manager at Australian Hardware. Her first order of
business will be to review the organisations HR requirements in order to develop
effective HR delivery strategies.
Australian Hardware simulated business information, including business and
operational plans, financial information, and policies and procedures can be located
online at <http://simulations.ibsa.org.au/>.
What skills will you need?

In order to work effectively as a human resources professional, you must be able to:
analyse business strategy and operational plans to identify human resources

requirements
review the business environment and its impact on the organisation's human
resources requirements
consult with managers to identify human resources needs in their areas
review the organisation's requirements for workplace diversity

Section 1 Develop Human Resources Delivery Strategies Student Workbook
develop HR options that comply with legislative requirements, organisational

policies and business goals
develop and agree on strategies and action plans for delivery of human resources
services
agree and document roles and responsibilities of human resources team, line
managers, and external contractors.
Human resources requirements

Organisations have varying human resources requirements. It is the role of human
resources professionals responsible for planning the delivery of HR services to identify
these requirements and determine the right strategies for delivering those services.
Human resources service requirements include:
recruitment and selection discrimination and harassment
advice and support
employee development planning
work health and safety (OHS/WHS)
competency identification
rehabilitation and return to work
performance counselling
remuneration and benefits advice
training and development programs
succession planning
feedback tools and programs
industrial relations advice
flexible work arrangements
workers compensation.
orientation and induction
Depending on the organisation and the HR structure, HR service delivery planning and
strategising may be the responsibility of HR professionals in different areas and at
different levels of the organisation. For example, HR managers at a senior level may
consult with all areas of the business to develop an overall approach to service delivery.
HR professionals embedded in business units and reporting to line managers may make
more localised decisions on customised service delivery, sometimes mediating services
requested by employees and line managers and provided by centralised HR. Human
resources professionals may also be specialists in recruitment, policy development or
training, for example, and work within HR centres of excellence providing services to
other business units as they are required.
To determine requirements and ensure that the most appropriate strategies are used for
the delivery of human resources services, human resources professionals are required to:
analyse organisational strategic and operational plans
consult with managers to determine needs.

Learning activity: Strategies to deliver HR services
Consider your organisational an organisation you would like to research.

What services does HR deliver?
How are services delivered?
Who delivers the services? For example:
A centralised HR?
HR officers embedded in business units?
An HR centre of excellence?
A variety of HR professions who share responsibility and accountability for
the delivery of services to the business?
Does the organisations HR employ an overall strategy or strategies to deliver HR

services in a coherent way and in accordance with organisational goals?
Use the link below to access the University of Birmingham human resources strategy.
This is a good example of what is required when developing a human resources
strategy.
University of Birmingham, HR strategy 20072012, viewed January 2014,
<https://anhnguyet.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/university-
birmingham_hr_strategy.pdf>.
Once you have reviewed the strategy, answer the questions below.

What is the university trying to achieve through the human resources strategy?
How is the strategy linked to the organisations goals and objectives?
What areas of human resources service delivery does the strategy cover?
How do you think the university will benefit from having such a strategy in place?

Strategic and operational plans

Strategic and operational plans are the road map for an organisation and its employees
to follow in order to achieve the organisations goals. These plans incorporate the values,
vision and mission of the organisation and detail the strategies and specific actions or
tactics required to achieve the organisations goals. They typically look ahead three to five
years.
An organisations strategic and operational plans provide the following information.
Who are we? The organisations vision and values.
The organisations current strengths, weaknesses,

Where are we now?
opportunities and threats.
Where do we want to be? The organisations long-term mission and goals.
The strategies and actions that will be implemented to

How will we get there?
achieve organisational goals.
Learning activity: Accessing strategic and operational plans
Consider your organisation or an organisation you would like to research. If possible,

access the organisations business, strategic or operational plans.
Describe the organisations mission and values.
What are the organisations strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats?

What is the organisations vision for the future?
What are the organisations goals?
What approach will the organisation take to achieving its vision and strategic
goals?
If no plans are available to you, you may wish to study examples of simulated business
documentation for:
Australian Hardware
CoffeeVille.
Simulated business information can be located online at

<http://simulations.ibsa.org.au/>.

Aligning the human resources strategy

A human resources strategy must be aligned with an organisations strategic and
operational plans to ensure it actively supports the successful achievement of the
organisations goals. The specific deliverables of a human resources strategy depend on
the goals of the organisations strategic and operational plans. This can be very different
from one organisation to another.
These differences are best demonstrated in the table below. The table describes some
corporate strategies of different organisations and the human resources strategies
implemented to achieve those goals. This is a good example of how human resources
strategies can support organisations to achieve their corporate strategy. Organisations
may cycle through different corporate strategies at different times based on their
performance, the health of the economy and a range of other factors.
Corporate strategy Human resources strategies
Retrenchment Redundancies, wage reduction, productivity increases, job

(cost reduction) redesign, renegotiated agreements.
Aggressive recruiting and hiring, rapid wage rises, job creation,

Growth
expanding training and development.
Managed turnover, selective redundancies, organisational

Renewal development, transfer/replacement, productivity increases,
and employee involvement.
Specialised job creation, elimination of other jobs, specialised

Niche focus
training and development.
Selective redundancies, transfers/replacement/job

Acquisition combinations, orientation and training, managing cultural
transitions. 1
1 Anthony, W., Kacmar, M. and Perrewe, P., 2002, Strategic compensation systems, Human
resources management, South-Western, Ohio, Ch. 11, p. 17.

Learning activity: Strategic and operational plans
Research a copy of an organisations strategic plan and complete the table below. You
can either access one from your current organisation or visit
<http://simulations.ibsa.org.au/>.
Strategic goal HR Strategy

Detail the strategic goals Detail the human resources strategies that you could
from the strategic plan implement to assist in the achievement of these goals.
you have accessed.

Analysis of strategic and operational plans

Human resources professionals must obtain copies of an organisations strategic and
operational plans for analysis to determine the human resources requirements of the
business.
Analysis of an organisations strategic and operational plans involves:
identifying the vision, values and mission of the organisation to understand, from a
strategic perspective, what is important to the organisation (values), what the
organisation is trying to achieve (vision) and what the organisation is doing to
achieve its vision and mission
identifying the organisations current state including its strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats to understand the successes and challenges the
organisation is currently facing
identifying the organisations goals to understand how the organisation will
measure its success and following from there, the success of the human resources
strategy
identifying the strategies and actions that will be implemented to achieve
organisational goals to determine how human resources can specifically support
the achievement of those strategies, actions and goals.
Reviewing diversity-related goals

Organisations may have particular goals relating to fostering the diversity of its workforce.
Such goals may or may not be articulated as part of the organisations vision, values or
strategic objectives. Nevertheless, policies and procedures may state the organisations
commitment to diversity and eliminating discrimination. Such policies may also express
the organisations legal obligations with regard to ensuring workplace equity.
As part of developing your approach to delivering HR services, you will therefore need to
consider how to deliver HR services to support diversity-related goals and integrate your
activities with other diversity-related programs.
Learning activity: Interpreting strategic and operational plans
Using the same strategic plan example you used for the previous activity identify the
following.
Vision, values and

mission of the
organisation

Organisations:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats.
Organisational goals
Strategies and
actions to be
implemented to
achieve
organisational goals
Strategies and
actions to be
implemented to
achieve
organisational goals
related to diversity
and equity
Human resources professionals must have a good understanding of the organisations

strategic and operational plans to ensure that they determine the most appropriate
strategies for delivering the human resources services.

Review external business environment

In order to ensure your approach to HR service delivery is realistic and achievable, you will
need to consider the external business environment. One useful model for analysing the
types of external forces acting upon an organisation, determining challenges and creating
opportunities for the business is the PEST model. PEST stands for:
P E S T
Political Economic Social Technological
(includes legislation)
As you develop strategies to deliver HR services, you will need to consider all four aspects
of the external environment. Lets look at these in more detail.
Political environment
The political environment includes legislation and government legislative direction that
could affect what HR services are necessary and how they are delivered.
When determining the most appropriate model for the delivery of human resources
services it is important that human resources professionals consider the relevant
legislative requirements and organisational policies that may be impacted by the model
chosen.
Legislative requirements can include:
award and enterprise agreements, and relevant industrial instruments
mandatory compliance with industry codes of practice
legislation that affects business operations such as:
the Fair Work Act 2009

work health and safety (OHS/WHS)
equal opportunity
anti-discrimination legislation.
Failing to consider these requirements could result in:

employee grievances due to the organisation not complying with terms and
conditions set out by their applicable award, enterprise agreement or other
industrial instruments
the organisation having a poor reputation in the marketplace for non-compliance
with industry codes of practice affecting its ability build alliances with industry
partners
negative customer perceptions
penalties for non-compliance from regulatory bodies

disgruntled employees due to the organisations failure to deliver against stated

policies and procedures
negative employment brand in the marketplace impacting on the organisations
ability to attract and retain high performing team members.
Lets look at an example political environment:
Example: Australian Hardware political environment
Relevant legislation may include, for example:

Privacy Act 1988 (Cwlth)
state-based anti-discrimination Acts
Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cwlth)
Competition and Consumer Act 2010, including the Australian Consumer Law
(ACL).
Of particular interest for human resourcing is anti-discrimination legislation. Australian

Hardware needs to ensure HR services are delivered to meet the organisations legal
obligations with regard to fairness in recruitment practices or rewards and recognition,
for example.
Economic environment
The economic environment includes factors which affect the ability of organisations to
compete with other organisations and to maintain or improve profitability.
Example: Australian Hardware economic environment
Interestingly, sluggish growth and moderate increase in the Australian unemployment

figures may present an opportunity for hardware and home-improvement retailers such
as Australian Hardware. This opportunity exists despite other retailers suffering from
low consumer confidence, poor sales and overseas competition particularly through e-
commerce. Hardware retailers have benefitted from the sense among homeowners
that now is the time to choose renovation and home improvements rather than selling
and moving to an already renovated house.
According to IBISWorld, the trend towards home improvements is linked to the increase
in residential housing prices, which is due to the housing shortage and easier access to
finance and government incentives, amongst other factors. If current trends continue,
the industry is expected to grow by 23% from 2011 figures to reach $14.2 billion in
201617.2
2 IBISWorld, 2011, Aussies Going Blockbusters for DIY, IBISWorld Press Release.

From a human resourcing perspective, the economic environment is important for the
delivery of services. Naturally, Australian Hardware HR needs to ensure costs of
services are kept low enough to contribute to the achievement of profitability goals. HR
also needs to consider the changing marketplace in order to take a more strategic
approach to helping the organisation meet its need to provide value to customers. For
example, HR needs to consider customer needs related to the economic environment.
What are they able to or willing to pay? What economic forces might indicate a rise in
demand for some products or services? HR will need to consider how it can contribute
to helping the organisation meet the needs of customers through more effective and
targeted recruiting practices, rewards and recognition to retain the right people, and
partnering with the store managers and customer-facing employees to support their
needs.
Social environment
The social environment includes all demographic and psychographic factors (customers
ways of thinking, values and lifestyle) that influence the organisations image and success
in marketing its products and services. The social environment may also have a more or
less direct influence on how an organisation may position itself as an employer and
attempt to attract the right people to work for it. Lets look at another Australian Hardware
example.
Example: Australian Hardware social environment
Consumers are increasingly aware of the impact of business activity on the local
community. Consumers demand that businesses consider the impact of their activities
and work to promote healthy community involvement. Consumers are also becoming
more aware of working conditions in other countries want to contribute to better global
social and economic outcomes.
Consumers are also concerned about the environment. Australian Hardware will
endeavour to promote itself as environmentally and socially responsible and conduct
business operations accordingly. In this way, Australian Hardware will offer value to the
socially and environmentally aware consumer and position itself as a leader in social
and environmental responsibility.
From a human resourcing perspective, Australian Hardware needs to ensure the
delivery of HR services lives up to its environmental commitments. Australian Hardware
will also need to position itself as a responsible employer in order to attract talented
staff and staff who are committed to upholding and promoting values of Australian
Hardware.
Technological environment
The technological environment includes the rapidly changing telecommunications
environments including the rise of the internet as a business channel and e-commerce.
The technological environment also includes business tools to increase efficiency and
reduce the cost of delivering HR services to internal clients and gathering performance
information. Lets look at an Australian Hardware example.

Example: Australian Hardware technological environment
Internet, information, and social networking technologies continue to evolve and

provide new challenges and opportunities for marketing. Australian Hardware will
continue with its effective use of its website to promote and sell products and social
networking to reach its target markets.
From an HR perspective, Australian Hardware will need to ensure its Human Resources
Management System (HRMS) is able to effectively manage such things as online payroll
and benefits enquiries, and self-management of leave enquiries and requests. The HR
management system will need to collect HR information on important metrics such as
leave hours, absences, and training requests and approvals, for example. The HRMS
will also need to integrate with existing systems for payroll and accounting as well as
the organisations resource planning (ERP) software system.
To reduce costs and stay competitive in a dynamic and rapidly changing technological
environment, Australian Hardware is considering outsourcing some automatic and self-
serve HR functions to a specialist organisation. Such a move may have the desired
effect of allowing Australian Hardware HR to focus less on routine tasks and take a
more strategic role in resource planning.
Learning activity: PEST analysis
Consider your own organisation or an organisation you would like to research. Research
the PEST environment and analyse its possible effect of the delivery of HR services.
Political
Economic
Social
Technological

Consult with managers

When determining strategies for the delivery of human resources services it is important
for human resources professionals to consult with line and senior managers. This
consultation will provide information regarding the human resources services needs of
the teams and departments that they manage. Senior managers will be able to provide a
more strategic perspective on the organisations need for services that advance the aims
of the business. On the other hand, it is important to gain the perspective and support of
line managers, who have a more direct relationship with customer-facing staff and often a
more intimate knowledge of operations. If it is your responsibility to propose
recommendations for HR changes, you will need to consult with a wide range of people:
those who must agree of have power of veto over your plans; those who must implement
your plans; those whose input you need to, for example, understand technical issues or a
variety of perspectives; and those who have final say and are responsible and
accountable for the decision to go ahead.
Consultation methods
There are a number of consultation methods that human resources professionals can use
to obtain information from managers regarding their human resources service needs.
These include the following.
Meetings: Meetings are most effective for obtaining information regarding the
specific needs of a team or department. They are also an excellent opportunity to
engage managers in the design of the human resources strategy which will often
prove to be beneficial during implementation. Managers that are consulted with
during the design phase often feel like a valuable contributor and then are more
likely to actively support a successful implementation.
One-on-one meetings/interviews: A one-on-one meeting is for situations where
feedback is obtained by speaking with one person at a time. This is particularly
important when trying to obtain very specific feedback or when the subject matter
maybe confidential or controversial and feedback where people might be
uncomfortable sharing the information with others or speaking in groups.
Focus groups: Focus groups are used to consult with groups of people. They are
often the most time efficient method for obtaining information from large
departments that have several managers responsible for teams of employees who
all do the same thing. For example, a focus group could be used to consult with
managers in a call centre where the team members complete the same role under
the same work conditions.
Surveys: Surveys are an excellent tool for obtaining information from large groups
of managers regarding their human resources needs. Surveys to obtain information
regarding human resources requirements could include the following questions.
How many roles have you recruited in the last 12 months?
What orientation and induction programs do you currently provide to newly
hired employees?
What training and development programs has your team participated in?
How many workplace injuries have occurred in your team in the last 12 months?

Learning activity: Consulting with managers
Consider your organisation, or an organisation you would like to research.

What managers or stakeholders would need to be consulted on HR requirements
in order to meet business needs?
Develop a survey that you could provide to managers or other stakeholders to obtain
information regarding their human resources service requirements.
Human resources service delivery models and

strategies
Organisations implement various models for the delivery of human resources services
depending on the organisations needs. It is important that human resources
professionals understand the different options available to allow them to develop
customised HR service delivery models that are beneficial to the organisation they
support. Lets first take a look at some general approaches to HR service delivery. These
may be described as the traditional approach and the Dave Ulrich Model.
Traditional approaches to HR
In the traditional HR model, HR is a single team, comprised of generalists, specialists and
administration.3
The model may be applied in different ways, mainly based on the size of the organisation.
HR may be comprised of a single team of HR generalists, as is common in smaller
organisations. In such organisations, an HR generalist may be a jack-of-all-trades;
performing the range of HR functions from administrative tasks to some aspects of
business planning. In larger organisations, HR service delivery may be more specialised.
HR service delivery may be organised into HR specialists (such as industrial relations
experts, recruitment experts or training experts) and administration, or several teams
organised by business units or locations in accordance with the corporate strategy.
The traditional HR model in contrast with the Dave Ulrich model discussed below may
be characterised as administration-focused. Principally, HR provides essential services to
the business, as decided by the business, which then is enabled to perform the real work
and achieve the vision of the organisation.
It is important to note that the traditional, administrative-focussed, less strategically
engaged model of HR is still very common in many organisations.
3Swift, G., 2012, Human resource service delivery in Managing people and organisations, Eds.
Taylor, S, Woodhams, C, CIPD.

Dave Ulrichs three-legged stool or classic model

The three-legged stool model, or classic HR model was developed by David Ulrich and
others, and is now generally considered best practice. Although its specific application in
organisations that adopt it can vary according to business needs, the main point of
contrast between this model and the traditional HR model is the focus on business
partnering.
In the traditional HR model, the focus is on performing administrative tasks or providing
expert advice to, and services for, line managers. The focus of the Ulrich model is on
partnering with managers at all levels to deliver services in the best way possible to help
them meet the needs of the business to recruit the right people, performance manage
staff and meet customer needs. In addition, the Ulrich model entails the engagement of
HR in leading the organisation through shaping strategic approaches to, for example
service delivery and building organisational capability to achieve the organisations goals
and vision.
The model is organised into three elements:
business partners
shared services
centres of excellence.
The diagram below summarises the Ulrich model:
Centres of excellence
Create HR frameworks
Deliver strategic initiatives
Comprise specialist areas
and expertise: training,
recruitment, etc.
Business partner Shared services

Establish relationships with Deliver HR services through
line managers various channels such as
Help meet business unit call centres, IT
objectives. May be outsourced
HR shares resources and
costs with various business
units.

Note that the model retains the functions of traditional HR, but organises them into three
main coordinated areas. The main addition within the Ulrich model is the prominence of
business partnering, which is given its own element in the Ulrich model.
Note that particular organisations may take their own distinctive approaches to HR
service delivery to meet particular needs. For example, they may apply the Ulrich model
wholesale; or, they may retain older HR structures, overlaying a more strategic, business
partnering approach to service delivery.
Lets take a closer look at the application of HR models and various strategies that may
form components of organisations specific models of HR service delivery.
Common service delivery strategies

Human resources services are provided through a variety of approaches. Organisations
typically implement a model including a combination of strategies that best suits their
business needs. Human resources professionals must be aware of the options available
when determining the most suitable strategies or approaches for their organisation.
The most common strategies include the following.
Business Human resources professionals are assigned a business unit or

partner department in the organisation for which they are provide human
resources support. This support is typically more strategic, that is
general and overarching, than tactical.
Generalist A team of human resources professionals provide generalist support

across the organisation. Individuals within the team have general
human resources skills and rely on external specialists for expert advice
in specific areas, e.g. work health and safety or industrial relations.
Call Centre Managers and employees access human resources support and
information through a telephone call centre.
e-HR Managers and employees access human resources support and

information through an intranet site. This tool provides information and
tools for managers and employees to manage their own human
resources needs.
Centre of Human resources professionals are organised into teams according to

Excellence their specialist skills. For example, there may be a learning and
development team, employee relations team, and remuneration and
benefits team. These teams provide specialist advice across the
organisation and managers and employees work with the team they
require advice and support from.
Outsource Human resources services and support are outsourced to specialist HR

service delivery organisations. Businesses often use a blend of in-
house and outsourced services. The most common outsourced HR
services are payroll and recruitment and selection.

Learning activity: HR service delivery strategies
Access the following article online:

Sullivan, J., Selecting an HR strategy, Workinfo.com, viewed January 2014,
<http://www.workinfo.com/free/Downloads/138.htm>.
This article provides a summary of ten human resources service delivery strategies
including the advantages and disadvantages of each.
After reading the article, summarise each of the ten strategies described including the
advantages and disadvantages of each and the situations that each strategy is best
suited for.
Model Summary
1. Advantages
Disadvantages
When would you use this model?
2. Advantages
Disadvantages

Model Summary
3. Advantages
Disadvantages
4. Advantages
Disadvantages
5. Advantages
Disadvantages

Model Summary
6. Advantages
Disadvantages
7. Advantages
Disadvantages
8. Advantages
Disadvantages

Model Summary
9. Advantages
Disadvantages
10. Advantages
Disadvantages
The impacts of service delivery models on legislative requirements

You will need to consider options for HR service delivery in light of organisational values,
commitments and legal obligations. The model used for the provision of human resources
services can impact the organisations ability to meets its legislative requirements. Having
the right service delivery model means having the right resources with the necessary
skills and experience to ensure the organisation meets its legislative requirements.
Lets look at a case study example:
Case study: Tuff Plastics
Tuff Plastics is a manufacturing organisation. It has a highly unionised workforce and

experiences a lot of industrial issues. Due to the physical demands of employees
working on a processing line, it also has a lot of employee injuries and so requires a
significant focus on WHS/OHS issues.

A generalist model for providing human resources services would not be in the best
interests of Tuff Plastics as it would not provide the specialist human resources
knowledge and skills required to ensure compliance with industrial relations and
work/occupational health and safety legislation. Under a generalist model, the human
resources professional supporting Tuff Plastics would need to have expertise in
industrial relations, union management, health and safety, injury management as well
as all other functions of human resources. This is such a diverse range of skills and
focus that important aspects of the legislation may be overlooked.
Tuff Plastics would benefit from an outsourced or centres of excellence model where
experts could be engaged to provide the specialist advice and services required. Under
these models, the human resources professional would have time to focus on
supporting the organisation to achieve its strategic goals, and experts in industrial
relations and occupational health and safety could be engaged to ensure legislative
requirements were being met. Under these models the organisation is getting all of the
support and focus it needs to achieve all of its goals and meet all of its obligations.
Learning activity: Human resources service delivery strategic options
Consider each of the organisations below and detail the service delivery strategic
options that could be appropriate for that organisation and why they are appropriate.
Organisation Strategy Why?
Medium size
manufacturing
organisation
with 1,000
employees
across
Australia. The
organisation
relies heavily
on performance
data to manage
the business.

Organisation Strategy Why?
Three-year-old
small business
with 150
employees and
a new HR
function.
A global
organisation
with over
10,000
employees that
is focused on
minimising
costs through
maximising
productivity.

Develop models
After considering the models and strategies available for structuring the delivery of HR services, HR professionals need to translate those
options into customised models that are relevant to their organisation. This involves demonstrating how different strategies can support the
provision of human resources services across the business, including the strengths and weaknesses of each. These strengths and weaknesses
include consideration of costs, benefits and risks, which will be discussed in more detail in the next topic.
The following is an example of a TAFEs generalist delivery model. The TAFE is considering the strengths and weaknesses of their current
generalist model (below) in comparison with a centres of excellence model.
Regional Human Resources Service Delivery Model
Teams
Area 1 Area 2 Area 3
Support the following campuses: Support the following campuses: Support the following campuses:
Coonabarabran Narrabri Goondiwindi
Quirindi Moree Tenterfield
Tamworth Armidale Glenn Innes.
Gunnedah. Tingha.
Strategy
people development condition management employee and industrial relations
organisational culture and change recruitment and employment conduct and performance
strategies
workforce planning occupational health and safety/WHS.
workplace communication.
equity and diversity.

Services
people development payroll employee and industrial relations
workforce planning recruitment and employment safety working and learning strategies.
strategies
organisational culture and change.
workplace communication.
The table below details the strengths and weakness that the TAFE has identified for each of the models including the cost benefits and risks.
Strengths Weaknesses
High customer contact with a high level of Difficulty in attracting and recruiting HR team members with knowledge
line manager support provided. and skills across all HR functions.
HR team members build close relationships Expensive due to high salaries required to attract and retain broad skill set
with the business, which allows them build required for generalist HR team members and the fact that external
solutions that fit the unique needs of the consultants are required for specialist support.
Generalist model (current)
business unit.
HR team members can become too loyal to their business unit leadership
Due to close relationship with the business, and less so to corporate leadership resulting in inconsistent HR strategies
HR team members respond quickly to and initiatives being implemented across the broader business.
business needs.
Generalists can spend too much time hand holding and doing tactical
High personal credibility between HR team work rather than focusing on strategic issues resulting in the organisations
members and line managers. ability to meet strategic goals being negatively impacted.
HR team members may have insufficient technical knowledge to solve
complex one-of-a-kind problems which can expose the organisation to risk.
No central HR knowledge base is established because information transfer
between HR team members in different business units is often limited and
most information is never captured in central HR.

Strengths Weaknesses
Issues are identified and solved quickly, as Inability to attract and recruit HR team members with the specialist
HR team members are focused on specific knowledge required which could expose the organisation to risk by not
areas. having access to the skills and knowledge required to resolve complex
issues.
Internal HR team members have a better
understanding of the business and its Significant set-up costs and time to build teams with the skills and
operation than external consultants. knowledge required.
Centre of Excellence Model
Less need for use of expensive external Unable to use knowledge that external consultants have attained through
specialist consultants. This can significantly supporting other organisations with similar issues which could delay the
reduce costs. identification of resolutions and impact the organisations ability to
implement best practice.
Expert knowledge held within the
organisation, which builds organisational Line managers have more than one contact within the HR team which can
capability. lead to frustration as to who to contact for what support and often results
in not engaging with HR as it is considered too hard.
Ability to manage risks proactively as HR
team members have the specialist Managers may continue to use existing relationships with external
knowledge required to work with the consultants and therefore double the cost to the organisation for the same
business in a proactive capacity rather than services, for example managers continue to use external recruitment
reactive which is often the case when agency instead of in-house functions.
engaging external consultants.
Human resources professionals should use tables like this one when presenting options to management teams. These tables allow
management teams to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each option which allows them to make an informed decision as to which
option is most appropriate for their organisation.

Learning activity: Case study: Identifying options
Read the DuPont scenario provided in the Appendix at the end of this book. DuPont is a
large company that required an updated approach to HR.
Once you have read the four options identified by the workgroup outline some possible
advantages and disadvantages to for each option in the space provided below.
Decide on an option, then read the case study conclusion provided below.
Advantages Disadvantages
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
Which option would you recommend for DuPont?

Case study: Conclusion

In the decision process DuPont quickly eliminated Option 1 and Option 2. The changes
were not drastic enough and seem to be only steps to reach higher economy of scale.
Option 3 and option 4 focus on responding to both challenges identified by Tim Farrell.
They allow HR to harmonise processes and reduce the time spent on administrative
tasks. The geographic separation of HR tasks and the centralisation of administrative
processes further help in implementing a clear definition of roles and responsibilities.
In June 2001, DuPont decided to select option 3 and planned to build a shared service
centre (SSC) in Asturias, Spain. In April 2002 the centre called CallHR went live for the
first country. By July 2004 ten countries completed the transition of administrative
services to the SSC, and by the end of 2005 DuPont decides to outsource the SSC to
Convergys. Convergys is one of the global leaders in providing HR Services.
Assess costs and benefits for delivery options

In determining options and strategies for service delivery, you will need to consider the
costs of options and the benefits associated with each. The most commonly used
measure of cost versus benefit is the return on investment (ROI). Another consideration is
risk management. Risks may be associated with each option and represent uncertainty
for organisations. Lets look at cost, cost-benefit analysis and risk management in greater
detail.
Cost
When presenting options for the delivery of human resources services it is important to
include information regarding the costs of each option.
This involves identifying all of the associated costs both set-up and ongoing costs for
each option and presenting those costs to management teams to allow them to
compare cost implications of each model.
Human resources service delivery model costs could include:
salaries and wages
on-costs, the additional costs on top of salaries such as superannuation, workers

compensation, payroll tax, etc.
recruitment of resources (set-up cost only)
technology and systems (set-up and ongoing costs)
office space and equipment (set-up and ongoing costs)
external consulting costs (if applicable)
other costs (stationery, travel, venue hire for training, printing, etc.).
Cost can be presented using tables such the following example.

Item description Cost ($)
Option A: Centre of Excellence Set-up costs

Recruitment $25,000
Technology and systems $45,000
Equipment $30,000
Total set-up costs $100,000
Ongoing costs (annual)

Salaries and wages $250,000
On-costs $35,000
Other costs $15,000
Total ongoing costs $305,000
Option B: Generalist Set-up costs

Recruitment $45,000
Equipment $30,000
Total set-up costs $120,000
Ongoing costs (annual)

Salaries and wages $300,000
On-costs $42,000
External consulting $80,000
Other costs $25,000
Total ongoing costs $452,000
The total costs for each option are presented in the following cost comparison table:
Total ongoing Total costs

Option Total set-up costs
costs (annual) (for initial year)
A. Centre of Excellence $100,000 $305,000 $405,000
B. Generalist $120,000 $452,000 $572,000

Cost-benefit analysis
Costs are not the only consideration for organisations, otherwise the least-cost option
would always be chosen. Benefits must also be considered and weighed against the total
costs of options.
Cost-benefit analysis involves identifying the costs of an action (such as implementing a
HR model) and assessing the benefits to the organisation as a result of taking this action.
Essentially, the benefits to the organisation should outweigh the costs associated with
implementing and operating the model.
The evaluation of options may be as simple or complex as required. Evaluation may
require only a projected income against cost. On the other hand, for actions that will have
a longer-term impact, you may need to determine the future value of revenues, future
operational costs, depreciation of assets such as HR software systems, for example, to
fully account for all costs and benefits associated with the provision of services.
If a cost-benefit analysis is required, at a minimum, you should at least provide a detailed
list of costs alongside the associated benefits. This breakdown will assist decision-makers
in their determination whether to proceed with the proposed action or to decide on a
modified approach to the action.
Return on investment calculation

A key concept in cost-benefit analysis is return on investment (ROI). Calculating ROI allows
you to quantify and compare the relative value to organisations of different approaches
and options. In order to calculate the ROI of an option, you need to be able to express
benefits in terms of dollar values. For example:
How much extra revenue will sales people be able to generate through time-savings
or increased sales skills?
How much money will the organisation save through increased efficiency or
reduced recruitment or delivery costs?
Often such values must be estimated and are subject to a fair amount of uncertainty.
The basic formula for ROI is:
ROI is thus presented as a percentage. For example a negative percentage would

represent a loss; 10% may represent a modest gain, comparable to financial investment.
Gains of over 100% indicate a strong positive return.

HR and risk management

A risk assessment should always be completed before implementing a service delivery
model. According to the risk management standard, AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009, risk
assessment comprises the overall process of:
1. Risk identification.
2. Risk analysis to determine the nature and level of risk.
3. Risk evaluation to determine the acceptability of the risk and the necessity for
implementing controls. 4
Risk associated with the delivery of HR services

You will need to closely examine options to identify sources of risk. For example, one risk
could be that an option for HR service delivery may be seen as incompatible with
organisational practices and rejected by staff. This would be a high risk option that should
not be chosen as the best option.
To perform an analysis of risk, you will need to identify the consequences of risk and the
risk likelihood. In financial terms, the consequence of risk is expressed in dollar terms:
how much is at stake? The likelihood of risk is often expressed as a probability
represented by a decimal fraction, for example, 0.10 or 10%. A risk of 10% can be
considered also as a likelihood of success of 90%. Multiplying consequence (in dollar
terms) by likelihood gives you a value for the risk that can be factored into or cost-benefit
analysis to give you the expected value or risk-weighted value of the projected benefit.
For example you may wish to determine the risk level associated with reduced
recruitment costs due to implementation of a service delivery option. The anticipated cost
saving is $500,000. The estimated likelihood of success is 90%. Therefore the risk-
weighted projected benefit is $450,000.
The basic formula for ROI weighted for risk is:
( )
In the example above where the anticipated cost saving is $500,000 and the risk-
weighted projected benefit is $450,000, lets assume that the cost of this option is
$375,000. In this case, ROI weighted for risk would be calculated as follows:
( )
4Standards Australia, 2009, AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009 Risk management principles and
guidelines, p. 4.

Once you have performed risk analysis, you will need to determine whether the risk or the
expected value of the benefit is acceptable to the organisation. If not, you may need to
consider other options in order to offload risk to others. For example, you may consider
outsourcing some functions or purchasing insurance. You may also need to consider less
risky options or consider ways to implement the option that will more effectively control
the risks.
Learning activity: ROI and risk management
Consider the total set-up costs of options A and B for the initial year of each option
(provided in the cost analysis on page 32). Now consider the following information:
Option Projected benefit Likelihood of success
A. Centre of Excellence $800,000 0.80
B. Generalist $1,000,000 0.90
Calculate the ROI and the risk weighted ROI for each option.
Develop strategies and action plans

Once the most appropriate delivery model has been identified it is time to develop and
agree on the strategies and action plans for the delivery of human resources services.
Service delivery models, strategies and action plans

The simplest way to describe the difference between the human resources service
delivery model, strategies and actions plans is as follows.
The HR The delivery model is how the human resources team is structured
delivery model to support the business (some delivery models are listed on
page 18). For example, support could be provided through a:
1. self-service model
2. centres of excellence model
3. outsourced model
4. business partner model.

The HR The human resources strategy details how services are managed
strategy across the business to support the achievement of the
organisations vision and goals. For example, the recruitment and
selection strategy defines the organisations approach to attracting
and retaining the right people to ensure the organisation has the
resources it needs to achieve its goals.
Action plans Action plans detail how the strategies are implemented across the
business. For example, the recruitment and selection action plan
details exactly what activities need to be undertaken and who is
responsible for developing and implementing the policies and
procedures for recruitment and selection. This includes the policies
and procedures for activities such as: managing applications
(internal and external), assessing candidates, checking references
and making job offers.
Developing strategies
Human resources professionals are responsible for developing the strategies to deliver
human resources services that support the business to achieve their vision and goals.
The model below describes the process for developing human resources service
strategies.
Organisation vision
and strategic goals
Human resources
strategic goals
Motivation,
Motivation
Hiring strategies maintenance and
strategies
retention strategies
Performance
management
Remuneration
Workforce and benefits Termination
planning Learning and Resignation
Recruitment development Redundancy
and selection Work health Retirement
and safety
Employee
relations

Hiring strategies
Hiring strategies need to be in place to ensure that the organisation has the right
resources at the right time. It includes functions such as workforce planning to forecast
needs and recruitment and selection to acquire those resources.
Motivation, maintenance and retention strategies

These strategies will set out programs that manage, reward and recognise performance
and provide employees with opportunities to grow and develop. These programs are
focused on engaging, motivating and retaining employees once they have been hired. It
also includes programs that maintain employee relations through ensuring compliance
with legislative requirements such as health and safety and industrial relations laws.
Separation strategies
Separation strategies provide policies and procedures for managing both voluntary and
involuntary separations.
When developing these strategies, human resources professionals need to consider the
vision and goals of the organisation as these will influence the focus areas of these
strategies. For example, an organisation that is focused on reducing operations and
making employees redundant would not benefit from having strategies focused on hiring.
It is far more valuable to the organisation to focus on strategies that motivate the
employees that need to be retained to perform in the reduced operation and manage the
separation of those employees impacted by redundancy.
Example: JMH Insurance
JMH Insurance specialise in providing car insurance to its customers across Australia. It
has a contact centre based in Melbourne to manage new business and existing
customer enquiries. The organisation currently employs 500 employees including those
in management roles. The business has experienced substantial growth in the last 12
months and is looking to expand operations over the next 12 months. It will be opening
a new contact centre in Sydney in six months time which will increase staffing levels by
approximately 200 employees over a two year period.
Human resources services are currently provided through a business partner model
with two human resources business partners based at the Melbourne site who support
line managers in their resourcing needs. The two human resources business partners
provide all human resources services themselves.
After realising the vision and strategic goals of the organisation the human resources
manager knew the organisations human resources services delivery model and
strategy needed to be reviewed to ensure it supported the achievement of these goals.
The human resources manager developed the following service delivery model and
strategies for the provision of human resources services for the business.

JMH Insurance
Human resources services strategic goal
To provide human resources services that support the growth of the organisation
through a focus on attracting and retaining key talent, fostering a high performance
culture through rewarding exceptional performance and providing learning and
development opportunities.
Service delivery model

Human resources services will be delivered through a human resources business
partner model supported by outsourcing some functions to third-party specialist
providers.
Service strategies
Hiring strategies
Workforce planning Human resources business partners to work with business

leaders and line managers to forecast required staffing levels to
ensure resources are available at the right time.
Recruitment and Human resources business partners to work with third-party

selections recruitment providers and line managers to recruit and select
the right people at the right time.
Performance Human resources business partners to support business

management leaders and line managers to implement performance
management programs to ensure a high performance culture.
Remuneration and Human resources function to develop and implement a

benefits remuneration and benefits program that provides business
leaders and line managers with a tool to reward exceptional
performance.
Learning and Human resources function to develop and implement learning

development and development programs that provide employees with an
opportunity to increase their skills and capabilities.
Work health and Human resources business partners to work with third-party
safety WHS and injury management specialists to support business
leaders and line managers to provide a safe working
environment and comply with legislative requirements.
Employee relations Human resources business partners to provide guidance and

support to business leaders and line managers to ensure that
employee relations are managed in compliance with legislation
and organisational policies and procedures whilst at the same
time maintaining employee engagement.

Termination Human resources business partners to provide guidance and

support to business leaders and line managers to manage
Resignation employee separations according to legislative requirements and
Redundancy organisational policies and procedures.
Retirement
Learning activity: Develop strategies
You are the new human resources manager at either of the following simulated
businesses:
Australian Hardware
CoffeeVille.
Simulated business information, including business and operational plans, financial

information, and policies and procedures (including performance management) can be
located online at <http://simulations.ibsa.org.au/>.
The management team has asked you to develop a strategy for the provision of human
resources services for the business. They want a model that will support the goals of
the organisation.
What service delivery model would you recommend and why?

What would be the focus areas of your service strategy and why?
Document the service strategies you might deploy for each of the following strategic
focus areas;
(For help with completing this activity, refer to the example above for JMH Insurance).
Hiring strategies
Workforce
planning
Recruitment
and selections

Performance
management
Remuneration
and benefits
Learning and
development
Workplace
health and
safety
Employee
relations
Termination
Resignation
Redundancy
Retirement

Develop action plans

As previously discussed, action plans detail how the strategies are implemented across
the business. They detail all the tasks involved in implementing the strategy, who is
responsible for completing each task and when it will be completed. Action plans also
provide a schedule for tracking who is responsible for what by when.
Roles and responsibilities

When determining strategies for the delivery of human resources services it is critical that
you clearly define the roles and responsibilities of:
human resources team members
line managers
third-party providers.
Failing to clearly outline who is responsible for what can result in confusion and a failure
to complete tasks in time causing disruptions in the organisations performance and
lowered productivity.
Roles and responsibilities are best defined when documenting and agreeing the policies
and procedures that will be implemented to manage the provision of the service.
Example JMH Insurance
When completing the action plan for the implementation of the recruitment and
selection strategy for JMH Insurance the human resources manager included the
following tasks:
recruitment policies to be agreed upon, documented and posted on the employee
intranet
recruitment procedures to be agreed upon, documented and posted on the
employee intranet.
It is during the completion of these two tasks that the roles and responsibilities of the
human resources team, line managers and third-party providers should be detailed.
For example, the procedure for advertising a vacant role was documented at JHM
Insurance as follows.
No. Process step Who is responsible
1 Vacancy identified. Line manager
2 Position description completed. Line manager
3 Request for hire completed and sent to third-party Line manager

recruitment provider (including copy of position description).
4 Draft advertisement completed. Third-party provider
5 Draft advertisement reviewed and approved. Line manager

6 Approved advertisement sent to human resources business Third-party provider

partner.
7 Advertisement posted internally. HR business partner
8 Advertisement posted externally. Third-party provider
The human resources manager at JMH Insurance has completed the following action
plan to manage the implementation of the organisations recruitment and selection
strategy.
Action Plan
Strategy Recruitment and selection
Strategy goal Human resources business partners to work with third-party

recruitment providers and line managers to recruit and select
the right people at the right time.
Strategy owner Paul Hooper HR Manager
Action Required By Who By When
Third-party recruitment provider panel to be Paul Hooper 1 March

identified.
Service level agreement with third-party Paul Hooper 15 March

providers developed and signed by all parties.
Recruitment policies to be agreed upon, Jeremy Hirst 15 March

documented and posted on the employee
intranet.
Recruitment procedures to be agreed upon, Jeremy Hirst 22 March

documented and posted on the employee
intranet.
Training provided to third-party recruitment Tania Smith 31 March

providers regarding JMH Insurance business
and operations and recruitment policies and
procedures.
Recruitment policies and procedures training Tania Smith 31 March

provided to all business leaders and line
managers.

Email sent to all employees advising revised Paul Hooper 1 April

recruitment policies and procedures are
available on the intranet.
Implement revised recruitment policies and All 1 April

procedures.
Conduct review of revised policies and Paul Hooper 1 July

procedures to identify any issues with the
uptake of the new policies and procedures.
Conduct detailed review of revised policies and Paul Hooper 1 October

procedures.
Learning activity: Action planning
Develop an action plan for implementing one of the strategies you identified in the
previous learning activity (starting on page 39).
Action Plan
Strategy
Strategy goal
Strategy owner

Agree on strategies and action plans

Once the specific human resources service strategies and action plans have been
developed, they must be approved by business leaders. This is to ensure that the
business supports the way in which the human resources services will be provided.
To obtain agreement on the strategies and action plans, human resources professionals
should present their strategies and action plans to business leaders. Organisations have
varying requirements around the way in which this information is presented for
consideration. Some organisations rely on formal processes such as strategy papers or
formal presentations to management teams, whereas other organisations take a more
informal approach where agreement is obtained through discussion.
Human resources professionals must know what type of presentation is expected in their
organisation prior to seeking approval. This will ensure that they prepare appropriately for
the most effective presentation of their information. Regardless of the format required,
when preparing to submit proposals of human resources service strategies and action
plans, human resources professionals must ensure that their proposal clearly outlines:
the goals of the strategy
how the strategy deliverables link to the organisations strategic and operational
plans
key performance indicators for the strategy (how success of the strategy will be
measured)
the action plan for implementation.
The proposal should also be:

supported by data to help demonstrate the benefits of proposed actions to the
organisation, which could include:
employee resignation rates
employee engagement scores
industry best practice information
concise and professional managers are often busy and like information presented
concisely. You need to ensure that your proposal and supporting documents detail
the strategy and action plans clearly and concisely, but are still presented with
enough detail to enable managers to make an informed decision.

Learning activity: Agree on strategies and action plans
As the human resources manager for either Australian Hardware or CoffeeVille, you are
required to present your strategy and action plan (as completed above) to the
management team to obtain their agreement.
The management team requires you to present your strategy and action plan at the
next management team meeting. They have advised that while they do not require a
formal presentation; they would like you to come to their next management meeting
and provide an outline of the proposed strategy and action plan. They need you to
demonstrate a clear link as to how the strategy and plan will assist the organisation to
achieve its objectives.
Plan your strategy and action plan presentation for the management team to obtain
their approval of your proposal.
Your preparation should include how you will present the following information:
the goals of the strategy
how the strategy deliverables link to the organisations strategic and operational
plans
any appropriate performance metrics such as KPIs to help in monitoring
successful implementation
the action plan for implementation.
It should also include details of any supporting documentation that you would use to
support your proposed strategy and action plan.
Section summary
You should now understand how to develop a human resources strategy that supports an
organisation to achieve its business goals.
Further reading
Anthony, W., Kacmar, K. and Perrewe, P., 2002, Human resources management: A
strategic approach, South-Western, Ohio, Ch. 11.
Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest, NSW.
Josefowitz, O., 2008, The Global HR Delivery Model (Diploma thesis, Haute cole de
Gestion de Genve), available online, viewed January 2014,
<http://doc.rero.ch/lm.php?url=1000,41,9,20090123123638-
DM/Travail_de_Diplome_Olivier_Josefowitz_V1_2.pdf>.
Kramar, R., et al., 2013, Human Resource Management in Australia, 5th edn,
McGraw-Hill Australia, Part 1: Chapters 15.

University of Birmingham, Human Resources: HR strategy 20072012, available

online, viewed January 2014, <https://anhnguyet.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/
university-birmingham_hr_strategy.pdf>.
Sullivan, J., 2008, Selecting an HR strategy, WorkInfo.com, viewed January 2014,
<http://www.workinfo.com/Free/Downloads/138.htm>.
Ulrich D., Younger, J., Brockbank, W., Ulrich M., 2012, HR from the outside in: Six
competencies for the future of human resources, McGraw-Hill, USA, Ch. 13.
Section checklist
Before you proceed to the next section, make sure that you are able to:
analyse business strategy and operational plans to identify human resources

requirements
review the business environment and its impact on the organisation's human
resources requirements
consult with managers to identify human resources needs in their areas
review the organisation's requirements for workplace diversity
develop HR options that comply with legislative requirements, organisational

policies and business goals
develop and agree on strategies and action plans for delivery of human resources
services
agree and document roles and responsibilities of human resources team, line
managers, and external contractors.

Section 2 Deliver Human Resources Services Student Workbook
Section 2 Deliver Human Resources

Services
This section is about the skills and knowledge required to manage the delivery of human
resources services.
Scenario: Delivering the vision at Australian Hardware
Connie has now completed her review of the organisations HR requirements. She has
consulted widely to understand the HR needs of internal stakeholders at every level of
the organisation. Connie has also considered the external business environment and
how it may impact on the longer-term strategic positioning of Australian Hardware.
Connie has modified the HR strategy at Australian Hardware and completed action
planning to implement the HR changes. She has also planned regular monitoring of
activities to ensure successful deployment. To successfully implement changes
however, she will need to:
ensure the HR unit effectively partners with management to implement HR
changes
build the credibility of the HR unit to participate in overall Australian Hardware
strategic planning
work to build Australian Hardwares capability through delivery of HR services
and facilitating learning and development throughout the organisation
effectively manage change
innovate and integrate HR strategies and process with Australian Hardware

management systems
use technology effectively.
All of the above will be essential to effectively delivering on the vision of Australian
Hardware where the work is actually done: in the stores, providing value to customers.
One of the key next steps Connie will take is to finalise agreement on Service Level
Contracts for the delivery of HR services to business partners.

develop and communicate information about human resources strategies and

services to internal and external stakeholders
develop and negotiate service level agreements between the human resources
team, service providers and client groups

Student Workbook Section 2 Deliver Human Resources Services
document and communicate service specifications, performance standards and

timeframes
identify and arrange training support if required
arrange monitoring of quality assurance processes
ensure that services are delivered by appropriate providers according to service

level agreements and operational plans
identify and rectify underperformance of human resources team or service

providers
identify appropriate return on investment in providing human resources services.
Develop service level agreements

When managing the provision of human resources services it is important to develop and
implement service level agreements to govern the way in which services are provided.
Service level agreements clearly define expectations for both the provider and receiver of
services. Human resources professionals need to be able to identify where service level
agreements are required and how they can be used to ensure service expectations are
met.
Service level agreements should always be used when using external service providers to
deliver HR services and can also be used to manage the delivery of services between
departments within an organisation.
Case study: Automatic Data Processing Inc.
Use the link below to access an interesting article in the Beijing Review e-magazine
discussing the increase in the number of organisations outsourcing human resources
services.
Tapping the HR market The US outsourcing firm ADP is expanding its footprint
in China, Beijing Review, viewed December 2013, <http://www.bjreview.com.
cn/business/txt/2010-04/30/content_268935.htm>.
This article highlights the need for human resources professionals to have skills in
managing services provided by external service providers to ensure that the
organisations human resources requirements are being met.
Service level agreements with external providers do not replace contracts for service but
support the way in which the services are provided by clarifying aspects of the service
such as service specifications, performance indicators, monitoring and maintenance
schedules or dispute resolution processes, for example.
When developing and negotiating service level agreements with an external provider, it is
good practice to engage legal counsel to review the agreement and ensure any legal
implications are identified.

The first step in developing a service level agreement is to identify and agree on the key
terms such as:
start and end date of the agreement fees and payment terms for the
services
scope of services provided
monitoring and reporting processes
how services are provided
dispute resolution processes.
service level targets
Identifying the key terms of a service level agreement involves the following steps.
1. Document the full process for the service (for example, document the hiring
process from application to induction of the new employee).
2. Define who is responsible for each step of the process. This will determine the
scope of the services to be provided for each service provider (for example, an
external recruitment agency is responsible for all process steps from application to
interview and the human resources team will manage the process from interview to
orientation and induction).
3. Discuss and agree with external service providers and line managers on:
a. applicable fees and payment terms
b. service level targets
c. monitoring and reporting processes
d. dispute resolution processes.
The human resources manager at JMH Insurance has identified a need to develop a
service level agreement for the advertisement of vacant roles. This agreement will be
used to provide clear expectation for all parties involved in the process and to ensure
that all vacant roles are advertised according to organisational requirements.
The HR Manager at JMH Insurance documents the process as follows.
1 Vacancy identified. Line manager
2 Position description completed. Line manager
3 Request for hire completed and sent to third-party Line manager

recruitment provider (including copy of position
description).
4 Draft advertisement completed. Third-party provider
5 Draft advertisement reviewed and approved. Line manager
6 Approved advertisement sent to human resources business Third-party provider

partner.

7 Advertisement posted internally. HR business partner
8 Advertisement posted externally. Third-party provider
The HR Manager then met with the line manager and external service provider to
discuss and agree the following key terms of the service level agreement.
This agreement commences on 1 January 201X and ceases on 31 December
201X.
JMH Insurance line manager to provide completed Request for Hire form and
position description to third-party provider. Quality information is to be provided.
Advertisements are completed using templates provided by JMH Insurance.
Draft advertisement to be received within 24 hours of receipt of Request for

Hire and position description.
Final advertisement to be received within 24 hours of approved advertisement.
$100 is payable per advertisement produced once the advertisement is posted

internally and externally.
Achievement against target reports will be produced monthly, by JMH Insurance,
and used to monitor performance.
All issues/complaints are to be resolved in consultation with the human
resources manager at JMH Insurance and the account manager of the third-party
provider. Issues must be raised with 48 hours of occurrence.
Learning activity: Service level agreements
You are the new human resources manager at either of the following simulated
businesses:
Australian Hardware
CoffeeVille.
In previous activities, you have identified service delivery options, strategies and action
plans for the delivery of strategies, including roles and responsibilities.
Imagine you are responsible for negotiating a service level agreement with an external
provider to deliver some aspect of service to managers, employees or business units.
What specifications would you suggest to include in the agreement to cover business
needs? Consider the scope of service and performance measures in particular.
Simulated business information, including business and operational plans, financial
information, and policies and procedures (including performance management) can be
located online at <http://simulations.ibsa.org.au/>.

Negotiate service level agreements

Human resources professionals are required to work with business leaders and service
providers to agree on the key terms of a service level agreement. This often requires good
negotiation skills.
Negotiation skills
Negotiation skills help you to resolve situations where what you want conflicts with what
someone else wants. The aim of negotiation is to explore the situation to find a solution
that is acceptable to both parties.
The style used to manage a negotiation largely depends on the long term relationship
requirements of the person you are negotiating with. If you are never going to see or deal
with a person again you may choose a style that is focused on getting what you want
without consideration of the other persons needs. For example, when buying a car, the
buyer and seller participate in a negotiation of a price. As there is generally no long-term
relationship after the purchase, neither party cares about how the other person feels at
the end of the negotiation; they just care about the end result for themselves. This often
results in a tough negotiation where each party competes for their desired outcome.
However, if you are going to have to deal with the person again in the future, then
maintaining a positive relationship can be quite important. A more collaborative style
would is a more appropriate negotiation style when you need to maintain a positive
relationship. This is often the case in the workplace where negotiations with colleagues
and long-term or regular internal or external clients occurs on a daily basis.
Preparing for a successful negotiation

It is often good practice to prepare for negotiations. This allows you to identify the things
that are most important and therefore not negotiable and those things that you are
willing to compromise on.
When preparing to negotiate the terms and conditions of service level agreements you
should consider the following.
Objective What do you want out of the negotiation? For example; range of
services, best price. resources.
What out of these is most important?
Trades What are you willing to trade on?

What do you have that the other person may want that could be used
to trade with?
For example, when negotiating with external service providers, are you
willing to give them more business if they give you a better price? Or
are you willing to pay a higher price for a customised service?

Contingency What is your contingency plan if your negotiations fail?

Is your contingency plan a viable option?
What impact will your contingency plan have on the organisation?
(Cost, productivity, reputation, etc.)
For example, what is your contingency plan if negotiations with a
payroll service provider fail which impacts your ability to implement
your HR strategy to outsource payroll?
Background What is the background of your relationship with the person you are
negotiating with?
Have relationships in the past been positive or negative?
Have negotiations in the past typically worked well with both parties
happy with the outcome?
Options What are some suitable options that may satisfy the needs of both
parties?
Identifying options that consider the needs of the other party
demonstrates a commitment to participate positively in a negotiation.
This can often help with building rapport with the other party and
setting the scene for a constructive and successful negotiation.
Negotiating successfully
Negotiation involves finding a solution that meets the needs of all parties. It involves each
party understanding and valuing the needs of the other and exploring possible solutions
that meet as many of those needs as possible.
A successful negotiation usually involves:
compromise
open and honest communication
innovative thinking
teamwork.
Conflict management
Often when negotiating contracts or agreements, conflict arises. For this reason, having
good conflict management skills is important. Managing conflict requires you to use
different approaches depending on the desired outcome.

Conflict management styles

Below are five styles that are used to manage conflict. These styles are also often used
when completing negotiations.
Competing When both parties compete against each other for a resolution.
A competitive style involves:
insisting on having your needs met
winning at all costs
causing serious damage to relationships and trust
may not get the best decisions.
For example, when buying a car, the buyer and seller compete
against each other with regards to the price. Neither party cares
about the others needs or wants; they just care about the end
result for themselves.
Accommodating When one party accommodates the needs of the other to the
extent that their needs do not form any of the solution.
An accommodating style involves:
giving in to the other person
allowing the other person to win without attempting to have

your own needs met
acting in a non-threatening manner
not sharing ideas.
For example, accommodating might be used when a customer is

unhappy with a product and wants a refund and the retailer
accommodates their needs and provides a refund.
Avoiding When one party avoids conflict with another resulting in the conflict
not being resolved.
An avoiding style involves:
refusing to engage in conflict
pulling your head in and avoiding an argument
neither party winning as the issues arent discussed or

resolved.
For example, when a manager avoids managing a poorly

performing employee because the employee has become
aggressive.

Collaborating When the two parties work together to find a mutually agreeable
solution.
A collaborating style:
involves both parties being fully satisfied
requires extensive questioning
requires understanding of the other persons point of view.
For example, when a HR manager and a service provider together

identify a solution regarding the implementation of a new system.
Compromising When both parties give something up to reach a mutually

agreeable solution. This means that the needs of either party are
not entirely met but both parties are satisfied with a solution that
meets some of their needs.
A compromising style:
maintains good relationships
demonstrates that your needs are important
utilises assertion.
For example, when an organisation and a service provider

negotiate the terms and conditions of a service level agreement.
This is the most appropriate style for a successful negotiation as it
ensures win-win for both parties and maintains positive
relationships.
Choosing the right style

This diagram demonstrates
the relationship between
intentions and the different
Competing Collaborating conflict management
styles. It shows that if your
intention is to satisfy your
own concerns then the
Assertiveness
appropriate styles would

be avoiding and
Compromising competing. However, if
your intention was to also
satisfy the concerns of the
other party involved then
the appropriate styles
Avoiding Accommodating would be accommodating
and collaborating.
Level of cooperation

Techniques for resolving conflict

Resolving conflict can be very difficult; however, the following technique is useful for
effectively dealing with workplace issues.
Step 1 Open the discussion with a clear statement that explains why
you have requested the discussion.
Initiate a
discussion Communicate openly and honestly.
Do not lay blame.
Ensure you have allocated enough time to complete the

discussion.
Step 2 Clearly state your point of view.
Give good Use I language, e.g. I think or I feel

information
Dont be emotive.
Explain how the conflict has affected you.
State your opinion accurately and assertively.
Step 3 Use active listening.
Gather good Ask questions to clarify details.

information
Be empathetic.
Dont be defensive or confrontational.
Remember, you dont have to agree with what the other

person is saying you just have to understand what they are
saying.
Step 4 Summarise the problem.
Problem solve Identify the conflicting needs of each party.
Agree on what the problem is.
Brainstorm solutions together think innovatively.
Together choose a mutually acceptable solution.5
5Cole, K., 2001, Supervision: The theory and practice of first-line management, Pearson
Education, NSW, pp. 735736.

Learning activity: Negotiating service level agreements
Suppose you are the new human resources manager at Australian Hardware or
CoffeeVille. You are negotiating the service level agreement you began to sketch out in
the previous learning activity (on page 51).
Unfortunately, you disagree with the external party on the scope of the services to be
provided. What services are provided and to what standard is, for you, non-negotiable.
You also disagree on the price. They are proposing to charge 40% more than you would
like to pay to include the required services within the scope of the agreement. You
have, however, authorisation from the board of directors to pay 15% more and would
be willing to do so if you could be assured of a sufficiently high quality of service. The
negotiations have become heated and the other party has threatened to walk out on
negotiations. You know that an agreement needs to be made. Its in both partys
interests.
Outline the approach you would take to reach agreement.

Document service level agreements

Once the key terms of the service level agreement have been agreed upon between
human resources team members, line managers and external service providers, as
applicable, the service level agreement should be documented.
Documenting service level agreements is essential because it is what commits the parties
to the agreement. It involves using the agreed key terms to document the detailed service
specifications, performance standards and timeframes for the services to be provided.
However, before we move on to documenting these components it is important that you
are familiar with the format of service level agreements.
Learning activity: Documenting service level agreements
Research examples of service level agreements. If you are currently employed you
should try and find examples within your workplace. If you are not currently employed
you can access examples on the internet.
Consider the following examples:
Birkbeck, University of London HR
<www.bbk.ac.uk/sec/information/servicelevelagts/humanresources>.
Johns Hopkins HR/Payroll Shared Services
<http://ssc.jhmi.edu/hr_payroll/DataFiles_HR_Payroll/sla_hrpr.pdf>.
Review the examples that you find and answer the following questions.
How is the information formatted?
What information is included?
Does your example include more than just information about service specifications,
performance standards and timeframes? If yes, what additional information does it
include?

How are service specifications, performance standards and timeframes of a service

level agreement documented? For example do they use process flow charts or tables,
are the time frames short (daily) or long (weekly, monthly), are specific performance
targets provided such as time based measures, quality measures, cost measures, etc.?
Service specifications
Timeframes
Performance targets
Service level agreements typically follow a format such as that shown below.
<Company Name>
Services Agreement for services provided by

<Service Provider Name>
<Date>
Contents
1. Service level agreement <title> page <number>
2. Scope of services page <number>
3. Fees and payment terms page <number>
4. Service level targets page <number>
5. Monitoring and reporting page <number>
6. Dispute resolution page <number>
7. Signing page page <number>

1. Service level agreement

Service level agreement dated: <insert date>
Between
<Insert service provider name>
Service level agreement Sponsor <Insert name of Service level agreement sponsor>
And
<Insert organisation/business unit>
Service level agreement Sponsor <Insert name of Service level agreement sponsor>
2. Scope of services
<Insert a short summary of the scope of services to be provided>.
Service specifications
The table below describes the services to be provided under this Services Agreement.
<Insert details of all the services to be provided and the scope of those services>.
Service Scope
<Insert more rows as required>
3. Fees and payment terms

The schedule below details the fees and payment terms for the services provided under
this agreement.
<Insert fee and payment terms for each service provided>
Service Fee Payment term
<Insert more rows as

required>
4. Service level targets

Services provided under this agreement will be measured against the following
performance standards and timeframes.
<Insert the performance standards and timeframes for each service provided>

Service Performance standard and timeframe
<Insert more rows as required>
5. Monitoring and reporting

Services will monitored according to the following reporting schedule.
<Insert details of the reports and timing of those reports that will be used to monitor
the performance of each service provided>
Service Report Timing
<Insert more rows as

required>
6. Dispute resolution
In the event that either party needs to raise a dispute the following process must be
followed:
<Insert dispute process see example process below>
Issue identified
Service level agreement Sponsor from both

parties to be notified of issue
Service level agreement Sponsor from both

parties to discuss issue and agree
resolution
In the event that service level agreement

Sponsors cannot agree on a resolution the
issue is to be escalated to contract
management for resolution under contract
management processes.

7. Signing page
I agree to the terms and conditions of this agreement.
Signed for and on behalf of <Company name/business unit>
<Insert company name/business unit> <Signature of authorised representative>
In the presence of <insert name of <Signature of witness>

witness>
Signed for and on behalf of <Service provider company name/business unit>
<Insert company name/business unit> <Signature of authorised representative>
In the presence of <insert name of <Signature of witness>

witness>
Documenting service specifications

Documenting service specifications involves detailing all of the services that will be
provided and how they will be provided. This includes:
roles and responsibilities of those involved
what is produced/provided
technology requirements
resource requirements.
The human resources manager at JMH Insurance has completed the following service
specifications table to be included in the service level agreement for the third party who
is providing services for developing and posting job advertisements.
External provider service specifications Job advertisement services
Draft job The external provider will complete the draft advertisement
advertisement using JMH Insurances job advertisement templates and the
information provided by the line manager in the Request for
Hire form and position description.
Draft advertisements must be sent to the line manager for
approval via email.

Final job The external provider must incorporate feedback from the line
advertisement manager in the final version of the advertisement.
The external provider must send the amended advertisement
to the line manager for approval.
The external provider must send the final job advertisement to
the line manager and the human resources manager.
The external provider must keep a record of all advertisements
completed for future reference.
Advertise the The external provider must obtain quotes for posting the job
position advertisement externally.
externally
The external provider must provide quotes to the line manager
for approval.
Once approval for the advertising cost has been received, the
external provider is to post the approved job advertisement
externally.
Records The external provider must keep a record of all advertisements

management completed for future reference.
The external provider must keep a record of all advertising costs.
Service The external provider must complete and provide monthly

reporting reporting for:
number of roles advertised externally
costs of advertisements.
Documenting performance standards and timeframes

Performance standards and timeframes are used to agree how service performance will
be measured. Performance standards and timeframes must clearly detail what the
expected level of performance is, how it will be measured and timeframes applicable for
the service.
The human resources manager at JMH Insurance has completed the following table to
be included in the service level agreement for the external service provider detailing the
performance standards and timeframe for developing and posting job advertisements.

Performance standards and timeframes Job advertisement services
Draft job 100% of draft advertisements to be received by the relevant

advertisement line manager within 24 hours of the Request for Hire form
and position description being provided to the service provider.
100% of draft advertisements completed using JMH Insurance
job advertisement template.
Final job 100% of amended advertisements to be received by the

advertisement relevant line manager within 24 hours of feedback being
provided to the service provider.
100% of final advertisements to be received by the relevant
line manager within 24 hours of approval being provided to
the service provider.
Advertise the 100% of quotes provided to the relevant line manager within
position 24 hours of the final advertisement being provided to the
externally service provider.
100% of external job advertisements posted within 24 hours
of approval for the quote being provided to the service
provider.
Records 100% of advertisements stored in accordance with

management organisational recordkeeping policy.
100% of advertising costs recorded.
Service The external service provider must complete and send to the
reporting JMH Insurance human resources manager the following
reports by the 10th day of every month:
number of roles advertised externally for the previous
month and year-to-date
costs of advertisements for the previous month and
year-to-date.
Learning activity: Documenting service specifications
Using the service specifications and other details you have prepared in previous
learning activities and an appropriate template, document a formal service level
agreement. Ensure you cover the essentials:
scope of services
service level performance targets and/or performance metrics (how performance

will be measured)
monitoring and reporting schedule
dispute resolution procedures.

Training requirements
When discussing the terms of the agreement it may become apparent that training is
required for some parties. Training often assists with compliance with the terms of the
agreement as it ensures that all parties understand what they are expected to do under
the agreement and to what standard.
Training requirements could include the following.
Who Potential training requirements
Human policies and procedures specific to the services they provide

resources team
business unit orientation and induction
members
service level agreement management
reporting
negotiation skills
relationship management.
Line managers policies and procedures specific to the services they provide
service level agreement purpose and functions
service provider capabilities.
External service organisational orientation and induction

provider
organisational structure, roles and responsibilities
organisational policies and procedures specific to the

services to be provided.
The human resources manager at JMH Insurance has identified the following training
requirements to ensure the successful implementation of the service level agreement
that has been developed to manage the services provided by an external service
provider for job advertisements.
JMH Insurance human recruitment and selection policies and procedures

resources team members
service level agreement management
reporting
communication skills
negotiation skills.

JMH Insurance line recruitment and selection policies and procedures

managers
writing effective position descriptions.
Third-party service JMH Insurance orientation and induction

provider
JMH Insurance recruitment and selection policies
and procedures.
Learning activity: Training
Consider the service level agreement you documented in the previous learning activity.
What training might be required to implement the agreement?
Develop an action plan to provide for the training needed. Remember to provide as
much detail as required:
activities
timelines
strategies or approaches
monitoring of effectiveness
resources
roles and responsibilities.
Quality assurance
Quality assurance is about managing business processes to ensure that both the service
provider and the client are satisfied with the quality and consistency of the services
provided.
Quality assurance programs:
ensure quality is built into the process check for quality at every stage of the
process
focus on preventing problems
rely on everyone. 6
monitor quality constantly
Effectively managing human resources services involves working with internal or external
service providers and the business to ensure that the processes in place support the
consistent delivery of a quality service. This includes agreeing with line managers and
service providers what is to be included in the quality assurance program and how the
program will be monitored.
6Cole, K., 2001, Supervision: The theory and practice of first-line management, Pearson
Education, NSW, p. 263.

Quality assurance program for human resources services

The components of a quality assurance program for human resources services could
include:
service reviews; where feedback from all users of the service is obtained
checklists used by service providers to ensure that all steps of a process are
followed
policies and procedures that provide rules of how services are to be completed
benchmarks and performance objectives or standards that provide service

providers with guidance on acceptable service levels.
The human resources manager at JMH Insurance has developed the following quality
assurance program to ensure that job advertisements are produced at a consistently
high standard each and every time.
Line managers are provided with a template to complete a Request for Hire
form to ensure the service provider receives all the necessary information to
complete a job advertisement.
Line managers are provided with a checklist and template to ensure that all
position descriptions contain all of the information required to produce a quality
job advertisement.
Job advertisement templates are provided to the service provider to ensure a
consistent format.
Benchmark costs are provided to the service provider to provide guidance with
regards to acceptable job advertisement costs.
JMH Insurance recruitment and selection policies and procedures include
specific information and guidance with regards to the production of job
advertisements.
Feedback is sought from all candidates who are interviewed regarding the quality
of the job advertisement and how useful it was in providing them information
about the job and whether it had any impact on their decision to apply for the
role.
Reporting is completed regarding the number draft advertisements completed
before a final advertisement is approved.
Learning activity: Quality assurance program
Develop a quality assurance program for the delivery of HR services at Australian

Hardware or CoffeeVille in accordance with the service level agreement that you have
created.

Monitoring the quality of delivery

Once the components of the quality assurance program have been agreed, it is time to
agree on how and when the program will be monitored. Most organisations use a quality
assurance audit to check that the program is being implemented to agreed standards.
How regularly the audit is completed depends on the risks associated with poor quality
service being provided.
Monitoring could also vary depending on the services being provided. For example,
monitoring of payroll or work health and safety would be conducted far more regularly
than programs for learning and development. Whatever the timeframes for monitoring, a
schedule needs to be developed and agreed on to ensure that all parties are aware of
how and when service delivery will be checked.
It is important to monitor service delivery against agreed service specifications
benchmarks, standards and objectives.
The human resources manager at JMH Insurance has developed the following audit
tool and schedule for monitoring the quality assurance program implemented for the
development and posting of job advertisements.
JMH Insurance Quality Assurance Audit Tool Job Advertisements
Is further review required? If yes, detail

Audit Question Yes/No
requirements.
Have all line managers used

and completed the Request for
Hire form correctly?
Have all line managers used the

position description checklist
and template?
Has the service provider used

the templates provided for
completed job advertisements?
Has the service provider

completed advertisements
according to the cost
benchmarks provided?
Are line managers and service

providers completing job
advertisements in accordance
with organisational recruitment
and selection policies and
procedures?


requirements.
Feedback from candidates

interviewed meets or exceeds
85% satisfaction rating?
Data demonstrates that 80% or

more of draft advertisements
produced do not require
amendments?
Audit Outcome (please tick)
Meets requirements Further review required
JMH Insurance Quality Assurance Audit Schedule Job Advertisements
Audit No. Date to be completed Result
1 1 March 201X
2 1 June 201X
3 1 September 201X
4 1 December 201X
Obtaining agreement on quality assurance programs

Agreement from all responsible parties in the provision of human resources services must
be obtained for the overall approach to quality assurance as well as the method used to
monitor that programs are being implemented as required.
The most effective way to obtain agreement is to document the components of the
program including the audit plan and schedule of activities and circulate those
documents to all parties for feedback and agreement. This will ensure that all parties are
given the opportunity to contribute ideas that may improve the tools that have been
developed and also ensure that all parties are aware of the program being implemented
and support the process.
Learning activity: Quality assurance audit tool
Develop a quality assurance audit tool for the quality assurance program you
developed in the previous learning activity.

Quality Assurance Audit Tool

requirements.
Audit Outcome (please tick)
Meets requirements Further review required
Protecting the expected return on investment

In the previous section, we discussed risk management and return on investment. As you
manage the provision of HR services you will need to implement monitoring and audit
strategies to ensure services comply with the organisations HR requirements. Doing so
will help minimise risk to your organisations investment in the HR delivery strategy and
ensure financial and other benefits are ultimately realised.
After a specified or appropriate term of service has elapsed, it is good practice to
calculate actual return on investment and compare this with projected figures. Regularly
recalculating ROI can help managers to evaluate the business impact of service delivery
early and take appropriate actions to address underperformance.

Learning activity: Ensuring the effectiveness of the services provided
What strategies have you used in the past to ensure that a service provider (in any
area) was appropriate for providing the services you required, and how did you
measure the effectiveness of services provided?
This could be an example of service provided in the workplace by an internal or external
service provider.
How effective were these strategies and why?
Were the strategies you deployed able to minimise the risk posed by poor service
provision and protect your anticipated return on investment?
Could you apply these same strategies when implementing a services agreement for
the provision of human resources services? Why?

Identify and rectify underperformance

Services provided under a service level agreement need to be regularly monitored and
reviewed to ensure that any underperformance is identified early and rectified before
major damage is caused.
You should monitor the services being provided to ensure that:
services are being provided as per service specifications
performance standards and timeframes are being met
clients are satisfied with the services being provided
costs remain within budget
there is a positive return on investment.
Performance can be monitored using a number of methods, for example, by reviewing:

graphs and charts, such as those that appear in dashboard reports for project
implementation and monitoring business key metrics
organisational, divisional, business unit, personal or individual balanced scorecards
data gathered through HR management systems such as absenteeism rates,

service completion times
formal evaluation reports
feedback (informal, through surveys or audits)
interviews with line or senior managers affected by service performance
financial records (statement of financial performance, statement of financial

position, cash flow) and account balances.
Monitoring is a process that assists human resources professionals measure or assess

the performance of service providers. When there is unsatisfactory performance, prompt
action needs to be taken to ensure the situation is rectified and organisational goals are
achieved.
There are five types of corrective action that can be used:
Interim Adaptive Corrective Preventative Contingency
Lets look at these types of corrective action in more detail.
Interim action
This is action that aims to buy time until the real cause of the problem can be identified
and fixed. Interim measures aim to minimise the damage of a performance problem until
it can be properly addressed, so the actions are temporary actions, for example,
temporarily using manual systems to deliver services until technologies can be restored.

Adaptive action
Sometimes performance targets for HR services are set unrealistically high. There may be
a number of valid reasons: errors, over enthusiasm, changes in circumstances and so on.
At some point it becomes clear that a performance deficit is inevitable. Adaptive action
involves reviewing the performance standards and bringing them in line with the new
reality. Care should be taken that this response is not used to cover-up poor
performance by service providers.
Corrective action
Corrective action targets the cause of the substandard performance. It is designed to get
the performance back on track. Examples of corrective action with respect to personnel
delivering services include training or coaching.
Preventative action
Preventative action removes the cause of potential performance shortfalls before they
occur. Effective monitoring provides the early warning system that enables appropriate
preventative action to be taken.
Contingency action
Contingency action is action taken just in case, or plan b. It includes actions that are
planned during the service delivery planning process, to be taken should risks be
realised. Your monitoring system may hint that there is a problem looming that is deemed
to be serious enough to warrant contingency action. In many cases the contingency action
would be guided by the contingency plan developed as part of the planning process for
service delivery.
Learning activity: Identify and rectify underperformance
What strategies would you use to identify underperformance for the services provided
to Australian Hardware or CoffeeVille?
Imagine that you have identified that the service provider is failing to provide the
services as agreed in the service level agreement. Detail how you would rectify this
situation.
Amend action planning you completed in Section 1 to include contingency planning for
anticipated risks to return on investment.
Section summary
You should now understand how to manage the delivery of human resources services.

Further reading
Pearson Education, NSW.
McGraw-Hill Australia, Part 1: Ch. 67; Part 3: Ch. 10.
Ulrich, D., Younger, J., Brockbank, W., Ulrich, M., 2012, HR from the outside in: Six
competencies for the future of human resources, McGraw-Hill, USA, Ch. 59.
Section checklist
develop and communicate information about human resources strategies and

services to internal and external stakeholders
develop and negotiate service level agreements between the human resources
team, service providers and client groups
document and communicate service specifications, performance standards and

timeframes
identify and arrange training support if required
agree and arrange monitoring of quality assurance processes
ensure that services are delivered by appropriate providers according to service

level agreements and operational plans
identify and rectify underperformance of human resources team or service

providers
identify appropriate return on investment in providing human resources services.

Student Workbook Section 3 Evaluate Human Resources Service Delivery
Section 3 Evaluate Human Resources

Service Delivery
This section is about the tools and methods for evaluating human resources service
delivery.
Scenario: Measuring HR performance at Australian Hardware
It has been eight months since Connie began to implement HR changes at Australian
Hardware. Feedback has largely been positive.
In a recent audit of HR performance over the organisation, the following results were
obtained:
85% of managers have high confidence in the ability of store HR officers in
delivering services and mediating services delivered by the corporate HR centre
of excellence
75% of managers believe HR has had a strong impact on business performance.
The following breakdown by HR service was obtained:
Client value
Service Performance
rating/10
Staffing and 8 ROI = 140%

recruitment
Training and 4 ROI = 130%

skills 90% training programs completed on time
development
Performance 9 55% appraisals completed

management
Rewards and 8 100% at-risk bonus payments processed on time

recognition 95% employees agree that the system is fair
Process 9 98% of administrative requests completed to the

requirements of the service level agreement
Communication 8 Average of 21 days from disputes being raised to

resolution
90% employees engaged in communication
activities to understand application of vision to
job role and teamwork
Connie will need to continue to monitor HR performance on a regular basis and use the
results of data gathering to continuously improve the HR system.

Section 3 Evaluate Human Resources Service Delivery Student Workbook

establish systems for gathering and storing information needed to provide human
resources services
survey clients to determine level of satisfaction
capture ongoing client feedback for the review processes
analyse feedback and surveys and recommend changes to service delivery
obtain approvals to variations in service delivery from appropriate managers
support agreed change processes across the organisation.
Establish systems for monitoring and evaluation

It is important to take a systematic approach to monitoring and evaluating HR service
delivery performance. Elements of a systematic approach include:
Determining what Determining (in advance) what and how to measure

to measure performance. What are the targets and objectives that need to
be monitored? What are the key performance indicators that
will allow you to determine (in advance) the success, failure,
and need to intervene? What are the triggers for intervention,
that is, the performance levels that will trigger specific actions
or contingency plans to keep performance on track?
Coordinating Coordinating what and how you monitor in line with the needs
monitoring and strategic planning of the organisation. How are the goals of
activities the organisation promoted by the monitoring? Are you sure you
are measuring the aspects of HR performance that really matter
to the business?
Regular monitoring Monitoring performance of HR services continuously to ensure

you have enough time to act should intervention be required.
Documenting Planning and documenting approaches to monitoring

processes performance in procedures and planning documents such as
action plans.
Integrating Integrating performance monitoring with existing practices and

monitoring into operations. Ensure a smooth implementation of monitoring
organisational plans and cooperation of business partners.
systems

Communicating the Communicating the monitoring process to involved

process stakeholders. Include an outline of monitoring activities in
service level agreements, for example.
In order to take a systematic approach you will need to develop monitoring plans and
schedules, keep records and evaluate performance data within a useful framework of
evaluation.
Monitoring plans
You will need to create appropriate and realistic plans or schedules for monitoring
activities. You should consider including a schedule or outline of the monitoring plan in
service level agreements. Monitoring action plans should include monitoring activities,
timelines, and strategies for integrating monitoring activities with existing business
culture, practices processes and policies and procedures, resources and clear roles and
responsibilities for carrying out monitoring activities.
Recordkeeping
It is important to enter and store performance information using an effective system of
recordkeeping. HR management systems, enterprise resource management systems and
accounting systems may capture and store some performance information automatically.
Some types of monitoring activities such as the use of audit tools and surveys will require
you to make decisions regarding proper storage and file naming. You will need to ensure
you follow all organisational policies and procedures for recordkeeping. You will also need
to ensure storage of performance information is in accordance with legislation such as
privacy laws and ethical business practices.
Evaluation frameworks
A key part of monitoring HR delivery performance is determining what to measure and
evaluate. You cannot ensure your monitoring and evaluating planning aligns with
business need if you cannot determine what kinds of measures will give you information
on what sort of business performance. It is important, therefore, to work within a clear
framework for evaluation.
The Kirkpatrick model

One well-known model of evaluation is the Kirkpatrick model which describes four levels
of evaluation. The Kirkpatrick model was developed to evaluate training programs. The
model describes four levels of evaluation:
Reaction evaluation is how the learners felt about the

training or learning experience. How do people feel about
Level 1 Reaction the training or service quality? Opinion or client satisfaction
surveys often give information useful only for level 1
evaluation.

Learning evaluation is the measurement of the increase in

knowledge and skills after training. Test scores, skills,
Level 2 Immediate
abilities or business capabilities objectively scored or
or Learning
observed. This level of evaluation does not include the
application of knowledge or skills.
Level 3 Intermediate Behaviour evaluation is the extent of applied learning back

or Application on-the-job; implementation of skills and knowledge.
Results evaluation is the effect on the organisation or

environment by the trainee. Does the business realise its
Level 4 Results
financial or other goals as a result of the provision of
training?
Because this model is tailored to evaluate training programs, it can be difficult to apply
the Kirkpatrick levels of evaluation model to evaluating all areas of HR services delivery.
The Philips model

The Philips model is similar to the Kirkpatrick model, but it is more applicable to
evaluating the delivery of HR. This model also incorporates evaluation of return on
investment (ROI) 7:
Measures the participant satisfaction (i.e. the satisfaction of

those impacted by HR service delivery) with the
Reaction and planned service/system and participants intentions to act in
action accordance with the service/system.
For example, plans to undertake the tasks that they are
responsible for according to HR policies and procedures.
Measures changes in knowledge, skills or capabilities

related to the HR system or services.
Learning
For example, a line managers gain in knowledge about how
to follow procedures to fill in a Request for Hire form.
Measures the application of knowledge, skills or services in

the workplace.
Application
For example, a line managers application of knowledge and
skill in filling out a Request for Hire form.
7 Phillips, J. and Phillips P., 2010, Measuring Return on Investment in HR a global initiative for HR
strategy, ROI Institute, viewed January 2014 <http://www.roiinstitute.net/m/uploads/tools/

2010/02/04/MeasuringReturnonInvestmentinHR-AGlobalInitiativeforHRStrategy3.pdf>.

Measures the costs and business output related to the HR

Business impact
service delivery program.
Return on investment Compares the benefits with the costs.
When evaluating the effectiveness of HR service delivery initiatives, it is important to

determine in advance the evaluation tools and measures required to determine the right
level of evaluation. For example, you cannot claim that a program has helped the
organisation achieve its projected return on investment by relying on data gathered from
a client satisfaction survey (a tool for evaluation at the reaction level). On the other
hand, business data may be too high-level to sort out and separate the contribution that
HR programs make to the bottom line. Level 1 survey data may, however, indicate a
change in attitude that could indicate future business success. Such data can
supplement performance data to provide an all-round, more balanced evaluation of the
impact of an HR system or service.
Lets take a closer look in the following sections at analysing client feedback, which may
include various levels of feedback, and business impact (or return on investment).
Learning activity: Establish systems for evaluation
Consider planning for implementation of HR service delivery or service level

agreements undertaken in the previous section.
Plan a schedule for undertaking performance monitoring and evaluation for the next 6
months.
Include tools and strategies for gathering data.
Include performance measuring activities and performance measures to gather
information useful for all levels of either the Kirkpatrick or Phillips evaluation
frameworks.
Client feedback
To effectively evaluate human resources service delivery, feedback must be obtained
from clients. This involves having a process for capturing both:
Ongoing feedback Requested feedback
Ongoing feedback
Ongoing feedback is feedback that is received as part of normal business interactions. It
typically occurs as a result of a particular negative or positive experience that for some
reason has prompted the person to provide feedback. While this feedback is not part of a
formal feedback program, it is very important as it is often very specific and useful in
identifying specific problems.

Case study: Deloitte Consulting HR transformation survey
Use the link below to access the Deloitte Consulting report.

From the ground up, Building an HR infrastructure to support growth, Deloitte,
viewed January 2014, <http://www.deloitterecrute.fr/sites/www.deloitterecrute.
fr/files/etude/343/fromthegroundup_hrinfrastructure_2009.pdf>.
Read the article HR transformation survey on pages 813. The article discusses a
survey, completed by Deloitte Consulting, of more than 150 global companies to
understand those organisations views on human resources service delivery in the 21st
century.
It is a good example of how useful surveys can be in providing information regarding
the provision of human resources services. The survey has produced interesting
information regarding the different service delivery models and the values those
models provide across different industries.
Processes for capturing ongoing feedback include:

providing a specific contact person for clients to contact to provide feedback
developing and implementing a database for recording feedback to ensure that the
feedback can be incorporated in formal reviews completed at a later date
providing feedback forms to participants to assist with capturing feedback when
they want to provide it rather than having them wait and remember their feedback
when asked to provide it as part of formal feedback programs conducted some
time later.
Learning activity: Ongoing feedback
Think of a time you have provided casual feedback for services provided to you.
What prompted you to provide the feedback?

Was there a process in place for you to provide that feedback? If yes, what was the
process and how did it assist you to provide your feedback?
Did you feel your feedback was captured and taken seriously? Why or why not?
What could the company, individual or department that you were providing to, done
better to improve your experience as a client providing feedback?

Requested feedback
Outside of ongoing feedback, the other way to obtain feedback is to seek it out through
requested feedback. This involves surveying clients to determine their level of satisfaction
with the services provided. Requested feedback is typically requested at specific times,
for example, monthly, quarterly, biannually or annually as part of a formal review program.
It is important to remember that, when requested feedback is part of a formal review
program, those providing the feedback usually want to see an outcome or next step. They
want to know the results of the feedback received and what action is going to be taken
with regards to that feedback. Failing to address this requirement can result in
participants not providing feedback when it is requested in the future as they see no
value in participating.
The two popular methods used for surveying clients are focus groups and written
feedback forms.
Focus groups
Focus groups involve meeting with small groups of clients to listen to their feedback
regarding the services provided. It is a good idea to prepare some questions to prompt
the discussion to ensure the value of the session for all participating. Focus groups also
usually discuss solutions to issues or ways in which services could be improved.
Written feedback forms

Written feedback forms or surveys are generally distributed to a sample group or all
members of a client group to assess their satisfaction with the services provided. They
typically include a series of questions that asks clients to rate their satisfaction. These
ratings are then tallied together to ascertain an overall client satisfaction rating.
Some feedback forms also provide clients with an opportunity to provide general
comments. This allows clients to make comments about areas they feel strongly about or
areas that they feel have not been adequately covered in the questions provided.
Tip: Feedback forms

Its easy to create and distribute hard copy surveys to your learners, but there are also
very simple ways to create online forms that can be embedded in emails to clients and
then the data can be automatically arranged in a spreadsheet so that you dont have to
type out the data yourself. The video Using forms in Google Docs explains how to use
Googles form feature <http://youtu.be/IzgaUOW6GIs>.
See below for an example of a feedback form for human resources services.

Human resources services feedback form
Please rate the effectiveness of the human
Disagree
Disagree
Strongly
Strongly
Neutral
resources team member in providing human
Agree
Agree
resources to your business.
1. Establishes and maintains positive

working relationships with the business.
2. Communicates effectively with

managers and employees.
3. Delivers on commitments on time.
4. Responds appropriately to business

needs.
5. Provides practical and useful guidance

and support.
6. Is prepared to take risks in the interest

of the business.
7. Demonstrates strong analytical skills in

diagnosing issues.
8. Effectively supports the business

throughout the implementation of
organisational change.
9. Takes into account both strategic and

operational plans when providing
advice.
10. Ensures the alignment of people

initiatives with business priorities.
11. Possesses strong technical human

resources skills.
12. Acts as a strong role model by upholding

and promoting business values.
What strengths does the HR team member bring to your business?

What are the development areas for the HR team member?
General comments/feedback
Learning activity: Written feedback forms
Assume you have already implemented planned HR service delivery options at either
Australian Hardware or CoffeeVille. Develop a written feedback form to gather
information from staff members that will be engaging with HR services.
Human resources services feedback form
Question
Disagree
disagree
Strongly
Strongly
Neutral
Agree
Agree

(Detail any specific questions here)
Analyse client feedback

Once feedback has been obtained it must be analysed:
Look for trends and recurring themes; is the same area rating poorly by all those
surveyed or is one part of the business only rating a particular area poorly?
Complete further investigations into those areas that show a trend or recurring
theme that could be improved.
The human resources manager at JMH Insurance used the human resources services
feedback form on the previous page to obtain feedback from 15 managers regarding
the effectiveness of the human resources team. The human resources manager then
compiled the feedback using the following table.
Disagree
Disagree
Strongly
Strongly
Question
Neutral
Agree
Agree
Total
1 Establishes and maintains positive

working relationships with the 2 3 1 4 5 15
business.
2 Communicates effectively with
2 2 0 6 5 15
3 Delivers on commitments on time. 4 5 0 3 3 15
4 Responds appropriately to
4 4 1 3 3 15
business needs.
5 Provides practical and useful
2 2 2 5 4 15
guidance and support.
6 Is prepared to take risks in the
5 5 2 3 0 15
interests of the business.

Disagree
Disagree
Strongly
Strongly
Question
Neutral
Agree
Agree
Total
7 Demonstrates strong analytical
1 2 2 5 5 15
skills in diagnosing issues.
8 Effectively supports the business
throughout the implementation of 2 2 1 5 5 15
9 Takes into account both strategic
and operational plans when 4 4 2 3 2 15
providing advice.
10 Ensures the alignment of people
5 5 1 2 2 15
11 Possesses strong technical human
1 2 1 6 5 15
resource skills.
12 Acts as a strong role model by
upholding and promoting business 0 1 2 6 6 15
values.
The human resources manager then analysed the data using the following
methodology.
strongly disagree and disagree summarised as unfavourable
neutral ratings summarised as neutral
strongly agree and agree summarised as favourable.
This methodology allows the human resources manager to see what areas of services
are viewed by managers as working well (favourable rating) and what areas need to be
improved (unfavourable rating). The human resources manager also views those areas
rated neutral as areas that can be improved.
The human resources manager applied the methodology using the following table.
Unfavourable Neutral Favourable

Question
% % %
1 Establishes and maintains positive
working relationships with the 33% 7% 60%
business.
2 Communicates effectively with
27% 0% 73%
3 Delivers on commitments on time. 60% 0% 40%
4 Responds appropriately to business
53% 7% 40%
needs.


Question
% % %
5 Provides practical and useful guidance
27% 13% 60%
and support.
67% 13% 20%
7 Demonstrates strong analytical skills
20% 13% 67%
in diagnosing issues.
8 Effectively supports the business
throughout the implementation of 27% 7% 67%
9 Takes into account both strategic and
operational plans when providing 53% 13% 33%
advice.
67% 7% 27%
11 Possesses strong technical human
20% 7% 73%
resource skills.
12 Acts as a strong role model by
upholding and promoting business 7% 13% 80%
values.
The human resources manager has identified that all questions with an unfavourable
rating of 50% or more require improvement. As result the following areas will be further
reviewed to identify what improvements can be made to ensure a more effective
service.

Question
% % %
3 Delivers on commitments on time. 60% 0% 40%
4 Responds appropriately to business
53% 7% 40%
needs.
67% 13% 20%
9 Takes into account both strategic and
operational plans when providing 53% 13% 33%
advice.
67% 7% 27%

Learning activity: Analyse client feedback
Recall the Kirkpatrick and Philips models discussed in the opening to this section.
In the JMH insurance example above, what level/s of evaluation is the information
useful for? Is the information provided on the feedback form useful for all levels of
evaluation?
Do you think other levels of evaluation are important? Why? Why not?
How is this information useful for the evaluation of HR service delivery?
What themes or trends can you identify?

What further investigations would you undertake to get a full picture of the
performance of HR service providers?
What tools, methods or performance measures would you use to gather information for
business impact or ROI?
Evaluate business impact

When you evaluate human resources performance, it is important to measure and
analyse the business impact of HR service delivery options. Many organisations take a
balanced scorecard approach to determining the success of the organisation. Such an
approach means that the needs of customers and employees as well as investor
stakeholder groups are considered. Consider the following example:
Example: Australian Hardware balanced scorecard
KRA Objective or target Performance Result

metric or KPI
Increase gross profit
$ 2% increase
by 5%
$ Profit per
Financial 2% increase
Increase productivity employee
by 10% $ Revenue per
3% increase
employee
Customer
78% satisfaction
Customer Increase market satisfaction rating
value share by 10% Customer return 90% transaction from
visits return customers

Example: Australian Hardware balanced scorecard
KRA Objective or target Performance Result

metric or KPI
100 staff inducted or 90% staff inducted
Training rate
up-skilled for roles within one week
Australian Hardware
80% satisfied with
People is an employer of Satisfaction rating
employment
development choice
Staff background 20% self-identify as
% minority
reflects modern minority or Aboriginal/
employment
Australia Torres Strait Islander
Provide leadership to % PD plans
support superior completed by 86% completed on time
performance managers
Process
Maintain a fair 5% self-identify as
% minorities in
workplace at all levels minority or Aboriginal/
senior roles
for everyone Torres Strait Islander
According to David Ulrich in Measuring Human Resources, there are three main areas
related to the balanced scorecard relevant for the monitoring and evaluation of HR
service delivery: productivity, people and process. These areas are related to a number of
important metrics for directly or indirectly measuring the business impact.
Productivity People Process

What is the ratio of output What attitude, behaviour How (well, efficiently, fairly)
to input (return on and knowledge or skills does the job get done?
investment)? does the workforce display?
Workflow efficiency.
Revenue per Competence (the
Leadership ratings.
employee. ability to do a task to
the standard Innovation ratings.
Cost per employee.
required). Speed/cycle/time/
Units produced per
Satisfaction ratings. speed to market.
employee.
Turnover or retention Training processes.
Profit per employee.
of personnel. Cultural cohesion/
Grievance or numbers unity/shared
of complaints. understanding of how
things are done here.
Absenteeism
numbers. Equity and diversity.8
8 Ulrich, D., 1997, Measuring Human resources: An Overview of Practice and a Prescription for
Results, Human Resources Management, Vol. 36, No 3, pp. 303320, available online viewed
January 2014, <http://www.e-rh.org/documents/ISO/measuring-hr-kpi-for-hr.pdf>.

Note that, in accordance with the balanced scorecard methodology, not all of the
measures are directly related to financial impact. In order to measure the business
impact of HR services and explain the importance of HR service delivery to the success of
the organisation, you will need to focus on tools and information gathering that allows you
to gather useful data on productivity, people impact and process impact directly
attributable to HR programs and activities.
Learning activity: Evaluate business impact
Review your work for the previous activity: Establish systems for evaluation (page 79).
Ensure that your monitoring and evaluation system includes tools and measurements
of productivity, people, and process directly attributable to HR programs and initiatives.
Recommend variations
As a result of collecting and evaluating performance data on HR performance, it may
become apparent that changes need to be made to the way in which services are
provided. In order to make recommendations, you will need to analyse variation between
agreed service levels and actual performance to determine root causes of
underperformance. You will need to provide appropriate support for your
recommendations to vary service delivery, present recommendations in accordance with
business reporting processes, and ensure you support the process of change through
appropriate planning and activities.
Identifying root causes

To ensure your recommendations for variations to service delivery are supported and
implemented by others, you must be able to explain root causes of performance
problems. A useful method for determining root causes is the 5-Whys technique. Lets
look at an example.
Example: 5-Whys?
The HR manager at Australian Hardware needed to know why the profit per employee
and revenue per employee was falling below target.
The following questioning process was undertaken:
Q: Why were the results below target?
A: Employees didnt know how to increase their productivity.
Q: They were trained in the relevant skills, so why didnt they know how?
A: They were not performance managed to ensure they could apply their skills and
set meaningful targets.
Q: Why were they not performance managed?
A: Line managers did not receive enough support and training from HR in a timely
manner.

Q: Why did they not receive support from HR?

A: The HR service level agreement did not contain appropriate metrics and
accountabilities for providing services on time.
Q: Why were appropriate metrics and accountabilities not set?
A: HR service providers are unclear about the needs of the business.
Clearly, there were a number of reasons for the poor performance; the root cause,
however, as discovered through investigations and questioning, was that the HR
personnel negotiating service level agreements did not understand the needs of the
line managers for timely support in performance management.
The HR manager decided to recommend that HR service providers partner with the line
managers responsible for managing customer facing staff to determine needs and
renegotiate service level agreements. To ensure understanding and buy in from all
stakeholders, new agreements, which should include metrics and timelines for
performance management, would be strategically promoted. To show organisational
commitment to the changes, senior management would participate and lend their
support to the communication activities which would include a senior and line
management conference call.
Making and supporting recommendations for change

Depending on the specific circumstances there are a number of possible
recommendations you can make. Examples of general recommendations you may make
include:
modify service delivery model
modify service level agreements
extend action plan timelines
increase the budget or resources for providing services
provide coaching to teams and individuals to ensure interaction between line

managers, human resources team members and service providers is effective.
To support your recommendations, you will need to explain how any variations to services
that you recommend will specifically address performance issues. Once you have
established and explained the root cause or causes of underperformance, you will need
to explain how proposed changes will close any performance gaps. When presenting
recommendations to management teams or colleagues you need to ensure that you
clearly outline:
what the performance issue is
how you identified the issue (e.g. feedback from managers)
what variation you are recommending and why; consider:
what has worked in the past to address similar issues

what is working now in other departments or organisations to address similar
issues

what case studies are available to illustrate the effectiveness of your

proposed measures to address similar performance issues
how variations to service delivery will specifically addresses the issue.
You should also ensure that your recommendation is supported by documentation to help
demonstrate the issue or recommendation, which could include:
a brief document summarising the issue and recommendation (PowerPoint or Word
is appropriate)
action plan status reports
timelines
financial reports, e.g. budget vs. actual reports.
Organisational reporting and approval processes

Recommendations must be prepared to be submitted for approval in accord with
organisational processes. Organisational processes may include meeting formats or
management report formats. Ensure you follow all organisational processes for the
preparation of written evaluation reports, storage of data and approval for implementing
recommendations.
Learning activity: Recommend variations to HR services
Consider the following scorecard for JMH insurance and the manager feedback
information presented earlier in the section (page 85).
Write a 34 page evaluation report addressed to senior management. Include in your
report:
An executive summary
Presentation of relevant data
Recommendations and support for recommendations
An action plan for implementing recommendations and supporting changes.
KRA Objective or target Performance metric Result

or KPI
Financial $Profit per employee 2% decrease

performance Increase productivity
and by 10% $Revenue per
5% decrease
productivity employee
95% staff inducted

within one week
People All staff inducted or
Training rate
development up-skilled for roles
100% required up-
skill completed

KRA Objective or target Performance metric Result

or KPI
Recruitment reflects Performance ratings

Average rating 3/5
needs of business of new staff
People
development
Australian Hardware
(continued) 65% satisfied with
is an employer of Satisfaction rating
employment
choice
% professional
Provide leadership to
development (PD) 70% completed on
support superior
plans completed by time
performance
managers
Process Maintain a fair

workplace at all Number of
levels for everyone: 10 complaints per
antidiscrimination
100 employees
>1 complaint per 100 complaints
employees
Section summary
You should now understand how to effectively use a variety of tools and methods to
evaluate human resources service delivery.
Further reading
McGraw-Hill Australia, Ch. 18.
Yeung, A. and Berman, B., 1997, Adding value through human resources:
Reorienting human resource measurement to drive business performance, Human
Resources Management, Vol. 36, No 3, pp. 321335, available online, viewed
January 2014, <http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/
34580/4_ftp.pdf>.
Ulrich, D, 1997, Measuring human resources: An overview of practice and a
prescription for results, Human Resources Management, Vol. 36, No 3, pp. 303
320, available online, viewed January 2014, <http://www.e-rh.org/documents/
ISO/measuring-hr-kpi-for-hr.pdf>.
Ulrich, D., Younger, J., Brockbank, W., Ulrich, M., 2012, HR from the outside in: Six
competencies for the future of human resources, McGraw-Hill, USA. Ch. 10,
Appendix A: Ideas for how HR professionals can develop their competence and
Appendix B: HRCS Competency Self-assessment.

Section checklist
establish systems for gathering and storing information needed to provide human
resources services
survey clients to determine level of satisfaction
capture ongoing client feedback for the review processes
analyse feedback and surveys and recommend changes to service delivery
obtain approvals to variations in service delivery from appropriate managers
support agreed change processes across the organisation.

Section 4 Integrate Business Ethics in Human Resources Practices Student Workbook
Section 4 Integrate Business Ethics in

Human Resources Practices
This section is about managing the integration of business ethics in human resources
practices.
Scenario: Supporting an ethical business culture at Australian Hardware
According to the Australian Hardware code of conduct, employees and officers of

Australian Hardware are expected to:
respect and support the six core values of the organisation:
quality
performance excellence
value for investors, customers and employees
personal and professional development
diversity
sustainability
respect others and treat others fairly
act in accordance with relevant legislation, standards and industry codes of

practice
act honestly to protect the reputation of Australian Hardware
avoid conflict of interest
protect the privacy of others.
The organisations code of conduct has been designed to support the integration of
business ethics with elements of business planning, namely the business mission,
vision and strategic goals.
Connie needs to ensure business ethics are integrated into the way HR delivers
services. She will need to ensure communication and training are adequate; she will
also need to ensure delivery strategies embody and promote the values of the
organisation. Above all she will need to ensure HR personnel exemplify ethical business
partnering and leadership.

Student Workbook Section 4 Integrate Business Ethics in Human Resources Practices

ensure that personal behaviour is consistently ethical and reflects values of the
organisation
ensure that the code of conduct is observed across the organisation and that its
expectations are incorporated in human resources policies and practices
observe confidentiality requirements in dealing with all human resources

information
deal with unethical behaviour promptly
ensure that all persons responsible for the human resources functions are clear
about ethical expectations of their behaviour.
What are business ethics?

Business ethics can be defined as the study of what constitutes right and wrong, or good
and bad, human conduct in business context9.
Business ethics provide employees with the rules of how they should behave.
Organisations use documents such as codes of ethics and codes of conduct to
communicate to employees the expected behaviours.
Ethics and law

People often confuse ethics and law but they are different things. Breaking the law is
not always immoral and, equally, just because an action is legal does not mean that it is
morally right. For example:
An action can be illegal but morally right.

In 2007 Ms Janet Hinshaw-Thomas was arrested by Canadian authorities for
accompanying Haitians seeking asylum in Canada. She was charged with human
trafficking. Her lawyer said:
She is not running some kind of covert murky operation at all, she was doing this
on a purely humanitarian basis to assist refugees who are seeking asylum in a
country where they have a right to present their claims.
Ms Hinshaw-Thomas had advised the Canadian Border authorities five days prior to
her trip and had provided information as to the when she would arrive and how
9 Barry, V. and Shaw, W., 2001, Moral issues in business, Wadsworth, California, p. 4.

many refugees she had with her. Yet, she broke the law and could have spent the
rest of her life in prison for her actions.10
An action can be legal but morally wrong.

For example, executives can retrench a large number of employees and use the
cost savings from those retrenchments to pay themselves a higher salary or bonus.
Whilst this is unethical and morally wrong it is not illegal.
There are a number of pieces of legislation that apply to organisations and employees
that human resources professionals must ensure are complied with when providing
human resources services and support. As discussed in Section 1, these include:
Fair Work Act 2009
work/occupational health and safety (OHS/WHS) legislation
equal opportunity legislation
anti-discrimination legislation.
Organisations aim to address legal and ethical obligations by developing and promoting
the use of codes of ethics, codes of conducts, policies and procedures to ensure
employees understand and have the practical tools to implement ethical practices.
Human resources professionals are responsible for ensuring that both business ethics
and legal compliance are incorporated into all human resources policies and practices.
Business ethics is often incorporated into organisational strategic planning. For example,
organisational vision statements and values statements articulate ethical principles that
all employees are expected to adhere to. HR professionals are expected to implement
company values into service delivery strategies and exemplify ethical attributes such as
fairness and openness.
Learning activity: Business ethics
Consider your organisation or an organisation you wish to research.

What legal and ethical issues are relevant to your work or operations?
10Tchividjian, E., October 2007, Archive: ethical and illegal, Ruder Finn, viewed January 2014,
<http://www.ruderfinn.com/blogs/ethics/2007/10>.

How are legal and ethical issues managed by the organisation?
Codes of ethics and codes of conduct

Organisations use two documents to communicate expectations regarding business
ethics:
Codes of ethics Codes of conduct
Case study: The University of Western Australia Code of ethics
Use the link below to access the University of Western Australia Code of Ethics.
Code of ethics, University of Western Australia, viewed January 2014,
<http://www.hr.uwa.edu.au/publications/code_of_ethics>.
This is a good example of how codes of ethics apply in the workplace.
Codes of ethics
A code of ethics provides a set of guiding principles for the way in which employees
should behave. In comparison to a code of conduct, a code of ethics will tend to:
have a broader focus and provide general information with regards to expected
behaviour
provide guidance as to how employees should behave rather than what they must
do
set the foundation for an organisations code of conduct.
A code of ethics usually includes provisions such as:

that all employees should be treated with respect and dignity
the workplace is a safe and challenging environment where people can grow
professionally and personally.

Learning activity: Code of ethics
Obtain a copy of an organisations code of ethics and review the contents to answer the
questions below.
What principles does the code of ethics provide for employee behaviour?
What sort of workplace do you think these principles provide for?
Tip: If you are currently employed you can use your organisations code of ethics,
however, if you are not employed you can obtain an example by searching the internet
for code of ethics.
Codes of conduct
A code of conduct is a continuation of organisations code of ethics but it provides more
specific detail with regards to what behaviour is expected by the organisation. Codes of
conduct sometimes also include the consequences for employees for failing to meet
those expectations.
Below is an example of a code of conduct for the Australian Public Service Commission
(APS). You will note that it provides very specific details of how it expects employees to
behave.

Australian Public Service (APS)

Code of Conduct
APS employees are required, under the Code of
Conduct, to behave at all times in a way which
upholds the APS values.
The Code
The Code of Conduct requires that an employee must:
behave honestly and with integrity in the course of APS employment
act with care and diligence in the course of APS employment
when acting in connection with APS employment, treat everyone with respect and
courtesy, and without harassment
when acting in connection with APS employment, comply with all applicable
Australian laws
comply with any lawful and reasonable direction given by someone in the
employee's Agency who has authority to give the direction
maintain appropriate confidentiality about dealings that the employee has with
any Minister or Ministers member of staff
disclose, and take reasonable steps to avoid, any conflict of interest (real or
apparent) in connection with APS employment
use Commonwealth resources in a proper manner
not provide false or misleading information in response to a request for

information that is made for official purposes in connection with the employees
APS employment
not make improper use of:
inside information, or
the employees duties, status, power or authority in order to gain, or seek
to gain, a benefit or advantage for the employee or for any other person;
at all times behave in a way that upholds the APS Values and Employment
Principles, and the integrity and good reputation of the employees Agency and
the APS
while on duty overseas, at all times behave in a way that upholds the good
reputation of Australia
comply with any other conduct requirement that is prescribed by the regulations
(regulations available here).
Source: APS code of conduct, Australian Public Service Commission, viewed January
2014, <http://www.apsc.gov.au/aps-employment-policy-and-advice/aps-values-and-
code-of-conduct/code-of-conduct>.

Ensure the code of conduct is observed across the organisation

You will need to ensure that codes of ethics and codes of conduct are observed across
the organisation. As an HR professional, some of the ways you can do this include
ensuring HR policies and procedures such as recruitment policies or performance
management policies are consistent with codes of conduct. You will also need to
develop communication action plans to ensure that codes of conduct are understood and
able to be applied. You may need to undertake a training needs analysis to determine
teams or individual competencies with regard to the application or knowledge of ethical
practices and arrange required training.
You will need to show leadership by embodying the attributes and values described by the
code. You will need to:
be honest with internal and external clients: develop a reputation for truthfulness
ensure consistency and fairness in your personal behaviour
eliminate the fact or appearance of conflict of interest
monitor ethics and be seen to take ethical behaviour seriously.
Above all, you will need to act to redress breaches of the code, by acting immediately to
correct behaviour or bring the behaviour to the attention of designated persons.
Learning activity: Code of conduct
Obtain a copy of an organisations code of conduct and review the contents to answer
the questions below.
What specific behaviours does the code of conduct cover?
Does it make it clear to employees what is expected?

Does it include information regarding the consequences for failing to meet the detailed
expectations? If yes, what are the consequences?
Tip: If you are currently employed, you can use your organisations code of conduct,
however, if you are not employed you can obtain a copy by searching the internet for
code of conduct.
Human resources policies and practices

As noted above, when you are developing human resources policies and practices it is
important to incorporate the behaviour expectations detailed under the code of conduct
into work practices. For an organisations code of conduct to be effective in governing the
way in which employees behave towards internal personnel and external clients, the
expectations it sets out must be included in all policies and practices across the
organisation. This allows the code of conduct to come to life and have an impact across
the organisation.
For example, a human resources manager developing a recruitment policy for the APS
would need to incorporate the standards detailed in the APS code of conduct (see above).
As a result, their recruitment policy would need to include elements such as:
all applicants to be treated with respect and courtesy and without harassment
all applications will be treated as confidential and care and diligence will be
undertaken for all applications received
it is expected that all applicants provide honest information and in return honest
feedback will be provided
all applications will be regarded on merit and in accordance with anti-discrimination
and equal opportunity legislation
applicants and hiring managers must disclose, and take reasonable steps to avoid,
any conflict of interest (real or apparent) in connection with recruitment activities
applicants must not provide false or misleading information in response to a
request for information regarding their application
hiring managers must not make improper use of:
inside information, or
the employee's duties, status, power or authority, in order to gain, or seek to
gain, a benefit or advantage for any applicant
hiring managers must at all times behave in a way that upholds the APS values and
the integrity and good reputation of the APS.

As you will note in this example, by using the APS code of conduct as the foundation of
these elements, the recruitment policy then ensures that it provides hiring managers and
employees with specific information as to how they are expected to behave during the
recruitment process. This is an example of how human resources professionals can
integrate the code of conduct into human resources policies and practices.
Learning activity: Human resources policies and practices
Using the code of conduct you sourced in the previous activity Code of conduct, detail
the elements that would need to be included to integrate the organisations code of
conduct within a performance management policy.
(Use the APS recruitment policy elements example above to assist you with completing
this activity.)
Locate the Australian Hardware recruitment or performance management policies and
procedures on the IBSA simulated business website.
How have organisational values, ethical considerations and legal concerns been
integrated and written into these policies and procedures?
Note: Simulated business information, including business and operational plans,
financial information, and policies and procedures (including performance
management) can be located online at <http://simulations.ibsa.org.au/>.
Human resources team member behaviour

Human resources professionals must ensure that their personal behaviour is consistently
ethical and reflects the values of the organisation. They must ensure that they are
personally aware of the organisations code of ethics, code of conduct and values and
abide by these at all times.
Managers and employees often look to human resources team members as role models
of expected behaviours, and for this reason its critical that human resources team
members actions are in accordance with good business ethics and organisational values.
Human resources managers must ensure that their team members are clear about the
ethical expectations of their behaviour to ensure that the right behaviours are being role
modelled by the team.
Human resources managers can ensure team members are clear about the ethical
expectation of their behaviour through:
education regarding the organisations code of ethics, code of conduct and
organisational values
training regarding the practical application of the code of ethics and code of
conduct in the workplace using scenarios
debrief of recent business situations involving ethics and values during team
meetings to assist with learning what is expected.

Learning activity: Human resources team member behaviour
Answer the questions below.

How do you ensure that your behaviour is consistently ethical and reflects the values of
the organisation?
What strategies could you implement to ensure that your team behaves in a way that is
consistently ethical and reflects the values of the organisation?

Observe confidentiality requirements

One of the most important ethical expectations of human resources professionals is
maintaining confidentiality. Human resources professionals are exposed to large amounts
of confidential information regarding employees such as:
salaries and wages
performance
job applications
promotions
terminations (retrenchment and resignations).
Managers and employees expect that confidentiality of this information is maintained by

human resources departments. A break in this trust can have severe impacts on the
human resources teams ability to effectively support the business.
The human resources professionals business ethics are often put to the test regarding
confidentiality of information; however, it is important to recognise that confidentiality
must always be maintained except in very special circumstances, such as if there is a
threat to a persons life or if it is required to be disclosed by law.
Example: Retrenchment at Australian Hardware
Connie is currently working with the operations manager to identify a number of

employees who will be retrenched as a result of a downturn in sales.
Connie is good friends with one of the store managers, Patricia. Connie knows that
Patricia is very concerned that she may be made redundant, as her husband was made
redundant last month and has still not been able to find another job.
Patricia approaches Connie and asks her if she is going to be retrenched as she needs
as much notice as possible to ensure she has plenty of time to find another job as her
husband is still not working.
Connie tells Patricia that she cannot tell her if she is going to be retrenched as this
would be a breach of the organisations code of conduct, and the operations managers
trust.
Patricia starts to cry and begs Connie to tell her. Connie explains to Patricia again that
she cannot tell her. Patricia gets very annoyed and storms off crying. Connie feels
terrible but knows she has done the right thing. At this stage, the business is not in any
position to announce any retrenchment as no final decisions have been made, and if
she had told Patricia then, in fairness, all employees should be told.

Learning activity: Maintaining confidentiality
You are the HR manager at Savings Financial Solutions and have just assisted the
finance director to recruit a new accountant to join the accounting team. This team
have been disgruntled for some time regarding their salaries and have been asking the
finance director for a pay rise which has been refused.
You are good friends with Simon, one of the accountants. On the weekend you are
having dinner with Simon and he explains that he is upset because he has heard the
new accountant is being paid $10,000 more than he is. He says he is thinking he will
leave as this is unfair. You know this is not true and in actual fact the new accountant
is being paid less than Simon.
How would you respond to Simon?
Deal with unethical behaviour

It is essential that all unethical behaviour is dealt with promptly. Failing to address issues
quickly can send a message to employees that the organisation accepts or condones the
behaviour and therefore it is acceptable. Addressing unethical behaviour promptly sends
a strong message to employees that the behaviour will not be tolerated.
Addressing unethical behaviour

All breaches of an organisations code of conduct must be investigated and dealt with.
The typical process for addressing unethical behaviour is as follows.
1. Receive the complaint or information regarding the breach.
2. Advise the employee of the issue.
3. Investigate the breach speak to any witnesses.
4. Present the outcomes of your investigation to the employee and provide them with
time to consider the allegations and respond.
5. Determine the seriousness of the breach by considering:
a. the employees response to the allegations
b. if their actions were provoked in any way
c. any potentially mitigating circumstances.

6. Determine and implement the appropriate course of action, such as:

a. termination (instant dismissal is appropriate for some serious breaches of
the code of conduct, e.g. assaulting another employee)
b. first written warning
c. first and final written warning.
Human resources professionals must ensure that they have considered the
organisations policies and procedures for dealing with breaches of the code of conduct
before taking any action. It is also critical that human resources professionals consider
the legislative requirements applicable to dealing with breach of the code of conduct for
their organisation.
Learning activity: Cases involving unethical behaviour
Use the following links to access cases where employees have been dismissed for
breaching their organisations code of conduct or for unethical behaviour.
Review each of the cases and answer the following questions.
Case 1
Timothy Presbury vs. Australian Rail Track Corporation Limited
(U2009/12786) Fair Work Australia, viewed January 2014,
<http://www.fwa.gov.au/decisionssigned/html/2010fwa2282.htm>.
How did the employee breach the code of conduct or behave unethically?
What was the basis of the employees termination?

Did the commission support termination? Why or why not?
What does this case teach you about dealing with breaches of the code of conduct or
unethical behaviour in the workplace?
Case 2
Ms Jennifer Delaney vs. Parramatta Leagues Club Limited
(U2009/11060) Fair Work Australia, viewed January 2014,

Did the commission uphold the termination? Why or why not?
Case 3
Martine Magers vs. Department of Health and Ageing
(U2008/8103), Fair Work Australia, viewed January 2014,

Did the commission uphold the termination? Why or why not?
Learning activity: Dealing with unethical behaviour
You are the human resources manager at Black and White Printing. You have just
received information from a manager that one of your human resources team members
has disclosed the details of an employee in the printing teams performance
management program to other employees in the printing team.
Detail the steps you would take to deal with alleged breach.

As a result of your investigation you have established that your team member did in
fact disclose this confidential information. The employees response to the allegation
was that it was stupid mistake. He was out with the printing team on Friday night at the
pub and one of the team asked him what was happening regarding this particular
employee, to which he responded that the employee is on performance management
program and is now on his second warning.
What action would you take and why?
Section summary
You should now understand how to manage the integration of business ethics in human
resources practices.
Further reading
Australian Public Service Commission, APS code of conduct, viewed January 2014,
<http://www.apsc.gov.au/aps-employment-policy-and-advice/aps-values-and-code-
of-conduct/code-of-conduct>.
Barry, V. and Shaw, W., 2001, Moral issues in business, Wadsworth, California.
McGraw-Hill Australia, Ch. 15.
St James Ethics Centre, 2012, Codes of ethics, viewed January 2014
<http://www.ethics.org.au/about/what-is-ethics>.

Section checklist
ensure that personal behaviour is consistently ethical and reflects values of the
organisation
ensure that code of conduct is observed across the organisation and that its
expectations are incorporated in human resources policies and practices
observe confidentiality requirements in dealing with all human resources

information
deal with unethical behaviour promptly
ensure that all persons responsible for the human resources functions are clear
about ethical expectations of their behaviour.

Glossary Student Workbook
Glossary
Term Definition
Appraisal Refers to performance appraisal. See Performance appraisal.
Balanced scorecard A method of measuring or presenting performance information

for an organisation. Balanced scorecards measure an
organisations performance based on a number of different but
equally important perspectives , for example:
the perspective of the shareholder:
financial goals
return on investment
process or management efficiency
the perspective of the customer (customer focus):
customer value
environmental responsibility
market share
the perspective of the employee:
professional development and training

opportunity, fairness.
All perspectives are important for the organisations

sustainability as a profitable, marketable and capable
enterprise.
Business partnering An approach to providing services in which HR personnel play

the role of collaborator with management at various levels of the
organisation to support the achievement of business goals
through strategic performance management, recruitment,
training, etc.
A key feature of the business partnering approach is the
emphasis on business and customer needs as opposed to
internal, bureaucratic HR needs.
Capability Capability may be used as a synonym for competence when

applied to individuals; however, it is often used in the context of
discussing the potential of a workforce for implementing
strategic directions. Unlike competence, capability can apply to
organisations as a whole.

Student Workbook Glossary
Term Definition
Centres of An HR unit composed of specialists in recruitment, training,

excellence (or employee relations, for example, who provide services to other
expertise) business units, usually under some form of the shared services
model.
Classic HR model David Ulrich and others developed an HR model, often referred
to as the classic HR model but also known as the three-legged
stool model or the business partner model. It comprises three
elements:
business partners
shared services
centres of excellence (or expertise).
Client In the HR context of this workbook, client refers to an

individual, team or department that is receiving HR services.
Competence A quality of individuals who can perform adequately in a job role.

More technically, competence is the ability to perform a job role
or function to a desired standard.
Divisional structure A management or organisational structure in which employees

are grouped by division. Divisions may be services, products or
ranges of products. A division may extend through the entire life-
cycle of a product from design to production to marketing and
sales.
Flat structure An organisational structure consisting of few management levels

as opposed to a hierarchical structure. Flat structures are typical
of small organisations.
Functional structure A management or organisational structure in which employees

are grouped according to role or task, for example:
sales team
production team
administration team
accounting team.
Hierarchical The opposite of flat structure, i.e., having many levels of

structure management. As organisations grow, they tend to become more
complex and hierarchical.
Horizontal See integration.

integration

Term Definition
HR models HR models provide frameworks for structuring the delivery of HR

in organisations. A number of HR models exist. Basic HR models
include:
traditional HR model
classic HR model.
HR structures A way of delivering HR services to organisations through the

adoption of one systematic organisation of resources or several
compatible approaches. Some examples include:
shared services
centres of excellence (or expertise)
centralised HR
dedicated HR.
HR structures may include some implications for organisational

structure and accountabilities overall. For example, shared
services may involve a matrix structure in which HR officers
report to both a central HR and line managers; dedicated HR
units are common in holding companies, which generally do not
have a central HR.
Integration In the HR context, integration usually refers to ensuring that the

HR strategy, policies and procedures are appropriately designed
to fit with the overall organisational strategy, vision, mission,
policies and procedures.
Horizontal integration: Ensuring that all policies and processes
that exist for a single level of the organisation (such as a single
team or department) are developed so that they complement
and inform each other.
Vertical integration: Ensuring that policies and processes at
every level of the organisation (such as at a senior management
level and a work team level) are all informed and influenced by
the work requirements and individuals at every level.
Key performance Performance measures that focus on achieving results that are
indicators (KPI) seen as critical to the success of the organisation.
Indicators may be lagging or leading:
lagging: measures that indicate past performance
leading: measures that predict future performance.

Student Workbook Glossary
Term Definition
Management The way the organisation is structured to facilitate decision-

structure making, control, and communication to achieve its goals.
Common structures include:
functional
divisional
matrix.
Structure may also be described as flat or hierarchical.
Matrix structure A management or organisational structure in which employees

are answerable to functional as well as cross-functional
managers. For example a sales person may report to the sales
manager as well as a project manager working on launching a
new product range. Matrix structures combine some aspects of
divisional and functional structures to gain flexibility, adaptability
and flow of communication and expertise. In the context of
performance management, the appraisals process and
development process may benefit, for example, from the input
of at least two managers.
A possible drawback of matrix structures is that lines of authority
may be blurred and more complex to manage.
Performance A formal review of employee performance. Also known as a

appraisal performance review.
Performance A quality goal to integrate all business activities to create

excellence improved results for customers and stakeholders.
Performance A management system to boost employee performance and the

management productivity of the organisation.
Usually a system overseen by HR personnel.
Performance A three-stage management system that includes: setting

management performance goals, creating performance standards, monitoring
system (PMS) performance, rewarding excellence in performance and working
towards continual improvements.
Self-appraisal Employees provide feedback on their own performance.

Term Definition
Service level Service level agreements (SLAs) are written agreements

agreement (SLA) between a party delivering a service (such as providing
recruitment support) and a party receiving a service (such as
receiving recruitment support).
The service provider may be an external organisation, or could
be an internal service provider (such as an HR service
department providing a service to the wider organisation).
Shared services An organisational arrangement for delivery of services whereby

an organisations business units share the services of a single
provider. The costs of services are shared between the units and
the central provider; similarly, those providing HR services within
business units may be accountable to both the central or
corporate HR and their immediate manager. A commonly noted
advantage of shared services is that it tends to foster a
cooperative approach within organisations and break down
organisational silos.
Stakeholder All those people who have an interest in a task or system you
are completing or modifying. These may include customers,
partners, employees, shareholders, owners, government, and
regulators.
Three-legged stool See Classic HR model.

model
Traditional HR The traditional HR model is characterised by a either a single

model team of HR generalists, HR specialists (such as industrial
relations experts, recruitment experts or training experts) and
administration, or several teams organised by business units or
locations in accordance with the corporate strategy for the
delivery of HR services.
Vertical integration See integration.

Student Workbook Appendix DuPonts new HR model
Appendix DuPonts new HR model

DuPont is a company that operates in more than 90 countries, introducing new products
and tackling challenges with innovation and science. As in every organisation, the
success of DuPont largely depends on the skills and commitments of its employees. As
such, HR is one of DuPonts top priorities.
Two challenges
In order to have an efficient HR function, DuPont realised that each country having their
own processes for managing people results in a considerable duplication of work. For
example, the HR/employee ratio (employees per dedicated HR person) in the company
was 1/60, while 1/100 is closer to industry best practice. One of the main goals of
DuPonts European HR transformation was therefore to improve that ratio, while
maintaining or even increasing HRs value to the business units.
It was in the year 2000 when Tim Farrell, at the time HR Director for Europe, noticed that
the companys HR function faced two challenges:
the roles and responsibilities of HR were unclear
a large part of HR activities were transactional (administrative).
Based on these facts, a project team was created in 2001 in order to complete a
benchmarking study and to come up with solutions to overcome these challenges. The
proposal included an updated integrated HR platform for EMEA (SAP 4.6C) and four
options.
Choosing a suitable model

The new HR platform was the technological base that helped to drive standardisation
across the 28 countries of the region. Furthermore the multinational has the critical size
to centralise process delivery and achieve cost savings. The proposal of the project team
included the following options:
Option 1, the portfolio approach:

Each unit has a devolved HR function and can decide how to run its HR services. In this
model, different processes would be tolerated, or even encouraged. This model is clearly
decentralised and allows flexibility for all organisations.
Option 2, the common processes and technology approach:

Common policies and practice standards are adopted in all business units across the
region. There is a corporate HR function involved in policy design and practice
coordination. HR service delivery is largely based at site level. This model is a mix of a
centralised corporate HR function and a decentralised delivery with standardised process.

Appendix DuPonts new HR model Student Workbook
Option 3, the shared services approach:

Countries and business units share a common approach for HR processes, with service
delivery from one or more shared service centres across the region. This model has
centralised and standardised processes; both together are expected to realise economy
of scale.
Option 4, the outsourcing approach:

DuPont outsources all HR services to one supplier across the region. All countries and
business units share a common HR service and approach delivered by the outsourcing
provider. Through this model, economy of scale is created by centralising and
standardising processes. Additionally, cost savings can be achieved by outsourcing the
services to an experienced vendor.11
11 Adapted from: Josefowitz, O., 2008, The Global HR Delivery Model (Diploma thesis, Haute cole
de Gestion de Genve) viewed January 2014, retrieved from: <http://doc.rero.ch/lm.php?url=

1000,41,9,20090123123638-DM/Travail_de_Diplome_Olivier_Josefowitz_V1_2.pdf>.


BSBHRM501 Student Workbookpdf 2001

Cargado por

Información del documento

Derechos de autor

Formatos disponibles

Compartir este documento

Compartir o incrustar documentos

Opciones para compartir

¿Le pareció útil este documento?

¿Este contenido es inapropiado?

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

BSBHRM501 Student Workbookpdf 2001

Cargado por

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

1st Edition

Part of a suite of support materials for the

Structure of the training program

BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services 1st edition version: 1

1st edition version: 1 BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services

Section 1 Develop Human Resources

Scenario: Aligning HR to the business vision at Australian Hardware

Australian Hardware (a simulated business) is a large and expanding hardware and

maintain or increase market share

control direct and indirect operational costs

maintain superior product and service quality standards

establish reputation of Australian Hardware as a socially and environmentally

As part of supporting these strategic approaches, Australian Hardware intends to review

What skills will you need?

analyse business strategy and operational plans to identify human resources

consult with managers to identify human resources needs in their areas

review the organisation's requirements for workplace diversity

BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services 1st edition version: 1

develop HR options that comply with legislative requirements, organisational

Human resources requirements

consult with managers to determine needs.

1st edition version: 1 BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services

Learning activity: Strategies to deliver HR services

Consider your organisational an organisation you would like to research.

How are services delivered?

Who delivers the services? For example:

Does the organisations HR employ an overall strategy or strategies to deliver HR

BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services 1st edition version: 1

How is the strategy linked to the organisations goals and objectives?

1st edition version: 1 BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services

Strategic and operational plans

Who are we? The organisations vision and values.

The organisations current strengths, weaknesses,

Where do we want to be? The organisations long-term mission and goals.

The strategies and actions that will be implemented to

Learning activity: Accessing strategic and operational plans

Consider your organisation or an organisation you would like to research. If possible,

What are the organisations strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats?

BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services 1st edition version: 1

What is the organisations vision for the future?

What are the organisations goals?

Simulated business information can be located online at

1st edition version: 1 BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services

Aligning the human resources strategy

Corporate strategy Human resources strategies

Retrenchment Redundancies, wage reduction, productivity increases, job

Aggressive recruiting and hiring, rapid wage rises, job creation,

Managed turnover, selective redundancies, organisational

Specialised job creation, elimination of other jobs, specialised

Selective redundancies, transfers/replacement/job

BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services 1st edition version: 1

Learning activity: Strategic and operational plans

Strategic goal HR Strategy

1st edition version: 1 BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services

Analysis of strategic and operational plans

Reviewing diversity-related goals

Learning activity: Interpreting strategic and operational plans

Vision, values and

BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services 1st edition version: 1

Human resources professionals must have a good understanding of the organisations

1st edition version: 1 BSBHRM501B Manage human resources services

Review external business environment

mandatory compliance with industry codes of practice

legislation that affects business operations such as: