Unit 1: Module One - Sections 1-1, 1-2

Section 1.1
Reading: Read Section 1.1 The HR Profession Our discussion begins with the definition of HRM or Human Resource Management. National Organization I want to spend a minute telling you about some common things that make up a profession. Generally there is a National Organization. I think you probably know the National Organization for the Human Resource Profession is SHRM or the Society for Human Resource Management. SHRM has over 230,000 members. They are truly the voice of the profession. Code of Ethics Another standard feature of a profession is a Code of Ethics. Like all other professions, HR has a Code of Ethics for its practitioners. Please take a minute to review the Code of Ethics for the profession at the following URL. http://shrm.org/ethics/ As you can see the SHRM code for our profession covers many key areas such as:

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ETHICAL LEADERSHIP FAIRNESS AND JUSTICE CONFLICTS OF INTEREST USE OF INFORMATION

In each of these core areas, SHRM gives us a section on the Core Principles associated with the area as well as the Intent and Guiding Principles.

Reflection Question: Was there anything that surprised you about the Code of Ethics for our profession? Why do you think you were surprised about something? Note: Occasionally I will post a reflection question in the online lecture material. You do not need to answer this question anywhere, just think about it.

Body of Knowledge Another key feature of a profession is that the profession should have a body of knowledge and a Credentialing Method. As most of you know the HR Profession has a very extensive body of knowledge. It covers nearly 8 pages of text! (Please see the copy of the SHRM HR Body of Knowledge at the end of this lesson.)

Credentialing Body For those of you who dont know, our profession has a credentialing body as well. That is the H R Certification Institute. HRCI certifications require professionals to demonstrate their expertise in the core principles of HR practice and the application of those principles. Currently there are four areas of certification. They are: PHR Professional in Human Resources SPHR Senior Professional in Human Resources GPHR Global Professional in Human Resources PHR-CA and SPHR-CA (PHR with state certification in California and SPHR with state certification in California) If you wish to learn more about HRCI certification you can find all of the information you need at http://www.hrci.org You may wish to order a certification guide or download the PDF file to your computer. I hope that by the end of this course, a good number of you will go on to achieve professional certification. Please fell free to write me an email about it if you want to talk about certification. Core Practice Areas In HR we normally pool our extensive knowledge into 6 core areas of

practice. Strategic Management Workforce Planning and Employment Human Resource Development Total Rewards Employee and Labor Relations Risk Management Our studies throughout this course will touch on each of these key core areas of practice. The Body of Knowledge is updated on a regular basis. The last major update was in January of 2007. I should also tell you that some people who work in our profession may specialize in one core area. So for example if my HR career is focused on Compensation and Benefits I would be called a specialist. If I am a one person HR function or if I manage most of the core areas listed above, I would be called a generalist. The profession has moved more toward a generalist focus because a generalist does a little bit of everything and often organizations must rely on HR professionals to be proficient in all areas. Lets take a quick look at what each core area encompasses. Strategic Management is at the center of the other core areas as you will note in the third power point slide for this module. It is the key area that we look at when we try to implement company strategy and build a culture. We will be talking about strategic management in this module. Workforce Planning This area looks at selection, placement, promotions, demotions and terminations. We will be looking at workforce planning in Module Three on Recruitment and Selection. Human Resource Development - This function is concerned with keeping the talent base in an organization fully capable of meeting the needs of tomorrow. So here we will look at training and development of employees. We will cover this topic in Module 5. Total Rewards We will delve into this topic when we study Module 4 on Compensation and Benefits. The term total rewards came into common

practice about 4 years ago. Our focus on compensation and benefits really does encompass a lot more than just how we pay people and what their benefits are. Here we will look at compensation system design and a whole bucket of benefit items. Employee and Labor Relations - This section of our profession focuses on managing the relationships between the organization and the employee as well as managing the process in a unionized environment. We will be talking a bit about employee management in Module 5 in our discussion of Performance Management. Risk Management The final focus is risk management. This area use to be called Health, Safety and Security. You can see that it covers a lot just from that perspective. After the events of 9-11 as well as the devastation that Hurricane Katrina brought we were forced to look at risk in a whole new light. What if you lost one half of your workforce in one day? How can we protect ourselves from security risks. How can we keep our employees safe on the job and off? All of these items are covered in the risk management function. Many large organizations have entire departments devoted to this issue. In smaller organizations, the HR professional may have some tasks related to risk management especially as it applies to injured workers and workers compensation. As you read through Section 1.1 please note the key competencies that Wayne Brockbank and Dave Ulrich have developed for SHRM. These cornerstone competencies are also updated regularly. This group was developed from a survey completed in 2007.

Assignment: As you look though the material in this section of the

text, think about what one thing you like the best in your role. In the TD area entitled What I Like Most about my HR job, please share your thoughts with the class. This is a good place for me to point out the small icons at the top of this page. You can select the push pin when you are asked to go to a Threaded Discussion topic. It will take you directly to the TDs for this module. There are also next and previous page navigation buttons available. The funny looking icon with the ruler is where you will find your assignments.

After completing your assignment for this Module please move on to Section 1.2 and complete the TDs and Assignments by the due date.

Section 1.2 Strategic and Human Resource Planning

Please read Section 1.2 in the text.
Three key rolls or areas of focus that HR usually has are Strategic, Operational, and Administrative. Strategic Just briefly, the Strategic Role is usually known as having a seat at the table. This means being involved with top management on all key decisions. When you think about it, this make sense since most everything a company does is related in one way or another to the talent or people that are part of the organization. Strategy formulation starts with the organizations mission, vision and values statement. Strategy development might begin with a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) or an environmental scan using 8 Radar Screens. (See 8 Radar Screens in this online section.) Something to Think About: It is important for HR professionals to stay current in the profession. Think about how you stay current. Is it effective? How often do you evaluate what is happening in the marketplace in regards to your industry?

Assignment: Strategic Planning

In the TD are entitled Strategic Planning, please tell us if your organization conducts a strategic planning session and how often they do it. If you do an environmental scan instead, please tell us about that too. Based on our environmental scan and SWOT analysis, the company will set both short term and long term objectives.. Think for a minute about how the term long term has changed in the last 10 years.. For software companies long term could be six months.

Often such companies get products out to the public before they are even done with their Bata testing. Other organizations have longer time horizons, but for the most part long term has shrunk to mean 1-3 years. In the Strategy Implementation Phase HR might be helping define a step by step approach to accomplishing Short Term Objectives. This could involve training, adding more talent with different skill levels, or in some cases, rightsizing and downsizing. Operational In the operational function, HR takes care of the day-to-day activities and tasks of selection, placement, training, performance management, compensating employees, managing benefits and producing communication on a host of issues. This is the area that often gets outsourced.

Assignment: So here is our next TD Question:

In the TD area entitled Outsourcing, please list the types of activities that your organization outsources. Please also list a few items that need to be considered in the area of outsourced vendor management. In this area we also see HR Workforce Planning which includes evaluating and forecasting supply and demand of individuals and developing HR programs and activities such as replacement charts, succession planning and conducting exit interviews. With the great exodus of the Baby Boomers from the workplace, (this started last year as the first of the BB generation turned 60), organizations are also going to have to be concerned with the brain drain that this could cause. Just think if the market improves and everyone over the age of 60 in your organization retires at the same time, how would you handle that? Some organizations have taken a standard organization chart and put the activities and knowledge that rests in that position instead of the name of an individual in each square. This can be a good start to evaluating how you are going to transfer that knowledge to other workers and looking at your bench strength in key positions.

Assignment:
Has your organization conducted any analysis on the issue of potential

mass retirement of baby boomers? Please answer this question in the TD area entitled Baby Boomers. If you have, what plans do you have to replace their knowledge as an important part of your brain trust leaves the organization?

Administrative
Here is where we see all of the surveys, maintaining HRIS systems, employee record keeping, EEO reports, Legal issues. Again, some of these functions have been outsourced so that HR can concentrate on employee issues and more strategic planning activities. In the suggested reading section for this module you will see a Text by John Jackson and Robert Mathis. The Human Resource Management textbook is considered the gold standard in HRM texts. I have used it many times in the classroom for undergrad HRM courses that I teach. Please continue on to the Activity for Module One. After completing the activity for Module One in this site, please go to the LearnHRM site site and complete the post module quiz for Mod One. ete the activity again and get a note on the correct answers.