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Mentoring Makes a Difference

By: Justin Orow

Overview

Everyone learns in a different way.  Some people can hop right on to a new job or a new task at work and understand it and teach them self along the way, but on the other hand there are those who need proper training for any new task at hand.  The most elementary way in which people learn, and one of the best is through behavior modeling, or copying someone else’s behavior (Mathis & Jackson, 2010).  When I hear this I automatically think of having a personal trainee or a mentor to show you the ropes and be there for all your falls to help you be a successful employee.  Mentors can be very beneficial for employees that are not sure of their career path or future with a company.

Article Description/Connection to Text                                                          

The article highlights situations in which young employees that needed someone to help mold them in to the kind of employee there job needs.  There are many benefits to having a mentor such as answering tough questions for a young employee who is not sure of their career path or the industry they are working in, getting more familiar with company policies and procedures and some of the other normality’s on the job that the new employee might not know about, getting to know clients better, and improving their networking skills.  Some companies have formal mentoring programs that pair a young employee with a seasoned worker (Ensign, March 2012).  Mentoring helps with all the types of training such as interpersonal and problem-solving, developmental and career training.  Developmental and career training provides longer-term focus to enhance individual and organizational capabilities for the future, while interpersonal and problem solving addresses both operational and interpersonal problems and seeks to improve organizational working relationships (Mathis & Jackson, 2010).  Mentoring can aid employees in any type of training.  The improving networking skills goes hand in hand with the interpersonal and problem solving training as it seeks to improve organizational working relationships.  It meets the goal of developmental and career training as it pursues to provide longer-term focus to enhance individual and organizational capabilities for the future, mentoring can help young employees with their career path which help provide the long term focus.  Mentors will become friends, but employees must be careful to not become too personal and share particulars about their personal life, the relationship has to stay professional.  The article also suggests that maybe sometimes its best that the employee finds a mentor within the industry but outside your employer, as they can help you with a broader perspective on your profession.  

Take Away Points

Mentors can help a young nervous and anxious employee get familiar with little things like procedures and rules at work, or much bigger things like landing a new job or advancement within the company.  When searching for a mentor, young employees should be careful to pick the right mentor.  Companies should start looking in to formal mentoring programs if they already haven’t.   This will help young workers get situated in new jobs and help young workers who are looking for a mentor but don’t know how to go about it if the company will already pair them with someone through a situated program. 

Works Cited

Ensign, R. ( 2012, March 31).  Benefits of a Mentor. The Wall Street Journal.                                  Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303404704577309750220810364.html?KEYWORDS=human+resource+managment

Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2010). Human resource management. (13 ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

The Power of Human Talent

By: Kelly Barnhard

Overview

Aligning human talent effectively and efficiently to achieve organizational goals is the core principle behind human resource management. Traditionally, majority of an organizations attention would be centered around economic capital, which is the financial and tangible assets. However, today’s environment requires a larger degree of flexibility, innovation and effectively developing and managing human capital in order to sustain organizational performance. In terms of strategic planning, which is defining an organizations strategy, human capital must be fully integrated in the decision making process if the organization desires to pursue their strategy.  The article I will be referencing not only emphasizes the importance of human capital, but also takes it a step further. Specifically, it goes beyond economic, social, and human capital and embraces what the articles terms as “positive psychological capital”.

Article Description/Connection to Text

The article, Positive psychological capital: Beyond human and social capital, reveals how to expand capital for greater competitive advantage. The article’s content declares that psychological capital lies beyond human and social capital and basically consists of “who you are” rather than what or who you know. Specifically, the article guides the reader through four positive psychological capacities of confidence, hope, optimism and resilience. The following paragraphs will describe how these four points pertain to the business world today and how they contribute to positive psychological capital. Particularly, how these points improve performance, productivity, customer service, and employee retention.

• Confidence: An individuals conviction of his or hers ability to perform a task is strongly linked to positive work-related performance.
• Hope: Having a positive motivational state can impact how one performs.
• Optimism: By interpreting bad events as being only temporary and making specific attributions can lead to desirable workplace outcomes, and higher performance and retention.
• Resilience: If leaders, associates, and overall organizations can bounce back from hard times then desired outcome are more attainable.

This article explores the possibility of creating a greater competitive appeal through the use of human talent, which greatly relates to our text. In the first chapter of our text, we are informed that managing people as human resources is essential to accomplishing organizational goals. Specifically, how people in organizations can be a core competency which can differentiate them from competitors. Our text states that it is not solely the people that add value, rather it is their capabilities, knowledge, skills, and life experiences. The four positive psychological capacities discussed in the article are what the people bring and contribute to organizational success.  

Take Away Points

There is no question that an organization’s human capital and social capital have significant roles in an organizations success. However, this article goes beyond both of these types of assets and embraces positive psychological capital. What can be gained from this concept is that people should be viewed as human assets. The practical guidelines and the four psychological points discussed in this article can be used to achieve desirable performance, increase productivity, and improve customer service and retention. After reading this article, we can better recognize the importance of the human factor  and the  role it plays in an effective organization.

Works Cited

Luthans, F., Nielson, T., Grant-Vallone, E. (2004). Positive psychological capital: Beyond human and social capital. Business Horizons, 45-50. Retrieved from http://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=Human+capital+improved+performance+of+HR&hl=en&as_sdt=0,23

Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2010). Human resource management. (13 ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Gender Diversity in Deutsche Telekom

By: Erin Galloway

Overview

Over generations women have come a long way in the realm of gaining equality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII makes it illegal to discriminate against any individual in respect to compensation, conditions or privileges. Also, the government has put into place an affirmative action plan, that  employees are urged to hire groups of people based on their race, age, gender, or national origin to make up for historical discrimination (Mathis & Jackson, p. 80). Since, Deutsche Telekom is worldwide these laws only focus on the subsidiaries in the United States and the other subsidiaries outside of the United States are struggling, for example Germany.

Explanation of Article/Connection to the Text

The article that I chose to look into has to do with reaching a gender goal within Deutsche Telekom and how they are acquiring new techniques of recruiting. First off, Deutsche Telekom is the largest telecommunications company in Europe and is headquartered in Germany. In March of 2010 the CEO Rene Obermann announced that women are going to make up 30 percent of senior and middle executives by 2015. Obermann felt this was necessary because a study done by the German Institute for Economic Research uncovered that only 2 percent of all executive committees were women (Clark, 2011). Since Telekom is headquartered in Germany and a third of the workforce resides in Germany, this change needed to occur to acquire more diversity. Telekom in Germany only has 13 percent women in senior and middle management, much lower than the other subsidiaries within the company. Since Germany is a country that is very reluctant on having women in the top ranks, recruiting became very difficult. Deutsche Telecom initially recruited internally but now need to follow a whole different path to recruit these women to meet the quotas set by legislature. Telekom’s recruiting efforts followed what the text suggested as alternative ways of recruiting. For example, Telekom started to recruit externally to broaden their range of recruits to reach more women. Also, Telekom has offered to help women with a more flexible work schedule to make working for them more desirable. Telekom has improved their hiring of women college graduates to 53%, which Telekom puts these women into internal programs to groom them into future leaders. Even though Telekom has changed their recruiting process drastically they are still falling short in acquiring women to fill these senior and middle management positions in Germany. The culture in Germany see women as mothers and once they have children they should stay home and not come back to work. Once this became a norm it has been difficult to find women that are willing to come back to work after having children. The culture in Germany has hindered women in the workforce for many years, and it is going to be a difficult and long process to overturn this norm. However, Telekom can learn one additional recruiting technique that another organizational put into place which was creating a database of top women in the workforce. This database allowed them to have a place to look for top executive women, who were looking for jobs.

Take Away Points

There are many take away points that I gained from this article. First off, change is difficult for any organization, especially when the culture has been set for decades.  Top executives need to realize changing culture and the structure of a business will be costly and time consuming. For example, shifting the culture within an organization can anger many employees and many may quit, but diversity is a key to success and will be beneficial in the future. Diversity within the workforce allows the organization to broaden their target market and possibly increase profits. Also, by changing your recruiting aspects and hiring criteria it will allow you to target the group of individuals that you would like to hire more of. Lastly,, gender diversity or any diversity within an organization allows for the flow of different ideas which can be beneficial to improving the organization as a whole. 

Works Cited

Clark, N. (2011, October 02). Deutsche Telekom struggles with gender goal. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/business/global/deutsche-telekom-struggles-with-gender-goal.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&sq=Human Resource improvements&st=cse&scp=7

Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2010). Human resource management. (13 ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

HR Restructures for Relevance

By: Stacey Muscat

Overview

Organizational restructuring involves eliminating layers of management and changing reporting relationships, as well ac cutting staff through downsizing, layoffs, and early retirement buyout programs (Mathis & Jackson, 2010). In today’s global economy, companies are in an intense competition amongst each other to stay on top, and in recent times, to at least stay afloat. Human Resource Managers have the difficult task of keeping a company’s human capital in line with the organization’s “tone at the top.” Alignment of the organizational culture and HR helps organizational performance (Mathis & Jackson, 2010). When an organization decides to restructure, human resource managers have to get everybody on board with the goal. It is difficult to provide top quality at the lowest price, this principle is true even when it comes to employees. It is also difficult to restructure because of limited resources, how people view the value of HR, employee fear, and reducing “personal touch” (Nadel, 2002). The article I found in BNA’s Human Resource Professional Information Center took tactics from different companies on how to successfully restructure and what restructuring HR means for businesses.

Article Description/Connection to Text

The article, To Avoid Irrelevance, HR Must Restructure, Reduce Costs, Be Strategic, Speakers Say, describes the demands the HR department faces and how to implement changes. The demand for HR restructuring continues to grow as the economy becomes more global, but the cuts sometimes undervalue HR.

The article mentions how HR is being pressured to provide high quality service at lower costs which means that they must develop human capital while cutting costs. Row Henson of Peoplesoft says that at a certain point, trying to cut cost so much is detrimental to employer goals, but that it goes unnoticed because HR may still not be recognized as contributing to the bottom line, but since good human resources involves having the right people at the right time, we know that HR must be at the heart of enhancing organizational culture (Mathis & Jackson, 2010) and should not be looked at as an area to reduce the cost of doing business.

Redesigning work often involves having fewer employees who work longer hours and perform multiple task jobs. It may also involve replacing workers with capital equipment or making them more efficient by use of technology or new processes (Mathis & Jackson, 2010). RR. Donnelly had to reduce its HR staff by 40 percent by seeking to make work more efficient and determining which functions could be offloaded. Changes RR. Donnelly made included a new service center for employees and managers seeking routine HR questions. This was strategic; it made the human capital happy because they had a place to get direct answers, and it made HR more efficient because there was no longer the question of whose job it was to answer these questions. Technology came into play redesigning the work at R.R. Donnelly when a web-based portal for daily transactions reduced two to three days worth of work to two to three hours; the use of Web-based information systems has allowed the HR unit in organizations to become more administratitvely efficient (Mathis & Jackson, 2010).

Because HR is not always considered as meaningful to a business, focuses may be in the wrong place. HR cannot focus on its own needs, but needs to focus on the needs of the business. HR is about quality, speed, and cost (Nadel, 2002). The article mentions that HR restructuring can be a mess, but that when HR shows success in contributing to a business, its vitality to business is recognized.

Take Away Points 

I think the importance of HR is being recognized more and more, especially after the economic recession. The HR department in many companies was responsible for the rebuilding of business. I think it is hard for any company to undergo a restructure in their HR department, because it is like the lifeline of the company, even when people believe it is not. It is important for young professionals, no matter which area of study, to realize the value of a strategic and efficient HR department. HR professionals will want to demonstrate the importance of the field, and a future CFO needs to understand that it will be up to his/her HR department to restructure human capital as well as organizational goals when need be.  HR majors currently in school should really graduate knowing how much potential they have to be leaders for a company, not just as people who sit behind the scenes.

Works Cited

Nadel, S. (2002). To avoid irrelevance, hr must restructure, reduce costs, be strategic, speakers say. BNA, 20(43), Retrieved from http://subscript.bna.com/pic2/hr2pic.nsf/id/BNAP-5FKPGP?OpenDocument&PrintVersion=Yes

Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2010). Human resource management. (13 ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

HR Becoming More Difficult for Managers

By: Justin Orow

Overview

Keeping employee turnover rates low is a top priority for most companies since replacing those employees can be very costly.  The tangible rewards that people receive for working come in the form of pay, incentives, and benefits (Mathis & Jackson 2010). There are many drivers to retention, ranging from compensation, career training and development, employee supervisor relationships, management factors, and job and work life.  There are substantial steps that can be taken to retain employees.  People and types of jobs differ so reasons employees leave and steps needed to retain employees will also vary,  Making it ever more difficult to make general assumptions about one age group or work force compared to the other.

Article Description/Connection to Text

The article “for generation y, succeeding at a young age is key” talks about the young workforce ages twenty to thirty.  The article mentions that most people of that age group are worried about their physical appearance and aren’t fit for the structural nine to five job.  “However, findings of a new study by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) indicate that these do not matter much to the group that is also referred to as the Generation Y.   Instead, they value their jobs and are more interested in career development” (Butunyi 2010).   Only one out of ten who was surveyed cared for neither a gym membership nor a flexible dress code.  Something that people wouldn’t think to see in this generation of workers.   From the feedback the surveys received “clear work related goals, challenging and interesting work, coaching and mentoring as well as right benefits and incentives as key concerns of this group” (Butunyi 2010).  A driver for retention for the group that was surveyed would be Rewards: compensation, benefits, performance, and career training and development.  The article also states that although generation y in Kenya wants to advance their careers, they would also like to do it with less pressure in a less stressful work environment.  This survey helps Human Resources department of firms to have a better understanding of the different workforces to improve performance.  The mix in generations within the workforce is making it harder for HR to fare with employees.

 

Takeaway Points

Since this survey was taken in Nairobi Kenya the workforce will differ in almost any country.  Most young workforces want to get ahead at a young age and advance in their careers, and I think I can agree with most of the people who surveyed in the article that compensation and career advancement would be my top priorities also.  The difference in age groups in the work force is making it harder for Human Resources to satisfy the workforce and be as effective.  HR has to find new ways to retain employees, since different drivers of retention motivate each employee, they have to find a way to cultivate all these drivers of retention for all these different generations of employees to cut cost, and reach maximum effectiveness.   Surveys like the one given by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) are very significant and should be used very often to help Human Resources with feedback from the different workforces. 

Works cited

Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2010). Human resource management. (13 ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Butunyi, C. (2010, August 02).  East Africa: For Generation Y, Succeeding at an Early Age is Key. The East African

http://allafrica.com/stories/201008020974.html

www.lexisnexis.com

Technology Transforming HR Processes

By: Kelly Barnhard

Overview 

Human resource management ensures that human talent is used effectively and efficiently to accomplish organizational goals (Mathis & Jackson, 2010). Presently, the role of human resource management is undergoing a major transformation driven by changes in technology. As stated in our text,  people and organizations must change and adapt to the advances of technology if they expect to fully benefit from the improvements it offers. In terms of strategic HR, which is adding value by improving the performance of the business, effective businesses in the 21^st century are pairing human capital and technology to enhance their performance levels (Mathis & Jackson, 2010). Even with the known knowledge that technology is altering the practices of business and human resources, one can still be uncertain when answering how technology is changing each HR process specifically. The article I will be referencing not only brings an end to this uncertainty, but provides some unique insights as well. Specifically, through the conducting of interviews with HR executives and archival research, this article was able to develop an in depth comparison of traditional and e-HR practices.  

Article Description/Connection to Text 

The article, Effects of the Internet and Technology on HR Processes, portrays how HR activities are evolving with technology. It guides the reader through specific HR process that are transforming and how these changes effect the organization as a whole. For instance, the article reveals the transformations occurring in recruiting, selection, performance management, compensation and benefits, training and development, and career management. 

The performance management and career management segments of the article explain how advances in technology are linked to greater organizational socialization commitment. This relates to our text in terms of effects technology has on communication. Specifically, how technology has increased employee expectations regarding the speed and frequency of communication from managers and how they connect to customers (Mathis & Jackson, 2010). When looking at the training and development section of the article, we can see how technology and the internet can provide a lower cost solution when utilizing online training or e-learning.  This relates to Chapter 8 of our text, training and development. Particularly, how e-learning consists of advantages such as cost savings and generates a larger access to employees. Additionally, the text describes how e-learning enables scoring of exercise and assessments and provides the appropriate feedback (Mathis & Jackson, 2010).

After providing a descriptive study, the article draws the conclusion of how an organization can effectively implement e-HR. Particularly, it thoroughly pinpoints five overarching trends of technology that effect the overall structure and strategy of an organization. These include: 

1. Substantial reductions in cost and time
2. Transition of administrative activities from HR department to employees themselves
3. Increase in readily available information 
4. Need for integrating HR with information systems
5. Increase emphasis on HR as a strategic business partner whose primary challenge is to recruit, develop, and retain talented employees for the organization.

Take Away Points 

Due to technology continually changing and improving, an organization and the people  comprised of it must learn to adapt and  improve with it in order to compete successfully. Technology is impacting the way an organization performs. New methods for communicating, processing information, and manufacturing are the results of evolving technologies (Mathis & Jackson, 2010). Each specific HR process is being effected by technology. As students who are looking to graduate and dive into the business world, we can use this insightful knowledge to add value to our future organization, increase our performance levels, and even gain a competitive edge. Overall, what should be taken away from this research is that we need to continually expand our knowledge, adapt to changes, and be aware of the challenges presented with those changes. Specifically, know the significance of blending human capital with technology and the impact it has on HR and the overall organization.   

Works Cited

Ensher, E., Nielson, T., Grant-Vallone, E. (2002). Tales from the Hiring Line: Effects of the Internet and Technology on HR Processes. Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 31, 224-244.      

Retrieved from http://ellenensher.com/article-files/Tales%20from%20the.pdf

Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2010). Human resource management. (13 ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.