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HRM 201: UNIT FOUR – MIDTERM EXAM

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HRM 201: UNIT FOUR – MIDTERM EXAM

Answer for Question 1

The role of the human resource (HR) has continually changed its focus over the past century to reflect the constantly evolving workplace. These changes often result from delivering more value, cutting costs, and improving services (Johnson & Gueutal, n.d.). Notably, the title change over time is thanks to accelerated operational improvement, which drifts away from its traditional compliance and administrative activities. For example, switching names in terms of titles such as “Chief Talent Officer” or “Chief Happiness Officer” echoes the departmental dedication inherent in the human element of managing employees. The idea is to stay relevant by transforming HR practices and keeping up with the changes in mission and purpose within most competitive organizations. In this view, HR practice extends companies’ brands, facilitates learning and collaboration, connects people, and builds leadership.

Accordingly, past changes in HR practice have often involved the automation of the workplace and not just the wording. According to research, the increasing globalization and the need to stay competitive in today’s business world have been the primary driving forces behind the digitization of the workplace (Power, 2012). HR field continues to adjust to the needs of individual workplaces and times. The evolution to a more technology-based HR is because more organizations want to compete more effectively for global talents, play a more strategic role in the workplace, cut HR administration and compliance costs, streamline HR processes, and minimize administrative burdens. A notable example is the shift from traditional methods to network recruitment, in which drivers of success are local relationships with hiring managers, the use of Google Analytics, and employment brands. It is sufficing to mention that the changing focus of HR, including changing its name, described the transformation of HR service delivery. In light of these transformations, staying open is the key to a successful HR as the workplace continues to change.

Answer for Question 2

Part i

Employee engagement is a critical component of organizational performance. The concept of employee engagement has emerged as an essential driver of business success, hence its relationship with the level of employees’ commitment and connection with enthusiasm to an organization. Usually, engaged employees have passion and commitment and are aware of the business context (Stoyanova & Iliev, 2017). A combination of these attributes means that such employees collaborate with colleagues to improve work performance for the company’s benefit. As such, Stoyanova and Iliev (2017) observe that this concept is vital for enhancing competitive edge in the modern business world. In the same vein, the benefits of employee engagement to an organization are multiple, namely, talent retention, customer loyalty, organizational performance, and stakeholder value. Therefore, employee engagement mediates the psychological motivation that is important to higher work performance.

Part ii

While employee engagement is important in all organizations, it is vital in global companies that seek both influence and competitiveness. The leading concern for employee engagement is associated with management style and its effectiveness (Baran & Sypniewska, 2020). To illustrate, organizations striving for a competitive advantage and at the same time bearing the brunt of the increasing global influence are forced to increase their employees’ effectiveness. The solution to the challenges mentioned above often entails restructuring HR management practices and policies in a sustainable fashion (Baran & Sypniewska, 2020). Global firms, therefore, are prompted to embrace a people-oriented management process whose brainchild is employee engagement. The objective is to attract and retain top talents, ensure a robust brand positioning, and maintain a competitive edge. This phenomenon is unlike that of other local companies, which may not be pursuing global influence. In the latter firms, employee engagement’s value is limited to competitiveness rather than reinforcement of the power of their respective states. Thus, the above illustration confirms that employee engagement is more important to some than others.

Part iii

Traditionally, HR is integral to sustainable human resource management within the work process. As mentioned before, employee engagement creates more value for an individual employee and the organization as a whole (Baran & Sypniewska, 2020). Essentially, HR has a mediating role between employees and management and is hell-bent on achieving highly effective work systems, social relations, and strengthened trust in the work process. For these reasons, HR adjusts management methods in ways that stimulate and motivate employees. For instance, the department can promote the right culture that rewards workers fairly and ultimately increases productivity, improves services, and reduces the turnover rate. In this sense, HR’s role is instrumental in promoting the company’s culture, ultimately ensuring sustainable human resource management.

Answer for Question 3

A structured method is usually adopted to set fair and competitive compensation for different jobs in organizations. One element that needs to stand out is that the compensation system should reflect the values of an organization. According to the European Commission (2018), the benefits of adhering to the structure method when determining a per compensation program are ensuring compliance with the labor laws, attracting top talent, offering competitive salaries, and employee satisfaction. The following step-by-step process is needed to determine the proper compensation system.

The first step is creating a program outline. The outline encompasses setting objectives for the compensation program, establishing a target date for implementation, and determining and allocating the budget to determine how much will be spent on salary, benefits, and other incentives. The subsequent step involves developing a compensation philosophy. This is to establish the salaries above or below the market rates and decide the difference in pay structures. The third step involves conducting a job analysis of all job positions to determine exempt and non-exempt job classifications. This phase also involves creating a job description and updating the existing ones. The next step is pricing each job description to match the job duties and consequently match the descriptions to the company’s demographics based on the compensation philosophy. After that, the program involves evaluating the job’s value within and outside the organization to be slotted into a grade that matches each class description. After job evaluation, the next step is to determine grade pricing and salary range. This step involves reviewing the market price of benchmark jobs within the market or industry. The subsequent step is developing a salary administrative policy for selected job groups as well as for compensations and merit raises. This step should be followed by top executive approval of the basic salary program. Finally, the developed compensation programs should be communicated to the employees and be monitored thereafter.

Answer for Question 4

The gender pay gap comes into play as the key indicator of monitoring progress in pay equality for men and women. Many studies have consistently shown that women earn less than men in the same job position or qualification (European Commission, 2018). Two types of gender pay gaps suffice: the unadjusted gender pay gap and the adjusted gender pay gap. In the former case, the gender pay gap is computed as the “difference between the average hourly earnings of women and men expressed as a percentage of the average hourly earnings of men” (p. 2). The measure depicts a simple measure of pay difference between men and women. Nevertheless, is worth noting that the unadjusted gender pay gap embodies gender discrimination in terms of unequal pay for equal work. This concept paints a grim picture of the characteristic differences between men and women in the labor market.

Conversely, the adjusted gender pay gap adopts the Earnings Survey (SES) Structure to decompose the unadjusted gender pay gap. The concept provides information concerning employees’ individual earnings based on personal characteristics of the enterprise and job role (European Commission, 2018). Two factors emerge from these gender pay gaps, namely the explained part and the unexplained part. The first part refers to the earning difference premised on earning characteristics, such as occupation, activity, and age. The second part measures the difference in financial returns between men and women with similar characteristics. The two concepts do not make a difference in how the gender pay gap is viewed because of the different alternatives to calculate them.

Answer for Question 5

Part i

Workplace diversity refers to the practice of acknowledging, accepting, and valuing differences among employees with respect to factors such as sex, religion, age, disability, race, class, skills and abilities, and educational background (Saxena, 2014). Competitive firms resort to ways of embracing diversity to make them inclusive and realize greater workplace productivity and competitive advantage. In fact, managing diversity has become one of the key components of effective management.

Part ii

Coca-Cola Company is one of the renowned companies that embrace the concept of diversity. It mirrors the great diversity of the marketplace that it serves through leadership, as well as inclusion and fairness in all aspects, including marketplace, supplier, and suppliers (The Coca-Cola Company, 2021). At the same time, it strives to create a work environment that provides all its associates with equal access to information, opportunity, and development.

References

Baran, M., & Sypniewska, B. (2020). The impact of management methods on employee engagement. Sustainability, 12(1), 426. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010426

European Commission. (2018). Item 4.3: Adjusted gender pay gap. In meeting of the European directors of social statistics (pp. 2-19). Luxembourg; European Commission Eurostat. Retrieved from https://circabc.europa.eu/sd/a/c983d736-2399-40d8-90fa-78925615528d/DSS-2018-Mar-4.3%20Adjusted%20gender%20pay%20gap.pdf.

Johnson, R., & Gueutal, H. Transforming HR through technology: The use of e-HR and HRIS in organizations (pp. 1-27). Society for Human Resource Management. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/Documents/HR-Technology.pdf

Power, B. (2012). Focus HR on process improvement. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2012/02/focus-hr-on-process-improvemen.

Saxena, A. (2014). Workforce diversity: A key to improve productivity. procedia economics and finance, 11, 76-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(14)00178-6

Stoyanova, T., & Iliev, I. (2017). Employee engagement factor for organizational excellence. Hdl.handle.net. Retrieved from https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/185656/1/v10-i1-p23-29-organizational-excellence.pdf.

The Coca-Cola Company. (2021). People and community values | The Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Company. Retrieved from https://www.coca-colacompany.com/shared-future/people-values.

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Question 

The exam consists of five long essay questions. Questions require a response minimum of two full paragraphs.

Directions:

Questions

  1. Many organizations are changing the focus of Human Resources, even going so far as to change the name of the function. In the middle part of last century, the term Human Resource Management started to replace the notion of the “Personnel Department”. Now, the terms are being rebranded again to titles such as the following: “Vice President of People”; Head of Associate Experience, Chief Experience Officer; Chief Talent Officer or even “Chief Happiness Officer”. What do these title changes say about the direction of Human Resources? Has the focus of what HR does changed or have we merely changed the wording? Provide sources to reinforce your opinion.

    HRM 201: UNIT FOUR – MIDTERM EXAM

  2. It is said that employee engagement is a critical factor in the long term success of an organization. In our readings we covered some important benefits of employee engagement. Answer the following questions:
    • i. Why is employee engagement so important for an organization? Name some benefits to having engaged employees and provide your reasoning as to why this is important. Provide outside sources to support your choice of benefits to having engaged employees.
    • ii. Is employee engagement important in all types of organizations or might it be more important to some than others? Explain your answer and provide reference-supported justification.
    • iii. What is HR’s role in creating & fostering employee engagement?
  3. Determining proper compensation is an important component of an organizations’ reward structure. Traditionally, compensation determination involved getting an accurate idea of a job’s duties and requirements. Outline the steps needed to do this in an organization and why this is important. Make sure you use outside sources to back up yourpoints.
  4. Often, when talking about the concept of “Equal Pay” critics cite statistics that indicate that women earn (approximately) $.79 for every dollar a man makes. Look into this further by looking at the concept of “adjusted” versus “unadjusted” pay gap analysis. Would that make a difference in how we look at the concept of “pay differences” between genders? Look at external sources to support your opinion.
  5. This question has two parts.
    • • What do we mean by Diversity in the workplace? A complete definition is required.
    • • Provide an example of a company committed to Diversity. What are they doing that proves that this is an important initiative for them and, most importantly, why do they feel it is important? List the major business reasons for their choice. Use outside research to substantiate your conclusions
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