Human Resource Management in the 21st Century

Jean Says:

Robert:
Do you think that the conflict avoidance, we see in the workplace today is the result of lack of training and employee development of the manager?

It has been my prior experience that we promote exemplary employees to the management ranks without sufficient training and development in some areas, such as, selection and recruitment, interviewing and evaluations. What I am seeing in your post is that this directly relates to the legal impact the company might suffer. What you think it will take for organizations to see this correlation?

Jean

June 26th, 2007 at 4:52 am

Robert Says:

Good questions Jean. I think that conflict avoidance is human nature. Current trends in leadership focus on empowerment and valuing of the employee and are valid and important approaches. Just as important is the uncomfortable task of being honest and even critical.

I think when the leaders of organizations realize the cost in legal fees and negative publicity there will be more focus on honest evaluations. It really is a case of “an ounce of prevention…”

July 4th, 2007 at 7:14 am

Michelle Says:

This is an interesting topic. I am a PhD canidate here at Capella in the Industrial and Organizational Psychology program and work as a psychological consultant.

In the field of Psychology we are trained, in my opinion, very well in assessments and work hard to ensure that evaluations are standardized and fair. I ran into an interesting problem at work just a few months ago. We (my company) was working with an organization that hired us to do employment screening. We did so and made our recommendations. We were asked to have one canidate who fell way below what was considered acceptible measures tested again. We did so and the individual failed again even after we lowered the standards. We were then asked by the organization to find a way to have the individual pass, because they had apparently spent a lot of time and money training this person in and wanted to keep them. We had to tell the organization we wouldn’t be a part of it because according to our best judgment the individual in question was not a good canidate for the position and referred them to another consulting firm for yet another evaluation. So what is interesting is that even when evaluations are done correctly - the organization itself may be the problem and not the individuals doing the testing and making the recommendations. Thoughts?

July 5th, 2007 at 5:46 pm

Dave Blake Says:

This is a problem that is old as the rating systems themselves. Quite honestly I think the problem is based on subjective nature of human behavior. Despite the continual use of measureable objectives the people element is still always prevalent.

The key is for HR professionals to challenge ratings that look weak. The challenge for us is to keep our emotions in check as well.

July 8th, 2007 at 6:19 pm

Debra Andrews Says:

I am finding that job evaluations both during the hiring process and during the performances of employees are overlooked and mis-managed on average. I will agree that well-trained individuals in industrial organizational psychology have good theories and tools in place. Some of these are even documented and tested. However, many managers lack the training to be able to recognize and utilize these tools. You find way too many people who have risen to authority due to good work or family and friendship connections rather than good leadership ability.

July 9th, 2007 at 9:12 pm

Jean Says:

Deborah and Dave:
These are problems that we have faced as HR professionals since the beginning of time. I agree that well-trained professionals such as OD psychologists have a tool chest of theories and positive practice.

I believe that the issue is in the transfer of the knowledge from this area to managers who are conducting both the hiring and performance interviews. Many companies provide little or no training for these tasks and managers learn by trial and error. This area is a much overlooked and/or under resourced issue.

What do you think it will take organizations to recognize the value in this process?

July 11th, 2007 at 4:32 am

Robert Says:

Jean-There is nothing like a good lawsuit. This is the kind of issue that isn’t a problem until there is a dispute. Maybe it is up to the HRM professionals to get out there and spread the “word”.

Michelle- I think your firm took the legally sound approach as if there is ever litigation “down the road”, it is possible the company might have tried to shift responsibility to the “independent contractor”.

July 11th, 2007 at 2:27 pm

Michael Says:

Hello Michelle,

Thank you for your contribution.

You mention “the organization itself may be the problem and not the individuals doing the testing and making the recommendations.” This is true in too many instances. To your comment, like I/O psychology professionals, human resource professionals are also training in assessments. With the academic and practice rigor available through these professional groups, as resources to enable appropriate hiring, it is difficult to understand the rationale(s) of organizational leadership to request that you “find a way to have the individual pass, because they had apparently spent a lot of time and money training this person in and wanted to keep them.”

Organization enabling professionals like HRM and I/O psychology professionals, must be engaged in the hiring development process; this includes job assessments, competency modeling, job descriptions, and task development, in order to reduce the occurrences of the situation in your company resulting in uninformed and inappropriate hiring decision-making.

The legal and productivity ramifications such hiring (as per Robert’s response), typically negativity influences cultural development and commercial progress. A business-oriented approach to addressing inappropriate hiring focused on influencing how management/leadership perceives, in turn thinks about hiring decisions, is to provide a cost/benefit analysis relative to the cost of inappropriate hiring on commerce-based topics such as productivity, product cycle time, and net revenue.

Clearly, assembling and articulating related data can be challenging. Moreover, creating a business case supporting common sense thinking about inappropriate hiring can be surprisingly difficult. However, data and data analysis can speak volumes; in turn influencing data-oriented managers/leaders.

Does anyone have stories or examples of success in influencing manager/leader thinking concerning hiring or a related topic?
Thoughts…………………..?

August 1st, 2007 at 12:27 pm

Marcia Pallutto Says:

Do performance appraisals and evaluations provide complete information on an employee’s ability to accurately do their job or do they focus on one’s weaknesses? Is an employee “ranked” in order to determine promotion, pay or feedback? Does such a system really add value to an organization? Often times it is merely a useless, perhaps costly procedure to an organization. However, there remain those within HR who support honest workplace evaluations stating they encourage greater productivity.

August 22nd, 2007 at 5:29 pm