Class Reflection 3/31/10

Ok I will be honest here.. I have no idea what we talked about in class besides peer reviews this day, cause I was out of it! I got a call during class from my insurance company to see how much I am getting for my totaled car.. that I totaled in a bad wreck last week.. so therefore I was more involved in that phone call then I was in class.. but I brought my paper to be peer reviwed and I got somebody in my groups paper to read, so we are good to go in that way! sorry I don't have some deep HR issue to talk about...

Class Reflection from 3/29/10

I thought the 5 dimensions of Culture was interesting because I didn't know anything about them and what they meant for America's workforce and explaining that is how we function as a country

They are

1) Individualism/collectivism

2) Power distance

3) Uncertainty Avoidance

4) Masulinity/Feminity

5) Long-Term/Short term

I also thought the topic of culture shock was interesting like the honeymoon stage, shock, learning, and adjusting. I thought it was interesting that it is important to choose the right type of person to travel or move for a job for these reasons.

Class reflection 3/22/10

Global Human Resources was interesting in class, not necessarily in the book. I enjoyed the story you told about the oreos in Japan or china or wherever you said, I thought it was so funny how they didn't like the taste of oreos cause they have too much sugar, so oreo had to completley re-make the make-up of oreos but they still called them oreos, weird. It is funny how countries have the same companies like McDonalds but they are so different.

Chapter 16

High Performance Work Systems

What exactley are high performance work systems? High performance work systems is the right combination of people, technology, and organizational structures that makes full use of the organizations resources and opportunities in achieving goals. Creating a high performance work system contrasts with traditional management practices. In the past decisions about technology, organizational structure, and HR were treated as if they were unrelated. An organization might aquire new information system, restructure jobs, or add an office in another country without considering the impact on people. Managers have realized that success depends on how well all of the elements work together.

What are elements of high performance work systems? The right people are a key element of high performance work systems. Reward systems contribute to high performance by encouraging people to strive for objectives that support the organizations overall goals. Another element that contributes to High performance work systems is information systems. Managers make decisions about the types of info to gather and the sources of information along with deciding who should have access to the info and how they will make it availiable.

the outcomes of high perfomance work systems are mostly common sense like satisfied customers, higher sales, greater productivity, low turnover, higher profits, etc. Therefore why wouldn't you want your organization to have high performance systems?

Chapter 15

International Labor Relations

I thought it was interesting to learn about other countries labor relations and what international Human resource is like compared to the United States. Companies that operate across national boundaries often need to work with unions in more than one country. Organizations establish policies and goals for labor relations for overseeing labor agreements and for monitoring labor perfomance.

In comparison with the European organizations U.S. organizations exert where more centralized control over labor relations in the various countries where they operate. Therefore U.S. Management must recognize differences in how various countries understand and regulate labor relations. Like in the U.S. collective bargining usually involves negotiations between a union local and an organizations managment. However in Sweeden and Germany, collective bargining generally involves negotiations between an employers organization and an union representing an entire industry's employees.

International labor relations must also take into accout that negotiations between labor and managment take place in a different social context, not just different economic and legal contexts. Cultural differences come into play in labor negotiations as well. It is crazy to think how the workforce is so different in other countries, but yet the same in alot of ways as well. We all work for money no matter what country we are living in .

Chapter 14

Role of Unions and Labor Relations

I had no idea what unions were and what was meant by labor relations. I have always wanted to know what was meant by a workers union, I have heard the term Union a few times in a workforce setting and not known what it meant. Unions are organizations formed for the purpose of representing their members interests in dealing with employers. In the U.S. most workers act as individuals to select jobs that are unacceptable to them and to negotiate pay, benefits, flexible hours, and other work conditions. Sometimes workers feel their needs and interests do not recieve enough consideration from management. When this happens some workers form and join unions that are formed to resolve conflicts with employers.

Unions are good because some degree of conflict is invetiable between workers and managment. Labor unions also represent interests and a way to manage the conflict. Therefore through systems of hearing complaints and negotiating labor contracts, unions and managers resolve conflicts between employers and employees.

For some reason I have always thought of a union as a group of people that want to stike and fight agaisnt a policy, rule and or situation, but it is really to help solve the conflict. I had no idea. I always thought a union was a negative thing, but now I see it as a positive thing in an organization.

Class reflection from 3/8/10

I liked talking about incentive pay, I don't know why but that sort of thing interests me for some reason. I think it is interesting how we don't like to admit it, but money is definatley an incentive to anything especially in a job, it is the main reason most of us even work in the first place. Therefore it interests me how much organizations try to think of incentives to bribe employees to work harder, so they get more in return.

Chapter 13

Workers Compensation

I had no idea that there was a time when there was no workers comp, where if employees were injured on the job had to pay for the medical bills unless they won a lawsuit against their employer, and those who sued often lost the case because of the defensed availiable to the empoyers. That just seems so unfair to me. I am very greatful that is no longer the case and we have a thing such as workers comp. Workers Compensation are state programs that provide benefits to workers who suffer work-related injuries or illness. These laws operate under a principle of no-fault liability which means that an employee does not need to show that the employers was grossly negligent in order to recieve workers comp, and the employer is protected from potential lawsuits.

About 9 out of 10 U.S. workers are covered by state workers comp laws with the level of coverage varying from state to state. The benefits fall into 4 major categories

1) Disability income

2) medical care

3) death benefits

4) rehabilitative services

The amount of income varies from state to state as well as differ from how they fund workers comp insurance. Organizations can minimize the cost of workers comp by keeping workplaces safe and making employees and their managers conscious of saftey issues. I am we now have a thing such as workers comp, even if the work envionment is safe, I am a clutz and will probably end up using workers comp sometime in my work life.

Chapter 12

Incentive Pay

I wanted to know more about what incentive pay is and entails. Along with wages and salaries many organizations offer incentive pay which is pay specifically desgined to energize, direct, or control employees behavior. It is crazy that pay has that much control over our behavior but it is the whole reason why we work and have a job in the first place. Incentive pay is influential because the amount paid is linked to certain predefined behaviors or outcomes. These payments are in addition to wages and salaries. When people know they can earn extra money for closing sales or meeting department goals, the employees often try harder or get more creative than they might get without the incentive pay. If it motivates employees that much more you would think every company would offer incentive pay!

For incentive pay to motivate employees to contribute to the organizations success the pay plans must be well designed. Effective plans meet the following requirments:

• Performance measures are linked to the organizations goals
• Employees believe they can meet performance standards
• The organization gives employees the resources they need to meet their goals
• Employees values the rewards given
• Employees believe the reward system is fair
• The pay plan takes into account that employees may ignore any goals that are not standard

If I owned a business and or was in management I would offer incentive pay just for the simple fact it helps motivate employees.

Class reflection 3/1/10

I really enjoyed the guest speaker today from ancestry.com, he did a really good job and was funny and made it interesting. I learned alot about compensation and what determines how much employers should pay employers and what employees expect from employers once they are given something and then it gets taken away, like his doughnut example, it was funny but also very true.

Chapter 11

Minimum Wage

In the U.S. employers must pay employees atleast minimum wage established by the law. At the federal level the 1938 fair labor standards act establishes a minimum wage that is $6.55 per hour as of July 2008 and $7.25 per hour as of July 2009. Which is crazy to me because I remember my first job I had when I was 16 paid minimum wage, which was only $5.15 per hour back then! Therefore min. wage does not seem that bad to me, $7.25 per hour sounds pretty good compared to what I got even though I know it is not. The FSL also permits a lower training wage, which employees may pay to workers under the age of 20.

An issue related to minimum wage is that it tends to be lower than the earnings required for a full-time worker to rise above the poverty level. A number of cities have passed laws requiring a so called living wage, essentially a min. wage based on the cost of living in a particular area or state. I thought of Cali because I know that the cost of living is higher in Cali therefore what employees make/min wage is alot higher than it is here. Makes me want to move to Cali, even though everything would cost more.

Chapter 10

Employee Turnover

I have always known what employee turn over meant, but it was good to read about it so I could get the official definitions and workings of how turnover in organizations really work. Employee turnover is when employees leave the organization. When the organization initiaites the turnover the result is involuntary turnover like terminiating an employee for drug use or laying off employees during a turnover (When organizations would perfer to keep them it is voluntary turnover)

Normally organizations try to avoid the need for involuntary turnover and to minimize voluntary turnover. Both kinds of turnover cost alot of money which is something I have never really thought about. It is crazy to think about every time a company hires or fires employees it is costing them alot of money. Replacing workers is expensive and new employees need time to learn thier jobs and build teamwork skills. Plus people today are more ready to sue a former employer if they feel they feel they were discharged. Effective HR management can help the organization minimize both kinds of turnover. I am going to look at employee turnover at organizations totally different now because I am more aware of how much it costs the company in the long run.

Class Reflection 2/17/10

I had no idea that work organizations did personality assesment tests like similar to the color code tests. I didn't know organizations provided tests like that and or actually took that info into account and used it to help understand their employees. There were so many other personality tests that organizations do that I was not even aware they even existed. I love the color code test, so it makes me curious to see what the other tests are like.

Class reflection from 2/10/10

The rating systems companies have for employees was interesting to me partly because I am oblivious to the world and don't think about companies have an actual system where they rate employees 1 to 5 or compare them to other employees. It is a way good thing for me to be aware of so I can be on my toes in the workforce and always make sure I am on my best behavior and working my hardest so I get a good rating. Good ratings= good references which= even better jobs.

Chapter 9

Formal Education

I decided to write about formal education with HR because alot of the progams companies provide for fomal eduation I was totally unaware of and had no idea they even did that.

Organizations may support employee development through a variety of formal educational programs either at the workplace or off-cite. I didn't realize companies provided education for employees outside of thier company. They might include workshops designed specifically for the organizations employees, short courses offered by consultants or universities. These programs may involve lectures by business experts.

There are universities and colleges that offer executive education they include Harvard, Wharton School of Business, University of Michigan. A growing number of companies and universities are using distance learning to reach executive audiences. For example Duke Universities Fuqua School of Business offers an electronic MBA program which is very convinent and I think more and more universities will start doing that.

Another trend in executive education is for employers and the education provider to create short courses with content designed specifically for the audience. Something I thought was really cool is MetLife worked with Babson College to develop a course where falculty members discuss business principlas and then corporate executives to discuss how the principals work in MetLife and the insurance industry. I like that Universities and companies provide these services to studentd and employees.

Chapter 8 Rating Employees

Rating Individuals

Performance measurement can look at each employees performance relative to a uniform set of standards. The measurement may evaluate employees on terms of attributes believed desirable or the measurements may identify whether employees have behaved in desirable ways like in sales and completing assignments. Typically the rating scale is from 1 to 5 on the graphic rating scale.

Rating Behavior

To rate behaviors the organization begins by defining which behaviors are associated with success on the job. Which kinds of employee behaviors help the organization achieve its goals? One way to rate behaviors is with critical incident method this requires managers to keep a record of specific example of the employee acting in ways that are effective or ineffective.

This is good to know as an employee before you get hired anywhere, so you can always make sure you are on your best behavior. If you are aware that you will be rated on your behavior at work you will most likely be more motivated and always wanting to be on task. Its crazy to think about rating me without me knowing it, but that is there job regardless. It is a good incentive to always do your job to your best ability, so you get a good rating.

Class Reflection 2/8/10

I loved today's class because I felt like it really relates to my life at the moment. I am graduating in April, therefore I will be job searching and interviwing for jobs very soon. I liked learning about what goes into the personal selection and what the critera for measuring the effectiveness of selection. I liked hearing the detail about the methods are for reliable, valid, generalized, high utility, legal criteras and what employees actually need and look at in gathering background info. it was a good thing to learn right now at this point in my life, I like that its relevant to me right now.

Class Reflection from 2/3/10

I really enjoyed listening to the guest speaker Ryan Brown from Tahition Noni. Ryan is actually one of my best friends boss at Tahition Noni. So It was really interesting to learn more about their company and the extent they go to in order to properly train thier employees and make sure their employees are learning and doing the best they possibly can. I think if every company went to the exten that Tahition Noni does to train their employees, the workforce would be in good shape. Well done Tahitian Noni!

Chapter 6 Selection Decisions

Selection Decisions

The section on how the whole hiring process works in the selection process caught my attention because at my job right now, we are currently trying to hire two new employees that are in my exact same position. My boss conducted interviews all morning, and I care alot about who they choose because I will have to work with them every day.

Most organizations find more than one qualified canidate to place in certain jobs. The selection decision typically combines ranking based on objective criteria about which canidate will make the greatest contribution.

How organizations select employees

The selection decision should not be a simple matter. It shouldnt be who the supervisor likes best or which canidate will take the lowest offer, but it should be who will the best fit for the position. The decision makers have to decide which of the canidates have the best combination of abilit and motivation to fit the position and company as a whole. I didnt realize how big of a decision hiring an employee actually is, there are even steps that need to be taken for the selection committee to prepare for the interview before they start interviewing canidates.

The HR deparment is often responsible for notifying applicants about the results of the selection process, including info about the job responsibilites, work schedule, rate of pay, starting date and other relevant details.

There is alot that goes into the hiring process, I am glad it is this intense because then the most deserving will usually get the job.

Chapter 7 Training

Training Methods

A wide variety of methods is availiable for conducting training. Alot of these methods are being phased out because a lot of companies are training on the internet. As a result most training programs are taking place in classrooms or online.

Classroom instruction

classroom instruction typically involves a trainer lecture group. Trainers often supplement lectures with slides, discussions, case studies, question and answer sessions and role playing.

Audio Visual Training

Trainees can also work indepently using course material prepared on CD's, DVD's, workbooks. Audio visual technicians such as overhead transparencies, power point. Some technologies make audiovisual training avaliable as podcasts on portable devices like Ipods, which I didnt know and think is really cool. That blows my mind that technology has made it to that point.

Computer bases training

New technologies are gaining in popularity as technology improves and becomes cheaper. Computer based training is generally less expensive than putting an instructor in a classroom-based training for individual learners.

I have had a few classroom trainings and they are quite boring, so if I can listen to training on my ipod or at my computer, count me in!

2/1/10 class reflection

The topic of forcasting, downsizing, and other methods of staffing for companies was quite interesting. Some of the points I never even thought of or considered.

I also liked the designing jobs that motivate part. Task identity is interesting because with every jon and task that you have in your job you need to be able to see what good your job is actually doing people and or your company in the long run, it helps to see what you are actually doing and how it benefits people. Seiing that helps motivate you as a worker and helps give you purpose. I think every company should make an effort to make sure their employees understand task identity.

Chapter 5 Downsizing

Downsizing

Downsizing is the planned elimination of large numbers of personnell with goal engancing the organizations competiveness. The primary reason organizations engage in downsizing is to promote future competiveness. Downsizing is met by 4 objectives:

1) Reducing costs-labor is a large part of a company's total costs, so downsizing helps

2) Replacing labor with technology-often the labor savings outweigh the cost of new technology

3) Mergers and acquisitions

4) Moving to more economical locations

There are definate negative effects of downsizing. Negative effects of downsizing was high among firms that engaged in high-involvment work practices like the use of teams and performance related pay incentives as a result, the more a company tries to compete through its HR, the more layoffs hurt productivity. Downsizing leads to a loss of talent, also many companies end of rehiring anyways. Downsizing often eliminates people who turn out to be irreplacable. In a survey 80% of firms that had downsizing later replaced some of the very people they had laid off. Motivation also drops because any hope of future promotions or any future with the company dies and many employees start looking for other employment opporunities.

Chapter 5 Downsiing

Class reflection 1/27/10

Discrimination and Sexual Harrasment issues
I loved talking about discrimination and race issues in class today, I find it interesting that certain things regarding race are even still an issue today. In my mind we are all the same, and race, ethnicity, sex is not even an issue for me. So when I hear about things that become an issue in the workforce it blows my mind. Then I think to myself because we are even making it an issue at all does that make us racist or have an issue with race? Like the fact that a company would have to hire atleast 1 white or black employee so they don't come across as racist make them racist in itself because that is the only reason they hired them?

Sexual Harrasment issues blow my mind too because anybody can accuse anyone of sexual harrassment on the job for any reason if they make them feel uncomfortable, so what if that person is just out to get the other person and the person they are accusing of harrassing them didnt even do anything but there is no way to prove that? I am glad sexual harrament is is taken so seriously it is just crazy to think about.

Class reflection 1/25/10

Laws and Regulation Acts
I thought learning about the laws and regulations acts. I didn't even know that some acts even existed. Like I had no idea there was even such thing as The Pregnancy Discrimination Act. It makes sense that there is one and its just common sense to me. However, I didnt know there is an actual law regarding it. The Executive Order 11246 Act is also quite interesting and makes perfect sense but didnt know it existed. I am really glad acts like these do exist, and trully can't imagine the workfoce without them. I am glad that now that I am in the workforce that these acts do exist so I have never had to deal with them and or worry about them.

class reflection from 1/20/10

I thought internal and external labor was quite interesting and didnt realize how each can affect a company.

Internal Labor:

- an organizations workers

-employees

-people who have contracts to work there

*internal labro force has been drawn from the external market

External Labor:

-individuals who are seeking employment there

-number and kinds of peopel in the external labor market determine the kinds of uman resource availiable to an organization

I didnt realize how companies I am wanting to work at makes me be part of their external labor.

Chapter 4 Job Analysis

Job Analysis

I had never heard the term job analysis before and was curious to what exactley it is and what it entailed. Job anaysis is the process of getting detailed info about jobs. Analysing jobs and understanding what is required to carry out a job provide needed knowledge for staffing, training, performance and appraisal.

So what does that do for us and why is it important?

Job analysis is important to HR managers, it has been called the building block of everthing personnel does

Info tat is gleaned from job analysis:

-work design

-human resource planning

-selection

-training

-job evaluation

Job analysis is also important from a legal standpoint, the government imposes requirements related to government to equal employment opportunity. It also provides evidence of efforts made to have fair employment practices like enforcing the disabilities acts, and other equal employment acts. Therefore job analysis is pretty important to the workforce and everything pretty much revolves around it.

Chapter 3 Equal Employment Opportunities

Equal Employment Opportunity

I can't imagine the working world today without equal employment opportunities where all individuals have an eqaul chance for employment regardless of their race, sex, color, religion, age, disability, or national orgin. Maybe its because today is Martin Luther King day, but to think that we use to live in a world where people were not accepted in certain work places and not hired because of their race, sex, national orgin, etc makes me really mad. I can't believe that was ever even an issue. In my mind I feel like that its common sense that everyone in the world should have always had equal employment opportunities. Therefore I am very greatful certain acts have been passed in order to make the workforce in America fair and equal. Some of the many acts I am greatful for are:

Civil Rights Acts of 1866:

Was passed for the goal to abolish slavery, granted all people the same property rights was white citizens as well as the right to enter into and enforce contracts, granted all citizens the right to sue in federal court if they feel they have been deprived of some civil right

Equal Pay Act of 1963

If men and women in an organization are doing equal work, the employer must pay them equally. Equal in terms of skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions

There are many other acts that have been passed I am greatful for and can't imagine the workforce without today.

Chapter 2

An Aging Workforce

In the beggining of chapter 2 the section where it talks about an aging workforce really grabbed my attention. It mainly grabbed my attention in the part where it said by 2010 more than half of U.S. workers will be older than 40. This got my attention because here we are in the year 2010 and that is so true, more than half of the U.S. workforce is over 40 years old! This book was published around 2006 I am assuming, so it blows my mind that 4 years ago, they estimated right about the workforce. It was interesting to read why the fact that the current workforce being older is and might be a problem.

Having an older workforce in the U.S. is a problem because alot of them will be nearing retirement, so HR will have to spend alot of time and concern on retirment, retrraining, and rehiring. Organizations will also struggle with ways to control the rising costs of health care and other benefits. It also mentions how many of tommorows managers will supervise employees much older than themselves, that also got my attention because that is also very true right now. atleast 2 or 3 of my good friends my age are currently the managers and supervisors for people 10 or 20 years older than them. It also mentions how organizations will have to find ways to attract, retain and prepare the youth laborforce. Do you feel like this is acurate? Is it a problem?