Managing Human Capital

Overview

Role in Managing Human Capital

Today’s Human Capital Management approach perceives employees as assets (human capital) whose current value can be measured with metrics and whose future value is also measurable and can be enhanced through investing in the development of employees.

At the same time, the HR department must show compassion for the various situations in which employees find themselves.

Small organizations often have team members performing multiple HR roles, such as benefits administration, recruitment, selection, payroll, and employee development/training. Normally, larger companies have at least one person in each of these areas. If a company’s HR team is too small for its number of employees, it is likely that employee dissatisfaction will rise because of delayed response times regarding resolution of issues. For example, an HR manager may not understand the timeliness needed for hiring replacement employees for various departments. If that happens, improvement in communications among departments is needed. If a new employee must wait for a busy HR staff member to update insurance records, filing deadlines could be missed.

Legal Compliance

All organizations, however, must follow employment laws and regulations related to discriminatory practices, retaliation for whistle blowing, or other serious issues.

The following video discusses five manager mistakes that could lead to noncompliance issues.

(Business Management Dailey, 2013)

Business Management Daily. (2013, May 21). The top five manager mistakes that cause lawsuits [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHHNk-VtwfA.

This SLP assignment looks at an interesting contrast between company ideals and actual practices. For example, we are looking ahead to how employees should be viewed as assets. First, watch the following video:

(ADP, 2015 )

ADP. (2015, March 3). Rethink human capital management [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipxtwod-W9o.

Let’s compare this concept with an adverse management practice—utilizing children as workers. Think about companies that do business overseas, and more specifically ones who use child labor. Phillpott (2019) explains that the following U.S. companies overseas still use child labor: Nestle, Philip Morris, Microsoft, Apple, and Hershey’s.

Phillpott (2019). 10 Companies that Still Use Child Labor. Retrieved from https://www.careeraddict.com/10-companies-that-still-use-child-labor

For this SLP 1 assignment, consider what you have learned about the “Human Capital Management” approach to Human Resource Management and contrast that with child labor practices that are reported to still be occurring in some U.S. companies overseas. Discuss the contrasting/conflicting roles of HRM that this might create — one that approaches employees as “assets” that should be nurtured and valued, and one that utilizes child labor.

Your 2- to 3-page paper should be submitted by the Module 1 due date.

Enhance your submission by utilizing at least two valid sources not mentioned in this Module.

Submit your paper to the SLP 1 drop box by the Module 1 due date.

SLP Assignment Expectations

Your submission will be assessed on the criteria found in the grading rubric for this assignment:

1. Meets assignment requirements
2. Critical thinking
3. Writing and assignment organization
4. Use of sources and mechanics
5. Timeliness of assignment

Module 1 – Background

Managing Human Capital

A key ingredient to whether or not an organization views its employees as human capital to be nurtured and developed for greater productivity is the ability to analyze key metrics. There are organization-wide metrics that are often monitored on a routine basis. Some of the organization-wide metrics include, for example:

• Net profit before taxes
• Net profit on key product lines
• Customer satisfaction (by customer group)

Company metrics are often viewed monthly or quarterly by the management of an organization with the use of balanced scorecards. Scorecards, for example, show unacceptable levels in red, while other metrics are green if they meet or exceed set goals

Using employee satisfaction as an example, let’s look at how it might be measured. Since scorecards are often viewed only on a periodic basis, there could be a problem with employee satisfaction that goes undetected for weeks or months, before a problem is recognized. However, there will likely be signs that employee satisfaction has been impacted one way or another. For example, there may be changes in employee morale, tardiness, absenteeism, and/or other metrics measured by the company. So, while measuring key performance indicators is a great idea, managers must watch them frequently. Otherwise, by the time they learn that changes are needed, damage might have already been done.

Specific to HRM, then, what types of metrics are important; what are their uses?

HR metrics are numbers key managers of an organization are interested in monitoring frequently to learn the pulse of an organization. In addition to the highest organizational leaders, however, other managers watch the figures, too, including the leaders in an organization’s HR department. When a company seems to be turning over employees at a rapid rate, something is askew. When employees are consistently late to work or do not meet performance expectations, something needs more attention. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics that help reveal discrepancies that need further work.

Videos

ADP. (2015, March 3). Rethink human capital management [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipxtwod-W9o.

Business Management Daily. (2013, May 21). The top five manager mistakes that cause lawsuits [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHHNk-VtwfA.

Deloitte US. (2016, March 2). Human capital trends 2016: The new organization: Different by design: Deloitte insights [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS7duITSEO8.

Required Material

Alziari, L. (2017). A chief HR officer’s perspective on talent management. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness, 4(4), 379-383. Available in the Trident Online Library.

Heathfield, S. (2019). The 3 New Roles of the Human Resources Professional. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-new-roles-of-the-human-resources-professional-1918352

Jessee, T. (n.d.). 48 HR KPIs & metric examples (and how to implement them). ClearPoint Strategy. Retrieved from https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/human-capital-kpis-scorecard-measures/

Phillpott (2019). 10 Companies that Still Use Child Labor. Retrieved from https://www.careeraddict.com/10-companies-that-still-use-child-labor

Seven habits. (2019). 7 habits that are stalling your employee engagement program and how to fix them. Glint. Retrieved from https://info.glintinc.com/rs/586-OTD-288/images/GLINT-15-001_WP_P3.pdf

Zheltoukhova, K. (2015). New ways of working: What is the real impact on the HR profession? Strategic HR Review, 14(5), 163-167. Available in the Trident Online Library.

Optional Material

Bogan, S. (2001, October 20). We blew it: Nike admits to mistakes over child labor. Common Dreams. Retrieved from https://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1020-01.htm

EEOC. (2016). Employees & Job Applicants. Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/employees/.

EEOC. (2016). Employers. Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/.

Heathfield, S. M. (2016). Top 10 human resources trends of the decade. Retrieved from http://humanresources.about.com/od/businessmanagement/a/top_ten_trends.htm. Provided by Saylor.org. License: CC BY.

McInnes, R. (n.d.). Workforce Diversity: Changing the way you do business. Diversity World. Retrieved from https://docuri.com/download/workforce-diversity_59c1e58df581710b286ba14d_pdf