349Improving the World through Strategic HRThe pa.docx

349
Improving the World
through Strategic HR
The past fifty years have seen companies make major advances
in the methods used to manage business operations such as
finan-
cial accounting and investment, information management,
maintain-
ing supply chains, managing manufacturing processes, and
marketing
products. But relatively few organizations apply the same rigor
to
processes used to maximize the value of their workforce. Due to
the
rapidly changing nature of work and the growing labor market
skills
shortages, we have now reached a point when human resource
man-
agement can and must be given the same leadership attention
and stra-
tegic focus that has been shown to other areas of business.
Here are a few of the reasons that companies need to
aggressively pursue the
use of strategic HR methods to drive business execution:
• It has an impact on the bottom line. The largest source of
performance vari-
ance in most companies is due to differences in the performance

of people.
Research has shown that high-performing employees generate
far more rev-
enue than average or poorly performing employees do.
Furthermore, hiring
and tolerating low-performing employees directly saps a
company of financial
resources, hurts workforce morale, and damages its brand
reputation in the
general market. The most effective way to build and increase
long-term prof-
itability in most organizations is to increase the performance of
its employees.
T E N
c h a p t e r
Hunt, Steven T.. Common Sense Talent Management : Using
Strategic Human Resources to Improve Company Performance,
Center for Creative
Leadership, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ashford-
ebooks/detail.action?docID=827115.
Created from ashford-ebooks on 2020-04-11 04:06:02.
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Commonsense Talent Management350
• We know how to do it. The profession of human resources
has known how to
maximize employee productivity for decades. This is mainly
about consistently
doing a few fundamental things really well. It starts with
putting the right people
in the right jobs through the strategic use of staffing methods.
The next step is
focusing people on the right things through the operational use
of goal manage-
ment and ensuring people are doing things the right way through
effective use of
performance management. Finally, for long-term success,
ensure that people are
given job assignments and access to training resources that
provide them with
the right development for what you want them to do in the
future.
• We have the technology to do it. Until recently, one of the
major barriers to the
effective application of strategic HR methods was the inability
to scale these
methods across multiple employees, managers, and departments.
Innovations
in strategic HR technology have largely eliminated this barrier.

The technol-
ogy is available to drive significant improvements in workforce
productivity.
Companies just have to use it correctly.
• It reduces human trauma. The quality of a person’s work
has a major impact
on his or her happiness, health, and general well-being. How
employees are
managed not only impacts the lives of employees, but also it
affects their fam-
ilies, their customers, and their communities. We often joke
about bad man-
agement, but the reality is that bad management hurts people.
Given that we
know how to manage people in a productive and respectful
manner, there is
no reason for companies or societies to tolerate ineffective,
incompetent, or
otherwise inappropriate management practices.
This book provides insight into and advice on using strategic
HR process to
create positive business outcomes. How you use the information
in this book
will vary depending on your company’s unique business needs,
company cul-
ture, and employee population. But every company can benefit
from applying
the concepts I have discussed. As one of my mentors told me
early in my career,
Strategic HR is relevant to every company because it is relevant
to every
manager. There is no manager in the world who isn’t struggling
with

some sort of people-related issue. When you ask leaders to
describe the
top three business challenges they are facing, invariably at least
one,
and usually all three, are people related. Every manager has
concerns
about whether they have the right people to do the work and
whether
the people they have are doing their work in the right way.
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Improving the World through Strategic HR 351
10.1 NEXT STEPS
HR professionals have the knowledge and tools to significantly
improve the per-
formance of companies and the happiness of the people in those
companies. It is
just a matter of using our knowledge and tools in a manner that
makes a differ-
ence. We know what needs to be done, and we know how to do
it. Now it is up
to us to make it happen.
Part of this is avoiding the tendency in HR to get caught up in
trends or
to become overly enamored with the processes, theories, and
techniques we use to
increase employee productivity. Managers and employees care a
lot about the
things that HR methods affect, but many of them do not care
much about HR
methods themselves. An analogy can be made to how most
people feel about
IT systems: we don’t really care what IT database platforms or
servers our com-
pany uses, but we do care about being able to access our e-mail
accounts. The
same can be said for how most managers feel toward staffing,
management, and
development methods: they don’t care what these processes are
called or why
they work; they just want to get the right people in the right
jobs doing the right
things the right way.

I titled this book Commonsense Talent Management in reaction
to the ten-
dency of some HR professionals to overcomplicate the field of
strategic HR. HR
authors and consultants often talk about the newest innovations
in talent man-
agement when in reality the most effective strategic HR
methods are the sim-
plest and most obvious: hiring people based on well-defined job
descriptions, for
example, and setting clear goals for employees and giving them
actionable feed-
back on how to improve their performance. These aren’t
sophisticated or novel
concepts, yet most companies struggle to do them consistently
and effectively.
Strategic HR basically comes down to two things. First is
determining how
the workforce needs to change to support the company’s
business strategies. This
is about prioritizing business execution drivers. Does company
success depend
more on increasing workforce alignment, productivity,
efficiency, sustainabil-
ity, scalability, or governance? Second is determining how the
company can
use HR methods to create the change. Remember that there are
basically only
four things you can do to change the workforce: (1) put the
right people in the
right jobs by staffing based on clearly defined job requirements,
(2) focus peo-
ple’s attention and motivation on the right things through
effective goal setting,
(3) ensure people are doing things the right way by measuring

their performance
and giving them feedback they can learn from either directly
through coaching
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Commonsense Talent Management352
or indirectly through staffing and pay decisions, and (4) provide
people with job
experiences and resources that give them the right development

to do the things
you want them to do in the future. Strategic HR processes can
get complicated
when you get into the details. But don’t lose sight of the fact
that ultimately it is
just about getting the right people doing the right things in the
right way while
getting the right development. The easier it is to explain
strategic HR, the easier
it is to get business leaders to appreciate the value of strategic
HR methods and
use these methods.
There isn’t one best way to do strategic HR. What models and
process
designs work best will change depending on the nature of the
organization and
the issues it is facing. No matter what processes you put in
place, you will make
minor modifications over time. But avoid making major changes
too often
because such changes can be quite disruptive. An analogy I use
for HR process
design is sailing a small boat with three or four sails. When you
are sailing this
type of boat, you constantly make minor modifications to the
tension and posi-
tion of the sails based on changes in the wind and water. How
you change one
sail will affect the performance of a different sail, so the
process of modification
never really stops completely. And every so often when there is
a significant
change in the weather, you will need to make a major
adjustment by putting
up a different type of sail entirely. The same thing can be

applied to how you
use the 4R strategic HR processes. There are slight
modifications you can make
to these processes every year to make them a bit more effective.
And every so
often, you may need to significantly rework one or more of the
processes based
on a significant change in your company’s business strategy or
business execu-
tion drivers.
10.2 PARTING THOUGHTS
I have worked in the field of strategic HR for over twenty years.
During this
time, I have seen some pretty horrific HR practices. Many of
these were perpe-
trated by managers who were doing things that might have made
sense to them
but not to anyone else. In most of these cases, the problem was
that these man-
agers did not understand the factors that drive employee
behavior and perfor-
mance. In many others, HR practitioners were hopelessly
overcomplicating what
are basically fairly simple processes. In both cases, the
problems could have been
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Improving the World through Strategic HR 353
easily avoided if people had just thought through things a bit
more carefully.
Helping companies avoid these problems is one of the reasons I
wrote this book.
The other reason I wrote this book is to help and inspire
companies to achieve
ever greater levels of workforce productivity. While I have seen
my fair share of
HR horror stories, I’ve also seen a great number of HR
successes. I’ve seen what
happens when HR is done well: improving the quality of HR
practices has a direct
impact on the health and well-being of employees, managers,
customers, their
families, and society in general. HR is about people, and people

matter.
Good luck in your journey to make the world a better place
through better
use of strategic HR processes!
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BFOQ
Research the term BFOQ. Explain its importance and relevance
to HRM. How might not appropriately incorporating well
defined BFOQs lead to difficulties for the organization? How
would the concept of BFOQ be linked to “disparate treatment”
and/or “disparate impact” in respect to staffing? What is the
link between the ADA (1990) and BFOQs? Present your views
in 200 words or more in your discussion post. Respond to two
of your classmates’ posts. Use at least two scholarly source in
your reply. Remember to properly cite your sources.
Respond to Ernest Evans Post

Before starting the hiring process, management always knows
what they will look for the certain job. Job descriptions are
always clear, but sometimes some jobs require employees
having different characteristics than the described ones. These
are rare circumstances that hiring department hires a person
who’s characteristics does not match with the provided list of
qualifications. This all is called Bona Fide Occupational
Qualification (BFOQ) (Hunt, 2014). In US it is called Bona Fide
Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) in Canada it is called Bona
Fide Occupational requirement (BFOR).
In simple terms it is the form of discrimination method used by
management to hire their favorite persons. They can
differentiate between applicants on the basis of color, race,
gender, religious or geographical backgrounds. Through BFOQ
a manager can easily alter the hiring process and disturb the
normal hiring flow (Venable, 2014). BFOQ are safety
techniques designed by management to safe themselves from
legal issues. Since gender, race and color discrimination is not
allowed in this time, so management can raise the point that
they have selected that particular person on the basis of BFOQ.
Management should kept in mind that they should not
disrespected an staff. Disparate treatment can raise arguments
on their work environment. Furthermore, all postings can never
be same for all type of people, although law gives safety to
“qualified individuals”. Sometimes you are qualified by have
something missing in your profile that you cannot apply for a
job. For example a person may have long list of degrees and
certificates but his communication skills are down, so he can
apply for the post of sales manager, but he can be rejected. This
rejection would not be on the basis of color, race, gender,
qualification but on the basis of important missing skill. Rights
of general public are secured but there are some missing things
which can never be answered by rights only (Griffith, 2017).
References
Griffith, D. (February 3, 2017). Discriminatory Job Postings?
What's the Deal? Retrieved from

https://www.higheredjobs.com/articles/articleDisplay.cfm?ID=1
187
Hunt, S.T. (2014). Common Sense Talent Management.
Retrieved from https://www.vitalsource.com
Venable LLP (April 14, 2014). Prohibited Discrimination in
Hiring: Disparate Treatment and Disparate Impact Retrieved
from https://trust.guidestar.org/blog/2014/04/14/prohibited-
discrimination-in-hiring-disparate-treatment-and-disparate-
impact/
Respond To Bethany Moorman post
BFOQ stands for Bona Fide Occupational Qualification which
means a specific attribute is essential for an individual to
perform a specific job (USLegal, 2020). Disparate impact means
that a negative impact is likely to occur or has occurred when
the policy or practice did not appear to intend harm towards a
protected class. Disparate treatment is when an employee is
intentionally subjected to an adverse action or harassment based
on their status involving a protected class
(Workplacediscriminationlaw.com, 2012). While many
protections against disparate treatment are rightfully afforded
by our nations laws, such as Title VII, the Pregnancy
Discrimination Act (PDA), and the Age Discrimination in
Employment Act (ADEA), there are some exceptions based on
what may be considered a BFOQ
(Workplacediscriminationlaw.com, 2012). While disparate
impact and disparate treatment are very clear in their intent and
typically their application, there are some narrow instances
where a BFOQ may be an applicable factor in employment
decisions. More common examples would include actors and the
necessity for a male or female to portray a specific role.
However, the definition of a BFOQ is very narrow and not often
applicable. This can lead to potentially difficult situations for
an employer attempting to implement BFOQ as a factor in
employment decisions as it could easily appear that a candidate
is being subjected to disparate treatment.
References:

USLegal (2020). Bona fide occupational qualification law and
legal definition. USLegal. Retrieved from
https://definitions.uslegal.com/b/bona-fide-occupational-
qualification/
Workplace discrimination law. (2020). BFOQ defenses in
workplace discrimination
lawsuits. http://www.workplacediscriminationlaw.com/bfoq-
defenses-in-workplace-discrimination-lawsuits
Foreign Restrictions on Termination
Research the topic of restrictions on termination of employment
in European countries. Assess the different requirements and
consider risks, operational requirements for MNCs, modified
HRM policies, and any other conditions or restrictions facing a
firm operating in such environments. Present your views in 200
words or more in your discussion post. Use at least two recent,
scholarly source in your reply Respond to at least two of your
classmates’ posts.
Respond to Tenia Miller post
Assess the different requirements and consider risks,
operational requirements for MNCs, modified HRM policies,
and any other conditions or restrictions facing a firm operating
in such environments.
Grounds for the termination in the European market in
comparison to those in the U.S. vary in multiple ways. European
employment compares the two most common ways to be
terminated employment at will and indefinite work. The U.S. is
the only country that follows the employment-at-will law,
explaining the continuous increase in unemployment in the U.S.
While most states follow the indeterminate employment model
with variations that fit the consumer climate, the security in
employment is consistent in the continents that follow the
indefinite way to hire and employ their citizens, Stilwell, F.

(2005). The chosen employment style does not prevent
termination, but the company must prove cause and legal
procedures are followed. Once it has been determined,
termination is justified, a severance or "notice" pay is issued.
The amount of that payment reflects the reason for termination.
Global or multinational companies, such as Google, Apple, or
even Amazon, are faced with difficulties in providing fair
practices for their employees. While these companies are based
out of the United States, the leadership must maintain the
standards of the countries employment requirements. While
there is a Chief HRO, it is the HR managers that provide
feedback and relay information to the leadership to meet and
potentially exceed the employment expectations for the region.
The managers identify the differences and establish the policies
and protocols to achieve the company's mission while
guaranteeing the employment benefits of which the country is
accustomed.
Stilwell, F. (2005). International and Comparative Employment
Relations: Globalization and the Development Market
Economics. Journal of Australian Political Economy, 55.
Respond to Cynthia Perry post
Different requirements according to Onley (2014), include
severance packages of nine weeks of pay for every year worked
in Spain. In Japan employees can only be fired for serious
misconduct. When a US company goes abroad, they should be
well prepared for the road that lies ahead. When they go into
another country, they are in fact playing by their rules. US
companies have found that out the hard way that they have to
comply with international laws. In other countries unions and
work councils are prevalent and they are there to protect the
employee. US companies want to be careful when terminating
employees, as it can have a long-term effect on their
reputation. Once they have gotten a bad reputation it may be
difficult to find top talent. In the interest of doing things right,

HRM should be well versed in international policies, and how
the country operates with employees in regards to challenges
that may arise such as poor productivty, or lack of engagement.
Most European countries have tight knit communities that take
care of each other, so HR will have to modify rules to get along
with the home land people.
Onley, D. S. (2014, January 1). Terminating Overseas
Employees. In SHRM. Retrieved from shrm.org

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