• Defining HRM
• Difference between Personnel Management and HRM
• HRM as an international model
• Broad and Narrow, Soft and Hard HRM
• Why study and practice HRM?
• HRM as a strategy - internal and external

We’ll spend some time getting to know each other and discussing the course content and the HR Cycle. Methods of assessment (for those who are aiming for our certificate of competence) will also be discussed, alongside different learning and study skills.

We will then move on to consider what HRM is and where it has come from. Personnel management will be introduced and its links with HRM discussed. Different formulations of the HR model such as narrow versus broad and soft versus hard will be cited. We will discuss the extent to which HRM has been applied in delegate's workplaces and whether it is a useful model to apply. This will require some understanding of HRM as a corporate strategy as well as understanding of your organisation’s strategy in general. Cultural issues within HRM will be introduced, but focused on in greater detail in a subsequent module.

Module 2: Job Analysis

• What job analysis is
• The importance of job analysis
• The principal methods of job analysis and their advantages/disadvantages
• The type of data that is collected during job analysis
• Criticisms about the lack of reliability in job analysis
• Criteria for assessing job analysis
• How job analysis informs the job description and person specification
• Why organisations use or are turning to competency-based job analysis
• Links between job analysis and the HR cycle

During Module One it was noted that job analysis is often viewed as the most important element within the HR cycle. This is because it links with all aspects, and if done poorly or not at all, there will be negative repercussions in, for example, selection, training and development and performance appraisal. This module introduces job analysis, underlines its importance and demonstrates a number of methods of conducting this important task. We will consider the advantages and disadvantages of each type of job analysis and briefly practice some methods. We will also consider issues of reliability in job analysis and introduce how reliability is a theme which recurs within HR practices and methods and something to be aware of throughout the course. Finally, delegates will learn about competency-based job analysis and person specifications and why these are becoming more popular among today’s top organisations.

• The link between forecasting of personnel needs and strategic HRM
• Ways in which personnel and competency requirements can be planned
• Sources of internal and external candidates
• How and why recruitment policy should be consistent with the company’s strategy, image and other policies
• How to design application forms that mirror best practice and do not violate employment law
• How to select applicants from the recruitment pool to transfer to the selection phase

Module 4: Assessment Methods (Excluding Psychometric Tests)

• Methods of assessment available such as assessment centres, application forms, interviews and more
• Controversial methods such as graphology, astrology and phrenology
• Reliability and validity of various methods
• How to prepare for and design objective, behaviour-based interviews.

So far we have seen how HRM must be strategic and that in order to be so, we must understand both our internal and external environments. We have also seen how it is necessary to thoroughly and competently analyse all jobs within an organisation and to make personnel plans on the basis of predictions of trends and changes to our environments. In the previous module we considered how to recruit in line with the organisation’s strategy and image and how to design a legal and scoreable application form. In this module, we move on to look at how we select employees on the basis of all of the information that we have available. The focus will be on objective assessment. Many of the methods considered may also also be used to assist in employee development.

• What a psychometric assessment is
• The major competence issues in psychometric assessment
• Why proper training and practice is required in order to make psychometric assessment useful
• Why standardisation is a key repetitive theme in psychometrics
• Error associated with tests as well as all other methods of assessment
• How to ensure that bias does not occur in testing using the 4/5 rule
• Computer-based testing and how it compares with pencil & paper testing
• Major models of personality: The Big-5 and Cattell’s 16 factor model
• The use of psychometric tests in Asia
• Whether using indigenous tests has any incremental validity over and above internationally-developed tests in Hong Kong and Singapore

ALL DELEGATES WILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO COMPLETE A PSYCHOMETRIC TEST AND RECEIVE A TEST REPORT AT NO EXTRA FEE

• The difference between training and education
• The importance of training and development
• Training and HRM
• Learning styles
• The training cycle
• Training Needs Analysis
• Training Design
• Training Implementation
• The training transfer problem
• The often ignored evaluation and the importance of training evaluation
• Solomon’s four-group training evaluation design
• Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model
• The learning organization and the concept of continuous learning
• Cross-cultural comparisons of training

No organisation can boast that it has an HRM strategy if it does not include training and development. This module capitalises upon this statement and explores the issues surrounding the effective use of the training function. Delegates will be introduced to the training cycle and the necessity of following it. The lack of evaluation of training by organisations will be addressed, alongside how training needs analysis should be carried out, how training programmes should be designed, how training should be implemented and how the evaluation results should feedback into this cycle. We will compare training and development and its legislative context cross-culturally.

Module 7: Performance Appraisal

• History of performance appraisal
• Purposes of performance appraisal
• Advantages and disadvantages of linking performance appraisal with pay
• The design of performance appraisal systems
• Issues in the implementation of performance appraisal systems
• Rating scales
• Common errors in evaluation
• Characteristics of effective performance appraisal interviews
• Monitoring and maintaining appraisal systems
• Improving performance appraisal for the future

The use of formal systems for appraising employee performance is on the increase. With this in mind, it is necessary for delegates to understand the advantages and disadvantages of these systems and to learn how to alleviate some of the common pitfalls in the design and maintenance of performance appraisal systems. Delegates will learn about the reliability and validity of different appraisal techniques, how appraisal should be carried out and how performance appraisal can be improved in order to be an effective HR tool.

Module 8: Motivating and Rewarding Employees

• The main theories of motivation: need, cognitive and reinforcement.
• The evidence that supports or fails to support each theory.
• The implications of each theory for workplace performance and motivation.
• How to design work in order to maximise motivation and increase employee retention.
• Why managers prefer to use Maslow’s theory despite the lack of evidence to support it.
• What influences pay?
• Pay and behaviour modification
• Pay and equity
• The importance of equity for employees and managers
• Motivational issues in the design of salary-systems
• Problems associated with different salary-systems
• Performance-related pay and motivation
• Performance-related pay and performance appraisal

Within a strategic HRM function, there needs to be room for consideration of how to motivate employees, and how top employees can be retained by the organisation. We have already seen how training and development and creation of a learning organisation may assist in this. Likewise, investment in career management may lead to affective commitment because the employee feels that the psychological contract has been upheld by the organisation. Additionally, it is important to consider other methods of motivation in order to enhance performance and quality of working life and increase employee retention. This module will consider the development of motivation theories over time and, given the research evidence, suggest that no theory is adequate on its own. The best insight can be gained by subscribing to a number of theories.

Module 9: Ethical HRM & Equal Opportunities

• What ethical HRM entails
• Why HRM needs to aim to be ethical
• What equal opportunities is and why it is required in terms of law and ethics
• Factors affecting decision-making
• Theoretical components of ethical HRM
• The rhetoric versus the reality of ethical HRM
• Rights and duties of employer and employee
• The moral development of the organisation
• A framework for ethical decision-making

This module considers the ethical processes and decisions that HRM is required to consider on an almost daily basis. First, we’ll reconsider some of the topics that we have already touched upon throughout the course in relation to equal opportunities. Then we’ll look at how ethics and ethical behaviour are shaped and fed into organisational culture. We’ll consider if HRM can ever be truly ethical given that some writers have noted that it is a morally conflictual function. We will look at some of the rights and duties of both employee and employer before finishing with a case study that aims to stimulate some thinking about the ethical issues facing HR professionals.

Module 10: Global HRM and expatriate assignments

• How to increase the chances of success of international assignments and expatriate assignees
• Personal and organisational factors that lead to expatriate success
• What issues need to be planned into an overseas assignment policy
• Why training is rarely carried out (but should be)
• Factors affecting the expatriate partner or spouse that ultimately also affect the assignment
• Women and expatriate assignments: why the biggest barrier faced by females in expatriate assignments is often in the original country

This module will provide delegates with an overview of some of the international dimensions of HRM and organisational behaviour. The focus will be on expatriate assignments and how to plan and design expatriate packages that will lead to successful assignments overseas as well as positive reintegration at the end of the assignment. We will consider individual and organisational factors that lead to success, training for the assignment and new culture, the issue of expatriate partners/spouses and female expatriatism.