Personnel v HR 8-10-24

Personnel & ASPA 

Personnel was the name used prior to 1983. The focus was on customers, product quality and competition. ASPA was the American Society for Personnel Administration. When names change, the focus and priorities begin to drift.

EO10925, signed by President John F. Kennedy on 6 March 1961 included a provision that government contractors "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated [fairly] during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin".

In 1964, Congress passed Public Law 88-352 (78 Stat. 241). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing.

On September 24, 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11246, prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin by those organizations receiving federal contracts and subcontracts.

The percentage of workers belonging to a union (or "density") in the United States peaked in 1954 at almost 35% and the total number of union members peaked in 1979 at an estimated 21.0 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_unions_in_the_United_States#:~:text=The%20percentage%20of%20workers%20belonging%20to%20a%20union%20(or%20%22density,at%20an%20estimated%2021.0%20million.

The union membership rate was 10.1 percent in 2022, down from 10.3 percent in 2021. The 2022 unionization rate (10.1 percent) is the lowest on record. In 1983, the first year for which comparable data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent.Jan 24, 2023

https://www.google.com/search?q=us+labor+union+membership+by+year&oq=us+labor+union+membership+by+year&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRifBdIBCTIwNDU2ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Dealing with Labor Unions was a large part of Personnel work in the 1950s. The increase in US Right to Work States led manufacturing companies to relocate to these mostly southern states and adopt “union free” policies that replaced micro-management with employee teams.

SHRM Doctrine

When Personnel became Human Resources to support Globalism in the 1980s, ASPA was replaced by SHRM and micro-management by HR was reintroduced to enforce federal labor laws and Diversity Equity and Inclusion. Now in 2024, DEI is on the decline and so is Globalism and SHRM will need to adapt. The current state of HR is explained below:

SHRM, Society for Human Resources Management, explains the role of the HR staff as they see it now and it is outlined in the article below.

The overarching goal of HR is to help employers build and maintain positive relationships with their employers, and vice versa. These days, HR professionals can choose to be either generalists or specialists. Generalists possess a wide range of skills and can handle multiple aspects of the HR needs at a company. On the other end of the spectrum are the specialists, who have deep expertise in one area of HR, like recruitment or benefits administration.

Curious about what goes on in a modern HR department? Keep reading to explore seven of the many ways HR contributes to employee – and company – success.

SHRM changed the emphasis of Personnel and published the following outline that included more attention to regulatory compliance and virtue signaling and less on employee development and productivity.

What does HR do? 7 important functions of human resources

Depending on the size of the company, an HR professional might perform one or several of the key functions of human resources outlined in the list below:

1. Recruiting, hiring and retaining talent

Talent acquisition is one of the more well-known functions of any HR department. Making sure the workforce capabilities and performance match organizational goals is crucial for the health of the company. HR managers have to keep their finger on the pulse of the company to ensure personnel levels can meet demand. They must also be strategic when hiring for new roles or restructuring teams and make hard decisions about staffing.

Recruiting candidates: Finding the right person starts with accurate and detailed job descriptions. HR must analyze the market and set a competitive salary range before promoting available positions on any number of platforms. Typically, HR professionals will screen applications and resumes before deciding which candidates should move forward in the hiring process. From there, HR sets up one (or several) interview(s) with employees, managers, senior leadership and other key players.

Hiring employees: HR managers are usually in charge of performing background checks, onboarding new employees and explaining payroll, benefits and company policies. There is a considerable amount of important legal paperwork, recordkeeping and administrative responsibility involved in the hiring process. Making sure all the information is present, correct and properly protected is critical to the security of the employees and company.

Retaining talent: HR is also partially responsible for employee retention, which is often overlooked in the discussion around talent acquisition. According to research from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), employees identified the following five factors as the leading contributors to their job satisfaction:

Respectful treatment of all employees at all levels

Trust between employees and senior management

Opportunities to use their skills and abilities at work

Compensation/pay Job security

2. Employee engagement

The importance of setting up two-way dialogue and engagement between employees and HR or senior leadership cannot be overstated. It is the only way to build and maintain a vibrant company culture, one where everyone is united around shared goals, mission and values. Encouraging employees to discuss concerns or report a situation ensures that problems can be worked through as soon as possible, instead of snowballing into a potentially damaging situation.

Here are some HR activities that can build rapport and trust among leadership, management and employees:

Recognizing individual and group achievements

Sharing successes and failures

Asking for feedback and listening to concerns

Organizing company-wide gatherings

Communicating new policies, decisions and strategic goals in a timely manner

Mediating conflicts or tensions between employees.

3. Performance management

Performance management is the process of maintaining or improving job performance. Typically, this is done through the use of assessment tools, coaching and counseling, and providing continuous feedback.

How a company chooses to evaluate, coach and reward their employees varies depending on the unique characteristics of their workforce distribution, size and other factors. For example, a corporation with 40,000 employees across multiple states might use specialized software for remote team management. Whereas a small organization with 20 employees who all work in-person at a central location would have no need for such a tool.

4. Compensation and benefits

Calculating fair compensation rates and putting together a comprehensive list of benefits is another big part of an HR manager’s job. After all, this is what employees are getting in exchange for their hard work. The goal is to create a competitive and attractive offer that aligns with the candidate’s experience and expectations. Many universities, including UMass Global, work with employers to embed education into their benefits packages.

Compensation refers to an employee’s yearly salary or hourly wage, while benefits vary widely and can include things like:

Health insurance (e.g., medical, dental, vision)

401k opportunities

Education benefits

Parental leave

Paid holidays Paid time off

Sign-on bonuses

Referral bonuses

Relocation assistance

Stock options

5. Development and training

Offering ample opportunities for individuals to learn new skills and further improve their existing talents is advantageous to the company and employees alike. Robust professional development programs can have positive effects on employee productivity, enhance performance, increase opportunities to promote from within, and reduce turnover rates. When employees feel like their organization is investing in their growth, they are more likely to engage with and shape the company culture for the better.

HR is also responsible for providing training sessions that align with the organization’s strategic goals and legal responsibilities. For example, HR departments often coordinate company-wide informational sessions or seminars around important topics like:

Diversity, inclusion and equity in the workplace

Recognizing and reporting sexual harassment

Mandated reporting

Emerging technology

Industry and marketing trends

6. Risk management

Another key function of human resources is identifying, assessing and resolving short- and long-term risks before they become a real threat. This serves to protect both the employees and the company. While risk management isn’t typically the sole responsibility of HR professionals, they play an important role in the process.

Some examples of how an HR department mitigates organizational risk include:

Properly training managers and collecting anonymous feedback from their direct reports

Implementing measures to maintain or increase diversity

Working with IT to ensure data and sensitive records are secure and private

Accurately tracking, updating and protecting employee records

Investigating complaints and allegations of harassment, racism, sexism, favoritism, etc.

7. Audits and legal compliance

The laws on matters such as labor, benefits, fair compensation, hiring and firing are complex. They also vary by state and are subject to change periodically. Knowing and following state, federal and local regulations is necessary for the success of any organization.

According to the SHRM, most lawsuits can be traced to issues related to hiring, performance management, employee discipline or termination. Other high-risk areas include:

Outdated labor and employment law posters

Poorly maintained or inadequately protected personnel fields

Insufficient record retention

Inaccurate wage/hour/time records

A savvy HR department avoids any notion of wrongdoing by conducting regular compliance audits to evaluate internal policies and procedures and ensure best practices are being followed.

https://www.umassglobal.edu/news-and-events/blog/key-functions-of-human-resources

Comments

SHRM will need to drop the DEI and Woke culture and return to supporting a Meritocracy. HR needs to drop the Gestapo role and add employee development with testing and feedback, so employees can find out what they are good at and love to do. This will empower employees to take control of their own careers.

In 1983, the American Society for Personnel Administration ASPA became the Society for Human Resource Management SHRM. This was in response to the call for Globalism, as manufacturing was leaving the US.

SHRM has overplayed regulatory compliance and established HR as the Gestapo of US corporations. It was vulnerable to overreactions to laws and became a destructive enforcer of social justice and Democrat Party political initiatives.

We are about to enter a new phase that should include the re-shoring of manufacturing in the US.

Employee development needs to begin with skills and personality testing to establish a base-line. Employees must assume responsibility for their own development, but require help from a training coordinator. I used the APT test that compared scores with successful employees. I also used the Meyers Briggs, DICS, SIMA, Inner-directed v Outer-directed, and Personality Styles tests.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader