MHRM-6605-1 - Week 5

There are various types of HRM Practices, sometimes we see the field of Human Resource as an all-around which makes it suitable in the operations department, technical department, and even finance department, I am not saying this to emphasize again that these departments are governed by people, I am saying this because the HR competencies we have known and may not have known is also needed by these areas of business. Let's take for example the financial side in which HR can be part of the financial decisions especially in the engineering industry. There are certain parts of the financial system where HR can contribute its input in the engineering industry. When a company wins a supervision project and plans to hire additional manpower as per the obtained contract, HR can contribute to ratio analysis or the process in which the company decides how much is the salary that they should offer and how much is left as a profit. It should not always depend on the company's side, but also must be taken into consideration if the salary is rightfully given in the present economic situation of the country they are in, such as the housing allowance, cost of living, the necessities, and the like. HR Professionals must be trained to analyze the impact of the amount they are leaving for the company and the salary to be offered to be balanced.

We cannot say that it should be fixed in 60-40, where 60 represents the salary to be offered and 40 as the company's profit. There are instances where we have to adjust the offer to the applicants for them to pick our side. Adjusting the figure is the challenge. HR Professionals must be able to practice neutral decision making that accords not only on the people side but also in the management team. That is one of the competency trends that is essential for all HR Professionals - the ability to weigh in and set a limit to situations that can benefit the company AND the employee without a doubt.

MHRM-6605-1 - Week 3

For three years of being employed, I have practiced my capability of understanding the situation with my manager and learned to figure out from where he/she is coming from instead of focusing on the furious situation that came up. Leadership training performed during my college years gave me a different type of pressures of handling a team or a group. I admit to myself that I tend to panic a lot and feel the world above my shoulders with just the little things. These experiences opened my eyes about how big people behind different companies carry the pressure to save the company and avoid a stagnant operation consistently. These people are not just after the compensation they receive; it is about their competency to keep the company working and make this as their pride as an individual.

The same thing with people behind the strategic team. Given all the uncertainties, discrepancies and obstacles along the way, it makes them nervous and uncomfortable to make their next move for the company. Whether we shrug it off or not, we tend to think about the what if’s. These what if’s that slowly destroy the positivity that we had upon the creation of the strategic plan; and when an implementation is about to happen, we tend to see the unsustainable values on the table and think about it as a “too late movement” that urges us to proceed with the corrupt elements.

Most of the employees are trained to value the result of the process rather than the process itself. Overlooking the process doesn’t work that way in the corporate world because by experience, continuing with this will just prepare you for the moment that all the false inputs will backfire at the management.

Part of the competency of an HR Professional in the present trend is their ability to manipulate and control numbers – mathematical analysis, statistics, etc. Having this skill is a competing edge because it makes you capable of analyzing and estimating whatever situation using numbers. In strategic planning, a balance of quantitative and qualitative research gives a real assurance. Some HR Professionals focus on qualitative measurement which causes discrepancies due to improper addressing of the factors to be considered. If given a chance to undergo training and develop myself more, I would focus on practicing my analytical skills because this gives me the power to be sure, it may not be a hundred percent assurance, but having my basis that agrees with my timeline will get me going.

Speaking about the uncertainty of the external and internal environment, I recommend HR Professionals to be close and strictly monitor the development, whether it goes backward or forward and never compromise business ethics just for the sake of winning. Because strategic planning and implementation usually move with inconsistency along the way; accept the fact that it is normal and does your best to make it work by putting confidence on your basis.

MHRM 6600—Week 6

Knowing a person does not work overnight, it is not something you get over a simple pajama party; it is something that anyone works on a long-term basis. To fully now someone, just like places, you have to immerse yourself; you have to understand and feel the way they feel. That is the target of 360 degrees feedback - to identify all the areas concerned in a particular individual to know their strengths and weakness fully because these areas are hardly seen by someone who sees only one side of a person. In the past learnings about employee development plan, we have all proven the importance of knowing the employees' strengths and weaknesses, aside from the feedforward interview, 360 degrees feedback can also give powerful results when we are searching for capabilities.

People typically involved in 360 degrees feedback are the direct supervisors, customers, co-workers, co-departments and close peers; but we cannot expect that colleagues, co-departments, and close peers will give professional feedbacks like what can direct supervisors and customers do. That is one of the limitations of 360 degrees feedback, emotions of the evaluators get in the way which results to inaccuracy. Unlike when we use the traditional appraisal which only comes to the direct supervisor, the feedbacks may be straight, but it does not go deeper regarding identifying the full capabilities of the person. Another limitation would be the uncertainty that the number evaluators is enough to get the full view of a certain individual. Yes, you may have performed the feedback, but is it enough? How does one ensure that the data he gets are accurate enough?

In times of assessing employees performance, HR Professionals should know how to manage and correlate the tools created for us. Sticking with one instrument does not guarantee the accuracy, but supporting it with another one is likely to be ideal and justifiable. Being an HR Professional, one must have the competency of being knowledgeable of all the performance appraisal tools so he or she can fully utilize all these things to assess a person to get accurate results that management can rely on strategic decisions.

MHRM 6600—Week 2

It is not new to many the different experiences of working in teams. I have experienced different situations, and most of them happened in an educational setting. Before talking about teams and groups, let's first talk about the individual perspective. 

I am a lazy person - but I do care about the results and grades that I will receive. So no matter how lazy I get in a day, thinking of the possible effects of my laziness is enough to get me standing up and do the work; having that attitude strongly applies even in a teamwork scenario. I always make sure that there is work being done, and at the same time, I try to be considerate of my group members. Just like the basics of performance management, you oversee results and at the same time monitor the people involved. 

Working on a team lessens the work burden for each member, and contributes different perspective to the overall output of the work. Based on my experience, creativity is much more visible when working with teams that equally contribute, and the challenge for many would be the management of the ideas to put it together because accommodating these ideas are important not just only to the team but to the contributors, as well. Aguinis (2013) believed that working in teams does not necessarily mean to be in the same geographic location and that as long as they work together, need each other and share common goals, they are considered to be on the same team. The first time I worked on a virtual team was during the Talent Mangement class where I realized the value of initiating work because initiations can keep the process moving. Being a good initiator, you have to assess the level of pressure you have to put into your groupmates to get the work done which is challenging in a virtual setup because you hardly know what these members are up to, and the responsibilities they have besides school. Failure to manage these kinds of situation can lead to the disadvantage of doing things alone and giving credits to people who have not done a single thing. 

Evaluating teamwork and team members are the phase where the outputs are to be assessed quantitatively and qualitatively. As a group leader, I was honest enough to evaluate my members, and I did not get afraid of the unfair criticisms I would receive because I know to myself that I have always been considerate to my members and have duly weighed situations before jotting my verdict. To all team leaders, your honesty would be the greatest contribution you will ever give to your team because you have given justice to the success or result of teamwork and your team members for knowing their area of development. 

References:

Aguinis, H. (2013). Performance management (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.