HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Human resource management is the use of individuals to achieve organizational

objectives. Human resource management activities are performed by: human resource
management professionals, line managers, human resource outsourced external
professionals and professional employer organizations. However, Human resource
planning consists of analysing and identifying the need for and availability of human
resources required by an organization to meet its objectives.

Functions of Human Resource/Personnel Management

i Staffing - Is the process through which an organization ensures that it always has the
proper number of employees with the appropriate skills in the right jobs, at the right
time, to achieve organizational objectives;
ii Performance management - Is a goal-oriented process that is directed toward ensuring
that organizational processes are in place to maximize the productivity of employees,
teams, and ultimately, the organization;
iii Human resource growth - Is a major HRM function consisting not only of training and
development but also of career planning and development activities, organization
development, and performance management and appraisal;
iv Compensation - A well-thought-out compensation system provides employees with
adequate and equitable rewards for their contributions to meeting organizational goals;
v Employee and labour relations - Businesses are required by law to recognize a union
and bargain with it in good faith if the firm’s employees want the union to represent
them. When a labour union represents a firm’s employees, the human resource activity
is often referred to as labour relations, which handles the job of collective bargaining;
vi Safety and health - safety involves protecting employees from injuries caused by work-
related accidents. Health refers to the employees’ freedom from physical or emotional
illness.

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Objectives for Human Resource Planning
i Reduce costs, by anticipating and correcting labour shortages and
surpluses before they become unmanageable and expensive;
ii Make optimum use of workers' aptitudes and skills;
iii Improve the overall business planning process;
iv Identify the specific employee skills available and needed;
v Promote sound human resource management throughout all levels of
the organization;
vi Evaluate the effect of alternative HR actions and policies;
vii Enhance continuous quality improvement.

RECRUITMENT & SELECTION

Recruitment is the process of attracting individuals on a timely basis, insufficient
numbers, and with appropriate qualifications to apply for jobs with an
organization.

The Purpose of Recruiting Workers

i To create a talent pool of candidates to enable the selection of best candidates for
the organization;
ii To attract and engage people needed to achieve its overall organizational
objectives;
iii To recruit right people who will fit into the organizations culture and contribute to
the organization's goals;
iv Meet the organizations lawful and social commitments with respect to the synthesis
of its workforce;
v To identify present and future personnel requirements since it is the initial step for
detecting and analysing the workforce requirement in the organization.

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Factors Affecting Labour Supply
Externally
i Government influences - A major element affecting labour supply is the government
via legislation for instance labour law, social security legislation, tax law, equal
employment opportunity law, government policies and regulations.
ii Economic conditions - The general business cycle affects HR planning though
factors such as interest rates, inflation and economic growth help determine the
availability of employees and figure into organizational plans and objectives.
Decisions on wages, the need for overtime, and whether to hire or lay off workers
all hinge on economic conditions.
iii Geographic and Competitive Concerns – This includes factors such as other
employers in the area, Employee resistance to geographic relocation and direct
competitors and international competition.
iv Technological conditions - automation can change the distribution of
demand; it can mean reduction in supply like layoffs and creation of entirely new
job categories;

Internally
i Existing number of people employed by occupation, skill and potential;
ii Potential losses to existing resources through attrition (employee turnover);
iii Potential changes to existing resources through internal promotions;
iv Changes to the organization structure, new methods of working (including flexible
working) more part-time working and different working hours;
v Effect of increases in productivity;
vi Sources of supply from within the organization – existing employees and the
outputs of talent management or training programs.

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Steps Involved In Recruitment & Selection
i) Defining requirements - Requirements are set out in the form of role profiles and
person specifications. These provide the information required to post vacancies on
the company’s website or the internet, draft advertisements, brief agencies or
recruitment consultants and assess candidates by means of interviews and selection
tests;
ii) Attracting candidates – In attracting candidates the recruiter should analyze
recruitment strengths and weaknesses to develop an employee value proposition and
employer brand, analyse the requirement to establish what sort of person is needed
and identify potential sources of candidates;
iii) Sifting applications – Sifting involves examination of information from candidates,
processing applications, sorting applications, drawing up an interview program,
iv) Interviewing - The aim is to elicit information about candidates that will enable a
prediction to be made about how well they will do the job and thus lead to a
selection decision. They can be structured or unstructured;
v) Testing - Selection tests are used to provide valid and reliable evidence of levels of
abilities, intelligence, personality characteristics, aptitudes and attainments. Tests
include intelligence tests, personality tests, ability tests and aptitude tests;
vi) Assessing candidates – This step involves establishment of assessment centers which
assemble a group of candidates and use a range of assessment techniques over a
concentrated period (one or two days) with the aim of providing a more
comprehensive and balanced view of the suitability of individual members of the
group;
vii) Obtaining references - The main purpose of a reference is to obtain in confidence
factual information about a prospective employee. It is necessary to confirm the
nature of the previous job, the period of time in employment, the reason for leaving
(if relevant), the salary or rate of pay and, possibly, the attendance record;
viii) Checking applications - It is always advisable to check with universities, professional
institutes and previous employers that the facts given by applicants are correct;

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 ix) Offering employment - The final stage in the selection procedure is to confirm the
offer of employment after satisfactory references have been obtained, and the
applicant has passed the medical examination required for pension and life assurance
purposes or because a certain standard of physical fitness is required for the work.
x) Following up - It is essential to follow up newly engaged employees to ensure that
they have settled in and to check on how well they are doing. If there are any
problems it is much better to identify them at an early stage rather than allowing
them to fester.

Training
Training consists of organized learning activities capable of improving individual
performance through changes in knowledge, skills, or attitudes.

The Role of Training

i) To create a supply of talent within the organization - Through structured but flexible
long-term learning plans or individual development plans individuals are prepared for
promotion, transfer, or even substantive change in existing jobs;
ii) As a tool for equipping individuals with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need
to implement organizational strategy - In this sense, it is a short-term instrument for
change, geared to existing jobs and problems faced in implementing an existing strategy;
iii) It can help an organization that is moving towards implementation of a new strategy
in a changing environment - training can serve as a medium for simulating artificial
experience to anticipate future events;
iv) It is a potential tool for giving individuals the skills they need to think strategically - One
implication of a rapidly changing environment is that everybody must think strategically,
especially when decision-making is highly decentralized and this can be achieved
through training.

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The Training Processes
i) Analyse performance problems - Performance analysis pinpoints the causes of job
performance problems;
ii) Identify employee training needs - Needs should only be systematically identified
when the cause of a performance problem is lack of knowledge, skill, or appropriate
attitude;
iii) Devise instructional objectives - An instructional objective describes the results or
outcomes sought from instruction;
iv) Prepare test items based on objectives - To demonstrate that learners have mastered
behaviours that a training program has been designed to teach, trainers prepare test
items corresponding to each instructional objective;
v) Select or design instructional content or subject matter based on objectives and test
items – The decision of what to teach - that is, the selection or design of instructional
content - is based on test items and instructional objectives;
vi) Choose delivery methods in line with subject matter and with resource constraints –
They include lectures, tutorials, case studies, simulations, buzz groups, panel
discussions, critical incident, etc.
vii) Offer instruction - Training can be offered on-the-job by the supervisor, off-the-job
by in-house trainers, and off-the-job and outside of the organization;
viii) Evaluate transfer of training back to the job - When off-the-job training is successfully
applied on the job by an employee, then trainers say that the learning was
“transferred.”

Compensation
Compensation is the total of an employee’s pay and benefits.

Types of Compensation
i) Base pay - This is typically a flat rate, either as an hourly wage or salary. Wages versus
salary. Wages are paid on an hourly basis. Salary is based on time a week, a month,
or a year.

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 ii) Wage and salary add-ons - This includes overtime pay, shift differential, premium pay
for working weekends and holidays, and other add-ons;
iii) Incentive pay - Also called variable pay, incentive pay is pay for performance, and it
commonly includes items such as piece work in production and commissioned sales;
iv) Benefits - This is indirect compensation that provides something of value to the
employee; Benefits may include health insurance; payments to employees if they are
unable to work because of sickness or accident; retirement pay contributions; and
provision of a wide variety of desired goods and services such as cafeteria service,
tuition reimbursement, and many other items.

Leadership Styles in Management

Leadership style is the manner in which managers exercise their authority in the
workplace and ensure that their objectives are achieved.
i) Autocracy/Authoritarian leadership– Is a command and control approach in which
the leader makes all the decisions with little input from team members;
ii) Participative/democratic leadership – The leader offers guidance to group
members, but they also participate in the group and allow input from other group
members;
iii) Delegative (Laissez-Faire) leadership - Delegative leaders offer little or no guidance
to group members and leave decision-making up to group members;
iv) Bureaucratic leadership - is where the manager manages "by the book¨ everything
must be done according to procedure or policy".

Disciplining As a Control Function of Management

Disciplining employees is a necessary matter in every organization, albeit an
unpleasant one. Generally, effective discipline can help to correct employee
behavioural issues and can increase productivity as well as help to protect your
company against wrongful termination lawsuits.

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 Causes of Indiscipline at the Work Place
i) Lack of proper leadership - Ineffective leadership leads to indiscipline because such
leaders fail to motivate and control the behaviour of the employees.
ii) Lack of supervision - Lack of proper supervision by not maintaining discipline and
controlling the behaviour of the employees and forcing them to follow rules and
regulations will promote indiscipline;
iii) Violation of rights of employees - As human beings employees have certain rights which
should not be violated in any case and if violated discontent will prevails which will
lead to gross indiscipline;
iv) Absence of grievance settlement machinery - Grievances of the employees should be
redressed quickly at the lowest level as far as possible. Effective grievance settlement
machinery should be set up to resolve the disputes otherwise indiscipline will result.
v) Lack of proper promotional policy – If an employee's claim for promotion is set aside
and his junior and inefficient is given promotion, he may feel discontented which
provokes them into indiscipline.
vi) Lack of communication - There must be effective two-way communication channel
especially upward in which superiors listen to feelings and opinions of lower level staff.
Lack of this channel of communication is responsible for employee dissent and
indiscipline.
vii) Lack of proper rules and regulations – The lack of proper code of conduct and manual,
rules as well as regulations which are impractical and cannot be followed are responsible
for creating indiscipline among employees. Also, pose problems.

Importance of managing the discipline of employees

i To develop self-control among all the employees.
ii To encourage employees to meet established rules of behaviour;
iii To protect the organization from illegal and harmful actions of employees;
iv To protect the life of an employee from illegal and harmful actions of another
employee or a group of other employees;

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 v To ensure peaceful and orderly working environment for the achievement of
organizational goals and objectives;
vi To promote fairness and order in the treatment of employees and in the conduct of
industrial relations.

Actions Available Under Positive Approach of Penalizing An Offender

 Oral warning - is a verbal warning that a supervisor or manager gives to an employee
as a means of rectifying some incident of inappropriate conduct or behaviour;
 Written warning - is a document provided by an employer to an employee to
formally indicate a concern about a conduct or capacity in the issue in the workplace,
designed to put the employee on notice that if they do not improve their
performance, there may be consequences for their continued employment.
 Suspension from work for a defined period of time with/without pay; it is where an
employee continues to be employed (and so is generally entitled to continue/not
receiving pay and benefits), but does not have to attend their place of work or do
any work.
 Demotion - Demotion is the lowering of a rank, reduction in salary, status and
responsibilities
 Termination of employment /dismissal - refers to the end of an employee’s work
with a company. vi) Stoppage of salary increment; vii) Stoppage of applying for a
promotion; viii) Transfer to a difficult area/unpleasant work

The process of disciplining & termination of an employee(s) in an organization

i) Oral reprimand - Oral reprimands should be given as soon as a manager or employer
notices an issue with an employee’s performance or behaviour. Oral reprimands
should be given tactfully, so that employees understand that reprimands are
constructive criticism and not personal attacks;
ii) Written warning - If an employee does not respond to a verbal reprimand favourably
or begins to exhibit further behavioural or performance issues, it may be necessary to

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 issue a written warning. An effective written warning should detail exactly what the
undesirable aspects of the employee’s behaviour or performance are, how the
employee should correct these issues, and what will happen if the employee does not
correct these issues;
iii) Final written warning - If an employee continues to exhibit poor performance after
receiving a written warning, managers should issue final documentation. When final
documentation is given, employees should be shown all other times that reprimands
have been given and documented, while managers pointedly explain how they were
instructed to act and how they failed to meet the expectations;
iv) Suspension with probation - If an employee still continues to fail to meet expectations
after final documentation has been given, you may wish to give the employee one
final chance in the form of a suspension with a subsequent probationary period. The
probationary period may include a dock in pay, continuous supervision, or retraining
efforts;
v) Termination - If an employee continues to exhibit the same behaviours after the
suspension period or does not respond favourably to retraining, it is unfortunately
time to move on to termination. When an employee is terminated, the final meeting
should be in person and the employee should be given documentation and an
explanation as to the exact reasons for the termination.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
It is the practice or the study of relationship within and between workers, working
groups and their organizations and managers, employers and their organizations. It
involves employment and employment regulations, trade unionism, grievance and
grievance handling procedures, discipline and disciplinary action and the laws
governing all above. The actors of industrial relations include trade unions,
employers' associations and the government.

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Trade unions
It is an association of employees whose principal purpose is to regulate relations
between employees and employers, including any employer’s organization.

Objectives and Activities of Trade Unions.

i) To improve employees’ working conditions and protect their interests.
ii) To regulate relations between employers and their workers by improving the
bargaining powers of the workers as provided in CAP 233 & 234;
iii) To improve the economic and social conditions of its members;
iv) To assist in the complete organization of trade union movements for all workers in
private & public institutions;
v) To organize the structures and spheres of influences that is relevant to the workers.

Roles/Functions of Trade Unions

 To improve wages and working conditions of workers;
 To use the movement in the struggle for employees’ rights in contract disputes &
negotiations;
 An agent negotiating with employer on behalf of its members;
 To use movement in the struggle for country’s good governance through civil
education, etc.
 To safeguard security of tenure and improve conditions of service;
 To enlarge opportunities for promotion and training.

How Employees Can Champion For Their Rights.

i) Picketing - Picketing is a form of protest in which people called picketers congregate
outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place;
ii) Injunction - Through a court order, the employees can petition the employer from any
action such as lockout until the matter is heard and resolved;

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 iii) Individual bargaining - Workers are free to negotiate individually with employers over
terms of employment and to select among offers made by competing employers;
iv) Collective Bargaining - Workers might band together in a union to negotiate their
interest with their employer.

Types of Industrial Actions

 Strikes - A strike occurs when a group of workers refuses to work;
 Pickets - Occurs when workers refuse to work and lock the entrance to the working
premises;
 Lock-out - This occurs when an employer refuses to allow workers to enter the
premises;
 Boycotts - Occurs when workers stop transacting any business with the employer
and also persuade the public to do the same.

Employer's Powers In The Face Of an Industrial Action

All these decisions must be made in accordance with the law and the actions and in such
cases, they shall not be interpreted as attempts to avoid bargaining with the union.
i) Lockout;
ii) Replacement of striking workers;
iii) Close the company or the plant;
iv) Close certain operations of the company;
v) Transfer operations to another location;
vi) Subcontract certain jobs.

Regulations Governing Employment in Kenya

i) Employment Act, Cap 226 – Declares and defines fundamental rights of employees,
provides basic conditions of employment of employees and regulates employment of
children

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ii) Labour Institutions Act– establishes labour institutions – National Labour Board, Industrial
Court, Committee of Inquiry, Commissioner of Labour, Director of Employment, Registrar
of Trade Unions and Wage Councils.
iii) Work Injury Benefits Act – provides for compensation of employees for work-related
injuries and diseases contracted in the course of their employment
iv) Labour Relations Act – consolidates trade union law
v) Occupational Safety and Health Act – Provides for the safety, health and welfare of
workers and all persons lawfully present at workplaces. Of prime importance are the
provisions discussed below:
Health General Provisions
a) Cleanliness - Every workplace shall be kept in a clean state, and free from effluvia
arising from any drain, sanitary convenience or nuisance.
b) Overcrowding - An occupier shall ensure that his workplace shall not, while work
is carried on, be so overcrowded as to cause risk of injury to the health of the
persons employed therein.
c) Ventilation - An occupier shall ensure that effective and suitable provision is made
for securing and maintaining, by the circulation of fresh air in each workroom.
d) Lighting - An occupier shall ensure that effective provision is made for securing and
maintaining sufficient and suitable lighting, whether natural or artificial, in every
part of his workplace in which persons are working or passing.
e) Sanitary convenience - sufficient and suitable sanitary conveniences for the persons
employed in the workplace shall be provided, maintained and kept clean, and
effective provision shall be made for lighting the conveniences

Welfare Provisions
a) Supply of drinking water – Every occupier shall provide and maintain an adequate
supply of wholesome drinking water at suitable points conveniently accessible to all
persons employed.

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 b) Washing facilities – Every occupier shall provide and maintain for the use of persons
employed, adequate and suitable facilities for washing, which shall be conveniently
accessible and shall be kept in a clean and orderly condition.
c) Accommodation for clothing – Every occupier shall provide and maintain for the
use of a person employed, adequate and suitable accommodation for clothing not
worn during working hours.
d) Facilities for sitting – Every occupier shall provide and maintain, for the use of a
person employed whose work is done standing, suitable facilities for sitting,
sufficient to enable the person employed to take advantage of any opportunities
for resting which may occur in the course of his employment.
e) First-aid - Every occupier shall provide and maintain so as to be readily accessible,
a first aid box or cupboard of the prescribed standard.

Enforcement
a) Improvement Notice - Shall be served if an occupational safety and health officer
is of the opinion that a person- is contravening any of the provisions of this Act or
rules made there under; or has contravened one or more of those provisions in
circumstances that make it likely that the contravention will continue or be
repeated;
b) Prohibition notice - This notice shall be served if an occupational safety and health
officer is of the opinion that, as carried on or about to be carried on by or under
the control of the person in question the activities involve or, as the case may be,
will involve a risk of serious personal injury. An occupational safety and health
officer may block, seal, bar, barricade, immobilize or fence off that part of the
workplace, plant or machinery to which the prohibition applies, and no person
shall interfere with or remove such blocking sealing, bar, barricade, immobilizer or
fence.
vi) Factories Act, Cap 514 - makes provision for the health, safety and welfare of
persons employed in factories and other places

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vii) The regulation of wages and conditions of employment Act Cap 229; viii) The
Workmen compensation Act CAP 235;
ix) NSSF Act, Cap 258 – Establishes SSF and requiring contributing employers and employees
to make payments
x) Retirements Benefits Act - Establishes a Retirement Benefits Authority for the regulation,
supervision and promotion of retirement benefits schemes and the development of the
retirement benefits sector
xi) NHIF Act – Establishes Hospital Fund to be funded, among others by employers and
employees
xii) Pensions Act - provides for the grant and regulating of pensions, gratuities and other
allowances of the public employees

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