Human Resource Management
Human resource management tests the employee life cycle - job design, staffing, development, appraisal, pay, and labor relations - plus the laws that constrain it.
Job analysis to staffing
Job analysis produces the job description (duties, reporting, working conditions) and the job specification (qualifications, education, skills). Recruitment draws internal candidates, who are cheaper and motivating but limited, or external ones, who bring fresh skills at higher cost. Selection uses applications, tests, interviews, references, and assessment centers. A selection tool must be both reliable (consistent results) and valid (actually predicts job performance); structured, job-related interviews and work samples predict best.
Development and appraisal
Orientation socializes new hires; training closes skill gaps. Appraisals may use graphic rating scales, behaviorally anchored rating scales, critical incidents, ranking, MBO, or 360-degree feedback. Common failures are halo error, leniency, recency bias, and central tendency.
Compensation and benefits
Pay includes base wages, incentives (bonus, commission, gainsharing, profit sharing), and benefits (health, retirement, paid leave). The FLSA requires minimum wage and overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate beyond 40 hours in a workweek for nonexempt employees; exempt status requires passing salary-basis and duties tests. Mandatory benefits include Social Security and Medicare (FICA), unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation; ERISA governs private pension plans.
Labor relations and equal employment
The Wagner Act (NLRA, 1935) protected organizing and collective bargaining and created the NLRB; Taft-Hartley (1947) restricted union tactics and added unfair labor practices applying to unions; Landrum-Griffin regulated internal union affairs. Bargaining covers wages, hours, and conditions; grievances follow a contractual procedure ending in arbitration. Title VII bars discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin for employers with 15 or more employees; the ADEA covers age 40 and over at 20 or more employees; the ADA requires reasonable accommodation at 15 or more; the EEOC enforces these. Affirmative action is a deliberate outreach plan, typically required of federal contractors, and differs from mere nondiscrimination.
Worked example
A nonexempt employee earns $15 per hour and works 45 hours. Pay = 40 × $15 + 5 × $22.50 = $600 + $112.50 = $712.50. Calling the same worker 'salaried' does not make the position exempt if the duties test fails.
Traps
Mixing up description and specification; equating reliability with validity; assuming salary alone determines exemption; and attributing union law to the EEOC.