HR Management Responses by AH

This week in class we learned about labor unions, including what they involve, why people join them, and their current trends in the working world. There are pros and cons for both employees and employers when it comes to labor unions.

The Pros

• Unions can advocate for employees to get better benefits and wages
• Unions help workers perform with striking to achieve better terms of employment
• Employees who are part of a union tend to earn more money (Kristof)
• Unions lessen economic inequality among working men in the U.S. (Kristof)
• Employees have better working conditions because of unions (Klawans)
• Union members become empowered and will be more productive at work (Klawans)
• Workplaces become safer because of the work of unions (Klawans)

The Cons

• Union dues can be expensive (Kasperkevic)
• Some unions have political affiliations or donations that some union members may disagree with (Kasperkevic)
• Unions may require an employer to spend more on their employees for better benefits, higher wages, etc.
• Unions may impose strict rules on workers and employers
• Strikes may happen more often because of unions

Discussion

Because I have been working as an intern in the construction industry for the past three years and I will go into construction full-time after graduation, I am very familiar with unions, as many subcontractor workers are represented by unions. The information I learned in class this week is similar to what I already know about unions and what I found out during my online research. The overarching idea is that unions are an ideal way for employees to protect their interests and bargain with their employers to achieve ideal employment terms and working conditions. Some other key takeaways I learned are that labor unions can produce more fair pay and treatment for workers, and that although union requirements make things more complicated for employers, unions are necessary to keep employees content with their jobs. Especially in construction, unions play a crucial role in protecting workers and ensuring they have adequate compensation and working conditions. If I were to work for a subcontractor in the future, I would certainly join a union to ensure I had representation on the jobs I worked and that I was being treated fairly with good compensation.

Citations:

Kasperkevic, Jana. “Why unions are so worried about right-to-work laws.” MarketPlace. February 24, 2017. https://www.marketplace.org/2017/02/24/push-nationwide-right-work-law-could-weaken-unions/.

Klawans, Justin. “The pros and cons of labor unions.” The Week. October 1, 2024. https://theweek.com/business/labor-unions-pros-cons.

Kristof, Nicholas. “The Cost of a Decline in Unions.” New York Times. February 19, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/opinion/nicholas-kristof-the-cost-of-a-decline-in-unions.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0.

Job stress is something that seemingly everyone in the professional world experiences, and it is essential to develop healthy habits to cope with job stress to avoid negative effects like burnout or illness that could reduce productivity. To learn more about how I personally cope with stress, I took the three tests required for this assignment.

Test Results

Based on my results from the three tests, I learned firstly that as of right now in my life, I have a low amount of life change and therefore a low susceptibility to stress-related health problems. This is likely because I have yet to experience many big events in my life that I will start to experience over the next few years after graduation, such as starting a new career, moving into a new place, or marriage. I also learned from the test results that when dealing with stress, I tend to focus more on the problem and trying to fix the problem, rather than working on changing my emotional reaction to the problem. According to the Type A test, I learned that I sometimes exhibit impatient or irritable behaviors while under stress, however I am not Type A enough to where I would be likely to experience health problems from that.

Steps I Can Take to Manage Stress in My Career

• Focus on work-life balance to reduce stress that can be caused by spending too much time at work
• Exercise to release endorphins that can help relieve my stress
• Recognize what changes I can make at work to reduce stress, such as not taking on more assignments than I can handle
• Participate in wellness programs provided by my company to improve my wellness and take advantage of company provided health benefits

The Role Organizations are Playing to Improve Employee Health

Organizations recognize the impact stress and other health problems can have on employees and therefore their presence at work, and how unhealthy employees may lead to greater turnover, higher health costs, and more absenteeism at the company. Specific conditions that companies are currently concerned about include obesity, mental illnesses like depression, low physical activity, high blood pressure, diabetes, infertility, substance abuse, and plenty more. Specific concerns in the construction industry, the industry I am going into, include suicide and physical fitness. To address their concerns, more and more companies are offering ways for employees to cope with job stress and live overall healthier lives. Some of these include:

• Fitness competitions: Companies may host individual competitions at work like step competitions where employees compete against each other to get the most steps, or they may sponsor competition teams like for the Hood to Coast race in Oregon to encourage employees to move
• Wellness programs: An organization may offer reimbursements for things like massages, gym memberships, nutrition therapy, or exercise equipment that can help improve employee wellness
• Expanded health benefits: Companies can include coverage for specific treatments within their health benefits that can help employees with problems relating to mental health, fertility, or oncology, for example
• Healthy workplace environment: Providing elements like ergonomic chairs, standing desks, healthy snacks, water, quiet rooms, and windows in an office can contribute to a healthy workplace environment where employees may feel less stress and experience fewer health problems

URLs to Websites Used for Research:

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/10/employee-health-programmes-obesity

https://articles.percihealth.com/employee-health-issues-in-workplace

While interning at a construction company this past summer in Seattle, I heard from a few full-time employees about why they chose to work for and stay at the company. While there are many options for construction companies to work for, especially in the greater Seattle area, employees continuously chose this company and to stay with them long-term, with a significant amount of employees who have been there for 10+ years. A primary reason employees gave for choosing this company was compensation.

As we learned in class, compensation accounts for some of the extrinsic and intrinsic rewards an employee earns in their job. Some of the extrinsic rewards that these employees mentioned they valued at the company are decent salaries, bonuses, COLAS, and stock options. Intrinsic rewards included feelings of satisfaction and fulfillment from getting to participate in special events for “old-timers” (employees who have been at the company for a long time) and from overall company project successes. The company more or less uses a merit pay system where employees receive increases in their pay based on performance evaluations, which the employees like. Overall, the highly competitive compensation plays a big part in making employees want to stay at the company.

Why Compensation Motivated This Behavior and Made People Want To Stay

We learned in the HBR article “Most people have no idea whether they’re fairly paid” that, unsurprisingly, how much people get paid can affect them emotionally as it represents their value at a company (Smith 1). While money and other rewards aren’t everything a person looks for in a job, compensation can still play a large role in helping a person make career decisions. Especially in highly competitive markets like the construction industry, it is important for companies to give employees a good reason to work for them instead of someone else. Providing good compensation can set companies apart from others in the industry. Like with the company I worked for this summer, people wanted to work for this company because it offered the best compensation in their opinion. These employees wanted to work somewhere where they feel their work matters and will get recognized, and the compensation at this company makes them feel that way. Employees at this organization also likely chose this company because of its special compensation perks that many companies don’t have, like the ability to have company stock. Finally, the people who work at this company not only want to succeed individually, but want the entire company succeed, so they chose to work for an organization where there will be extra compensation when the company overall is successful, such as stock compensation in the form of payouts as well as feelings of gratification from working for a winning team.

Reference:

Smith, D. (2015). Most people have no idea whether they’re paid fairly
Links to an external site.. Harvard Business Review, 93(12), 1-3

Training is an essential part of integrating new employees at an organization (as well as helping current ones) and ensuring they will exhibit high performance. It is where new hires learn about their position as well as gain the required skills and knowledge to perform at the company. Trainings such as onboarding are crucial for maintaining employee engagement and decreasing turnover (Tsipursky). Poor training can lead to low performing employees who are much more likely to contemplate leaving the company, and can cost an organization a considerable amount of money (Tsipursky). Adequately trained employees are much more likely to stay at a company and be engaged at work (Tsipursky).

My Beneficial Training Experience

One training experience that I felt was very successful was during my onboarding at a construction company I interned with two summers ago. Although interns are only expected to work at the company for three months during the summer, they still go through the majority of the new-hire onboarding process for full-time employees. As we learned in the class lecture this week, onboarding is a major part of the new employee training process where employees learn about the organization such as the values and norms, and it is when formal socialization occurs. In my onboarding, I first found it useful that the recruiters maintained contact with me before my first day of onboarding, ensuring I had all of the information I needed and that I knew what to expect on my first day. This method is a form of anticipatory socialization that can make the onboarding process more effective. During the actual onboarding process, the company used a group approach where all new employees learned together, which I thought was helpful in allowing each new employee to socialize and get to know what other people at the company were like. The primary training method used was presentation, with lectures and PowerPoints that talked about company history, different departments within the company, benefits, and much more. Group-building was also implemented by having team activities and discussions, which helped us build relationships with others. One last beneficial feature of this training that I want to point out is that each training session was taught by a different manager from the company, including the COO and many department heads. Involving managers in the onboarding process, especially if it is the manager the employee will report to, can greatly increase the effectiveness of onboarding and provide new employees with valuable attention and support (Ellis). Having these managers play an active role in the training helped me personally by making me feel that I could easily approach each of them and ask them for help during my transition into my new position.

My Unfavorable Training Experience

One less beneficial training I have experienced occurred during a webinar I participated in during one of my construction internships. We learned in this week’s class lecture that webinars are a form of presentation training, used to convey facts or compare alternatives. This webinar was about a specific construction process and consisted of a one-hour presentation on the topic with little audience interaction. I found the presentation boring and not very useful. Our class lecture mentions the importance of creating a learning environment during trainings, which includes making the content meaningful and communicating the relevance of the training to the employee. I felt this training lacked relevance to my position as an intern, although it was construction related, which made me uninterested in the content. I also thought that the content during the entire hour of presentation was not very meaningful, and that a lot of time was spent talking about things unrelated to the webinar topic.

Trainings of all forms should be useful to employees and to the company, otherwise the company is wasting money and employees feel like they are wasting time. Successful training experiences can lead to happier employees who perform well and stay at a company for many years to come.

Citations:

Ellis, Allison et al. (2017). “Your New Hires Won’t Succeed Unless You Onboard Them Properly.” HBR, https://hbr.org/2017/06/your-new-hires-wont-succeed-unless-you-onboard-them-properly

Tsipursky, Gleb (2023). “A Guide to Onboarding New Hires (For First-Time Managers).” HBR, https://hbr.org/2023/07/a-guide-to-onboarding-new-hires-for-first-time-managers.

Being a woman with a STEM major and pursing a full-time position in the male-dominated construction industry, I am very familiar with the idea of an implicit bias. Everyone, myself included, has implicit biases. For this assignment, I took the Gender-Career implicit bias test on the Harvard University Project Implicit website.

IAT Results

During the implicit association test (IAT), I was asked to organize words into the following four categories as quickly as possible: Male, Female, Science, and Liberal Arts. My results indicated that I have a moderate automatic association for Male with Science and for Female with Liberal Arts. I found these results rather intriguing, considering I am a woman pursing an engineering degree (which according to the IAT is part of the “Science” category) and I am actively trying to combat the implicit bias and stereotypes that women do not perform as well in STEM jobs as men do. Unsurprisingly, according to the results page, most people that took this test had the same results as me. We live in a society where, although women have come a long way, in general men still dominate “Science” positions, therefore establishing an implicit bias in most people that men belong in Science and women belong in more “female-suited” Liberal Arts positions. It is possible that this implicit bias can have an unintentional effect during job recruitment and selection in STEM fields.

Effect of Implicit Bias on Reliability

During the selection process for potential new hires, a company should implement methods that are reliable so they can depend on the methods to produce appropriate, qualified employees. Implicit biases could negatively affect reliability of the selection process. For example, if an engineering firm is deciding who to hire between a man and a woman with the same qualifications, it is likely that, because of the Gender-Career implicit bias that associates men with Science, the man will get the position over the woman. Hiring or not hiring someone because of their gender produces an error in the selection process that is supposed to be consistent and dependable. Selection should be free from any bias to ensure that only job-related qualifications are being considered. If someone will be judged during selection based on a protected trait that is not related to the job, then the selection process is no longer reliable or consistent in producing the most qualified employees.

Preventing Implicit Bias

One thing I would do to prevent implicit bias is become more aware of my own implicit biases, while also spreading awareness about implicit biases to others. Awareness is an important step to uncovering unconscious biases, and helping everyone around you become aware can begin movements towards counteracting implicit bias (Knight). Especially in STEM industries like the construction industry that I will be a part of in my career, it is important for people to understand and acknowledge that implicit biases exist, and that they can have drastic effects in the workplace. Managers specifically play crucial roles during the hiring process in decreasing implicit biases (Knight). The only way for society to believe subconsciously that women belong in STEM is if they see women in these positions in the first place.

Citation:

Knight, R. (2018). “7 Practical Ways to Reduce Bias in Your Hiring Process.” SHRM, https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/talent-acquisition/7-practical-ways-to-reduce-bias-hiring-process.

Job interviews are the first time a potential new hire has an in-depth interaction with a company, and thus they play a significant role in the hiring process. As an undergraduate senior, I have interviewed for many internship positions in the construction industry over the past few years, and I am currently in the process of interviewing for a full-time position. There are some interviews I have had that I thought went very well, and others that seemed as though they could have gone better.

What Made My Interviews Effective?

The most effective interviews I have participated in were structured and professional. As we learned in this week’s lecture, a structured interview is one where the interviewer has a predetermined set of questions that they ask in all of the interviews for potential candidates. I found the standard questions to be effective as they helped the interview stay on topic, and it eliminated problems that could occur with unstructured interviews. Further, asking the same interview questions can help with reliability by ensuring consistency, and asking only relevant questions assists with validity of the interview. I also found it effective when my interviewers kept the interviews professional, by using some of the tactics discussed in the lecture like taking notes while I was speaking, and asking appropriate questions while avoiding irrelevant questions. These actions made me feel that the interviewers were actively listening to me and considering everything I had to say, and that there was no bias. Lastly, I found it effective when I was asked questions about my soft skills, as this gave me an opportunity to demonstrate skills I have for the job that could not always be shown on paper. For example, determining whether a candidate has leadership skills can be a great indication on how well they would perform in a job (Friedman). Overall, when considering selection utility, my interviews that seemed worth the time and money of the recruiters and were therefore most effective were structured, asked relevant questions about the job, and were given professionally by recruiters who took the interview seriously and engaged with me throughout.

What Seemed Ineffective About My Interviews?

There are some things that I have noticed in my experience with interviewing that may contribute to ineffective interviews. One specific experience I had during an interview occurred with an interviewer who was not very talkative and seemed uninterested in the interview altogether. According to the article “How to Take the Bias Out of Interviews,” the way an interviewer acts can play a crucial role during an interview and can affect how the person being interviewed responds (Bohnet). While I feel that I was asked meaningful questions about the job during my interview, the way the interviewer acted affected how I answered the questions, and the interview felt rushed. In the lecture, we discussed the importance of selecting a recruiter who is warm and personable. These traits did not seem to apply to this recruiter, and therefore the interview was not as effective as it could have been.

My Recommendations to Employers For More Effective Interviews

• Obtain high-quality recruiters to perform interviews who are personable and act appropriately. All of my most enjoyable and successful interviews were with fantastic recruiters who were friendly and engaged with me during my entire interview.
• Review the resume during the interview as another method to assess the candidate for selection. I find it could be helpful for the interviewer to use my resume to determine my specific experiences and skills, and that addressing the resume during the interview can allow me to expand on my experience and demonstrate further my qualifications for the job.
• Establish rapport – Get to know the candidate to make them comfortable during the interview and to help determine if they would be a good fit for the company. I feel it is important for the company I am interviewing with to understand who I am as a person to assess how I would feel in their company culture. Additionally, I am more willing to be myself and give more in-depth answers during an interview if I have rapport with the interviewer.

Works Cited:

Bohnet, I. (2016). “How To Take the Bias Out of Interviews.” HBR, https://hbr.org/2016/04/how-to-take-the-bias-out-of-interviews.

Friedman, T. L. (2014). “How To Get a Job At Google.” The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html.

Job descriptions are the first thing that attract a potential new employee to a job. They depict the tasks the job entails, what position you will have in the job, why the job exists in the first place, and what kind of environment you will be working in. Job descriptions help those searching for a job find one where they believe they can excel and where the expectations are clear.

My current experience with job descriptions is in the construction industry. As an almost graduated college senior, I am currently looking at many different job descriptions for different construction companies in the Pacific Northwest. Specifically, the job descriptions I look at describe positions like entry level project engineer or estimator, working conditions like being in an office or on a project site, and tasks like contacting architects and editing construction drawings.

Accurate Job Descriptions

One difficulty in developing job descriptions is ensuring the description appropriately outlines all of the information an employee should know about their job, such as who they should report to, what work they are to do, and what conditions they are expected to work in every day. Inaccurate descriptions of employee responsibilities and measures of performance on a job description can lead to employee lawsuits if the expectations for the employee’s job were unclear (Tyler). Accurate job descriptions not only prevent conflict with employees, but they can also help with recruitment and with performance evaluations. From my experience, I would also suggest that companies include specific expectations of resources the employee should understand how to use, such as online programs like Excel.

Updated Job Descriptions

Another challenge with job descriptions is keeping them up to date. Especially in the construction industry where construction projects are always changing, it is important to keep job descriptions updated to ensure they are accurate. Having an old job description can cause confusion with employees on their responsibilities and benefits, as well as discourage potential recruits. Industries are constantly changing, and job descriptions should change accordingly. Job descriptions should be updated at least once per year (Tyler). I would also suggest that companies look at job descriptions of other companies similar to them to compare and make any improvements to their own company’s job descriptions. This may help update job descriptions with the current job position expectations in that industry and may also help compete against other companies with more detailed descriptions. In my personal experience, I would consider a job with a clear description of tasks that sound familiar to me from working in construction, rather than a job with a low-level description with tasks I am unfamiliar with.

Citations:

Tyler, K. (2013). “Job Worth Doing: Updated Descriptions.” SHRM, https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/hr-magazine/job-worth-update-descriptions.

With a rise in the importance of HR Management at companies, there is also an increase in attention towards a primary focus of HR: the people. Attracting and maintaining talented employees is essential for companies to remain competitive, and using resources to create a workplace where employees are engaged and where they feel valued will help a company achieve this (Breitfelder and Dowling 40). According to the class lectures, it is the responsibility of HR managers and others involved in HR to organize a company so there are employees with adequate skills working in appropriate roles that will help the organization achieve its goals while also satisfying the needs of each employee. Below are three examples of companies from the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For from 2020 who have figured out how to have successful companies with happy employees.

#23 David Weekley Homes – Construction

This company clearly values its employees and takes action to improve the lives of employees inside and outside the workplace. An HR strategy they are practicing is paying attention to the personal needs of employees. Similar to Google’s most effective managers, David Weekley managers express interest in the well-being of their employees (Garvin 78). They make changes and additions to the company to better the lives of their employees accordingly, such as when they provided employees with access to personal finance help after many employees requested it.

#33 Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America – Financial Services and Insurance

Allianz provides employees with tremendous work-life balance and encourages employees to care for themselves and their families when they most need it, even if this means putting work on hold. As was mentioned in the lectures, one aspect to strategic HR management is to ensure employees have a manager that trusts them and that will defend them when necessary. At Allianz, employees feel this way about their managers and that their managers would do anything to help them.

#42 T-Mobile USA – Telecommunications

At T-mobile, employees and their managers are collectively known as “Team Magenta,” and employees are valued and recognized for their hard work and skills. Like in the successful managing relationships at Google, at T-mobile employees are trusted by their managers to make correct decisions on their own (Garvin 79). T-Mobile also makes it a point to create a diverse set of employees, which can help retain employees by making more people feel like they belong.

All of these companies have managers who pay careful attention to their methods so they can manage in a way that is effective for the business but also for employees. The kind of manager I would want to be would be one that emphasizes the importance of the employees to the success of the company and that fosters a working environment that employees would enjoy and feel comfortable in. Like with the Google managers, I would empower employees to complete tasks on their own and use their own thinking to solve problems, and I would encourage transparent communication with my employees so they felt comfortable at work (Garvin 78). I would also focus on connecting people within the company to give it more of a “family feel,” and I would focus on the positives of situations to help employees grow and make necessary changes rather than focusing on the negatives and making employees feel bad, which could discourage them from working at the company (Breitfelder and Dowling 43).

The aspects of a manager’s job that are most challenging likely relate to the people they are managing, because each person is different with different needs, and understanding people is very difficult compared to understanding other aspects of business. It is likely difficult for managers to understand which benefits would be most desired by the majority of employees, or what kind of atmosphere (loud or quiet, open or closed-off) would be best for employees to work in, as a couple of examples. It is also hard to know exactly what set of skills each employee has. It would be necessary for managers to gain interpersonal skills to determine how to connect with employees in their organization and gauge what kind of human capital they have in order to create a successful business.

Citations:

• Garvin, D. A. (2013). How Google Sold Its Engineers on Management. Harvard Business Review, 91(12), 74-82.
  • A description of Google’s Project Oxygen and the use of data to demonstrate to Google’s managers the value of good people management.  
• Breitfelder, M. D., & Dowling, D. W. (2008). Why Did We Ever Go Into HR?Harvard Business Review, 86(7/8), 39-43.
  • Two Harvard MBAs discuss why they chose to go into HR and what the “new HR” looks like.  

Welcome to blogs.oregonstate.edu. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!