HRMG213 - Sustainable Staffing and Remuneration

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Nil

Teaching organisation

Unit rationale, description and aim

The development and implementation of sustainable staffing, remuneration and benefits strategies is fundamental to the competitiveness of organisations and a key role for human resource practitioners. This unit focuses on the challenges faced by organisations in terms of staffing, remuneration and benefits for retaining their workforce. The starting point of the unit examines the internal and external environment faced by today's organisations in terms of domestic and global competitiveness, technological change and industrial transition. Likewise, the unit examines the central elements of a strategic approach to contemporary staffing, remuneration and benefits that attempts to manage the workforce to effectively and efficiently deal with the complexities and strategic priorities of modern organisational environments. 

The aim of this unit is to provide students with an analytical skills of how organisations design, implement, and review (update) staffing, remuneration and benefits practices and systems in a complex, dynamic world. The unit also reinforces the acquisition of practical skills in the key HR processes of job analysis and design, selection tools and practices, and remuneration systems that are necessary to support the achievement of organisational outcomes.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Explain and analyse key concepts and theories of staffing, remunerations and benefits, and how they aid businesses to meet their strategic objectives. (GA5)

LO2 - Design effective and efficient staffing processes, remuneration and benefits strategies, incorporating job analysis and design, recruitment techniques, selection tools, remunerations and benefits systems while also ensuring the human dignity and the legal obligations for these processes. (GA3, GA5)

LO3 - Examine the impact of a well designed and implemented staffing, remuneration and benefits strategies and practices that take into accounts workers’ rights, diversity, inclusiveness and quality of work life to enhance value for organisations and society. (GA1, GA5)

LO4 - Critically evaluate contemporary staffing, remuneration and benefits practices with sustainability characteristics for different positions and roles within organisations. (GA4, GA5)

LO5 - Apply effective written and oral communication skills in the context of staffing and remuneration (GA5, GA9)

Graduate attributes

GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity 

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

Content

Topics will include:

• Introduction to sustainable staffing and remuneration
• Analysing and designing Jobs: Traditional and emerging, Job analysis, developing position and role descriptions
• Recruitment Techniques and practices: Legal, ethical and diversity issues, traditional recruitment methods, contemporary and innovative recruitment methods, developing recruitment ads, and employer branding
• Employee selection aligned to business strategy.
• Joining the Organisation: Employment offers, employment conditions, and onboarding/induction processes 
• Introduction to employee remuneration and benefits
• Theories of remuneration and benefits. 
• Analysing and designing remuneration and benefits systems
• Interrelationships between staffing, remuneration and benefits systems 
• Contemporary practices and trends in staffing, remuneration and benefits systems with sustainability characteristics.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit takes an enquiry based learning approach to guide students in the development of knowledge associated with staffing, remuneration and benefits. . Students are able to explore the knowledge base underpinning the management of contemporary staffing, remuneration and benefits strategies and practices in a series of on campus workshops. These workshops are designed to support students to actively participate in the development of this knowledge both individually and in groups. By participating in these workshops, students will systematically develop their understanding of the critical aspects of management of staffing, remuneration and benefits strategies and how to design solutions to challenges faced by HR practitioners.. This unit takes an experiential approach to support students in developing the skills required to effectively manage staffing, remuneration and benefits with sustainability characteristics by sharing stories and insights and reflecting on experiences. This approach is designed to interest students who prefer to learn within a social environment and builds in expert support for HR skills development. 

Assessment strategy and rationale

In order to pass this unit, students are required to complete and submit three graded assessment tasks and achieve an aggregate mark of at least 50%. Marking will be in accordance with a rubric specifically developed to measure your level of achievement of the learning outcomes for each item of assessment. You will also be awarded a final grade which signifies your overall achievement in the unit. The assessment strategy for this unit allows students to sequentially develop their knowledge and skills of staffing, remuneration and benefits of organisations to the point where students can develop a sustainable recruitment and selection strategy for a case organisation. To develop this level of capability, students will demonstrate their knowledge of sustainable staffing, remuneration and benefits in an analytical essay, further develop their understanding by undertaking a remuneration related case study and then apply their knowledge and understanding by presenting recommendations in the final assessment task.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Brymer, R. A., Chadwick, C., Hill, A. D., & Molloy, J. C., 2019. Pipelines and their portfolios: A more holistic view of human capital heterogeneity via firm-wide employee sourcing. Academy of Management Perspectives, 33(2), 207-233.

dos Santos, J. R., & Pedro, L., 2020. Reinventing Human Resource Management to Increase Organizational Efficacy. In Entrepreneurship and Organizational Innovation (pp. 23-36). Springer, Cham.

Fernandez-Mateo, I., & Fernandez, R. M. (2016). Bending the pipeline? Executive search and gender inequality in hiring for top management jobs. Management Science, 62(12), 3636-3655.

Goldstein, H.W., Pulakos, E.D., Passmore, J. and Semedo, C., 2017. The Psychology of Employee Recruitment, Selection and Retention. The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Recruitment, Selection and Employee Retention, John Wiley and Sons Chichester

Hartel, C., & Fujimoto, Y., 2015. Talent Management through HR planning, job design, recruitment and selection. Human Resource Management (3rd Ed.): 223–248. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Australia.

Jepsen, D., Knox-Haly, M., & Townsend, D., 2015. Recruitment Practices in Australia: a Review and Comparative Research Agenda. Employment Relations Record, 15(2): 5–19.

Jewell, D. O., Jewell, S. F., & Kaufman, B. E., 2020. Designing and implementing high-performance work systems: Insights from consulting practice for academic researchers. Human Resource Management Review, 100749.

Kanapathippillai, S., Mihret, D., & Johl, S., 2019. Remuneration Committees and Attribution Disclosures on Remuneration Decisions: Australian Evidence. Journal of Business Ethics, 158(4), 1063-1082.

Kaufman, B. E., Barry, M., Wilkinson, A., & Gomez, R., 2020. Alternative balanced scorecards built from paradigm models in strategic HRM and employment/industrial relations and used to measure the state of employment relations and HR system performance across US workplaces. Human Resource Management Journal.

Mariappanadar, S., 2020. Characteristics of Sustainable HRM System and Practices for Implementing Corporate Sustainability. In Sita Vanka, Madasu Bhaskara Rao, Swati Singh, 

Martocchio, J., 2017 Strategic Compensation: A Human Resource Management Approach, 9th Edition Pearson 

Nankervis, AR Baird, M Coffey, J& Shields, J., 2017, Human resource management: strategy and practice, 9th Asia-Pacific edition, South Melbourne, Vic. Cengage Learning

Park, T. Y., & Shaw, J. D., 2017. Compensation Systems and Pay Practices in Asia. In Routledge Handbook of Human Resource Management in Asia (pp. 201-221). Routledge.

Rahman, S., & Singh, T., 2019. Dimensions of employee satisfaction with compensation: scale development and validation. International Journal of Business Excellence, 19(2), 223-242.

Roberson, L., Buonocore, F. and Yearwood, S.M., 2017. Hiring for Diversity: The Challenges Faced by American and European Companies in Employee Selection. In Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity Management (pp. 151-171). Springer International Publishing.

Tosi, H. L., Werner, S., Katz, J. P., & Gomez-Mejia, L. R., 2000. How much does performance matter? A meta-analysis of CEO pay studies. Journal of Management, 26(2), 301-339.

Journals

Human Resource Management Review

Human Resource Management Journal

Journal of Business Ethics

Journal of Management