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Staffing Organizations Study Guide

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1. What are the limitations of disparate impact statistics as indicators of potential staffing discrimination.

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This 7184-word solution is a guide to Human Resource staffing problems. Questions are numbered between 1 and 55. Each question is in bold to make the guide easier to follow from question to question. This guide is intended to use a study guide for HR staffing and covers a variety of different staffing ideas and solutions.

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Please find attached the Study Guide that you requested. it is lengthy, so I bolded the questions to make it easier for you to read.
1. What are the limitations of disparate impact statistics as indicators of potential staffing discrimination?
The major limitation of disparate impact statistics as indicators of staffing discrimination is that they cannot tell anything about the intent or about the validity of the policy that has caused the disparate impact. Disparate impact statistics can only tell us what impact has been associated with a given policy. It cannot tell us any of the other things that we really need to know if we are to determine whether discrimination has occurred.
Disparate impact statistics only tell us what impact a particular policy has had on the demographics of a staff. If, for example, a firm institutes a test for potential employees, disparate impact statistics can tell us whether the implementation of the test has reduced the number of women or minorities who are being hired. This is, of course, important, but it does not tell us everything we need to know.
In order to know if discrimination is actually occurring, we need to know why the test (or other policy) was implemented and how valid it is for the job in question. We need to know if the test truly measures some attribute that is legitimately important for the job. Unless we know things like this, we cannot know if discrimination has occurred. Disparate impact statistics cannot give us this information and they are, therefore, limited.
2. Why is each of the four situational factors necessary for establishing a claim of disparate treatment?
In basic, the four parts of situational factors for establishing a claim of disparate treatment are as follows.
• The employee is a member of a protected class (for example, the employee is African American, female, or over the age of 40).
• The employee was qualified for a job benefit. For example, the employee applied—and was qualified—for an open position, or the employee held a position that he or she was performing adequately.
• The employee was denied the job benefit. In other words, the employee was fired, not hired, or not promoted.
• The benefit remains available or was given to someone who is not in the employee's protected class. For example, if an Asian American employee claims that he was not hired because of his race, he can pass this part of the test by showing either that, he was rejected for the position and the employer continued its job search or that the job was filled with an employee of a different race.
The importance of these factors individually shows just cause for an employee discrimination complaint. Each individual situational factor listed above is circumstantial in nature, but by establishing four situational factors together, a discrimination case becomes stronger. Thus, the burden of proof being once placed on the employee to provide evidence of discrimination now shift to the employer to explain the why these factors were evident in their decision.
3. What factors would lead an organization to enter into a consent agreement rather than continue pursuing a suit in court.
Several factors could lead an organization to enter into a consent agreement, but two of the most basic are as follows. First, it may be more practical to settle than what it would take in expense to go through a court trial. Secondly, a court battle could cause bad publicity, which would do more harm than entering into such an agreement.
4. What are the differences between staffing in the private sector and staffing in the public sector? Why would private employers probably resist adopting many of the characteristics of public staffing systems?
The Private Sector
The private sector is usually composed of organizations that are privately owned and not part of the government. These usually includes corporations (both profit and non-profit) and partnerships.
An easier way to think of the private sector is by thinking of organizations that are not owned or operated by the government. For example, retail stores, credit unions, and local businesses will operate in the private sector.
The Public Sector
The public sector is usually composed of organizations that are owned and operated by the government. This includes federal, provincial, state, or municipal governments, depending on where you live. Privacy legislation usually calls organizations in the public sector a public body or a public authority. Some examples of public bodies in Canada and the United Kingdom are educational bodies, health care bodies, police and prison services, and local and central government bodies and their departments.
Public sector staffing implements merit principles and civil service laws and regulations. For example,
• open announcement of all vacancies;
• large amount of applicants due to applications being open to all persons;
• legal mandate to test applicants only for KSAOs that are directly job related;
• limits on discretion in the final hiring process; and
• rights of applicants to appeal the hiring decision, testing process, or actual test content and method.
Private employers would probably resist adopting many of the characteristics of public sector staffing because of the amount of time to be sure they are in compliance with civil laws and regulations, as well as the expenses. Also, the change in staffing (recruitment, selection, and employment); especially when pertaining to discrimination, and longer hiring time.
5. What are ways that the organization can ensure that KSAO deficiencies do not occur in its workforce?
In order to answer this question, let us first understand what KSAOs are. KSAO is an acronym that stands for Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other attributes. In other words, KSAOs are the things that people need to have in order to do their jobs properly. Therefore, it is important to a firm to ensure that it has as few KSAO deficiencies as possible.
There are two main ways to prevent KSAO deficiencies from cropping up in an organization. The first way to prevent this is to make sure that you hire people who have the KSAOs necessary for a job. In order to do this, you need to have a good hiring process. You need to write quality job descriptions that will attract applicants who have the right KSAOs. You need to have a resume review and interview process that further ensures that the applicants with the best KSAOs will be the ones hired. By having these things, you can minimize the KSAO deficiencies in the firm.
The second way to prevent such deficiencies is through training. It is important to train employees when they enter your organization and to continue to train them as they work for you. If you train them well, they will have the KSAOs that they need in order to do their job. When their job comes to demand new KSAOs (either because they move to a new job or because your environment changes), training will ensure that they have them. Training, then, can ensure that workers acquire any KSAOs they need but do not already have.
6. What types of experiences, especially staffing related ones, will and organization be likely to have if it does not engage in HR and staffing planning?
labor relations issues, legal issues, EEOC compliance issues related to the fair treatment of all employees, privacy issues of the staff, hiring and termination issues related to the fair practice in both situations and equity of pay scales.
The choice by an organization to actively employee a qualified Human Resources team that actively participates in HR planning, will enable them to gain control of their organizations future by staying prepared for staffing events such as the ones mentioned in this example above. Being prepared means that the organization will be able to anticipate issues before they arise and make proper changes and take the appropriate courses of action. Through actively staying involved in staffing issues a company will be able to manage through difficult situations much easier than if they ignore the problems and let them explode into full legal nightmares that they have to manage after the fact.
7. Why are decisions about job categories and levels so critical to the conduct and results of HRP?
An organization's workforce is an integrated whole, a system. To achieve inter-functional integration, which is required to achieve organizational goals, there must be coordination between jobs laterally, and smooth- communication vertically among job levels. This means that organizational management has to be attuned to employment gaps (surpluses, shortages, KSAO deficiencies) between job categories and between job levels. This requires knowledge of, and control over, the parts of the workforce and their respective interactions. Decisions made without consideration of these interrelationships between job categories and levels can result in a workforce that is grossly out-of-balance in either a quantitative or a qualitative sense. Decisions made to adjust to employment gaps depend on both internal and external employment sources. For example, poorly conceived decisions can result in an inability to promote from within due to under-staffing, or a lack of personnel training within given job categories or at given levels. Inability to promote from within implies inadequate availability of KSAOs, added cost (due to increased need for outside recruitment), and low morale (no opportunity for employee advancement within the organization)
8. What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing succession planning for all levels of management instead of just top management?
Succession plans allow the organization to develop a coherent plan for how management will proceed for the future. Establishing continuity in all positions helps to ensure that the organization does not face critical gaps in mid-level managerial positions. In addition, succession plans can help to identify entry level managers who are likely to be "stars" in the future. These individuals can be put in special fast track positions that help the organization hold on to the valuable KSAOs that these individuals can bring to the organization.
9. What is meant by reconciliation, and why can it be as useful as an input to staffing planning?
Reconciliation is the identification of surpluses and shortages between an organization's employment requirements and the organization's available personnel. The reconciliation process reveals employment gaps (shortages and surpluses) by job category and job level, and provides a starting point for taking appropriate action (action plans) to adjust gaps to meet organizational needs. Taking appropriate staffing action is key to achieving this overall HR purpose: Ensuring the organization has the right people (KSAOs and numbers) at the right place (job category, job level, geographical location) and at the right time (internal source, external source) to achieve the overall goals and purposes of the entire organization.
10. What problems might an organization encounter in creating a AAP that it might not encounter in regular staffing planning?
An AAP or Affirmative action plan maybe defined as plan that outlines the hiring and development policies such as recruitment, training, promotion and appraisals for employees belonging to for the minority or the protected groups within the organization. On the staffing plan highlights the hiring and selection policies for all the ...

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