| Term Paper Title | Human Resource Managers |
| # of Words | 3276 |
| # of Pages (250 words per page double spaced) | 13.1 |
Human Resource Managers
Describe the challenges that Human Resource Managers will face in the next five years.
In December of 1996, the Society for Human Resource Management sponsored a symposium in Florida. At this meeting, all the senior human resource officers were challenged to discuss what they felt were the challenges facing human resource managers in the decade ahead. David Ulrich, professor of business administration at the University of Michigan’s School of Business facilitated the discussion.
Within this paper, I will discuss what these senior human resource managers felt were the challenges facing human resource managers and what I feel are the challenges and why. During this symposium, the major challenges addressed were pay equity, the value of human resources, unity versus diversity, fostering innovation, and Global sensitivity. Now, I don’t dispute that these are challenges that we as human resource managers are going to face in the upcoming years but I think that the technology revolution, AIDS, downsizing or outsourcing, and sexual harassment are going to be bigger challenges.
The first item that senior human resource managers felt a challenge was pay equity. Specifically, high executive compensation compared to the wages paid to regular employees. It will be a challenge to manage the whole compensation process. The consensus of the group was that executive pay would have to move back to a more equitable distribution or the rank-and-file employees would be bitter and there could be a backlash. I disagree that this is a human resource manager problem. I think that CEOs should address this problem. In reality we are talking about equitable pay between upper management and the rank-and-file. As a human resource manager, we have no real control over the pay of upper management. A good example was in the Saturday, March 7, 1998, The News Herald, and the caption read “BellSouth CEO gets big pay raise.” The paper went on to say “BellSouth Corp. paid Chief Executive Duane Ackerman $2.4 million in total compensation in 1997, a 43-percent jump from the year before, when he was the chief operating officer. Ackerman, 55, assumed the CEO post after his predecessor, John Clendenin, retired at the end of 1996. Ackerman earned $825.000 in base salary in 1997, up from $610,000 during the prior year, and received a $1.3 million bonus, which rose from $793,000, according to BellSouth’s proxy statement. Other compensation dropped to $266,400 from $267,200. BellSouth had 1997 revenues of $20.56 billion.” Now, I’m sure the rank-and-file did not get a 43-percent raise.
I think the number one problem challenging human resource managers is the technology revolution. According to the experts the employment in the Information Age is undergoing a transformation that may cause as much dislocation as the moves from farms to factories did in the 19th century. Studies predict that the ranks of those with alternative office arrangements will grow by 10-percent or more every year during the remainder of the decade. Today’s office communications is the glue, which holds the office together. Powerful networks with high-speed transmission, and sophisticated telephone and locator systems comprise the infrastructure. According to Newt Gingrich we are talking about a transformation on such a scale that everything changes. Legend has it that at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, scores of men and women were literally dropping to the ground, dizzy and overwhelmed by the new technological marvels on display. Life seems to be at warp speed whirring by in a blur of sound and light that left those unprepared grasping at the wind. Here we are in 1998 and we seem to be on the verge of a similar chaos.
The caption reads, “Catch the Wave as HR goes Online.” Cyberspace offers new frontiers in recruiting, networking and information gathering. In fact, going online is changing the Human Resource function at companies all over the world. A research adviser sitting in front of a computer can browse the Interne...Read entire document
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