Syllabus for HRM-550

STRATEGIC RECRUITING, RETENTION, AND SUCCESSION PLANNING

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Regardless of industry, business unit, or department, people are every organization's key source of competitive advantage. In the war for talent, organizations have two choices:  (1) develop HR systems that work together to recruit, retain, and motivate staff, or (2) lose their most valuable workers to organizations who do value and develop their employees. Not only is finding the right people a difficult and daunting task, but keeping those people is a significant challenge. An organization that not only finds but also keeps valued employees and provides an environment that develops and rewards employees can be termed an Employer of Choice. An Employer of Choice responds to market conditions and continually adapts to meet the needs of the workforce. Becoming an Employer of Choice begins with a well-designed recruitment and retention strategy. This course will focus on the best practices of strategic planning, recruitment, evaluation and measurement, selection, retention, and development. Throughout course you will be introduced to successful recruitment and retention programs that can be adapted to any organization.

COURSE TOPICS

1. Employer of choice
2. Staffing models and strategy
3. Legal and regulatory guidelines in staffing programs
4. Internal and external selection processes
5. Administration of staffing programs

COURSE OBJECTIVES

After completing this course, you should be able to:

1. Define staffing and describe the key elements of the staffing models and strategy.
2. Understand the characteristics of employers of choice and their strategic approach to HR.
3. Describe how to develop and align a staffing strategy to meet organizational objectives.
4. Articulate legal and regulatory guidelines with which staffing programs must comply to be successful.
5. Explain the planning process for staffing, taking into consideration core external influences such as economic conditions, labor markets, labor unions, and affirmative action programs.
6. Describe the role, importance, and principal uses of job analysis in the context of organizational staffing.
7. Recognize and explain the context of and common methodological approaches to both internal and external recruitment.
8. Identify, assess, and clearly articulate the uses and value of, and common approaches to, quantitative and qualitative measurement in instituting and maintaining effective staffing programs.
9. Understand, evaluate, and explain the basic concepts and processes involved in external and internal selection, up to and including making the final decision and ensuring an effective organization/person match.
10. Describe the methods, procedures, and approaches by which staffing programs are most effectively administered operationally, including best practices with respect to ensuring optional retention following the final match.

COURSE MATERIALS

You will need the following materials to do the work of the course. The required textbook is available from the College's textbook supplier, MBS Direct.

Required Textbooks

1. Heneman, H.G. III, Judge, T. A. ,&  Kammeyer-Mueller, J.D.  (2012). Staffing Organizations, 7th ed. McGraw-Hill Irwin.

ISBN: 978-0-07-811268-3

3. A Market-Driven Approach to Retaining Talent, Peter Cappelli, Harvard Business Review

COURSE STRUCTURE

Strategic Recruiting, Retention and Succession Planning is a three-credit online graduate course, consisting of ten (10) modules. Modules include an overview, topics, learning objectives, study materials, and activities. Module titles are listed below.

1. Module 1: Economic Forces and Being an Employer of Choice

2. Module 2: Staffing Models and Strategy

3. Module 3: Personnel Planning

4. Module 4: External vs. Internal Recruiting

5. Module 5: Measuring HR

6. Module 6: Internal/External Selection and Decision Making

7. Module 7: Retention

8. Module 8: Development/Succession Planning and Compensation and Benefits

9. Module 9: Best Practices Proposal

10. Module 10: Examining a Market-Driven Approach

Consult the course Calendar for assignment due dates.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

For your formal work in the course, you are required to participate in online discussion forums, complete written assignments, complete a case study, take a proctored midterm examination, and take a final exam. See below for more details.

Consult the course Calendar for assignment due dates.

Discussion Forums

You are required to participate in ten (10) graded discussion forums.  Discussion forums are on a variety of topics associated with the courses modules. There is also an ungraded but required introduction forum in Module 1.

Best Practices Proposal

During this course you will complete a project that proposes a best practice that might be implemented at your company or a company you are familiar with, one that would satisfy particular organizational goals/objectives. The project will be developed throughout the course with submission points as follows:

Module 4: Selection of Topic and Paper Description

Module 7: Progress Report and Literature Review

Module 9: Paper of 12 to 15 pages and PowerPoint Presentation

The course modules explain this project in greater detail.The calendar provides guidance for submission points.

Note about research: The use of Wikipedia or other online encyclopedias for graduate-level papers is inappropriate. Aside from the uneven quality of the information that may be found in these sources, the real issue is that the information presented in these sources is "already digested." Use of such sources is an unacceptable shortcut for the graduate student. Students gathering information from these sites are essentially obtaining analyses done by someone else, not doing the work themselves. Rather than exploring the literature on a subject, such students are merely using the words of others who have already taken this vital step in academic research. It is imperative that graduate students be able to search the more academically-oriented literature, sift through useful (and not so useful) information, analyze, synthesize, and report the results of their activities. All of these steps are bypassed if information is cited from an online site such as Wikipedia. To sum up: Using information summarized or annotated by someone else is an unacceptable shortcut for a graduate student.

Midterm Project

The midterm project covers material from modules 1 to 4.  You will  answer five questions. Each of your responses should be 250 to 300 words long, about one page per question.  You are encouraged to discuss your own real life work-related examples to illustrate your answers.  If you use outside sources to inform your work, be sure the cite them. However, do not use Wikipedia as a source.  

Final Project

Your final project will be a 2- to 3-page executive summary of an assigned case study: A Market-Driven Approach to Retaining Talent by Peter Cappelli.  Assignment details are available in Module 10.

GRADING AND EVALUATION

Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:

1. Online Discussions (10)—35 percent
2. Best Practices Proposal (3 parts)—30 percent
3. Midterm Project—20 percent
4. Final Project—15 percent

All activities will receive a numerical grade of 0–100. You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. Your final grade in the course will be a letter grade. Letter grade equivalents for numerical grades are as follows:

To receive credit for the course, you must earn a letter grade of C or higher on the weighted average of all assigned course work (e.g., assignments, discussion postings, projects, etc.). Graduate students must maintain a B average overall to remain in good academic standing.

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

First Steps to Success

To succeed in this course, take the following first steps:

1. Read carefully the entire Syllabus, making sure that all aspects of the course are clear to you and that you have all the materials required for the course.

2. Take the time to read the entire Online Student Handbook. The Handbook answers many questions about how to proceed through the course, how to schedule exams, and how to get the most from your educational experience at Thomas Edison State College.

3. Arrange to take your examination(s) by following the instructions in this Syllabus and the Online Student Handbook.

4. Familiarize yourself with the learning management systems environment—how to navigate it and what the various course areas contain. If you know what to expect as you navigate the course, you can better pace yourself and complete the work on time.

5. If you are not familiar with Web-based learning be sure to review the processes for posting responses online and submitting assignments before class begins.

Study Tips

Consider the following study tips for success:

1. To stay on track throughout the course, begin each week by consulting the course Calendar. The Calendar provides an overview of the course and indicates due dates for submitting assignments, posting discussions, and scheduling and taking examinations.

2. Check Announcements regularly for new course information.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Students at Thomas Edison State College are expected to exhibit the highest level of academic citizenship. In particular, students are expected to read and follow all policies, procedures, and program information guidelines contained in publications; pursue their learning goals with honesty and integrity; demonstrate that they are progressing satisfactorily and in a timely fashion by meeting course deadlines and following outlined procedures; observe a code of mutual respect in dealing with mentors, staff, and other students; behave in a manner consistent with the standards and codes of the profession in which they are practicing; keep official records updated regarding changes in name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address; and meet financial obligations in a timely manner. Students not practicing good academic citizenship may be subject to disciplinary action including suspension, dismissal, or financial holds on records.

Academic Dishonesty

Thomas Edison State College expects all of its students to approach their education with academic integrity—the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception. All mentors and administrative staff members at the College insist on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Academic dishonesty undermines this objective. Academic dishonesty takes the following forms:

1. Cheating
2. Plagiarizing (including copying and pasting from the Internet without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources)
3. Fabricating information or citations
4. Facilitating acts of dishonesty by others
5. Unauthorized access to examinations or the use of unauthorized materials during exam administration
6. Submitting the work of another person or work previously used without informing the mentor
7. Tampering with the academic work of other students

Academic dishonesty will result in disciplinary action and possible dismissal from the College. Students who submit papers that are found to be plagiarized will receive an F on the plagiarized assignment, may receive a grade of F for the course, and may face dismissal from the College.

A student who is charged with academic dishonesty will be given oral or written notice of the charge. If a mentor or College official believes the infraction is serious enough to warrant referral of the case to the academic dean, or if the mentor awards a final grade of F in the course because of the infraction, the student and the mentor will be afforded formal due process.

If a student is found cheating or using unauthorized materials on an examination, he or she will automatically receive a grade of F on that examination. Students who believe they have been falsely accused of academic dishonesty should seek redress through informal discussions with the mentor, through the office of the dean, or through an executive officer of Thomas Edison State College.

Plagiarism

Using someone else's work as your own is plagiarism. Although it may seem like simple dishonesty, plagiarism is against the law. Thomas Edison State College takes a strong stance against plagiarism, and students found to be plagiarizing will be severely penalized. If you copy phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or whole documents word-for-word—or if you paraphrase by changing a word here and there—without identifying the author, then you are plagiarizing. Please keep in mind that this type of identification applies to Internet sources as well as to print-based sources. Copying and pasting from the Internet, without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources, constitutes plagiarism.  (For information about how to cite Internet sources, see Online Student Handbook > Academic Standards > "Citing Sources.")

Accidentally copying the words and ideas of another writer does not excuse the charge of plagiarism. It is easy to jot down notes and ideas from many sources and then write your own paper without knowing which words are your own and which are someone else's. It is more difficult to keep track of each and every source. However, the conscientious writer who wishes to avoid plagiarizing never fails to keep careful track of sources.

Always be aware that if you write without acknowledging the sources of your ideas, you run the risk of being charged with plagiarism.

Clearly, plagiarism, no matter the degree of intent to deceive, defeats the purpose of education. If you plagiarize deliberately, you are not educating yourself, and you are wasting your time on courses meant to improve your skills. If you plagiarize through carelessness, you are deceiving yourself.