Human Resource Management

Knowledge Area Definition

Human resource management is a function in organizations designed to maximize employee performance in service of their employer’s strategic objectives. HR is primarily concerned with how people are managed within organizations, focusing on policies and systems. HR departments and units in organizations are typically responsible for a number of activities, including employee recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal, and rewarding (e.g., managing pay and benefit systems). HR is also concerned with industrial relations, that is, the balancing of organizational practices with regulations arising from collective bargaining and governmental laws.

Value Proposition

Human Resource Management focuses on the effective performance of people, our most valuable asset and the main sustainable competitive advantage that any organization has.

• Attract and maintain skilled workers, both professional and craft worker is the key ingredient for the success of projects.
  • Workforce shortages results in direct impacts to project safety, cost and schedule performance.
  • The project manager of the future will demand new skills to perform effectively in the changing global supply chain.
  • Research outlines innovative programs that organizations need to attact and retain future engineering and construction leaders.
• Timely information delivery to piping craft workers is critical, and the benfits include a 16% improvement in installation time, as well as improvement in both quality and rework.
• Employee incentives value is twofold, 1) assist employees in focusing their efforts and 2) in motivating their performance.
• Multi-skilling creates the opportunity to better utilize the skilled workers resulting in process improvements and technological innovation.
• Other CII research within this Knowledge Area deals with the education, skills and training to make the construction work force more effective.

Topic Summaries