The labor relations in the USA are regulated by the federal laws, on the one hand, and by the laws of states, on the other hand. As well as in all other areas, taxes and rights strongly complicate the relations of the workers with employers, the interpretation of the workers’ rights and even simple awareness of the workers of their rights.
A “sick” question of the discrimination in the sphere of employment is solved in the USA, both at federal and state levels. The federal law itself forbids any discrimination, but it forces each state to adopt the additional acts of the protection against discrimination. The acts should not provide less protection than the federal law provides. In the majority of states, therefore, the laws simply force each other out.
Thus, there are three laws that affect Human Resources:
- 1. The Equal Pay Act of 1963;
- 2. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993;
- 3. Employee Free Choice ACT (EFCA).
Despite the presence of these acts, the discrimination influences the functioning of the labor market. It generates the distinctions in the levels of salaries’ equilibrium which does not act as a result of the different income in these groups from a limiting product of their work and limiting costs for the compensation of workers. Discrimination does not recognize equal opportunities for the separate groups of workers.
However, the discrimination in the labor markets in the USA exists at present. In 1984, the hourly salary of women was on the average 30 % less than at men. Actually, the difference in earnings between sexes is even more, as women on the average work fewer hours per week than men. In 1984, the salary of women made only 65 % from a salary of men. The difference of salary of sexes changes with the age.
“Women are more likely than men to leave the workforce to take care of children or older parents. They also tend to value family-friendly workplace policies more than men, and will often accept lower salaries in exchange for more benefits. In fact, there were so many differences in pay-related choices that the researchers were unable to specify a residual effect due to discrimination”.
In the middle of 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act came into force, according to which the companies with no fewer than 50 people were provided with the right to take unpaid vacation up to 12 weeks (at once or in parts) during the 12-months’ period with the preservation of a working place and medical insurance. The bases for this vacation include the birth or adoption of a child, a serious disease of a child, a spouse or a parent, a serious disease of a worker with a temporary disability.
“But recent research on the Family and Medical Leave Act signed into law by President Clinton in 1993 suggests that limited coverage, poor compliance and economic constraints combine to reinforce existing inequalities between men and women, rich and poor”.
Management is the process of administration of people and resources in due the course of the organization’s activity. Performance management is the main part of the company’s overall management. The company’s performance management is mentioned both in effective, and in rational management of any operations. Efficiency can be defined as achievement of the purposes put in front of the system; in a general sense, efficiency is the satisfaction of the buyers’ requirements. Rationality is the achievement of the purposes, or satisfaction of the requirements, with the minimal use of resources.
Performance management is important for the success of any company. The main thing at efficiency increase is to provide the fulfillment of the operations in order to satisfy the inquiries of leisure and business travelers. The organization provides the clients with the services which they want. Performance management is closely connected with the control of its change from the point of view of identification of adverse deviations of a labor level of productivity in definite periods of time.
“The employer’s basic task is to create a bundle of rewards-a total reward package – specifically aimed at eliciting the employee behaviors the firm needs to support and achieve its competitive strategy. The HR or compensation manager will write the policies in conjunction with top management, in a manner such that the policies are consistent with the firm’s strategic aims”.
Having specified the income of the employee on this or that position, it is possible to start modeling of a reward system. A basis of such a model is the calculation of an optimum wages fund profitable for the company. A reward system is very important; first of all, it focuses the organizational culture of a company on itself. The organizational culture is a really important thing which is done by the heads of any enterprise. The organizational culture considers the features of the performance management system. The brightest manifestation of the company’s organizational culture is the reward system and reward management. The reward system can be a vector of the effective cultural change, capable to cause a substation development of the management culture. The effective “total reward” system is the intermediary in the exchange between the company and the personnel.
The work of an administrative board of any organization is inseparably connected with the realization of search and personnel recruitment process. An overall performance of the organization and its divisions substantially depend on the fact how qualitatively the search and selection of workers was done. Therefore, the procedure of personnel search and recruitment should be considered in complex with a general control system of the organization and its personnel selection. The program on organization’s development with new workers should consider the organization’s purposes, developed practice of management and existing resources. In this connection, HR management demands a complex approach, considering the requirements of a post, organization, choice of adequate recruitment methods, etc.
Initial stage in human resource management is recruitment, which includes, first of all, such processes as selection of personnel. A subsequent activity of human resource management depends on how this recruitment process is conducted and what kinds of people are selected for work in the organization. Therefore, it is necessary to concern this stage seriously, considering the experience kept in domestic and foreign practices.
HR strategies are aimed to encourage the employees to be open-minded and feel its value in the company’s processes. They are developed in every company’s branch and then become the parts of the common strategy.
Human resources are very important for the successful activity of any company. Each employee, especially if he/she is in a direct contact with a customer, brings an essential mite in success (or failure) of business. Therefore, HR is the major element of the company’s mechanism.
The success of a company directly depends on the correctness of the actions of HR managers. The errors of HR manager can cause a loss of the company’s reputation, deterioration of his financial position and loss of key employees. Therefore, there is a desire of the HR management to supervise the company’s activity in order to avoid the financial losses at a wrong behavior of top managers.
Thus, the long-term programs of the development for employees gain a paramount value as abilities and qualifications of the personnel are necessary for the constant improvement. Along with it, many experts in the sphere of human resources (HR) argue that existing systems for talent management of the organization should be improved.
The HR management function in a company is strategically integrated with its own policy, as the preparation of effective personnel is the functional business process of human resource department. It is directed at the ensuring of the administrative personnel continuity, prevention of the problems arising in case of the managers’ terminations of the employment contracts, and also the professional growth of employees. A carefully fulfilled selection and a target development of managers are defined by the need of human resource development for the enterprise as a strategic task fixed in its mission. Thus, the administrative skills and so-called “key qualifications” are considered at any level of hierarchy.
