Talk to an HR representative at your company. If your company does not have an HR representative,
talk to a friend or family member who works in HR. Find out and record the answers to the questions
below. After recording the responses received, provide a paragraph summarizing your thoughts
concerning the information you learned and your thoughts relative to how that HR representative
might improve upon his/her knowledge in the field (do not share your thoughts with that HR
representative). This assignment should be at least two double-spaced pages in length.
Unit I Scholarly Activity: HR representative
Question 1
As the Human Resources representative pointed out, she obtained an Associates’
Degree in Human Resource Management (HRM) at a recognized university in South Carolina
UNIT 1 SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY: HR REPRESENTATIVE 2
and using that knowledge, she is able to perform her tasks effectively and satisfactorily. With
an Associates’ Degree in HRM, the HR professional properly carries out various HR tasks in
the company including managing the company’s HR department, interacting with the top
leaders, and building strong employee relations (Guest & Woodrow, 2012). On the whole,
she is important in strengthening the employee-employer relationship.
Question 2
The HR representative has been trained on quite a few statuses such as Family and
Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and Title VII.
She has not obtained formal training on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The
FMLA has outlawed employment discrimination against staff members with illnesses, and
parents and women who are pregnant. Title VII has outlawed discrimination in the place of
work because of the employee’s ethnicity, skin color, faith and religious belief, country of
origin, and gender. ADEA is aimed at protecting workers or job applicants who are aged at
least 40 years.
Question 3
The HR representative mostly deals with the Title VII statute. She mentioned that
over the past 6 months alone, she has been accused three times of gender discrimination
considering that most of the people she hires at the company are women. At the moment, the
ratio of male employees to female employees is about 1:3. Having gender balance in the
place of work is important to ensure gender diversity (Guest & Woodrow, 2012). This issue
was resolved by increasing the number of male workers at the company.
Question 4
UNIT 1 SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY: HR REPRESENTATIVE 3
The most challenging problem with staffs that has been handled by the HR
representative pertaining to one of the statutes is when she dealt with an issue relating to an
employee who was expecting. The HR representative fired one worker after she became
pregnant, which is in violation of the FMLA regulation.
Question 5
The employee relations matter that has been tackled by the HR representative most
frequently is employee hygiene problems that could not be ignored anymore. The HR
representative stated that some employees come to work with body odour that is offensive.
Another employee has an issue with oral odour as his dental hygiene is poor.
Question 6
The Human Resources representative of the company interacts with external legal
counsel comprising lawyers who are hired to represent the company. The company does not
have an in-house legal counsel. This team of lawyers is always ready to defend the firm in the
event that the company gets sued or a legal action filed against it. In addition, they give legal
advice on a wide range of matters that affect the company.
Question 7
When resolving matters concerning staff members, three techniques of dispute
resolution are used. These are (i) an arbitrated outcome – using this dispute resolution
method, a court will determine how that row would be solved prior to making the ultimate
decision on the matter. (ii) A negotiated outcome – this dispute resolution mechanism
basically occurs when the individuals who are in dispute decide to simply sort out the issue
by themselves without involving others. (iii) Mediated outcome – this is where the parties in
the dispute seek help from an independent mediator that will help the concerned parties reach
UNIT 1 SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY: HR REPRESENTATIVE 4
their own agreement. For a new Human Resources professional, an advice to her as regards
how to handle her new functions is to be conversant in all relevant laws and statutes relating
to human resource management, and to perform all her functions satisfactorily.
Summary of thoughts about the obtained information
The information gathered from talking with the human resource representative
demonstrates that this professional is actually a very skilled, competent and capable HR
personnel who is knowledgeable about various human resources roles and tasks including
overseeing the functions of the department and managing staff members (Guest & Woodrow,
2012). Nonetheless, the area where she needs to improve on is her training and knowledge of
ADA. It is important that she gets formal training on the Americans with Disabilities Act,
which has actually outlawed job discrimination against qualified but disabled people. She
should also be very well familiar with FMLA and never fire an employee again because of
pregnancy.
References
Guest, D., & Woodrow, C. (2012). Exploring the Boundaries of Human Resource Managers’
Responsibilities. Journal Of Business Ethics, 111(1), 109-119.
