Class Descriptions

Human Resource Development and Management

SW664

Credits:	3
Prerequisites:	None

Pathway Associations

Community Change
Global
Interpersonal Practice
Mgmt & Leadership	Elective (Host)
Policy & Political
Program Evaluation
Older Adults
Children & Families

Course Description

This course will focus on how administrators of social impact organizations can increase their effectiveness by supporting quality staff performance and employee engagement through structured human resource practice methods. This course will present ways to develop an equitable, healthy, and viable workplace for employees and employers. It will explore the role of social workers as change agents within organizations and the societal level impact of those changes. Students will learn relevant skills in staff recruitment, hiring, retention and termination, staff development, compensation and performance, and the development of benefit packages. Relevant laws and legislation governing workplace relationships such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will also be reviewed.

Students will learn about work organization and job design, personnel recruitment and selection, performance monitoring and improvement, and compensation management. Students will learn that personnel management and staff development within human service organizations involve shared responsibility and active participation. Issues pertaining to dimensions of identity (ability, age, class, color, culture, ethnicity, family structure, gender [including gender identity and gender expression], marital status, national origin, race, religion or spirituality, sex, and sexual orientation) will be given special attention, particularly in the areas of recruitment, promotion, compensation, and benefits. Emphasis will also be placed on assessing and developing organizational cultures that are inclusive and maximize their positive impact.

Objectives

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:
● Plan and implement a developmentally oriented staff and volunteer recruitment, hiring, performance appraisal, and personnel assessment program (EPAS 4, 6, 8)
● Conduct a job analysis and assist administrators in correcting job design problems. (EPAS 7, 8, 9)
● Identify and assess human diversity in the workplace and develop affirmative action programs and policies with investigative procedures and consequences. (EPAS 7, 9, PODS)
● Identify and critique an agency's compensation plan and develop a corrective action plan as appropriate. (EPAS 6, 7, 8, PODS)
● Develop and write sexual harassment policies with investigative procedures and consequences. (EPAS 6, 8, PODS)
● Discuss ethical concerns related to the management of human resources. (PODS)

Design

This course is designed to maximize the inclusion of all students in the learning and application of advanced social work practice with projects and programs. This course will use multiple methods including but not limited to: lectures, demonstrations, case studies, readings, guest speakers, discussions, written assignments, individual and group exercises. The primary pedagogy will be experiential, involving problem-solving, project planning, simulations and hands-on applications of real-world situations arising in the field.

Intensive Focus on Privilege, Oppression, Diversity and Social Justice (PODS)

This course integrates PODS content and skills with a special emphasis on the identification of theories, practice and/or policies that promote social justice, illuminate injustices and are consistent with scientific and professional knowledge. Through the use of a variety of instructional methods, this course will support students developing a vision of social justice, learn to recognize and reduce mechanisms that support oppression and injustice, work toward social justice processes, apply intersectionality and intercultural frameworks and strengthen critical consciousness, self-knowledge and self-awareness to facilitate PODS learning.

Students will develop the capacity to identify ways in which gender, race, ethnicity, social class, age, and other forms of social stratification and disenfranchisement influence and are impacted by human resource policies and procedures, particularly those related to recruiting, hiring, retention, promotion, and termination. This course will help students to understand the potential for social and economic exploitation in human service agencies. Students will analyze movements to decertify and reclassify workers, destabilize labor unions, and shift salaried/hourly employees with benefits to contract workers without benefits in terms of organization and community impact. This course will present approaches that prevent such exploitation and work proactively to realign agencies.