Can HRM predict mental health crises? Using HR analytics to unpack the link between employment and suicidal thoughts and behaviors

PurposeThe aim of this research is to determine the extent to which the human resource (HR) function can screen and potentially predict suicidal employees and offer preventative mental health assistance.Design/methodology/approachDrawing from the 2019 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (N = 56,136), this paper employs multivariate binary logistic regression to model the work-related predictors of suicidal ideation, planning and attempts.FindingsThe results indicate that known periods of joblessness, the total number of sick days and absenteeism over the last 12 months are significantly associated with various suicidal outcomes while controlling for key psychosocial correlates. The results also indicate that employee assistance programs are associated with a significantly reduced likelihood of suicidal ideation. These findings are consistent with conservation of resources theory.Research limitations/implicationsThis research demonstrates preliminarily that the HR function can unobtrusively detect employee mental health crises by collecting data on key predictors.Originality/valueIn the era of COVID-19, employers have a duty of care to safeguard employee mental health. To this end, the authors offer an innovative way through which the HR function can employ predictive analytics to address mental health crises before they result in tragedy.

Managerial Innovations and Organizational Resilience During the COVID-19 Crisis

Developing the resilience of hospitals in this period of crisis is no longer a choice but rather has become a matter of course for survival. The use of this concept to understand how organizations can overcome the current crisis seems relevant insofar as the research will first identify the human and organizational constraints that are a source of vulnerability for public hospitals and then understand the main practices undertaken by the university hospital to deal with the COVID-19 crisis in terms of the HR function, and finally see to what extent these practices can contribute to the resilience of the public hospital.

Care Ethics Management and Redesign Organization in the New Normal

The pandemic period has placed the organizations in a state of great tension. It has generated a situation of confusion, lack of rules, and production-related criticalities that have called into question the very existence of many productive realities. This article aims to highlight the dimensions of care and ethics put in place by HR managers in COVID-19. The objective that animated the authors have focused on the HRM level of medium and large companies in Italy to highlight the protective actions toward people and the organization in the period COVID 19, highlighting what were the ethical values and actions of care put in place. In this article, we wanted to give voice to managers (N = 45, including 21 women and 24 men, aged between 40 and 55 years old) who had management tasks in their organizations by asking them to tell us how they dealt with the challenges imposed by the emergency. In the research, we start from a way of understanding workplaces understood as a “process of ongoing social relationship” within which the HR function is dedicated to the care of the quality of relationships. HR managers have to manage a complex role of mediating between the interests of people and employers by trying to find good mediations.

Straws and Bundles: Reviewing the Diversity Management Agenda at the Strategic Level

Diversity management as a research domain has led to the emergence of a rather mixed bag of studies with conflicting findings. This review article seeks to synthesize these insights and then uncover the major theoretical perspectives that guide the crafting of the strategic human resource (HR) function specific to promoting diversity praxis in organizations. Eighty papers are reviewed using thematic review and content analytic methods. There are three sequential parts. First, we spend some time on how diversity has been conceptualized in academic literature and how it came to be linked to organizational performance. Second, we attempt to understand the definition of ‘diversity management’, review its implications for the strategic HR function and locate it with regard to functional HR practices. In the final part, we actually look at the black box contents, i.e., we review organizational HR activities that have been documented by scholars and the theories that have informed these activities at firm level and extra-firm level. Extensive research directions are suggested. A critique of praxis is offered, and how it is currently limiting academic inquiry is discussed.

Changes in Human Resource Management Practices in a Pandemic: Insurance Companies

The purpose of this study is to analyze changes in human resource management practices in a pandemic using the example of insurance companies. The study presents approaches to the main differences in the concepts “personnel management” and “human resource management”. Based on the analysis of secondary sources, the problems of human resource management in insurance companies in a pandemic were identified, and options for solving them were provided. In the conclusion, the authors determined that in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the HR function in an insurance company should be implemented by leveling the problems that arise during the transition to teleworking, developing digital skills of employees and moral and psychological support and maintaining stable relationships, as well as applying measures to maintain and increase the level of staff involvement, strengthening control measures and changing internal communications.

A Sustainable Plan to Rescue HR from Itself

The Human Resource (HR) function is often viewed by those in organizations as a process function and a cost-center, which results in an enhanced risk of outsourcing and automation. However, HR is also uniquely positioned to engage firms in cross-functional transformational change efforts, as its work is embedded in every business function within an organization. Sustainable HR and the triple bottom line (TBL) present opportunities for HR to build a strategic role within organizations. This essay provides strategic and tactical models, with specific steps for implementation, to assist HR in re-assert its role in driving the competitiveness of the firm through Sustainable HR.

What Does HR Manage? Workforce Measurement and Control

According to the long-standing axiom of management, one cannot manage what cannot be measured. Two questions emerge that are applicable to the Human Resource (HR) function. What does it manage? What should it measure? Prior answers recommend that HR should manage its functional activities, the organization’s human capital, or certain strategically important factors in a balanced scorecare, none of which are fully satisfactory. This paper argues that the HR function should manage the organization’s workforce. To do that, one must measure aspects of that workforce. This paper provides a generic framework of measures for that purpose. The foundation measures focus on the structure of jobs in the organization, the demographic characteristics of the workforce, their attitudes, the flow of personnel, and certain moderating variables. Measures for special segments of the workforce, such as sales and service personnel and leaders, are also noted.

The impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on jobs: an industry perspective

Purpose This paper aims to explore the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on jobs. Design/methodology/approach The authors followed rapid review guidelines. The authors collected industry and government reports published prior and up to August 2017 in Google and Google Scholar using combination of key words: “job automation” or “work automation” with technology keywords: “artificial intelligence,” “machine learning,” etc. In total, 11 were included in this research. Findings The use of AI technologies will impact jobs in the near future as some job tasks are automated. AI is likely to substitute both, routine and nonroutine tasks. It is expected that humans and robots would work together in ways never imaginable. Changes in employability skills are expected. Because of the magnitude of these impacts on jobs, consulted reports call for concerted solutions that go beyond organizations’ and industry’s boundaries to include other relevant stakeholders. Moreover, organizations will have to rethink their human resource (HR) function to realign its expertise to the reality of AI. Practical implications In this context, the HR function will have to understand the dynamics that generate the impacts of these technologies in a workplace, to anticipate changes and actively contribute to creating an organizational environment that will facilitate the collaboration between human workers and complex digital agents, while ensuring compliance with labor and employment laws and supporting strategic organizational objectives. Originality/value This paper contributes to the debate on ongoing concerns by providing a synthesis of relevant professional literature.

THE ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RECRUITMENT AND QUALITY TO EXPLAIN THE PHENOMENON OF EMPLOYER REPUTATION

The prime contribution of current research entails the explanation of role of artificial intelligence based human resource management function to determine the employer reputation among pharmaceutical industry of Indonesia. The study intends to examine the empirically investigation the role and impact of artificial intelligence-based recruitment and artificial intelligence-based quality to determine the employer reputation with mediating role of artificial intelligence adoption. The study contributes to the body of knowledge and claims to be novel in explaining the AI based HR function to explain the phenomenon of employer reputation. The study examined the empirical investigation between AI based recruitment and AI based quality to influence the AI adoption that further predicts the phenomenon of employer reputation. The study was conducted on pharmaceutical industry of Indonesia and convenience sampling was used for data collected and Smart-PLS was utilized for data analysis. The study found that AI based recruitment and quality significantly influences the AI adoption and further it influences the employer reputation. The mediation role of artificial intelligence adoption is significant where it is found that artificial intelligence mediates the relationship between artificial intelligence recruitment and employer reputation, with similar significant mediation role between artificial intelligence quality and employer reputation.