The Workforce Planning and Employment: Employment Legislation course is the 6th of 20 courses developed as part of the Human Resources Certification Program.

The materials presented in this course relate to the area of workforce planning and employment. Here we'll examine employment legislation and regulations and how you as the HR professional are expected to ensure compliance.

The four key knowledge areas we'll discuss are employment legislation and compliance, affirmative action planning and equal employment opportunity, internal workforce planning and staffing effectiveness, and workforce planning techniques and metrics.

Before I begin, I want to stress two very important points. First the PHR exam will only cover federal laws and regulations. No state laws will be tested.

Secondly, I want to share some advice that I give all of my students: pay attention to the materials and answer the practice questions, and ultimately the PHR exam questions, based on the information you're learning. For those of us who have been in HR for a number of years, it's easy to answer questions based on the knowledge we already have.

While you may arrive at a correct answer, you will not arrive at the correct answer every time. Answer all of the questions with the information provided in mind.

The first topic: Employment Legislation and Compliance. Employers must make efforts to increase the presence of women, minorities, covered veterans, and disabled individuals in the workplace.

In this second topic, Affirmative Action Planning and Equal Employment Opportunity, we'll examine the development, implementation, and evaluation of an affirmative action plan according to the requirements. When we conclude this topic you should be able to recognize these key aspects.

HR planning has to consider the organizational strategy in order to anticipate employee skill and labor needs. Our next topic examines internal workforce and staffing effectiveness assessments. Here you should develop a knowledge of internal workforce assessment techniques and methods to examine past and future staffing effectiveness. Pay close attention to the details involved in the various analysis methods, as they tend to be particularly challenging as part of the exam.

While attracting a large quantity of applicants may be desirable, the quality of the candidates is the most critical factor. In topic four, Workforce Planning Techniques and Metrics, we'll look at recruiting objectives and selection criteria, as well as sources and methods of recruitment. We'll then go on to discuss some advantages and disadvantages of those recruiting methods.

That’s it! Now, go ahead and push that “Take this course” button and see you on the inside!