Strategic Hr-iipm,delhi New

STRATEGIC HR

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT, NEW DELHI

BY: SHOUBHAGYA RANJAN MAHAKUD

CONTENTS

Sl no. 1

INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGIC HR

2

ORGANIZATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ITS EFFECTS HUMAN RESOURCE IDENTIFICATION THROUGH ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

3

4 5 6

DEVELOPING A HRM STRATEGY CONCLUSION

ABSTRACT As companies begin to compete in the challenging business environment of the new millennium, an ever-increasing reason for success lies in the function of effective human resource management (HRM). Controlling these resources (physical, organizational, information and human) gives the company the competitive advantage. The main purpose of this paper is to deliver a decision support tool aiding the decision making process concerning the strategic management of the department of human resource management. The goal of the strategic management in an organization is to assess, deploy and allocate resources providing the management with a competitive advantage. It is primarily an organizational strategy works as a change program towards excellence. Organizations and companies succeed, or fail, based on the quality and effectiveness of their employees. Today’s successful firms recognize that to compete in global markets, they must have world class Human Resource managers who are active participants in strategic and operational decision. Whether they are reengineering the pay and benefits of the company or implementing Total Quality Management (TQM) programs, Human Resources Managers play a central role. Most importantly, the practice of Human Resource Management is undergoing a technological revolution. We speak now of managing not only human resources and capital, but also information and information systems. HR functions, from employee selection to benefits planning, are being redesigned to take advantage of advanced information technology. The goal of strategic management in an organization is to deploy and allocate resources in order to provide the management with a competitive advantage. HR Strategy will reveal how to: Assess the people implications of current and upcoming corporate goals and strategies, and diagnose the HR function’s present capacity to support these and identify the gaps ,Identify new performance goals and the means to measure and evaluate them ,Design and support new service delivery strategies ,Discover the critical success factors for maximum business impact ,Tap into the knowledge and experience of leading organizations through best practice case study examples ,Translate the advice and guidance from leading experts into tangible actions that will enhance HR delivery in organizations. It goes without saying that two out of three classes of resources (organizational and human) correlated with the human resource functions. Towards maximum effect, the HRM functions must be integrally involved in the company’s strategic management process. Strategic management process first analyzes a company’s competitive situation, develops its strategic goals and mission, its external opportunities and threats, and its internal strength and weaknesses to generate alternatives. In his second phase, strategic management process determines a plan of actions and deployment of resources to achieve the pre-specified goals. This whole assignment explains the role of objective and need for maintain strategy for smooth flow of work. This kind of strategic approach should be emphasized in human resources management. Strategic human resources management (SHRM) is the pattern of planned human resources deployments and activities intended to enable an organization to achieve its goals. Then we are addressing the question of the instruments that will make the odds of the competition in our favor. This whole assignment is divided into different parts by keeping in mind the requirement of each organizational function and explains clearly the strategic development part through diagrams for easy understanding.

INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGIC HR Organizational concept behind the unstable climate of management has created a question mark infront of organizational departments to act to the unstructured development plans. Every organization comprises of different departments who serves different work for the fulfilling the objective in a unidirectional manner. The scenario of revolution in the various fields of business has already taken the speed in the micro as well as the macro environment, which serves an indication towards the utilization of skills. The needs of organizations are generally fulfilled by the different departments created by the organization. The hierarchy of organization creates an arena infront of each one to stipulate themselves within that arena for their own flexibility. Organizational mission and vision shows the way to achieve the objective. The different application of each department differentiates their way of doing work. Some of the departments may work by acquiring inside information and some of the departments work from the outer sources of information. Organizational plan and the design to approach the job is important for every organizations to be in touch with their own ethics. For any organization the department which serves a lot is finance department, marketing department, human resource department, administrative department etc. The human resource department is our concern for this project. In this present organizational trend the strength and weak nesses of organization lies in between their organizational structure which comprises of human skills. The structure of organization creates a clear picture infront of other observers who like to understand that organization. The current competitive scenario has forced organizations to plan and design a high effective human resource model that can take the organization to great heights under the guidance of prospectus of organization. The success in long term may affect other organizations and the competitive age prepares the every segment of human resource more stable for an out put that can keep the pace of organization in a stable form. For every organization though it’s difficult to analyze the competitor’s strategy behind their manpower they can collect information regarding the competitors from various sources. The manpower requirement is a big deal for every organization and the planning phase to gain the desired manpower in the particular stipulated time. Strategic human resource entails with major issues that can be sighted infront the organizational leaders for smooth flow of work. The activities of organization generally divided into three pats like strategic planning or long range plans, tactical planning or budgets tactical plans, operational or day to day plans. The top most level of organizations who assigns all those strategic planning tasks to other lower level of organization to come down to a common ground for proper planning and its implementation. Strategic human resource is a process of determining the need of organization for placing the organization in the safe side for meeting their goals and objectives. If we consider strategic planning it generally done by the top level of management personnel’s after analyzing the company past results. The strategic planning is not done within the less time frequency which creates a notion among others that the organization is weak on managing things. Generally the strategic management tales place with a time interval of three to five years gap. From the technical aspect it is clear that the leading countries of the world create new innovations to fetch the market strategy for their growth. The use of human resource becomes the primary concern now days to get

the remarkable identity. Outsourcing the talents and getting the best of it has a challenge for every business organization. SHRM or Strategic human resource management is a branch of Human resource management or HRM. HR Strategy, a new forthcoming management report is the definitive guide to transforming the strategic role of HR in organizations.Strategic human resource management is a fairly new field, which has emerged out of the parent discipline of human resource management. Much of the early HRM literature treats the notion of strategy superficially, rather as a purely operational matter the results of which cascade down throughout the organisation. Strategic human resource management can be defined as the linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational culture that foster innovation, flexibility and competitive advantage. In an organization SHRM means accepting and involving the HR function as a strategic partner in the formulation and implementation of the company’s strategies through HR activities such as recruiting, selecting, training and rewarding personnel. Many writers in the late 1980’s, started clamoring for a more strategic approach to the management of people than what the standard practices of traditional management of people or industrial relations models followed. Strategic human resource managements focus on human resource programmes with long-term objectives. Instead of focusing on internal human resource issues, the focus is on addressing and solving problems that effect people management programmes in the long run and often globally. Therefore the primary goal of strategic human resource is to increase employee productivity by focusing on business obstacles that occur outside of human resources. The primary actions of a strategic human resource manager are to identify key HR areas where strategies can be implemented in the long run to improve the overall employee motivation and productivity. Refer Figure-1 and Figure-2 for the strategic view of HR.

[FIGURE-1]

[FIGURE-2]

[FIGURE-3]

ORGANIZATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ITS EFFECTS Organizational objectives plays an important role for an organization as it shows the individual person of organization a clear insight of their work and adapting things into their own from it. For every organization the objectives made by the higher level moderators serves a value and creates a positive notion among the workers of organization for developmental thinking. The synergy can be developed by the organizational moderators but the objective of organization keeps the synergy alive for a long period of time. The after effects of synergy providers go on decreasing with their level of concentration. The awareness among the people regarding the purpose of organization for producing or selling a particular product may keep the eye open of the workers. Primarily for a new group of worker the objective set by the organization may be a confused one but soon after the adaptation of work culture changes the way the worker of organization perceive it. The objective in terms of organizational language shows a clear picture for the organizational innovators who wants to work for the achievements made by the organizational. The objective of organization itself shows the smooth operation of enterprise. For every organization the objects concentrated in proper resources, improving performance, mobilization best talent, planning for future. The main objective of every organization is to utilize the resources optimally with their available constraints for growth of organization. The proper use of functions of production which are men, materials, machines and money will help a business to earn sufficient profits to satisfy various interests. The proprietors will want more returns on their investments while employees, customers and want more returns on their investments while employees, customers and public will expect a fair deal from the management. Managements main role also included in its performance which id measured by thee organizational heads according to the different performance criteria developed by the organization. The fixing of objectives of various factors of production will help them in improving their performance. The employment criteria developed by the organizational mentors keeps a track ahead record which type of jobs can must be absorbed for filling the positions needed by the organization. Another important objective of management is to prepare plans. No management should feel satisfied with today’s work if it has not thought of tomorrow. Future plans should take into consideration what is to be done next. Future performance will depend upon present planning. So, planning for future is essential to helptheconcern. The management which makes the people .management is na all pervasive function since it is required in all types of organized endeavor. Thus its scope is very large. The following activities are covered under the scope of management: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, co-coordinating and controlling. The other optional aspects of business management, called the branches of management, are: production management, marketing management, financial management, personnel management, office management. Effective management of human resource is one of the most crucial factors associated with the success of the enterprise. The objective of human resource department combined with the managerial functions like: personnel planning, organizing by setting up the structure of relationship among jobs, personnel and physical factors to contribute towards organization goals; directing the employees; and controlling. The operating functions of personnel management are: procurement of right kind and number of persons; training and development of employees; determination of adequate and equitable comprehension of employees; integration of the interests of the

personnel with that of enterprise; and providing good working conditions and welfare service to the employees.

HUMAN RESOURCE IDENTIFICATION THROUGH ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE The word organisation has two different meanings in this area of study. • •

an institution or functional group such as a business or a society the process of organising. This is the way in which work is arranged and allocated among members of an organisation so that the goals of the "organisation" can be most efficiently achieved.

The process of organising is dividing up the work that is done among areas and employees and linking together these areas and jobs in order to form a unified whole, (a single working unit where all of its parts work together to achieve the organisations goals). One of the most challenging tasks of a business may be organizing the people who perform its work. A business may begin with one person doing all the necessary tasks. As the business becomes successful and grows, however, there is generally more work, and more people are needed to perform various tasks. Through this division of work, individuals can become specialists at a specific job. Because there are several people—often in different locations—working toward a common objective, "there must be a plan showing how the work will be organized. The plan for the systematic arrangement of work is the organization structure. Organization structure is comprised of functions, relationships, responsibilities, authorities, and communications of individuals within each department. The typical depiction of structure is the organizational chart. Traditional organizational structures focus on the functions, or departments, within an organization, closely following the organization's customs and bureaucratic procedures. These structures have clearly defined lines of authority for all levels of management. Two traditional structures are line and line-and-staff. The line structure is defined by its clear chain of command, with final approval on decisions affecting the operations of the company still coming from the top down. Line structures by nature are fairly informal and involve few departments, making the organizations highly decentralized. Employees are generally on a first-name basis with the president, who is often available throughout the day to answer questions and/or to respond to situations as they arise. While the line structure would not be appropriate for larger companies, the line-and-staff structure is applicable because it helps to identify a set of guidelines for the people directly involved in completing the organization's work. This type of structure combines the flow of information from the line structure with the staff departments that service, advise, and support them. Line departments are involved in making decisions regarding the operation of the organization, while staff areas provide specialized support. The line-and-staff organizational structure "is necessary to provide specialized, functional assistance to all managers, to ensure adequate checks and balances, and to maintain accountability for end results".An example of a line department might be the production department because it is directly responsible for producing the product. A staff department, on the other hand, has employees who advise and assist—making sure the product gets advertised or that the

customer service representative's computer is working. Based on the company's general organization, line-and-staff structures generally have a centralized chain of command. The line-and-staff managers have direct authority over their subordinates, but staff managers have no authority over line managers and their subordinates. Because there are more layers and presumably more guidelines to follow in this type of organization, the decision-making process is slower than in a line organization. The line-and-staff organizational structure is generally more formal in nature and has many departments.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MAHNAGING MANAGING DIRECTOR DIRECTOR

PRODUCTION

MARKETING

MARKET RESEARCH

FINANCE

SALES

NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES

PERSONNEL

ADVERTISING

RADIO AND T.V.

[FIGURE-5] ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

CHIEFCHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

CAR DIVISION

PRODUCTION

TRUCK DIVISION

MARKETING

FINANCE

BUS DIVISION

PERSONNEL

[FIGURE-6]

The division of work is the breaking down of the jobs that your organisation needs to do in order to achieve its goals. A craftsperson who is making, selling and designing chairs would do a lot of different things in the course of that activity. If the chair was being mass produced in a large company the tasks would probably be broken down into smaller sections handled by different people such as purchasing, design, sales and marketing, production etc. All of these areas could be broken down even further. It is believed that job specialisation leads to greater efficiency and higher output per person than a more general approach but it does have its problems such as creating boring and repetitive jobs, but there are strategies for helping to deal with these problems. One of the ways in which we can explain the structure of an organisation is through an organisational chart. This charts usually show the title of each managers position and using connecting lines show who is accountable to whom and who has responsibility for which department. It doesn't tell you everything about the organisation such as the communication channels and liaising between departments but it is a useful conceptual tool so that one can think of the organisation as a whole and understand how all its parts fit together. Functional organisational structure the division of work is the most important part. Jobs and activities are grouped together. This is called departmentation. This is a very popular mode.

[FIGURE-7]

This structure may be varied in a number of ways. Division by Product or Service. Here the organisation is divided up according to the product (such as in a supermarket - toiletries, fruit and vegetables, etc.) or the service (such as a local council's sanitation area including waste disposal, recycling, street sweeping and maintenance etc.) Division by Customer This could include a sales business which is divided into wholesale and retail sections to cater to the needs of the public and businesses. Division by process or equipment A printing firm, for example, may use this sort of division in order to keep all of its printing functions in the one area, for example a screen printing department for T-shirts and a card section for the printing of business cards. As a firm grows it sometimes needs to set up branches in other locations.

[FIGURE-8] A firm may wish to allow these branches to work as autonomous units, that means that they are like little organisations of there own making local decisions but guided by the policy decisions made at the head office. For example some large 'fast food' chains often work in this way with a head office and suburban branches which are run by a "manager". The head office provides services and support but is not closely involved in the day to day running of the branch. While the branch manager does have scope to make decisions this is limited as compared to a completely separate business.

[FIGURE-9]

A variation of the line-and-staff organizational structure is the matrix structure. In today's workplace, employees are hired into a functional department (a department that performs a specific type of work, such as marketing, finance, accounting, and human resources) but may find themselves working on projects managed by members of another department. Organizations arranged according to project are referred to as matrix organizations. Matrix organizations combine both vertical authority relationships (where employees report to their functional manager) and horizontal, or diagonal, work relationships (where employees report to their project supervisor for the length of the project). "Workers are accountable to two supervisors—one functional manger in the department where the employee regularly works and one special project manager who uses the employee's services for a varying period of time".Since employees report to two separate managers, this type of organizational structure is difficult to manage—especially because of conflicting roles and shared authority. Employees' time is often split between departments and they can become easily frustrated if each manager requires extra efforts to complete projects on similar time-lines. Because the matrix structure is often used in organizations using the line-and-staff setup, its also fairly centralized. However, the chain of command is different in that an employee can report to one or more managers, but one manager typically has more authority over the employee than the other manager(s). Within the project or team unit, decision making can occur faster than in a line-and-staff structure, but probably not as quickly as in a line structure. Typically, the matrix structure is more informal than line-and-staff structures but not as informal as line structures. Sometimes an organisation needs to run according to what projects they have to do. In these situations people usually work together in a team to achieve their projects goals. A person working on a project would have two bosses, the boss of the department that they work in and the leader or manager of the particular project that they are working on at the moment. A project may cover some or all of the organisations departmental areas. For example in the aerospace industry (manufacture and development of aeroplanes and

spacecraft) the government might ask for a space shuttle type aircraft to be developed and manufactured. Another government department might ask for a spacecraft to go to Mars. Obviously these craft would be very different. How could an organisation set itself up to complete both projects? Well it might set up two project groups. The Mars group and the shuttle group, both of which would utilise resources, staff etc from all of the different departments in the organisation. When the projects are completed, these project groups would be disbanded

[FIGURE-10] Organizations with a centralized structure have several layers of management that control the company by maintaining a high level of authority, which is the power to make decisions concerning business activities. With a centralized structure, line-and-staff employees have limited authority to carry something out without prior approval. This organizational structure tends to focus on top-down management, whereby executives at the top communicate by telling middle managers, who then tell first-level managers, who then tell the staff what to do and how to do it. Since this organizational structure tends to be fairly bureaucratic, employees have little freedom. Centralized organizations are known for decreased span of control—a limited number of employees report to a manager, who then reports to the next management level, and so on up the ladder to the CEO (Figure 4). Because individual creativity can be stifled and management costs can be greater in a centralized organization, many organizations continue to downsize into a more decentralized structure. Decentralization seeks to eliminate the unnecessary levels of management and to place authority in the hands of first-line managers and staff— thus increasing the span of control, with more employees reporting to one manager. Because more employees are reporting to a single manager than before, the managers are forced to delegate more work and to hold the employees more accountable. Downsizing has also

helped to change the flow of communication, so that top management hears staff concerns and complaints in a more direct manner and management has a more hands-on approach. The hands-on approach involves less bureaucracy, which means there is a faster response to situations that demand immediate attention. This structure also takes advantage of bottom-up communication, with staff issues being addressed in a timely manner. The restructuring generally takes place at the mid-management level. Because some middle managers have lost their jobs, been laid off, or simply taken advantage of early retirement and severance packages, their positions have been phased out, thus helping to reduce unnecessary costly salaries and increasing employee span of control. Many middle managers who stayed in their current "positions" found that their jobs have changed to being coaches, or team leaders, who allow their employees greater freedom in completing their work responsibilities. The chain of command is the protocol used for communication within organizations. It provides a clear picture of who reports to whom. Quick decisions can be made in decentralized organizations because approval usually has to come only from the manager one level higher than the person making the decision. The chain of command involves line-and-staff employees, where the staff's job is completing the actual work and the line functions to oversee the staff . Organizations can be divided into various departments, or units, with individuals who specialize in a given area, such as marketing, finance, sales, and so forth. Having each unit perform specialized jobs is known as departmentalization. Departmentalization is done according to five major categories : (1) product, which requires each department to be responsible for the product being manufactured; (2) geographic, which divides the organization based on the location of stores and offices; (3) customer, which separates departments by customer type—for example, textbook companies that cater to both grade schools and community colleges; (4) functional, which breaks departments into specialty areas; and (5) process, which creates departments responsible for various steps in the production process.

Human Resource Planning Human Resource Planning defines project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships. One key result of Human Resource Planning is the Staffing management plan which depicts how and when team members are added to the team, and how the team members are released from the project, the training needs of the team, and several other key components. Before going to start understanding HRP the below figure explains a lot.

[FIGURE-11] The penalties for not being correctly staffed are costly. • •

Understaffing loses the business economies of scale and specialization, orders, customers and profits. Overstaffing is wasteful and expensive, if sustained, and it is costly to eliminate because of modern legislation in respect of redundancy payments, consultation,

minimum periods of notice, etc. Very importantly, overstaffing reduces the competitive efficiency of the business. Planning staff levels requires that an assessment of present and future needs of the organization be compared with present resources and future predicted resources. Appropriate steps then be planned to bring demand and supply into balance. Thus the first step is to take a 'satellite picture' of the existing workforce profile (numbers, skills, ages, flexibility, gender, experience, forecast capabilities, character, potential, etc. of existing employees) and then to adjust this for 1, 3 and 10 years ahead by amendments for normal turnover, planned staff movements, retirements, etc, in line with the business plan for the corresponding time frames. The result should be a series of crude supply situations as would be the outcome of present planning if left unmodified. (This, clearly, requires a great deal of information accretion, classification and statistical analysis as a subsidiary aspect of personnel management.) What future demands will be is only influenced in part by the forecast of the personnel manager, whose main task may well be to scrutinize and modify the crude predictions of other managers. Future staffing needs will derive from: • • • • • •

Sales and production forecasts The effects of technological change on task needs Variations in the efficiency, productivity, flexibility of labor as a result of training, work study, organizational change, new motivations, etc. Changes in employment practices (e.g. use of subcontractors or agency staffs, hiving-off tasks, buying in, substitution, etc.) Variations, which respond to new legislation, e.g. payroll taxes or their abolition, new health and safety requirements Changes in Government policies (investment incentives, regional or trade grants, etc.)

What should emerge from this 'blue sky gazing' is a 'thought out' and logical staffing demand schedule for varying dates in the future which can then be compared with the crude supply schedules. The comparisons will then indicate what steps must be taken to achieve a balance. That, in turn, will involve the further planning of such recruitment, training, retraining, labor reductions (early retirement/redundancy) or changes in workforce utilization as will bring supply and demand into equilibrium, not just as a one–off but as a continuing workforce planning exercise the inputs to which will need constant varying to reflect 'actual' as against predicted experience on the supply side and changes in production actually achieved as against forecast on the demand side.

The inputs to Human Resource Planning are: 1. Enterprise Environmental Factors – The Enterprise Environmental Factors that comprise of individuals of an organization interact and relate with one another are an input into Human Resource Planning. Items to considers about enterprise environmental factors involving organizational culture and structure are: o Organizational – Which organizations or departments are going to be engaged in the project? Are there existing working arrangements between them? What are the formal and informal relationships between the departments? o Technical – What are the areas of expertise needed to successfully complete this project? Do these skills need to be transitioned to the supporting organization? o Interpersonal – What types of formal and informal reporting relationships exist among the team members? What are team members current job descriptions? What are their supervisor-subordinate relationships? What levels of trust and respect currently exist? o Logistical – Are people in different locations or time zones? What are other types of distances between team members? o Political – What are the individual goals and agendas of the stakeholders? Where is the informal power base and how can that influence the project? What informal alliances exist?

In addition to these factors, there are also constraints. Examples of inflexibility in Human Resource Planning are: Organizational Structure – An organization with a weak matrix structure is commonly a constraint. o Collective Bargaining Agreements – Contractual agreements with service organizations can require interesting nuances to certain roles and reporting arrangements. o Economic Conditions – Hiring freezes, little to no training funds, and a lack of traveling budget can place restrictions of staffing options. 2. Organizational Process Assets - As an organization's project management methods evolve, experience gained from past projects are available as organizational process assets. Templates and checklists reduce the planning time required and the likelihood of overlooking key responsibilities. 3. Project Management Plan - The Project Management Plan contains activity resource requirements and project management activity descriptions which assist in identifying the types and quantities of resources required for each schedule activity in a work package. o

With the proper inputs, the results are going to have a good foundation. Project teams use different tools and techniques to guide the Human Resource Planning process. These three tools and techniques are: •

•

•

Organization Charts and Position Descriptions - Organization charts and position descriptions are used to communicate and clarify team member roles and responsibilities and to ensure that each work package is assigned. Organization charts can have three formats: Hierarchical-type Organization chart, Matrix-Based Responsibility Chart, and the Text-oriented format. Networking – Informal interactions among co-workers in the organization is a constructive way to comprehend the political and interpersonal factors which will affect organizational relations. Organizational Theory – Organizational theory portrays how people, teams, and organizational units behave.

The three outputs from Human Resource Planning are found below: •

•

•

Roles and Responsibilities - Clarification of roles and responsibilities gives project team members an understanding of their own rles and the roles of others in the project. Clarity is always a key component of project success. Project Organization Charts - A project organization chart is a diagram of the reporting relationships of project team members. Project organization charts should be tailored for their audience, they can give a generalize overview or highly granular. Staffing Management Plan - The Staffing Management Plan is an important output of the Human Resource Planning process which establishes the timing and methods for meeting project human resource requirements. The components of the staffing management plan are: 1. Staff Acquisition – Staff Acquisition details how the project will be staffed, where the team will work, and the level of expertise needed with the staff. 2. Timetable – The timetable illustrates the necessary time frames for project team to be available. One tool commonly used is a resource histogram. 3. Release Criteria – Release criteria lists the method and timing of releasing team member. 4. Training Needs – Training needs is a plan on how to train the project resources. 5. Recognition and rewards – Recognition and rewards are the criteria for rewarding and promoting desired team behaviors 6. Compliance – Compliance details the strategies for complying with regulations, contracts, and other established human resource policies. 7. Safety – Safety procedures are listed to protect the team members.

DEVELOPING A HRM STRATEGY Faced with rapid change organizations need to develop a more focused and coherent approach to managing people. In just the same way a business requires a marketing or information technology strategy it also requires a human resource or people strategy. In developing such a strategy two critical questions must be addressed. • •

What kinds of people do you need to manage and run your business to meet your strategic business objectives? What people programs and initiatives must be designed and implemented to attract, develop and retain staff to compete effectively?

In order to answer these questions four key dimensions of an organization must be addressed. These are: • • • •

Culture: the beliefs, values, norms and management style of the organization Organization: the structure, job roles and reporting lines of the organization People: the skill levels, staff potential and management capability Human resources systems: the people focused mechanisms which deliver the strategy - employee selection, communications, training, rewards, career development, etc.

Frequently in managing the people element of their business senior managers will only focus on one or two dimensions and neglect to deal with the others. Typically, companies reorganize their structures to free managers from bureaucracy and drive for more entrepreneurial flair but then fail to adjust their training or reward systems. When the desired entrepreneurial behavior does not emerge managers frequently look confused at the apparent failure of the changes to deliver results. The fact is that seldom can you focus on only one area. What is required is a strategic perspective aimed at identifying the relationship between all four dimensions. If you require an organization which really values quality and service you not only have to retrain staff, you must also review the organization, reward, appraisal and communications systems. The pay and reward system is a classic problem in this area. Frequently organizations have payment systems which are designed around the volume of output produced. If you then seek to develop a company which emphasizes the product's quality you must change the pay systems. Otherwise you have a contradiction between what the chief executive is saying about quality and what your payment system is encouraging staff to do. There are seven steps to developing a human resource strategy and the active involvement of senior line managers should be sought throughout the approach.

[FIGURE-12] Steps in developing HRM strategy Step 1: Get the 'big picture' Understand your business strategy. • • •

Highlight the key driving forces of your business. What are they? e.g. technology, distribution, competition, the markets. What are the implications of the driving forces for the people side of your business? What is the fundamental people contribution to bottom line business performance?

Step 2: Develop a Mission Statement or Statement of Intent That relates to the people side of the business. Do not be put off by negative reactions to the words or references to idealistic statements - it is the actual process of thinking through the issues in a formal and explicit manner that is important.

•

What do your people contribute?

Step 3: Conduct a SWOT analysis of the organization Focus on the internal strengths and weaknesses of the people side of the business. •

Consider the current skill and capability issues.

Vigorously research the external business and market environment. High light the opportunities and threats relating to the people side of the business. • • •

What impact will/ might they have on business performance? Consider skill shortages? The impact of new technology on staffing levels?

From this analysis you then need to review the capability of your personnel department. Complete a SWOT analysis of the department - consider in detail the department's current areas of operation, the service levels and competences of your personnel staff. Step 4: Conduct a detailed human resources analysis Concentrate on the organization's COPS (culture, organization, people, HR systems) • •

Consider: Where you are now? Where do you want to be? What gaps exists between the reality of where you are now and where you want to be?

Exhaust your analysis of the four dimensions. Step 5: Determine critical people issues Go back to the business strategy and examine it against your SWOT and COPS Analysis • •

Identify the critical people issues namely those people issues that you must address. Those which have a key impact on the delivery of your business strategy. Prioritize the critical people issues. What will happen if you fail to address them?

Remember you are trying to identify where you should be focusing your efforts and resources. Step 6: Develop consequences and solutions For each critical issue highlight the options for managerial action generate, elaborate and create - don't go for the obvious. This is an important step as frequently people jump for

the known rather than challenge existing assumptions about the way things have been done in the past. Think about the consequences of taking various courses of action. Consider the mix of HR systems needed to address the issues. Do you need to improve communications, training or pay? What are the implications for the business and the personnel function? Once you have worked through the process it should then be possible to translate the action plan into broad objectives. These will need to be broken down into the specialist HR Systems areas of: • • • • • • • •

employee training and development management development organization development performance appraisal employee reward employee selection and recruitment manpower planning communication

Develop your action plan around the critical issues. Set targets and dates for the accomplishment of the key objectives. Step 7: Implementation and evaluation of the action plans The ultimate purpose of developing a human resource strategy is to ensure that the objectives set are mutually supportive so that the reward and payment systems are integrated with employee training and career development plans. There is very little value or benefit in training people only to then frustrate them through a failure to provide ample career and development opportunities. EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relates to specific useful skills. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at technical colleges and polytechnics. In addition to the basic training required for a trade, occupation or profession, it is recognised today that there is need to continue training beyond initial qualifications to maintain, upgrade and update skills throughout working life. In the context of many professions and occupations this may be referred to as professional development. In general, education is 'mind preparation' and is carried out remote from the actual work area, training is the systematic development of the attitude, knowledge, skill

pattern required by a person to perform a given task or job adequately and development is 'the growth of the individual in terms of ability, understanding and awareness'. Within an organization all three are necessary in order to: • • • • •

Develop workers to undertake higher-grade tasks; Provide the conventional training of new and young workers (e.g. as apprentices, clerks, etc.); Raise efficiency and standards of performance; Meet legislative requirements (e.g. health and safety); Inform people (induction training, pre-retirement courses, etc.);

From time to time meet special needs arising from technical, legislative, and knowledge need changes. Meeting these needs is achieved via the 'training loop'. (Schematic available in PDF version.) The diagnosis of other than conventional needs is complex and often depends upon the intuition or personal experience of managers and needs revealed by deficiencies. Sources of inspiration include: • •

• • • • •

Common sense - it is often obvious that new machines, work systems, task requirements and changes in job content will require workers to be prepared; Shortcomings revealed by statistics of output per head, performance indices, unit costs, etc. and behavioral failures revealed by absentee figures, lateness, sickness etc. records; Recommendations of government and industry training organizations; Inspiration and innovations of individual managers and supervisors; Forecasts and predictions about staffing needs; Inspirations prompted by the technical press, training journals, reports of the experience of others; The suggestions made by specialist (e.g. education and training officers, safety engineers, work-study staff and management services personnel).

Designing training is far more than devising courses; it can include activities such as: • • • • • •

Learning from observation of trained workers; Receiving coaching from seniors; Discovery as the result of working party, project team membership or attendance at meetings; Job swaps within and without the organization; Undertaking planned reading, or follow from the use of self–teaching texts and video tapes; Learning via involvement in research, report writing and visiting other works or organizations.

So far as group training is concerned in addition to formal courses there are:

• • • • • •

Lectures and talks by senior or specialist managers; Discussion group (conference and meeting) activities; Briefing by senior staffs; Role-playing exercises and simulation of actual conditions; Video and computer teaching activities; Case studies (and discussion) tests, quizzes, panel 'games', group forums, observation exercises and inspection and reporting techniques.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of training is done to ensure that it is cost effective, to identify needs to modify or extend what is being provided, to reveal new needs and redefine priorities and most of all to ensure that the objectives of the training are being met. The latter may not be easy to ascertain where results cannot be measured mathematically. In the case of attitude and behavioral changes sought, leadership abilities, drive and ambition fostered, etc., achievement is a matter of the judgment of senior staffs. Exact validation might be impossible but unless on the whole the judgments are favorable the cooperation of managers in identifying needs, releasing personnel and assisting in training ventures will cease. In making their judgments senior managers will question whether the efforts expended have produced: • • • • • •

More effective, efficient, flexible employees; Faster results in making newcomers knowledgeable and effective than would follow from experience; More effective or efficient use of machinery, equipment and work procedures; Fewer requirements to implement redundancy (by retraining); Fewer accidents both personal and to property; Improvements in the qualifications of staff and their ability to take on tougher roles;

Better employee loyalty to the organization with more willingness to innovate and accept change. A similar term used for workplace learning to improve performance is training and development. Such training can be generally categorized as on-the-job or off-the-job. On-the-job describes training that is given in a normal working situation, using the actual tools, equipment, documents or materials that they will use when fully trained. On-thejob training is usually most effective for vocational work. Off-the-job training takes place away from normal work situation which means that the employee is not regarded as productive worker when training is taking place. An advantage of off-the-job training is that it allows people to get away from work and totally concentrate on the training being given. This type of training is most effective for training concepts and ideas.

ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT Organization development is the process through which an organization develops the internal capacity to most efficiently and effectively provide its mission work and to sustain itself over the long term. This definition highlights the explicit connection between organizational development work and the achievement of organizational mission. This connection is the rationale for doing OD work. Organization development, according to Richard Beckhard, is defined as: a planned effort, organization-wide, managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health, through planned interventions in the organization's 'processes', using behavioral science knowledge. At the core of OD is the concept of an organization, defined as two or more people working together toward one or more shared goals. Development in this context is the notion that an organization may become more effective over time at achieving its goals."OD is a long range effort to improve organization's problem solving and renewal processes, particularly through more effective and collaborative management of organization culture-with specific emphasis on the culture of formal work teams-with the assistance of a change agent or catalyst and the use of the theory and technology of applied behavioral science including action research". (Richard Beckhard was a pioneer in the field of organizational development. He colaunched the Addison-Wesley Organization Development Series and began the Organization Development Network in 1967. His classic work, Organization Development: Strategies and Models, was published in 1969. Beckhard was an adjunct professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1963-1984. He died on December 28, 1999.) PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL An organization needs constantly to take stock of its workforce and to assess its performance in existing jobs for three reasons: •

•

•

To improve organizational performance via improving the performance of individual contributors (should be an automatic process in the case of good managers, but (about annually) two key questions should be posed: o What has been done to improve the performance of a person last year? o And what can be done to improve his or her performance in the year to come?). To identify potential, i.e. to recognize existing talent and to use that to fill vacancies higher in the organization or to transfer individuals into jobs where better use can be made of their abilities or developing skills. To provide an equitable method of linking payment to performance where there are no numerical criteria (often this salary performance review takes place about three months later and is kept quite separate from 1. and 2. but is based on the same assessment).

On-the-spot managers and supervisors, not HR staffs, carry out evaluations. The personnel role is usually that of:

• •

•

• •

•

Advising top management of the principles and objectives of an evaluation system and designing it for particular organizations and environments. Developing systems appropriately in consultation with managers, supervisors and staff representatives. Securing the involvement and cooperation of appraisers and those to be appraised. Assistance in the setting of objective standards of evaluation / assessment, for example: o Defining targets for achievement; o Explaining how to quantify and agree objectives; o Introducing self-assessment; o Eliminating complexity and duplication. Publicizing the purposes of the exercise and explaining to staff how the system will be used. Organizing and establishing the necessary training of managers and supervisors who will carry out the actual evaluations/ appraisals. Not only training in principles and procedures but also in the human relations skills necessary. (Lack of confidence in their own ability to handle situations of poor performance is the main weakness of assessors.) Monitoring the scheme - ensuring it does not fall into disuse, following up on training/job exchange etc. recommendations, reminding managers of their responsibilities.

[FIGURE-13]

Full-scale periodic reviews should be a standard feature of schemes since resistance to evaluation / appraisal schemes is common and the temptation to water down or render schemes ineffectual is ever present (managers resent the time taken if nothing else). Basically an evaluation / appraisal scheme is a formalization of what is done in a more casual manner anyway (e.g. if there is a vacancy, discussion about internal moves and internal attempts to put square pegs into 'squarer holes' are both the results of casual evaluation). Most managers approve merit payment and that too calls for evaluation. Made a standard routine task, it aids the development of talent, warns the inefficient or uncaring and can be an effective form of motivation.

[FIGURE-14]

[FIGURE-15 ] Phases I through III-Review of Objectives and their Achievement Each employee develops, in concert with their supervisor, a set of specific objectives to be achieved during the upcoming year. The employee reviews their progress in achieving these objectives at set intervals through out the performance year and drafts a summary of their performance at each interval. This summary is reviewed with the supervisor in mid-fall and again in mid-spring semester and agreement on achievements and performance toward each objective is reached. These meetings are also an opportunity for the employee and the supervisor to review and update objectives to reflect changes in priority or emerging needs. In late June, after the academic year is complete and as the division begins to compile data for its annual report, the employee again prepares a final statement on achievement and performance toward the objectives and reviews this final report with the supervisor. At the same time, the supervisor asks the employee to begin drafting annual objectives for the upcoming year that will correspond with the organizational goals and the employee’s position description. The supervisor and employee meet again in midAugust and finalize employee objectives for upcoming academic year and this portion of the annual cycle begins again.

Phase IV - Annual Review At the mid-June meeting, the supervisor also asks the employee to complete a self-evaluation form. This self-evaluation form mirrors the annual evaluation form the supervisor will complete on the employee. This annual evaluation form incorporates a standard set of behaviors and behavioral characteristics that can be ranked on a numerical scale. In addition, there is the opportunity to cite specific examples of exemplary behavior (critical incidents) that demonstrate the behavioral characteristics and the rating given. The review of accomplishments of objectives in phases one through three may be a resource for these types of examples. The supervisor may also send out to relevant parties a shorter “traveling evaluation” that requests information on an employee’s performance on a team or committee that is not under the direct observation of the supervisor. At the mid- August meeting, the employee and the supervisor review the selfevaluation and the annual evaluation forms and come to agreement on an overall assessment. This assessment, in combination with the final evaluation of objectives and their achievement combine to form the overall performance evaluation for the employee. System Evaluation and Training After the performance appraisal process is completed for one year but prior to the first meeting of the next evaluation cycle, the organization will ask employees to evaluate the recently completed performance cycle and will provide training to supervisors and employees for the upcoming performance cycle. The evaluation of the recently completed cycle provides employees and supervisors an opportunity to express their opinions on the utility of the existing performance appraisal process. A specific instrument to collect this information is included in the overall performance appraisal instrument so that all employees will have an opportunity to comment. Significant concerns raised with the process or its outcomes may be addressed in the training session and included in the training lesson plan.

EMPLOYEE REWARD To retain good staff and to encourage them to give of their best while at work requires attention to the financial and psychological and even physiological rewards offered by the organization as a continuous exercise. Basic financial rewards and conditions of service (e.g. working hours per week) are determined externally (by national bargaining or government minimum wage legislation) in many occupations but as much as 50 per cent of the gross pay of manual workers is often the result of local negotiations and details (e.g. which particular hours shall be worked) of conditions of service are often more important than the basics. Hence there is scope for financial and other motivations to be used at local levels. As staffing needs will vary with the productivity of the workforce (and the industrial peace achieved) so good personnel policies are desirable. The latter can depend upon other factors (like environment, welfare, employee benefits, etc.) but unless the wage packet is accepted as 'fair and just' there will be no motivation. Hence while the technicalities of payment and other systems may be the concern of others, the outcome of them is a matter of great concern to human resource management. Increasingly the influence of behavioral science discoveries are becoming important not merely because of the widely-acknowledged limitations of money as a motivator, but because of the changing mix and nature of tasks (e.g. more service and professional jobs and far fewer unskilled and repetitive production jobs). The former demand better-educated, mobile and multi-skilled employees much more likely to be influenced by things like job satisfaction, involvement, participation, etc. than the economically dependent employees of yesteryear. Hence human resource management must act as a source of information about and a source of inspiration for the application of the findings of behavioral science. It may be a matter of drawing the attention of senior managers to what is being achieved elsewhere and the gradual education of middle managers to new points of view on job design, work organization and worker autonomy.

EMPLOYEE SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT

An organization needs constantly to take stock of its workforce and to assess its performance in existing jobs for three reasons:

•

•

•

To improve organizational performance via improving the performance of individual contributors (should be an automatic process in the case of good managers, but (about annually) two key questions should be posed: o what has been done to improve the performance of a person last year? o and what can be done to improve his or her performance in the year to come?). To identify potential, i.e. to recognize existing talent and to use that to fill vacancies higher in the organization or to transfer individuals into jobs where better use can be made of their abilities or developing skills. To provide an equitable method of linking payment to performance where there are no numerical criteria (often this salary performance review takes place about three months later and is kept quite separate from 1. and 2. but is based on the same assessment).

On-the-spot managers and supervisors, not HR staffs, carry out evaluations. The personnel role is usually that of: • •

•

• •

•

Advising top management of the principles and objectives of an evaluation system and designing it for particular organizations and environments. Developing systems appropriately in consultation with managers, supervisors and staff representatives. Securing the involvement and cooperation of appraisers and those to be appraised. Assistance in the setting of objective standards of evaluation / assessment, for example: o Defining targets for achievement; o Explaining how to quantify and agree objectives; o Introducing self-assessment; o Eliminating complexity and duplication. Publicizing the purposes of the exercise and explaining to staff how the system will be used. Organizing and establishing the necessary training of managers and supervisors who will carry out the actual evaluations/ appraisals. Not only training in principles and procedures but also in the human relations skills necessary. (Lack of confidence in their own ability to handle situations of poor performance is the main weakness of assessors.) Monitoring the scheme - ensuring it does not fall into disuse, following up on training/job exchange etc. recommendations, reminding managers of their responsibilities.

Full-scale periodic reviews should be a standard feature of schemes since resistance to evaluation / appraisal schemes is common and the temptation to water down or render schemes ineffectual is ever present (managers resent the time taken if nothing else). Basically an evaluation / appraisal scheme is a formalization of what is done in a more casual manner anyway (e.g. if there is a vacancy, discussion about internal moves and internal attempts to put square pegs into 'squarer holes' are both the results of casual

evaluation). Most managers approve merit payment and that too calls for evaluation. Made a standard routine task, it aids the development of talent, warns the inefficient or uncaring and can be an effective form of motivation. The schematic below is an example of the outcome from the technique. It shows (in blue) the key dimensions of a job compared against the evaluated attributes (in red) of a suitable candidate. It is immediately apparent where the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate are, in relation to this one position. Actions and decisions can then be taken in respect of the strengths and weaknesses.

[FIGURE- 16] If you believe the these processes, employee evaluation and selection, are not key components in managing for success or you are looking for a better way to execute with a higher degree of measurable success these HR processes, this technique is for you. It will also enable you to conduct effective job interviews, focusing you on the interview questions you need to ask in order to ascertain candidate appropriateness for the important job dimensions you have analyzed as being important to success.

Some uses It can easily be applied inter alia other instances such as: • • • •

• •

Developing employees for internal promotion Constructing training and development programs for individuals and groups Succession planning You want to delegate more, to enable you to tackle the high payoff projects you have on the back burner, but cannot find away of developing a likely the chosen person In team building, constructing a project team having key skill, knowledge and experience bases Employee surveys, where you wish to compare an ideal situation, with the situation perceived by employees

Also, one of the traits of an effective manager is his / her ability to extract information from informal conversations (management by wandering around) as he or she goes about daily routine. Such a manager would be able to use the technique of profile analysis to build a profile of key constructs in his / her area of responsibility (not covered by normal performance reporting, like say morale) and measure this over time. When you browse this article, it is recommended that you keep in mind the question 'how else could I use this technique, outside of the job interview process?' The following is an overview of each section. It is recommended that you first read the section on profile analysis, paying particular attention to the radar / spider charts. It

should then be obvious of the use you will be able to put this technique to and its appropriateness to your situation. Job analysis can be defined as the determination of the essential characteristics of a job in order to produce a job specification. In this section we explain the use of job analysis in the employee selection process. The two-fold purpose of job interview are explained, as well as a critical look at their validity is explored.The two-fold purpose of job interview are explained, as well as a critical look at their validity is explored. The job constructs (dimensions) and the sub-dimensions, against which applicants are to be evaluated for suitability and compatibility are shown below. • • • • • • • • •

Communication skills Self motivation Setting of work standards -self/ others Interpersonal / ability to sell self and ideas Leadership potential and skills Decision making abilities Judgement abilities Knowledge bases / technical skills Management abilities

Profile analysis is a tool to maximize the probability of matching people to job positions. In this 'how to' section, the construction of position profiles and imposing data collected from applicants, is explained. Profile analysis has other uses in human resource management, and these are expounded on. The mechanics of conducting a professional job interview explained. There are some informal do's and don'ts for the job interview, in this article they are listed. This places all of the above together in an organized and planned methodology so that you will be able to individualize interview questions to the unique experiences of each prospective candidate, for each of the key constructs for the job being interviewed for. The Acrobat PDF version contains well over 600 job interview questions categorized by job construct.

Overview of the process Who makes employee evaluation and selection decisions? In most organizations both operating managers and personnel specialists are involved in selections decisions. Generally, more effective employee evaluation and selection decisions are made when more than one person is involved in the decision making process. The operating manager

should have more to say about the evaluation and selection decision than their HR specialist. For this reason an effective evaluation / selection skill is an integral part of the management function. The table below Operational and HR management roles illustrates the respective roles of operating managers and HR managers in the evaluation and selection process.

Employee evaluation and selection criteria If an evaluation / selection program is to be successful the employee characteristics which are believed necessary for effective performance on the job should be stated explicitly in the job specification. The criteria usually can best summarized in the following categories: • • • •

Education Experience Physical Characteristics Personal Characteristics

Basically, the employee evaluation and selection criteria should list the characteristics of present employees who have performed well in the positions to be filled. However, if the list of characteristics desired is too long, it may not be possible to select anyone. With no list of criterion, the wrong prospects are likely to be selected. These predictors of success, particularly the more formal mechanisms such as items on a paper and pencil test, have two characteristics: • •

Reliability Validity

The reliability of a an employee evaluation and selection instrument, such as a test, is the extent to which the instrument is a consistent measure of something. An intelligence test is said to be reliable, if the same person's scores do not vary greatly when the test is taken several times. The higher the reliability, the more confidence can be placed in the measurement method. Usually, the instrument is more reliable if it is longer. The instrument used must also be internally consistent to be considered reliable, which is a good predictor of success for the job performance in question. Reliability and validity can be thought of in the following way. A yardstick is a reliable measure of space; no matter how many times you carefully measure a basketball player, he will be the same height. But a yardstick has no validity as a measure of his muscular coordination. Thus a selection device such as a test may be reliable without being valid. Human resource specialists can compute the validity of a selection instrument several ways. •

•

•

One way, is to look at the currently successful employees, find a factor that is common to them, and designate it as a predictor. This is called concurrent validity. A second way, is to use an instrument such as a test during the evaluation / selection process, then wait until the successful employees are identified and correlate the test or test measures with the successful and unsuccessful employees. This is called predictive validity. A third way, sometimes used by smaller organizations, because the numbers of persons in similar jobs is too small to use concurrent or predictive methods, is called synthetic validity. In this case, elements of several jobs that are similar, rather than a whole job, are used to validate the selection instrument. This method is newer than the other two and us used less frequently.

It should be noted that the criterion used to predict performance or success is a proxy of actual performance. Since good job performance is usually a combination of many factors (quality of work, quantity of work, etc.), a criterion such as a supervisory rating is a proxy for the real measure, job success or performance. Job analysis Job analysis can be defined as the determination of the essential characteristics of a job in order to produce a job specification. A job specification is a written statement of the essential characteristics of a job including necessary qualifications, duties, responsibilities and degree of authority of the job holder. The purposes for which a job analysis is required can be • •

to establish criteria for selection and performance appraisal, to establish training and development programs,

• • • •

for job evaluation remuneration purposes, to assist in job design, and for organizational restructuring purposes.

Job analysis also has important implications for fair employment practices. In order to demonstrate job relatedness in employee selection, the criteria utilized should be directly related to, or embody constructs associated with job performance. Therefore the purpose of the job analysis will determine which information is considered important, and which HR specialist skills (e.g., training, selection, job evaluation) would be most relevant. The nature of the information elicited from job analysis incorporates the following: • • • • • •

The nature of the work activities, including work procedures or processes, human behavior, physical job demands, personal responsibility and accountability. The machinery and equipment used. The nature of the work inputs and outputs, e.g. raw materials and finished goods. Work performance, including productivity standards and product quality specifications. Job context, incorporating the work the organizational environment, societal context, compensation and motivational factors. Personal requirements of incumbents, including requisite knowledge and skills, aptitudes, physical and psychological characteristics.

Thus, in analyzing a job, an attempt is made to measure various aspects of that job. As mentioned previously, effective measurement requires reliable and valid measures. To ensure this, more than one rater or rating technique should be used, eliciting both qualitative and quantitative data. Methods of collecting this data include. • • • • • •

Job interviews and / or observing employees at their work place, using structured or unstructured approaches. Interviewing individual workers away from their work place. Interviewing groups of workers. Interviewing supervisors and technical specialists. Utilizing structured or open ended questionnaires. Requiring workers to complete self report diaries.

Focus on the job A factor that should be emphasized is that job analysis typically focuses on the job itself, rather than on the incumbent. However, the incumbent cannot be ignored. A total focus on the work itself would imply that following a job analysis, a job would be

designed to ensure optimal productivity, and that the incumbent would merely be required to perform the job. However, this rather mechanistic approach ignores two factors. • •

First, the ideal incumbent might not exist or be available for placement. A second, individual difference between people necessitates some adjustment of the job to accommodate the individual needs of the incumbent.

Application of job analysis Job analysis is used for three important purposes in the employment process. •

•

•

First, it provides information for compiling job descriptions. Job descriptions typically contain a brief summary of the nature of the job, and lists the duties and responsibilities thereof. Second, job analysis assists in the compiling of job specifications. Job specifications set out the traits and characteristics considered to be essential for successful job performance. These include, education level, relevant experience, skill level or physical characteristics. Job descriptions and specifications are generally used in combination for recruitment purposes. They enable accurate information dissemination, which, in turn, maximizes the number of appropriate applicants. The third purpose, for which job analysis is used, is in the development of selection criteria, criterion measures and predictors.

In doing job analysis, the tasks are extracted from the job description, if available, and listed in a column. The line manager together with the personnel specialist and the immediate supervisor of the person to be recruited then complete the skills and knowledge column. (N.B. In the PDF version of this article, sample pro forma are given.) In this manner a very clear picture emerges of the total job. Based on this information both HR and line management are in a better position to structure a job interview that could lead to an effective selection decision; a one where the most appropriate person is hired. Purpose and validity of the employee evaluation and selection process The specific purposes of an employee evaluation interview are: • •

To assist in the assessment of candidates capacity and motivation to perform a particular job within an organization, to the satisfaction of the organization. To help the candidates formulate her / his own assessment of the job and the organization.

The interview may be the only tool which is used for selection, or it may form one stage in a sequence of eliminating hurdles. These can include medical checks, school reports, references, intelligence tests, personality tests, aptitude tests and group assessment techniques. Validity of the employee evaluation and selection process Much has been written about the validity of the interview as a selection tool. It is regarded by some as being so subjective as to be totally worthless. Interviewer bias, prejudice and the halo / horn effect undermine, so the argument goes, any pretence of an objective assessment of the candidates suitability. The proponents of this view advocate scrapping the interview in favor of tests. Some interviewers, on the other hand, will confess to no such human frailty. They maintain that they can tell as soon as the candidate has walked through the door of the interview room, whether the person is suitable or not. "When you've been in the game as long as I have you can spot them straight away," they say. Such interviewers, with implicit faith in their own judgement, tend to assume that their own highly personalized methods are the right answer to their (and every one else) problems. For them, the sophistication of testing is wasted on an exercise as simple as summing up another person's character and abilities. Undoubtedly, a properly conducted job interview should have a place, and a fairly significant one, in any selection process. But properly conducted, means something rather less hit and miss than the "I can spot them..." approach. A properly conducted selection interview is one where the interviewer does not pretend to be free from bias and prejudice and susceptibility to the halo effect. It is one where the interviewer has examined his own attitudes sufficiently thoroughly to be aware when these forces may be coming into play, and to make allowance for them. Even where the candidate will ultimately be required to work with the interviewer, this principle holds good. It is in the nature of such misconceptions that they are eventually found to be either ill founded or illegal. Employee evaluation and selection process requirements What is required during the employee evaluation and selection interview in particular is interviewer discipline. Discipline to work out what it is that interviewer (or more appropriately what the organization) is looking for and why is he looking for it; • •

to consider how he will recognize it when he sees it; how he will judge whether it is there in sufficient quantity;

•

and to assess each employee or potential employee strictly in terms of the qualities and attributes he has described, rather than in terms of his own likes and dislikes.

This discipline can only be achieved with effort. It is after all, much easy to say "I just did not take to him", but you may have lost the organization an effective worker or even potential savior. So we start with discipline and the embodiment of this will be found in the stages of preparation for employee evaluation and selection interviewing that will be described shortly. Self discipline is but one factor. It would be foolish to discount the power of gut instinct. If at the end of a detailed and objective assessment the interviewer finds that there is something that just does not fit, he / she should beware. He / she should reevaluate his / her data, search his / her inner self afresh to be sure that it is not the accent with which the interviewee speaks, or the way he parts his hair that is reminiscent of someone who holds unfortunate associations for him / her. If he / she is still not satisfied, if there is still something he / she cannot quite put his / her finger on, he / she should either seek a second opinion, through references or a second interview with an unprepared colleague or, if neither of these is feasible, write a polite letter rejecting the candidate. Importance of employee evaluation Putting square pegs into round has never been good employment practice, and can have a very adverse effect on the organizations performance if multiplied by a sufficiently high number. Today, it is positively detrimental for all concerned, not least the square peg. It is a truism which the law seems to be making constantly truer; that it is a lot easier to get square pegs in, than get them out. They may only be eased out finally after a considerable amount of humiliation and bitterness, which helps neither the employer or the employee. Correct selection is therefore of crucial importance. And correct selection must mean that both parties to the selection decision, interviewer and interviewee, are satisfied, in all circumstances, the right decisions has been made. The candidate who has been subjected to a battery of tests, however thoroughly validated, will not necessarily feel this if he / she has never had a chance to talk to a member of the organization. Similarly, the interviewer who has never met the candidate cannot be sure that the approved ingredients detected by the tests do really go to make up an acceptable whole whose appearance and impact on others match his / her test scores and whose tenacity and motivation augur well for success in the job. Instructions

The first step in making a effective employee evaluation is to establish the constructs (variables) on which the applicant will be evaluated. These constructs or dimensions are the key performance indicators that are perceived to lead to success or failure in the job. Constructs therefore imply aspects which the individual needs to posses to be effective in the job. The list of links above itemize key job constructs that are common to many jobs. Each has sub categories (as in communication skills, below) Each is given a definition, together with an explanation of under what circumstances each may be applicable. The person(s) responsible for conducting the job interview for a specific position, then compiles a job profile analysis, from job analysis data. The goal being to determine the key job constructs for the position under review. The most relevant dimensional information will come from previous job analysis, (the job description and job specification,) plus the supervisor of the vacant position. By asking him / her to relate how successful and unsuccessful people function in the job, this will indicate the constructs which the incumbent must posses or be able to develop. The next stage would be to determine the employee evaluation questions that will elicit pertinent information from each job applicant, for each of the key job constructs. Construct 1: Communications skills

Listening • •

Use of information extracted from oral communications. (Some positions require people who accurately understand the oral communications of others and who can remember and use data so obtained.)

Oral communication • •

Effective expression in individual or group situations, (includes gestures and nonverbal communication.) (Some positions require people who can speak effectively. The focus is on the form of the communication, not the content.)

Oral presentation •

•

Effective expression when presenting ideas or tasks to an individual or to a group when given time for preparation, (includes gestures and nonverbal communication.) (In some positions, incumbents are required to make prepared presentations. Such presentations are generally planned to a greater or lesser degree and may be given before large groups (business briefings) or individuals (individual sales presentations). The key is that the person has had time to prepare the presentation.)

Written communication • •

Clear expression of ideas in writing and good grammatical form. (Varying levels of writing skills are required for different jobs. The ability to convey ideas is important. The degree to which proper grammar and form are important depends on both job and type of communication.)

Profile Analysis

Evaluating employees against job requirements Few aspects of management command more attention and are fraught with more difficulties than that of managing human resources. First line supervisors feel the pressure daily to find the right persons for each position and, when found, to keep the individual challenged against the requirements of the position. Unfortunately, there are no scientific formulas for defining position requirements and evaluating job applicants. The position / person matching process seems more art than science. While it is performed daily by many, few feel comfortable at handling the required complexities. One reason is that they have no analytical framework for addressing this process of balancing with people. Whether • • • •

establishing a new position, seeking qualified applicants to hire, evaluating performance of existing personnel, or attempting to develop personnel career advancement,

one is involved in matching a person to a position. When a supervisor decides to hire someone, it is because that person is thought to offer qualities that match certain job requirements. To evaluate the performance of an existing employee, a supervisor compares the expectations for the position with the employees actual performance. The requirements of the position must be determined, the performance or capabilities of individuals must be evaluated against these requirements. This process is carried out continually, often without the aid of any concrete discipline. Each case seems unique. The need is for an ordered methodology for doing this, that accommodates the different environments and the non quantifiable elements that must be taken into account.

Job position profile The first step is establishing a definition of the job position. That starts by stating its expectations, asking, "What is the position to accomplish?" This definition can take a variety of forms, and is frequently developed using such documents as job descriptions, key performance objectives, and a listing of functional responsibilities and activities. From the expectations, the position can be dissected into the knowledge / skills that are essential to accomplish those expectations. This identification of knowledge / skill factors is simple acknowledgment of their importance to the position. Each position should be supported by from six to ten knowledge / skills constructs, each with a brief description. The following are examples of a computer programmer position within a financial organization. The person who fills the position will need • • • • • •

oral and written communication skills, knowledge of the industry, knowledge of accounting systems, knowledge of and experience using Cobol programming language, knowledge of the computers operating system, and skills in data base management.

Once the list of knowledge / skill constructs has been prepared, the next step is to determine the level of knowledge / skill required for each factor. To do this, envision each factor on a continuum ranging from zero to some theoretical maximum, with 0 representing no knowledge / skill required and 10 the theoretical maximum. This continuum is illustrated in Knowledge / skill continuum graphic below.

Determine the level of the knowledge / skill for each of the constructs identified. This level determination acknowledges that while the knowledge / skill factor is required, the level required is not the same for each. Nor is the highest (10) always the best. It is important to acknowledge that not all factors can be quantified to the same extent. Actually, some are quite subjective by their nature. However, if important to the position, such factors should be listed and an attempt made at determining a level. To illustrate, if once again a computer programmer position is being considered, skill in programming Cobol will be a factor. But the level of skill required for the

position will rarely be such that it will require rewriting the Cobol compiler. If the position is for a maintenance programming position, a four or five (on the 0 to 10 scale) many be appropriate. For a position that will be developing new computer applications, a higher rating of a six or seven would be appropriate. For this factor, the skills required can be readily quantified. In a management analyst position, problem solving skills are a likely required factor. If the person holding the position will be involved in negotiating relatively simple solutions between small groups of people, a four or a five may be adequate as a rating. If the position requires developing complex solutions involving large numbers of people with widely divergent interests, the level needed may be a six or seven. If the issues are exceptionally delicate and risks of failure are extremely high, an eight may be more appropriate. Naturally, it will be more difficult to quantify these skills than the programming skill in the earlier example. Regardless of the ability to quantify each construct, this factor analysis will result in the placing of an x somewhere along each applicable knowledge / skills continuum. When these continua are combined (one for each knowledge / skill factors), the result is a profile for the position, This profile can be graphically shown be placing each knowledge / skill continuum into a single diagram using a common axis.

The position profile analysis diagram below shows the profile for a non supervisory computer programmer using the six knowledge / skill constructs listed earlier. Note that each knowledge / skill factor has a determined requirement level indicated by an x on the zero to ten continuum. The shaded area of the diagram is the profile of the position.

For convenience of evaluation, the specialized factors are grouped together on the right and the more general, non technical ones on the left. This shows at a glance whether the position requires strong technical skills, strong supervisory skills, or a balance. As would be expected, in the case of a non supervisory computer programming position, technical skills are more important. This is reflected by the profile itself being skewed to the right and the fact that two of the technical factors have been labelled critical . Personnel profile Once the position requirements are established, attention can turn to evaluating the job applicant side of the equation. Input for this part of the evaluation will come from a variety of sources, including • • • • • •

a job application resume / CV, a job interview, discussion with former employers, actual on the job observations and discussion with peers.

Using the information obtained, a personnel evaluation of each job candidate can be performed in which the individual qualifications are matched with the previously developed knowledge / skill factors required, factor by factor. Using a spider chart, the individuals level can then be annotated for each factor. When connecting lines are drawn, a corresponding personnel profile results. Position profile for an applicant shows the completed result.

[FIGURE-17]

At a glance, it is evident that the person being evaluated in the chart is somewhat suited for the position. There are some weaknesses in the area of database management, accounting systems and the required communication skills. But these dimensions are considered to be not among the two critical factors to the position. Hence, the candidate may still be acceptable, especially when future developmental needs are considered. The gap between position and person is not substantial (indicating the applicant has some experience with the operating system), the non quantifiable approach to determining these levels makes precision difficult, and finally knowledge in this factor can be acquired via added training in a relatively short period of time. The persons strengths in the key dimensions more than compensate for the deficiencies encountered.

Step beyond The above discussion focuses on the immediate application of the profile analysis technique, but it is its potential use that holds the greatest excitement. Since much of it is quantifiable, its use with it is a real possibility. It is quite conceivable that a system could be designed and built to allow a manager to sit at a computer and go through a series of questions to identify a position's required knowledge / skill factors and the level of each. Potential job candidates could also be given a series of questions (via a computer) that would tie directly to these factors. The result would be a computer-generated profile for both the position and each candidate employee. While this would not be a substitute for applications, interviews, and the like, it could be an added screening instrument. It would add a level of quantification frequently missing in matching personnel with positions. Employment agencies could use this technique to insure that only those applications with a relatively good fit are sent to be interviewed. Within a company, decisions about internal career moves, training needs and the like could be aided. In many ways, the position / employee profile analysis described in this article is not new. Managers and supervisors intuitively perform it frequently. What this methodology adds, however, is an element of discipline in the marching of positions with potential or existing employees. Because it can be portrayed graphically, it is easy to grasp and communicate. Additionally, the methodology has four advantages. Profile analysis provides for quantifying where applicable, but does nor force nonquantifiable elements into a rigid structure. The methodology is oriented toward knowledge / skill and therefore does not carry the negative personal connotations often associated with personnel evaluations. It focuses on not only where there may be weakness, but also where there are strengths. And, most importantly, weakness' or strengths are seen only in relation to the position not as an assessment of personal worth. This technique sets the stage for bringing about improvements where the need is identified.

This methodology provides continuity because the same structure can be used for establishing a job position, hiring for a position, evaluating existing employees, and planning training. This continuity should go a along way toward reducing the ambiguity frequently associated with managing human resources. The profile analysis technique has the benefit of being well adapted to information technology. Databases could be established for a wide range of knowledge skill factors, each with associated questions to help identify required levels, for any given position. Corresponding questions to evaluate the existing knowledge / skill levels of candidates / employees could be included. Databases could also be established for each employee for making reassignments, promotions, special projects etc. Profile Analysis An outline employee evaluation interview guide Here are seven top tips when conducting employee evaluations and job interviews: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Put the employee at ease. Explain how the interviewee and organization can benefit from an open interview. Explain areas that will be covered during evaluation review. Ask evaluation questions that elicit answers to the dimensions in each area. Describe the job function and its contribution to departmental and organizational success. 6. Ask the interviewee if he or she has any questions. 7. Close the interview. Put the interviewee at ease • • •

Ensure privacy and congenial atmosphere Opening comments should be friendly Avoid irrelevant small talk on weather and news, it tends to be artificial.

Explain how the interviewee and the organization can benefit from an open interview •

Mention that the interview is a two-way decision. The applicant must decide if the job is to his liking as much as the interviewer must assess the suitability of the applicant. This can only be achieved through openness and trust which is mutually beneficial.

Explain areas that will be covered in during the job interview •

Tell the applicant the areas that you will cover during the interview, job history, education current life etc.

• •

Explain that he will be allowed to ask questions during or at the end of the interview, as the case may be. Put applicant at ease by indicating what to expect.

Ask questions that illicit answers to the job constructs in each area • • • •

Refer to the questions on constructs you have structured. Apply construct questions. Avoid asking questions routinely. Display interest in the answers

Describe the job and the organization • • • • •

Describe the job description. Discuss company history. Discuss development opportunties Discuss methods of performance appraisal. Discuss salary and benefits.

Ask the interviewee if there are any questions •

Answer openly and truthfully any questions.

Close interview • • •

Summarize conversation. Inform applicant of next stage, i.e. phone call or letter. Thank applicant for coming.

Job interview questioning techniques The way you approach and open the interview is important to its overall success. The types of questions you ask and the way you ask them are of prime importance. There are two types of questions. • •

Directive Non directive

Both can be used effectively in the interview to gain the information you require from the job applicant.

Directive Questions A directive question leads the applicant onto making a specific response by limiting him to a choice of a yes or no answer.

• •

"Do you prefer early morning or late afternoon schedules?" "Did you hear about us through an employment agency?"

Directive questions can often be effective in gaining precise answers or exact information, but, because they limit the applicant to a choice or yes or no answer, they often discourage free response and result in very little information. Questions that provide for little information are generally those that can be answered in one or two words. A definite answer will be offered, but the applicant probably will volunteer any additional information. Also, the applicant may give the answer he thinks you are looking for, Poorly phrased questions may actually give away the answer. Give away questions are those which tell the applicant the answer the interviewer thinks he should give.

Non directive Questions Non directional questions allow the applicant to respond freely without being forced to make a choice or respond with a yes or no answer. • •

"What type of work schedule do you prefer?" "How did you happen to hear about our company?"

They may be used to direct the conversation to an area of the interviewer's interest, but do not control the applicants response. The applicant is free to express his thoughts without being forced to make a choice, or respond with a yes or no. Non directive questions are prefixed by the following: • • • • •

how why what when where

Applying profile analysis to employee evaluation and selection The chronological evaluation takes from 15 to 30 minutes to construct, with one being developed for each candidate. It is best used when there are not a large number of applicants for the target position, and / or the evaluator/ interviewer desires a guide, which is very specific to an applicant's background and the position to be filled or level of performance / competentance to be achieved. The guide organizes planned evaluation / interview questions to the unique education and job experience of each applicant. In this format, the questions are asked in chronological sequence, starting with the applicant's earliest job related experiences and working through to the present. Follow these steps when planning, and later to conduct, your evaluation / interview sessions.

• • • • •

• •

Have handy a pad of lined paper and the list of target constructs you are responsible for covering in the interview. Study the candidates application material and any other relevant material. Follow the job interview guide Write the applicant's name on top of a sheet of paper and note the steps you will follow in opening the interview. On top of other sheets of paper, write the names of the applicants major career segments, i.e. from, to, position and company. Use a separate sheet of paper for each career segment. Cover all time periods and any other unexplained time periods. Label a sheet of paper 'Job Interview Close' and note the steps you will follow in closing the evaluation nterview. Leaving space for answers, develop questions arising from your review of the applicant's application materials. Write each question on the page devoted to the career segment that question is designed to explore.

Review the constructs you are responsible for covering in the interview. • • • • • • •

Consider the time available to cover each construct ( allow 5 to 10 minutes to cover each construct). Plan more time to cover the most important constructs. Plan to ask more evaluation interview questions about the applicant's most recent jobs / experience. Select planned interview questions, which can be tailored to the unique background of the applicant. Develop your own planned questions for the interview. Consider which career segment is most likely to yield behavioral examples under a given dimension. Which planned questions are most likely to get those behavioral examples.

The interviewer should select a minimum of three planned questions for each construct. The interviewer should not attempt to tap all target construct within a single career segment. The interviewer may use the same planned question to bring out behavior in all of the applicant's career segments. Some constructs, such as creativity, should only be tapped under career segments that allowed the possibility of showing creativity. Constructs that are best observed during the actual interview (oral communication, impact, listening) should be recorded in the upper right corner of the selected career segment pages. Leave a blank space below the dimension name for notes. •

Record the evaluation interview questions you have selected / developed on the appropriate career segment page. To the left of each question, note the name of the construct sought. This will serve as an aid in checking your coverage of each construct and when reviewing information obtained in the interview.

Questions about a given segment of the applicant's career should be inserted on the page in an appropriate sequence. For example, if the interview question is asked at the beginning of a discussion of a given job / experience, the question should be positioned at the top of the page devoted to that job / experience; if in the middle of the discussion the middle of the page; if at the end of the discussion the bottom of the page. •

Number the interview questions on each career segment page in the order in which they should be asked. Ideally, the questions now appear in proper sequence but a more effective sequence may occur to you after you have written the questions down, If this occurs, simply change the number to the left of the question to reflect its new position in the job interview sequence.

Analysis Our analysis part deal with the findings obtained after proper access regarding the human resource strategy practiced by industries now-a-days for fulfilling the organizational objective upto the optimum level. In the busy and demanding environments in which many people work today it is not very often that we can take the opportunity to step back and look at the broader picture and overall direction in which we are heading. Most organizations will have a business plan but how many organizations can support this with a human resources (HR) strategy and plan? The number is undoubtedly increasing as leaders and managers strive to obtain ever more value for their investors, customers and employees. Senior management are becoming increasingly aware that the people who make up their workforce matter and that they cannot achieve without tem. The statement ‘people are our most important asset’ is becoming much more meaningful and less of a cliché. It is people who make the difference and in many charities people are the chief resource and expense – their support is essential to the success of the business strategy. It is important to create a climate where they will want to work for the organization and to be able to do their best while they are there. It is therefore critical that organizations have a well thought out HR strategy that is fully integrated with the overall business strategy. The strategy provides the basis on which the ways forward, likely to take the organization where it wants to go, are identified. It generally covers the principles that will be adopted rather than the detailed policies. The agreed path through uncertain circumstances is defined and this leads to the development of the Implementation Plan. The detailed policies, procedures and tools are then developed to support the implementation of the agreed strategy. Employees are integral to the success of an organization and this means that the HR function cannot be considered in isolation from the rest of the organization or its surroundings and therefore it is essential that the following key aspects are taken into account before beginning to map out the HR strategy: • It should be totally integrated with the overall strategy for the charity and support the achievement of its goals ad objectives; • It should take into account external and internal influences such as economic climate, market influences on pay ease of recruitment of necessary skills, present turnover rates, best HR practice and new developments, morale, etc. An organization’s current values and culture need to be identified, as potentially these can act as either facilitators for or barriers against the successful implementation of not only the HR Strategy but also the organization’s strategy. Developing the strategy will require the support of management, those who work for the organization and the HR staff and therefore it will be necessary to communicate it to these different audiences.

Adopting a structured process will assist in identifying the key aspects of the strategy those others will easily recognize and understand. We have found that a useful framework takes into account the following: • The organization overall business drivers; • External and internal influences; • HR vision; • The current HR situation; • The strategic choices; • The implementation plan; Having identified the business drivers for the organization and reviewed the external and internal influences the next step is to agree a HR vision for the organization. This combined with the business drivers will help to develop a clear picture of where the organisation wants to be at the end of the strategy time span. After analysis,an example of such a vision may be: • To create an environment this maximises the productivity of the workforce and encourages personal development for all; • Ensure that staff resources are aligned to meet the needs of the charity in terms of numbers and skills in the most cost effective manner, now and in the future; • Ensure that processes and infrastructure are created to deliver the charity’s strategy. Agreement on the current situation with regard to HR is the next step. This analysis should include a summary of the key services HR provides to the charity at present as well as facts on the size of the organization, the number and type of skills engaged in work for the charity, the locations, turnover and recruitment statistics, payroll budget, training budget etc. This process helps to define the gap between the present situation and where you would like to be. Strategies can then be built to bridge the gap. Some further analysis will need to be done to help define the ways forward such as: • Analysis of the size of the gap and how realistic it is to bridge it in the agreed timeframe; • Agreement on the priorities; • Agreement on how the strategy can be made to work; • Identification of the mechanisms and structures needed to implement the strategy; • Identification of anything else that should be included. This process will lead to the development of the strategic choices for implementation and in our experience we have found it useful to categories these choices into five main areas of HR activity summarized below. RESOURCING This will include recruitment, manpower planning, succession planning, organization development, performance management, outsourcing, flexible working and retirement/ redundancy processes.

DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING Included here will be processes for personal development planning, identification of high performers and those who are likely to be considered as future managers; as well as the development opportunities available, training plans, development programs, etc. REWARDS SYSTEMS These will include compensation and benefits programmes, considering both monetary and non-monetary rewards. EMPLOYEE RELATIONS Include here the approach to communication, employee involvement and consultation, and change management processes. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT This includes the policies, procedures and tools needed to support the above such as application forms, job descriptions, employee handbooks, policies and procedures manuals, performance management documentation, competency framework, payroll systems and HR database etc. Also included are the organizations of the HR function and the development of the HR resource. The options under each area can be listed but they also need to be prioritized. At this stage it is necessary to have gained the support of the senior management in the charity for the overall direction and agreement to the priorities. It is certain that you will need their active involvement in delivering on the strategy and therefore a high degree of ownership by the management at this stage is essential if there are no to be impossible barriers when it comes to implantation. It did not take me too long to identify some of the reasons for the firm’s predicament. Even a cursory look at Leaf Ltd disclosed significant strategic and systemic deficiencies, including a lack of linkage between its corporate and human resource strategies, absence of a good performance management system and poor employee relations practices. While every single manager in the firm paid lip service to the importance of human resources, this rarely was followed up in practice. Formulating human resource strategies that fit tightly with corporate mission and plans is a must to succeed in today’s global market place. A strategy can be compared to a “game plan” in a football or volleyball game. Before a team enters the field, the coach looks at the team’s strengths and weaknesses and those of its competitors. He or she carefully studies the two teams’ past successes, failures and performance on the field. The objective is to win the game with minimal risk and injuries to the players, and the coach may not use all the team’s best players if it is not warranted (they may be kept in reserve for future games or to maintain an element of surprise). Also, the game plan itself might be modified to recognize new realities (perhaps, for example, the opponent will come out playing more aggressively than in the past). “To be effective, a human resource strategy should be formulated after considering an organization’s environment, mission and objectives, strategic posture and internal strengths and weaknesses, including its culture.” An organization’s strategy is much more than a game plan, however. A game plan covers only one game and one opponent, whereas a strategy deals with a wealth of basic issues

such as technological advancements, changes in customer preferences and new government regulations, and is oriented toward many elements of a firm’s environment such as competitors, government and employees. A strategy, then, is a comprehensive and integrated plan with relatively long-term implications designed to achieve the basic objectives of an organization. Strategic human resource management (SHRM) links the human resource management ractices to the strategic needs of an organization and aims to provide it with an effective workforce while meeting the needs of its members and other constituents of the society. To be effective, a human resource strategy should be formulated after considering an organization’s environment, mission and objectives, strategic posture and internal strengths and weaknesses, including its culture. [Figure 2]. We have also analyzed that human resource strategy fulfills the objectives as follows: 1. To heighten your involvement and sense of opportunity as an HR professional or line manager. 2. To provide ample opportunity to become familiar with all the specific HR practices and activities. 3. To identify models and frameworks that can be helpful in understanding human resource management. 4. To identify, discuss and analyze the needs of effective organizations and their employees in highly competitive environments. 5. To identify the factors that give rise to different ways of managing human resources for equally effective results and discuss why there is "No One Best Way." 6. To give you ample opportunity for presentation and group interaction. ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS Through continuous monitoring of economic, legal, social and labour market trends, human resource managers can identify environmental threats and opportunities. These, in turn, help formulate new strategies and tactics. Some important environmental trends with implications for the human resource function include technological innovation, productivity growth levels, immigration and labour market conditions, internal and international migration patterns, demographic and cultural shifts, and legal changes. ORGANIZATIONAL MISSION AND GOALS ANALYSIS Even similar organizations often pursue different goals; a thorough organizational analysis of the organization’s overall mission and goals is a second integral aspect of identifying human resource strategies. All organizations exist to accomplish something in their larger environments. The mission – the purpose of an organization’s existence – should guide its strategic thinking.

For example, two similar electronics manufacturers may have varying missions. One may want to “be a successful organization in the entertainment business,” while the other may define its mission as “occupying a technological leadership position in the industry.” The associated strategies are likely to show significant differences. Apart from manufacturing electronic goods used for home entertainment, the former firm may acquire video and film production firms and get into the music industry (e.g., producing CDs); while the second firm may be more committed to innovative electronic products through research and development. The associated human resource strategies will also show variation. For example, excellence in customer service may be a guiding principle in the former firm’s employment strategies; hiring high-caliber technical personnel who can come out with innovative products may be a top priority of the second organization. Organization and human resource strategies are intricately intertwined. Although many believe that HR strategy must be formulated on the basis of organizational strategy, more recently, many managers increasingly recognize that organizational strategy should take into account the firm’s HR strategy and constraints. Each organization has a unique set of skills and capabilities. Organizational core competencies are skills or capabilities in value–creating activities-such as manufacturing, marketing or research and development– that allow an organization to achieve superior quality, product innovation, low cost or better customer responsiveness, thus outperforming its competitors. Core competencies permit an organization to enter new market segments faster than its rivals through trategies that capitalize on those strengths. Gillette applied its marketing competence in selling razor blades to selling other products such as toiletries. HR strategies should recognize and respond to these core competencies. Any given organization tends to have a dominant HR strategy or HR system architecture; however, it is not uncommon to find the same organization adopting somewhat different employment practices for different employee groups or for different regions. In choosing its dominant HR strategy, an

organization has four typical choices: commitment, paternalistic, compliance and collaborative. Every organization is unique. Similarities between two organizations can be found among their parts, but each has a unique character. Organization character is the product of all the organization’s features: employees, objectives, technology, size, age, unions, policies, successes, and failures and reflects its past and shapes the future. Some organizations have a very strong culture which acts as a driving force behind most of its actions. Human resource strategies should recognize these and, in the short run, work within the constraints imposed by them. In the longer term, organizational culture not consistent with organizational mission and strategy has to be changed. Even here, the human resource department has to take a lead position. Human resource strategies should be formed only after a careful look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of the organization concerned. Organizational goals that cannot be attained within the firm’s human resource capabilities should be avoided unless the organization has adequate resources to remove such deficiencies. Even similar organizations often pursue different goals; a thorough organizational analysis of the organization’s overall mission and goals is a second integral aspect of identifying human resource strategies. All organizations exist to accomplish something in their larger environments. The mission – the purpose of an organization’s existence – should guide its strategic thinking. COMMITMENT STRATEGY: A commitment strategy attempts to forge a commonality of interest between the organization (often symbolized by the management) and the employees. To develop that commonality of interest requires heavy emphasis on employee training and development, internal staffing and career development and compensation levels formulated on the basis of internal equity norms rather than market rates. COMPLIANCE: A compliance strategy focuses on achieving labour efficiencies through control over labour costs, use of temporary or contingent workforce and maximum control over processes as a key competitive weapon. Jobs are designed to be simple to ensure a constant and stable supply of employees and reduce training costs. To ensure uninterrupted production and eliminate all uncertainties, employees are expected to behave in a prescribed manner. Close monitoring of their work by supervisors is common. In many instances, the employer may also attempt to seek efficiencies by shifting production infrastructures to areas in which trade unions and government regulations pose fewer constraints on management. PATERNALISTIC: In a paternalistic human resource strategy, some minimal training and competency building through training, job rotation is done to achieve flexible staffing and task assignments and maintain workforce stability. Management typically provides some employment guarantees as well as a system of internal staffing, typically based on seniority. Adequate rewards are offered to maintain stability of workforce. The organization does achieve a limited degree of learning capability that is not available in a compliance strategy.

COLLABORATIVE: An organization using a collaborative strategy relies on highly skilled contract labour to meet the specialized needs, hiring personnel on an “as-needed” basis or retaining them “on call” basis. These highly skilled and specialized “crafts” people are most often evaluated solely on the basis of their performance outcomes. “Because they are employed to provide certain outputs or “deliverables” but engage in processes that are often well beyond the ability of the employer to comprehend, contingent pay (rather than in-house socialization or employee development) is often used to align their interests with those of their employer and to ensure that organizational objectives are met.” Often, this is a strategy of choice by “virtual organizations.” No single organization may neatly or fully fall into any single category above; however, this schema has been found to be relatively stable across industries, types of organizations and geographic regions. ‘People are our greatest asset’ is a mantra that companies have been chanting for years. But only a few companies have started putting Human Resources Management (HRM) systems in place that support this philosophy. There are a number of challenges in the Indian industry which require the serious attention of HR managers to ‘find the right candidate’ and build a ‘conducive work environment’ which will be beneficial for the employees, as well as the organisation. The Indian industries are already under stress on account of persistent problems such as attrition, confidentiality, and loyalty. Other problems are managing people, motivation to adopt new technology changes, recruitment and training, performance management, development, and compensation management. With these challenges, it is timely for organisations to rethink the ways they manage their people. Managing HR in the knowledge based industry is a significant challenge for HR managers as it involves a multi task responsibility. In the present scenario, HR managers perform a variety of responsibilities. Earlier their role was confined to administrative functions like managing manpower requirements and maintaining rolls for the organisation. Now it is more strategic as per the demands of the industry. Managing People In view of the industry dynamics, in the current times, there is a greater demand for knowledge workers. Resumes abound, yet companies still fervently search for the people who can make a difference to the business. Often talented professionals enjoy high bargaining power due to their knowledge and skills in hand. The attitude is different for those who are taking up responsibilities at a lesser age and experience. These factors have resulted in the clear shift in approach to individualized career management from organisation career commitment.

Motivating the Workforce As the competition is growing rapidly in the global market, a technological edge supported by a talent pool has become a crucial factor for survival in the market. Naturally, as a result every organisation gives top priority to technology advancement programs. HR managers are now performing the role of motivators for their knowledge workers to adopt new changes.

Competency Development Human capital is the real asset for any organisation, and this makes the HR role important in recruiting, managing, and retaining the best. The HR department has a clear role in this process and determines the success tempo of any organisation. An urgent priority for most of the organisations is to have an innovative and competent HR pool; sound in HR management practices with strong business knowledge.

Recruitment and Training Recruitment has become a major function from an imperative sub system in HR. HR managers play a vital role in creating assets for the organisation in the form of quality manpower. Attracting new talent also is a top priority for software companies, but less so for smaller companies. Another challenge for HR managers is to put systems in place to make the people a perfect fit for the job. Skill redundancy is fast in the industries. To overcome this problem, organisations give the utmost priority to training and skill

enhancement programs on a continuous basis. Many companies are providing technical training to the employees on a quarterly basis. These trainings are quite useful also in terms of providing security to the employees.

The Trust Factor Low levels of trust inhibit tacit knowledge sharing in the knowledge based industry. It is essential that the industries are taking more initiatives to improve the security levels of the employees.

Work life Balance Factor Another dimension to the challenges faced by Industries is the growing pace of talent acquisition. This aspect creates with it the challenge of a smoother assimilation and the cultural binding of the new comers into the organisation fold. The pressure of delivering the best of quality services in a reduced time frame calls for ensuring that employees maintain a work life balance.

Attrition/Retention of the Talent Pool One of the toughest challenges for the HR managers deal with the prevalent high attrition levels. Though there is an adequate supply of qualified staff at entry level, there are huge gaps in the middle and senior level management in the industry. Further, the salary growth plan for each employee is not well defined. This situation has resulted in increased levels of poaching and attrition between organisations. The industry average attrition rate is 30–35 per cent and could range up to 60 per cent.

Bridging the Demand Supply Gap HR managers have to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of professionals. They have to maintain consistency in performance and have to keep the motivation levels of employees high, despite the monotonous nature of work. The same also leads to recurring training costs. Inconsistent performance directly affects revenues. Dwindling motivation levels lead to a loss of interest in the job and a higher number of errors.

The next most important HR concerns listed were meeting the demand, supply requirements in the industry, expectations management of the resources and other stakeholders, efficiency in processes and HR policies. When asked to rank the best motivating factors, the most frequently expressed priority was the nature of the job and job satisfaction. The next most important aspects were salary and monetary benefits, good peer group, positive, motivating and interactive environment and company processes. More interestingly, working for the right boss and company was very appealing to the authors.

The motivating factors and retention initiatives taken by different companies were very thought provoking. The most frequently mentioned initiatives were those related to salary and monetary benefits. Good salaries, increments, performance based pay, and ESOPs are some of the aspects mentioned. Transparency in the system was another major point mentioned by the employees. The requirement for recognising loyalty to the company and hard work was highlighted. Flexible work culture and freedom to shift to a more interesting work area were some of the other aspects. The Vice President of an MNC mentioned ‘expectations matching using the Key Responsibility Areas (KRAs)’ was one of the major retention initiatives in his company.

When asked for the major reasons for attrition in the industry, the response was diverse. Indeed, there were a breadth of responses with more emphasis on the monetary aspects, nature of job and administrative policies. Those surveyed felt that the high demand in the industry is augmenting job hopping. Also, the wide difference in the salaries offered by the companies is another reason for staff mobility. Some of the other reasons mentioned were lack of expectations management, counseling and mentoring, lack of professionalism in immediate supervisor as well as Head of the relevant department or group, and lack of differentiation between performers and non performers. One of the senior managers in HR opined that the current supply of ready to use

manpower is lower than the demand, and the lead time in getting productive people is a major limitation in recruitment, which intern leads to more attrition. Another reason mentioned was bad HR / organisational values and lack of ethics.

After our complete analysis we found that,HR managers have to continuously evolve career paths, motivate their employees and create a culture of oneness, which will also act as retention tools. Since the recurring recruitment costs are detrimental, it is requisite that great emphasis is to be levied on starting specialised training institutes to guide employees to identify the right people at the right time who can keep pace with the unique work patterns in this industry. However, it is also to be understood that staff turnover is as unpredictable as technological uncertainty. There are also many federal and community based initiatives that employers and job-seekers can tap into, helping create a more comprehensive strategy in the years ahead.

1. Increasing workforce Our focus here is on maximizing our province’s workforce by:
Making sure we also develop made-in-B.C. talent. In particular, we must tap into the underutilized populations in our province (youth, women, Aboriginal people, persons with disabilities, immigrants), helping them to become more active in our workforce.
Attracting skilled people from outside the province. 2. Fueling skill development In addition to making sure we can bring new people into the workforce, it is critical that we also improve the skill level of today’s employees. The initiatives in this section are helping both new and existing workers. 3. Matching skills to need Creating a skilled workforce is only part of the job – just as important is making sure employers can find the right people. While job finding services are best left to the private sector, there are some key government initiatives that will help match skilled people to sectoral needs. 4. Tools for long-term planning

Developing a workforce that can drive our growing economy is a dynamic process – a continuing evolution of new ideas and initiatives to help us anticipate and meet tomorrow’s needs. The programs and policies in this section are aimed at long-term workforce development and management – province-wide and sectorally. They may not directly impact your organization or career, but they are integral to our future growth. Having gained agreement to the overall strategic options and priorities it will be necessary to formulate and agree the implementation plan. Considerations to be taken into account will be: • Key success factors as related to the business plan; • Identification of the barriers to success and how they will be overcome; • An agreed timetable with key milestones;

• Identification of the tools, processes and systems to be developed to support the implementation strategy; • Development of the communication and consultation plans for change; • Identification of the necessary resources during implementation and beyond. This will be both for funds and people with the necessary skills. A plan can then be developed in detail for each of the strategic options along with a mechanism for reviewing and monitoring progress. Again agreement and support at senior management level is essential at this stage to ensure integration with the overall business plan and timetable. In order to maximize the potential of our staff, the HR Strategy needs to address through its supporting strategies and policies all the components of the ‘talent pipeline’ as follows:

Most of the organizations consider this talent pipe model for their tool for strategic human resource purpose. I.J.M. INFRASTRUCTURE LTD. generally follows this model because human resource is their primary importance because of their huge assignments and business across India in infrastructure development field. The number of employees in their industry is constant for the topmost level but the employee number is not stable in the lower levels of their organization. So they follow strategic human resource which helps them to promote their activities which directly links with their objective. HDFC BANK LIMITED is also invests more towards strategic human resource. The strategic decision of HDFC keeps the organization in the proper track as it controls all the human resource activities through the proper strategy maintained and developed by HR management. Through research we also found that the time period is also an important tool which has to be maintained within the limitations of the organization. The strategy implementation after development also requires time frame for each activity that is to be conducted by the organization. The time scale for retention strategy, manpower planning etc which are listed in the below tables.

TABLE

CONCLUSION

The SHRM literature presently emphasizes a single human resource strategy -the high performance human resource strategy (HPHRS). This is not unreasonable given the number of studies suggesting that firms that selectively hire new personnel, offer comparatively high compensation contingent on organizational performance, provide extensive training, and so forth tend to outperform firms that do not. But, before it can be concluded that a general SHRM is preferable regardless of organizational goals, contexts, or organizing systems, it is necessary to delve deeper into the so-called “black box” that exists between human resource activities on the one hand, and organizational effectiveness on the other (Becker & Gerhart, 1996). SHRM theory is based, to a large extent, on the assumption that certain organizational goals require certain employee behaviors and that certain human resource strategies produce certain employee behaviors. Yet, the literature lacks detailed examples of such behavioral approaches. In this article, we begin to address this gap by presenting a behavioral SHRM model of HRO performance. How do people contribute to organizational reliability? Prior HRO theory and research suggests that reliability is fostered to the extent that people ascertain and communicate to anticipate and detect a large number and variety of problems and surprises; initiate and deploy to execute substitute structures and processes that facilitate the bringing of problems under control; coact and improvise to face down emergencies in new and novel ways; and learn and educate to continually become more diligent, more facile, and more fluid over time. Thus, they should be more valuable for organizations focused on reliability than for organizations pursuing other performance outcomes. Further, they should explain variance in reliability that general behaviors such as prosocial, citizenship, and turnover do not.HR managers become able to reengineer the way HR department executes its job, accomplishes those transactional HR job’s costcompetitively, and increasingly turn its attention to truly being a strategic partner with the firm’s top executives. A HR function can and should be strategically integrated with a company’s business plan to help the company to achieve its business objectives. Firms are increasingly moving beyond manual HR systems today, by computerizing individual HR tasks, installing HR Information Systems, and using the Internet and Intranet technology. In this context, information technology can support HR managers not only in achieving the traditional HR functions but also in applying the concepts of strategic planning.