Audit Methodologies

8/10/2019 Audit Methodologies

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Audit Methodology: Interviews

• Advantage is to capture primary concern ofstakeholder

• Interviews make the assessment dynamic

•

Interview method is quick and adequate for acomprehensive HRD Audit. Interviews of

• CEO

• Top Management

• HR Head & HR Staff• Line Managers

• Workmen, Field Staff & their Representatives



CEO & Top Mgt Interview Purpose

• The purpose of interviewing senior

management is

• It helps Auditor to know expectations of Mgt

• Auditor explain scope & limitations of Audit

• Ground work for getting co-operation of staff

and legitimise the exercise• Provides an opportunity to sow the seeds for

effective utilisation of audit results



Interview with CEO

• Independent interview or Group Session

• Group Session can be a Briefing session to explain

• HRD Audit and its methodology

• Audit Schedule

• Know the expectations of CEO• Clarify expectations ,if any cannot be met

• Questions asked are:-

• What are documents giving idea of new plans,

diversifications, new products, new businesses?• What competency gaps do you see as existing in the staff at

present?

• How are you proposing to develop new competencies?



Objectives of HR Head Interview

• To understand current systems/ level of skills with HR staff ,top mgt styles, & their congruence with HR philosophy

• To plan out sampling and other details of study

• To prepare a checklist of documents

• To understand the internal customer framework of HR Dept• How time is spent by department

• Swot analysis of HRD system

• His perception of competencies of HR dept or line

managers, of unions and their involvement with HR relatedissues





Interviews with Line Managers

• Objectives are to understand their perception of HRD needs, currentstatus, expectations, competencies, comitment to HRD. Questions

• What kind of HRD needs do you or your dept have?

• What help do you get for culture building ?

• What are HRD systems you are happy about

• What are training needs?• What are your career growth needs? Are they being taken care of?

• What skills or knowledge you require to perform better

• What are areas where your HR can do better?

• What is good about your HR systems Performance Appraisal, Counselling,Training, Career Dev, Succession Planning, Job rotation, OD and teambuilding interventions, worker dev, culture building etc

• What should HRD stop doing or do less?



Interview with Workers or their

Representatives

• Objective would be to find current status of their devneeds vis-à-vis business goals, motivation levels, goodpractices of Mgt etc

• What are strengths of this company?

• What do you know about business plans andopportunities of this company?

• What do you know about business competition?

• What motivates you? What can be done to improve

quality, save cost, make people happy to work with thisorgn?

• What are your expectations from HR? what are yoursuggestions for them to serve you better?



Group Interviews

• Group interviews cover wide variety of areas

• Wider participation of employees

• Sr. Manager, leader, opinion maker’s individual

interviews preferred• Others in teams of 7 or 8

• Cross functional groups

• Preferably same level of hierarchy

• Advantages of Group Interviews1. Wider coverage of issues and therefore you may

not miss any significant issue



Group Interviews

2) Larger involvement of employees

3) Verification of data and significant points4) Assessment of the intensity of feelings

associated with any issues or problems

5) Education of employees about their ownroles and responsibilities as line managers



Group Interview guidelines

• Top Mgt

• One hour duration of individual interview

•

One group briefing session by the top mgtteam to auditors bfr individual interviews

begin

• Supervisory staff

• Sample of 10% or 5 or 6 groups from diff

functions or work places



Group Interview guidelines

• Managers

• Individual interviews with heads of dept, divisions,SBUs, Sections,

• As a spl case individual interviews with managers with

strong +attitude or negative attitude• Group interviews with middle level managers upto 10

% or all if less than 100 managers in all working

• Better to interview 100 to max 300 managers

• Workmen• Relatively large group

• 5 to 10 groups may be interviewed.



Interview Questions

• What in your view are strengths and weaknessesas they exist today in relation to the followingcomponents of HRD

1. Top Mgr commitment to HRD

2. Recrutiment of competent people into co

3. Retention of competent people

4. Identification of fast-track employees

5. Mentoring system6. Training (in-house and outside)

7. Induction



Interview Questions

8. Career planning

9. Succession planning

10.Job rotation

11.Performance appraisal12.Separations

13.Quality circles

14.Participative management

15.Shopfloor committees

16.Personnel policies



17.Communications

18.HRD Culture

19.HR Information system20.Others

21.Sometimes group is administered a

Questionnaire and then group interviews areconducted to gauge intensity of feelings and

to gain an in-depth understanding.



Audit Methodology: Observation

• Observation is a way to look at the things as theyexist.

• Use of various senses

•

Drawing meanings to the things we see or hear• Evaluator may observe following:-

• Physical facilities & living conditions

• Meetings, discussions and other transactions

• Celebrations/ events• Training including classrooms, library

• Forms, formats, reports etc



Objective

• To assess the current status of the physical facilities andtheir organisation in the work as well as the livingenvironment and examine their motivational or de-motivating value to employee satisfaction or productivity

• Layout of factory & work environment

• Layout of office and seating arrangement

• Work condition and facilities

• Record keeping and filing

• House keeping, Toilets and their cleanliness/up keep

• Canteen, school, educational facilities

• Transportation and other conveniences

• Sports, games and other facilities



Meetings, Discussions

• Orgns use small group, task forces, committeequality circles, open houses, in an effort to bringchange

•

Assumption is participation has a motivationalvalue and groups give greater value

• The observation of a sample of such group canhelp to ascertain the value addition, human

competency or motivational losses or gains dueto conduct and processess of meetings

• Teamwork and meeting management is a skill



Observation of meetings

• Meetings that can

• Quality circles

• Shop floor councils

• Departmental meetings

• Cross functional teams• Open houses and open

forum

• Daily production meetings

• Performance review

committee• Presentation by outsiders,

vendors etc

• Specialised sessions

• PA and counselling sessions

• Conflict resolution sessions

• Union negotiations or

meetings• Union or association

meetings

• Training need identificationsessions

• Communication meetingsby CEO



What they observe?

• To evaluate the extent to which they areserving purpose say performanceimprovement

• Some meetings provide information that isessential to perform the job

• Identity establishment meetings to allow

employees feel that they are part of co.• Following guidelines can help evaluation

process



What they observe?

• Do people come adequately prepared for meeting

• Is the agenda circulated well in advance

• Are objectives clear to all?

• Do people share their goals?

• How well meeting coordinated?

• How well meetings are being participated?

• Is the leader of meeting sensitive to individual differences in participation? Doeshe ensure equal participation by all?

• Do people listen to each other

• How conflicts are being handled?

• Are people habituated only to speak and do not listen to each other!

• Are there narrow depatmental loyalties hindering organisational problem solving?

• Is problem solving resulting into clear action plans

• Do such meetings add value or waste of time?

• What critical competencies will make meetings more productive?



Celebrations & Events

• Annual days and other celebrations

• Cultural events

• Special day like environment day founder’s day,

sports day etc• Opening ceremonies of new facilities, depts

• Celebration of festivals

•

Birthday celebrations• Celebrations of accomplishments such as co

getting a trophy for safety, sports, Quizzes etc



What they observe?

• Participation , eagerness and enthusiasm andspirited participation

• Organisational aspects : are there efforts made toinvolve everyone?

• Status differences in terms of participation ,seating

• Ceremonial roles of top mgt? do they indicaterespect for labour?

• Is it helping people to get “we” feeling or iscausing a drift?



Training facility

• Symbolic reflection of extent to which orgn valuessystematic learning and competency building ofemployees

• Ambience of training facility

• Training rooms• Library, books, its variety and facilities

• Classrooms and classroom facility

• Photocopying and fax machines

• Audio visual aids, LCD, overhead projectors• Flip charts

• Seating arrangements, chairs, cushion



HRD Audit Instruments

Questionnaires



HRD Auidt Questionnaire

• No of questionnaires used for audit purpose

• They measure various aspects of HRD andprovide inputs for HRD Score card

• There are questionnaires to measure:-• HRD Systems and their effectiveness

• Effective performance of various activities by HRDept

• HRD competencies of HRD staff

• HRD Styles & HRD Culture



Questionnaire

• Questionnaire contains questions on :-

• Career Systems, Manpower planning, recruitment,potential appraisal, promotion, career planning & dev

• Work Planning, role analysis, contextual

analysis,performance appraisal systems• Development Systems, learning system, Training

Questionnaire, worker development

• Self renewal systems, role efficacy, OD, Action Orientedresearch

• HRD, HRD climate, top Mgt commitment, values in orgn,Quality Orientation, rewards & recognition,communication, empowerment

• HRD function etc



Analysis of data

• Most imp use of Questionnaire is item-wise analysis ofdata.

• The percentage score on each item is calculated from theitem wise averages

•

Tabulate for each item the average score• The average score is converted into a percentage score

using the formulae Percentage Score=(item average-1) x 25

• Benchmarking data available giving highest and lowestscore

• Score above 75 percent indicate excellent orgn 60 or belowindicates scope for improvement and below 50 indicatesweakness areas



Dimension-wise Analysis

• The dimension-wise average score can be obtained bytotalling the item averages on dimension and dividingby number of item in that dimension.Percentage Score=(dimension average-1) X25

• Dimensions: HRD philosophy and liasion with top mgt,creating dev motivation in line managers,strengthening HRD climate through HRD system,monitoring HRD implementation, inspiring Unions,

Human Process research, influencing personnelpolicies, creating business linkages and integrating withother systems and processes etc



Mapping the HRD Practices Profile

• Questionnaire contains 102 activities

• Objective is to assess degree to which these

activities are performed

• Orgns with good HRD practices perform many

of these activities

• It is hypothesised that Performing all these

102 activities well would be a characteristic of

world class orgn



HRD Climate Survey

• Good HRD climate can be assessed on the basis of tendencies andattributes:-

• A tendency at all levels and top mgt to treat people as most imp resource

• A perception that developing competencies in the employee is job ofevery manager

•

Faith in capability of people to change and acquire new competencies atany stage of life

• A tendency to be open in communication

• A tendency to encourage risk taking

• A general climate of trust

• A tendency on the part of employees to help each other and team spirit

• Supportive personnel Policies• Development oriented appraisals, training, rewards, job rotation, career

planning and potential appraisals.



Trainning Effectiveness Questionnaire

• Formal training should contribute to growth and

development of emp competencies

• Motivation

• Need based training

• Well planned, monitored, and used

• Both HR and line Managers are partners for such

training

• Questionnaire measures effectiveness of training



Performance Planning, analysis and

Dev Questionnaire

• Aims in assessing the extent to which the performanceappraisal system is HRD oriented

• HRD oriented appraisal system promotes participativeplanning of performance

• Participative analysis so as to know factors facilitatingor hindering performance, performance reviewdiscussion

• Identification of development needs

•

Improved communication• Openness, mutuality and trust among appraiser and

appraisee.



Effective Counsellor Attitudes

• Every line Manager should have counselling skills

• They have to use it for performance discussion

• These skills bring line managers closer to their

subordinates, and to their development

• Listening and diagnostic skills

• Empathy and faith in employees and their

competencies

• +Attitude, self disclosure, receptivity to feedback



Leadership Beliefs Questionnaire

• The effective management of Human resourcesrequires an understanding of capabilities of staff,assigning them appropriate tasks

• Maintaining their motivation levels

• Structuring work so that people can derivesatisfaction from doing it,

• Managers spend more than 50% time ininteracting with staff

• Effectiveness of Manager depends upon both thecontent of interaction and manager’s style



Benevolent, critical, development style

• Benevolent supervisor

• Protects subordinate, continually tells what theyshould do or not do, comes to rescue,

• Such supervisor caters to employee needs ofsecurity and liked by staff

• Effective as long as they physically present

• Workers may experience lack of direction in their

absence• Supervisor tend to have dependents and do not

reinforce initiative taking behaviour of staff



Critical Supervisor

• Critical approach

• Little allowance to mistakes, low quality work,

individual peculiarties,

• Good in finding mistakes, critisizing

subordinates, making them feel incompetent

• Subordinates produce accptable work out of

fear

• Employees dislike such supervisor





Institutional supervisor

• Closely related to Developmental supervisor

• Involved in developing the dept or unit

• Ensure growth and dev of their units and

subordinates by incorporating processes that

help people to give their best

• People grow with organization

• Supervisor have development style

• Flexible in their use of styles



Characteristics of Institutional

Supervisor

• They are ogn oriented and feel responsible forbuilding their orgn

• Self disciplined and enjoy their work

• Willing to sacrifice some of their self interest forthe welfare of orgn

• Keen sense of justice

• Low need for affiliation, a high need to influence

others for social or orgn goals• They have a disciplined or controlled way of

expressing their power needs



Implication of supervisory styles

• No single supervisory style universally effective• Effectiveness depends upon employee and nature of

tasks among other factors

• If a new employee does not know much about work

benevolent one is useful• Employees with low self discipline could be developed

best by critical supervisor but continuous criticalsupervision is unlikely to be effective

•

Flexibility & perceptiveness about when to use eachstyle are useful attributes for leaders and supervisors

• To enhance learning among employees developmentalphilosophy is best

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Audit Methodologies