MB0027 - Set 1

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HUMAN RESOURCEMANAGEMENT

MB0027 S ET 1

MBA 1 SEM

Name Mohammed Roohul Ameen

Roll Number

Learning Center SMU Riyadh ( 02543)

Subject Human Resource Management

Date of Submission 15 th August 2009

Assignment Number MB0027

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Mohammed Roohul Ameen Roll Number: Assignment MBA 1 st Semester Subject: MB0027

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1. Discuss the difference between personnel management and Human ResourceManagement.

1. Human Resources Management (HRM) , which encompasses all the tasks involved in acquiring,maintaining, and developing an organization's human resources, is the part of an organization or firmthat helps a company to reach its goals and then oversee their training and development, motivation,evaluation, and compensation, all of which are critical to a company's success. Due to the acceleratingrate at which today's workforce, economy, corporate cultures, and legal environment are beingtransformed, the role of HRM is increasingly viewed as a strategic one.

2. Personal Management is concerned with the welfare and performance of persons who are a part of the operation. They handle task of seeing to programs and setting policies that impact everyoneassociated with the company. Determining company policies and procedures is another importantaspect of the personnel management process. HR functions often include drafting vacation, sick leave,and bereavement policies that apply to all employees. The personnel management team is also oftenresponsible for managing any healthcare program provided to the employees as well.

3. HRM is a broad concept which covers many personnel aspects and includes social, professional andindividual enterprise aspects, whereas Personnel Management focuses only on personnel aspects suchas leadership, justice determination, task specialization, staffing, performance appraisal, etc.

4. HRM is more growth oriented whereas Personnel Management is slightly narrow. Human ResourcePlanning is very vital in HRM. This is because it leads to the maximum utilization of human resources,reduces excessive labor turnover and high absenteeism; improves productivity and aids in achievingthe objectives of an organization.

5. HRM emphasizes on training, an important area of personnel, which covers the following aspects:1. Increasing productivity;2. Improving quality;3. Improving organizational climate;4. Ensuring personnel growth etc.6. In practice both pertained to people management philosophically the approach is vastly

different.

7. The expectations from Personnel management approach is to take care of the people working in aorganization, addressing grievances and complaints formed a large part of the Personnel Managementfunction. The focus is largely reactive and followed the Theory X approach.

8. Employee welfare is of paramount importance and managing industrial relations as a result of heightened trade union activity formed the highlights of the Personnel Management functions.

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2. Explain the Human Resource Planning System.

Human Resource planning can be defined as a process by which an organization ensures that it has theright number and kinds of people, at the right place, at the right time, capable of effectively andefficiently completing those tasks that will help the organization achieve its overall objectives or inother words HRP can be defined as planning for the future personnel needs of an organization, takinginto account both internal activities and factors in the external environment.

Need and Importance of HRP

Human resource Planning translates the organization objectives and plans into the number of workersneeded to meet these objectives. The need and importance of HRP is as follows:

HRP helps in determining the future manpower requirements and avoids problems like over staffing orunderstaffing in the organization. HRP helps in tackling with the factors like competition, technology,government policies etc. that generates changes in the job content, skill requirements and number andtypes of personnel required. Now a days there is a demand of exceptional intellectual skills while theexisting staff becomes redundant, the HR manager has to attract and retain qualified and skilledpersonnel and also required to deal with issues like career development, succession planning for which

he takes the help of HRP.

A proper and realistic human resource plan is needed to ensure equal employment and promotionalappointments to the candidates for weaker sections, physically handicapped and socially and politicallyoppressed citizens. HRP provides valuable and timely information for various designing and executionof personnel functions like recruitment, selection, transfers, promotions, layoffs, training anddevelopment and performance appraisal. It helps the organization to anticipate imbalance in humanresources, which in turn will facilitate reduction in personal costs. HRP facilitates planning for future

needs which will help in better planning of assignments to develop managers and to ensure theorganization has a steady supply of experienced and skilled employees.

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Factors affecting Human Resource Planning

HRP is a dynamic and ongoing process. The process of updating is not very simple, since HRP is

influenced by many factors, which are as follows: The type of organization determines the productionprocess and number and type of staff needed. The human resource needs of an organization dependon the strategic plan adopted by it. For e.g. the growth of a business calls for hiring of additional labor,while mergers will need a plan for layoffs. Organization operates under different political, socialenvironment and has to carefully formulate the HR policies and so the HR manager has to evolvesuitable mechanism to deal with uncertainties through career developments, succession planning,retirement schemes etc. HRP also depends on the time periods and accordingly the short and long-term plans are adopted. And this time span is based on the degree of environmental uncertainties. Thetype and quality of information used in making forecasting is an important factor influencing HRP.Accurate and timely human resource information system helps in getting better quality personnel. HRPis required to ensure that suitable candidates should be appointed at the right kind of job.

Limitations of Human Resource Planning

It is very difficult to ascertain future manpower requirements of an organization, as future is alwaysuncertain. It is more relevant to the countries that face the problem of scarcity of human resources. Itis a time consuming and costlier process. It is beneficial in the organizations that adopt a professionalapproach and at the same time are conscious about the changing environment. HRP is beneficial whereadequate skilled manpower is available. HRP is also made difficult in the organizations that have a veryhigh labor turnover.

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3. Write a detailed note on training needs identification .

Part I: Introduction

Training need identification is a tool utilized to identify what educational courses or activities should beprovided to employees to improve their work productivity. Here the focus should be placed on needsas opposed to desires of the employees for a constructive outcome. In order to emphasize theimportance of training need identification we can focus on the following areas: -

To pinpoint if training will make a difference in productivity and the bottom line. To decide what specific training each employee needs and what will improve his or her job

performance. To differentiate between the need for training and organizational issues and bring about a

match between individual aspirations and organizational goals.

Identification of training needs (ITN), if done properly, provides the basis on which all other trainingactivities can be considered. Also requiring careful thought and analysis, it is a process that needs to becarried out with sensitivity as people's learning is important to them, and the reputation of theorganization is also at stake.

Identification of training needs is important from both the organizational point of view as well as froman individual's point of view. From an organizations point of view it is important because anorganization has objectives that it wants to achieve for the benefit of all stakeholders or members,

including owners, employees, customers, suppliers, and neighbors. These objectives can be achievedonly through harnessing the abilities of its people, releasing potential and maximizing opportunities fordevelopment. Therefore people must know what they need to learn in order to achieve organizationalgoals. Similarly if seen from an individual's point of view, people have aspirations, they want to developand in order to learn and use new abilities, people need appropriate opportunities, resources, andconditions. Therefore, to meet people's aspirations, the organization must provide effective andattractive learning resources and conditions. And it is also important to see that there is a suitablematch between achieving organizational goals and providing attractive learning opportunities.

Also in order to bring synchronization between organizational and individual objectives people need to

question the way they do things. And this is precisely the hidden objective behind any training needidentification process. It should ideally be a long-term process of encouraging employees to take anactive involvement in their own development, thus increasing their commitment to learning, to theirwork, and to the organization as a whole.

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Part II: Different Levels at which it is to be Conducted

Identification of training needs can be done at three levels to ascertain three kinds of needs: -

Organizational NeedsThese concern the performance of the organization as a whole. Here identification of training needs isdone to find out whether the organization is meeting its current performance standards and objectives

and if not, exploring ways in which training or learning might help it to do so. Sometimes organizationaltraining needs are also identified when the organization decides that it has to adopt a major newstrategy, create a new product or service, undergo a large-scale change program, or develop significantnew relationships, such as joining with others to form new partnerships.

Group NeedsSince working in groups and teams have become very much prevalent in today's corporate world that iswhy nowadays there is increased emphasis given on team effectiveness and team performance. Sotraining needs are nowadays even identified at the group level. Training needs here are concernedbasically with the performance of a particular group, which may be a team, department, function, sub-unit, or so on. Information about this groups performance may identify areas of need - which, again,may be for training or other interventions. It is used to find out how efficiently a particular team orgroup goes about its business and meets its current objectives.

Individual NeedsThese concern the performance of one or more individuals (as individuals, rather than as members of agroup). Here identification of training needs is about finding out to what extent individuals need tolearn or be trained in order to bring their current performance up to the required level as a result of changes in methods and processes that call for new competencies and skills.

It also sees to it that there is continuous improvement initiative taken by them. Moreover it also helpsto find out whether individuals are comfortable in working across boundaries, with people fromdifferent backgrounds and different perspectives. This is especially important because there is so muchwork force diversity observed today in organizations that it has become impossible to retain workforce,which is not flexible enough to accommodate such changes into their daily work schedule.

Part III: Sources for Identifying Training Needs

There are three sources for identifying training needs. Although they are independent sources forgathering the necessary data but it is usually beneficial if they are considered complementary to oneanother as the objective of the exercise is to prepare as consolidated data of training needs as possible.The three sources are as follows: -

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Job Profile

It is a comprehensive description of all the functions and the responsibilities that a person has to carryout in due course of his job. It is very common for us sometimes to find that people of a particulardepartment more or less perform the same kind of job and therefore a comparative study can be doneon their performance to pinpoint on the training needs of those people who have not performed up tothe mark. In here we can also include Job analysis in order to have a realistic and systematic appraisal

of training needs. In order to do this first we need to break up the functions and responsibilities intocategories. Next we have to classify these tasks/activities on the basis of their relative importance tothe nature of the job. And lastly we can compute a priority listing of these tasks in order to have acatalogue of knowledge, skills and attitudes required for effective performance of the job.

Experiences of the training agency

It is very common for organizations nowadays to hire professional training agencies in order to lookinto the training matters. The training agency and the trainers thus should also draw from their ownexperiences of organizing programmers for comparable groups or in similar areas.

However, earlier experiences can only serve to facilitate the process. It cannot be the sole basis, astraining needs of majority of organizations are very specific.

Pre-training survey of the participant's needs

This is suggested as the best way to conduct a training need identification .A pre-training survey isnothing but a survey of the needs and expectations of the participants well in advance of the program.And in this exercise it is better to include the superiors also as they are in a good position to providenecessary data on the training needs of their associates, especially in context of their performance. Thisis generally done in a systematic manner with the help of a structured questionnaire in order to reflectthe genuine desire to involve the participants and the organization in the planning process. However itmight happen in certain cases that it is not possible to actively involve the superiors due to variousreasons like lack of time etc but in that case at least they must be kept fully informed of theproceedings.

Part IV : Overall Process in Brief

Step 1: Define and chart part of the organization in which the work has to be done. It is to have afocused approach of the study. It could either be a particular department, a section, a unit, a specificgroup or a staff category.

Step 2: Use various data collection measures to collect both qualitative as well as quantitative data.

Step 3: Analyze the entire data collected in order to find out causes of problem areas and prioritizeareas, which need immediate attention.

Step 4: Prioritize the different training programmers according to the responses collected.

Step 5: Record and file the entire data so that it can be used for future reference while designing thetraining programs / training calendar.

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Part V : Benefits of Needs Assessment

As pointed above needs assessment helps diagnose the causes of performance deficiency in employeesthat require remedial actions. This being a generalized statement there are certain specific benefits of needs assessment. They are as follows: -

The organization is informed about the broader needs of the participants. Through this processit may be possible that certain new training programs, which were, previously not in their listmay come to the forefront.

The organization is able to reduce the perception gap between the participant and his/her bossabout their needs and expectations from the training program.

The organization is also able to pitch its course input closer to the specific needs of theparticipants.

It also saves a lot of money for the organization as otherwise money is just unnecessarilywasted on those training programs, which are either not needed by the employees or they haveno interest in undertaking them.

Lastly, time, which is the most important resource today, is also saved, as the training programsconducted are the ones, which are actually needed by the participants.

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4. Explain different types of appraisal methods.

Performance evaluation is the personnel activity by means of which the enterprise determines the

extent to which the employee is performing the job effectively and for performance evaluation to bemore than a yearly paperwork exercise, top management must encourage its use and use it to makereward decisions such as promotions.

Types of Appraisal MethodsThere are several ways to classify these tools. The three categories used here will be; Individualevaluation methods; Multiple person evaluation methods; and other methods.

I. Individual evaluation Methods:There are five ways to evaluate an employee individually. In these systems, employees are evaluatedone at a time without directly comparing them with other employees. They are:

1. Graphic rating scale: In this technique, the evaluator is presented with a graph and asked to rateemployees on each of the characteristics listed. The number of characteristics rated varies from a fewto several dozen. A factor analysis of the results indicates that only two traits were being rated: qualityof performance and ability to do the present job.

2. Forced choice: In forced choice, the evaluator must choose from a set of descriptive statementsabout the employee. The two, three, or four statement items are grouped in a way that the evaluatorcannot easily judge which statements apply to the most effective employee.

3. Essay evaluation: the evaluator is asked to describe the strong and weak aspects of the employee'sbehavior. The essay method can be used by evaluators who are superiors, peers, or subordinates of theemployee to be evaluated.

4. Management by objectives: In this system, the supervisor and employee to be evaluated jointly setobjectives in advance for the employee to try to achieve during a specified period. The methodencourages, if not requires, them to phrase these objectives primarily in quantitative terms. Thisapproach combines the superior and self evaluation systems.

5. Critical incident technique: In this technique, personnel specialists and operating managers preparelists of statements of very effective and very ineffective behavior for an employee. These are thecritical incidents. The critical incident technique is more likely to be used by superiors than in peer orsubordinate evaluations.

6. Checklists and weighted checklists: In its simplest form, the checklist is a set of objectives ordescriptive statements. If the Rater believes that the employee possesses a trait listed, the Raterchecks the items; if not, the Rater leaves it blank. A rating score from the checklist equals the numberof checks the employee's evaluation is the sum of the scores (weights) on the items checked. Checklistsand weighted checklists can beused by evaluators who are superiors, peers, or subordinates, or by a combination.

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7. Behaviorally anchored rating scales: BARS called the behavioral expectation scale (BES). This is anew, relatively infrequently used technique. Supervisors give descriptions of actually good and badperformance, and personnel specialists group these into categories (five to ten is typical). As withweighted checklists, the items are evaluated by supervisors (often other than those who submitted theitems).

II. Multiple person Evaluation MethodsThe techniques described above are used to evaluate employees one at a time. Three techniques thathave been used to evaluate an employee in comparison with other employees being evaluated arediscussed in this section.

1. Ranking: In ranking method, the evaluator is asked to rate employees from highest to lowest onsome overall criterion. Simple ranking can be improved by alternative ranking. In this approach theevaluators pick the top and bottom employees first, then select the next highest and next lowest, andmove towards the middle.

2. Paired comparison: This approach makes the ranking method easier and more reliable. First, thenames of the persons to be evaluated are placed on separate sheets (or cards) in a predeterminedorder, so that each person is compared to all others to be evaluated. The evaluator then checks theperson he feels is the better of the two on a criterion for each comparison. Typically the criterion isoverall ability to do the present job. The number of times a person is preferred is tallied, and thisdevelops an index of the number of preferences compared to the number being evaluated.

3. Forced distribution: The forced distribution system is similar to 'grading on a curve. The evaluator isasked to rate employees in some fixed distribution of categories, such as 10 percent in low, 20 percentin low average, 40 percent in average, 20 percent in high average, and 10 percent in high. One way todo this is to type each employee's name on a card and ask the evaluators to sort the cards into fivepiles correspondingto the ratings. This should be done twice for the two key criteria of job performance and promo ability.One reason forced distribution was developed was to try to alleviate such problems as inflated ratingsand central tendency in the graphic rating scale.

III. 360 Degree AppraisalThe multiple input approaches to performance feedback is sometimes called "360degree assessment"to connote that full circle. There are no prohibitions in law or regulation against using a variety of ratingsources, in addition to the employee's supervisor, for assessing performance assessment approacheswith multiple rating sources provide more accurate, reliable, and credible information. For this reason,Personnel Management supports the use of multiple rating sources as an effective method of assessingperformance for formal appraisal and other evaluative and developmental purposes.

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Steps You Can Take

1. Briefly write down the motivational factors that sustain you and what you can do to sustain themThis little bit of "motivation planning" can give you strong perspective on how to think aboutsupporting the motivations of your employees.

2. Make of list of three to five things that motivate each of your employeesRead the checklist of possible motivators. Fill out the list yourself for each of your employees and thenhave each of your employees fill out the list for themselves. Compare your answers to theirs. Recognizethe differences between your impressions of what you think is important to them and what they thinkis important to them. Then meet with each of your employees to discuss what they think are the mostimportant motivational factors to them. Lastly, take some time alone to write down how you willmodify your approaches with each employee to ensure their motivational factors are being met.(NOTE: This may seem like a "soft, touchy-feely exercise" to you. If it does, then talk to a peer or yourboss about it. Much of what's important in management is based very much on "soft, touchy-feely

exercises". Learn to become more comfortable with them. The place to start is to recognize theirimportance.)

3. Work with each employee to ensure their motivational factors are taken into consideration in yourreward systemsFor example, their jobs might be redesigned to be more fulfilling. You might find more means toprovide recognition, if that is important to them. You might develop a personnel policy that rewardsemployees with more family time, etc.

4. Have one-on-one meetings with each employee

Employees are motivated more by your care and concern for them than by your attention to them. Getto know your employees, their families, their favorite foods, names of their children, etc. This cansound manipulative -- and it will be if not done sincerely. However, even if you sincerely want to get toknow each of your employees, it may not happen unless you intentionally set aside time to be witheach of them.

5. Cultivate strong skills in delegationDelegation includes conveying responsibility and authority to your employees so they can carry outcertain tasks. However, you leave it up to your employees to decide how they will carry out the tasks.Skills in delegation can free up a great deal of time for managers and supervisors. It also allowsemployees to take a stronger role in their jobs, which usually means more fulfillment and motivation intheir jobs, as well.

6. Reward it when you see itA critical lesson for new managers and supervisors is to learn to focus on employee behaviors, not onemployee personalities. Performance in the workplace should be based on behaviors toward goals, noton popularity of employees. You can get in a great deal of trouble (legally, morally and interpersonally)for focusing only on how you feel about your employees rather than on what you're seeing with youreyeballs.

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7. Reward it soon after you see itThis helps to reinforce the notion that you highly prefer the behaviors that you're currently seeing fromyour employees. Often, the shorter the time between an employee's action and your reward for theaction, the clearer it is to the employee that you highly prefer that action.

8. Implement at least the basic principles of performance management

Good performance management includes identifying goals, measures to indicate if the goals are beingmet or not, ongoing attention and feedback about measures toward the goals, and corrective actionsto redirect activities back toward achieving the goals when necessary. Performance management canfocus on organizations, groups, processes in the organization and employees.

9. Establish goals that are SMARTERSMARTER goals are: specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic, timely, extending of capabilities andrewarding to those involved.

10. Clearly convey how employee results contribute to organizational results

Employees often feel strong fulfillment from realizing that they're actually making a difference. Thisrealization often requires clear communication about organizational goals, employee progress towardthose goals and celebration when the goals are met.

11. Celebrate achievementsThis critical step is often forgotten. New managers and supervisors are often focused on a getting "a lotdone". This usually means identifying and solving problems. Experienced managers come tounderstand that acknowledging and celebrating a solution to a problem can be every bit as importantas the solution itself. Without ongoing acknowledgement of success, employees become frustrated,skeptical and even cynical about efforts in the organization.

12. Let employees hear from their customers (internal or external)Let employees hear customers proclaim the benefits of the efforts of the employee . For example, if the employee is working to keep internal computer systems running for other employees (internalcustomers) in the organization, then have other employees express their gratitude to the employee. If an employee is providing a product or service to external customers, then bring in a customer toexpress their appreciation to the employee.

13. Admit to yourself (and to an appropriate someone else) if you don't like an employee --Managers and supervisors are people. It's not unusual to just not like someone who works for you. Thatsomeone could, for example, look like an uncle you don't like. In this case, admit to yourself that youdon't like the employee. Then talk to someone else who is appropriate to hear about your distaste forthe employee, for example, a peer, your boss, your spouse, etc. Indicate to the appropriate person thatyou want to explore what it is that you don't like about the employee and would like to come to aclearer perception of how you can accomplish a positive working relationship with the employee. Itoften helps a great deal just to talk out loud about how you feel and get someone else's opinion aboutthe situation. As noted above, if you continue to focus on what you see about employee performance,you'll go a long way toward ensuring that your treatment of employees remains fair and equitable.

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6. Elaborate the importance of grievance handling.

Maintaining quality of work life for its employees is an important concern for the any organization. The

grievance handling procedure of the organization can affect the harmonious environment of theorganization. The grievances of the employees are related to the contract, work rule or regulation,policy or procedure, health and safety regulation, past practice, changing the cultural normsunilaterally, individual victimization, wage, bonus, etc. Here, the attitude on the part of management intheir effort to understand the problems of employees and resolve the issues amicably have betterprobability to maintain a culture of high performance. Managers must be educated about theimportance of the grievance process and their role in maintaining favorable relations with the union.Effective grievance handling is an essential part of cultivating good employee relations and running afair, successful, and productive workplace. Positive labor relations are two-way street both sides mustgive a little and try to work together. Relationship building is key to successful labor relations.

Importance of Grievance HandlingThe grievance handling / dispute handling process starts from the desk of a senior manager, whereshould try to settle the grievance at the first stage i.e before the grievance has left the jurisdiction of the supervisor. This requires that the manager is competent and trained in handling a grievanceproblem and handling the grievance using scientific method is most productive for a satisfactorysolution.

Causes of employee grievances could be grouped under different major headings, some of the causes

that need to be considered are:

1. Promotions;2. Amenities;3. Continuity of Services;4. Compensation;5. Disciplinary action;6. Fines;7. Increments;8. Wages;

9. Acting Promotion;10. Recovery of dues;11. Safety appliance;12. Superannuation;13. Supersession;14. Transfer;15. Victimization;16. Conditions of work.

Documents

MB0027 - Set 1