This document provides an overview of human resource management (HRM) practices in India. It defines HRM and discusses its key functions including managerial functions like planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. It also outlines operative HRM functions such as employment, HR development, compensation, and employee relations. The document then discusses specific HRM practices in India and challenges faced by HR managers in India like upgrading employee skills, developing accountability, and managing workplace diversity. It also defines concepts like competency mapping and flexi time arrangements.
MBA - winter 2013 Answers mb0043 –human resource management
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MB0043-HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
ROLLS NO: XXXXXXXXX BKID – B1626
1. DEFINITION OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human resources can be defined as “The set of individuals who make up theworkforceof an
organization, business sectoror aneconomy. “Human capital" is sometimes used
synonymously with human resources, although human capital typically refers to a more
narrow view; i.e., the knowledge the individuals embody and can contribute to an
organization. Likewise, other terms sometimes it include "manpower", "talent", "labor", or
simply "people".
FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human resource management involves blending the traditional administrative functions
along with the changing concepts of employee’s welfare in the organization. Human
resource managers are involved right from identifying potential candidates for jobs to their
separation from the organization.
HRM Functions can be broadly classified into the following two categories,
1. Managerial function
2. Operative functions
MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS OF HR DEPARTMENT:
Managerial functions of HR department includes the following
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Planning:
Future courses of action; it also includes identifying human resource
requirement and forecasting personal needs.
Organizing:
Division of labor; assignment of responsibility is part of organization’s
function.
Staffing:
It is the process of obtaining and maintaining capable and competent personnel in
various positions at all levels, ie Manpower planning, recruitment, selection,
placement and induction.
Directing:
It is the process of directing all the available resources towards the common
organizational goals.
Controlling:
It is the measurement and rectification of activities to ensure that the
events conform to plans.
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OPERATIVE FUNCTIONS OF HR DEPARTMENT:
Operative functions of HR department includes,
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Employment:
Employment is the first operative function of HRM. This involves procuring and
employing individuals with suitable knowledge, skills, experience and aptitude
necessary to perform various jobs. It includes functions such as job analysis, HR
planning, Recruitment, Selection, placement and Induction.
HR Development:
HR development concentrates on developing the workforce so that both the
employees and the organization in turn can achieve their goals. HR development
involves functions such as, Performance appraisal, Training, Management
development, Career planning and development.
Compensation:
Compensation includes all the rewards that an employee receives during the
course of his or her job for his or contributions to the organization. Compensation
activity includes Job evaluation, Wage and salary discrimination, Incentives,
Fringe benefits.
Employee relations:
Employee relations deal with the employees, in the organizational
context, as a social group that contributes to the organization. It includes
enhancing the quality of both work and personal life of the employees.
Thus, Human resource management helps the employee to develop their
career skills and also the quality of life.
2. HRM PRACTICES IN INDIA
HRM practices in India are simple extensions of HR practices from the established
western organization and from the developed countries. They argue that much of the
changes in the employment perspective in India have changed only after the economic
liberalization. The HRM practices in India are as follows,
1. The Indian culture is one of the deeply rooted in its societal and collectivistic
values whereby there is a natural urge to collaborate at the workplace.
2. Work culture-wise the natural ability to work hard and long hours and the
need to earn more money impacts the way the work is organized in India
3. Indians are quick at accepting the diverse views and ideal as a result if its
diverse religious and regional culture.
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4. The tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty however is low in the Indians
workforce, which requires a lot more detailing of jobs and roles and
responsibilities.
5. Availability of large educated group of individuals of different caliber of
knowledge and skills allows country to undertake different nature of work.
HRM CHALLENGES:
One of the challenges HR managers face is the issue of upgrading the skill sets of
employees through training and development. Indian companies are recognizing their
responsibilities to enhance the employee’s opportunity to develop skills and abilities for
full performance within the position and for career advancement.
DEVELOPING ACCOUNTABILITY:
With the advent of six sigma methodologies, organizations have lowered their tolerance
levels of mistakes, errors and delays. It is not easy to train people to shoulder responsibility
MANAGING WORKFORCE STRESS:
HR is the face of an organization. It hires and fires employees and if the HR of an
organization is not emphatic towards workforce it does not help in employment relations.
MANAGING INTER-FUNCTIONAL CONFLICT:
Earlier it was the frictionbetween different levels of an organization and now the new
emerging challenge for the HR is to manage inter-functional conflict within an organization.
MANAGING WORKPLACE DIVERSITY:
With globalization and Indian’s economy changing gears to accelerate
growth, organization hire as well depend on a people from different countries, cultures and
ethnicity.
The above challenges are most huge challenges for the HR in the emerging Indian
economy
3. DEFINITION OF HRIS:
HRIS, HR technology or HR modules are an intersection between HRM
and IT. It merges HRM as a discipline and in particular its basic HR activities and
processes with IT field, whereas the planning and programming of data processing systems
evolved into standardize routines and packages of enterprise resource planning ERP
software.
COMPONENTS OF HRIS:
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HRIS performs three interconnected activities as a database.
Input
i.
ii.
iii.
Data Processing
Output
Receiving inputs in the form of data from different sources.
Storing and processing data with the purpose of transforming them into
meaningful information.
Generating output in different forms, as required by the users.
APPLICATION OF HRIS:
HR needs to handle many things in an organization including increasing number
of employees and different HR activities. It became important for many organizations to
bring almost all HR activities under HRIS. The Different application HR systems are as
follows.
APPLICATION TRACKING SYSTEM:
Many organizations are now gradually adopting ans installing application tracking system
software. The purpose of this system is to give support to recruitment process and to
streamline the overall recruitment process.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM:
The purpose of training and development system is to help the employees gain new
knowledge. HRIS facilitates workplace e-learning by the employees as part of their training
program.
COMPENSATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:
The compensation management system aims at computing employee’s payment through an
integrated payroll system. This compensation system normally considers employee
working hours, attendance and productivity for computing salary of the employees.
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:
The main goal of performance management system is to track employees performance
reviews and due date for next reviews.
MANPOWER PLANNING SYSTEM:
The manpower planning system empowers the employee inventory and supports
several HR activities.
SUCCESSION PLANNING SYSTMES:
The succession planning module brings the identified and selected
employees into the succession channel.
GRIEVANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTMES:
The grievance management assists the management in pre- empting employee grievance
by analyzing the nature, source and frequency of earlier grievances.
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The above mentioned applications are the different kinds of application of HRIS
system.
4. MEANING OF DESCIPLINE:
Discipline is employee self-control which prompts him/her to willingly cooperate with
the organizational standards, rules and objectives.
According to Richards.D calhoon , “ Discipline many be considered as a force that
prompts individuals or groups to observe the rules, regulations and procedures which
are deemed to be necessary for the effective functioning of an organization”.
BASIC GUIDELINES OF A DISCIPLINARY ACTION:
In order of increasing severity, disciplinary measures are as follows:
LOCATION OF RESPOSIBILITY:
A verbal disciplinary measure that includes a statement outlining to the employee the
nature of the misconduct, the corrective action required, and the consequences should it
not be corrected. No record of this measure is placed on the employee's personnel file.
PROPER FORMULATION AND COMMUNICATION OF RULES:
It outlines the nature of the misconduct, the corrective action required, and the
consequences should it not be corrected. If more severe disciplinary action should later
become necessary, the record of the reprimand or reprimands on the personnel file
demonstrates that the employee was made aware of the consequences of further
misconduct.
EQUAL TREATMENT:
Financial penalties are appropriate in situations involving mass unlawful withdrawal of
services, continuous shift operations, ships at sea, or isolated posts where it may be
difficult to schedule suspensions without the use of replacements and overtime.
DISCIPINARY ACTIONS SHOULD BE TAKEN IN PRIVATE:
At all the times the organization needs to be watchful of remaining respectful of its
employees and carry out any action in respectful and in a confidential manner. Demotion
could be used in situations where a manager is found guilty of harassment and is moved to
a position with no managerial responsibilities.
GET THE FACTS:
Termination is the most severe disciplinary measure, and the decision to proceed is taken
only after careful consideration and when it is determined that the employee is no longer
suitable for continued employment by reason of misconduct.
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IMPORTANCE OF PROMPTNESS:As goes the popular saying – justice delayed is justice
denied. The temporary removal of the employee from the place of work without pay as a
consequence of misconduct brings in more awareness of promptness in other coemployees. The notice of suspension includes the nature of the misconduct, the corrective
action required, and the consequences should it not be corrected.
Hence, the actions should be taken in Non-threatening atmosphere, based on
appropriate evidence management can take proper action against the accused
employee.
5. CAUSES OF GRIEVANCE:
Grievances generally arise from the day-do-day working relations in the undertaking,
usually a employee or trade union protest against an act or omission or management
that is considered to violate worker’s rights. There are certainly some of the causes that
can lead to grievance.
Some of them are listed below:
1) Morality
2) Working environment
3) Economic manners
4) Supervision
5) Work group
6) Maladjustment of the Employee
GRIEVANCE HANDLING PROCEDURES
It is important that those involved with the grievance are clear about the resolution
process and your role in handling the grievance, however, there may be instances where a
grievance is of such a serious nature that formal action is required regardless of the staff
member’s wishes.
1. Listen and respond sensitively to any distress exhibited by the staff member.
2. Treat each case as important and get the grievance in writing.
3. Talk to the employee directly. Encourage him to speak the truth. Give him a
patient hearing.
4. Discuss in a private place. Ensure confidentiality, if necessary.
5. Member to raise the issue directly with the person concerned if the grievance
involves another staff member or work area
6. Ask the staff member what other advice or resolution avenue/s they have
already explored
7. Clarify what, if any, action the staff member is requesting, outline the likely
process if the grievance proceeds, give a copy of the policy and guidelines on
the handling of staff grievances to the staff member and inform the staff
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member that they may, if they choose, request support from a representative
of their choice
8. Advise the staff member that any allegations in writing will be made
available to all parties against whom the allegations are made and that in the
interest of procedural fairness they will have to be willing to be identified
unless the allegations relate to corruption, maladministration and serious
waste or child abuse
9. Be aware of the limits of your own authority, and refer the grievance to a
more senior manager if appropriate; inform your supervisor of the grievance
and proposed course of action where appropriate
10. Be aware of the staff member's potential concern as to the possible
repercussions of raising a grievance; take all possible steps to ensure that no
victimization occurs as a result of the grievance being raised
Hence, The Managers, supervisors, union leaders and others dealing with employee
grievance must be well trained in grievance handling procedure.
6. COMPETENCY MAPPING:
According to Boyatzis(1982) “A capacity that exists in a person that leads to behavior
that meets the job demands within parameters of organizational environment, and that,
in turn brings about desired results”
THE STEPS INVOLVED IN COMPETENCY MAPPING ARE PRESENTED BELOW:
1) Conduct a job analysis by asking incumbents to complete a position information
questionnaire (PIQ). This can be provided for incumbents to complete, or used as a
basis for conducting one-on-one interviews using the PIQ as a guide. The primary
goal is to gather from incumbents what they feel are the key behaviors necessary to
perform their respective jobs.
2) Using the results of the job analysis, a competency based job description is
developed. It is developed after carefully analyzing the input from the represented
group of incumbents and converting it to standard competencies.
3) With a competency based job description, mapping the competencies can be done.
The competencies of the respective job description become factors for assessment
on the performance evaluation. Using competencies will help to perform more
objective evaluations based on displayed or not displayed behaviors.
4) Taking the competency mapping one step further, one can use the results of one’s
evaluation to identify in what competencies individuals need additional
development or training. This will help in focusing on training needs required to
achieve the goals of the position and company and help the employees develop
toward the ultimate success of the organization.
FLEXI TIME:
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Flexi time is a scheme where an organization gives its employees the opportunity of a
flexible working hours arrangement
An example of a typical flexi time day is below:
Begin work between 0700 – 1000 (flexi time)
Must be there between 1000 – 1200 (core time)
Lunch break between 1200 – 1400 (flexible lunch hour)
Must be there from 1400 – 1600 (core time)
Leave between 1600 – 1900 (flexi time)
BENEFITS OF FLEXI TIME
Utilizing a flexi time policy in your organization can benefit everyone involved, employers,
employees and their families.
BENEFITS TO YOUR ORGANISATION
Greater staff morale and job satisfaction. Most employers offering flextime working
report improvements in recruitment, absenteeism and productivity
2. Reduces stress and fatigue and unfocussed employees
3. Increases employee satisfaction and production
4. Greater staff retention and increased ability to attract new staff. Recruitment costs
are thus reduced.
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DISADVANTAGES OF FLEXI TIME:
1. If the scheme is not monitored properly, there is potential for employees to abuse
the system. For example if time is recorded on paper or spreadsheets by staff they
can easily fabricate their time.
2. Administration of the system may make demands upon a HR department and create
additional workload.
These are the issues that Flexi Planner resolves and helps the organization.