Laurent and Benon Management Consultants Ltd

Tips for Effective Recognition

2009-09-03T04:41:00.000-07:00

Rewarding system in an organisation plays an important role to motivate the employees for the better performance. Recognition has to be very perfect to avoid employee issues which can divide the workforce.

We need to establish criteria for what performance or contribution constitutes rewardable behavior or actions.

All employees must be eligible for the recognition.

The recognition must supply the employer and employee with specific information about what behaviors or actions are being rewarded and recognized.

Anyone who then performs at the level or standard stated in the criteria receives the reward.

The recognition should occur as close to the performance of the actions as possible, so the recognition reinforces behavior the employer wants to encourage.

You don't want to design a process in which managers "select" the people to receive recognition. This type of process will be viewed forever as "favoritism" or talked about as "it's your turn to get recognized this month." This is why processes that single out an individual, such as "Employee of the Month," are rarely effective.

Increasing Employee Morale during tough economic times

2009-08-19T05:58:00.000-07:00

A high morale work place is essential to any business. Low morale can quickly take your business off the rails and lead ultimately to business failure. The root cause of low employee morale can be numerous including job security issues, limited upward mobility, lousy management practices, excessive outsourcing, lack of fair pay and much more.

Below are 3 simple ways employers can do this:

Be Honest. Let employees know the state of the company. It is critical that employers are honest about the company’s financial situation. If business is good, discuss new projects and contracts. If it’s not so good, focus on the integrity of the company and its management.

Let employees know you care. Provide information to employees about how to make the dollar go further, or where in the local area is gas the least expensive. Providing this information will show that you are listening and understand and ultimately, care. Providing this information won’t cost you too much time and more importantly, it doesn’t cost anything to provide information.

Don’t give up on training. We know budgets are tight but there are some very cost effective training seminars that don’t require round-trip airfare, two nights’ hotel stay and a rental car. Look locally for a good ½ day or 1 day seminar and send your employees to it! Not only does it show that you value their growth as an employee, it gives them a chance to be with each other, outside of the office and can be used as a really great morale booster. It’s also a great return on a minimal investment.

By Priti Shah

How to Improve work culture?

2009-08-18T06:03:00.000-07:00

Work culture plays an important role in organization success. Hard times push organization to the limit where its culture stands in motivating to survive. Many organizations in India are facing tuff time managing their employee and operations as because of culture not so conducive for changes and flexibility. There are some of the pointers which will help to improve work culture:

Say “thank you” often, and sincerely, face-to-face.
Publicly acknowledge hard work and initiative on the company bulletin board, in the newsletter, during meetings and at company social events.
Offer the option for arriving an hour late on Monday mornings or leaving an hour early on Friday afternoons when possible.
Give bonuses for meeting company financial goals (e.g. money, parties, a trip, etc.). Or, offer time off to an employee who has made a difference.
Acknowledge special events (e.g. birthdays, anniversaries of time employed, accomplishments, etc.) either through cards, company newsletters or meetings.
Administer quarterly reviews and encourage and/or require employees to provide a self-evaluation.
Take time to meet with employees one at a time.
Encourage a sense of ownership in work.
Involve employees in decisions, especially those that will directly affect them, and the quality progress of the company.
Encourage employees to participate in community service programs. Possibly provide incentives for their involvement.

By Priti Shah

How to solve problems?

2009-08-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

In this world problem is the word which has to do with every human life whether it be rich or the poor. Many are not able to handle the problem as they don’t where to start from and many end making a mess which is very difficult to clear up. It is always a very useful approach to think of successful strategies for problems in the past. Train yourself to adapt useful problem-solving techniques to new situations!

Here is one of many possible models of problem solving.

Problem identification What is my concern?
Goal definition What do I want to achieve or change?
Brainstorming What can I do?
Consequences What might happen?
Decision How should I do it?
Implementation Do it!
Evaluation Did it work?

In today’s world we have to think when some people don’t, with a help of above many possible models of problem solving one can definitely lead somewhere to solve the problem instead sitting and crying over it.

By Priti Shah

Executive Compensation

2009-08-14T04:55:00.000-07:00

Many organizations, especially large ones, administer executive compensation somewhat differently than compensation for lower-level employees. An executive typically is someone in the top two levels of an organization, such as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), President, or Senior Vice-President. The common components of executive compensation are salaries, annual bonuses, long-term incentives, supplemental benefits, and perquisites.

Two objectives influence executive compensation:

(1) Ensuring that the total compensation packages for executives are competitive with the compensation packages in other firms that might employ them.

(2) Tying the overall performance of the organization over a period of time to the compensation that is paid to executives.

It is the second objective that critics of executive compensation believe is not being met. In many organizations, it appears that the levels of executive compensation may be unreasonable and not linked closely to organizational performance.

Elements of Executive Compensation

At the heart of most executive compensation plans is the idea that executives should be rewarded if the organization grows in profitability and value over a period of years. Because many executives are in high tax brackets, their compensation often is provided in ways that offer significant tax savings.

Perquisites
Supplemental Benefits
Long-Term incentives
Annual bonuses
Executive salaries

By Priti Shah

Variable Pay: Incentives for Performance

2009-08-07T04:11:00.000-07:00

Variable pay is compensation linked to individual, team, and/or organization performance. Traditionally also known as incentives, variable pay plans are attempts to tie additional tangible rewards given to employees for performance beyond normal expectations. The philosophical foundation of variable pay rests on

Several basic assumptions:

Some jobs contribute more to organizational success than others.
Some people perform better than others.
Employees who perform better should receive more compensation.
A portion of some employees’ total compensation should be given to reward above-satisfactory performance.

Contrast the assumptions above with a pay system based on seniority or length of service:

Time spent each day is the primary measure of short-term contribution.
In the long term, length of service with the organization is the primary differentiating factor among people.
Differences in individual contributions to the organization are recognized through different base pay levels.
Giving additional performance rewards to some people but not others is divisive and hampers employees working together.

Types of Variable Pay

Variable pay plans can be established that focus on individual performance, team or group performance, and on organization-wide performance. An important feature of variable pay plans is that incentives increase the degree of cooperation in teams, whereas individual incentives do not.

Individual incentives are given to reward the effort and performance of individuals.

Some of the most common means of providing individuals variable pay are piece-rate systems, sales commissions, and bonuses.

Organization incentives reward people for the performance of the entire organization.

This approach reduces individual and team competition and assumes that Organization incentives reward people for the performance of the entire organization.

By Priti Shah

Individual-centered career planning

2009-08-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

Individual-centered career planning focuses on individuals’ careers rather than organizational needs. It is done by employees themselves, and individual goals and skills are the focus of the analysis. Such analyses might consider situations both inside and outside the organization that could expand a person’s career. The different perspectives, Organizational retrenchment and downsizing have changed career plans for many people. They have found themselves in “career transition”—in other words, in need of finding other jobs. Small businesses, some started by early retirees from big companies, have provided many of the new career opportunities.

How People Choose Careers

Four general individual characteristics affect how people make career choices.

Interests: People tend to pursue careers that they believe match their interests.
Self-image: A career is an extension of a person’s self-image, as well as a molder of it.
Personality: This factor includes an employee’s personal orientation (for example, whether the employee is realistic, enterprising, and artistic) and personal needs (including affiliation, power, and achievement needs).
Social backgrounds: Socioeconomic status and the educational and occupation level of a person’s parents are a few factors included in this category.

Less is known about how and why people choose specific organizations than about why they choose specific careers. One obvious factor is the availability of a job when the person is looking for work. The amount of information available about alternatives is an important factor as well. Beyond these issues, people seem to pick an organization on the basis of a “fit” between the climate of the organization as they perceive it and their own personal characteristics. Many factors may influence job choice, including the gender of the job informant who passed along job information. The “dream jobs” of young people ages 13 to 17 change over time, as Further, people change jobs more now than ever before.

By Priti Shah

Effective Orientation System

2009-08-04T04:52:00.000-07:00

A systematic approach to orientation requires attention to attitudes, behaviors, and information that new employees need. Unfortunately, too often orientation is conducted rather haphazardly. The general ideas that follow highlight the major components of an effective orientation system: preparing for new employees, providing them with needed information, presenting orientation information effectively, and conducting evaluation and follow-up on the initial orientation.

Preparing for new employees

New employees must feel that they belong and are important to the organization. Both the supervisor and the HR unit should be prepared to give each new employee this perception. Further, coworkers as well as the supervisor should be prepared for a new employee’s arrival. This preparation is especially important if the new employee will be assuming duties that might be interpreted as threatening a current employee’s job status or security.

The manager or supervisor should discuss the purpose of hiring the new worker with all current employees before the arrival of the new worker. Some organizations use coworkers or peers to conduct part of the new employees’ orientation. It is particularly useful to involve more experienced and higher-performing individuals who can serve as role models for new employees.

Providing new employees with needed information

The guiding question in the establishment of an orientation system is, “What does the new employee need to know now?” Often new employees receive a large amount of information they do not immediately need, and they fail to get the information they really need the first day of a new job. Some organizations systematize this process by developing an orientation checklist. Checklist indicates items to be covered by the HR department representative, the new employee’s supervisor, or both. A checklist can ensure that all necessary items have been covered at some point, perhaps during the first week. Many employers have employees sign the checklist to verify that they have been told of pertinent rules and procedures.

Often, employees are asked to sign a form indicating that they have received the handbook and have read it. This requirement gives legal protection to employers who may have to enforce policies and rules later. Employees who have signed forms cannot deny later that they were informed about policies and rules. To help them understand the organization fully, new employees also should be oriented to the culture of the organization. Giving informal information on such factors as typical dress habits, lunch practices, and what executives are called will help new employees to adjust.

Another important type of initial information to give employees is information on the policies, work rules, and benefits of the company. Policies about sick leave, tardiness, absenteeism, vacations, benefits, hospitalization, parking, and safety rules must be made known to every new employee immediately. Also, the employee’s supervisor or manager should describe the routine of a normal workday for the employee the first morning.

By Priti Shah

Improve Employee Accountability for Goals in Your Organization

2009-08-03T04:02:00.001-07:00

It is common for employee goals, set as a part of an annual performance review, to be forgotten during the year. Goals get written down on a paper form that is filed away, and only consulted when it's time for the next performance appraisal. An employee's daily work and priorities are then easily affected by the crisis of the day, new requests or changes in direction. The result: individual, departmental and organizational goals are often not achieved.

So how do you drive accountability for goals throughout your organization and keep employees productive and focused on the right things?.....

Encourage SMART Employee Goals

In order to engage employees and foster accountability, organizations need to have their employees set SMART goals - specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented and time-bound. But remembering to capture all these elements in the right level of detail can be challenging.

Managers and employees creating a new goal are visually reminded to provide a title, detailed description, milestone, method for measurement, and start date and due date.

Help with Prioritization

Everyone deals with juggling priorities. When faced with competing priorities, employees often struggle to know which goals are most important, and to focus their time and efforts effectively.

Reminder to Self...

Ever wish you could get someone to remind you about goals, milestones and due dates? There should be reminder sort to help employees to remind their goals, milestones and due dates to focus on more important rather than unnecessary task in between.

Align Employee and Organizational Goals

Research tells us that one of the keys to employee accountability is helping employees understand how their daily work contributes to organizational success. Employees need to know that their work and efforts matter.

Employees can visually see how their personal goals are contributing to the achievement of organizational goals and track their progress and status. This increases both their sense of accountability and contribution.

Monitor Progress on Goals

Accountability and monitoring tend to go hand in hand - it's human nature to be more mindful of completing a task when we know someone is watching and cares about our progress, and when we can see the larger effect of our actions. Monitor progress on goals of the employee to keep them updated on the completion of task and overall goals

By Priti Shah

Corporate Culture

2009-07-31T05:48:00.000-07:00

In six words, corporate culture is "How we do things around here."

Corporate culture is the collective behavior of people using common corporate vision, goals, shared values, beliefs, habits, working language, systems, and symbols. It is interwoven with processes, technologies, learning and significant events. In addition, different individuals bring to the workplace their own uniqueness, knowledge, and ethnic culture. So corporate culture encompasses moral, social, and behavioral norms of your organization based on the values, beliefs, attitudes, and priorities of its members.

Corporate culture can be transformed, but leadership to sustain anything that sweeping has to come from "the top."

Adaptive Cultures

Your corporate culture is good only if it fits its context, i.e. your business space and your business strategy. In today's rapidly changing economy, "only cultures that can help organizations anticipate and adapt to environmental change will be associated with superior performance over the long time."⁸ Research findings¹⁰ show that cultures that are externally oriented (e.g. risk taking, readiness to meet new challenges) tend to be more strongly associated with organizational performance (operationalized using a range of measures) than do those cultures which are bureaucratic and predominantly internally focused.

Corporate Culture: The Three Levels

The three levels of a corporate culture are

1. Surface Level: At this level, culture is both enacted and reinforced through visible appearances and behaviors, such as physical layouts, dress codes, organizational structure, company policies, procedures and programs, and attitudes.

2. Middle Level: Here, culture is manifested through our beliefs and values.

3. Deepest Level: At this level, culture is manifested through basic assumptions – our long-learned, automatic responses and established opinions.

By Priti Shah

How To Impress Your Boss

2009-07-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

Meet deadlines. An employee who delivers high quality products or services in a timely manner will always be on the boss's good side.

Respect your boss's time. A good supervisor reduces red tape and provides employees with the tools they need to perform their jobs. This respects your time and contribution to the business. Your boss will be impressed if you return the favor and value their time as well. You can do this by asking "is this a good time?" before starting a discussion, combining small matters into a single conversation, and choosing email or a note to resolve a matter that isn't time sensitive and requires advance consideration.

Bring solutions along with problems. When an unexpected problem arises and you need to consult with your boss, think of one or more solutions to the problem in advance of the meeting. Start the conversation by saying something like "I think I know the answer, but..." Briefly discuss the problem and offer your solutions as possibilities, not ultimatums. The boss will appreciate your ability to think for yourself and your respect for their opinion.

Be positive. Employees expect the boss to maintain a positive attitude, even during stressful times. Bosses hope for, and are impressed by, employees who do the same. For every two complaints or suggestions for improvement you make to your boss, be sure to point out eight positive things. Avoid petty gripes entirely.

Be sincere. No one enjoys being manipulated, especially your boss. Undeserved flattery, performance or behavior change near evaluation time, and feigned interest in the boss's family or extra curricular activities will not impress. Your boss will be pleased if you are honest and consistent in your performance and only ask a question when you are truly interested in the answer.

Say thanks once in a while. All employees, including supervisors, appreciate recognition for a job well done. In many organizations, recognition systems are geared towards front line employees. Middle managers are often in the position of recommending awards, but rarely receive them. If this is the case in your organization, a well-timed thank you or small gesture is sure to be appreciated.

By Priti Shah

How to increase employee satisfaction?

2009-07-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

Do today’s employers take care about employee satisfaction level, as workforce surplus country with poverty an critical problem. Basic employment is not reachable, satisfaction is little faraway. The change is very much visible employers today looking more quality and skilled employees who can fulfill their work criteria, employment is increasing slowly.

Let’s see how we can increase employee satisfaction:

Provide a livable salary and benefits for your employees. If your employee can't afford the cost of living on his or her salary, and if there are no benefits, your turnover will be high. Avoid creating expectations that will lead to disappointment.

Provide a pleasant working environment to increase employee satisfaction. Re-organize the physical work space so each employee has sufficient and comfortable space to work in. Give each employee access to a window or a pleasant view or pleasant surroundings.

Respect and take a positive view of your employees. You hired them; now have faith in them. Avoid assuming your employees are reluctant to work or need constant supervision. Resist the temptation to show indiscriminate distrust of your employees. The reason? An employee who is viewed negatively will act negatively. An employee who is viewed as responsible, talented, and an asset to the company will be more likely to take responsibility, be conscientious, and be loyal and an asset to the company or small business.

Reward your employees in small but tangible ways by giving holiday bonuses, honoring birthdays, new hirings and departures, and providing other employee perks.

Launch team building activities for your small business. The level of employee satisfaction in your company hinges largely on whether or not your employees feel a part of the team.

Whether you're a small business owner or owner or manager of a large company, make an effort to be flexible with your employees. Whenever possible, offer flexible scheduling, comp time, job sharing, the chance to switch shifts, and other opportunities to help your employees manage their work life and home life to their satisfaction.

By Priti Shah

How to Increase Employee Loyalty

2009-07-27T07:32:00.000-07:00

When most business minded people think of the word 'loyalty', they are actually thinking of 'customer loyalty'. They understand that the key to the success for any business venture lays in its ability to gain or sustain loyalty. While having a loyal customer base is critical, it is equally critical for any business enterprise to have an equally loyal employee base. Among the first lessons to be learned in Business, is the fact that the cost of converting new customers is far higher than the cost of keeping an existing customer. This fundamental lesson can also be applied to the employee insofar as the cost of hiring a new employee far greater than replacing those employees who have become disenfranchised.

Top Ways to Increase Employee Loyalty

First, Measure Employee Engagement - Start measuring employees' passion about work and the work environment by issuing a survey with a few questions about job satisfaction. Surveys using a scale of agreement provide a quantitative measurement that can be combined with open-ended comments to identify opportunities to make employees happy.

Identify What Employees Like - By gathering compliments in addition to concerns, your company can find out if its engagement efforts make a meaningful, lasting contribution to employees.

Help Employees See the Big Picture - Employees want to feel that they are contributing and making a difference. Help your employees to see the big picture and how they contribute to a functioning whole. This will also empower employees to make decisions.

Use Training to Increase Confidence - Managers who cut training budgets to save costs do not understand how service delivery and morale can suffer as a result. Employees need training to do their job confidently and to facilitate career advancement within the company.

Establish Mentoring Programs - Train and encourage seasoned employees to be mentors. A mentoring program can facilitate dynamic skill growth through an organization and foster a sense of community.

Promote Team Building - Encourage team building activities among employee groups to create trust and acceptance. Strong, loyal teams provide one level of acceptance, and teamwork between departments provides another.

Build a Supportive Environment - Often, dissatisfaction with wages and benefits masks problems that relate back to acceptance by a team or manager. Employees may need help with coping skills, problem-solving skills, tactics for handling difficult situations, or expressing their personal feelings.

Retrain or Get Rid of Bad Managers - One bad manager can pollute multiple layers of an organization. Poor managers bring down employee morale, which spills over into the engagement level of customers.

Recognize Employee Contributions - Recognition from a supervisor of at least two ranks above an employee makes a meaningful, engaging difference in employee morale.

By Priti Shah

Employee abuse

2009-07-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

Employee abuse is common and unreported in many organisation. This will hamper and lower the productivity level among the employees. Section which is more prone towards the employee abuse is Sales and specially the sales driven organisation.

To stop employee abue the easiest and best thing to do is change jobs. If you have good, rational reasons for staying, you must begin by following all your company's procedures for resolving problems, which, no doubt, start with trying to work things out with your abuser.

Abuse has nothing to do with reason, so don't fool yourself that you can change an abuser by reasoning with him. However, this step serves two important purposes: a) What you perceive as abuse may be genuine misunderstandings between you and your boss that you can work out; and b) everyone you go to for help will want to know what you have done to try to resolve the problems and you must be able to report that you have done everything you could.

Learn the game. Mental abuse is a vicious mind game and if you don't want to leave the field, you have to play. You don't have to destroy your opponent to win the game, so don't waste your time and stress figuring out how to "get him". You win when you stop being abused--when you are no longer a victim--which means you win even if you quit, and you can quit any time you want to.

Play the game your way. Here are a few ideas that might help you win right where you are. If not, they can make your life a little easier while you prepare for the big game:

Be the classy one in the joint; don't let your anger rule; think before dealing with your abuser; act, rather than react to her put-downs. If she accuses you of something you didn't do, state your case and leave it at that. Bullies love it when you get defensive, because they see you as helpless, which means they have control, so don't encourage her by giving her that satisfaction.
If you don't handle stress well, learn how from a mental health pro, book, or friend, or take a class.
Try not to confront or aggravate her in a way that could get you fired. You want control over whether or not you leave and when, and under what circumstances, preferably after you've found a better job. Also you want to be able to say you quit whenever the subject comes up.
When a bully can hurt you, she is in charge. When you don't let her hurt you, you are in charge. When she calls the shots about when to put you down or falsely accuse you, or whatever it is she does, she has control. When you refuse to fight or accept her put-downs, you have control.
Don't retaliate. Above all, keep your record clean and do the very best work you can. Don't give your abuser anything to work with when she has to explain her behavior to someone and tries to excuse it as necessary discipline or constructive criticism.
Remember this: People tend not to empathize with "sinners who throw stones", and empathy could come in handy before this is over.

By Priti Shah

Office Grapevine

2009-07-23T07:07:00.000-07:00

Grapevine means informal transmission of information, gossip, or rumor from person to person. Grapevine has its own advantage and disadvantage which has to be handled very carefully as things can haywire which can lead to employee conflict, harder and difficult to diagnose.

Making the Grapevine Work for You

--- Take everything you hear with a grain of salt

Before you act on something you hear, confirm that it's true. A lot of what comes down the pike is downright false. And then there's the "telephone effect." Remember the children's game, telephone? You whisper something to the person next to you and then he or she whispers what he or she thinks you said to the next person, and so on. Then the last person in the chain says it aloud. The first person in the chain then repeats the original

sentence which of course is quite different.

--- Contribute at your own risk

Keep in mind the previous point that your words may get mangled. Be very carefully about telling even a trusted coworker anything that you wouldn't want everyone to know. You may be great at keeping a secret but not everyone is so virtuous.

--- Use the grapevine to your advantage

If you had a great success at work or worked hard on a project, this is information you want to share. You never know who it'll reach. If someone has done something to irk you, you might consider mentioning this to someone who's likely to share it. Of course it's important to be straightforward and you shouldn't have to be under handed when it comes to letting someone know how you feel. However, being direct isn't always the best approach.

By Priti Shah

Induction Process

2009-07-20T07:41:00.000-07:00

Induction Training is vital for new hires. A well conducted induction ensures new hires are retained, and then settled in speedily and comfortably in a constructive role. Induction training is about the basics that seasoned employees take for granted: shift timings; holiday routine; casual/sick leave policy; location of the cafeteria; dress code; etc. etc. New employees also need to understand the organization’s goals, values and philosophy; personnel practices, and of course the job they're required to do. This is also a time to establish clear foundations and expectations in terms of ethics, integrity, corporate social responsibility, and all the other converging theories in this area that are the bedrock of all responsible modern enterprises. Professionally organized and delivered induction training is your new employees' first proper impression of you and your enterprise; this makes it an ideal occasion to reinforce their decision to come and work for you.

Now imagine conducting induction training every time you hire someone; and if current employee turnover rates are anything to go by, then you will be inducting some new hires every week, if not every day! If induction is carried out in the traditional manner then you end up investing considerable time and human capital; draining your resources unnecessarily.

According to me, the induction process should be looked upon as a process to integrate a new-comer into the organization in the quickest possible manner and get him/her comfortable so that s/he starts working at optimum levels quickly.

This is akin to getting a new family member integrated into your family. For this, you should go to extreme levels - remember this is where you are creating the stepping stones for trust.

For this, you need to think of:

- Activities you need to do before the employee joins (access cards, computers, work stations, team assignments, visiting cards, computer access codes, project integration plans etc etc)

- Activities and processes you need to do on the day the employee joins (picking up the employees - if new to the city, special entry badges, security guards to be informed of names and they be instructed to give special attention to the new joinees, a separate waiting area for them (not the reception please), forms processing can be done later, getting seniors to meet with them, getting immediate supervisors to meet with them, getting the CEO to meet with them in the first 3 weeks, assigning a buddy and getting him/her to greet/meet them etc etc, welcome kit,)

- Activities and processes you need to do after the induction process

By Priti Shah

Becoming Professional…..

2009-07-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

In today’s world, people tend to call themselves professional and even comment on others to be unprofessional. So what are the things a person should focus on to be on toe’s with today’s competitive world

Understanding Professional Roles and Norms

A central theme of professionalism involves understanding the formal and informal expectations. Given the constant changes affecting the profession, an ongoing relationship with the broader profession is essential to maintaining an awareness of current practices and new roles and norms. Some of the activities a leader may participate in include subscribing to and reading publications of these associations and regularly attending relevant continuing-education programs.

Working with Others

Another key element of professionalism involves cultivating and managing working relationships with others. Effectiveness in delivering and receiving constructive feedback is a hallmark of professionalism. Maintaining networks with colleagues and participating in a professional association are also highly important activities.

Managing Oneself

A third component of professionalism involves managing our own resources--our time, energy, and expertise as well as our professional standards. Skills relevant in this area include a person's ability to manage time and stress, hold to high ethical and professional standards, and cultivate a sense of personal responsibility and accountability for his or her professional work. The focus here is on participating in proactive career planning and lifelong learning.

Contributing

The final component of professionalism relates to the expectations that a leader will pursue opportunities to give back to the profession and field. Within the work environment, this contributing area for a leader can mean serving as a mentor, advisor, and coach to others and striving to serve as an ethical guide or model. Outside of the workplace, it can include participating in community services.

By Priti Shah

How to stop office gossip?

2009-07-15T08:01:00.000-07:00

We all have experienced office gossip and we are even part of it but does gossip hurts the culture and environment of the organisation? Yes. A certain steps have to be taken gossip have kept minimal or negative which is definitely deadly and here are the following points which can help to stop it.

Stop at-work chit chat by halting a conversation that is headed in a gossipy direction. Try lines such as, "Let's hold off talking about Sheila until she's here," or "This not something I feel comfortable talking about with Peter in the next room." Your co-workers will be caught off-guard, but chances are they will change the subject.

Announce the possibility that email correspondence may be recorded. Large companies perform random checks of at-work email, and this tactic can be very effective at eliminating office gossip. True, coworkers can still talk in the break room, but that's a much riskier move than spreading gossip via people's inboxes.

Remind yourself and others that participating in gossip ruins credibility. Although coworkers may come to you for gossip, they certainly won't come to you with a serious secret or when they are in need of trusted business advice. Unfortunately, gossip goes on your invisible resume and may slow the speed at which you achieve career goals.

Attack gossip indirectly by working toward a tighter knit community. Humans are naturally petty and self-centered, but gossip is much more likely to occur when coworkers are not getting along. If you have the luxury of working in a small or medium-sized office, create an environment that brings out the best in everyone. You'll see the gossip greatly reduced. In larger, more corporate offices, this is a difficult feat. Bring in professionals for community-building events or demand that everyone attend an office retreat.

Shut your own mouth. A surefire way to put a stop to office gossip is to take yourself out of the game entirely. When your mouth is shut, you can't dish it out and you can't take it. Coworkers will respect your ability to rise above the small talk.

By Priti Shah

How to reduce Conflict at workplace?

2009-07-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

Conflict management refers to the long-term management of intractable conflicts. It is the label for the variety of ways by which people handle grievances—standing up for what they consider to be right and against what they consider to be wrong. We have to manage ourself and our subordinate so could save to fall pray for something which is not desirable in an organization which needs successful team to achieve organizational goal.

The following pointers can help reduce conflict at workplace:

1. Regularly review job descriptions. Get your employee's input to them. Write down and date job descriptions. Ensure:

a. Job roles don't conflict.

2. Intentionally build relationships with all subordinates.

a. Meet at least once a month alone with them in office.

b. Ask about accomplishments, challenges and issues.

3. Get regular, written status reports and include:

a. Accomplishments.

b. Currents issues and needs from management.

c. Plans for the upcoming period.

4. Conduct basic training about:

a. Interpersonal communications.

b. Conflict management.

c. Delegation.

5. Develop procedures for routine tasks and include the employees' input.

a. Have employees write procedures when possible and appropriate.

b. Get employees' review of the procedures.

c. Distribute the procedures.

d. Train employees about the procedures.

6. Regularly hold management meetings, for example, every month, to communicate new initiatives and status of current programs.

7. Consider an anonymous suggestion box in which employees can provide suggestions.

By Priti Shah

Improving Employee Motivation

2009-07-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

To effectively motivate employees, managers need to understand what motivates employees within the context of the roles they perform. Of all the functions a manager performs, employee motivation is one of the most difficult. Igniting a spark of motivation in your workforce starts with figuring out how to appeal to each employee’s unique needs and desires. The information you will gain also demonstrates how their personal goals are achieved through the attainment of organizational objectives.

No matter the size of your company, having a team of motivated, hard-working employees is crucial to your business success. When people lose their motivation, however, their job performance suffers -- they become less productive, less creative, less of an asset to the company.

Here are useful pointers on getting your employees enthused, productive, and ready to give their all:

Build a foundation. It’s important to build a solid foundation for your employees so they feel invested in the company. Tell them about the history of the business and your vision for the future. Ask them about their expectations and career goals, as well as how you can help them feel part of the team. When any new employee starts, make sure he or she receives a thorough welcome orientation.

Create a positive environment. Promote an office atmosphere that makes all employees feel worthwhile and important. Don’t play favorites with your staff.

Put people on the right path. Most employees are looking for advancement opportunities within their own company. Work with each of them to develop a career growth plan that takes into consideration both their current skills and future goals. If employees become excited about what’s down the road, they will become more engaged in their present work.

Educate the masses. Help employees improve their professional skills by providing on-the-job training or in-house career development. Allow them to attend workshops and seminars related to the industry. Encourage them to attend adult education classes paid for by the company. Employees will feel you are investing in them, and this will translate into an improved job performance.

Don’t forget the fun. Once in a while you have put work aside and do something nice for the people who work for you. Treat the office to a pizza lunch or take everyone to the movies. Reward employees with an unexpected day off or by closing the office early on a random Friday afternoon.

Acknowledge contributions. You can make a huge difference in employee morale simply by taking the time to recognize each employee’s contributions and accomplishments, large or small. Be generous with praise.

Provide incentives. Offer people incentives to perform well, either with something small like a gift certificate or something more substantial such as a performance-based bonus or salary increase. Give out “Employee of the Month” awards. Such tokens of appreciation will go far in motivating employees.

Honor your promises. Getting people to give their all requires following through on promises. If you tell an employee that he or she will be considered for a bonus if numbers improve or productivity increases, you’d better put your money where your mouth is. Failure to follow through on promises will result in a loss of trust -- not only that person’s trust, but the trust of every employee that hears the story.

By Priti Shah

Employee Empowerment?

2009-07-09T21:55:00.000-07:00

An organization’s human resource is its most valuable asset. The employees are the repository of knowledge, skills and abilities that can’t be imitated by the competitors. Technologies, products and processes are easily imitated by the competitors; however, at the end of the day, employees are the most strategic resource of the company.

Generally, people are a firm’s most underutilized resource. And that is why management tries to empower the employees. But employees often are afraid of taking this responsibility. They fear the additional work pressure that they will have to bear as a part of being empowered. Besides, they also fear being held accountable for the decisions they make.

For employee empowerment to work successfully, the management team must be truly committed to allowing employees to make decisions. They may wish to define the scope of decisions made. Building decision-making teams is often one of the models used in employee empowerment, because it allows for managers and workers to contribute ideas toward directing the company.

Autocratic managers, who are micromanagers, tend not to be able to utilize employee empowerment. These types of managers tend to oversee all aspects of others’ work, and usually will not give up control. A manager dedicated to employee empowerment must be willing to give up control of some aspects of work production.

When employees feel as though they have choice and can make direct decisions, this does often lead to a greater feeling of self-worth. In a model where power is closely tied to sense of self, having some power is a valuable thing. An employee who does not feel constantly watched and criticized is more likely to consider work as a positive environment, rather than a negative one.

One easy way to begin employee empowerment in the workplace is to install a suggestion box, where workers can make suggestions without fear of punishment or retribution. However, simply placing a suggestion box somewhere is only the first step. Managers must then be willing to read and consider suggestions. They might provide a forum where questions or suggestions receive a response, like a weekly or monthly newsletter. In addition, managers can hold a once monthly meeting open to employees where all suggestions are addressed.

By Priti Shah

Laurent & Benon Management Consultants Ltd, a public limited company with its corporate office Gurgaon with Pan-India presence. We as an organization strive to offer the right Human Resource Solutions at the right time and enable our clients to enhance the net worth of their human resource capital.

Employee Privacy

2009-07-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

Employee Privacy is a much debated issue in the current context of increasing internet usage, email at work, data security, employee thefts and electronic surveillance of work places.

Employee Privacy issues have been explicitly brought out in countries like USA where invasion of privacy is considered to be a major infringement of individual rights. There is considerable degree of explicitness that is guaranteed by the law in the context like US for the employee to contest invasion of privacy (For example: Electronic communication privacy act). However in a country like India where we consider data security as paramount and when there is a growing concern about loss of data security, more focus is brought on increasing employee surveillance thus hampering employee privacy further.

Human resource management and privacy:

Extending the dictionary definition of privacy, employee privacy can be defined as the —Freedom for employees from unauthorized intrusion from employers“or in the US context it is widely understood as — the general right of the individual to be let alone“ (Bennett and Locke, 1998). However it is intriguing and would be difficult to segregate what level of information can be sought or demanded that is needed for the organizational business purposes and how far it can be done. The various human resource management practices like recruitment, performance appraisal, employee discipline management and adherence to code of conduct, exit interviews and business operation processes like data security and performance monitoring are potential areas where employee vulnerability can be misused. May be many of the issues would be highly contextual.

An interesting example in the Indian context is linked to the queries that employers generally face regarding the authenticity of employee‘s records for marriage proposals. Though such issues may be amusing in a western culture, organizations in India take different approaches to deal with such issues. For example when a similar issue was posed in front of a group of HR managers, few suggested that —facts regarding an employee can be shared“, —it is beneficial for the employee too“, and few remarked that — our organization has strict policy regarding non disclosure of employee records“. It would be interesting to understand what would be the level of general agreement amongst various organizations.

By Priti Shah

Employer/Employee relations

2009-07-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

Employer/employee relations refer to the communication that takes place between representatives of employees and employers. Much of the employee relations involve employees and employers working together. Indeed, the aim of the policies in Indian Organizations should be to create a system of shared responsibility of employers and employees for working practices, conditions and other areas of working life. This policy of shared responsibility is called co-determination.

Discussions between employers and employees typically cover the following areas:

Bonuses

The work environment

Disputes

Work schedules

Grievances

Health and safety

Hours of work

Production targets.

Successful employer/employee relations involve striking a balance of interests. From the employer's point of view, industrial relations is about having the right to manage - the ability to plan for the future so that a company can continue to be a success, to make profits for its shareholders and to keep its employees motivated. From the employee's point of view, it is all about securing the best possible conditions and living standards for employees.

Loyal workers in bad times

What can employees fairly expect from their employers in times like these? In tough times true character is revealed—this is just as true for companies as it is for individuals. The way employees are treated when the chips are down says a great deal about what really matters to employers. Ironically, these difficulties provide opportunities for employers to earn tremendous loyalty from their workforce. Of course, if the cards are misplayed, the damage in employee relations can take years to repair.

By Priti Shah

Major HR Challenges

2009-07-06T22:13:00.000-07:00

The environment faced by human resource is challenging one; changes are occurring rapidly across a wide range of issues. Clearly HR departments are evolving in our country. From an administrative perspective, the focus is now on a strategic outlook where talent HR professionals look at improving the work environment and plan out human resource needs. Though it is a reflection of what is happening in the western context, the Indian work force and industrial climate is changing. This short article looks at five major challenges that we facing in terms of human resources and human resource management.

The environment faced by human resource is challenging one; changes are occurring rapidly across a wide range of issues. It appears that the most prevalent challenges facing HR management are as follows:

Economic and technological change
Workforce availability ad quality concerns
Demographics and diversity issues
Organizational restructuring

1. Economic and technological change:

Several economic changes have occurred that have altered employment and occupational paterns in India. A major shift change is the shift of jobs from manufacturing and agriculture to service industries. The example of computerization of banking industries which forced many to quit they refused to change to technological change. The explosive growth of information technology particularly that linked to the internet, has forced many change throughout organizations of all types.

Occupational shifts: The increase in the technology jobs is due to the rapid increase in the use of information technology, such as databases, system design and analysis, and desktop publishing. The software development and export which is growing base of Indian software industry has been acting towards occupational change.
Global Competition: One major factor affecting these shifts is the globalization of economic forces. Globalization has brought more sophistication to process and skills which lacking in Indian workforce.

2. Workforce availability and Quality concerns: India’s education system is facing stiff challenge to meet demands of industry players, as jobs requiring advance knowledge and skills are on rise from sectors like Information technology, Animation, Bio-technology. Indian education system falling deaf ears to industry player’s requirement, resisting change which made literate considered being unemployable by industry. Various subject of importance in education system are not updated and inducted in the education syllabus. The need of the hour is a dialogue between Industry players and education system to bring their problem on the table, as growing demand for knowledge and skill based labor is fuelling the pressure on the skilled labor market.

3. Demographics

India is still facing threat of migration of workers from backward areas to metropolitan cities which is leading to overcrowded metro city, lack of government equal region development policy has definitely not working. But what human resource has to do with demographics, human resource has to plan development of workers from backward areas which will reduce cost and provide them opportunity, HR has to place plan to management of putting facility in backward areas.

4. Organizational restructuring

Many organizations have restructured in the past few years in order to become more competitive. Also, mergers and acquisitions of firms in the same industries have been made to ensure global competitiveness As part of the organizational changes, many organizations have “right sized” either by (1) eliminating layers of managers, (2) closing facilities, (3) merging with other organizations, or (4) outpacing workers. A common transformation has been to flatten organizations by removing several layers of management and to improve productivity, quality, and service while also reducing costs.

As a result, jobs are redesigned and people affected. One of the challenges that HR management faces with organizational restructuring is dealing with the human consequences of change. The human cost associated with downsizing has been much discussed in the popular press: a survivor’s mentality for those who remain, unfulfilled cost savings estimates, loss of loyalty, and many people looking for new jobs.

By Priti Shah

Employee Welfare

2009-07-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

“Employee welfare is a comprehensive term including various services, benefits and facilities offered to employees & by the employers. Through such generous fringe benefits the employer makes life worth living for employees.”

Welfare includes anything that is done for the comfort and improvement of employees and is provided over and above the wages. Welfare helps in keeping the morale and motivation of the employees high so as to retain the employees for longer duration. The welfare measures need not be in monetary terms only but in any kind/forms. Employee welfare includes monitoring of working conditions, creation of industrial harmony through infrastructure for health, industrial relations and insurance against disease, accident and unemployment for the workers and their families.

Employee welfare entails all those activities of employer which are directed towards providing the employees with certain facilities and services in addition to wages or salaries.

The very logic behind providing welfare schemes is to create efficient, healthy, loyal and satisfied labor force for the organization.

The purpose of providing such facilities is to make their work life better and also to raise their standard of living. The important benefits of welfare measures can be summarized as follows:

They provide better physical and mental health to workers and thus promote a healthy work environment
Facilities like housing schemes, medical benefits, and education and recreation facilities for workers’ families help in raising their standards of living. This makes workers to pay more attention towards work and thus increases their productivity.
Employers get stable labor force by providing welfare facilities. Workers take active interest in their jobs and work with a feeling of involvement and participation.
Employee welfare measures increase the productivity of organization and promote healthy industrial relations thereby maintaining industrial peace.
The social evils prevalent among the labors such as substance abuse, etc are reduced to a greater extent by the welfare policies.

For example at Bajaj Electricals there are many welfare activities like long service and retirement awards on 14th July every year for employees, to be categorized into 15 years long service and 25 long service.

There is also welfare trust which formed by Bajaj Electricals for providing loan to employees for housing needs and also for the reimbursement of medical expenses. They have created “social responsibility of buiness fund” to provide scholoarship to employes and children for higher education and also there is emergency assistance in the form of financial assistance to the family in case of death of any employee in harness.

By Priti Shah

Whistleblower, what?

2009-07-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

An exploration into some employees blow the whistle against wrong practices and corruption in the organization, how it impacts the organization and the whistle blower, and what organizations can do to create an environment which helps employees to prevent organizationally and socially undesirable practices.

whistleblowing is an honorable technique against corruption – by exposing the malpractices in one’s marketplace.

A whistleblower is a person who publicly alleges concealed misconduct on the part of an organization or body of people, usually from within that same organisation. This misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations, and corruption. Whistleblowers may make their allegations internally (for example, to other people within the accused organisation) or externally (to law enforcement agencies, to the media or to groups concerned with the issues).

Whistleblowers frequently face reprisal - sometimes at the hands of the organisation or group which they have accused, sometimes from related organizations

As things stand today in India, the chances of enacting such legislation may seem remote. But whistleblower protection measures are gathering a momentum of their own around the world, aided partly by spectacular government and corporate scandals. It is just a question of time before we shift from our present culture of zero tolerance of whistleblowing to a culture of zero tolerance of whistleblower retaliation.

By Priti Shah

How to stop worrying, be happy?

2009-07-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

Almost everyone have heard the hit single 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' by Bobby McFerrin. The song has a very catchy way of conveying its message of being happy to everyone. Bobby Mcferiin's simple message surely made a lot of people by telling them not to worry.

Social networks or relationships are essential to happiness. People are different, accept people for who or what they are, avoid clashes, constant arguments, and let go of all kinds of resentments. If arguments seem unavoidable still try and make an effort to understand the situation and you might just get along with well with.

The following points can help you a lot if you wish to work in that area:

· Practice “letting go” and surrendering your negative thinking to the Divine having faith that there is a greater intelligence in the Universe that is in charge. You have now resigned as General Manager of the Universe.

· Relax and visualize a preferred positive outcome to your concern and picture it as already having happened that way. Since you don’t really know what will happen in the future, you might as well choose an outcome that blesses you right now rather than a negative one that eats away at you physically, mentally and emotionally

Begin to live with a daily attitude of gratitude. Starting with the smallest, simplest thing that you can appreciate right now, say “thank you” to the Divine and feel some of the pressure lift off your shoulders. Continue to count your blessings until you feel saturated with good feelings.

Crystallize your thinking in the present moment regarding what you want to do, have or become in the future and develop a plan of action for achieving it. Many life coaches offer a free half-hour consult

By Nilesh Shah

How to handle Pressure at Work?

2009-07-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

Pressure is the part of the job we all know that, little pressure is ok to get the task done with improved performance but excessive pressure can lead to lot of problem mentally and physically. Nowadays many people think of ways to reduce pressure at work as growing competition and business hierarchy are major causes of pressure.

So I would suggest the following things which can help you reduce pressure:

1. Take time before you react. Study any given situation carefully, think about it and come up with a plan. This is better way to respond than being hasty.

2. Prioritize tasks, focus on tasks which are linked to your most immediate objective.

3. Direct your energy toward situations where you can affect the outcome and don’t spend time worrying about what you cannot change. Successful people focus on tasks which they can control and let go of the rest.

4. Take the help of others. You can seek the input of other people before reaching any decision. You may also delegate some tasks to others if you have a tight schedule. Decide which tasks can be delegated to other people and do so.

5. Learn how to deal with different kinds of people at work - complainers, aggressive people etc. Develop your listening skills in order to interact better with people and pay attention to improving your communication skills.

6. Stop looking at the clock. When you have to meet a tight deadline, then instead of constantly looking at the clock, focus on the task at hand. Do the task with full concentration. Break bigger tasks down into smaller ones, try to finish the most urgent tasks first and then the low-priority ones. Assign time frames dedicated solely for each particular task.

7. Think positively at all times. Maintain mental discipline by not allowing thoughts of failure into your head.

8. Keep Your Mind In The Present. Winners maintain mental focus in the present. The here and now is where you perform, not the regrets of the past or the uncertainty of the future. Focus on what you are doing, when you do it.

9. Focus on the task and not the outcome. Achievers keep their eye on the journey and not the goal. Having objectives is helpful, but when you execute, stay focused on the process. You cannot completely control the outcome as it can depend on many other factors, some of which may not be in your hands.

10. Enjoy yourself: Relaxation is important if you want to perform any task well. If you are stressed out, then you may not be able to give your 100%. So enjoy the task you are doing, and you will feel relaxed and enthusiastic about it.

11. Water bottle. Eight glasses of water a day are recommended by experts. Keep a bottle at your desk to stay hydrated and avoid fatigue and sluggishness—two major signs of dehydration.

12. Tea. The most consumed beverage in the world, tea can increase energy, stimulate brain activity and increase information retention.

Today's business setting will always be full of pressure. Because of technology and consumer demands, businesses have to be swift and should always meet their target or else their company will not survive for a very long time.

Businesses place this pressure on their employees as employees have to work really hard to meet the goal. Employees know that if they do not perform, they slowly contribute to the eventual downfall of the company they are working for. Some even work overtime just to make sure the meet the expected productivity and let the business survive for the next day.

By Priti Shah

Balanced Scorecard Basics

2009-06-30T21:34:00.000-07:00

Many companies have adopted balanced scorecard which helps in building better business processes. The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organization performance against strategic goals.

Kaplan and Norton describe the innovation of the balanced scorecard as follows:

"The balanced scorecard retains traditional financial measures. But financial measures tell the story of past events, an adequate story for industrial age companies for which investments in long-term capabilities and customer relationships were not critical for success. These financial measures are inadequate, however, for guiding and evaluating the journey that information age companies must make to create future value through investment in customers, suppliers, employees, processes, technology, and innovation."

Kaplan and Norton recommend a nine-step process for creating and implementing the balanced scorecard in an organization.

1. Perform an overall organizational assessment.

2. Identify strategic themes.

3. Define perspectives and strategic objectives.

4. Develop a strategy map.

5. Drive performance metrics.

6. Refine and prioritize strategic initiatives.

7. Automate and communicate.

8. Implement the balanced scorecard throughout the organization.

9. Collect data, evaluate, and revise.

I wish above information will help you with the concept of Balanced Scorecard and will definitely push you towards balanced scorecard adoption in your organization.

By Priti Shah

Workforce Management

2009-06-29T21:38:00.000-07:00

Workforce Management (WFM) encompasses all the responsibilities for maintaining a productive and happy workforce. Sometimes referred to as HRMS systems, or even the larger ERP systems. Specifically, these areas may include:

§ Payroll & Benefits

§ HR Administration

§ Time & Attendance

§ Career & Succession Planning

§ Talent Management and/or Applicant Tracking

§ Learning Management and/or Training Management

§ Performance Management

§ Forecasting and Scheduling

§ Workforce tracking and Emergency assist

Strategic Workforce Planning is the business process for ensuring that an organization has suitable access to talent to ensure future business success. Access to talent includes considering all potential access sources (employment, contracting out, partnerships, changing business activities to modify the types of talent required, etc. By talent is meant the skills, knowledge, predisposition and ability to undertake required activities including decisions making. Strategic Planning considers the business risks concerning insufficient, disrupted, mis-deployed talent on the organization's business priorities.

Though there is no definitive ‘Start here’ activity for any of the approaches to Strategic Workforce Planning, there are five fundamentals activities that most Workforce Plan models have:

§ Environment Scan

§ Current Workforce Profile

§ Future Workforce View

§ Analysis and Targeted Future

§ Closing the gaps

Some of the techniques adopted by companies exampled in the study include:

A workforce analytics approach - mining both current and historical workforce data to identify the key relationships among the variables and between employee and business data. Dow Chemical has used this approach throughout a 10-year evolution of its workforce planning process.
Forecasting and scenario modeling - using data to create forecasts that incorporate multiple what-if scenarios. These enable executives to evaluate strategic options. The study describes how a "major bank" decides where to locate a new call center based partly on this approach.
Human capital planning - used by Corning and others to segment jobs on a basis of their "mission-criticality", making different levels of workforce investment in each segment. This approach focuses on broad 3-4 year trends, rather than precise headcounts and short-term plans.

By Priti Shah

Recruitment Process

2009-06-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

Recruitment refers to the process of screening, and selecting qualified people for a job at an organisation or firm, or for a vacancy in a volunteer-based some components of the recruitment process, mid- and large-size organizations and companies often retain professional recruiters or outsource some of the process to recruitment agencies. External recruitment is the process of attracting and selecting employees from outside the organization.

The recruitment and selection is the major function of the human resource department and recruitment process is the first step towards creating the competitive strength and the strategic advantage for the organizations. Recruitment process involves a systematic procedure from sourcing the candidates to arranging and conducting the interviews and requires many resources and time. A general recruitment process is as follows:

Identifying the vacancy:

The recruitment process begins with the human resource department receiving requisitions for recruitment from any department of the company.

These contain:

-- Posts to be filled

-- Number of persons

-- Duties to be performed

-- Qualifications required

Preparing the job description and person specification.
Locating and developing the sources of required number and type of employees (Advertising etc).
Short-listing and identifying the prospective employee with required characteristics.
Arranging the interviews with the selected candidates.
Conducting the interview and decision making

Recruitment Process

Identify vacancy
Prepare job description and person specification
Advertising the vacancy
Managing the response
Short-listing
Arrange interviews
Conducting interview and decision making

The recruitment process is immediately followed by the selection process i.e. the final interviews and the decision making, conveying the decision and the appointment formalities.

By Priti Shah

Measuring Training Effectiveness

2009-06-25T22:08:00.000-07:00

Training is a critical component in any organization's strategy, but organizations don't always evaluate the business impact of a training program. Given the large expenditures for training in many organizations, it is important to develop business intelligence tools that will help companies improve the measurement of training effectiveness. These tools need to provide a methodology to measure, evaluate, and continuously improve training, as well as the organizational and technical infrastructure (systems) to implement the methodology. Cross-functional and reporting and learning analytics provide important connections between the measures of learning effectiveness offered by a learning management system (LMS) and the larger enterprise metrics that indicate whether learning is transferred and positively affects business results.

Training Effectiveness & its Significance

In India, training as an activity has been going on as a distinct field with its own roles, structures and budgets, but it is still young. This field is, however; expanding fast but controversies seem to envelop any attempts to find benefits commensurate with the escalating costs of training. Training has made remarkable contributions to the improvement of all kinds. Training is essential; but doubts arise over its contribution in practice. Complaints are growing over its ineffectiveness and waste. The training apparatus and costs have multiplied but Unhappiness persists and is growing at the working level where the benefits of training should show up most clearly. This disillusionment shows in many ways - reluctance to send the most talented workforce for training, inadequate use of personnel after training, etc.

With disillusionment mounting in the midst of expansion, training has entered a dangerous phase in its development. Training is neither a panacea for all ills nor is it a waste of time. What is required is an insight into what training can or cannot do, and skill in designing and executing training successfully and cost-effectively.

At the present time, all the organizations give more trust on commercializing their activities. All the firms, in order to continue to exist in the competitive global market and to be effectual, should espouse the most modern technology, i.e., mechanization, computerization and automation. Technical know-how alone, however, does not assure success unless it is sustained by workforce possessing indispensable expertise. Hence, organizations should train the employees to enrich them in the areas of changing technical skills and knowledge from time to time.

The Input-Process-Output Model for an Effective Training

Input

· Training need analysis: survey based on performance gaps in previous year & performance opportunities in the next year.

· Periodical request from department heads based on potential appraisal exercises.

· Information on implementation of new practices, technological changes, strategic moves, and changes in the environment.

· Information on new recruitments.

· Updation of procedures, rules & regulations.

· Training policy of the administration

Process

· Exercise of determining needs & maintenance of training register

· Verification of need to prepare training plans

· Deciding to conduct onsite programmes, if large number of participants require training.

· Deputation of employees for short term training programmes conducted by local training institutes.

· Conducting induction training for new recruits.

· Monitoring the training conducted by various departments.

· Implementation of changes in the prgramme as necessitated by the feedback.

Output

· Release of training plan

· Issue of orders of deputation for individual programmes

· Feedback on effectives: from participants, from departmental heads

Best Link Directory

By Priti Shah

Employee Satisfaction?

2009-06-24T21:46:00.001-07:00

Employee satisfaction is a measure of how happy workers are with their job and working environment. Keeping morale high among workers can be of tremendous benefit to any company, as happy workers will be more likely to produce more, take fewer days off, and stay loyal to the company. There are many factors in improving or maintaining high employee satisfaction, which wise employers would do well to implement.

To measure employee satisfaction, many companies will have mandatory surveys or face-to-face meetings with employees to gain information. Both of these tactics have pros and cons, and should be chosen carefully. Surveys are often anonymous, allowing workers more freedom to be honest without fear of repercussion. Interviews with company management can feel intimidating, but if done correctly can let the worker know that their voice has been heard and their concerns addressed by those in charge.

Many experts believe that one of the best ways to maintain employee satisfaction is to make workers feel like part of a family or team. Holding office events, such as parties or group outings, can help build close bonds among workers. Many companies also participate in team-building retreats that are designed to strengthen the working relationship of the employees in a non-work related setting. Camping trips, Paintball wars and guided backpacking trips are versions of this type of team-building strategy, with which many employers have found success.

Energy -- If the air around the office is crackling with energy and enthusiasm then it definitely indicates that everyone is raring to go! The spring in the step definitely indicates that the person is charged up to face a multitude of tasks. A spontaneous rendition of the latest popular song while being alert and glued to the monitor just indicates that the person is enjoying his job just like one would a song and dance routine!

Smile -- This curve is the most obvious indication of an employee's satisfaction. Happy employees make for happy work environments. The lack of a smile and an agitated demeanor clearly signals that the employee is not happy about something within the company, be it the individual's job, or the work environment.

Banter -- Office banter roughly includes coffee table and lunchroom conversations and general gossip. Keep track of the groups of employees who gravitate together out of common interests. What is being discussed at these places will help the HR department effectively pinpoint the levels of satisfaction within the office.

Willingness to take on extra -- Employees who are happy with their jobs do not mind taking extra loads of the same kind. Since they obviously enjoy what they are doing, they do not mind the extra work once in a while!

Faithfulness to Deadlines! -- Adhering to deadlines is not a problem when a job is executed with enthusiasm. Lack of motivation coupled with lethargy is kept at bay as the work is viewed not as burden but as fun.

The backbone of employee satisfaction is respect for workers and the job they perform. In every interaction with management, employees should be treated with courtesy and interest. An easy avenue for employees to discuss problems with upper management should be maintained and carefully monitored. Even if management cannot meet all the demands of employees, showing workers that they are being heard and putting honest dedication into compromising will often help to improve morale.

By Priti Shah

Job Analysis

2009-06-23T22:03:00.001-07:00

A job analysis is the process used to collect information about the duties, responsibilities, necessary skills, outcomes, and work environment of a particular job. You need as much data as possible to put together a Job description, which is the frequent outcome of the job analysis. Additional outcomes include recruiting plans, position postings and advertisements, and performance development planning within your performance management system.

In other words Job analysis is the process whereby jobs are investigated in sufficient detail to enable (a) recruitment of people into them or (b) assessment of the performance of people who are already working in them.

The job analysis may include these activities:

Reviewing the job responsibilities of current employees,
Doing Internet research and viewing sample job descriptions online or offline highlighting similar jobs,
Analyzing the work duties, tasks, and responsibilities that need to be accomplished by the employee filling the position,
Researching and sharing with other companies that have similar jobs, and
Articulation of the most important outcomes or contributions needed from the position.

Job analysis is a five-step technique for:

· Understanding and agreeing how to achieve peak performance in your job;

· Ensuring that you and your boss agree on the areas you should concentrate on when time gets tight; and the areas that can be de-emphasized during this time; and

· Making sure that you have the resources, training and staff needed to do a good job.

Job Analysis is just one of many practical action-oriented techniques for reducing the stress of job overload. These and other types of technique help you to resolve structural problems within jobs, work more effectively with your boss and powerful people, improve the way your teams function and become more assertive so that other people respect your right not to take on an excessive workload. These are all important techniques for bringing job stress under control, for improving the quality of your working life, and for achieving career success.

By Priti Shah

How to build Team?

2009-06-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

Building team is a great task of today’s organization as diversity at workplace, work pressure and economic slowdown makes the formation worse and leads to lot of problems like clashes of ideas, distrust, even conflict and diversion from ultimate goal of the organization.

First thing you need to start is to relate to people and your ability to build team to weather all bad and good times. I would suggest the following pointers which will help in building teams which should be interested in building good teams.

1. Vision
Vision means being able to excite the team with large, desired outcomes.

Large outcomes mean devising goals that attract missionaries. The first step in vision is to project such a goal. This goal must be bigger than a pay check. It must contain challenge, appeal to personal pride, and provide an opportunity to make a difference and know it. Then the goal can become a powerful vision.

2. Commitment
Commitment can be a dangerous concept because of its attendant assumptions. Some may assume, for example, that commitment means long hours, while to others it may mean productivity. When expectations are defined, success rates soar. When leaders assume that everyone "should" be committed, as a matter of course, we overlook the difficulties many have with certain commitments.

3. Trust
Trust is the antidote to the fears and risks attendant to meaningful commitment. Trust means confidence in team leadership and vision. When trust prevails, team members are more willing to go through a difficult process, supported through ups, downs, risk and potential loss.

Trust is most efficiently established when leadership commits to vision first, and everyone knows those commitments are genuine. The process for leaders to commit is the same as for everyone else: assess pre-commitment doubts, questions, unknowns and fears. This involves three simple steps:

• List the unknowns.
• Assess worst case scenarios and their survivability.
• Research the unknowns.

4. Inclusion
Inclusion means getting others to commit to the team effort, helping others through their "diving board doubts" to genuine commitment. Since leaders now understand this process first hand, we need only communicate with the potential team members to complete inclusion.

The best setting to obtain buy-in and build trust is in small groups that facilitate thorough give and take. The basic tasks are to communicate the vision, make sure it is understood, communicate leadership's commitment (including sharing risk and reward, and how), and elicit and address peoples' doubts.

5. Help Exchange

The final step in creating the team is to establish a corroborative, balanced strategy for reaching the committed vision. This plan will consist of all of the tasks and help exchange necessary to realize the overall vision. Your teammates themselves are in the best position to supply this information. Since by this time you have laid the groundwork for trust, and established good buy-in, your teammates are likely to be enthusiastically cooperative.

By Priti Shah

How to resolve workplace conflict

2009-06-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

Conflict in the workplace is the result of a variety of factors. Perhaps the most significant cause is when someone feels taken advantage of. This might happen when a perfectionist boss demands the same dedication and commitment from employees as he or she exhibits, but does not compensate them for the late or weekend hours.

Other scenarios include the employee having unrealistic expectations of what their job position really is, or of being misunderstood in the workplace. Conflict also arises because of values and goal differences in the company. The company may not have goals or not adequately express the goals and values to their employees. Conversely, the employee may have personal goals and values at odds with those of the company.

Conflict may be defined as “a disagreement, clash, struggle or battle between ideas, principles, or people”. Yet ideas and principles do not clash by themselves - people are always involved. When we have the skills to handle conflict well, we learn more about each other, and the clashes make room for creative new ideas and possibilities.

There are four specific steps managers can take to reduce workplace conflict. The first is for managers to look at communication skills, both in terms of how they communicate and how they’re teaching their employees to communicate with each other. This, of course, includes using ‘I’ statements instead of ‘you’ language. Owning your own feelings and your own communication is a much more effective way to communicate and even more, teaching your employees to communicate that way with others, goes a long way toward reducing conflict.

The second way to decrease workplace conflict is to establish healthy boundaries. Without boundaries, there will be conflict and squabbles, power struggles and all kinds of circumstances that make for messy situations.

The third factor to reducing conflict is a skill called ‘emotional intelligence.’ There are many aspects and facets but it basically means developing skills to be more effective by teaching people to combine both intelligence and emotions in the workplace. Seeing and dealing with employees as human beings with real lives are often overlooked in the busy workplace. People with high emotional intelligence can do this in a professional manner, and maintain appropriate boundaries.

The fourth aspect of reducing workplace conflict is setting up behavioral consequences to be used with truly uncooperative employees who are unwilling to change.

Unresolved conflict however can result in feelings of dissatisfaction, unhappiness, hopelessness, and other sentiments. It can result in emotional withdrawal, resignation from the job, tense personal relations, and even violence.

By Priti Shah

Employee Retention Strategies

2009-06-19T21:47:00.000-07:00

Retaining talented employees is one of the topmost priorities of employers today. Reasons for attrition could be the innumerable changes engulfing workplaces, like reorganization, higher performance standards and resultant high-pressure levels.

The challenge is not only to attract the best talent but also to retain them. Rising opportunities for career development, lifestyle decisions, job mobility, unbalanced work life, poor mentoring and stress are some factors which influence an individual's decision to continue or quit.

Retention can be categorized in 3 levels: Low, medium and high level.

Low level

Appreciating and recognizing a well done job
Recognizing professional as well as personal significant events
Providing benefits
Providing perks
Providing workplace conveniences
Fun at work
Occasional stress relievers
Employee support in tough time or personal crisis

Medium Level

Appreciating and recognizing a well done job
Benefit programs for family support
Providing conveniences at workplace
Providing training and development and personal growth opportunities

High Level

Promoting work/life
Understand employee needs
Encouraging professional training and development
Provide an environment of trust
Hire the right people from the beginning

By Priti Shah

Soft Skills Must for any Professional

2009-06-18T21:57:00.000-07:00

A person's soft skill EQ is an important part of individual contribution to the success of an organisation. Organizations, particularly those dealing with customers face-to-face, are generally more successful if they train their staff to use these skills. Screening or training for personal habits or traits such as dependability and conscientiousness can yield significant return on investment for an organization. For this reason, soft skills are increasingly sought out by employers in addition to standard qualifications.

It has been suggested that in a number of professions soft skills are more important over the long term than technical skills. The legal profession is one example where the ability to deal with people effectively and politely can determine the professional success of a lawyer more than his or her mere technical skills.

The most important soft skills that are required to any professional in these circumstances are: -

Interpersonal Skills
Team Spirit
Communication Skills
Business Etiquette
Negotiation Skills
Influencing Skills
Delegating
Appraising
Time Management
Presenting Skills

By Priti Shah

Importance of Employee/Organizational Relationships

2009-06-17T21:42:00.000-07:00

It can be argued (and it is) that the relationship between an employer and employee really does not affect performance. The employer exchanges pay for the performance of specified work, and that is all that is necessary. As in a legal agreement, one party contracts for specific services of the other party. Recent research suggests that employees perform better when they work in a situation with mutual investment, or even overinvestment by the employer, than they do in a legal agreement situation. The implication is that the employee-organizational relationship does matter and should be chosen carefully. Many employees seem to respond favorably in performance and attitude when organizations are willing to commit to a mutual relationship.

The Psychological Contract

The long-term economic health of most organizations depends on the efforts of employees with the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities. One concept that has been useful in discussing employees’ relationship with the organization is that of a psychological contract, which refers to the unwritten expectations that employees and employers have about the nature of their work relationships. Because the psychological contract is individual and subjective in nature, it focuses on expectations about “fairness” that may not be defined clearly by employees.

Traditional psychological contract

In the “good old days,” employees exchanged their efforts and capabilities for a secure job that offered rising wages, comprehensive benefits, and career progression within the organization. But as organizations have downsized and cut workers who have given long and loyal service, a growing number of employees question whether they should be loyal to their employers. The transformation in the psychological contract mirrors an evolution in which organizations have moved from employing individuals just to perform tasks, to employing individuals expected to produce results. Rather than just paying them to follow orders and put in time, increasingly employers are expecting employees to utilize their skills and capabilities to accomplish organizational results. According to one expert, the new psychological contract rewards employees for contributing to organizational success in the competitive marketplace for goods and services.

Loyalty

Studies suggest that employees do believe in these unwritten agreements or psychological contracts, and hope their employers will keep their sides of the agreement. When employers do not, employees feel a minimal necessity to contribute to the organizational productivity because they no longer trust the company. Thus, employees’ loyalty has been affected negatively. Not everyone feels that a decline in employee loyalty is a problem. However, more employers are finding that in tight labor markets turnover of key people occurs more frequently when employee loyalty is low, and they have concluded that a loyal and committed workforce is important.

By Priti Shah

Reducing job stress by taking care of yourself

2009-06-16T21:29:00.000-07:00

When stress on the job is interfering with your ability to work, care for yourself, or manage your personal life, it’s time to take action. Start by paying attention to your physical and emotional health. When your own needs are taken care of, you’re stronger and more resilient to stress. The better you feel, the better equipped you’ll be to manage work stress without becoming overwhelmed.

What is stress?

It is not always easy to identify those situations that will cause stress to a particular employee. People have different capabilities and different lives, all of which affect their ability to tolerate stressful situations.

Some common causes of workplace stress include:

Work overload
Bullying and harassment
Traumatic incidents

Taking care of yourself doesn’t require a total lifestyle overhaul. Even small things can lift your mood, increase your energy, and make you feel like you’re back in the driver’s seat. Take things one step at a time, and as you make more positive lifestyle choices, you’ll soon notice a noticeable difference in your stress level, both at home at work.

Get moving

Aerobic exercise –perspiring -is an effective anti-anxiety treatment lifting mood, increasing energy, sharpening focus and relaxing mind and body. For maximum stress relief, try to get at least 30 minutes of hear pounding activity on most days but activity can be broken up into two or three short segments.

Make food choices that keep you going and make you feel good

Eating small but frequent meals throughout the day maintains an even level of blood sugar in your body. Low blood sugar makes you feel anxious and irritable. On the other hand, eating too much can make you lethargic.

Get enough Sleep

Stress and worry can cause insomnia. But lack of sleep also leaves you vulnerable to stress. When you're sleep deprived, your ability to handle stress is compromised. When you're well-rested, it's much easier to keep your emotional balance, a key factor in coping with job and workplace stress.

Reducing job stress by prioritizing and organizing

When job and workplace stress surrounds you, you can’t ignore it, but there are simple steps you can take to regain control over yourself and the situation. Your growing sense of self-control will also be perceived by others as the strength it is, leading to better relationships at work. Here are some suggestions for reducing job stress by prioritizing and organizing your responsibilities.

§ Create a balanced schedule.

§ Don’t over-commit yourself.

§ Prioritize tasks.

§ Delegate responsibility.

By Priti Shah

Organizational Recruiting Responsibilities

2009-06-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

In small organizations, the recruiting process is simplified. For many positions, an advertisement in the local paper may be enough to tap into the local labor market. In very small organizations, the owner/manager often places the ad, determines the recruiting criteria, and makes the decision. However, for some specialist jobs, a regional or national search may be undertaken. The following are the recruiting responsibilities of the HR Unit and Managers:

Recruiting Responsibilities

HR Unit

Forecasts recruiting needs
Prepares copy for recruiting ads and campaigns
Plans and conducts recruiting efforts
Audits and evaluates all recruiting activities

Managers

Anticipate needs for employees to fill vacancies
Determine KSAs needed from applicants
Assist in recruiting effort with information about job requirements.
Review recruiting efforts activities

By Priti Shah

Evaluating Recruiting Costs and Benefits

2009-06-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

Recruiting is an important activity, the inability to generate enough qualified applicants can be a serious problem. When recruiting fails to bring in enough applicants, a common response is to raise starting salaries. This action initially may help recruiting, but often at the expense of other employees already in the organization. It also may create resentment on the part of employees who started at much lower salaries than the new hires.

In a cost/benefit analysis to evaluate recruiting efforts, costs may include both direct costs (advertising, recruiters’ salaries, travel, agency fees, telephone) and the indirect costs (involvement of operating managers, public relations, image).Benefits to consider include the following:

Length of time from contact to hire
Total size of applicant pool
Proportion of acceptances to offers
Percentage of qualified applicants in the pool

Cost/benefit information on each recruiting source can be calculated. Comparing the length of time applicants from each source stay in the organization with the cost of hiring from that source offers a useful perspective. Further, yield ratios from each source can help determine which sources generate the most employees. In summary, the effectiveness of various recruiting sources will vary depending on the nature of the job being filled and the time available to fill it. But unless calculated, the effectiveness may not be entirely obvious.

By Priti Shah

Importance of Communication in an Organization

2009-06-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

Organizational communication lays the keystone to every organization for upbringing and grooming the environment of that particular organization.It is not possible to have human relations without communication. However, good and effective communication is required not only for good human relations but also for good and successful business.

Effective communication is required at various levels and for various aspects in an organization such as –

For motivation and employee morale:

Communication is also a basic tool for motivation, which can improve morale of the employees in an organization. Inappropriate or faulty communication among employees or between manager and his subordinates is the major cause of conflict and low morale at work. Manager should clarify to employees about what is to be done, how well are they doing and what can be done for better performance to improve their motivation. He can prepare a written statement, clearly outlining the relationship between company objectives and personal objectives and integrating the interest of the two.

Importance of written communication:

Communication may be made through oral or written. In oral communication, listeners can make out what speakers is trying to say, but in written communication, text matter in the message is a reflection of your thinking. So, written communication or message should be clear, purposeful and concise with correct words, to avoid any misinterpretation of your message. Written communications provides a permanent record for future use and it also gives an opportunity to employees to put up their comments or suggestions in writing.

For manager – employee relations:

Effective communication of information and decision is an essential component for management-employee relations. The manager cannot get the work done from employees unless they are communicated effectively of what he wants to be done? He should also be sure of some basic facts such as how to communicate and what results can be expected from that communication. Most of management problems arise because of lack of effective communication. Chances of misunderstanding and misrepresentation can be minimized with proper communication system.

For increase productivity:

With effective communication, you can maintain a good human relation in the organization and by encouraging ideas or suggestions from employees or workers and implementing them whenever possible, you can also increase production at low cost.

For employees:

It is through the communication that employees submit their work reports, comments, grievances and suggestions to their seniors or management. Organization should have effective and speedy communication policy and procedures to avoid delays, misunderstandings, confusion or distortions of facts and to establish harmony among all the concerned people and departments.

By Priti Shah

Ways to improve your productivity in the office

2009-06-10T21:52:00.000-07:00

It is possible to find extra time in your day simply by reorganizing the way in which you approach the tasks that fall within your responsibility. Take a look at each of the following areas of your working life and see where you can make improvements which will allow you to put more time into the things you really need to focus your attention on.

1. Communication

Just by speaking clearly, concisely and checking that the person you are communicating with has understood what you have said, you can save precious time by getting what you need first time.

2. Planning

Keep a yearly planner on your desk that you record repeat projects (annual/monthly/etc) on so that you can see at a glance when you need to start collecting information for them.

3. Prioritizing

Each morning go through your in box and prioritize its contents. Once you know what has to be done, how urgently it is needed, and how long it is likely to take to complete, add the tasks in order of importance to your work schedule for the day. When the mail comes in, prioritize any items that need attention, and then add these to your work schedule.

4. Delegation

If you have staff employed to help you, delegate some of your routine tasks which you can quickly instruct someone else to take responsibility of. Remember to communicate the instructions clearly and ensure they are understood before leaving the task in the employees care. Once you delegate something, just a quick review to ensure it’s done correctly and on time is all that you should need to do. Shuffling a few of these tasks to team members will free up your time for more specialized work.

5. Don’t multitask

Research has shown that multitasking is not productive. For optimum productivity, focus on one thing at a time.

6. Take a break

You can’t always be working at optimum productivity. Instead, you should shoot for working in short bursts at your most productive times.

7. Complete your most dreaded tasks first thing in the morning

Whichever activity you are dreading the most is probably the one you need to complete first thing in the morning.

8. Just start

Often times, starting is the hardest part. Once you get going, you will quickly get into a rhythm that could last for hours.

By Priti Shah

How to Solve Workplace Problems

2009-06-09T21:32:00.000-07:00

Problem solving and decision making. Ask anyone in the workplace if these activities are part of their day and they'd certainly answer "Yes!" But how many of us have had training in problem solving? We know it's a critical element of our work but do we know how to do it effectively?

People tend to do three things when faced with a problem: they get afraid or uncomfortable and wish it would go away; they feel that they have to come up with an answer and it has to be the right answer; and they look for someone to blame. Being faced with a problem becomes a problem. And that's a problem because, in fact, there are always going to be problems!

Instructions

1. Understand that when people in the workplace communicate with each other, they need to make sure that the other person understands what they are hearing. This way, nobody will be able to say, "Oh, I misunderstood" or "Well, no one told me that." When interacting with others, it is often helpful to repeat the key points that you want them to remember.

2. Remember that everyone should always be direct and truthful. Don't imply or exaggerate anything you say; instead be respectful, truthful and direct so that you aren't misunderstood.

3. Have company meetings during which everyone discusses the points made in Steps 1 and 2. The first part of solving workplace problems is prevention--eliminate problems before they begin. Designate a supervisor or supervisors who are responsible for helping people solve problems in the workplace. Next, make it clear that at any time an employee is having a problem, they can visit with these people for help.

4. Solve problems among employees when they arise. First, identify the problem and the facts surrounding it. Second, identify the size and importance of the problem. This might be something with an easy solution. On the other hand, it may be a recurring problem that needs quite a bit of time and attention to solve.

5. Identify the best way to solve the problem. Discuss acceptable solutions to the problems and decide which one is the best. Next, determine the actions needed to reach that solution. You may need to have further meetings, mediation between employees or, in extreme situations, legal action.

Effective problem solving does take some time and attention more of the latter than the former. But less time and attention than is required by a problem not well solved. What it really takes is a willingness to slow down. A problem is like a curve in the road. Take it right and you'll find yourself in good shape for the straightaway that follows. Take it too fast and you may not be in as good shape.

By Priti Shah

How to Stop Sexual Harassment at Work

2009-06-08T21:17:00.000-07:00

Sexual harassment is rampant in the workplaces of the modern day. But there are tons of laws in place that are there just to protect all employees from the bad circle of sexual harassment. If you are experiencing this form of unlawful banter at your workplace, here is how to put a stop to it immediately!

What is sexual harassment?

Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination. The legal definition of sexual harassment is “unwelcome verbal, visual, or physical conduct of a sexual nature that is severe or pervasive and affects working conditions or creates a hostile work environment.”

Unwelcome

Conduct is not sexual harassment if it is welcome. For this reason, it is important to communicate (either verbally, in writing, or by your own actions) to the harasser that the conduct makes you uncomfortable and that you want it to stop.

Conduct of a Sexual Nature

Many different kinds of conduct—verbal, visual or physical—that is of a sexual nature may be sexual harassment, if the behavior is unwelcome and if it is severe or pervasive. Here are some more examples:

Verbal or written: Comments about clothing, personal behavior, or a person’s body; sexual or sex-based jokes; requesting sexual favors or repeatedly asking a person out; sexual innuendoes; telling rumors about a person’s personal or sexual life; threatening a person

Physical: Assault; impeding or blocking movement; inappropriate touching of a person or a person’s clothing; kissing, hugging, patting, stroking

Nonverbal: Looking up and down a person’s body; derogatory gestures or facial expressions of a sexual nature; following a person

Visual: Posters, drawings, pictures, screensavers or emails of a sexual nature

Instructions to stop sexual harassment at work:

· Verbally warn. If you so choose, and depending on the severity of the sexual harassment, you can verbally warn the person that if they falter again you will report them. Many times this will stop it dead in the tracks, but sometimes it will not.

· Report the incident. No matter what, you must report any incident of sexual harassment. Simply write down a brief synopsis of what happened, and make sure to submit it to your boss and the proper other channels at your workplace.

· Find the help you need. There are tons of resources you can find on the internet that have places that will help you. You do need to take the first step and research and contact these organizations in order to get the help you need.

· Take action. Do not let yourself sit idle. Sexual harassment is illegal, and there are plenty of things that you can do to stop it. Make sure your boss and co-workers realize how serious you are about defending your rights.

By Priti Shah

Minimum Wage

2009-06-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly wage that employers may legally pay to employees or workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labor. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about the benefits and drawbacks of a minimum wage. Supporters of the minimum wage say that it prevents the exploitation of workers. Opponents say that if it is high enough to be effective, it destroys jobs, particularly for workers with very low productivity due to inexperience or handicap, thereby exploitation lesser skilled workers to the benefit of better skilled workers. They also argue that it causes inflation.

In India, 422.6 (94%) million workers out of the total workforce of 457.5 million belong to the unorganized/informal sector. These workers contribute to more than 60 per cent to India’s GDP growth. Among other sectors, these workers work as farm laborers, landless laborers, factory workers and construction workers. Currently the number of scheduled employments in the Central government is 45, whereas in the state sphere the number is 1232.

The Minimum Wage Act, 1948 provides for fixation and enforcement of Minimum wages in respect of schedule employments to prevent sweating or exploitation of labour through payment of low wages. The objective of the Act is to ensure a Minimum subsistence wage for workers. The Act requires the appropriate government to fix Minimum rates of wages in respect of employment specified in the schedule and review and revise the Minimum rates of wages at intervals not exceeding five years.

In September 2007, the national Minimum floor level wage was increased to Rs 80 per day for all scheduled employments from Rs 66 in 2004 to Rs. 45 in 1999, Rs. 40 in 1998 and Rs. 35 in 1996.

Fixation of Minimum Wage

Minimum rate of the wages fixed or revised consists of the following:
A basic rate of wages and a special allowance, viz., cost of living allowance ;
A basic rate of wages with or without cost of living allowance and cash value of concessions for supplies of essential commodities ;
An all inclusive rate, i.e. basic rate, cost of living allowance and cash value of concessions.

The Government may fix the minimum rates of wages either by the hour, by the day, by the month or by such wage period as may be prescribed.

The minimum wage rate may be fixed at a) time rate, b) piece rate, c) guaranteed time rate and d) overtime rate.

The Act provides that different minimum wage rate may be fixed for a) different scheduled employments, b) different works in the same employment, c) adult, adolescent and children, d) different locations or e) male and female.

Also, such minimum wage may be fixed by a) an hour, b) day, c) month, or d) any other period as may be prescribed by the notified authority.

Norms for fixing minimum wage:

· Three consumption units per earner,

· Minimum food requirement of 2700 calories per average Indian adult,

· Cloth requirement of 72 yards per annum per family,

· Rent corresponding to the minimum area provided under the government's Industrial Housing Scheme and

· Fuel, lighting and other miscellaneous items of expenditure to constitute 20 per cent of the total minimum wage

· Fuel, lighting and other miscellaneous items of expenditure to constitute 20% of the total Minimum Wages,

· Children education, medical requirement, minimum recreation including festivals/ceremonies and provision for old age, marriage etc. should further constitute 25% of the total minimum wage.

Cost of Living Allowance:

The minimum basic wages fixed are linked to consumer price index as a counter measure against inflation. The cost of living is set twice in a year. The Commissioner of Labour notifies the rate 1^st of April and 1^st of October. The rates are fixed on the basis of the average rise in the State industrial workers consumer price index numbers for half year ending December and June respectively.

Variable Dearness Allowance:

Dearness Allowance is payable to monthly, daily and piece rate earners. Every six months the respective State Governments issues the Cost of Living Index number for each and every scheduled employment.

By Nilesh Shah

Total Blog Directory

Jobs Blog Directory

Become a Successful HR Professional

2009-06-04T21:22:00.000-07:00

The Human Resource Management (HRM) can function with a variety of responsibilities. One key duty among them is deciding what working needs you have and whether to use the services of independent contractors in hiring employees.

The HRM have to fill these needs, since recruiting, training and educating new employees is important in maintaining the high standards of the organization. Be a big picture thinker, not a staff person pushing paper, "Be relevant to the needs of the business. Be at the table with other decision-makers, and gear your professional activities to bottom line success."

For small businesses, they handle these activities and tasks by themselves since they cannot afford to have a Human Resource management team. However, they should always be aware of the need to regulate personnel policies. These policies are mostly seen in human resource handbooks, which all employees should have.

Managing your HR career involves keeping on top of key trends shaping the HR landscape as identified by top professional colleagues. A survey of 50 global HR leaders recently released by the International Institute of Human Resources (I.I.H.R.) indicates just how diverse and demanding an HR career can be.

The top five core competencies identified by survey respondents for the successful HR professional were:

Change management - the ability to deal with uncertainty and change
Maturity - the stability of performance under pressure
Openness - accepting new ideas and practices
Flexibility - adaptability
Contextual thinking - seeing the big picture within a context of cognitive complexity.

By Nilesh Shah

Effective Performance Management

2009-06-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

An understanding of what performance management is supposed to do is critical. When performance appraisal is used to develop employees as resources, it usually works. When management uses performance appraisal as a punishment or when fail to understand its limitations, it fails. The key is not which form or which method is used, but whether managers and employees understand its purposes. In its simplest form, a performance appraisal is a manager’s observation: “Here are your strengths and weaknesses, and here is a way to shore up the weak areas.” It can lead to higher employee motivation and satisfaction if done right.

But in an era of continuous improvement, an ineffective performance management system can be a huge liability.

An effective performance management system will be:

Consistent with the strategic mission of the organization
Beneficial as a development tool
Useful as an administrative tool
Legal and job-related
Viewed as generally fair by employees
Useful in documenting employee performance

Most systems can be improved by training supervisors, because conducting performance appraisal is a big part of a performance management system. Training should focus on minimizing rater errors and providing a common frame of reference on how raters observe and recall information.

Organizationally, there is a tendency to distill performance into a single number that can be used to support pay raises. Systems based on this concept reduce the complexity of each person’s contribution in order to satisfy compensation system requirements. Such systems are too simplistic to give employees useful feedback or help managers pinpoint training and development needs. In fact, use of a single numerical rating often is a barrier to performance discussions, because what is emphasized is attaching a label to a person’s performance and defending or attacking that label. Effective performance management systems evolve from the recognition that human behaviors and capabilities collapsed into a single score have limited use in shaping the necessary range of performance.

By Nilesh Shah

'Innovation key to Human Resources Management'

2009-06-02T21:33:00.000-07:00

Innovation and creativity are essential for human resource management, experts and trainers. As Indian economy is very much based on human capital and its large human resource pool needs continuous innovation to keep its workforce competitive and productive.

Accordingly, there are three points which can help in innovation.

The first is to have thorough training programs, and to "keep motivating staffs. It is the best way to keep the entire company motivating," Moreover, close communication between group leaders and subordinates is also vital for company's development.

The second is that employers must have effective promotion system, in order to encourage staff employees to have good working moral.” Bosses shouldn't always concern about taking advantages of staff employees, instead they should often encourage them through effective promotion system, and let them feel that their hard work has been recognized”.

"Employers should often take time to talk to staff and understand their need as well as demand, see that the team feels the sense of belonging"

Innovation is the goal in many workplaces these days Innovation definitely helps an organization to keep itself on toes and face the competition on its ability.

By Arti Bakshi

Human resource management policies

2009-05-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

Human resource management policies are vital for organizations that are serious about resolving personnel issues and finding hr solutions. HRM policies are intended to help maximize the effectiveness of your Human Resources function.

· HR should ensure that HRM policy you have consistent, well-written & legal policies and procedures.

· HRM policy should provide hr advices for the organizations needing help with specific HR-related issues

· Individuals and organizations who are serious about human resources should understand the bottom-line importance of job evaluation, job descriptions and effective policies.

Types of HRM Policies:

· Attendance Policy

· Recruitment Policy

· Leave of Absence Policy

· Performance Planning and Evaluation Performance

· Probationary Period

· Compensation

· Compensatory Leave

· Overtime Leave

· Annual Leave

· Educational Leave,etc

Blogs Directory

By Nilesh Shah

Why go for HR?

2009-05-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

Hr is a career which many don’t wish to go for as it by theory way of seeing many say its boring and don’t see themselves doing these, they want to be practical and creative as they say it is in marketing. Hey! Wait a minute practicality and creativity is absent in human resource who said that, I didn’t but many management graduate do say that, and I guess they don’t know the real story.

HR is also a profession on the up! Demographics show, as illustrated by McKinsey's study "The War for Talent", that there is a diminishing global talent pool from which an expanding population of businesses are looking to hire. On the assumption that recruiting, retaining and developing the best people makes for a more successful business, it means that the power balance will shift further toward the employee. Hence for organizations to maximize their success, they will need to ensure they make themselves as attractive to work for as possible.

Things are changing, though. As talent management becomes a make-or-break corporate competency, the HR function is responding with a shift from managing the monetary levers of human resources—compensation, benefits, and other expenses—to increasing the asset value of human capital, as measured by intangibles such as employee engagement. A new kind of HR professional is emerging to manage this transformed function, someone who deeply understands not only talent-management processes but also an organization’s strategy and business model—someone who is responsible for, say, hiring and training marketing managers but who also knows how to put together an effective marketing plan.

HR will play a pivotal role in this, as people issues become an increasingly important of organizations' core strategies. A result of this must be to make the HR professions even more central to the business, increasing the number of HR Directors sitting on the main board, a major leap from 30 years ago when this was the exception - rather than the rule. Taking the leap one step further, the more HR Directors we see on the main board, the more likely we are to see Chairman, CEO and MD's coming from an HR background, which has traditionally been the domain of the finance or sales professional.

Blog Blog

By Priti Shah

9 Essential Skills: Human Resources Management

2009-05-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

In today’s world of competitiveness you need have skill set which appeal to company’s requirement. When interviewing a potential new hire, its necessary for the human resource professional to assess the candidate as compared to the list of skills and characteristics needed for the job.

New management graduate should focus on themselves for them to be called employable by the industry. As many industry consider Indian management graduate unemployable.

The following skill set which are very important for a Human Resource Professional

· Organizing

· Multitasking

· Discretion and Business Ethics

· Dual Focus

· Employee Trust

· Fairness – Clear communication & fair treatment

· Dedication to Continuous Improvement

· Strategic Orientation - Forward-thinking

· Team Orientation – understand workforce dynamics

By Priti Shah

Search for Similarities: Diversity in the Workplace

2009-05-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

Want to develop effective working relationships with diverse people at work? Start with similarities, not differences, among people when you build relationships. Diversity in the workplace adds a special richness, but also special challenges. As a human resources professional, manager, supervisor, coworker, staff member or business owner, effective diverse work relationships are critical for your success.

In a recent survey of a giant corporate entity, they found more similarities than differences, especially in the categories respondents rated as most important to them. People agreed about what inspires their commitment to a particular employer. People cited the following factors as important.

They supported their company's business plan,
They had a chance to use their skills on the job,
Their reward package was competitive, and
The company acted on employee suggestions.

People also agreed on what organizations need to improve: employee input and promoting the best performers while helping the worst performers get better. Additionally, the employees want to know how their job affects internal and external customers. They want to understand how their job contributes to the accomplishment of company business goals. They want a safe work environment and highly rated products and services.

Recommendations for Diverse Workplace Success

In response to the research, the organizations can concentrate on four areas with their employees.

Keep your company effective, winning, and on the right track.
Help people, supplied with needed resources; use their talents and skills to contribute to the overall accomplishment of organization objectives.
Respect and value people and recognize and act on their contributions.
Create an environment in which people have interesting work and enjoy their coworkers.

By Priti Shah

Life: Personal vs. professional

2009-05-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

In today’s world widening gap in relationship reason behind lack of balance between in Personal and professional life but who is responsible for it whether it is the husband or wife working. Nobody can be blamed as today’s earning just get flew away from the pocket as soon as it enters.

The growing pressure of workplace in to exceed performance and raise of disappointment from the side of the family lack of time for them. EVERY one has trouble keeping personal and professional lives apart. We are human beings after all, and it is but natural that our personal and professional halves merge into one whole, in spite of our best efforts and intentions. The real problem arises only when one half starts hampering the effective functioning of the other. For example, when things are not going too well on the professional front, our work suffers.

Emotional maturity

One has to learn to be emotionally mature and not over react, to personal/ work situations and pressures. At work, understand that any criticism is probably not personal, but professional. You will be able to handle things better if you condition yourself to be professionally involved but emotionally detached, as far as your work is concerned. It is easier said than done though, if you happen to love your job; the trick is to identify yourself more with your profession and less with the company.

Worrying

Worrying is the problem of today’s man and it is eating away the happiness just adding sourness in the relationship and happiness. I would believe a worry depends on the need or wrong things done don’t we have control ourself to get trapped in those situation.

Be yourself

It is impossible for a person to change his personality and be one kind of person at home and a different one at the office; unless of course, he is putting on an act. It is important to be honest and truthful to yourself. It is even more important to be able to love and respect yourself for being you. Once you come across as an honest and straightforward person, people are likely to be more understanding and less interrogative.

Spot solution

People often make the mistake of putting off important decisions. When there are a multitude of problems, we tend to simultaneously dwell on all of them, worry about all of them, procrastinate about all of them but seldom make a decision, even on one of them. Take one problem at a time. Give priority to important and urgent problems.

By Priti Shah

Five Misconceptions about Human Resource Practices

2009-05-24T21:52:00.000-07:00

In human resource industry there are certainly some myths or misconceptions breeds regarding its practices which degrades the status and thinking of the professionals towards the hr as a whole and also within the industry.

Its requires a lot of guts to speak the truth which actually prevails we need people to understand the truth as best to our ability and worked hard to make it visible to others regarding it.

Five Misconceptions

Conscientiousness is a better predictor of employee performance than intelligence.

Way to Resolve:

Select new employees on both intelligence and conscientiousness
In addition GMA (General Mental Ability) can also assessed through job knowledge tests, work samples, or simulation interview questions.

Companies that screen job applicants for values have higher performance than those that screen for intelligence.

Way to Resolve:

Even if you are interested in people’s values, assess GMA and conscientiousness.
Define what values are important to you. Then assess them through procedures such as behavioral description interviews.
Consider which personality constructs are likely to reflect the values you want.

Encouraging employees to participate in decision making is more effective for improving organizational performance than setting performance goals.

Way to resolve

Develop goals that are inspiring challenging and that stretch people’s capabilities.
Once goals are clearly communicated and accepted, enlist broad participation, and do not shut down ideas.
Support participation and goals attainment through the reward system, such as with gain sharing or other group incentive programs.

Most errors in performance appraisal can be eliminated by providing training that describes the kinds of errors managers tend to make and suggesting ways to avoid them.

Way to resolve

Training, practice and feedback about how to avoid appraisal errors are necessary, but insufficient for eliminating errors.
Eliminating errors may require alternative approaches to evaluation.
Top managers should serve as strong role models for the performance evaluation process and attach managerial consequences to the quality of performance reviews.

If employees are asked how important pay is to them, they are likely to overestimate its true importance.

Way to Resolve

Recognise that employee attitude surveys are subject to a variety of cognitive biases such as social desirability and lack of self-insight.
Wherever possible, study employee behaviors in addition to attitudes; the two will not always converge.

By Priti Shah

A day in the life of hr

2009-05-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

Hr in their typical day do a lot of things which are normal to any profession work , work and more work but there is a catch here in between hr and other professional there is a difference, you would say why discrimination? No I didn’t mean that. Hr start their day by traveling to the office which normally everyone of us do but here hr guys travels with the people surrounding to him which are resource to one or the other company he generally glances over the others to see where they must be working, what kind of dressing sense they have?, even if a person is communicating to others he thinks at the back of the mind, how better it should be and how to achieve that.

You guys must be thinking working even while traveling, no guys just they tend to do that to understand human psychology and also horn their skill to be able to understand what person is thinking whether that is good for the company or not.

Later the person reaches office when he enters the office he sees some of the candidates are already waiting for him, the person glances to observe the dressing, communication and even a gentle greeting from a candidate makes a difference. Hr starts the work by taking the interview, selection session and takes care of all the paper work from the entry form to the offer or appointment letter, guys don’t you think a lot of paperwork is involved in hr but why? I guess just for formality or even its an important way of studying the very important form of communication in organization.

Best thing in the day to get a better resource for the organization for which hr has to analyse everything about that candidates where he lives, previous organization experience and references which will lead towards better workforce. Returning to the topic after lunch if the candidates are not finished coming, than starts focus on different issues like payrolls, company’s paperwork requirement and even sanctioning of leaves.

Then decision over the different employee recreational activities which the hr has to decide, getting everything approved from the top management. In the whole day hr is the mediator between the workers and the top management I guess you would agree with me in that.

Next thing in the agenda is meeting with the bosses with statistics how many people came in, how many went out and what he is going to do that attrition doesn’t forms pain in the head.

Love your job is the mantra for hr, In a day they meet up many people and their importance tend to have became higher, their decision effects the Top management as the bottom of the pyramid.

Last part of the day is smiling with sparkling eyes as he is allowed to go home as the day has been hectic and very resourceful.

By Nilesh Shah

Building Rock Solid Self Confidence

2009-05-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

I really believe to be confident is easy just to make our self motivated but it does take more than that. People have suffered in their life not because they didn’t have the ability to get things done but the lack of confidence to believe on themselves to complete that task.

I have probably noticed those people at work, school, and in daily life always appear to be self confident and on top of world. Everything seems to go right for these people and they always seem to present themselves as calm, collected and successful in everything they do.

If you are paying attention you have probably noticed that these self confident people usually are successful in every area of their lives. Is this because they are smarter? Or is it because they have more money? Maybe they are just lucky? I would say a little thinking which has them so far

So start believing in yourself, acting on that belief and you will start building self confidence in your life.

Here are some helpful tips to build self confidence

1. Make a list of your strong points.

2. Choose two of those things that you want to work on to improve even more.

3. Exude confidence even if you don't feel like it.

4. Look at yourself in a different way than you are used to.

I would appreiciate you do the above drill very seriously which will help you to build your confidence level.

By Nilesh Shah

Nonverbal Communication during an Interview

2009-05-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

Communication is the powerful tool which can make people your slave or you can do anything when you have the power to communicate and make people understand the way you want them to. I have seen people turning the table the way they want with the power of words and communicate in subtle way. Communication are of two types that is verbal and non verbal communication, we will be focusing on the later part that is Non Verbal communication, and During an interview, what you say is important, but so is the way you communicate nonverbally. There are a few things that will help you improve your nonverbal communication during an interview. Use the following step-by-step instructions to help you make those improvements.

Instructions

· Pay attention to your posture. Try not to be too stiff or slouch during your interview.

· Have a firm handshake. If your handshake is too slack, it will seem as if you are uninterested.

· Notice your hand movement and placement. Keep your hands in a set position while you're listening. Feel free to gesture with your hands while you're talking. This can help you make a point, but just don't get overzealous.

· Set your feet firmly on the ground when standing or sitting. This will help improve your posture and prevent yourself from rocking or shaking you legs.

· Keep your facial expressions positive or thoughtful. Many times people are too demonstrative with their facial expressions.

· Maintain appropriate eye contact. In a typical American setting, a good guideline is to maintain eye contact 80 percent of the time.

Tips & Warnings

· Be confident during your interview. It will show in both your verbal and nonverbal communication.

· Keep a tissue in your pocket for sweaty hands. Simply stick your hands in your pocket and hold the tissue to remove the moisture. This is a subtle technique that will prevent any embarrassment on your part.

By Priti Shah

Human Resource Planning

2009-05-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hrp is a process which anticipates and maps out the consequences of the business strategy on organization’s human resources. Hrp does reflect planning skill and competence needs as well as total headcounts.

Even a small organization with as few as 10 staff can develop a strategic plan to guide decisions about the future. Based on the strategic plan, your organization can develop a strategic HR plan that will allow you to make HR management decisions now to support the future direction of the organization. Strategic HR planning is also important from a budgetary point of view so that you can factor the costs of recruitment, training, etc. into your organizational budget.

The overall purpose of strategic HR planning is to:

· Ensure adequate human resources to meet the strategic goals and operational plans of your organization - the right people with the right skills at the right time

· Keep up with social, economic, legislative and technological trends that impact on human resources in your area and in the sector

· Remain flexible so that your organization can manage change if the future is different than anticipated

The strategic HR planning process

1. Assessing the current HR capacity

2. Forecasting HR requirements

3. Gap analysis

4. Developing HR strategies to support organizational strategy

There are five HR strategies for meeting your organization's needs in the future:

1. Restructuring strategies

2. Training and development strategies

3. Recruitment strategies

4. Outsourcing strategies

5. Collaboration strategies

Documenting the HR plan

Once the strategies for HR in your organization have been developed they should be documented in an HR plan. This is a brief document that states the key assumptions and the resulting strategies along with who has responsibility for the strategies and the timelines for implementation.

Implementing the HR plan

Once the HR strategic plan is complete the next step is to implement it:

Agreement with the plan

Ensure that the board chair, CEO and senior managers agree with the strategic HR plan. It may seem like redundant step if everyone has been involved all the way along but it's always good to get final confirmation.

Communication

The strategic HR plan needs to be communicated throughout the organization. Your communication should include:

· How the plan ties to the organization's overall strategic plan

· What changes in HR management policies, practices, and activities will be made to support the strategic plan

· How any changes in HR management will impact on staff including a timeframe if appropriate

· How each individual member of staff can contribute to the plan

· How staff will be supported through any changes

· How the organization will be different in the future

It is impossible to communicate too much (but all too easy to communicate too little), especially when changes involve people. However, the amount of detail should vary depending upon the audience.

Legislation and mandate

Ensure that the actions you are considering are compliant with existing laws, regulations and the constitution and bylaws of your organization.

Organizational needs

Whether you are increasing or reducing the number of employees, there are implications for space and equipment, and on existing resources such as payroll and benefit plans.

Evaluation

HR plans need to be updated on a regular basis. You will need to establish the information necessary to evaluate the success of the new plan. Benchmarks need to be selected and measured over time to determine if the plan is successful in achieving the desired objectives.

By Priti Shah

Performance Appraisal

2009-05-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

I would say in my first performance appraisal it was a bad experience, as the outcome of that session was “Need for Improvements”, I was shocked I never expected it but due to some miscalculation of data which I fed in the performance appraisal form put me in that embarrassing position, but I took it as improvement drill which made me consistent performer list later. But still many of the graduation starting in the corporate world even being added in their syllabus they don’t know what Performance Appraisal is? So Lets discuss it…….

Performance appraisal may be defined as a structured formal interaction between a subordinate and supervisor, that usually takes the form of a periodic interview (annual or semi-annual), in which the work performance of the subordinate is examined and discussed, with a view to identifying weaknesses and strengths as well as opportunities for improvement and skills development.

In many organizations - but not all - appraisal results are used, either directly or indirectly, to help determine reward outcomes. That is, the appraisal results are used to identify the better performing employees who should get the majority of available merit pay increases, bonuses, and promotions.

Performance appraisal systems began as simple methods of income justification. That is, appraisal was used to decide whether or not the salary or wage of an individual employee was justified.

The process was firmly linked to material outcomes. If an employee's performance was found to be less than ideal, a cut in pay would follow. On the other hand, if their performance was better than the supervisor expected, a pay rise was in order.Little consideration, if any, was given to the developmental possibilities of appraisal. If was felt that a cut in pay, or a rise, should provide the only required impetus for an employee to either improve or continue to perform well.

Methods of Performance Appraisal

· Confidential Report

· Graphic Rating scale

· Ranking Methods

· Management by Objectives (MbO)

Few issues in management stir up more controversy than performance appraisal.

· There are those, for instance, who believe that performance appraisal has many important employee development uses, but scorn any attempt to link the process to reward outcomes - such as pay rises and promotions.

· Some believe that the linkage to reward outcomes reduces or eliminates the developmental value of appraisals. Rather than an opportunity for constructive review and encouragement, the reward-linked process is perceived as judgmental, punitive and harrowing.

o For example, how many people would gladly admit their work problems if, at the same time, they knew that their next pay rise or a much-wanted promotion was riding on an appraisal result? Very likely, in that situation, many people would deny or downplay their weaknesses.

By Nilesh Shah

Employee engagement

2009-05-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

Employee engagement is goal congruence but what is goal congruence? It means the organization’s individual goals should be aligned with the organization’s goal. If we see at the Engaged employee which means a person who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work and it is measured by items which have been linked to key business outcomes.

In other words, Employee engagement, also called Work engagement, is a concept that is generally viewed as managing discretionary effort, that is, when employees have choices, they will act in a way that furthers their organization's interests.

Focus On Employee Engagement

Engagement by industry: With the exception of the government sector (which has relatively low engagement levels in all countries), some high-tech industries (pharma, biotech) score low whereas some service-focused industries (retail, consumer products) score high.

Engagement by level: Our survey shows that people higher up in the organisation experience higher engagement. However, there is a drop in engagement past the vice-president level.

Engagement by gender: The survey reveals a large disparity between men and women: Men count 8 per cent more fully engaged and 6 per cent less disengaged than women.

What Employees Want

Factors influencing satisfaction: In the survey, respondents were asked to pick one of eight factors that they believed would most influence their satisfaction at work. Career development opportunities and training (30 per cent), more challenging work (20 per cent), and more opportunities to do what I do best (19 per cent) were the three factors at the top of Indian workers’ wish lists, consistent with the top three global demands.

Factors influencing contribution: Respondents were asked to pick the single top item they believed would most influence their contribution at work. Again, the top three items for Indian workers match the top three global requests: Development opportunities and training (26 per cent); regular, specific feedback about how I’m doing (25 per cent); and greater clarity about what the organization needs me to do and why (22 per cent).

Retention: In 2008, HR executives in India continue to struggle with talent management issues, particularly retention. Yet, when asked the question, “Assuming you have a choice, do you plan to remain with your organization through 2008?”, 65.54 per cent said “yes”.

Organizations that believe in increasing employee engagement levels focus on:

Continuous Reinforcement of People-Focused Policies
Meaningful Metrics
Organizational Performance
Culture

Increasing employee engagement

Provide variety: Tedious, repetitive tasks can cause burn out and boredom over time. If the job requires repetitive tasks, look for ways to introduce variety by rotating duties, areas of responsibility, delivery of service etc.
Conduct periodic meetings with employees to communicate good news, challenges and easy-to-understand company financial information. Managers and supervisors should be comfortable communicating with their staff, and able to give and receive constructive feedback.
Indulge in employee deployment if he feels he is not on the right job. Provide an open environment.
Communicate openly and clearly about what's expected of employees at every level - your vision, priorities, success measures, etc.
Get to know employees' interests, goals, stressors, etc. Show an interest in their well-being and do what it takes enable them to feel more fulfilled and better balanced in work and life.
Celebrate individual, team and organizational successes. Catch employees doing something right, and say "Thank you."
Be consistent in your support for engagement initiatives. If you start one and then drop it, your efforts may backfire. There's a strong connection between employees' commitment to an initiative and management's commitment to supporting it.

By Nilesh Shah