The human concept of labor has been recognized widely in the industrial world. The employer, though not bound, provides several benefits and services to the employees, working in the organization to maintain and promote the employees’ favorable attitude towards the work and work environment, because maintenance of favorable attitude towards the work and work environment, because maintenance of favorable attitude is an essential part of motivation and high morale. Such benefits and services, being a part of wage and salary administration, include all expenditure incurred to benefit employees over and above regular wages and direct monetary incentives related to output and are generally referred to as fringe benefits. The real wages of workers are increased by the benefits provided by the employer and thus, they are regarded as supplement to their wages. Many years ago, benefits and services were labeled ‘fringe’ benefits because they were relatively insignificant or fringe components Continue reading
HRM Concepts
Measuring Employee Morale
Employee morale can be measured by assessing attitudes and job satisfaction. As morale is intangible and subjective concept, it cannot be directly measured or evaluated. Employees may be unwilling to express their feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their job to the management is no longer a valid assumption. Today’s employees and workplaces allow for a lot more transparency and open door philosophy seen in most organizations allow for employees to openly voice their views. Measuring employee morale ranges all the way from the “hunch” /general “feeling”, to more scientific efforts such as employee satisfaction surveys. Also the liberated employee of today feel very comfortable looking for a new job in another company rather than be unhappy and work in a company where he’s unhappy. It is important to study the commonly used methods for measuring employee morale, however increasingly the ‘employee satisfaction survey’ is the most preferred method in Continue reading
Introduction to People Capability Maturity Model (PCMM)
The People Capability Maturity Model framework was developed by Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute to define the organizational maturity of people processes and practices. It helps the businesses to manage knowledge workers across global borders, as well as between graying and millennial generations. It is the framework that addresses the needs of employees, their competencies and the processes that need to be in place to ensure an organization is continuously improving and able to meet business needs effectively and efficiently and ranks on a scale 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest achievable maturity level. The People Capability Maturity Model (PCMM) is a well documented set of practices that enable growing original workforce competencies. It is more of a strategic management framework for building and growing original competencies. The PCMM practices help to retain, grow and nurture competent individuals. PCMM is an evolutionary framework that guides organizations in Continue reading
Factors of Job Evaluation
The criteria for job evaluation is the consideration of various factors, which analyse a position in relation to the skills and experience required for competent performance, the demands made on the job and the overall structure and responsibility/accountability involved. In some cases minor changes to the wording are used to define factors and levels made in order to better align the job evaluation methodology with the client’s culture and environment. Where this is done, great care is taken to ensure inter-organisation consistency is not compromised. The primary factor in determining compensation is an evaluation of work performed. The internal worth of a job is evaluated based upon factors like – Know-How, Problem Solving, Accountability, Education, Experience, Complexity involved in the job, Scope of job, Supervision received and Authority Exercised. Know-How — The knowledge, skill and experience required for standard acceptable performance. It considers the requirement for technical and professional skills, Continue reading
Case Study of IBM: Employee Training through E-Learning
“E-learning is a technology area that often has both first-tier benefits, such as reduced travel costs, and second-tier benefits, such as increased employee performance that directly impacts profitability.” – Rebecca Wettemann, research director for Nucleus Research In 2002, the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) was ranked fourth by the Training magazine on it’s “The 2002 Training Top 100”. The magazine ranked companies based on their commitment towards workforce development and training imparted to employees even during periods of financial uncertainty. Since its inception, IBM had been focusing on human resources development: The company concentrated on the education and training of its employees as an integral part of their development. During the mid 1990s, IBM reportedly spent about $1 billion for training its employees. However, in the late 1990s, IBM undertook a cost cutting drive, and started looking for ways to train its employees effectively at lower costs. After considerable research, Continue reading
Job Analysis and Human Resource Planning
Within the Human Resource Planning process, matching the demand and supply of labor informs decision-makers about potential trends and changes in labor requirements, and also provides information about the best labor mix. Job analysis refines and complements this information to determine exactly what each job involves and who is required before specific staffing decisions can be made. Broadly speaking, job analysis refers to the process of getting detailed information about jobs. Organizational conditions often change in response to new technology and machinery, as well as legislative and market requirements. Job analysis therefore becomes important in interpreting what the job currently involves. Having identified the objective of the job analysis, the HRM analyst must determine the type of information that needs to be collected, the source of the information, the method of data collection and how the data will be analyzed. The type of information that is collected is usually associated Continue reading