Perhaps the most significant benefit of performance appraisal is that, in the rush and bustle of daily working life, it offers a rare chance for a supervisor and subordinate to have “time out” for a one-on-one discussion of important work issues that might not otherwise be addresses. Performance Appraisal offers a valuable opportunity to focus on work activities and goals, to identify and correct existing problems, and to encourage better future performance. Thus the performance of the whole organization is enhanced. For many employees, an “official” appraisal interview may be the only time they get to have exclusive, uninterrupted access to their supervisor. Said one employee of a large organization after his first formal performance appraisal, “In twenty years of work, that’s the first time anyone has ever bothered to sit down and tell me how I’m doing.” The value of this intense and purposeful interaction between a supervisors and Continue reading
Human Resource Concepts
What is E-Recruitment?
Organizations use a variety of recruitment sources to attract applicants like direct applications, employee referrals, newspaper advertising, employment agencies, and executive search firms. Recruiting the right person to the right position is of crucial importance to the performance of every company. At the same time recruitments are expensive, difficult and time-consuming. Web based recruitment tools can be used to publish job postings, administrate applications, including spontaneous applications, and build up a CV Database. This recruitment strategy includes identification of the right channels with a campaign that effectively summarizes the job requirements, company and community. A simple job posting in a publication or online career center is no longer enough — the employer also needs to market itself as a place the candidate would want to work and its community as a place the candidate would want to live. Companies often adopt online systems because they believe e-recruitment is more likely Continue reading
Development of Employee Disciplinary Policies
Discipline is best defined as the observation of principles, rules or any other laid down procedures, practices, written or otherwise in the organization by the employees or group of employees, to whom these apply, for smooth and effective functioning of the organization. Since, disciplinary measures have serious implications for employees; they often are based on the principles of being fair, just and acceptable to employees and, where applicable, the union as well. It cannot be enforced or imposed on employees, as history has proved, it never benefits anyone. So one of the most significant transformations that has impacted the workplace in the past few years is the ‘reinstatement’ of discipline in a positive and employee-supported environment. The way it is practiced in today’s organizations is extremely well communicated and adopts a discretionary approach. The principal ingredients of sound employee disciplinary policies in organizations are: Location of responsibility: The responsibility for Continue reading
Conflicts in Workplaces – Definition, Causes, Impacts, and Handling
Organizations comprise people from different cultural, professional, racial, age, and other demographic backgrounds. Where people are segregated along these diversity differences, cultural conflicts arise. This suggests that managers and leaders within organizations encounter immense challenges in seeking effective strategies for recruitment, training, developing, and retaining the most talented personnel in an organization characterized by immense workforce diversities. Conflicts often produce a negative implication on the performance of an organization. Since the principal goal of organizational leadership is to look for mechanisms of resolving challenges, which may hinder the performance of an organization so that it delivers value to its owners (shareholders), conflict avoidance constitutes a risky approach to conflict management. These challenges become even more pronounced as many organizations endeavor to engage in global businesses as a measure of increasing their competitive advantage. The more diverse the workforce is, the higher the risks of workplace conflicts associated with diversity differences. Continue reading
Benefits of Career Management
Career is a general course of action, an individual chooses to pursue, all through his or her employment life. It may be represented as occupational positions a person has hold over so many years. Many people feel satisfied by achieving their career goals. At the same time, others have a strong feeling that, their careers, their lives and their potential has undergone unfulfilled. Employers too have a profound effect on employees’ careers. Some organisations have very formal career management processes, while others are very little concern about it. Career management is defined as ongoing process of preparing, implementing and monitoring career plans. It can be undertaken either by the individual alone or can be a concerted activity along with the organisation’s career systems. Career management is a process that enables the employees to better understand their career skills, develop and give direction to it and to use those skills and Continue reading
“Job Enrichment is Just a Fancy Name for Employee Exploitation”- Discussion
Job enrichment is operationalized with job descriptions and job specifications. Badly written job descriptions and job specifications restrict management’s freedom to make changes in job tasks, duties and responsibilities; and assign work to employees. Claims of employee exploitation will usually come from trade unions. To avoid industrial disputes with trade unions, it is critical that job descriptions and job specifications be clear, concise and understandable. This is particularly so with jobs that have A,B,C, classifications. Such jobs must be carefully distinguished by job title and clearly involve different job content and job requirements. Where ABC type classifications have developed for ‘historical’ reasons it is essential that a thorough job analysis be conducted to ensure that more than one level of the job actually exits. If this is not done, claims for “higher duties” payments or upgrade to a higher classification are likely to be an ongoing source of grievances. Precise Continue reading