SMU MBA (Assignment Semester – I) – Human Resource Management (MB0043)

[su_note note_color=”#64ef94″ radius=”6″]Semester – MBA 1st Semester
Subject code – MB0043
Subject Name – Human Resource Management[/su_note]

Q. No 1 What do you mean by Human Resource Management? Describe the functions of Human Resource Management?.

Ans.1

Definition of Human Resource Management

Every organisation is essentially a blend of material and Human Resource (HR). Material refers to money and machines pre-arranged by organisations for production or trade. Human Resource, on the other hand, refers to the knowledge, education, skills, training and ability of the members of the organisation. Human resources are the most valuable and unique assets of an organisation.

Function of Human Resource Management

HRM functions can be broadly classified into the following two categories:

1. Managerial functions
2. Operative functions

Managerial functions of HR department

The managerial functions of HR department include the following:

• Planning – Future course of action; it also includes identifying human resource requirements and forecasting personnel needs.
• Organising – Division of labour; assignment of responsibility is part of the organisation’s functions.
• Staffing – It is the process of obtaining and maintaining capable and competent personnel in various positions at all levels, i.e., manpower planning, recruitment, selection, placement and induction.
• Directing – It is the process of directing all the available resources towards the common organisational goals.
• Controlling – It is the measurement and rectification of activities to ensure that the events conform to plans.

Operative functions of HR department

Operative functions of HR department are those core functions that only the HR department is assigned to perform. These include functions such as employment of new personnel, developing their skill sets, compensating them for their efforts and maintaining employee relations.

Let us now discuss the operative functions of HRM.

• Employment – Employment is the first operative function of HRM. This involves procuring and employing individuals with suitable knowledge, skills, experience and aptitude necessary to perform various jobs.
• HR development – HR development concentrates on developing the workforce so that both the employees and the organisation in turn can achieve their goals. It focuses on strengthening the skills, knowledge and aptitudes of the employees. This includes functions starting with evaluating the performance of the employees, providing necessary training and development programmes to fill the gaps between current performances to the optimum performance of employees.
• Compensation – Compensation includes all the rewards that an employee receives during the course of his or her job–for his or her contributions to the organisation.
• Employee relations – Employee relations deals with the employees, in the organisational context, as a social group that contributes to the organisation.

Q. No 2 Discuss the elements of a Career Planning Programme. Explain some of the benefits of a Career Planning program to an organization?

Ans.2

Elements of a Career Planning Programme

In the previous section, we discussed how to manage career planning. Let us now study the elements of a career planning programme.

There are four distinct elements of career planning programme:

• Individual assessment and need analysis
• Organisational assessment and opportunity analysis
• Need – opportunity alignment
• Career counselling

Individual assessment and need analysis

Many people begin their careers without any formal assessment of their abilities, interests, career needs and goals.This phenomenon of people entering their jobs, occupations and careers with little attention to career planning and then feeling disengaged is known as career drift.

Organisational assessment and opportunity analysis

For an employee’s goals and aspirations to be fulfilled, a basic requirement is that the goals must be realistic and achievable. They have to be realistic not only in terms of the employee’s own capabilities, but also in terms of the organisation’s possibilities.

Need – opportunity alignment

The organisation plays an important role in helping the employee make this alignment. The organisation also has to make its own alignments to match the aspirations with the organisational opportunities.

Career counselling

This is the final stage of career planning. The supervisor as well as the HR department, has to counsel the employee regarding the available opportunities, the employee’s aspirations and of course, his competencies.

Benefits of a Career Planning Programme –

• Career planning helps the individual have the knowledge of various career opportunities, his priorities etc.
• It helps him select the career which is suitable to his life style, preference, family environment, scope for self-development etc.
• It helps the organisation identify talented employees who can be promoted.
• Internal promotions, up gradation and transfers motivate the employees, boost their morale and also result in increased job satisfaction.
• Each employee will await his turn of promotion rather than changing to another organisation. This would lower employee turnover.
• It improves employee’s performance on the job by tapping their potential abilities and stimulating their personal growth.
• Increased job satisfaction enhances employee commitment and creates a sense of belongingness and loyalty to the organisation.
• Being an integral part of the manpower planning and corporate planning, career planning contributes towards indiviual development and organisational development and effective achievement of corporate goals.
• An organisation with well-designed career plans is able to have a better image in the employment market, and it will attract and retain competent people.

Q. No 3 What do you mean by HRIS? Explain the components of HRIS. Describe the different applications of HRIS in Human Resource Management.?

Ans.3

Definition of Human Resource Information System

HRIS has become significant for decision-making and policy formulation as well as for ensuring fairness and equity in HR policies and practices. There is an increasing realisation that for organisational survival and growth in a competitive environment, human resource is the most critical resource.

Components of HRIS

In the previous section, we discussed the concept of HRIS. Let us now discuss the components of HRIS.

HRIS performs three interconnected activities as a database:

• receiving inputs in the form of data from different sources.
• storing and processing data with the purpose of transforming them into meaningful information
• generating output in different forms, as required by the users.

Input

Input refers to all employee-related data. HR policies, procedures, corporate goals and information about the statutory provisions entered into HRIS for conversion into the desired form of output.

Data processing

Data processing refers to the storing and processing of data by a computer with the help of the software that issues instructions for processing.

Output

Output refers to the generation of reports in the form desired by the users. This is the final stage of an HRIS process.

Applications of HRIS in Human Resource Management –

In the previous section, we discussed the types of HRIS. Let us now discuss the applications of HRIS in HRM.

HR needs to handle many things in an organisation including increasing numbers of employees and different HR activities. It became important for many organisations to bring almost all HR activities under HRIS.

Different applications of an HRIS are as follow:

• Applicant tracking system – Many organisations are now gradually adopting and installing applicant tracking system software. The purpose of this system is to give support to recruitment process and to streamline the overall recruitment process.
• Training and development system – The purpose of a training and development system is to help the employees gain new knowledge. HRIS facilitates workplace e-learning by the employees as part of their training programme.
• Compensation management system – The compensation management system aims at computing employee payments through an integrated payroll system. This compensation system normally considers employee working hours, attendance and productivity for computing the salary of the employees.
• Performance management system – The main goal of the performance management system is to track employee performance reviews and due dates for next reviews.
• Manpower planning system – The manpower planning system manages the employee inventory and supports several HR activities.
• Succession planning system – The succession planning module brings the identified and selected employees into the succession channel.

Q. No 4 Discuss the objectives of Discipline. Explain the Action –penalties of Discipline?

Ans.4

Objectives of Discipline

• As far as possible, all the rules should be framed in cooperation and collaboration with the representatives of employees. If the latter have a share in formulating them, they will be more likely to observe them.
• All rules should be checked at regular intervals to ensure that they are working well according to the organisational policy and practice.
• Rules should vary with changes in the working conditions of employees. Those framed for office employees, for example, may very well be different from those that are formulated for workers in an industrial concern.
• Rules should be uniformly enforced if they are to be effective. They must be applied without exception and without bending them or ignoring them in favour of any one worker.

The action-penalties of Discipline

In the previous section, we discussed the basic guidelines of a disciplinary policy. Let us now discuss the disciplinary – action penalties. There are varying penalties for first, second, and third offences of the same rule.

1. Oral reprimand
2. Written warning
3. Denial of increments, promotions and pay hikes
4. Pay reductions and disciplinary demotions
5. Suspension
6. Discharge or dismissal

Oral reprimand: The penalties are listed in the general order of severity, from mild to severe. For most cases, an oral reprimand is sufficient to achieve the desired result. The supervisor must know his or her personnel in determining how to give a reprimand.

Written warning:

When an oral warning or counseling to the employee does not produce the desired result, the manager may issue a written warning to the employee.

Denial of increments, promotions and pay hikes:

On some incidents the management may refuse promotions, increments or pay hike by blacklisting the employee for a specific period of time. This is usually treated as a punishment for a certain period of time.

Pay reductions and disciplinary demotion:

This is usually more severe than the denial of pay hikes and promotions because the employee loses part of existing benefits and privileges received by him from the organisation.

Suspension:

A few offences normally require the direct suspension of the employee without any prior warning, depending upon the nature of the misconduct committed by the employee. The decision regarding suspension is generally made by higher authorities.

Discharge or dismissal:

This is the severest punishment of all. Both discharge and dismissal culminate in termination of employment.

Q. No 5 Suppose you have joined as an HR and you have been assigned a task to carry out the grievance handling procedure in your organization. What according to you are the causes of Grievance? Describe in detail the Grievance handling procedure?

Ans.5

Causes of Grievances

In the previous section, we discussed the concept of grievance. Let us now discuss the causes of grievance. Grievances can arise out of the day to day working relations in an organisation. Relations with supervisors and colleagues also determine employee’s job satisfaction.

Grievances may occur for a number of reasons:

a. Economic: Wage fixation, over time bonus, wage revision etc. Employees may feel that they are paid less when compared to others.

b. Work environment: Poor physical conditions of workplace, tight production norms, defective tools and equipment, poor quality of materials, unfair rules, lack of recognitions etc.

c. Supervision: Relates to the attitude of the supervisor towards the employee such as perceived notion of bias, favoritism, nepotism, caste affiliations, regional feelings etc.

d. Work group: Employee is unable to adjust with his colleagues, suffers from feelings of neglect, humiliations.

e. Miscellaneous: These include issues related to certain violations with respect to promotions, safety methods, transfer, disciplinary rules, fines, granting leave, medical facilities, etc.

Many organisations form committees and involve employees in most employee-impacting decisions, be it the choice of a new office location or what needs to be served for lunch in the cafeteria and other such workplace hygiene factors.

The Grievance Handling Procedure –

In the previous section, we discussed the forms and effects of grievance. Let us now learn the grievance handling procedure.

The following guidelines may help a supervisor while dealing with grievance:

• Treat each case as important and get the grievance in writing.
• Talk to the employee directly. Encourage him/her to speak the truth. Give him/her a patient hearing.
• Discuss in a private place. Ensure confidentially if necessary
• Handle each case within a time-frame
• Examine company provisions in each case, Identify violations, if any, Do not hold back the remedy if the company is wrong. Inform your supervisor about all grievances.
• Get all relevant facts about the grievance, examine the personal records of the aggrieved worker. See whether any witnesses are available. Visit the work area. The idea is to find where things have gone wrong and who is at fault.
• Gather information from the union representative, what he has to say, what he wants etc. Give short replies, uncovering the truth as well as provisions. Treat him properly.
• Control your emotions, your remark and behavior.
• Maintain proper records and follow up the action taken in each case.

Q. No 6 Write a short note on the following:

a. Index /Trend Analysis
b. Delphi Technique

Ans.6

(a) Index / Trend Analysis – In general, trend analysis involves the collection of information from multiple time periods and plotting the information on a trend line for further analysis.
The Index/Trend analysis involves the following steps:

1. Select the appropriate business/operational index – Select a readily available business index, sales level that is known to have direct influence on the organisational demand for labour.
2. Track the index over time – Once the index has been selected, it is necessary to go back in time for at least four or five most recent years.
3. Track the workforce size over time – Record the historical figures of the total number of employees.
4. Calculate the average (or most recent) ratio of the business index to the workforce size (‘Employee
5. Requirement Ratio’) – In this step, the ratio of number of employees required for each thousand rupees of sales is obtained by dividing each year’s number of employees by the level of sales.
6. Calculate the forecasted HR demand – Multiply the annual forecasting for the business index times the average employee requirement ratio for each future year to arrive at forecasted annual demand for labour.

(b) Delphi technique – This method is essentially a group process to achieve a consensus forecast. This method calls for selection of a panel of experts either from within or outside the organisation. A series of questions is prepared from the responses received from a prior set of questions in sequencing manner.

The procedure of Delphi technique involves the following steps:

1. To start with, it requires selection of a coordinator and a panel of experts from both within and outside the organisation.
2. The coordinator then circulates questions in writing to each such expert.
3. The experts then write their observations.
4. The coordinator then edits those observations and summarises, without however disclosing the majority opinion in his summary.
5. On the basis of his summary, the coordinator develops a new set of questionnaire and circulates those among the experts.
6. Experts then answer such set of questions.

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