L.17 - Human Resource Management
Manpower of an enterprise, Is its strength you must deem, Encourage their inner strength, And build a successful team.
UDYAM SHASTRA- Chapter 09,Verse 06
Key Objectives:
Reading this module and doing the students activities will enable the students to:
Understand the important responsibilities towards Human Resources of a small enterprise, the type of which a vocational student may start
Prepare job specification for people to be recruited.
Prepare an advertisement inviting applicants.
Prepare application form and interview check list.
Enterprise Concepts:
Human resource management.:The effective utilization of people to achieve organizational goals is called "Human Resources Management"
Human resource development.: The aspect in an enterprise that looks after the routine as also overall development of the employees is referred to as Human Resource Development (HRD).
'Men', 'Machines' and 'Materials' have been acknowledged as the main ingredients of industries.The ingredient 'Men' did not enjoy importance initially, but as complexity of industry increased, and number of workers, their trades and level of skills increased, the significance of dealing with workmen got more and more importance. Today, handling of manpower has become a highly sensitive and important function of management.
Initially, dealing with workers was handled by the owner of the enterprise. Later, it became a separate department called "Personnel Department". Subsequently, the nomenclature of "Personnel and Industrial Relations" was used.
Today, in appreciation of the importance of, not only dealing with routine requirements of workers, but also the need of attending to their continuous "Development", "Training" and "Personal Aspirations", the department is called
"Human Resource Development" Department. The 3 R's of Human Resources Management.
The three essential elements of HRM are the 3 R's :
1) Recruitment
2) Retaining
3) Replacement
The HRM goal is to Recruit the right people , offer them the right compensation so as to Retain them and obtain productive work , and prepare suitably for Replacement of people as they leave or retire.
1. RECRUITMENT: The process of drawing up job specifications,advertising,receiving Bio-Data, interviewing applicants, selecting a suitable person, negotiating a salary and issuing an appointment letter is called Recruitment.
1.1 JOB SPECIFICATIONS. When an entrepreneur wants to employ additional helping hands in business, she must specify what job the person is expected to do. This is called Job Specification. Job Specification is often used to prepare an advertisement or to spread your requirement by word of mouth among your business colleagues.
1.2 BIO-DATA This is usually a written description of a person's personal details, academic details, work experience and references.
2. RETAINING
The process of :
-drawing up Compensation Plans
-Maintaining fair records of Attendance and Wages
-Training of workmen
-maintaining Morale of workmen
-providing career growth plans etc.
is broadly referred to as 'Retaining'.
2.1 COMPENSATION PLAN.
Payment of wages, salaries and other remuneration to employees is referred to as "Compensation Plan". A "Compensation Plan" deemed as comparable to market values for similar jobs and deemed as fair, based on types of jobs in the enterprise, can build good morale in the enterprise and could lead to good attendance at place of work, high quality of work and high productivity of work. A Compensation Plan far in excess of market rates, may make the enterprise less competitive. But generally speaking the rates to be paid to workers are legally required to be according to Minimum Wages Act of the respective state. Compensation Plans could broadly comprise the following:
- Basic salary/wages
- Dearness Allowance
- Perquisites and welfare component
- Incentives
2.2 ATTENDANCE AND WAGES RECORDS.
A small entrepreneur, even if she employs one additional workman, has to maintain accurate and up-to-date record of attendance of each workman. Attendance records help to calculate the wages due to the workman.
2.3 TRAINING .
A small entrepreneur would need to train her workmen in requisite Physical abilities and mental abilities demanded of the job, which the workman is required to perform. Training on machinery and technology employed in the enterprise would also form part of this training.
2.4 MORALE.
State of feelings in a person or a group of persons is called "Morale". In a small enterprise, the entrepreneur has to maintain a good morale among her team members. This she does through building a "Vision" that is worth living up to, creating "Trust" among the workmen and weaving their strengths so that team "Synergy" is achieved.
2.5 CAREER GROWTH.
To sustain a workman's motivation and morale, it is desirable that he or she sees a career growth plan. This growth could be in terms of:
- Salary/wages
- Responsibilities
- Skills
- Designation etc.
3. REPLACEMENT
An entrepreneur has to keep track of employees who may resign for other prospects, retire from service or otherwise leave their employment. It is good for morale of the workforce if there is some plan for retirement like say a provident fund or pension plan.
Where people need to be replaced because they resign from their job, it is a good idea to build in a notice period of says one to three months before the existing employee is relieved from his job. This allows time to recruit a new "replacement" and train him or her to fill in the job of the person who is leaving. Occasionally people need to be replaced because their skill has become obsolete by new technology. For eg. Computerization could render some older workmen obsolete. In this case, it is not just replacement, but perhaps retraining and re-deployment that need to be considered.
Enterprise Skills:
The student 'Activities' in each lesson are designed to clarify the ENTERPRISE CONCEPTS of the lesson and develop some ENTERPRISE SKILLS (E.SKILLS). The E.SKILLS included in a lesson may not be exhaustive, but are indicative.
E.SKILLS stated in a lesson elsewhere may also get addressed through the activities of a particular lesson.
Some useful E.SKILLS are dealt with below:
Understanding: An ability to listen carefully and without interruption and to empathize with other people so as to appreciate their point of view.
Interviewing: The entrepreneur should have the skill to judge a person through a personal discussion called "interview" as to whether he/she suits the job specifications.
Activities:
Activity 1 - HOW TO RECRUIT
Instruction To Students
The student should read the question given below and fill the answers in the worksheet.
Conduct a mock interview in your group.
After completing the activity, each group should present and share its main discussion points with the rest of the class.
WORK SHEET:
01. Your enterprise needs a technical assistant to do your following job;
to supervise workers doing production in your enterprise.
Draw up a job specification for this job using the following questions to guide you.
Name of Post.
What education?
What experience?
Any other specification?
_______________________________________________________________
Q2. Prepare an advertisement for a local newspaper to invite applications for a
‘walk –in interview’ for above job.
_______________________________________________________________
Q3. Prepare Bio-data form, which each candidate should fill when he/she appears for an interview. (Use a separate sheet for this .A sample Bio- data form for an office secretary is appended for you to study (on page no-21 A)
_______________________________________________________________
04. Prepare an ‘Interview Checklist’ for points you wish to check-out when interviewing apart from Bio-data points. For eg:
Appearance : good/poor
Nature : friendly/unfriendly
Response to interview : enthusiastic/disinterested
Communication : clear/unclear.
_______________________________________________________________
05. With help of ‘Bio-data’ and ‘interview checklist’, students should conduct mock interviews of each other in the group .What are your observations on ‘How best to take an Interview?’
_______________________________________________________________
ACTIVITY 2: Attendance Record & Wages Record
Instruction To Students
The attendance record of 5 workmen is given for a one-week period. The wage rate Rs./day is also given.
Students should compute the weekly wages and also total weekly wage bill for ‘Abhijeet’s Electronic Repair Enterprise’.
One calculation is done for sample.
After completing the activity, each group should present and share its main discussion points with the rest of the class.
ACTIVITY 3: HRM ADVICE
Instruction To Students
Each group to assume that they are a Human Resource Development - Department staff members.
The owner entrepreneur of the organization is a highly trained vocational student . But she has not much idea of the HRM function.
The owner has just sent to your department a set of questions, some important some ordinary and has asked for advice of the HRM department
Students should discuss the questions and prepare brief answers for the Vocational entrepreneur
Students should enter their answers under the most appropriate column depending on whether the question refers to : Recruitment, Retaining or Replacement function of the HRM department.
After completing the activity, each group should present and share its main discussion points with the rest of the class.