Development of Good-Working Human Resources Management - Assignment Example

Q1, a: what is about competencies that makes them so relevant for HR departments in modern organisations How might they play a useful role in the following: a. a 360 degree appraisal/feedback scheme b. a broadbanding payment scheme c. a traditional performance appraisal scheme d. an assessment centre HR competencies are different when looked at in the context of different roles and models and their implementation in various organisations. The development of a customised HR competency model for each organization is often advocated. Before understanding a competency model, it is essential to understand the definition of competency. Competency is the ability to perform a role to the best of abilities with optimum understanding of a specific area of study / operation. Therefore, it is essential that specialists be employed in each function within the Human Resources Department of an organization. This will enable the optimum utilisation of competencies to streamline and regulate the functions within the department. A few examples of competencies are leadership, initiative, flexibility etc. Competencies can also be further subdivided into core competencies, job competencies, role competencies etc based on the requirement of different Organisations: a.) A 360-degree appraisal/feedback scheme: This initiative is typically deployed in organizations to ensure that no bias exists in the appraisal / feedback of an employee. The employee has the right to provide feedback about his supervisor to his / her skip level supervisor. Therefore, an increased amount of accountability exists in all roles. If the supervisor or the skip level supervisor is not competent enough to guide the employee who is well aware of the role and the area in which he is working, remedies need to be made. Unnecessary administrative control is hence minimized and better streamlining happens. However, 360 degree appraisals schemes based on competence are challenging to implement and not all personnel react in the same to way to a transparent appraisal / feedback scheme, it is essential to have experts design these schemes and educate personnel about the benefits of such a scheme before it is implemented. b) A broadbanding payment scheme: Broad banding payment schemes have come to replace the traditional structure of payments in many organisations. Broadbanding has led to traditional job evaluation factors getting replaced by competence -related factors. The competency of a person is taken into account while fixing remuneration and employees are assigned bands on the basis of their career stage or level. Annual or semi-annual salary raises which happen within a career band are then assessed based on competence. The employee who demonstrates enhanced competence in delivering according to his goals is given a higher raise. Broadbanding brings with it many advantages. It becomes easier for the management to recognize individual value. Further, reorganization of job roles and work becomes possible as competencies of the individuals are known. It is easier for management to do away with hierarchies and build a flat organization, hence reducing the requirement of additional administrative resources. According to Kamakura (2003), "One of the key changes in technical professionals. compensation is a shift from tightly structured salary ranges and centralized control of traditional programmes to remuneration or career bands. The bands increase flexibility to respond to labour market trends and to recognize individual growth and contributions." (p. 45) c) A traditional performance appraisal scheme: A traditional performance appraisal scheme focused on two things; first is to provide feedback to employees in the context of past performance to improve their performance in future, second is to validate and refine organizational measures and identify areas of training / improvement to be provided to the workforce to enhance their skills and efficiency. Data from these schemes were used to make payment decisions. Competency based performance appraisal would lead to the deserving candidate getting the required raise. It would allow the supervisors to guide employees to develop their competencies to be successful in a particular job. A lot of questions regarding internal pay comparisons could also be avoided. Therefore, the two separate functions of these appraisal schemes could then be combined in to one. d) An assessment centre: It is easier for an HR organization to develop competency - based assessment centres. Performance of individuals can be assessed against the goals developed for each role according to the job band and the expected competency levels for that particular band. Individuals with better performance levels and enhanced competencies can then be suitably rewarded or moved into an enhanced career stage. It is also easy for such assessment centres to prescribe developmental plans for employees based on their competency levels. It takes away the probability of bias as well. Q1,b:why should firms invest in management development programmes(mdp) given the difficulties of evaluating them in cost-benefit terms When talking of competencies, it is necessary to focus on the development of the people in management and senior management roles as well. It has been observed that an increased amount of emphasis is laid on continuous improvement or continuous education of people in management and senior management roles. Management Development Programmes (MDP) are conducted on a periodic basis in all global organisations. These programmes are aimed at making these professionals aware of the latent areas of improvement that they might have. These programmes more often than not bring forth the reasons for their not achieving the targets they are aiming for. Providing MDPs also ensures that organisational goals of helping professionals to develop themselves as an individual and as a professional are met. Being in senior management roles often requires such professionals to travel and be continuously engaged in business related meetings, conferences besides being involved in guiding people reporting to them. While this places tremendous responsibility on them, it also takes away their time to introspect and to enhance their skills and competencies. MDPs are designed based on the requirements of their roles and keeping in mind the skills they need o develop so as to be able to guide the people reporting to them. MDPs conducted off site (away from their offices) help them to take a required break, introspect on what they have done so far and to figure out what could be done better given the business goals and existing circumstances. This tremendously helps in streamlining efforts hence leading to reduced costs and enhanced productivity and profits. Further, a well informed supervisor can provide his reportees with on the job training and best practices which otherwise would need to be incorporated in formal training programmes for the reportees. As such training costs can also be reduced. Q2,a:using examples, analyse the value of the 'best-fit' and 'best-practice' approches to HR strategy. To what extent does knowledge of what firms actually do reduce the relevance of the 'best-practice' model All businesses today aim at recruiting the most suitable candidate for a position that they offer. This is known as the "best - fit "approach. By recruiting the ideal candidate for the position, they aim at reducing cost to train the individual up to speed. Consider for example, recruiting a Sales Manager for an organization. The latent competency of the Sales professional is analysed in terms of his previous experience and qualifications. Further, his competency for the job and the role is analysed keeping in context the role that is being offered to him. The content of such an analysis are then placed in the context of the career path for that specific role and the organisations short term to which the contribution of this individual is linked. If the final analysis indicates that the role is suitable for the candidate and it is a win- win situation for both, an offer is made to him. This is a shift away from the "best practice" approach which follows from the prevalent best practices drawn from the organisations experiences in the past and from the industry in which the organisation operates. While a best practice in the context of the example explained above might indicate that a person with a few specific qualities and experience is suitable for the role, a careful analysis of an individual's competencies placed in context of the organisations' short term goals may indicate otherwise. It is quite possible that a best practice that works for a particular organisation may not necessarily be relevant for another. Therefore, instituting roles which are "best fits" for the organisation and recruiting individuals who are the right candidates for such roles are advisable rather than following "best practices" which might be beneficial for another player in the industry but might not be beneficial to the organisation in question. b,using different models or approaches, provide an analysis of the main organisational outcomes that could be expected from a strategically oriented HR policy.How would you demonstrate the values of these outcomes to a sceptical Board of Directors that wants'facts and no theories'. A strategically oriented HR policy may be developed in the context of several models or approaches implemented in an organisation. For example, a Strategic HR model based on competencies can be developed based upon several other models which are geared to meet the needs of: The complete organization and all its core competencies The goals of a function within the organisation and Goals and career bands for all employees in the organisation The HR policy in this case would focus on all critical elements in the framework of the organisation. It would need to take into account the short term goals and long term goals besides outlining the benefits that the organisation would derive from competency driven roles and functions. Further, the policy has to provide for the vision of the management in terms of the forecasted growth of business keeping in mind plans for expansion, the roles that would be generated, the cost benefit analysis of each component of the expansion plan. It will be easy to develop a long term HR strategy if all of these are kept in context because it will be in tune with the future plans of the organisation. It will also be wise to incorporate assumptions of benefits accruing to the organisation taking examples from the empirical data that might exist in the organisation given its performance in the previous years. This will help HR professionals in convincing the senior management about the success of the suggested futuristic strategy. References Kamakura, Yashuhiko, Best practices in work flexibility schemes and their impact on the quality of working life (2003). Retrieved May 10, 2006 from http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/techmeet/tmwfci03/tmwfci-r.pdf Read More