QUESTION BANK WITH NOTES

STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

SYMMS SEMESTER IV

Q1. What is strategic human resource management? Elaborate the scope

and process of strategic human resource management.
Definition of Strategic Human Resource Management
Experts define SHRM from a different perspective. Some of the important
definitions are listed below:
“Strategic human resource management means formulating and executing human
resource policies and practices that produce the employee competencies and
behaviours that the company needs to achieve its strategic aims.”- Gary Dessler
“Strategic human resource management is an approach to making decisions on the
intentions and plans of the organization concerning the employment relationship
and the organization’s recruitment, training, development, performance
management, and the organization’s strategies, policies, and practices.” –
Armstrong
Strategic human resource management (SHRM) is defined as “the pattern of
planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable an
organization to achieve its goals”. – Wright & McMahan

Scope of SHRM:
SHRM is the link between the goals, objectives, strategies of the organisation and
its human resource. It aims at improving business performance by developing a
good organisational culture. It also furthers competitive advantage, innovation and
flexibility in the organisation.
It aims at focussing at the ways how the human resource of the organisation can
directly impact the growth of the company. HR managers adopt strategies to
develop and retain hos workforce in order to meet the objectives of the
organisation.
Organisation frames a strategic plan and quantifiable strategic aims or goals. These
plans and aims suggest certain staff requirements. These are in terms of worker
skills and behaviours required to attain the company’s strategic goals.

Process of SHRM:
Develop an understanding of the Goals of the Organisation: The HR strategies are
dependent on how well the company goals and achievements are envisioned. Both
the long-term and short-term goals must be understood clearly in order to build
effective strategies of HRM.
Evaluate the Capability of HR: This assists the manager in learning what kind of
employees are present in the organisation and how they are contributing to the
organisational goals. This step also considers developing skill inventories and
learning about the expertise of the employee in a particular area. The skills of the
employees are tested and employees who have a keen interest in being trained are
identified
Analysing Current Capacity: This will help the manager in recognising barriers and
implementing plans to capitalise the opportunities and combat threats effectively.
The HR manager will learn about the skills of the current workforce and assists
them in building their competencies in order to fulfil the strategies goals of the
company.
Estimating Future Human Resource Requirements of the Company: The manager
must forecast on the basis of supply and demand aspects of HRP. This comprises
of estimating the number of employees required with particular skills and matches
it with the current workforce or supply of the organisation.
Identifying the Tools Required: The manager must collaborate with other
departments to ascertain how certain software’s tools and techniques are used by
the employees. He studies how the usage of these tools affects the productivity of
the workforce. There is an audit of Software’s, tool kits or hardware that are the
prerequisite for more organised and timely completion of work
Q2. Elaborate different Approaches to strategic human resource
management in details.
1. Strategy-focused Approach
Authors like Mathis& Jackson and Beer et al view HRM and SHRM to be
identical.
They define that HRM by its nature itself is strategic. The elements of HRM like
training, recruitment, selection all of them operate as derivatives of requirements of
strategy within the organization.
Strategic planning suggests HRM planning. This view is not accepted by many of
the scholars and views that HRM is strategic to some extent but not in all aspects.
Several authors view HRM and SHRM as identical. According to them, HRM is a
strategy focussed and contains certain elements. This means that HRM by its very
nature is strategic.
The elements of HRM such as recruitment and selection or compensation do not
strictly operate in isolation but are derivatives of the requirements of the strategy
that an organization employs.
Strategic planning dictates HRM planning. Though desirable and idealistic, this
view does not seem to be fully accepted by thinkers. There is a feeling that HR
planning is to some extent strategic but not in all its aspects.
On the other hand, for instance, recruitment and selection are primarily
administrative and operational functions yet there are some strategic issues in these
functions too.
2. Decision-focused Approach
Tichy defines that there are three management levels, namely: strategic (long-
term), managerial (medium-term) and operational (short-term). The author views
that the HR functions performed at the strategic management level are SHRM.
The managerial and operational level HR functions do not come under SHRM and
would rather be considered as functional HRM activities.
According to some authors, Tichy et al (1984)., there are three management levels-
strategic (long-term), management (medium-term) and operational (short-term)
and HR functions performed at the strategic management level is SHRM.
It is implied in their writings that managerial- and operational-management level
activities that deal with medium, and short-term HR functions do not come under
SHRM. Rather, these are functional HRM activities.
It can also be inferred that the strategic management level activities are directed to
achieve strategic goals. From this angle, this approach is similar to the blending
strategies requiring the creation of a fit between HRM and strategy.
3. Content-focused Approach
Torrington & Hall identify that in the model of HRM process, there are always
some elements and in every such element there are some strategic aspects that are
referred to as SHRM.
According to this approach, the functional aspects of HRM elements can also be
included with the organization’s strategy leading to the emergence of SHRM.
Torrington & Hall (1995) opine that in the model of HRM process, there are some
elements and in every such element there are certain strategic aspects. These
strategic aspects are collectively referred to as SHRM.
In other words, in every element of HRM, there are two aspects: the strategic and
the functional. This view of defining SHRM is contradictory to the idea of
blending strategies. In this, when HRM elements match with the organization’s
strategy, SHRM emerges.
In the content-focused approach, the functional aspects of HRM elements can also
be blended with the organization’s strategy which leads to the emergence of
SHRM.
4. Implementation-focused Approach
Miles & Snow view that organizations do have some competitive objectives that
are achieved through some business strategies. To formulate and implement such
strategies appropriate HRM systems are necessary and those HR systems are
strategic so-called SHRM.
Miles & Snow (1984) express the view that organizations have some competitive
objectives that are achieved by some business strategies. To formulate and
implement these business strategies, appropriate types of HRM systems are
required
Such HRM systems are strategic and this approach can be termed as SHRM.

Q3. Describe the different Dimensions of Strategic HRM

Organizational performance – examines the HRM-firm performance link and
prepares some of the methodological challenges of measuring the impact of HRM.
Organizational architecture: It is claimed that the process leads to flatter
organizational structures, ‘reengineering’, redesigned work teams, use of IT, senior
management commitment.
Leadership: Considered important in the ‘soft’ HRM model to develop a high level
of employee commitment and cooperation.
Workplace learning: Posited to be a central building block in the resource-based
SHRM model and the ‘learning organization’.
Trade unions: Draws attention to the contradictions between the normative HRM
model and trade unions and introduces the debate on ‘partnership’ between
management and unions.
The field of strategic HRM is still evolving and there is little agreement among
scholars regarding an acceptable definition.
Broadly speaking, SHRM is about systematically linking people with the
organization; more specifically, it is about the integration of HRM strategies into
corporate strategies.
HR strategies are essentially the plans and programs that address and solve
fundamental strategic issues related to the management of human resources in an
organization.
Their focus is on the alignment of the organization’s HR practices, policies, and
programs with corporate and strategic business unit plans. Strategic HRM thus
links corporate strategy and HRM and emphasizes the integration of HR with the
business and its environment.
It is believed that integration between HRM and business strategy contributes to
the effective management of human resources, improvement in organizational
performance and finally the success of a particular business.
It can also help organizations achieve competitive advantage by creating unique
HRM systems that cannot be imitated by others.
For this to happen, HR departments should be forward-thinking (future-oriented)
and the HR strategies should operate consistently as an integral part of the overall
business plan (Stroh and Caligiuri, 1998).
The HR-related future-orientation approach of organizations forces them to
regularly conduct analysis regarding the kind of HR competencies needed in the
future, and accordingly core HR functions (of procurement, development, and
compensation) are activated to meet such needs.
Lengnick-Hall (1999) summarizes the variety of topics that have been the focus of
strategic HRM writers over the past couple of decades.
These include HR, accounting (which attempts to assign value to human resources
to quantify the organizational capacity); HR planning; responses of HRM to
strategic changes in the business environment; matching human resources to
strategic or organizational conditions; and the broader scope of HR strategies.
Strategic HRM is a multidimensional process with multiple effects.
Such writing also highlights the growing proactive nature of the HR function, its
increased potential contribution to the success of organizations and the mutual
relationships (integration) between business strategy and HRM.

Q4. Elaborate the strategic role of human resource managers in detail.

Strengthening the employer-employee relationship is the strategic role of a human
resources manager. However, there’s more to this job than many people realize.
Human resources managers formulate workforce strategy and determine the
functional processes necessary to meet organizational goals. Their job requires
expertise as an HR generalist, which means they must be familiar with every
human resource discipline.

Evolving Roles in Human Resources

During the 1980s, personnel departments were responsible for handing out
applications, providing employees with insurance enrolment forms and processing
payroll. The role of the personnel department was mainly administrative. Over the
next several decades, personnel administration became more involved with overall
business goals. Companies began to recruit human resources leaders who were
capable of strategic management.
Personnel administration evolved into human resources management. Human
resources managers are responsible for developing strategic solutions to
employment-related matters that affect the organization's ability to meet its
productivity and performance goals.
Evolving Terminology and Language
Some businesses no longer use the term "human resources," preferring "human
capital" instead. This is due to a sea-change in how employers understand their
relationship to their employees. Instead of defining employment as a role with
functions, which is the traditional human resources approach, human capital
recognizes the value that employees bring to an organization. This approach is
more people-cantered, focusing on the strengths and talents of employees and
allowing these strengths and talents to influence and define the business.
Workplace Safety and Risk Management
Creating a work environment free from unnecessary hazards is a strategic role of
every human resources manager. Strategic development for workplace safety
entails risk management and mitigating potential losses from on-the-job injuries
and fatalities. Workers' compensation insurance is an area in which a strategic plan
helps lower company expense for insurance coverage. Reducing accidents through
training employees on the proper use of complex machinery and equipment is one
of the functional tasks associated with creating a safe work environment.
Compensation and Benefits
An employer's compensation and benefits structure partly determines the
company's business reputation and image. In addition, the decisions that human
resources managers make regarding pay scales and employee benefits can impact
employee satisfaction, as well as the organization’s ability to recruit talented
workers. Job evaluation, labour market conditions, workforce shortages and budget
constraints are factors that HR managers consider in a strategic plan for pay and
benefits. A strategy includes weighing an employer’s choices between satisfying
its workforce and pleasing the company’s stakeholders.
The Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, mandates that human resources
managers for some large companies, specifically those with fifty or more
employees, may have to decide between offering group health coverage or paying
a shared responsibility fee to the IRS.
Employee Training and Development
Human resources managers’ strategic role with respect to employee training and
development prepares the workforce for future positions within the company.
Succession planning, promotion-from-within policies and performance evaluation
factor into the human resources manager’s role. Training and development
motivate employees, and in some cases, improve employee retention.
Recruitment and Selection
Employee recruitment and selection is as much a part of employee relations as it is
a separate discipline unto itself. Therefore, a human resources manager’s strategic
role is to combine elements of employee relations into the employer’s recruitment
and selection strategy. Integrating employee recognition programs into promotion-
from-within policies is an effective form of employee motivation that combines
employee relations and recruitment and selection areas of human resources.
Employer-Employee Relations
Some human resources managers believe that strengthening the employer-
employee relationship rests solely in the employee relations areas of the HR
department. This isn’t true. Nevertheless, employee relations is such a large part of
every discipline – including salaries, benefits, safety, training and employee
development – that sustaining an employee relations program is an important
element of human resources strategy.
Implementing a workplace investigation process and enforcing fair employment
practices are two components of an employee relations program. The strategic role
of a human resources manager is to determine how to identify and resolve
workplace issues, as well as how best to attract a diverse pool of applicants through
effective recruitment and selection processes.

Q5. What are the different criteria for an effective hr strategy? Discuss.
The answer is that an organisation can aspire to market leadership in its chosen
sector, but unless it has the organisational capability to make this possible, its
executive team would be well advised to re-adjust its ambitions. All organisations,
whether driven by product or services, need the best human resource available to
deliver those products or services.
1. Aligning business and HR needs
The business’ goals – that is its strategic imperatives – sit at the heart of any HR
strategy and in order to align business and HR needs one key question must to be
answered, “Can your organisation’s internal capability deliver its business goals?”
This is where HR receives most criticism. The function is frequently accused of
failing to fully understand its business, goals and strategy for achieving these
goals, and its business model and how it delivers to its customers. For those who
already understand the demands of their business, it is easy to identify where the
business has strong core competencies and where the business is weakest.
Sometimes these weaknesses are related to essential systems or processes, but
more often – and significantly for HR – these weaknesses relate to the quality of
the workforce, its motivation and ability to deliver organisation performance.
Taking steps to understand your business and where it has competitive advantage
is an essential first step towards determining the key HR interventions that form
the basis of an HR strategy.
2. Developing your HR strategy
Deeper knowledge and understanding of your business goals and business model
can identify potential threats and opportunities in the quantity and quality of
human resource required by your organisation. This in turn identifies the key
components of your HR strategy and the virtuous circle of providing whatever
your organisation needs for success.
It is also critical that the HR team has a high level of expertise in aligning major
HR interventions and their relevance to business performance. This calls for expert
HR thinking and identifies the requisite interventions and, equally important, how
they fit together to leverage organisation performance.
If there is a strong need for the organisation to develop its management capability,
for instance, should you align your compensation strategy to reinforce this
objective? If the organisational structure defines the accountabilities clearly at
every level of the organisation, is your HR team selecting and developing against
them? This is joined-up HR at work.
Another concern for HR is when it should make strategic interventions. Easy, it
either follows your business cycle, or is triggered by other key events such as a
merger, an acquisition or a change in business direction.
3. Organisational performance
Organisational performance is the process by which business goals and objectives
are cascaded and managed across and down an organisation. It provides a link and
rationale for all other HR activity and, in addition, the greatest opportunity to
directly impact business success, enhancing HR’s reputation and contribution.
HR needs to create and install a robust performance management process that sets
out performance objectives for all levels of staff within a business. This is an
opportunity to develop line managers’ skills in being able to disseminate and set
stretch targets for their business.
A critical part of this process is a robust performance review process, which gives
people feedback about what has been achieved – what people have done well and
not so well.
The third element is a personal development review process where individual
strengths and weaknesses are identified for the purposes of assessing and meeting
organisational development needs.
4. Organisational design and structure
Organisational design is the shape, size and structure of the organisation required
to meet customers’ needs. It reflects the management processes that drive the
business model and determines organisational agility and flexibility. These
processes can be a source of competitive advantage or sources of frustration,
unnecessarily absorbing time, cost and resources.
Decisions affecting the shape, size and cost of the organisation will be aligned with
the business strategy. It should be relatively easy to see whether an organisation
invests in marketing, sales or manufacturing, for instance, and whether the
organisation is maximising its work flow capability.
As people experts, the role of HR is to add value to the structure and operation of
the business. Structural weaknesses offer an opportunity to revamp any part of the
organisation by identifying and making appropriate changes, reductions in size or
cost; or improvements to the quality of the operation.
Conversely, structural strengths are a signal to the HR team to reinforce
organisational competence.
5. Strategic resourcing
Achieving clarity throughout the organisation’s structure is critical in order for
resourcing strategies to work well. If the organisation is transparent about its
key roles and accountabilities, this will define the skills and knowledge required
to undertake the work and determine strategic resourcing requirements.
Deciding on your resourcing strategy means identifying a number of critical
components. These range from the processes needed to determine resourcing
needs, the processes to attract the right people and the processes for assessing and
selecting the right people. HR has a strong traditional involvement in all of the
above. In addition, it is essential to ensure each stage of the resourcing activity is
aligned and in direct response to the strategic imperatives.
Another important component determining the effectiveness of any resourcing
strategy is the need to create a ‘recruitment brand’ – how the image (or brand) of
the organisation appears to the recruitment market can either support or undermine
the success of a resourcing strategy.

6. Organisation development
If strategic resourcing is about providing a pipeline for importing external talent,
then an organisation’s development strategy is the way in which the HR team
decides what changes and improvements need to be made to the current workforce.
Usually these responses work at three levels – the individual, team and
organisation – and all are geared to achieve high levels of organisational
performance. It requires a close examination of the strategic imperatives and
clarity about the capabilities to execute it.
Development responses will aim to increase business skills, the application of
business skills (sometimes called competencies) and the behavioural elements – all
of which contribute to an organisation’s effective performance. It is important at an
individual level, particularly for senior people, that they feel their development
needs are agreed and that they are provided with the skills to do their jobs.
At a team level, it defines individuals’ ability to work with others flexibly and
align individual and team skills and activity to business goals – all of which ensure
that the organisation is equipped to deliver its goals.
7. Compensation and benefits
Often called reward strategy, the purpose of compensation and benefits systems is
to align the performance of the organisation with the way it rewards its people,
providing the necessary incentives and motivation required for an organisation to
deliver its goals.
Its components are a combination of base pay, bonuses, profit sharing, share
options, and a range of appropriate benefits, usually based on market or competitor
norms and the organisation’s ability to pay. Typically, the components of an
organisation’s reward strategy will reflect the particular performance culture of a
business.
There is evidence that organisations see compensation as a strategic management
lever and are increasingly experimenting with new practices – team bonuses, for
example, aimed at improving team performance or skills/behaviour payments to
upskill the workforce or reinforce culture or behaviour change. A company’s
reward policy in particular benefits from clarity about which other elements of the
HR strategy it aims to support.
8. Organisation culture
Culture is usually described as the “way we do things round here” – the way the
organisation acts, reacts and interacts. The trend in the last 10 to 15 years has been
to align organisational behaviour more strongly with customers’ needs, creating
customer-facing units and customer-sensitive behaviours. This has been as a direct
result of the increased competition around product, quality, prices and packaging.
In re-aligning an organisation’s culture there can be real benefit and competitive
advantage through improved service.
HR teams which are closely involved with the organisation’s cultural ambitions
can lead these initiatives through their knowledge of organisation psychology such
as describing new behaviours and work styles; and through their skills in
organisational
development and being able to provide development solutions to deliver the
improvements.

Q6. Explain the strategic role of top management in an organization.

Managerial Roles One of the most frequently cited studies of Managerial

roles was conducted by Henry Mintzberg. He observed and interviewed five chief
executives from different industries for a two-week period. He determined that
managers serve in 10 different but closely related roles. The roles can be divided
into three categories:
1. Interpersonal roles
2. Informational roles
3. Decisional roles

1. Interpersonal Roles
The three roles of figure-head, leader and Liaison grow out of the Managers’
formal authority and focus on interpersonal relationships. By assuming these roles,
the manager is also able to perform informally which, in-turn, lead directly to the
performances of decisional roles. All managerial jobs require some duties that are
symbolic or ceremonial in nature. The manager’s leadership role involves directing
and coordinating the activities of the subordinates. This may involve staffing
(hiring, training, promoting, dismissing) and motivating subordinates. The
leadership role also involves controlling, making sure that things are going
according to plan. The Liaison roles involve managers in interpersonal
relationships outside of their area of command. This role may involve contacts
both inside and outside the organization. Within the organization, managers must
interact with numerous other Managers and other individuals. They must maintain
good relations with the managers who send work to the units as well as those who
receive work from the unit.

2. Informational Roles:- The informational role establishes the Manager as the

Central point for receiving and sending non-routine information. As a result
of the three interpersonal roles discussed above, the manager builds a
network of inter personal contacts. The contacts aid him or her in gathering
and receiving information as a monitor and transmitting that information as
the disseminator and spokesperson. The monitor role involves examining the
environment in order to gather information changes, opportunities, and
problems that may affect the unit. The formal and informal contacts
developed in the liaison roles are often useful here. The disseminator role –
involves providing important or privileged information to subordinates. The
president of a firm may learn during a lunch conversation that a large
customer of the firm is on the verge of bankruptcy. Upon returning to the
office, the president contacts the Vice president of marketing, who in-turn
instruct the sales force not to sell anything on credit to the troubled
company. In the spokesperson roles, the manager represents the unit to other
people. This representation may be internal when a Manager makes the case
for salary increases to top management. It may also be external when an
executive represents the organizations views on a particular issue of public
interest to local civic organizations.

3. Decisional Roles
Developing interpersonal relationships and faltering information are important, but
they are not ending in themselves. They serve as the basic inputs to the process of
decision-making. Some people believe decisional roles – entrepreneur,
disturbances handler, resource allocator, and negotiator are a Manager’s most
important roles. The purpose of the entrepreneurial role is to change the unit for
the better. The effective first-line supervisor is continually looking for new ideas or
new methods to improve the Units performance. In the disturbance handler role,
managers make decisions or take corrective action in response to pressure that is
beyond their control. Usually the decisions must be made quickly, which means
that this role takes priority over other roles. The Resource allocator – places a
manager in the position of deciding who will get what resources. These resources
include money, people, time and equipment. Invariably there are not enough
resources to go around, and the manager must allocate the scarce goods in many
directions. Resource allocations, therefore, is one of the most critical of manager’s
decisional roles. A first-line supervisor must decide whether an over time schedule
should be established or whether part-time workers should be hired. In the
negotiator role, a manager must bargain with other units and individuals to obtain
advantages for his or her units. The negotiations may concern work, performance,
objectives, resources, or anything else influencing the units. A sales manager may
negotiate with the production department over a special order for a large customer.
A first-line supervisor may negotiate for new typewriter, while a top manager may
negotiate with a labour union representative. Mintzberg suggests that recognizing
these 10 roles serves three important functions: first, they help explain the job of
managing while emphasizing that all the roles are inter-related, neglecting one or
more of the roles hinders the total progress of the manager. Second, a team of
employees cannot function effectively if any of the roles is neglected. Team work
is an organizational setting, required that each role be performed consistently.
Finally, the magnitude of the 10 roles points out the importance of managing time
effectively, an essential responsibility of managers if they are to successfully
perform each of the (10) ten roles.

Q7. Explain the Process of Career Planning in strategic human resource

management.
Employees join an organization to fulfil their career goals and aspirations and
organizations provide opportunities to fulfil them. Where there is a mismatch
between the two, employees experience dissatisfaction and withdraw from the
organization to join another where such opportunity exists. It underlines the need
for career planning. It helps the employees to achieve a better match between their
career goals and the opportunities available in the organization.
It involves the following stages:
Stage # 1. Analysing Employee’s Needs and Aspirations:
Traditionally, career planning was considered to be the responsibility of the
employee. However, employees may lack information required for determining
career goals and skills to develop career plans. This leads to blocked ambition,
frustration and lowered morale. Therefore, organizations themselves provide
resource and support to help employees identify career path and plan accordingly.
Organizations should first analyse employee’s anchors i.e., urge to lose a particular
career and aspirations. This assessment should be based on personnel inventory.
Since most employees may not have a clear knowledge about career anchors and
aspirations, the following method are used to spread career planning information.
Communication of Career Information:
i. Provides career related information and disseminates information about career
opportunities and career path.
ii. Gives information about resources available to employees such as scholarship
assistance, training, etc.
Career Counselling:
Some organizations arrange counselling for employees to help them assess their
personal interest, aptitude and capabilities, and interpret their self-assessment.
Career planning workshop
Workshops are held to disseminate career planning information in order to enable
the employees know what kind of work would suit them.
Reading materials – Employees are provided with reading materials and other
media aimed at career planning.
Assessment programmes – A number of tests are conducted to help employees
know what they should do to build their skills and what personal abilities fit in
with their career path. All these methods help employee set career goal, identify
career paths and uncover specific career development activities.
Stage # 2. Analysing Career Opportunity:
Once career needs and aspirations are known, organizations have to provide career
path for each position. It indicates various positions a job holder can hold over a
period of time. Career path changes overtime in tune with employee’s needs and
organizational requirements.
Stage # 3. Matching Needs and Opportunities:
This process consists of two steps. Organizations should identify the potential of
the employee and undertake career development programmes. Performance
management system is a good tool to assess strength and weakness of an
employee. This tool would reveal who needs additional training and who can
shoulder added burdens. Suitable development techniques like special assignments,
supervisory coaching, job enrichment, under study, position rotation etc., can be
applied after assessing the potential.
Stage # 4. Action Plan and Periodic Review:
The matching process would reveal skill gaps which need to be bridged through
individual development efforts and organization supported efforts from time to
time. Thus, this continuous appraisal reveals in which direction an employee is
going and what skills are needed to face challenges. This assessment is needed for
the organization to know the level of performance, goals and aspirations of
employees and how far the career path is in tune with individual needs and serve
the overall corporate objective

Q8. What is a succession planning? What every manager needs to know

about succession planning?
Succession planning is the process of developing talent to replace executive,
leadership or other key employees when they transition to another role, leave the
company, are fired, retire or die. It is relevant to all companies, from the largest to
the smallest, in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. The planning process
is meant to create a talent pipeline of successors that will keep the organization
running with little to no interruption when inevitable staff changes occur.
Effective succession planning works by assessing staffing needs that may arise and
creating long-term goals and strategies to manage those gaps, including through
leadership development. The HR department, sometimes referred to as the human
resources management (HRM) department, is typically a key driver in the
succession planning, which is sometimes referred to as replacement planning,
although support from top leadership and other stakeholders is critical to success.

Importance of Recruiting
Through your succession planning process, you recruit superior employees,
develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities, and prepare them for advancement or
promotion into ever more challenging roles in your organization.

The preparation for the employee's next role may also include transfers to different
jobs or departments and on-the-job shadowing, so the employee has a chance to
observe various jobs in action.

Actively pursuing succession planning ensures that employees are constantly

developed to fill each needed role in your organization. As your organization
expands, loses key employees, provides promotional job opportunities, and
increases sales, your succession planning guarantees that you have employees on
hand ready and waiting to fill the new roles.

Who Needs Succession Planning?

All organizations, no matter their size, need succession planning. While it is less
likely that you will have potential successors for every role in a ten-person
company, you can minimally cross-train.
Cross-training ensures that employees are prepared to babysit the key job when the
employee resigns. This keeps responsibilities from falling through the cracks. This
will keep the mission on track if a key employee leaf. It's not as effective as having
a fully trained employee, but that is not always possible for every role.

Filling Succession Roles

Many companies have not introduced the concept of succession planning in their
organizations. Others plan informally and verbally for succession for key roles. By
this type of process, for example, Eric is identified as the strongest player on
Mary's team so he is likely to succeed Mary when she is promoted or leaves.

In other conversations, senior leadership teams put forth the names of employees
they believe are strong players with great potential in their organizations. This
helps other senior leaders know who is available for potential promotion or
reassignment when they are looking for an employee to fill a key role.

The advantage of a more formalized system is that the organization exhibits more
of a commitment to mentor and develop the employee so that they are ready to take
over. In the above example of Eric taking over Mary's role if she leaves or is
promoted, developing his skills is a priority.

Organizationally, it allows all managers to know who the key employees are in all
areas of the organization. This allows them to consider strong players when any
key role opens up.

Advantages for Employees

Employees who know that the next role awaits them receive a boost to self-esteem
and self-respect. This enhances their efficacy and value as an employee. Knowing
the organization's plans for your next potential opportunity—and that there is one
—reinforces your desire for career development and career opportunities. This
development is one of the areas that employees want most from their employers.
You can identify the skills, experience, and development opportunities necessary
to help the employee become prepared for progression when the next job
opportunity turns up. The employee benefits from the ability to work with their
manager or supervisor to make sure that the employee has a career plan that moves
them in the direction of their next opportunity. This person is key to an employee's
ability to get the experience and education needed for career progression.

The employee's value is shared with the rest of the organization so that if an
opportunity comes up, the managers can consider the employee to fill the role. In
an informal system, managers organization-wide may not know the value of the
employee and their skills. (Even if the current manager has shared this information,
in a busy world it's tough to remember.)

Advantages for Employers

You rely on staff to carry out the mission and the vision and to accomplish the
goals of the organization. The loss of a key employee can undermine your ability
to accomplish these important objectives. You need prepared employees to step
into roles as your company grows and expands its offerings and services. Or, your
lack of developed employees will stymie your growth plans.

The need to have replacement employees ready if you decide to promote

employees or redesign your organization enables you to make necessary changes
without being hampered by a lack of replacements.

Knowledge about key, skilled, contributing employees is shared with managers

organization-wide. This information allows managers to consider the widest
number of candidates for any open job. It also emphasizes with your employees
that your organization provides the career development opportunities they seek.
The Baby Boomer generation is in the process of retiring. They are taking with
them 30-40 years of knowledge, experience, working relationships, and
information. You want to capture that knowledge before it walks out of your door.

Effective, proactive succession planning leaves your organization well prepared for
all contingencies. Successful succession planning builds bench strength.

Develop Employees for Succession Planning

To develop the employees, you need for your succession plan, you can use such
practices as lateral moves, assignment to special projects, team leadership roles,
and both internal and external training and development opportunities.

Through your succession planning process, you also retain superior employees
because they appreciate the time, attention, and development that you are investing
in them. Employees are motivated and engaged when they can see a career path for
their continued growth and development.

To effectively do succession planning in your organization, you must identify the

organization’s long-term goals. You must hire superior staff.

You need to identify and understand the developmental needs of your employees.
You must ensure that all key employees understand their career paths and the roles
they are being developed to fill. You need to focus resources on key employee
retention. You need to be aware of employment trends in your area to know the
roles you will have a difficult time filling externally.
Q9. Elaborate the difference Between Career Planning and Succession
Planning.
Planning is one of the important aspects of human life, which implies thinking
beforehand, what is to be done in future. At the individual level, career planning is
quite common, which implies establishing the goals and timelines, within which
the individual has to achieve them. It analyses a person’s skills, abilities and
interest, to lay down long-term goals of a person.
At the organizational level, for the perpetual succession of an organisation, there
must be potential employees, to fill the key positions and take charge of the
organisation, which is possible only through proper succession planning. It
analyses the critical jobs in an organisation and what kind of person is required to
fulfil that position.

The main difference between career planning and succession planning lies in the
fact that who performs it. Check out the article to know more on the two topics.
 Content: Career Planning Vs Succession Planning
 Comparison Chart
 Definition
 Key Differences
 Conclusion
Comparison Chart

Basis for
Career Planning Succession Planning
Comparison

Meaning Career Planning is the Succession Planning is a process

process through which an who tends to spot and develop the
individual selects the goals employees, that can occupy the
of his work life and finds key positions in the organization,
ways to reach the goals. when they become vacant.
 Basis for
Career Planning Succession Planning
Comparison

Subset of Career Management Succession Management

What is it? Individual Planning Organizational Strategy

Position One employee holds One position is held by different

different positions, in employees, over a period of time.
his/her work life.

Ensures Success in one's career. Continuity in leadership for all

key positions.

Definition of Career Planning

Career Planning is viewed as a systematic process, through which an individual
sets a goal for his/her career and formulate strategies to achieve them. It assists an
individual in exploring, selecting and chasing the life goals, to gain satisfaction
with the career.
Career Planning is the elementary step of career management process, in which an
individual determines the type of career an individual wants to pursue and what are
the ways to be chosen or steps to be taken to reach there. It helps in evaluating
one’s interest and abilities, identifying alternative career opportunities, setting
career goals and planning development activities.
When the organisation involves in planning, it is known as organisational career
planning, which is a systematic succession of jobs, carried out by the firm, for the
development of its employees.
Definition of Succession Planning
Succession Planning can be defined as the continuous process of recognising and
developing, potential leaders for holding the critical positions and replacing the old
ones, in an organisation, so as to ensure smooth functioning of the organisation. It
is a strategy, that suggest the steps taken to achieve the mission and objectives of
the organisation. It aims at finding out potential replacements, both from inside and
outside the organisation.
In this process, the employees are scanned and trained to occupy the major
leadership position, when the existing incumbents are no longer in the employment
of the organisation, due to reasons such as resignation, superannuation, promotion,
transfer, etc.

Succession Planning enables the managers and executives to assess and develop a
talent pool of employees, who has the ability and willingness to fill the positions,
vacant in the organisation.
 Key Differences Between Career Planning and Succession Planning
The difference between career planning and succession planning can be drawn
clearly on the following grounds:
A process through which an employee chooses the goals of his work life and look
for the ways to reach the goals is known as career planning. On the contrary,
succession planning is all about recognising and developing the employees who
can take the critical positions in the organisation, when they become vacant.
While career planning is a part of career management, succession planning is a
step of succession management.
Career planning is nothing but the planning process performed by an individual for
his/her career. As against, the succession planning is an organisational strategy
adopted to keep the business going, by replacing the key incumbents, with the best-
selected employee for that position.
In career planning, one person holds various positions in his work life. Conversely,
in succession planning, a single position is held by different persons in an
organisation.
Career planning is helpful to get success in one’s career. On the other extreme,
succession planning ensures consistency in leadership, for the key roles in the
organisation.

 Conclusion
An effective career planning is going to benefit an individual, whereas the entire
organisation is benefitted by succession planning. Both succession planning and
career planning are pro-active in nature, as well as they are future-focused.

Q10. What Are the Competencies of an HR Manager in strategic HRM?

The competency models for HR managers in both the private sector and the public
sector are virtually the same. HR managers in either sector is responsible for
creating and sustaining a productive workforce and positive work environment.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the federal agency responsible for
overseeing management of the nation's workforce, has a clear competency model
for leaders of human resources. HR professionals need business acumen, HR
expertise, leadership qualities and the ability to establish HR as an advocate. In
addition, the OPM describes HR professionals as change agents. In order to fulfil
this role, HR managers must have four primary competencies: communication,
analysis capabilities, relationship-building skills and leadership qualities.
1. Communication
An HR manager must be able to communicate with everyone in the workplace --
from line staff to executive leadership. In addition, communication skills are
important for HR managers to interact effectively with outsourcing providers,
union leaders, public officials and employees, prospective employees and
colleagues. They need to know when to adapt their communication skills to the
audience and the situation. For example, HR managers must be able to convey the
importance of fair employment practices to the company's executive team with the
same genuineness and passion as they would to hourly employees.
2. Analytical and Critical Thinking
Analytical and critical thinking skills are a must for HR leaders. An HR manager
has to exercise sound judgment and engage in high-impact decision-making in a
number of areas. The ability to analyse situations and view the implications of
certain decisions from a critical perspective is particularly useful for HR leaders.
For example, the decision whether to outsource one or several HR functions isn't
something that happens without considering the impact outsourcing has on
individual employees as well as the organization overall. HR managers also are
involved in representing the company in matters involving employment litigation,
which requires that they be able to justify the company's actions related to
employment decisions such as hiring and firing.

3. Relationship-Building
Creating a cohesive HR department that works collaboratively to achieve the goals
of the department as well as help the organization reach its goals related to
workforce development is a competency that HR managers must have.
Relationship-building and interpersonal relationship skills are fundamental to an
HR manager's success. One of the challenges HR faces is establishing credibility
with employees -- many employees equate their HR departments with the school
principal's office, which suggests a level of intimidation and trepidation associated
with their view of HR's purpose. That being said, an HR manager must have the
ability to establish credibility and trust as well as balance the obligation to be an
advocate for both the organization and its employees.
4. Leadership
Leadership skills are an essential competency for HR managers. HR managers are
responsible for creating strategic plans for the HR department as well as the overall
workforce. Therefore, leadership skills are critical, particularly in the process of
justifying the functional elements of a strategic plan to the company's management
team. In addition, HR managers have to direct the activities of the HR department,
and in doing so, they need the type of leadership skills that influence HR
generalists' and HR specialists' commitment to the HR department goals.

Q11. Why competencies are more useful than skills in strategic human
resource management?
How Are Skills and Competencies Similar?
In some ways, a skill and a competency are similar. On a basic level, they both
identify an ability that an individual has acquired through training and experience.
But the two concepts are quite different in terms of the function they perform
within the talent-management process.

How are Skills and Competencies Different?

Skills: Skills define specific learned activities, and they range widely in terms of
complexity. (“Mopping the floor” and “performing brain surgery” can both be
classified as skills.)
Knowing which skills, a person possesses helps us determine whether their training
and experience has prepared them for a specific type of workplace activity.
In other words, skills give us the “what.” They tell us what types of abilities a
person needs to perform a specific activity or job.
Competencies: Skills give us the "what," but don’t give us the “how.”
For example: How does an individual perform a job successfully? How do they
behave in the workplace environment to achieve the desired result?
This is where competencies come in.

Skills + Knowledge + Abilities = Competencies

Think of skills as one of three facets that make up a competency. The other two are
knowledge and abilities.
To succeed on the job, employees need to demonstrate the right mix of skills,
knowledge, and on-the-job ability.
A well-defined, multilevel competency defines each of these elements in terms that
allow managers and HR professionals to observe and recognize these behaviors,
using a variety of materials, including...
 Resumes
 Tests
  Interviews
 On-the-job performance in the workplace.
Practical uses of competencies in HR:
Skills are an important part of any job profile. But they’re not robust or nuanced
enough to guide talent-management activities. To manage the talent lifecycle, you
need a system that’s consistent, structured, progressive, and unifying.
Well-defined, multi-level competencies are designed to provide a strong but
flexible foundation that links every HR activity.
This starts by incorporating them into employees' job descriptions (quality job
description software can help with this task). For further info on that, register to
see a demo of our Competency Core software.
Once they're implemented and integrated to job descriptions, competencies can
have a huge impact on your organization's HR processes.

 How Multi-Level Competencies Improve HR Processes

1. Consistency.
Skill definitions—particularly for technical skills—are often pulled from a
variety of sources, and as a result, they lack consistency.
2. Structure.
Competencies bring structure to HR activities that conventional skill
definitions can’t match. Competencies were designed to fit into an
architecture that spans the entire organization and lends structure to different
departments, teams, and other business units.
3. Progression
Unlike skill definitions, multi-level competencies define a specific skill at
different levels of expertise and proficiency. Defining each of these
proficiency levels is an invaluable tool for helping employees understand
and take control of their career progression.
4. Coordination
A subset of competencies, called “core competencies,” is designed to
articulate the key values and capabilities that form the organization’s
competitive advantage in the marketplace. Core competencies are shared by
every employee in the company—from entry level to CEO—and bring
 greater unity, purpose, and coordination to the organization. See our 6 Key
Steps to Selecting Core Competencies

Conclusion: Why Competencies Are More Useful Than Skills

Competencies are more detailed than skills and take a person's knowledge and
abilities into account to determine whether a person has the right behaviours to
succeed in their roles.
But because they have an internal and relational logic, using them as a foundation
for talent management requires greater rigor and care than simply hunting for
people that have the right skills. In the best-case scenario, you can easily map
competencies to your job descriptions with the right job description software to
create "Smart Job Descriptions" -- which you can base all other parts of your
company's HR programs on.

Q12. Elaborate the Benefits from Competency based hr practices

Effective and automated competency management creates a real-time and
predictive inventory of the capability of any workforce. By defining and
automating job roles and associated competency proficiency, leadership can
readily identify strengths and skill gaps. Competency management then informs
targeted skills development learning solutions improving individual and
organizational performance, leading to better business results.
High-performance organizations describe the following benefits of effective and
automated competency management:
1. Enriched understanding of expected behaviours and performance.
Of course, the quickest path to improving performance starts by knowing the target
performance. Organizations that take the time to define the short list of
competencies and expected proficiency level for each competency, by job role,
essential for the achievement of business goals, have taken the first step toward
giving employees and leaders the best shot at performance excellence.
2. Improved talent planning.
 Competency assessment results inform leadership about current and future
talent capability. To be assessed as competent, the employee must
demonstrate the ability and experience to perform a job’s specific tasks.
Data and analytics about employees’ skills and knowledge are essential for
performance risk mitigation that leadership would otherwise be blind to.
3. Optimized development and mobility strategy.
High-performance organizations realize that organizational success depends
on how capable their people are. They also recognize that formal training
does not necessarily equip employees with the appropriate skills to thrive in
the workplace. This is where competency management and competency-
based development comes in. Competency-based development is created
around the competency standards that have been identified for a specific role
in an organization.
4. Enhanced talent pipeline
Automated competency management enables on-demand information about
employees’ and leaders’ competency mastery and readiness to move into next-
level or other critical roles. In this fashion, organizations are better prepared
with development planning and, as a result, yield healthier talent pipelines
regardless of business cycle or economic conditions.
5. Improved operational efficiencies
Competency management automation facilitates business-driven learning and
development, eliminates non-value-add training, highlights strengths to be
further developed, flags critical skill gaps for mitigation, and generates higher
levels of employee and leader satisfaction with their overall experience with the
organization.
6. Integrated talent processes
Serving as the standard for expected performance by job role, competency
management becomes the standard by which the highest-performing
organizations talk about and manage all phases of the employee lifecycle: from
talent acquisition to development, to retention and reward.

Q13. What is a Skills Matrix? Why it is used? Write benefits of a skills

matrix.
A skills matrix, or competency matrix, is a tool to map required and desired skills
for a team or project. It is a grid that visualizes the required and available skills and
competencies in a team. This makes it an essential tool for any data-driven HR
professional.
A completed skills matrix visualizes the skills that are required, the skills that are
available in the team and the skills that the team is missing. This is the skill gap.

What is a skills matrix used for?

Now to the more practical aspects. What is a competency matrix used for? There
are two general purposes.
First of all, a competency matrix helps to assess the required skills for a project or
team. In order to successfully implement a skills matrix, you need to create an
overview of the skills that are required to complete the job or project successfully.
This exercise helps to define the key activities of the team and define the relevant
skills or competencies required to complete these activities.

Benefits of a skills matrix

A skills matrix helps to drive performance in multiple ways. It is not only
beneficial to the team but also to the individual, organization and, potentially,
internal and external clients!
1. Team: The competency matrix is primarily a tool to help the team as a
whole. The team gains a quick overview of both the skills that are present
and the ones that are missing. These missing skills can be found by hiring
people with the relevant competencies.
Additionally, the team is more aware of its own weak spots and can take extra care
to prevent the missing skills from interfering with performance.
2. Individual: The skills matrix also helps the individual twofold. First, it gives
the individual insight in their own competencies and what they bring to the
table and what they are missing. This is an excellent starting point for
learning and development opportunities.
 Secondly, it makes the individual aware of the skills that are required for the
team to successfully perform. It also communicates expectations as the
matrix shows the capabilities that the individual is expected to excel in.
3. Organizations: On a larger scale, the organization gets an overview of
available competencies and areas of improvement. These are the areas that
the organization can invest their learning and development budget into in
order to function better. In addition, these competency matrixes can help to
redistribute internal talent to the places it’s most needed.
4. Clients: The final stakeholder, clients, receive a better service. It doesn’t
really matter whether these are internal or external clients. The teams have
increased awareness of missing skills which help to prevent pitfalls.

Q14. Discuss the various steps involved in creating a competency matrix.

The following steps constitute the creation of a skills matrix:
1. Define the relevant skills for the project
We start with the most important: define the relevant skills for a project or team.
Skill matrices are often created by a manger or the HR department to improve team
performance. The manager wants to evaluate which skills are missing to prevent
the team from missing deadlines, internal conflict or other cost later on.
That’s why you start with an assessment of the relevant skills and competencies
needed to complete a project. This is also input for the competencies that you’ll
assess the team members on as it prevents you from assessing a long list of
irrelevant competencies!
2. Assess team members on their current skill levels
For the second step you need to evaluate team members on their current skill
levels. This can be done very simply by just asking them. It can also be done in a
more rigorous way. For example, through competency testing of the person and his
direct peers and manager.
For each skill, you’d want to know the person’s proficiency. This can be grouped
into four categories:
  No capability
 Basic level of capability
 Intermediate level of capability
 Advanced level of capability
An often-used instrument to assess competencies is a 180-degree feedback
instrument. A 180-degree feedback instrument assesses an employee’s skills by
asking him/herself, peers and the direct manager.
The advantage of such an instrument is that people are not always accurate in
evaluating their own skills. This can be because of over competence. An example
is the Dunning-Kruger effect, a cognitive bias wherein people of low ability suffer
from illusory superiority.
An alternative – and even better instrument – is a 360-degree feedback instrument.
On top of the previous instrument, this one includes other relationships as well,
like customers, direct reports and bosses.
You can, of course, vary in how you measure someone’s proficiency. I’ve also
seen organizations use a 5-point scale:
 No experience or knowledge
 Little experience or knowledge
 Reasonable experience or knowledge
 Considerable experience or knowledge
 Expert experience or knowledge
Feel free to change these scales the way you like to use them, as long as you are
consistent!

3. Determine a person’s interest in working on the tasks they’ve been proposed

An addition to the previous step is that you need more than just skills. People also
need to like the work they’re good at. Most of the time this is the case, but
sometimes it isn’t.
In those cases, your skills matrix may show that you have someone competent at a
crucial task – but if the person is unwilling to perform the task, you will still hit a
dead end. For each person, you’d want to know whether they have:
  No interest in applying this skill or knowledge
 Interested in applying this skill or knowledge
 With this knowledge you can bring it all together.

4 Incorporate all information in the skills matrix and act on the insights
Now you know both the required and the available competencies, you can
create the competency matrix. This matrix helps to visualize what skills are
available and what skills are missing. This will result in the following
template.

Q15. Describe the various strategies to improve organizational effectiveness.

Obtaining a career as a business professional after completing a higher education
in organizational leadership online provides an opportunity to focus on improving
the effectiveness of the company. Organizational effectiveness relates to the
efficiency of a business; however, a professional must also focus on quality
services. The key to organizational effectiveness is using the right tools and
strategies to accomplish a specific goal.
1. Make Use of Human Resources
The human resources department of any company plays a key role in the
organizational effectiveness of a company. According to Forbes, human resource
personnel provide assistance with organizational effectiveness by helping with the
design of new business strategies. Since the human resources professionals in a
company play an essential role in hiring new employees, they also impact the
company goals.
Get human resource professionals involved in the design and implementation of
changes within the company to improve the organization. They offer unique
perspectives that leaders may overlook and play an active role in identifying the
right professionals for new positions within the company.
2. Focus on Education and Growth
Organizational leadership requires active measures to work with different groups
and individuals. A leader must understand the strengths and weaknesses of
different professionals before making a plan of action to improve the effectiveness
of the organization.
Before making any changes to the company, consider the education of
professionals in different areas of the business. Find out about their abilities, skills
and strengths. Identify their weaknesses or the areas where specific professionals
face difficulties when working as a team.
After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of professionals with different
educational backgrounds, focus on the growth of the company by building
effective teams. Develop teams with complementary skills and strengths.
Encourage professionals to work toward specific goals and give assignments based
on their skills, knowledge and background. Efficiency in a company requires an
understanding of different professionals and their role within the business, as well
as ways to improve their abilities or make use of unique skills.
3. Keep the Customers in Mind
Organizational effectiveness only works well when evaluating the needs and
interests of the customers. The National Academies Press states that quality
management is just as important as the overall efficiency of the company. If a
professional does not provide a quality product or service, then customers look for
alternatives for their needs and goals.
Ask customers to fill in surveys or answer questions about the services provided.
Find out what the customers want from the company or the services they find the
most valuable for their needs and goals. For businesses with direct interaction with
a customer, provide anonymous options for customers to fill out complaints or
provide feedback.
Use social media pages or other online tools to gain feedback from clients. Allow
customers to leave comments or point out weaknesses from the company by asking
questions on social media or a company blog.
4. Work on Quality Services or Products
Although clients play a role in the effectiveness of a company, a business must also
identify an appropriate level of quality for the products or services provided. The
key is focusing on a balance of quality with cost effective solutions. The goal of
any business is improving the products without exceeding a set budget or price
range.
Organizational leadership requires active participation in the decision-making
processes. Ask professionals in different areas of the business for advice about
improving the products without increasing the costs for materials. Discuss ways to
reduce the time required to accomplish specific goals without cutting back on the
quality of the final product or service.
By involving different professionals from multiple fields in the decision-making
process, a leader gains multiple perspectives and ideas about better ways to
improve the organization.
5. Use Technology
Technological tools play an essential role in the efficiency and effectiveness of a
company. Make use of computers, tablets or smartphones to improve the efficiency
of the company. Use software or sharing tools to keep different members of a team
up-to-date with the state of a project, even when they are not actively working on a
specific portion of the project.
Work with technological professionals to determine the best ways to protect the
business and client information without exceeding a set budget. Use software
programs designed specifically to improve efficiency or effectiveness in the office.
For example, use spreadsheets for better organization or set up an office-wide
system for sharing information among team members or different professionals in
the business.
Organizational effectiveness is a business strategy designed to improve the
efficiency of the company without reducing the quality of the products or services.
By working with professionals in different fields or at different educational levels,
a leader obtains new ideas to help reduce costs, improve the product and provide
quality customer service.
Q16. Describe the various Strategies for HR managers to improve company
culture.

1. Determine the focus of your company

You need to determine what the focus of your organisation would be. Does
your company want to build a customer-centric culture like Taj hotel, or is it
focused on building innovative solutions like Google? Remember, if you
want your employees to be aligned with your objectives, you have to
inculcate the values that you think are required to achieve them.
2. Constantly communicate to drill down the idea into the minds of your
employees
Your company culture is not something to be written in the employee handbook
and stored in a drawer. You have to make constant efforts to communicate it to
your employees so that they inculcate it in their day-to-day activities and make it a
way of working. We cannot stress on the importance of how important
communication is in building your company’s culture.
3. Be transparent about what’s happening within the organisation
Transparency is the key to building trust in the minds of your employees. Good
or bad, let your employees know everything that is happening within the
organisation from you and not through water cooler discussions.
4. Encourage work-life balance to help your employees grow holistically

An organisation can grow when the employees are happy, and your
employees will be happy if they are allowed to have a balance between their
work and personal life. From reducing the number of working hours to
allowing employees to work from a remote location during an emergency,
introduce small initiatives to help employees to focus on their work and life
efficiently.
5. Trust and respect should be the two arms of your company culture
Every employee – an inexperienced intern or a CEO deserves respect. Make
respect and trust the two arms of your company. Trust the employees to be
faithful to your organisation. Do not stalk them on social media to see what
they do. Similarly, do not allow employees especially the seniors to bully or
disrespect others in the organisation. As an HR manager, your responsibility
 is to discourage disrespectful behaviour and help the perpetrators understand
they are equal in the organisation and their power is only limited to taking
business decisions.

5. Encourage upward communication in the organisation

There is a popular notion that some of the best solutions and product ideas come
from the shop floor. Considering that, the people working at the grassroots level of
your company have a better idea about the challenges and the shortcomings that
the organisation faces, it is important to ensure that their voices are heard directly
by the management. Initiatives such as coffee with leaders, town hall meetings are
the best way to bridge the communication between the management and the
employees. Such initiatives help the management get a better perspective about the
bottlenecks in the organisation and encourage employees to become an active
participant in the growth of the organisation.
6. Recognise and encourage talent
Every hardworking employee likes it when the organisation recognises his
or her contribution. Make Rewards and recognition an integral part of your
company culture. By rewarding the deserving employees and sharing your
feedback about them, you will motivate them to continue their good
performance and help the organisation achieve its goals. One important thing
to note here is to ensure that the rewards are given to genuine employees.

7. Encourage teamwork
For an organisation to progress, its employees have to work with each other with
strong understanding. They have to understand that while personal objectives are
important, company’s objectives are also a priority. Hence, as an HR manager, you
need to ensure that the teams are aligned with the company goals and are working
in full cooperation with each other. Do not hesitate to pick out employees who try
to break the team spirit and recognise the contribution of the team that has worked
in unity consistently.
As companies grow in size, maintaining the core culture of the company becomes
an issue. You may not be able to personally oversee the practices within the
company. However, by giving the senior employees of the organisation the role of
a mentor, you will be able to pass on the baton of good culture across the
organisation, as well as give them the sense of being an important part of the
organisation. And with an open communication line, respect, trust, and teamwork,
you will be able to keep the core values of your company alive even as it grows
leaps and bounds.

Q17. What are the strategies for developing learning organization? explain
The value proposition of being a learning organization extends beyond employees
to shareholders as well. Shareholders can often expect better products with more
innovation resulting from the company’s freedom to try new things and its
unrelenting focus on building the core capabilities of the people who work there.
It’s no surprise, then, that a lot of companies are either talking about being or
trying to become a learning organization. Often, though, being a learning
organization is more aspirational than current reality. Many companies are
constrained by tight operating margins and limited resources. These companies
often feel as though those realities limit their ability to become learning
organizations. In addition, truly being a learning organization requires different
mindsets around success and failure as well as recognizing the less immediately
tangible value of consistent investments made in people over the long term.
The value proposition of being a learning organization extends beyond employees
to shareholders
Getting there isn’t something that can be driven just by learning and development
leaders. It often requires leadership alignment and sponsorship at the highest levels
to create that culture. Whether that top level of sponsorship and alignment is in
place or not, though, here are four key ways that L&D can help build the
foundation for a learning organization to emerge.
1. Work with the business to ensure that learning directly supports strategy
and objectives.
Even if there are limited resources for learning, one of the best ways to help
leaders feel good about its value is to ensure that it is a key driver of business
strategies. This alignment is often done through an annual, if not more frequent,
needs assessment that is directly focused on business needs.
The key is to ask the right questions, such as:
  What is the core capability gaps that, if not solved, are barriers to achieving
our strategies?
 Where are we continuing to have skill gaps that are negatively impacting our
business’ current performance?
 What are the skills we will need in the future to meet our long-term business
aspirations and vision?
Directly tying a learning program to a key business imperative or initiative shows
business value.
Directly tying a learning program to a key business imperative or initiative shows
business value.
2. Provide learning for employees in innovative ways.
Move beyond traditional learning, and think about how to bring learning to people
in different ways with high frequency and low costs. The kinds of strategies that fit
into this category are limitless. Some examples include:
 Implementing “one-minute daily learning bite” videos with calls to action
 Weekly emails from leaders with management best practices encouraging
learners to try them out during the week
 Regular forums for employees to learn from each other
These kinds of strategies begin to embed learning as a daily practice and require
minimal administrative support.
Move beyond traditional learning, and embed learning as a daily practice.
3. Customize learning for the company’s culture.
This isn’t to say that canned training programs aren’t effective (especially if they
reduce the need to re-invent the wheel for tried and true learning needs), but they
often feel foreign to the company’s culture. Tailoring them makes them feel highly
relevant, which helps learners feel higher levels of ownership.
4. Work with the business to find ways to reward and recognize people for
learning.
This is the ultimate low-cost, high-return approach. If the company acquired a new
competency as a result of learning from something that didn’t work, finding ways
to recognize that learning not only allows the new competency to spread but also
reinforces the learning culture. The key is to ensure that the organization is
rewarding the development of new capabilities through learning.
Ensure that the organization is rewarding the development of new capabilities
through learning.
Transforming to a true learning culture takes time, but these four tips can help lay a
foundation for getting there.

Q18. Elaborate the various strategies for effective performance management

in an organization.
1. Define and Communicate Company Goals and Performance Objectives
Your employees cannot meet your performance expectations or company goals if
they are not clearly outlined, making this our first step toward effective
performance management. Sometimes employers are not as clear as they could be
when outlining their goals or company objectives, and often, employees do not
come forward to ask follow-up questions when they are confused or unclear about
something. Pre-empt this pitfall by being as clear and communicative as you can
possibly be.
You can define and outline goals by using a goal-tracking software, creating a
chart within the office, by sending out an e-mail, distributing a flyer throughout the
office, holding meetings, or doing each of these things in turn. When you are
outlining goals and objectives, repeat the message so that it sinks in, offer visuals
(such as an office chart and e-mail) so that employees have a reference, and most
importantly, hold meetings to check in on progress.
2. Utilize Performance Management Software
If you are not already using a performance management software, it may be time to
consider trying it out. If you do already use one and it’s not saving you any time,
your team complains about it, or it has low employee engagement, it may be
obsolete and in need of an upgrade. Performance management software can really
streamline your performance management strategies, making it imperative that you
either begin using one or at least begin looking to upgrade.
A good performance management software system is one that both offers
traditional reviews and 360s, is employee-friendly, has an easy-to-use dashboard
interface, allows for quick and actionable reporting and, of course, fosters
employee development. The software will help both you and your employees stay
on top of things so that your company is running smoothly and efficiently at all
times. Some useful examples of more modern performance management software
can be found here.
3. Offer Frequent Performance Feedback
While clearly communicating company and individual goals is an essential step for
any business, communication alone is not going to get you all that far. Your
managers will also need to check in with teams and employees periodically not
only to gauge progress but also to provide feedback.
Good performance feedback reinforces strong skill sets and positive behaviours
while showing opportunity areas with a clear path for improvement. This type of
feedback cannot wait until HR kicks off an annual review cycle. Instead, it should
be given in real time and integrated into company culture (it should also start
during the interview process, but that is another post for another time).
Timely performance feedback is the best way to affirm your employees and their
work while also shaping their work effectively. If you have a performance software
now, it should be able to help you collect frequent feedback. If not, free tools like
Google forms, survey monkey, or even just a basic e-mail request will get you
pretty far.
4. Use Peer Reviews
Another great way to foster effective performance management is to utilize peer
reviews, also known as 360-degree reviews. Again, this is a feature that can be
found on most performance management software programs. Peer reviews are
useful because they allow co-workers to praise other co-workers and highlight
positive aspects of their performance, as well as point out where improvements can
be made.
This exercise helps employees to work together, build better communication, and
assess where they can improve themselves while watching their colleagues. There
does need to be some manager or HR oversight into this process, and all peer
reviews should be read to ensure that no claims, concerns, praises, or other
comments go unnoticed or unaddressed.
5. Pre-emptive Management and Recognition
One way to guarantee results in the workplace is to implement rewards and
practice pre-emptive management. This simply means that your employees always
know what is expected of them so there is never any guesswork or need for
consequences in the workplace.
This starts everyone on the same footing, making a fair playing field where
expectations are set and goals are known. Rewards, or incentives, are also an
effective way to show employees that you care, that you see their efforts and are
pleased with their performance, and that you want them to keep up the good work.
In the same way, having a strong “HR Toolbox” in play that helps managers catch
slipping employees early on and provide appropriate feedback helps to catch a
problem before it even starts. In this way, “Pre-emptive Management” is all about
communicating with your employees and letting them know what is expected,
what is not, and how to meet the goals that have been set.
6. Set Regular Meetings to Discuss Outcomes and Results
Also known as progress reports or progress meetings, setting aside time to meet
with your team and seeing how things are going with your set goals and objectives
are important for meeting those goals and objectives.
These meetings can be held weekly, monthly, or as often as you see fit. Ensure that
your team knows that attendance is mandatory. This makes the progress feedback
more accurate and allows you to make plans for moving forward.
When holding these meetings, be sure to have a clear idea of what you want to
cover. Some objectives should include:
Following Up on Peer Reviews
Discussing Praises and Areas that Need Work with the Team
Recognizing Those Team Members Actively Meeting their Goals and Objectives
with Rewards or Incentives
Discussing Plans for The Next Phase of Projects
Discussing Company Data: Revenue, Customer Involvement, Marketing and
Campaign Success, Etc.