HRM Issue Faced: Employees’ Evaluation and Assessment

XYZ limited is a core manufacturing company which is into manufacturing of refractory

materials. Though it once was part of one of the biggest steel giants (TT ltd) of the world
but in the 2013 it was sold of to a Japanese company. This company is one of the
crucial and the biggest players in the market which it serves, the refractory market.
The refractory market or per say the steel market itself though is one of the core
businesses of the country, but these markets have seen a very little transformation
when it comes to workplace culture, team dynamics or HR practices. XYZ limited is no
different, in fact it lies in the bottom percentile of the companies which have seen a
transformation in their HR practices or workplace culture. However, the parent company
which it has evolved from has seen a tremendous change even when both the
companies were together. XYZ limited though is a division of a steel giant which is a
torch bearer in its segment it did not see considerable changes in its culture and HR
practices.
Mr Teddy a engineer from one the premier technology schools with a specialisation in
metallurgical engineering has joined the company with an expectation that the HR
practices there would be in line with the steel giant (TT Ltd). During the initial days of his
journey with organisation, he found that though most of the employee benefit schemes
are in line with TT ltd., which are best in the class, but later found out that the employee
evaluation and the learning and development activities of the HR departments were still
a hit.
The HR department of XYZ Ltd. Was merely acting as a medium to connect the talent
and the line supervisors but did not have enough autonomy to assess the candidature
of the applicants. The company has referral program which incentivises employees for
suggesting suitable and potential candidates for the job roles available. However, the
HR department itself did not have a prior qualification criterion or the KPI apart from the
educational background to assess the job fit of the candidate. The HR department
directs the applicants with relevant educational background to line managers and the
line managers would select the candidate based on his evaluation and promote him to
the next stage of the process where the candidate is evaluated by the head of the
department. Once the entire evaluation is done by the line managers and the head of
the departments, the candidate is goes through a HR round where the HR departments
only aim is to negotiate the compensation and even this part of the process is heavily
influenced by the line managers or the head of the department. By now it is clear that
the HR department’s role in the process of candidature evaluation in recruitment
process is very limited and less significance.
As Teddy grew through the organisation he realised another poorly structured HR
responsibility, the annual review process of the employees. The employees and the line
manager together set a to do list for the entire year which is not even reviewed by the
head of the department, at the end of the year the same to do list is reviewed only by
the line manager and sent to the HR department for appraisal. A very poorly defined
evaluation or assessment system for an existing employee too. These practices are
already leading to unhappy employees and high attrition.
At this point of time there comes a dynamic HR head named Mr Bob, he reviews all the
current practices and decides to change the process of evaluation or assessment and
also the recruitment process. He implements automates both recruitment process and
also the assessment processes through the cloud based software service by SAP called
“Success factors”. The process now had clear contribution and key role for the HR
department in both the recruitment and assessment process. The cloud-based platform
enabled transparency of the goal setting, quarterly reviews and most importantly the HR
department now reviews the candidates and actual plays an important role. This
inclusion of the HR department actually helped the company evaluate the candidates
and the employee’s orientation towards mission and vision of the company along with
job fit. This has led to more happy employees and a lesser attrition of the employees.

HRM Issue faced: Inefficient Training and Development Program

It was March 2020. Karan Sharma, a fresher, was hired for the role of Technology
Consultant (SAP) in New Delhi, India, at a multi-national technology firm, XYZ. He had
all the required educational qualifications as well as skills that were needed for the
profile of a Technology Consultant. The firm had planned a one-month training program
for Karan as well as the other freshers who were hired with him for other profiles. The
objective of the training program was to provide them adequate guidance on how they
can apply their knowledge and skills practically in the corporate world and work
productively to contribute to the organization’s growth. The training program was
planned in such a manner that each new hire was provided training for their respective
work, with on-the-job training as well.

The training program started smoothly within the office premises, however, there was
news all over the media, about Corona Virus, that was starting to spread in China and
many other countries, including India. Soon the offices started to practice the work from
home setup and the employees started to work remotely. Gradually, the training
program also shifted to an online mode. Being freshers, it became challenging for them
to comprehend the nature of their work. Due to factors like Technical/connectivity issues
and Health issues. The trainers also faced challenges in terms of setting the right pace
for the training. The e-learnings that were available on the Learning and Development
platform of the firm, were outdated since the firm had always focused on providing
training in an offline mode. The area of work was challenging to master remotely. The
online format of working was new to everyone.

Due to the virus, several employees (including trainers) became unavailable on short
notice due to medical emergencies within their families. Due to this, the team became
understaffed. The training program was not carried out efficiently.
Soon, Karan was asked to cover for his other team members due to a shortage of staff.
Even though the team was the same, the work responsibility of each team member was
different. Each member worked on a different application. While Karan was trained for
SAP, he was asked to work as a replacement for Aman Singh, who was an Oracle
Technology Consultant. The training program was not designed appropriately due to
which Karan had a hard time adjusting to this new role. Due to this, there was a change
in Karan’s behavior. He started to perform poorly in his role. He showed a lack of
motivation to work. He gradually became unsatisfied with his work and career
prospects. His work-related stress started to increase. He felt undervalued which
reduced his productivity and loyalty. He ultimately decided to resign from the job. The
HRM issue that triggered this behavior was the lack of sufficient training and
development opportunities.

As a firm, XYZ should have had a better Training and Development program for its
employees. The firm should have been prepared to take care of the unprecedented
times. In the future, the firm can take the following measures to avoid a lack of training
amongst the employees. Employees should be cross-trained to reduce turnover and
absenteeism and keep them motivated. This can also provide increased productivity
and flexibility in terms of scheduling another employee on the task in case of
unavailability. Firms should be ready to integrate newer and upcoming technologies
within their training program. The firm should also be ready to use Digital technologies
to facilitate training programs from online platforms efficiently. Human Resource
Managers should also ensure that the training material and plans are being constantly
updated to take care of the changing market conditions. Feedback should be taken for
all training and trainers to understand the gaps that the employees are facing. Human
resource managers should also make sure that the results of these training are being
measured to assess the impact and success of the training.
Journey from intern to conqueror –
PQR limited is a company that operates in FMCG sector with diverse product categories
ranging from carbonated soft drinks to packaged snack foods along with some fast-food
restraunts and café under its umbrella. It was another recruitment season at its peak in
top business schools and company visited campus for summer internship program.
They had a unique and rigorous selection process starting from resume screening, then
followed by business simulation game, case discussion and two interview rounds to
select the desired set of candidates who possess certain set of competencies required
to perform well in the job role offered and be a good culture fit for the organization.
Usually, the company has a specific requirement which they expect the interns to fulfil,
or they have an expectation from an intern to perform some additional tasks which a
full-time employee is excused from, so that they could focus on other priority tasks
contributing to overall workforce efficiency of the organization. The company is looking
for a fresh perspective on their current business processes, which also gives the
organization’s HR department enough time to evaluate the candidate on various
parameters, whether he/she is perfect fit for roles in the company, company culture or
not. So, it forms the foundation for job analysis and workforce planning, although the
company did not pay much emphasis on preparing the job description and job
specification for the interns. This also puts the interns in state of confusion what is
expected of them until they start working.
Ms. Nina, the young passionate women from IIM was the only one hired for this
marketing role at FMCG giant. She was straightforward person who believed in clear
communication and was very good at what the role asked her for. The flexible approach
and proactive participation in various business activities proved to be her biggest
strength. She was lucky enough because the company got a good project which gave
them the chance to prove their mettle and show that they are leaders in this line of
business and Nina got an opportunity to work on this project along with middle and top
management. Observing her work and the project outcome that company cracked the
deal, which was very critical for their growth that year, management appreciated her by
giving best intern award and full time offer as PPO (pre-placement offer) just after the
internship.
When she started working as a full-time employee for the organization, they were
working on a marketing campaign related to one of their products which was not
performing well and posed the question to overall business profitability. There was
discussion among team members regarding the situation and they were trying to figure
out a solution & in the process she had an opposing yet very rational viewpoint to the
project manager’s viewpoint and other colleague just matched yes to the manager’s
point. She ended up saying that this would not workout in medium run because of her
straightforward nature and maintenance of clarity in any conversation.
Similar project came and the manager appointed her colleague to lead that project
despite of the fact that Nina was best performer in recent past. She also observed that
this kind of practices were common with female employees. Being proactive she raised
her concerns to HR department and also made some recommendations related to
recruitment and diversity inclusion in workplace which were simple but very effective like
preparing proper job descriptions, different ways of sensitivity training while onboarding
new employees. Her recommendations were not only considered but also implemented
to make the better workplace culture with supportive leadership.
There was a situation where they were facing cannibalization issues due to independent
operations of their restraunts and the public was also not using their products. So, Nina
took a tour of the city to observe the usage of consumers and came up with the
advertising idea connecting with the customers to improve the market penetration and
improving the business profitability. These achievements and her consistent
performance were recognized, and she became CEO of the company in span of 10
years from her joining showing the women power of leadership. We are calling this lady
a conqueror because she conquered the problem of diversity inclusion with her
performance and proactive actions by raising voice for the concern she had and
changed the workplace environment for herself and other women employees

HRM ISSUE FACED: UNETHICAL MISUSE OF POWER

Dhan Singh was a father of two from a small village located in the outskirts of Gurgaon.
His family members were solely dependent on him, including his parents, wife,
daughter, and son. Dhan Singh was desperately searching for a decent job to support
his family. After many tireless searches, he got an opportunity in Gurber Singh, a fast-
food restaurant. The pay was barely enough for his monthly expenses, but he had no
other choice.

The Restaurant Manager named Kuldeep hired Dhan Singh as a Team Member, with
an average work of 8 hours per day. As per the employee policy, each employee was
allowed to take a 1-hour meal break between the shifts. Dhan Singh used to work hard
and learn all the theoretical concepts even outside of his work hours. He became a gold
team member (a member who is certified at all food sections) within four months of his
joining.

After a few months, some team members had a conflict with Kuldeep due to his rude
behavior. But Kuldeep didn't try to resolve the issue; instead, he told them to leave the
job if they had a problem with him. The team members resigned with immediate effect,
and soon there was a staff shortage at the restaurant. Instead of hiring more team
members, Kuldeep continued with the same number of team members to cut employee
costs. As a result, the team members worked overtime, and no meal breaks were given
due to high sales and kitchen operations. As a result, the work environment inside the
restaurant became unorganized and toxic. The employees were frustrated with the
behavior of Kuldeep and started objecting, but Kuldeep didn't entertain any of their
complaints.

Simultaneously, Dhan Singh always obeyed Kuldeep and used to work even after his
work hours to avoid any disruption in the restaurant's operations. On the other hand,
Kuldeep used to misuse the generosity of Dhan Singh. He made him work continuous
shifts and sometimes even without breaks or week-offs. Kuldeep had promised that
Dhan Singh's pay would be increased and promoted to Team Leader in the next
promotion cycle. Dhan Singh was working tirelessly without any queries, as he was
assured that he would be promoted with a significant increase in his pay scale. But, as
per the company policies, the team member had to go through a 1-month review and a
3-step interview with the District Head and Area Lead. Dhan Singh was unaware of this
process, and he was not prepared for the interviews. As a result, he wasn't promoted to
a team leader or given a raise.
Dhan Singh was upset and frustrated with Kuldeep, as he didn't inform him about any
processes. Kuldeep was not concerned about what happened to Dhan Singh, and he
elucidated himself by standing up to what he said.

Dhan Singh decided to take action against Kuldeep, but he did not have any proof as all
the conversations were verbal. He decided to talk to other team members only to know
that he wasn't the only victim of Kuldeep; many others faced the same issue but were
afraid of speaking up against Kuldeep as they wanted to work in the restaurant. Dhan
Singh approached the regional HR and explained to him the whole case. As a result,
there was an HR Audit with one-on-one interviews with every team member. The HR
Representative concluded that Kuldeep was misusing his power unethically and was
exploiting the team members on false promises. They decided to take strict action
against Kuldeep and reported the case to the higher authorities. A new Restaurant
Manager immediately replaced Kuldeep. Dhan Singh worked hard again, prepared for
his reviews, and was promoted to Shift Manager. He was then satisfied with his role and
the pay scale.

HRM Issue Faced – Poor Work Ethics

James has recently joined the XYZ ltd in managerial position right after his graduation.
James strongly believed in work ethics and therefore he decided to go through the
company and the HR policies before joining the organization. Within the organization he
achieved all the targets set for his position and has outperformed his employees on
various parameters involved in the employee evaluation and has maintained to be
among the top performance throughout the year. He was close to his promotion and his
promotion is based on his performance for which the company followed 360-degree
evaluation. The 360-degree evaluation took views of performance of a employee from
supervisors, subordinates, customers, and suppliers. James considered he had good
relationship with everyone he worked with and also has a good performance and was
therefore confident about his promotion. John was also expecting promotion to the
same role as James and was ready to do anything to get his promotion. John realized
that he has less chances for promotion as compared to James and therefore he
engaged in bad mouthing about James to all the employees in the organization. As the
performance evaluation is judged by all the employees in the company and that John
badmouthed about James to all the employees, the performance evaluation of James
was poor and he could not receive his promotion and instead James received his
promotion. Although James was aware of the situation there was nothing he could do as
wasn’t any channel where he can raise his concern.

The major reason that encourages poor work ethics within an organization is intense
competition which forces employees to take part in unfair means. Another reason for
such behavior arises when the organization does not take any strict action against such
behavior

Consequences of poor work ethics within an organization can demotivate employees

like James and employee relations would be hampered. It would also create an
undesirable work environment which would make it difficult to hire and retain talented
workforce. Employees would less productive and often extend the work beyond the
deadline.If proper actions are not taken against behavior that does not align with the
ethics of the organization it would also encourage other employees to indulge in unfair
means to get up the corporate ladder, which would eventually lead to poor reputation of
the company

The XYZ ltd should create an appropriate channel where the employees can raise their
concerns and also the organization should take stern actions against employees who
indulge in unfair means.

HRM ISSUE: Recruitment and Assesment

XYZ limited is a core manufacturing company which is into manufacturing of refractory
materials. Though it once was part of one of the biggest steel giants (TT ltd) of the world
but in the 2013 it was sold of to a Japanese company. This company is one of the
crucial and the biggest players in the market which it serves, the refractory market.
The refractory market or per say the steel market itself though is one of the core
businesses of the country, but these markets have seen a very little transformation
when it comes to workplace culture, team dynamics or HR practices. XYZ limited is no
different, in fact it lies in the bottom percentile of the companies which have seen a
transformation in their HR practices or workplace culture. However, the parent company
which it has evolved from has seen a tremendous change even when both the
companies were together. XYZ limited though is a division of a steel giant which is a
torch bearer in its segment it did not see considerable changes in its culture and HR
practices.
Mr Teddy a engineer from one the premier technology schools with a specialisation in
metallurgical engineering has joined the company with an expectation that the HR
practices there would be in line with the steel giant (TT Ltd). During the initial days of his
journey with organisation, he found that though most of the employee benefit schemes
are in line with TT ltd., which are best in the class, but later found out that the employee
evaluation and the learning and development activities of the HR departments were still
a hit.
The HR department of XYZ Ltd. Was merely acting as a medium to connect the talent
and the line supervisors but did not have enough autonomy to assess the candidature
of the applicants. The company has referral program which incentivises employees for
suggesting suitable and potential candidates for the job roles available. However, the
HR department itself did not have a prior qualification criterion or the KPI apart from the
educational background to assess the job fit of the candidate. The HR department
directs the applicants with relevant educational background to line managers and the
line managers would select the candidate based on his evaluation and promote him to
the next stage of the process where the candidate is evaluated by the head of the
department. Once the entire evaluation is done by the line managers and the head of
the departments, the candidate is goes through a HR round where the HR departments
only aim is to negotiate the compensation and even this part of the process is heavily
influenced by the line managers or the head of the department. By now it is clear that
the HR department’s role in the process of candidature evaluation in recruitment
process is very limited and less significance.
As Teddy grew through the organisation he realised another poorly structured HR
responsibility, the annual review process of the employees. The employees and the line
manager together set a to do list for the entire year which is not even reviewed by the
head of the department, at the end of the year the same to do list is reviewed only by
the line manager and sent to the HR department for appraisal. A very poorly defined
evaluation or assessment system for an existing employee too. These practices are
already leading to unhappy employees and high attrition.
At this point of time there comes a dynamic HR head named Mr Bob, he reviews all the
current practices and decides to change the process of evaluation or assessment and
also the recruitment process. He implements automates both recruitment process and
also the assessment processes through the cloud based software service by SAP called
“Success factors”. The process now had clear contribution and key role for the HR
department in both the recruitment and assessment process. The cloud-based platform
enabled transparency of the goal setting, quarterly reviews and most importantly the HR
department now reviews the candidates and actual plays an important role. This
inclusion of the HR department actually helped the company evaluate the candidatures
and the employee’s orientation towards mission and vision of the company along with
job fit. This has led to more happy employees and a lesser attrition of the employees.