Semester – 2 Internal Assignment

Subject: Essentials of HRM

Answers

Ans.1. Introduction - The top management of “Sundaram Ltd” is planning to create a dynamic
human resource department for managing employee functions pan India. While doing so,
following aspect should be taken into account:

Planning HR Needs

While planning for the human resource management, two major activities need to be taken
into account: short and long term planning and strategic planning. Both these functions should
be taken into account while synchronizing the HR needs with the strategic mission and
planning of the firm. These strategic objectives may include increasing revenue growth, service
or product diversity, market share, profit margins, planning for financial obligations, etc.
Planning of the activities is also important for the right performance of the other critical
activities related to human resources. To exemplify it, HR planning will help the organization
better understand what type of and how many employees the organization will need in the
future. The planning of the HR also determines how the firm has obtained and trained the
human capital.

How to staff the Organizational Needs

Once the human resource needs are link to the organization’s strategy, positions are filled to
create a pool of talent. Staffing involves recruiting job applicants and then selecting the most
appropriate candidates for the available jobs. It should be noted that staffing applies both to
internal candidates (current employees in the firm) and external candidates (candidates not
currently employed by the firm). The hiring process should be a transparent affair hence while
engaging in the process of recruitment, it is important that the organization publicizes a wide
network to ensure a full and fair search for potential job candidates. Recruiting is an
indispensable HR function. if organizations don't attract a wide range of candidates, they will
be less successful in filling the actual needs of the organization. After identifying the
candidates, they must be selected for the identified jobs. Common selection techniques include
interviewing candidates, obtaining completed application forms, formal training verifications
and reviewing education, administering various informal and formal tests to determine
potential and fit with the organization. All selection procedures must comply with various
pieces of state and central/federal human rights legislation. The selection process' goal should
be to create a match between the requirements of the job and a candidate's ability.

Motivating and Compensating Employees

Once employees are appointed, it mandates them to determine how well they are performing
and thus accord them their due reward. There are various important aspects of compensation.
In simple terms, employees are generally rewarded based on the worth of their job
responsibilities, their performance, and their contributions. Generally, two types of rewards are
being considered. One being the performance- based rewards which increases an employee's
motivation to perform and other forms of compensation are offered simply for being the
organizational member. The rewards which are directly linked to "performance-based rewards"
are often referred to as direct compensation. However, compensation that is offered simply for
being an organizational member, is often referred to as indirect compensation.

Increasing Human Potential

The HRM field has been a remarkable change. It is currently not only involved just in the hiring
process but also in informal and formal training and developments. Many studies have
concluded that many of the new recruits, stepping into the workforce today, are focusing more
on their ability to grow and develop personally. Earlier the focus was only on the direct
compensation that is gained for the work done. In today's chaotic global environment, many
firms use training and development activities to remain focused.

Revamping the Workplace Environment

Many organizations today are implementing programs to improve productivity, work-life

balance, and also improve health and safety at work. Earlier, the focus was on the health and
safety in the physical work environment. However, the companies are lately realizing the
importance of physiological well being as well. The performance of the employee and the
company in general is usually affected if the work environment is below par. Notably, many
organizations like Google are doing all they can to build an open and creative workplace.

Effective Work Relationships Maintenance

After hiring their required employees, organizations need to take good care of them. In
addition to a healthy & safe environment of compensation, firms must bring forth the
conditions that will make it attractive for employees to stay. For symbolizing this function,
organizations need not only to establish but also to maintain effective working relationships
with their workforce. Employees, over the last many decades, have gained considerable rights
within the workplace. This has resulted in, employment decisions such as layoffs, discharges,
and demotions that must be made with adequate care, yet supplemented with good reasons.
Management must remain well versed with employee rights and never violate them. Having
explained this, an HR manager is expected to be in a very comfortable position to inform
managers about these rights.

Globalization of HRM

As the exchange of information has become very easy, the world and the business has become
interdependent. Hence, it has become important for the HR managers to update themselves
with the HR practices, activities and policies of other countries. In addition to this, since the
companies have become more global, it is important that the organizations should develop as
well as implement HRM policies that can be applied internationally, and also make them
relevant to the workforce from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

These eight distinct HR activities and functions (compensation/motivation, planning, staffing,

performance appraisal, improving the workplace, training, and development, globalization, and
relationship building) need to be analyzed independently and together, because many HR
functions directly influence each other.

Conclusion - While concluding, performance of a single activity mostly depends on another

performance. It needs to be noted that all HR functions and activities, in most work
environments operate within the constraints of the external and internal environments. As
deliberated, all the above functions should be viewed independently and together. They should
be subjected to a multitude of events and forces that will help shape an organization's HR
policies. Finally, to help the firm achieve its strategic and organizational goals, human resource
(HR) practices and policies must be congruent with the organization's overall strategy. The top
management of Sundaram Ltd.'s should take into account the above mentioned points to
expand their business.
Ans. 2. Introduction - As per the Gartener’s research findings, only 35% of the HR leaders
agree that they have a mix of data, social-creative skills and the technology needed to actually
meet their functions’ requirements. This is particularly more relevant in a small set up where
just one employee has to look after all the needs of the organization's human resource
management such as compliance, payroll, recruiting, tracking vacation days, and employee
benefits administration.

The antiquated guideline - The earlier studies have found that the average HR-to-employee
ratio is 2 HR for every 60 staff, but smaller businesses mostly report higher HR staff ratios. The
large organizations tend to have more HR staff than small businesses. Small companies may
feel the need to add more HR employees when only the need arises, such as when:

i) Hitting lengthy and an unexpected growth period

ii) Facing complex compliance issues

iii) Lacking necessary systems and processes

iv) Having single or multiple remote branches or locations

This is often why small businesses operate without an HR team. Notably, HR software systems
automate tasks such as time tracking and payroll runs, while external sources can substitute
for handling outsourced needs like recruiting. As said above, small businesses sometimes may
not require a dedicated HR employee until their employee count goes over 200. However, this
is not a rule to be followed for all the organizations. The company's HR hiring plans should
depend on its current state of the business.

Optimization of your structure in the initial stage- If the organization has more than 100
employees and the HR staff is finding it difficult to balance everything on their own, you need
to hire your second HR employee.

i) Hiring an HR assistant: Handling responsibilities like performance management and

employee relations should be handled by an HR assistant. The newly hired HR person has to
handle administrative tasks like managing the HRIS, posting job ads, and filing paperwork.

ii) Hiring a full-time recruiter: The recruit will take over the responsibility of one of the most
challenging HR functions, i.e. staffing. As per the recommendation of Peter Rosen, this structure
is ideal, as it saves a substantial amount of time by using a specialist for recruiting.
Many organizations bring in leadership development and company culture experts when their
employee strength reaches between 50 and 80 because these are vital focus areas. But these
needs too can be outsourced, if they're not on your priority list.

As your HR department grows, you should hire specialists to entrust some specific HR
functions, viz employee relations or employee benefits; the reason being these functions
will become more complex with the growth. Many times you may hire benefits and
compensation people who are also often good with HR systems, given the finding, you can
put these all under one person.

Here is an example of the pen picture of a six-person HR department.

1) HR director: The HR Director is bestowed with the job of handling the strategic vision
of the HR department, in addition to approving all high-level decisions and s/he also handles
communications with the C-suite.

2) Employee relations manager: S/he looks after the onboarding needs, manages
employee disputes, and coordinates performance management efforts while recommending
policy changes for approval.

3) Recruiting manager: S/he coordinates with hiring managers to parse through

resumes, creates job listings, extend offers, and conduct interviews while managing the
applicant tracking system (ATS).

4) Training manager: Department managers remain within their domain of activities to

effectively develop training courses that strengthen skills, also take care of any learning
management platforms, and create assessments and materials.

5) Compensation Manager: Develops compensation structures and competitive pay

within predetermined budgets. Other than these, s/he employee benefits administration
ensures error-free payroll runs and manages core HR software systems.

6) Compliance manager: The manager has to ensure that the company is up-to-date
with all employee, health, and safety regulations, while also undertaking the responsibilities
of necessary employee certifications.
Conclusion -

All these above-mentioned five managers (2-6) are under the control of the Director, in
addition to them, you may add on many specialists and assistants, as per the requirements.
Such an inclusive HR department will help the FMCG grow.
Planning the future is constantly tricky since it is impossible to recognize with assurance what
will occur in the future, nor to anticipate all possible growths. With a comprehensive
understanding of the dimensions and dynamics of HR, one can have the essential aspects of
an effective HR planning process to create possible and particular plans.

Ans. 3. A. Introduction - Human resource planning (HRP) allows enterprises to plan in

maintaining a steady supply of skilled manpower. Hence, it is also called as workforce planning.
The process is used to help companies evaluate their needs, in addition, to planning to meet
those needs. We are discussing the case of Aztec Tech Solutions Ltd here.

HRP has to be flexible enough so that it can meet short-term staffing challenges and at the
same time it can adapt to changing conditions in the business environment over the longer
term. HRP starts by assessing and auditing the current human resources capacity.

Steps to HRP - There are four broad and general steps involved in the HRP process.

i. Reviewing Business Goals - The first step of HRP is to identify the company's
human resources supply at present. In this stage, the department of human
resources studies the strength of the organization based on the number of workers,
their positions, benefits, skills, qualifications, and performance levels.

ii. Scanning the environment - In this second step, the company requires to outline
the future of its employee strength. Here, the Human Resource Department can
consider certain issues like promotions, layoffs, transfers, and retirements —
anything, that is connected with the future needs of a company. The Human
Resource Department can also see to the external conditions that may affect labor
demand. The examples are new technology that might either decrease or increase
the need for a workforce. Types of scan are:

a. Internal Scanning – It involves identifying the strengths and weaknesses of

 the organization. For example – changes in leadership structure, changes in
organizational policies, or any other operational changes etc.

b. External Scanning – It is all about opportunities and threats in the market.

For example – factors affecting manpower demand and supply, government
policies, level of competition, etc.
Scanning the environment also involves HR supply forecasting which helps in
determining the availability of human resource both inside and outside an
organization.

a. Internal Supply – It involves the existing workforce of an organization. Eg –

Promotions, transfers, increase in pay recruitment policies, etc.

b. External Supply – In order to meet HR demand, organizations sometimes

need to recruit external employees. This type of scanning depends on
economic patterns, industry trends, labour market analysis.

iii. Balancing Labor Supply & Demand - The third step in the Human Resource
Planning process is forecasting the employment demand. HRD creates an important
gap analysis that brings forward the specific needs to narrow the company's labor
demand versus labor supply for the future.

iv. Implementing and Monitoring the HR Plan – After equalizing demand and supply,
the HR plan is to be taken into action. The HR activities required for the execution of
the HR plan include recruitment, selection, placement, training and development,
etc. After the plan is executed well, the HR personnel need to evaluate whether the
HR plan is meeting organizational goals and objectives.

Ans. 3. B. Introduction - Human resource planning is a process used to forecast future human
resource requirements. Human resource forecasting, also known as HR forecasting, typically
uses past sales data to more accurately estimate future staffing needs. There are both
quantitative and qualitative approaches to forecasting human resource requirements. While
quantitative methods rely heavily on mathematical and statistical analysis, qualitative forecasts
usually rely on managerial judgment techniques. These methods consider the skills, potential
levels, and interests of all employees so as to meet the future HR needs of an organization.
The commonly used strategies for human resource forecasting are:

i. Management Forecasts - Here, both the bottom-top and the top-down

methods are used. In the bottom-top approach, the crew informs the managers
approximately the want of the human resource to fulfill their dreams and targets.
The managers took the initiative and allotted extra-human assets in the groups
or businesses within the top-down approach. Within the former case, the records
received from the top-line managers are used to forecast the human applicable
resource requirements. Therefore, the lowest-top approach considers the views
and evaluations of all the departments within the decision-making process. It is
essentially possible in the case of the decentralized gadget of commercial
enterprise. While combining each of the lowest pinnacle and top-down
approaches will become a participative approach. It lets each branch head and
the top managers forecast the call for human resources together. Thus, it might
lead to greater coherence among the managers and task heads, an excellent way
to make the business enterprise environment extra friendly and sustainable, and
there would be no attention on electricity on the one hand.

ii. Expert Forecasts – Sometimes, HR personnel seek inputs from professional HR

experts regarding future staffing requirements of their organizations. These
experts forecast an organization’s human resource requirements, skills required
to meet organizational goals and objectives. On this technique, each statistical
and mathematical strategy is utilized and analyzed simultaneously to forecast
destiny.

iii. Delphi approach - On this approach, professional opinion is considered to

forecast the requirement of human assets. Human resource control experts
collect responses and develop reviews that comprehensively summarize
professional reviews. This system of collecting the expert opinion maintains till a
few consensuses are reached amongst all the experts. It is usually utilized in
eventualities where the market or the sides therein are entirely unresponsive, or
they are not enough to garner support towards the forecast of human assets.

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