Internal mobility & separation of employees :

Internal mobility is a term used to describe the

movement of your employees to new, internal
opportunities within your organization. It includes both
vertical mobility, so usually an upward movement
between job levels, and horizontal mobility, which
describes moving within the same job level.
Internal mobility is an essential part of recruiting and
talent development. It allows a company to move its
team internally to re skill, fill department gaps, and
cross-collaborate to get a project done or hit an
organizational goal.
Internal mobility enables the open exchange of talent and ideas
within an organization, encourages employees to stay and grow,
and is paramount to success.

Giving the employees the chance to engage in different

experiences, advance in their career, and add additional skills to
their repertoire, internal mobility can help contribute to their
short and long-term professional goals.

Human Resources professionals play an integral role in enabling

internal mobility within their organizations. They do this by
understanding the competencies of their employees as well as
the needs of the business, and building an effective process to
connect workers to a variety of internal opportunities.
The purpose of internal mobility may be stated thus:

1) Improper organizational effectiveness:

Organizations want to become lean and clean. To
this end, structural defects may have to be
eliminated; unwanted positions removed and other
jobs redesigned. Internal mobility increases every
such change within an organization.

2) Improve employees effectiveness: Knowledge,

skills and abilities (KSAs) can be put to use if there
is a good equation between what the person has and
what the organizations demands. Through
promotions and transfers organizations try to bridge
such gaps.
3) Adjust to changing business operations: During a boom,
there might be a phenomenal demand for new skills.
Finance professionals were in great demand for example
during the early 90s. In a recession, layoffs may be needed
to cut down and survive. Likewise short term adjustments
may have to be carried out in case of death or illness of an
employees.

4) Ensure discipline: Demotion, causes loss of status and

earning capacity. A demoted employees has to learn new
ways of getting things done and adjust to a new setting.
Demotions can be used to ensure discipline and to correct
wrong placements and job assignments.
PROMOTION
An employee promotion is a recognition for
that person’s contribution to your company.
Employee promotions can come in many
forms, but typically will involve some
combination of:
•Higher salary
•More senior job title
•More and higher-level responsibilities
•Decision-making power
•New leadership responsibilities
Three main types of
employee promotion:
•Horizontal promotion
•Vertical promotion
•Dry promotion
Horizontal promotions involve an
increase in title and pay for an employee,
but with little to no change in
responsibilities. These promotions, also
known as an “up-gradation,” recognize
an employee who has gone above and
beyond in their role, offers them fair
contribution, but does not ask them to
take on more.
In the educational sector, an example of
this is the move from lecturer to senior
lecturer.
It is important to note that such
promotion may take place when an
employee shifts within the same
department, from one department to
other or from one plant to another plant.
This type of promotion is when you
reward an employee with increased
benefits without changing their
responsibilities too much.
Vertical Promotion:
This refers to an upward movement of employees with a change
in skills and experience. It brings a change in salary,
responsibility, status, benefits, etc. In the marketing industry, this
can be the promotion of a marketing supervisor to the marketing
manager.
Due to its nature, it can change the nature of the job as well.

This involves upward movement, more senior job titles, higher

salaries, and more responsibilities. In other words, vertical
promotions ask the employee to contribute more and give them a
more senior seat at the table. This type of promotion may also
change the nature of the job by adding leadership responsibilities
or more direct reports.
Examples of vertical promotions include
moving from a Manager to Director.

Promoting vertically means influencing both

the responsibilities and benefits of an
employee as well as their status within the
company’s hierarchy.
Dry promotions involve all the responsibility of a
new title, but without the benefits that come with
it. In other words, the company will ask more of
the employee, but will not provide compensation
or recognition in return.

This promotion refers to an increase in

responsibilities and status without the benefits. It
means no increase in pay or any financial
benefits for that matter.
Unsurprisingly, employees don’t typically look
favorably on dry promotions, and they should be
avoided wherever possible.
Benefits of Employee Promotion

1. Expectation
2. Reduce Attrition
3. Motivation & Productivity
4. Cost-Efficient
5. Career Growth
6. Need to Manage
7. Rewards and Recognition
Promotion can be made on various bases. Following
are the major ones:

1. Seniority i.e., length of service

2. Merit, i .e., performance
3. Educational and technical qualification
4. Potential for better performance
5. Career and succession plan
6. Vacancies based on organisational chart
7. Motivational strategies like job enlargement.
8. Training
Open/Closed promotion
These two terms refer to the eligibility criteria
of the position at hand. An open promotion
would be one in which applying to the position
is free and open to all members of your
company, while a closed promotion would
only accept a curated list of employees as
applicants.
 TRANSFER
A transfer has to be viewed as a change in
assignments in which an employee moves from
one job to another in the same level of hierarchy
requiring similar skills involving approximately
same level of responsibility, same status and
same level of pay.
A transfer does not imply any ascending
(promotions) or descending (demotion) change
in status or responsibility.
A transfer is a horizontal or lateral movement of an
employee from one job, section, department, shift, plant or
position to another at the same or another place where his
salary, status and responsibility are the same.

Yoder and others (1958) define transfer as “a lateral shift

causing movement of individuals from one position to
another usually without involving marked change in
duties, responsibilities, skills needed or compensation”.

Transfer may be initiated either by the company or the

employee. It also can be temporary or permanent.
Reasons / Objectives for employee transfers:

•To avoid favoritism and nepotism.

•To avoid gaining capacity of influencing and
egocentrism.
•To avoid monotony in the work of an employee.
•Makes an employee accountable to his seat, so as
not to find mistake by his successor.
•So as to avoid excess dependency on particular
employee, otherwise may affect the purpose of
hierarchy and lose control over subordinates.
•To create transparency among the employees
and their work.
•It limits taking advantage and sole control
over the seat or section.
•To avoid unnecessary influence on others for
their own advantage.
•To maintain healthy relationship in between
all the staff members to retain harmonious
environment to avoid unnecessary disputes.
5 Types of Transfer Proposed by Aswathappa

1. Production Transfer:
Employees are posted in different departments,
based on their interests and qualifications.

It is the interdepartmental transfer to balance the

manpower allocation.
In simpler terms, production transfer refers to
the transfers ordered to avoid unavoidable lay-
offs since this load keeps fluctuating, and the
demand for manpower keeps changing with
time.
2.Replacement Transfer:
When an employee leaves a department for a
particular reason, the department needs a
replacement. In such scenarios, especially in
demanding situations, a senior employee might
have to function in place of the junior
employee, till the time a replacement is found.
Senior employees are required to work in place
of junior employees even in situations of
declining production. Thus, replacement
transfer also helps in reducing the
organizational need for lay-off; particularly for
long-service employee.
3. Versatility Transfer:
Some organizations believe that the workforce
needs to have multiple skills capable to
perform multiple tasks. People can achieve
multiple skills only by working in different
departments.
They gain the necessary skills to attend to the
activities in the departments, and ultimately
become versatile. People who pick up their
tasks quickly emerge to become the company’s
assets. During rush periods, they are able to
contribute greatly to achieve business goals.
 4. Shift Transfer:
In order to enhance capacity utilization,
industrial organizations, operate in multiple
shifts—generally morning, evening, and night
shifts.

Employees are engaged in all the shifts on a

rotational basis. Requests of employees for
transfers on a particularly shift are also
entertained, considering the importance of
ground of requests. However, conformance to
law and administrative procedures are essential
requirements to avoid employee unrest.
5. Remedial Transfer:
The objective of remedial transfer is
therapeutic in nature, that is, to rectify the
wrong placement.
In other words, remedial transfer is an act of
transferring an employee to a more suitable job
after they have failed to perform well in their
present position. Poor performance could be
attributed to reasons such as an employee being
uncomfortable in his job as he may not possess
good relations with his senior or suffer from ill
health.
 Demotion
A demotion refers to a permanent reassignment to a lower position
than the employee had worked previously.

The position will generally have a lower level of responsibility or

required skill, and a lower pay grade than the previous position.
Demotions can be either voluntary or involuntary and can occur due
to poor employee performance, position elimination, disciplinary
actions or organizational restructuring.

A demotion can allow a company to retain an employee it deems

valuable by returning him or her to the previous position. However,
it is also possible that the employee will not respond well to the
demotion, and if the demotion is a result of employee misconduct, it
can send the message to other employees that the company is lax
about disciplinary action.
“Demotion refers to the lowering down
of the status, salary and responsibilities
of an employee.”

In the words of Dale Yoder, “Demotion is

a shift to a position in which
responsibilities are decreased. Promotion
is, in a sense, an increase in rank and
demotion is decrease in rank.”
Causes of Demotion:

1. Breach of Discipline
2. Inadequacy of Knowledge
3. Unable To Cope With
Change
4. Organisational Re-
Organisation
Employee involvement is a
system of communication and consultation,
either formal or informal by which employees
are kept informed about the affairs of the
undertaking through which they express their
opinion and contribute to the management
decisions.

Employee involvement is regarded as the

powerful behavioural tool for managing the
industrial relations system.
Participation is an act of sharing information
and the meaning of involvement is the day-to-
day activity of the organization.
Employee involvement is used to describe
managerially inspired initiatives aimed at winning
employee commitment, as part of the practices of
industrial democracy, whose aim is to increase the
rights of employees to participate in management
decisions. This not only results in enhanced
employee morale but also retaining the potential
manpower resulting in lower attrition rate.
The objective is to gain control over the decision
making process within an enterprise. The employee
involvement crystallizes the concept of industrial
democracy and indicates the efforts on the part of the
employer to form a team of employees, which works
towards the realization of the common objectives. It is a
mental and emotional involvement which encourages
contributing to goals and sharing responsibilities with
them.

Employee involvement is a system of communication

and consultation, either formal or informal by which
employees are kept informed about the affairs of the
undertaking through which they express their opinion
and contribute to the management decisions.
 Different features of Employee
involvement
•Employee involvement means emotional and
mental involvement and not only the physical
involvement.
•Employee involvement is done at the different
levels of management.
•1. Informative Level – This is the lowest level of
the employee involvement. In this the employees
are allowed to obtain the required information from
the management and can also present their views to
the superior.
2. Consultive Level – This is the second step in
the employee involvement with the
management. In this suggestions relating to the
welfare of the employees are invited from the
employees. But this is not necessary that these
suggestions will be implemented or not.

3. Decision Making Level – This is the highest

level of involvement of the employees in the
management. In this employees are involved in
decision-making process relating to different
matters in the organisation.
•Employee involvement is done through
the representatives of the employees.
•Employee involvement can be formal and
informal.
•Collective bargaining and employee
involvement is different.
Outcomes of Employee Involvement
Providing opportunities for active participation is
beneficial for individuals as well as entire
organizations.

• Improved organizational decision-making capability .

• Improved attitude regarding work .
• Substantially improved employee well-being .
• Reduced costs through elimination of waste and reduced
product cycle times.
• Empowerment, job satisfaction, creativity, commitment,
and motivation, as well as intent to stay.
• Increased employee productivity across industries .
8 Essential Elements of employee involvement:
1. Free Flow of Communication - Two way communication is
necessary for both employees and management.

2. Impartial of Both Employers and Employees - There should be

no personal benefit for both. The employee involvement in
management scheme cannot be successful unless the employer
and employee should have positive attitude towards each other.

3. Wide Publicity – Employee should know the benefits of their

participation with the management in decision making. If they
don’t know the importance of involvement, they will not express
their views freely and will not be able to provide fruitful
suggestions.
4. Responsible Trade Union – Not only the trade unions
should be stronger but they should be responsible also. So
that they contribute in the success of employee involvement.
Responsible trade union will look for the interest of both the
employees and the management to facilitate effective
decision making.

5. Mutual Trust – For making employee involvement in

management a success, there is a need that management and
employees should trust each other and also cooperate with
each other. If they don’t have faith in each other, their
relations will be disturbed and employee involvement will
loose its importance.
6. Idea from within – When involved with the
management in the decision making, the employees
should give the ideas, which come straight from their
heart. They should not have to fulfill any legal formality
while giving their views. So they should suggest what
they feel.

7. Arrangement of Training – Employees should be

properly trained and while their training they should be
made clear about the benefits and their participation with
the management. Training will also improve their skills
and they will provide good suggestions to the
management.
8. Implementation of Decision – For making the
employees involvement in management a success there
is a need to implement the decisions which are suggested
by the employees. By this employees will be motivated
and also suggest good ideas in future. The delay in
implementation of the decisions can adversely affect the
morale.
 FLEXIBLE WORK SCHEDULE

There are three major types of work

schedule flexibility –

•Working hours (e.g. flexitime)

•Working patterns (e.g. job sharing)
•Working locations (e.g. remote work,
flexplace)
Flexible work hours are temporary changes in an employee's
regular work schedule in order to adjust for a planned or
unplanned, short-notice, or sporadic event.
Flextime is a type of alternative schedule that gives a worker
greater latitude in choosing his or her particular hours of work,
or freedom to change work schedules from one week to the
next depending on the employee's personal needs.

Under a flextime arrangement, an employee might be required

to work a standard number of core hours within a specified
period, allowing the employee greater flexibility in starting
and ending times.
Flexible work schedules are adjustments to the employee's regular
work schedule on a recurring or occasional basis to respond
work/life needs of an employee or operational needs of the
department or university. The revised schedule must be in writing
and continue to support the operational needs of the organization
and allow for appropriate oversight of the employee's work.
The supervisor allows an adjustment in the employee's work
schedule.
Job sharing is the practice of having two different employees
performing the tasks of one full-time position. Each of the job-
sharing partners works a part-time schedule, but together they are
accountable for the duties of one full-time position. Typically, they
divide the responsibilities in a manner that meets both of their
needs as well as those of the employer.
It requires a high degree of compatibility,
communication and cooperation between the
job-sharing partners and with their supervisor.

Like part-time jobs, job-sharing arrangements

may appeal particularly to students, parents of
young children and employees nearing
retirement, helping them balance careers with
other needs.
Flexible work locations are adjustments to the
employee's regular worksite on short-notice or on a
recurring basis to respond work/life needs of an
employee and/or operational needs of the organization.
The alternate location schedule must continue to
support the needs of the organization and allow for
appropriate oversight of the employee's work.
Reasons For and Types of Flexible Work Schedules-

• A flexible work schedule may be implemented for a variety of

reasons that benefit both the employee and management.

•Adjusting for a long commute to/from work by starting (or ending)

the work day earlier (or later) .
•Offsetting peak traffic to reduce an employee's time on the road .

• Matching work schedules to time schedules for mass transit or

other commuting alternative programs .

• Reducing the number of days (i.e., number of commutes) to and

from work each week .
•
•Attending classes for a degree program or academic
enrichment . Transporting children to/from day care
or school .
• Accommodating a mild illness that is not severe
enough to inhibit work productivity but would
otherwise prevent an employee from coming to
his/her regular workplace.
• Matching employee work hours to peak
productivity time periods.
•Increasing flexible use of time-sharing or to offset
peak use of centralized offices or equipment.
•Extending customer service hours .
Benefits:
Flexible schedules tend to be more successful when they meet
both the employee's personal needs in balancing work and life and
department operational needs in providing efficient and effective
services. Some benefits of a flexible work schedules may include:
Reduced commuting fuel costs .

• Increased transportation options and parking availability .

•Reduced stress through the ability to better balance work and

personal responsibilities .

•Improved morale and productivity resulting from matching work

time and employee work style .
• Longer blocks of time away from the
office without reduction to employee leave
balance .

•Extended service hours with minimal to no

increase in budget or overtime expense.
•Reduced absences and tardiness through
finding a more agreeable start/stop time .

•Reduced loss of work product due to mild

illness .
•Enhanced recruitment and retention through "family-
friendly" management practices .

•Greater flexibility in available office space or equipment

due to shifts in peak use .

•Increased opportunities for cross-training due to some

shared job duties and coverage adjustments .

•Longer blocks of personal time when the university may

not be holding classes or reduced number of classes, such
as a summer 4-10 work schedule.
Disadvantages:
•Reduced face-to-face time may cause a loss of work unit cohesion 
Some employees may feel distanced from the social aspects of working
in a central location .

• Working from home may result in greater distractions and lowered

productivity .

• Working from home may blur the boundary of work time and personal
time .

• Some employees may feel "dumped on" in accommodating the

flexible schedules of other employees in the work unit .

• Conflicting requests by multiple employees make some requests

difficult to accommodate .

•Tracking employee work time becomes more complex.

Direct observation by supervisor of employee work becomes
more difficult .
Management of time worked for wage-hour non-exempt
employees becomes more difficult .

Direct costs of some teleworking schedules (furnishings,

communications) may not be offset by increased productivity,
reductions in central work location resource requirements, or
decreased commuting costs .

Increases cost of workers' compensation claims since the

numbers of off campus worksites increase to include the home
or other off campus locations.
Rightsizing

Rightsizing is a strategic business tool that escalates the

resources to reduce costs and remain competitive. It is a
type of involuntary separation that filters the workforce
correctly, especially at the top level. Optimization gives
rise to a skilled, able and knowledgeable workforce to
achieve new business goals.

It reduces the operating cost and escalates the resources

with little or no negative impact. It also reduces
the duplication of work at the time of assessment.
Rightsizing is the process of restructuring a
company so it can make a profit more
efficiently and meet updated business
objectives. Organizations will usually rightsize
their business by reducing their workforce,
reorganizing upper management, cutting costs,
and changing job roles.

It reduces the operating cost and escalates the

resources with little or no negative impact. It
also reduces the duplication of work at the time
of assessment.
Rightsizing does not only mean layoffs. It also involves the
recruitment of fresh talent and upgrading roles and
responsibilities of existing ones accordingly.

Rightsizing is the process of managing the changing needs of an

organization.
Rightsizing is restructuring a company to improve business
performance and profitability, regain profit, and reduce
operational costs. Hence, it is also sometimes included
in organization restructuring.

The goal of rightsizing is to make a company more profitable

and meet its updated business objectives.
While people often confuse "rightsizing" with "downsizing," the
terms are different with different concepts.
Downsizing is when the organization has more resources than
required, and it starts reducing or shedding off the excess weight
to get leaner. It is done primarily to increase profitability, which
may have affected due to multiple factors. Layoffs are widespread
in downsizing.
Implementing downsizing means admitting that there is something
extra, and it needs to be reduced.

Rightsizing, on the other hand, is managing the existing employees

in the organization. The purpose is to get the right size to handle
the hurdles in the market. Getting the right size doesn’t always
mean layoffs; in some cases, it means adjusting your existing
departments, increasing or decreasing people in certain areas, etc.
The difference between downsizing and rightsizing is that where the
former entails reducing the workforce, rightsizing entails
simply adjusting the workforce to the appropriate size - which could
also involve increasing the number of employees (in a rare case).

Rightsizing is a process that an organisation undergoes on a regular

basis, whereas downsizing is a one-time event.

Downsizing is often an emergency measure during times of

economic hardship so companies can maintain profitability.
Companies will downsize their employee workforce to avoid
redundancies, thereby reducing overall costs.
Rightsizing is less about reducing costs and more focused on
meeting new business objectives. The rightsizing process is all
about finding the right size and structure for the company, which
doesn’t always entail reducing numbers.
 Different Rightsizing Methods

1. Ratio analysis
Ratio analysis is a highly widespread technique for
right-sizing that is employed by almost all
organisations. It's a collection of comparisons. The span
of control for each position in the organisation is
calculated using the ratio. It provides the organisation
with a clear picture of how many people are needed
based on each department's workload.
It depicts the relationship between certain variables.
The organizations perform ratio analysis to ascertain the
utilization of their resources. Based on these ratios,
they plan the restructuring if required.
‍
2. Activity analysis
Activity analysis is a study of how much time each person
devotes to their primary pursuits. What people actually do
against what their job descriptions claim they do.
As a result, the observation approach can be used to calculate
how much time employees spend on their jobs. This will
provide information on the optimal number of workers required
in the organisation.
‍Analyzing the effectiveness and efficiency to perform the job
assigned to personnel is known as activity analysis. The
organizations may conduct a survey based on the following
determinants:
•Speed
•Duration
•Mental Activity, etc.
3. Driver analysis
Ratio and activity analysis are both extensions of driver
analysis. This strategy investigates the motivations or drives
behind people activities. Because any change in these
parameters will result in a shift in personnel activities.
For example, the quantity of calls, call flow, service levels
demanded, talent required, and so on are all drivers for a call
centre. These drivers will supply information on the quantity
of people who are truly required in the system.
‍
4. Mathematical Modelling
This approach is the most difficult one.
Mathematical models are created as part of this process to
calculate the exact and precise quantity of workers necessary
in the organisation.