Unit 5
Concept of placement
Placement is the process of assigning specific jobs and work places to the selected candidates. It involves putting square pegs in to square holes i.e., matching the individual and the job. Correct placement is in no way less important than accurate selection. Even a competent employee maybe inefficient and dissatisfied if put on a wrong job.
Correct placement helps to improve efficiency and satisfaction of employees. While placing employees on the job the requirements of both the organization and the employee should be considered requirements of the organization include nature of job, number of vacancies in a particular branch or unit degree of difficulty in the job etc. Age, marital status, language patterns, qualifications and experience of a particular candidate should also be considered while placing the right man on the right job.
Placement’ is posting people to jobs which match their abilities. It may be defined as a process of assigning a specific job to each of the selected candidates. It implies matching job responsibilities of a rank with the qualifications of the selected individual.
Placement is the assignment or reassignment of an employee to a new job. It includes the initial assignment of new entrants and the transfer and promotion of the existing employees.
The term ‘placement’ is nothing but posting of people to jobs matching their abilities. Personnel offices interview and test applicants for the purpose of achieving suitable job placements where there is a good match between management needs and employee qualifications. Placement may be defined as a process of assigning a specific job to each of the selected candidates.
It involves assigning a specific rank and responsibility to an individual. It implies matching the requirements of a job with the qualifications of the candidate. Placement helps the new recruit find a job in sync with what has been promised by the employer at the time of selection.
(a) Placement is an important duty of HR manager they are expected to give job to the employee selected in synchrony with their abilities.
(b) They have to find ways to keep the new employees at ease. Placement officers must realize that this is for the interest of the company.
(c) Placement needs to be done quickly without displacing the existing flow of work. Putting right employee at the right place is a hard task but there is no alternative to it.
(d) Wrongly placing people will not make it costly for the organization to keep them for long. Misplaced people often have no interest in the job assigned and this may spell disaster for the organization sooner or later.
Placement involves deciding, which jobs people are to be assigned after they have been hired. It must also be decided which job best matches the person’s talents and abilities. It also involves assigning a specific rank and responsibility to an individual.
There are several reasons for demoting a man from his present position.
Some of these reasons are as follows:
1. Inadequacy on the part of the employees in terms of job performance, attitude and capability. It happens when an employee finds it difficult to meet job requirement standards, following his promotion.
2. Demotion may result from organisational staff reductions. Due to adverse business conditions, organisations may decide to lay off some and downgrade some jobs.
3. Demotions may be used as disciplinary tools against errant employees.
4. If there is a mistake in staffing i.e., a person is promoted wrongly.
5. When, because of a change in technology, methods and practices, old hands are unable to adjust or when employees because of ill health or personal reasons, cannot do their job properly.
Demotion is very harmful for the employees’ morale. It is an extremely painful action, impairing relationships between people permanently. While, effecting demotions, a manager should be extremely careful not to place himself on the wrong side of the fence. It is, therefore, necessary to formulate a demotion policy so that there may be no grievance on the part of the trade unions.
Yoder, Heneman, Turnbull and Stone have suggested a five-fold policy in regard to demotion practice:
1. A clear list of rules along with punishable offences be made available to all the employees.
2. Any violation be investigated thoroughly by a competent authority.
3. In case of violations, it is better to state the reasons for taking such a punitive step clearly and elaborately.
4. Once violations are proved, there should be a consistent and equitable application of the penalty.
5. There should be enough room for review.
Demotions have a serious impact on need fulfilment. Needs for esteem and belongingness are frustrated leading to a defensive behaviour on the part of the person demoted. There may be complaints, emotional turmoil, inefficiency or resignation. Hence, demotions are very rarely resorted to by managers. Managers prefer to discharge employees rather than facing the problems arising from demotion.
Either employer or employee may propose separation due to several reasons. The employee separation can be classified into:
- Voluntary Separations
- Involuntary Separations
Voluntary Separations
Here, the employee discontinues his services on his own consent in the organization. The most common forms of voluntary separation are:
- Resign or Quit
- Retirement
Resign or Quit
The employee may quit his job due to personal or professional reasons. It may affect the goodwill of the company when it occurs often. The employee may leave because of reasons like:
- Better Career Opportunities
- Company Policy
- Health
- Relocation
- Job Dissatisfaction, etc.
Retirements
Retirement is the completion of employee’s occupational tenure. This involves discontinuation of service as the employee reaches the age of retirement.
The employees themselves take retirement from the organization through voluntary retirement. Generally, the age of retirement is 60 years. Unlike resignation in retirement, employees gain certain benefits like: -
- Lump-Sum Payment
- Pension
- Leave Encashment
- Gratuity, etc
Retirement can be of two types:
Compulsory Retirement
When employees reach the age of superannuation, they have to retire compulsorily. The retirement age varies in different sectors.
In the government sector, the retirement age is 58 or 60 years. Whereas there is no fixed age of retirement in the private sector. It depends on the person capabilities of working.
Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS)
The employees can opt for retirement before reaching retirement age. It is also known as the Golden Handshake Scheme. The organization offers VRS to its employees.
The companies offer VRS to cut costs, get a manageable workforce or face business losses
Involuntary Separations
Here, the employer terminates the services of their employees due to organizational reasons. The organizations may opt for employee separation because:
- They may face ups and downs in the business cycle
- Difficulty in handling the workforce
- Unprofessional behaviour of the employees
The different types of involuntary separation are:
- Discharges and Dismiss
- Layoffs
- Retrenchment
- Downsizing and Rightsizing
- Compulsory Resignation
Discharges and Dismiss
Discharge is an involuntary separation in which the organization ceases employee services. The discharge of the employee might be due to his non-productivity. While discharging, an employee may get offended. It must be a thoughtful decision and adopted in only extreme cases. It may be a product of:
- Job Misfit
- Bad Organizational Behaviour
- Absenteeism
Dismissal is the termination of the employee resulting from his non-performance or misconduct. It is the last step the management take as a punishment to the employee. It may impose adverse effects on employee’s career opportunities in future.
Layoffs
A Layoff is when an organization separates their employees for a short stretch of time. The organization recalls the employees after the layoff period is over. The objective of laying off the workforce is to make the firm lean in shape and remain competitive.
The organization carry out layoff of employees based on their excellence or seniority. The reasons behind layoffs can be:
- Merger
- Acquisition
- Competitive Environment
- Changes in Technology
- Downsizing, etc
The management must specify and communicate the reasons and basis of layoff. It has a negative impact on the victims, survivors and managers involved in the layoff process.
Retrenchment
In this, organizations need to separate employees permanently due to economic reasons. The organizations may not recall employees. But they can prefer retrenched workers at the time of vacancies. The following can be the economic reasons behind retrenchment: -
- Surplus Staff
- Machinery Installation
- Rationalization
- Department Closure
- Decreasing Demand for Products
- Economic Slowdown
The firm has to seek approval from the government. Along with that, it provides a notice to the employees beforehand.
Like layoff, the organization must pay compensation to its workforce. An average of 15 days for a year of regular employment will be paid as compensation.
Downsizing and Rightsizing
The organizations restructure themselves by downsizing and rightsizing their workforce. Rightsizing includes cost-saving and adjusting the crew to exact fit. The organization may cut costs by part-time work, reduced wages, reduced workweeks, etc.
Downsizing refers to making the organization lean by reducing the force. Layoffs are mandatory in Downsizing, whereas Rightsizing may adjust the existing workforce.
Compulsory Resignation
The employer may ask its employee to leave the organization or resign. The organizations opt for obligatory resignation in critical situations and avoid dismiss.
Compulsory Resignation is a better option than Dismissal or Discharge. The organization’s goodwill remains unaffected. As well as it does not affect the employee’s career too.
Career planning is the process by which one selects career goals and the path to these goals. The major focus of career planning is on assisting the employees achieve a better match between personal goals and the opportunities that are realistically available in the organization. Career programmers should not concentrate only on career growth opportunities. Practically speaking, there may not be enough high-level positions to make upward mobility a reality for a large number of employees. Hence, career-planning efforts need to pin-point and highlight those areas that offer psychological success instead of vertical growth.
Career planning is not an event or end in itself, but a continuous process of developing
Human resources for achieving optimum results. It must, however, be noted that individual and organizational careers are not separate and distinct. A person who is not able to translate his career plan into action within the organization may probably quit the job, if he has a choice. Organizations, therefore, should help employees in career planning so that both can satisfy each other’s needs.
Need for career planning
Every employee has a desire to grow and scale new heights in his workplace continuously. If there are enough opportunities, he can pursue his career goals and exploit his potential fully. He feels highly motivated when the organization shows him a clear path as to how he can meet his personal ambitions while trying to realize corporate goals.
Unfortunately, as pointed out by John Leach, organizations do not pay adequate attention to this aspect in actual practice for a variety of reasons. The demands of employees are not matched with organizational needs; no effort is made to show how the employees can grow within certain limits, what happens to an employee five years down the line if he does well, whether the organization is trying to offer mere jobs or long-lasting careers, etc. When recognition does not come in time for meritorious performance and a certain amount of confusion prevails in the minds of employees whether they are ‘in’ with a chance to grow or not, they look for greener pastures outside. Key executives leave in frustration and the organization suffers badly when turnover figures rise. Any recruitment effort made in panic to fill the vacancies is not going to be effective. So, the absence of a career plan is going to make a big difference to both the employees and the organization. Employees do not get right breaks at a right time; their morale will be low and they are always on their toes trying to find escape routes.
Organizations are not going to benefit from high employee turnover. New employees
Mean additional selection and training costs. Bridging the gaps through short-term replacements is not going to pay in terms of productivity. Organizations, therefore, try to put their career plans in place and educate employees about the opportunities that exist internally for talented people. Without such a progressive outlook, organizations cannot prosper.
Career planning seeks to meet the following objectives:
i. Attract and retain talent by offering careers, not jobs.
Ii. Use human resources effectively and achieve greater productivity.
Iii. Reduce employee turnover.
Iv. Improve employee morale and motivation.
v. Meet the immediate and future human resource needs of the organization on a timely basis
Career planning process
The career planning process involves the following steps:
i. Identifying individual needs and aspirations:
Most individuals do not have a clear-cut idea about their career aspirations, anchors and goals. The human resource professionals must, therefore, help an employee by providing as much information as possible showing what kind of work would suit the employee most, taking his skills, experience, and aptitude into account. Such assistance is extended through workshops/seminars while the employees are subjected to psychological testing, simulation exercises, etc. The basic purpose of such an exercise is to help an employee form a clear view about what he should do to build his career within the company. Workshops and seminars increase employee interest by showing the value of career planning. They help employees set career goals, identify career paths and uncover specific career development activities (discussed later). These individual efforts may be supplemented by printed or taped information. To assist employees in a better way, organizations construct a data bank consisting of information on the career histories, skill evaluations and career preferences of its
Employees (known as skill or talent inventory).
Ii. Analysing career opportunities:
Once career needs and aspirations of employees are known, the organization has to provide career paths for each position. Career paths show career progression possibilities clearly. They indicate the various positions that one could hold over a period of time, if one is able to perform well. Career paths change over time, of course, in tune with employee’s needs and organizational requirements. While outlining career paths, the claims of experienced persons lacking professional degrees and that of young recruits with excellent degrees but without experience need to be balanced properly.
Iii. Aligning needs and opportunities:
After employees have identified their needs and have realized the existence of career opportunities the remaining problem is one of alignment. This process consists of two steps: first, identify the potential of employees and then undertake career development programmers (discussed later on elaborately) with a view to align employee needs and organizational opportunities. Through performance appraisal, the potential of employees can be assessed to some extent. Such an appraisal would help reveal employees who need further training, employees who can take up added responsibilities, etc. After identifying the potential of employee’s certain developmental techniques such as special assignments, planned position rotation, supervisory coaching, job enrichment, understudy programs can be undertaken to update employee knowledge and skills.
Iv. Action plans and periodic review:
The matching process would uncover gaps. These need to be bridged through individual career development efforts and organization supported efforts from time to time. After initiating these steps, it is necessary to review the whole thing every now and then. This will help the employee know in which direction he is moving, what changes are likely to take place, what kind of skills are needed to face new and emerging organizational challenges. From an organizational standpoint also, it is necessary to find out how employees are doing, what are their goals and aspirations, whether the career paths are in tune with individual needs and serve the overall corporate objectives, etc.
1. HR Consultant
HR Consultant is best for individuals who want are in this career for monetary gain and financial benefits.
An HR consultant is like a lone wolf who is not a part of any organization but instead offers HR services at a cost. This is increasingly becoming more popular in a world where an HR manager's work is getting magnified.
A company where the HR department doesn't have proper workload management measures will suffer a ton of work without proper management. Here, these companies can outsource a few of the work to ease the HR consultant's workload.
Here, since the HR consultants work alone, they have the privilege to work with whomever they want. After they land a project, they assess their needs and offer the services following the situation. The services can be anything from recruitment to management.
2. International Human Resource Professionals
International Human Resource Professionals is best for workers looking to travel the world while they work.
This exciting designation of our HR career opportunities is a particularly appealing one for the traveling enthusiast. The job here of an International Human Resource Professionals is hiring candidates for positions all across the globe. Here, one can be in charge of hiring, training, employee development, etc.
The work is similar to an HR Manager but with a broader range of clients worldwide. It is also a very rewarding designation in the Human Resources field and one of the most exciting ones.
3. Human Resource Executive (Chief HR Officer, VP of Human Resources, etc.)
Human resource Executive is best for individuals looking to climb up the corporate ladder.
This career line is for individuals who are excellent at the job and want to earn a seven-figure salary per month. You can assume the designation in this sector as the topmost HR position in a corporate. To qualify for such a job, one needs a fair amount of experience and an even better track record.
These employees are the senior-most HR role, mainly framing HR and hiring strategies, including policies and systems within the company. If you want to qualify for such a position, it is safe to assume that you will need somewhere around 15-20 years of experience.
4. Training and Development Manager
Training and Development Manager is best for the employees who love to teach.
Training and Development Manager looks into the employee training and employee development of the workforce. They do this by organizing corporate events, employee training sessions, workshops, etc. In this role, the managers mainly look into ways to develop a competent workforce through internal training.
5. Employee Education Consultant
Employee Education Consultant is best for workers who love to teach and want to work in a consultancy environment.
An Employee Education Consultant combines the work of a training and development manager and an HR consultant. Here, the individuals of this designation offer their training services in a freelance environment. In this case, companies generally hire trainers on a retainer basis for training jobs.
After their work is over with a particular company, they can move on to the next client. It is a great career opportunity who loves their freedom and wants to train a workforce.
6. HR Entrepreneur
HR Entrepreneur is best for individuals to start their own business in the Human Resources Field.
Here, you might know these individuals by the name of head-hunters. These are recruiters who work independently and feed employees into different companies. However, their services don't only stop at recruiting. They can also be in employee leasing, i.e., lending of workers for a specific time frame.
These individuals can set up shop and start offering their services to various clients for a fee.
7. Executive Recruiter
Best for: People looking to make money while working with high-ranking corporate officials.
An Executive Recruiter's role is to fill the vacancies of high-ranking positions like CEOs, CTOs, CFOs, etc. They are specialists in building relationships and maintaining connections with top corporate employees in higher-level management. These recruiters either charge per recruitment or work as a retainer.
This field is also tough to get into as it is a very rewarding one wherein you must contact with the corporate world's elites.
8. Human Resource Manager
HRM is best for the entry-level workers who want to get the feel of the entire field.
These are the HR employees who work at the ground level and implement the policies set by top-level management. They are closely knit with the workforce and get to experience the actual workings an HR first-hand. The work of these managers includes recruitment, training, and development, management, etc.
9. Non-Profit Human Resource Expert
Non-profit Human Resource Expert is best for people who would like to go into the charity line and find purpose in helping the world.
As the name suggests, a Non-Profit Human Resource Expert could be a professional in the non-profit sector. These workers do all the work like recruiting, managing, etc., but in a non-profit organizational space.
These were our count of the nine best HR Career moves you can consider next as per your liking.
Stages of Career Development
The career development process involves the following steps-
Figure: Career development process
1. Identifying Career Needs:
Some large organizations have assessment centres or conduct career development workshops wherein a group of employees are brought together to undergo psychological testing, simulation exercises, and depth interviews. This process helps the employee to make a decision regarding career goals and the steps to be taken to put efforts to attain these goals. The HR manager also plays an important role of providing information and assistance in making decisions about the career needs of the employee.
2. Developing Career Opportunities:
Career opportunities are identified through job analysis. The manager should identify career path for employees in the organization. He/she should discuss with the employees what jobs are available in the organizational hierarchy and at the same time find where the employee would want to go up in the organization in future. The employees should be provided information regarding job postings that are available in the organization and, for future reference, what requirements they will have to fulfil to achieve the promotion which they aspire.
3. Integration of Employee Needs with Career Opportunities:
It is necessary to align the needs and aspirations of the employees with career opportunities in order to ensure right people will be available to meet the organizational manpower requirements. Therefore, emphasis is placed on the training, on- and off-the-job, counselling and coaching by supervisor, and planned rotation in positions of varying functions and in different locations. The process is pursued further with the help of periodic performance appraisals. Training and counselling will be a wasteful exercise if the employee does not make progress along his/her career path.
4. Regular Monitoring:
It is necessary to regularly monitor the progress of the employee towards his/her career development plans and see that the support is being provided to develop those career plans. If there is a discrepancy, steps should be taken to reassign work as necessary to ensure that career development plans are met. In situations where career opportunities are not available due to influence of technology and economic factors, the organization should redesign jobs or make career shifts.
Career Management is a life-long process of investing resources to accomplish your future career goals. It is a continuing process that allows you to adapt to the changing demands of our dynamic economy. The career management process embraces various concepts: Self-awareness, career development planning/career exploration, life-long learning, and networking.
Self-Awareness
Look at yourself to discover your interests, skills, personality traits, and values. You can start by asking yourself the following questions:
- Who are you?
- What interests you?
- What do you like to do?
- What are you good at doing?
- What do you value, what's important to you?
- What are your special assets, skills, and abilities?
- Who needs the talents, skills, and abilities you can provide?
- What work environment and/or arrangements make sense for you?
- What activities do I find fun, motivating, interesting, and enjoyable?
- What skills do you need to acquire to develop and manage your career?
- What personal style or characteristics do I have that are important to me in the work place?
Also ask friends, family members, co-workers, professors, or mentors if they see the same qualities in you as you see in yourself.
Career Development Planning/Career Exploration
Career Development Planning is a process designed to help you to:
- Take the time to think about your job/career goals
- Focus on developing knowledge and skills for your current position and for future job opportunities
- Think about how you can utilize efficiently your strengths, talents, experience, and motivation – how can you use all of these aspects to increase your passion for work!
- Be the architect of your own career development plan – write your goals, make a decision to have a plan for your career development
- Discuss your career development goals with your manager
Once you have made a career decision, you need to plan how you will carry out that decision. A career plan provides vision, structure, direction, and motivation for your career management process.
What do you think of Career Development Planning?
Usually, when we think of career management, we think of the goals or action items that we feel we need to do to move our careers forward. Often, we carry these thoughts around in our heads for long periods of time without ever writing them down. If we do write down our goals, they often take the form of a list and many times we lose motivation after writing our goals down, misplace the list, and attain only some of our goals. That is why this method of thinking and just writing your career goals is not a very motivating or reinforcing process!
It is far more effective, motivating, and productive to think of career planning as a process that allows us to envision our future careers and then provides us a path to follow in attaining our goals and realizing our dreams. Career planning is definitely not something that happens once or twice in one’s career. By the contrary, it is a recurring process of taking the time to assess one’s identity, setting new goals, creating new career horizons, and celebrating successes as one develops and becomes more knowledgeable and skilled.
You can use the Individual Career Development Plan template to start your planning process.
Life-long Learning
Are you surprised to know how much of the daily work is now based around technology? Computers, smart phones, tablets and other technological devices have drastically affected the way in which we conduct work. The consequences of these advancements and innovations will quickly reflect through the economy, affecting many industries and catapulting others into the limelight. It is clearly up to you to be able to adapt to these ongoing innovations which will be directly related to how current you keep your knowledge and skills. You need to consider how to vary your learning investments in time, energy and resources. Examples may include: credentialed coursework, certificate programs (related to your career/interest), joining cutting edge projects/committees/task forces, attending conferences, or simply staying current in professional reading.
Networking
As we have moved to an information, service and technological-oriented economy, our networking relationships have become essential assets. These relationships will be the source of information about how emerging fields and industries are evolving. In addition, personal and professional relationships will transcend specific companies, communities, and industries. Our ability to interact, respond and connect in our relationships will directly impact our present performance and future career opportunities.
Remember that keeping connected and knowing how to build good relationships are more important than ever before. These skills can be developed in applied communication courses, contact management software, effective listening and your authentic desire to know more people.
References:
- Personnel and Human Resource Management – A M Sharma (Himalaya Publishing House)
- Personnel Management and Industrial Relations- R S Davar (Vikas Publishing House)
- Human Resource Development and Management- Biswanath Ghosh (Vikas Publishing House)
- Personnel Management – C.B. Mamaria, S V Gankar (Himalaya Publishing House)
- Human Resource Management – AShwathappa
