Unit II

Recruitment and Selection Process

2.1   Restructuring Strategies

Companies may embark on organizational restructuring after changes in vision and strategy, or in hopes of cutting costs by revitalizing processes or pruning parts of the company. When it’s done, a small business will have a new organizational structure and a changed workforce. The influence of the human resources department on job design, assignments and training can have a lasting impact on the strategic success of the new organizational structure.

Workforce Characteristics

Human resources should influence the strategic choices leading to restructuring. To develop strategy, the owner must consider the company’s competitive position, including employees’ strengths and weaknesses. HR supplies the owner with a workplace assessment – a thorough inventory of the employees’ skills and other characteristics such as talent, turnover, education and experience. The inventory is compared against the strategies under consideration to calculate how well the company’s workforce can enact them.

Once strategy is chosen, HR then evaluates how it must transform the company’s workforce to fill the company’s needs in the context of the restructuring and strategy.

Organizational Structure

Organizational structure determines job scope, working relationships and resource sharing, so it has a profound impact on how business gets done. Keeping the company’s strategy at the center of structural decisions allows HR to make the best choices. For instance, if a small business wants to focus on fine, custom-built products, the organizational structure must promote individual accomplishment instead of mass production.

Job Design

An article in the Harvard Business Review suggests that job design and talent choice as critical in talent management generally, and these are especially important factors to consider when restructuring an organization. HR must reassess the tasks and workflows needed to effectively do business and compare those to the organization’s existing jobs and processes. Positions may stay the same, change or be removed. Some tasks may require new positions. Considerations when designing jobs include how specialized a job should be, how much authority an employee needs to accomplish work and how much supervision is needed.

Redeployments and Cuts

HR should consult the workforce assessment to match people to transformed and new positions. For jobs requiring skills and experience that workers don’t yet have, human resources must rely on aptitude and personality tests to predict how likely it is that an employee candidate can succeed.

Cutting jobs requires compliance with state and federal laws. HR also should implement a consistent, objective procedure for choosing the employees who will be cut, and provide them with an appeals process, a financial cushion to soften the blow and outplacement support to help them find new employment.

HR Restructuring Strategies for Reengagement

Restructuring is an unsettling process for employees. HR must make sure that the remaining employees are primed to be successful in their new situations. It's a good idea to create a sample restructuring communication to staff that describes the process, goals and aims of the restructuring, to put staff at ease.

Workers must be thoroughly trained for new or changed positions. They must also be re-motivated, which requires insight into employee attitudes. Motivation surveys can provide answers on the best approach for your business.

Key Takeaways:

1. Human resources should influence the strategic choices leading to restructuring.
2. Restructuring is an unsettling process for employees.

2.2 Recruitment

Recruitment is the process of actively seeking out, finding and hiring candidates for a specific position or job. The recruitment definition includes the entire hiring process, from inception to the individual recruit's integration into the company.

Whenever there is a vacancy in the organization, generally it is to be filled. To make the candidate avail­able for filling those vacancies, their selection procedure and placement on a proper job comes under the purview of recruitment.

As soon as the available vacancies are known, they are advertised through different media and accordingly the applications are collected for the vacant posts. A group of candidates interested in doing the job and are eligible to do, it is created through recruitment.

It is an operative function of human resource management coming under the managerial function called organizing. In the words of Edwin Flippo, ‘recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organisation’.

In short, it involves attracting and obtaining as many applications as possible from eligible job seekers.

Sources of Recruitment

The eligible and suitable candidates required for a particular job are available through various sources.

Internal Sources of Recruitment:

1. Promotions:

The promotion policy is followed as a motivational technique for the employees who work hard and show good performance. Promotion results in enhancements in pay, position, responsibility and authority. The important requirement for implementation of the promotion policy is that the terms, condi­tions, rules and regulations should be well-defined.

2. Retirements:

The retired employees may be given the extension in their service in case of non­-availability of suitable candidates for the post.

3. Former employees:

Former employees who had performed well during their tenure may be called back, and higher wages and incentives can be paid to them.

4. Transfer:

Employees may be transferred from one department to another wherever the post becomes vacant.

5. Internal advertisement:

The existing employees may be interested in taking up the vacant jobs. As they are working in the company since long time, they know about the specification and description of the vacant job. For their benefit, the advertisement within the company is circulated so that the employees will be intimated.

Benefits of Internal Sources of Recruitment:

1. The existing employees get motivated.

2. Cost is saved as there is no need to give advertisements about the vacancy.

3. It builds loyalty among employees towards the organization.

4. Training cost is saved as the employees already know about the nature of job to be performed.

5. It is a reliable and easy process.

Limitations of Internal Sources of Recruitment:

1. Young people with the knowledge of modem technology and innovative ideas do not get the chance.

2. The performance of the existing employees may not be as efficient as before.

3. It brings the morale down of employees who do not get promotion or selected.

4. It may leads to encouragement to favouritism.

5. It may not be always in the good interest of the organization.

External Sources of Recruitment:

1. Press advertisement:

A wide choice for selecting the appropriate candidate for the post is avail­able through this source. It gives publicity to the vacant posts and the details about the job in the form of job description and job specification are made available to public in general.

2. Campus interviews:

It is the best possible method for companies to select students from various educational institutions. It is easy and economical. The company officials personally visit various institutes and select students eligible for a particular post through interviews. Students get a good opportunity to prove themselves and get selected for a good job.

3. Placement agencies:

A databank of candidates is sent to organizations for their selection purpose and agencies get commission in return.

4. Employment exchange:

People register themselves with government employment exchanges with their personal details. According to the needs and request of the organization, the candidates are sent for interviews.

5. Walk in interviews:

These interviews are declared by companies on the specific day and time and conducted for selection.

6. E-recruitment:

Various sites such as jobs.com, naukri.com, and monster.com are the available electronic sites on which candidates upload their resume and seek the jobs.

7. Competitors:

By offering better terms and conditions of service, the human resource managers try to get the employees working in the competitor’s organization.

Benefits of External Sources of Recruitment:

1. New talents get the opportunity.

2. The best selection is possible as a large number of candidates apply for the job.

3. In case of unavailability of suitable candidates within the organization, it is better to select them from outside sources.

Limitations of External Sources of Recruitment:

1. Skilled and ambitious employees may switch the job more frequently.

2. It gives a sense of insecurity among the existing candidates.

3. It increases the cost as advertisement is to be given through press and training facilities to be provided for new candidates.

Selection Process

Selection is a process of choosing right person for the right job. The selection process consists of a series of steps as follows:

The flow chart indicates major steps in selection process.

1. Job Analysis:

The first step in selection process is analysing the job. Job analysis consists of two parts:

• Job Description, and
• Job Specification.

Proper job analysis helps to advertise the job properly by clearly stating the duties, qualifications, experience, salary, etc. Accordingly, the right candidates may apply for the job, thus saving time and effort of the selectors.

2. Advertising the Job:

The next step is to advertise the job. The job can be advertised through various media such as newspapers, internet, etc. The right details about the job and the candidate requirements must be given in the advertisement.

3. Initial Screening:

The initial screening can be done of the applications and of the applicant. Usually, a junior executive does the screening work The executive may check on the experience, age, qualifications family background of the candidate. The candidate may be informed of salary, working conditions, etc.

4. Application Blank:

It is a company's format to obtain standard information of every candidate in respect of biographic, academic, references, work experience, etc. The application blank provides:

• Inputs for the interview.
• The basis to reject candidates who do not meet eligibility criteria.

5. Tests:

Various tests are conducted to judge the ability and experience of the candidates. The type of tests depends upon the nature of job. An important advantage of tests is that large group of candidates can be tested at a time. The various tests are:

• Personality test
• Intelligence test
• Performance test
• Stress test, etc.

6. Interview:

It is face to face exchange of views, ideas and opinions between the candidate and interviewer(s). There are various types of interviews such as:

• Panel Interview
• Individual Interview
• Group Interview
• Exit Interview, etc.

7. Reference Check:

Candidate may be asked to provide references to confirm about the applicant s past life, character and experience. Reference check helps to:

• Know the character and other details of the candidate.
• Cross check false information supplied by candidate, if any.

8. Medical Check:

Medical check of the candidates is undertaken to:

• Check physical fitness of the candidate.
• Ensure the health and safety of other employees.

9. Final Interview:

Before making a job offer, the candidates may be subjected to one more oral interview to find out their interest in the job and their expectations. At this stage, salary and other perks may be negotiated.

10. Job Offer:

This is the most crucial and final step in selection process. A wrong selection of a candidate may make the company to suffer tor a good number of years. Company should make a very important decision to offer right job to the right person.

E-SELECTION

The E-Selection refers to Online selection of employees. It is the process of hiring the potential candidates for the vacant job positions, i using the electronic means, mainly the internet.

Nowadays, companies use internet to reach to a large number of job seekers and hire the best talent for the company. The time and cost in e-selection is comparatively as compared to physical selection process.

E-Selection includes the process of identifying the prospective candidates, conducting tests and interviews online, and selecting the right candidates as per the job requirement.

Generally, the job vacancies are advertised on the World Wide Web www) by the potential recruiters. In response to the online recruitments ads, the potential applicants send their CVs or resume online for the consideration of the potential employers for the purpose of selection.

• Methods/Techniques of E-Selection:

1. Online Applications:

Potential candidates can make job applications online with the qualifying details with reference to biological data, qualifications, experience, etc. The online application details are the candidates is then transferred on the employer's data bank in a particular format as desired by the employer.

2. Key Word Search:

It is the method of screening the applications received online with the help of software to locate key words that may be used by the candidates in the resume. For example, the key words may relate the experience of the candidate in terms of number of years, qualifications that are relevant to the job, (for marketing manager- MBA in marketing), institution where the candidate acquired the qualification (for CA- Institute of Chartered Accountants of India), graduate level work experience or volunteer level experience, topic of research, etc.

The best example of KWS is by submitting CV on LinkedIn with the key words, which the recruiters may be looking for. The potential recruiters may screen the key words and short list the candidate.

The KWS software would be executed on a large number o CVs received and screen them to short list the candidates for further selection process which may include online tests and online interviews.

This technique of screening is really quick as the applicants who did not use the key words in their CVs would be weeded or sorted out quickly. However, there are certain drawbacks in this technique - some the qualified applicants may use some other words rather than the actual key words, and therefore they may be rejected.

3. Online Testing:

Under online testing, applicants can access test questions on a web site, answer and summit their responses to the prospective employers.

Various tests can be conducted online depending on the type of the job. The various tests may include:

• Performance Test
• Aptitude Test
• Perception Test
• Interest Test, etc.

The online test is quick as large number of candidates can long in at the same time to answer the test. Also, the results can be processed quickly with the help of computerized assessment. However, the online assessment is criticized as the candidates may adopt malpractices. For instance, a proxy candidate may get appear for the online test or the actual candidate may get assistance for responses from another person sitting close by (not facing the camera of the computer).

Online Interviews: Communication technology enables live interactions between

the candidate(s) and the interviewer(s). The candidates can answer various types of online tests, which may include:

• Formal and Informal Interviews
• Individual and Group Interviews
• Structured and Unstructured Interviews
• Panel Interview, etc.

The technologies used to conduct applicants interviews online are video-conferencing technology (such as Skype Video Call, WhatsApp Video Calling, etc.), which allow for video and audio streaming between different locations across the globe.

5. Online Reference Check:

The candidate provides references (name, address, contact number, e-mail address of two or three persons holding good positions in the society and known to the candidate) in their application so that the recruiter can check candidate s bona fides or credentials.

The potential employer may check online or through telephone with the references about the character, experience, qualifications or any other information known to them about the potential candidates. If the references give response in favour of the candidate, the potential employer may select the candidate for employment.

6. Final Online Interview:

The employer may conduct a final online interview before the job offer. This interview may be conducted by a panel of experts or executives of the company. In the final online interview, the terms and conditions of job offer are discussed and finalized. In India, a good number of firms would prefer a combo final interview before the final job offer. The combo final interview is a combination of online interview and face-to-face interview. The face-to-face interview is specially desired when the candidate has limited or no job experience.

In the face-to-face interview, the interviewers can judge properly the body language of the candidate and also there is a personal touch to the interview.

• Advantages of e-Selection

a)     It is cost-effective as lot of time, money and effort of the employer is saved.

b)    Time and effort of the interviewee is also saved. For instance, the interviewee need not travel to the physical place of the interview.

c)     The information about the vacancy can reach to a wider section of potential candidates.

d)    There is a wider choice of selection of candidates even from distant geographical locations.

e)     Facilitates the selection of right type of people with the required skills.

f)       Online selection helps the potential employers to weed out their unqualified candidates in an automated way.

g)    On-line ads of vacancies have a longer life as compared to ads in newspaper and magazines, because the vacancy ad will remain on the website until the potential employer removes it from the website.

h)     The potential employer can modify the vacancy ad as and when it is required as changes can be easily made in the online vacancy ad on the website.

Placement and induction

PLACEMENT

Placement is 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.

Significance of placement

The significance of placement are as follows: -

1. It improves employee morale.
2. It helps in reducing employee turnover.
3. It helps in reducing absenteeism.
4. It helps in reducing accident rates.
5. It avoids misfit between the candidate and the job.
6. It helps the candidate to work as per the predetermined objectives of the organization.

INDUCTION

Once an employee is selected and placed on an appropriate job, the process of familiarizing him with the job and the organization is known as induction.

Induction is the process of receiving and welcoming an employee when he first joins the company and giving him basic information he needs to settle down quickly and happily and stars work.

Objectives of induction

Induction is designed to achieve following objectives: -

1. To help the new comer to overcome his shyness and overcome his shyness nervousness in meeting new people in a new environment.
2. To give new comer necessary information such as location of a café, rest period etc.
3. To build new employee confidence in the organization.
4. It helps in reducing labor turnover and absenteeism.
5. It reduces confusion and develops healthy relations in the organization.
6. To ensure that the new comer do not form false impression and negative attitude towards the organization.
7. To develop among the new comer a sense of belonging and loyalty to the organization.

Advantages of formal induction

The advantages of formal induction are: -

1. Induction helps to build up a two-way channel of communication between management and workers.
2. Proper induction facilitates informal relation and team work among employee.
3. Effective induction helps to integrate the new employee into the organization and to develop a sense of belonging.
4. Induction helps to develop good relation.
5. A formal induction programme proves that the company is taking interest in getting him off to good start.
6. Proper induction reduces employee grievances, absenteeism and labor turnover.
7. Induction is helpful in supplying information concerning the organization, the job and employee welfare facilities.

Contents of induction programme

A formal induction programme should provide following information: -

• Brief history and operations of the company.
• The company’s organization structure.
• Policies and procedure of the company.
• Products and services of the company.
• Location of department and employee facilities.
• Safety measures.
• Grievances procedures.
• Benefits and services of employee.
• Standing orders and disciplinary procedures.
• Opportunities for training, promotions, transfer etc.
• Suggestion schemes.
• Rules and regulations.

Retention of Employees

Employee retention refers to the various policies and practices which let the employees stick to an organization for a longer period of time. Every organization invests time and money to groom a new joinee, make him a corporate ready material and bring him at par with the existing employees. The organization is completely at loss when the employees leave their job once they are fully trained. Employee retention takes into account the various measures taken so that an individual stays in an organization for the maximum period of time.

Employee retention is a critical issue as companies compete for talent in a tight economy. The costs of employee turnover are increasingly high — as much as 2.5 times an employee's salary depending on the role. And there are other “soft costs”: lowered productivity, decreased engagement, training costs and cultural impact.

The payoff for organizations that focus on employee retention is well worth the time and investment, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Increased performance, better productivity, higher employee morale and improved quality of work, not to mention a reduction in turnover, are all organizational benefits.

The bottom line is that by focusing on employee retention, organizations will retain talented and motivated employees who truly want to be a part of the company and who are focused on contributing to the organization's overall success, according to SHRM.

Need & Importance of Employee Retention

1. Hiring is not an easy process: The HR Professional shortlists few individuals from a large pool of talent, conducts preliminary interviews and eventually forwards it to the respective line managers who further grill them to judge whether they are fit for the organization or not. Recruiting the right candidate is a time consuming process.
2. An organization invests time and money in grooming an individual and make him ready to work and understand the corporate culture: A new joinee is completely raw and the management really has to work hard to train him for his overall development. It is a complete wastage of time and money when an individual leaves an organization all of a sudden. The HR has to start the recruitment process all over again for the same vacancy; a mere duplication of work. Finding a right employee for an organization is a tedious job and all efforts simply go waste when the employee leaves.
3. When an individual resigns from his present organization, it is more likely that he would join the competitors: In such cases, employees tend to take all the strategies, policies from the current organization to the new one. Individuals take all the important data, information and statistics to their new organization and in some cases even leak the secrets of the previous organization. To avoid such cases, it is essential that the new joinee is made to sign a document which stops him from passing on any information even if he leaves the organization. Strict policy should be made which prevents the employees to join the competitors. This is an effective way to retain the employees.
4. The employees working for a longer period of time are more familiar with the company’s policies, guidelines and thus they adjust better: They perform better than individuals who change jobs frequently. Employees who spend a considerable time in an organization know the organization in and out and thus are in a position to contribute effectively.
5. Every individual needs time to adjust with others: One needs time to know his team members well, be friendly with them and eventually trust them. Organizations are always benefited when the employees are compatible with each other and discuss things among themselves to come out with something beneficial for all. When a new individual replaces an existing employee, adjustment problems crop up. Individuals find it really difficult to establish a comfort level with the other person. After striking a rapport with an existing employee, it is a challenge for the employees to adjust with someone new and most importantly trust him. It is a human tendency to compare a new joinee with the previous employees and always find faults in him.
6. It has been observed that individuals sticking to an organization for a longer span are more loyal towards the management and the organization: They enjoy all kinds of benefits from the organization and as a result are more attached to it. They hardly badmouth their organization and always think in favour of the management. For them the organization comes first and all other things later.
7. It is essential for the organization to retain the valuable employees showing potential: Every organization needs hardworking and talented employees who can really come out with something creative and different. No organization can survive if all the top performers quit. It is essential for the organization to retain those employees who really work hard and are indispensable for the system.

Key Takeaways:

1. Recruitment is the process of actively seeking out, finding and hiring candidates for a specific position or job.
2. Selection is a process of choosing right person for the right job.

2.3 Training and Development

Meaning

Training is viewed as a short term learning process by which employees acquire the technical knowledge and skills necessary to perform effectively their tasks and responsibilities. Wayne Cascio defines, "Training consists of planned programs undertaken to improve employee knowledge, skills, attitudes and social behaviour so that the performance of the organization improves considerably."

Development is viewed as a long term learning process by which managerial personnel acquire conceptual and theoretical knowledge and skills for enhancing general administrative abilities.

Importance of Training and Development

Training serves various purposes. Training is important to their employees as well as to the organisation. The importance of training is explained as follows:

1. Innovation:

Training facilitates innovation in the organisation. Due to training, the employees come up with innovative ideas in respect of:

• New Plans,
• New Products,
• New Schemes, etc.

Innovation gives competitive advantage to the organisation in the market.

2. Corporate Image:

Training enhances corporate image of the organisation. Due to training, the performance of the organisation improves greatly. Therefore, the image of the tirm improves in the minds of various stakeholders: Customers, Employees, Suppliers. Shareholders, Dealers, etc.

3. Efficiency:

Efficiency is the ratio of returns to costs. Training enables the organisation to improve efficiency of its employees. Training helps to improve the performance of the employees. Therefore, the company gets higher returns at lower costs. The returns are in the form of:

• Higher Sales,
• Higher Profits,
• Higher Market Share, etc.

4. Team Work:

Training helps to improve knowledge, skills as well as attitude. Therefore, training facilitates team work in the organisation. Team work brings success to the organisation.

5. Optimum Use of Resources:

Training ensures optimum use of resources such as:

• Physical Resources,
• Capital Resources and
• Manpower.

Optimum use of resources generates higher productivity to the organisation.

6. Motivation:

Training facilitates motivation of the employees in the organisation. Due to training, there is higher performance in terms of sales and profits. Therefore, employees are motivated by giving incentives: Monetary Incentives (salary, bonus,

incentives) and Non-Monetary Incentives (working conditions welfare facilities).

7. Competitive Advantage:

Training generates competitive advantage to the organisation Due to training there can be:

• Improvement in Quality and
• Reduction in Costs.

Therefore, the organisation can gain competitive advantage in the market.

8. Customer Satisfaction:

Training may result in customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction takes place when product performance matches with customer expectation. Due to training, the overall performance of the employees improves in terms of product quality, delivery of product, service performance, etc.

9. Absenteeism Reduction:

Training helps to reduce absenteeism. It takes place when employees remain absent without prior performance. Absenteeism creates problems to organisation as well as the co-workers. Training helps to develop positive attitude in workers and therefore, the absenteeism may get reduced.

10. Employee Turnover Reduction:

Training facilitates reduction in employee turnover. Employee turnover takes place when employees leave the organisation Due to training, employees become loyal to the organisation which in turn may reduce employee turnover.

11. Benefits to Employees:

Apart from benefits to the organisation, the training programmes benefit the employees in several ways:

• Training helps to upgrade knowledge and skills. Training develops positive attitude.
• Training may result in higher rewards.
• Training may provide an opportunity for promotion.
• The refresher training programmes refreshes the employee.

Need for skill upgradation

1. To increase productivity – Instruction can help employees increase the level of performance.

2. To improve quality of work – Trained workers use machines, tools and materials in proper way. They maintain uniformity in work methods and thus make less mistakes.

3. To decrease learning period – A systematic training and development programme helps to reduce the time and cost involved in learning. They need not waste their time and efforts in learning through trial and error.

4. To Reduce Cost – Trained employees make more economical use of materials and machinery, thereby reducing wastage and spoilage. Maintenance cost is also reduced due to fewer machine breakdown and better handling of equipment.

5. To improve Health and safety – Proper training and development can prevent industrial accidents. Trained employees follow right work method and make use of the prescribed safety devices.

6. To improve Organisational climate – Training and development improves organizational climate, as well trained employees tend to be self-reliant and motivated. They need less guidance and control and thus they have less supervisory pressure. Industrial relations and discipline are improved. Organizations having regular training programmes can fulfil their future needs for personnel from internal sources which in turn increases job- satisfaction and morale of employees.

7. To help in personal growth of employees – Training and development helps employees to enhance their individual knowledge and skills. It is beneficial for the employees by ways of increasing.

8. Self-confidence – Training and development helps to improve the self-confidence of an employee. They tend to become self-reliant and motivated.

9. Safety – Training and development helps an employee to use various safety devices. They can avoid mistakes, accidents on the job.

10. Adaptability – Training and development enables an employee to adapt to changes in work procedure and methods. He can be more mobile and pursue career goals activity.

11. Higher Earnings – Training and development makes employees more efficient and effective. They can produce more with minimum effort and thereby earn more.

12. Promotion – Employee can develop himself and earn promotion easily.

13. New skills – Training and development provides new knowledge and skill among employees. This makes him more useful to a firm.

Assessment of training needs

A training needs assessment (TNA) is an assessment process that companies and other organizations use to determine performance requirements and the knowledge, abilities and skills that their employees need to achieve the requirements. There are three key areas that are considered accurate assessors of those needs:

1. Skill proficiency of employees
2. Employees' frequency of skill usage
3. Level of employees' skills crucial to job performance

One of the outputs of the training needs assessment is a list of who needs what kind of training. For instance, your company may find that the IT department is failing to keep up with the industry standards and needs to undergo training that increases their knowledge about the latest technological innovations. Or maybe the IT interns are coming on full-time and require mentoring to become a competitive and productive part of the company.

TNA aims to answer some familiar questions: why, who, how, what and when. Here's a look at the descriptions of the questions and what analysis can to answer them.

• Why conduct the training: Organizations typically conducts training to tie the performance problem to a working need and make sure that the benefits of carrying out the training are greater than the problems. To answer this question, you have to conduct two types of analysis: feasibility analysis and needs versus wants analysis.
• Who is involved in the training: A training typically involves appropriate parties to solve the performance problem. To determine the target participants for the training, you have to conduct a target population analysis. This type of analysis allows you to learn as much as possible about the people who are involved in the deficiency and how to tailor a training program to engage them.
• How to fix the performance problem: Conducting training can help fix the performance problem. But you have to look for another remediation if training is not appropriate. To identify what skill deficiency to address, you must conduct a performance analysis. This type of analysis investigates how your company or department is performing as a whole.
• What is the best way to perform: There is a preferred or better way to do a task to get the best results. To identify the best way to perform, you must conduct a task analysis. This type of analysis gets down to the fine details of exactly what your employees are doing in their individual roles.
• When to conduct the training: Because holidays, work cycles, etc. affect the participants' attendance at the training, you must determine the best timing to deliver training. You may conduct a context analysis to answer logistics questions. Context analysis is a method to examine the environment in which a business operates.

Training needs assessment levels

There are three levels of training needs assessment. These include the following:

Organizational level

The training needs assessment at the organizational level is a macro-level assessment that helps you determine areas where your employees lack the necessary skills or knowledge and provide need-based training. It aims to answer the following questions:

1. Where is training most needed?
2. Is the training needed for a specific department or a group of employees?
3. Why is the training program recommended as a solution to the current problem?

TNA at the organization level helps you clearly define measurable outcomes for training, allowing you to improve the chances of success of the training program.

For instance, your insurance company's claims processing department constantly gets poor feedback from customers, so you want to improve its customer service rankings. An organizational-level assessment reveals the problems in claims processing and determines the need for training employees involved in claims processing. It can also explain why the training program is necessary and how it can help you achieve your goal of improving your company's customer service.

Operational level

At the operational level (also known as task or job level), TNA determines what kind of training do your employees need to achieve a specified level of proficiency. It involves task analysis, which determines the knowledge and skills required for specific tasks and correlates these requirements to the actual knowledge and skills of your employees. The gaps or problems revealed in this analysis can be used to determine the kind of training your employees need.

TNA at the operational level aims to answer the following questions:

1. How is the job performed?
2. What are the performance standards for the job?
3. What are the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to complete the job successfully?

Some of the data sources that you can use to conduct TNA at the operational level include the following:

• Job specifications
• Job description
• Work performance standards
• Information from small and midsized enterprises (SMEs)
• Analysis of operational problems

Individual level

At the individual or personal level, the TNA determines how each employee performs his or her role. The difference between the actual performance and the expected performance helps you determine if there is really a need for TNA at the individual level.

TNA at the individual level gives you a complete picture of your employees' performance and whether their performance meets expected standards. TNA at this level aims to answer the following questions:

1. What is the expected performance?
2. Do your employees possess the necessary knowledge and skills?
3. What is the gap between the expected and actual performance?
4. What impedes your employees to perform efficiently?
5. What training program must be provided to your employees to meet expected performance standards?

How to conduct training needs assessment

There are four steps you should take to successfully conduct a training needs assessment. These steps include the following:

• Determine desired outcomes
• Identify problems or specific points of pain
• Determine desired knowledge, skills and behaviors
• Set training timelines and priorities
• Choose training needs assessments and formats

1. Determine desired outcomes

Determine where things are not working the way you need or want them to, and what success in those areas would look like. For instance, you may want to improve customer retention by about 5%, reduce support call time to under three minutes or increase new customer acquisition by 10%. To establish the metrics for success of your training program, you have to meet with your team leads, supervisors, managers, directors and other stakeholders. Once you have identified what your goals are, you can easily determine the behaviors that must be changed in order to reach those goals.

2. Identify problems or specific points of pain

The next step is to match your desired outcomes with the improvements in information, actions and abilities that support them. To do so, you have to break down duties and processes inherent to the outcomes so you can determine specific problems or points that need to be addressed.

For instance, if you want to decrease the volume of calls your customer support receives, you need to examine what causes the volume of calls you are currently receiving. The problem may lie with the information customers receive about your product or services, with how calls are recorded and followed-up on, with the frequency and level of proactive communication between customer contacts and account managers or with a combination of all of those.

There are a number of ways to identify areas that require improvement. Here are some of the most common and effective:

a)     Observation and assessment: This requires your team leads, supervisors or managers to observe employees in order to determine common areas of difficulty.

b)    Surveys: This method requires you to ask employees about which areas they would like more training, support and resources. You have to make sure, however, that they write down their specific needs. Team-building or communication are such broad training needs, as an example, that you would need to conduct another training needs assessment on each of these topics. Some examples of specific training needs include how to resolve a conflict, how to effectively and deeply listen to a coworker or how to give feedback to colleagues.

c)     Data evaluation: This requires you to analyze HR records to determine if there are common errors, issues or inconsistencies that the training can address. HR records can include exit interviews, job competencies, job descriptions, performance evaluations, accident and safety reports and other company records such as sales, cost and production records. For instance, if one of your company's departments has a dramatic increase in workplace accidents, you may review accident reports as part of your gap analysis before conducting training about safety practices and procedures.

d)    Individual interviews: You may also interview your employees, supervisors and clients to identify problems or gaps. If your company is providing safety training, for instance, interviewing the employees who have experienced or witnessed an accident would be advisable. Also, interviewing employees who have never had an accident could be useful in developing a training program that includes safe practices and procedures. If the accidents involved equipment, you may need to interview the company that serviced or manufactured the equipment. The information you can gather from your interviews can help you identify gaps that your company needs to address.

3. Determine desired knowledge, skills and behaviors

Once you have identified the specific problems you need to address, you can match training topics to the identified skill gaps. To do so, you should first come up with a list of knowledge, skills and competencies each trained employee needs to attain the established objectives. Then, you must have a way to determine if training has been successful at the individual level—the way to measure if the identified competencies and skills were achieved to the level required. These metrics for success are usually expressed as a series of learning goals tailored to each problem and the desired business outcome.

4. Set training timelines and priorities

Once you have determined the knowledge, skills or behaviors that your employees must develop to achieve established goals, it's now time to develop the full training agenda. To do so, you must first determine the targeted end date for the initiative, and then rank priorities for individual sessions and groups and put them on a schedule. You should determine priorities based on their urgency (how quickly you need to see results from employees) and sequence (training that must occur before other training can happen).

5. Choose training needs assessments and formats

Now that you know who your target participants are, what training is necessary, what your goals are and how quickly the training program needs to be complete, you can choose how you want to administer the training. Some good options include virtual or in-person instructor-led sessions, self-guided audio and video programs, computer-based simulations and online training. Your Learning and Development resource—consultancy or in-house—can help you choose the right course suitable for your company and project.

Retraining and Redeployment methods and techniques of training employees and executives

Retraining or refresher training is the process of learning a new or the same old skill or trade for the same group of personnel. Retraining is required[by whom?] to be provided on a regular basis to avoid personnel obsolescence due to technological changes and the individuals' memory capacity. This short-term instruction course shall serve to re-acquaint personnel with skills previously learnt (recall to retain the potentials) or to bring their knowledge or skills up-to-date (latest) so that skills stay sharp. This kind of training could be provided annually or more frequently as maybe required, based on the importance of consistency of the task of which the skill is involved. Examples of refreshers are cGMP, GDP, HSE trainings. Retraining (repetition of a training conducted earlier) shall also be conducted for an employee, when the employee is rated as ‘not qualified’ for a skill or knowledge, as determined based on the assessment of answers in the training questionnaire of the employee.

Redeployment is the process of moving people within the organization and from units where there are excess employees to the departments where there is shortage. The process of redeployment involves the identification of surplus and shortage areas, notifying and educating employees about the importance of being redeployed in high need areas, identifying the skills and competencies required in these areas and assessing the employees who can be successfully redeployed. Sometimes retraining or retooling may be required before redeployment. The process also includes the development of systems which can assess and put the right people at right jobs. The managers are also given incentives to allow their human talent to leave so that it can be redeployed in areas where higher returns are expected from this talent. An assessment process is also developed to see how the employees are doing in their new assignments. If carried out in a proper way, redeployment can help the organization as well as its employees. The offer of suitable alternative work should have similar status, should be within the capabilities of the employee, should not cause unreasonable in convenience to the employee and should provide similar earning to the employee.

The following are some of the on-the-job methods of training:

1. Job Rotation:

Employees are transferred from one job to another. For example: a cashier in a bank may be transferred to the accounts department.

Advantages:

• It reduces monotony of doing routine jobs.
• It provides good experience of different jobs.
• It develops competent executives to overcome the problems arising due to employee turnover, transfers, etc.

2. Understudy:

The subordinate is trained to perform the duties and responsibilities of the superior. This is because, the subordinate is likely to take the position of the superior because the superior is likely to be transferred, retired or promoted.

The understudy person is generally asked to do the following:

• Supervise a group of employees to experience leadership qualities.
• Attend executive meetings in place of the superiors.
• Investigate and make written recommendations about problems related to the department.
• Assume superior's position in his absence.

3. Mentoring:

Mentoring can be used for training and developing managers. A mentor is a coach or a guide who counsels and guides the mentee. For instance, a senior manager can act as a mentor to the junior manager.

The mentor is probably someone who had "been there, done that" before. A mentor may use variety of approaches in training the mentee such as coaching, counselling, etc. The mentee may be trained with failure and success stories. The mentor may tell "This is where went wrong This is how achieved success." Both failure and success stories are powerful lessons that provide valuable insights to the learners.

Advantages:

• It helps to develop competent managers.
• It improves confidence of the learners or mentees.
• The efficiency and performance of the organisation improves.
• The organisation can gain good corporate image.

4. Coaching:

Under coaching, the superior plays an active role in training the subordinate. The superior may assign challenging task the subordinate for the purpose of training. The superior ma assists and advice the subordinate to complete the assigned task. In this case, the superior acts as a coach in training the subordinate.

5. Counselling:

In counselling, the superior plays a passive role in training the subordinate. The superior may assign challenging task to the subordinate for the purpose of training. The superior may provide advice to the subordinate in the completion of task i so required. In this case, the superior acts as a guide rather than a coach in training the subordinate.

6. Apprenticeship Training:

Apprenticeship is a method of job training by which a person learns and craft, trade or job under another person who has already mastered that craft or job. For example, a person may be under apprenticeship to master the knowledge and skill of an automobile mechanic or a carpenter or a plumber, etc. The main advantages of apprenticeship training include:

• The candidate gets hand-on training which helps to develop and improve skills.
• It develops confidence in the trainee to handle the tasks effectively.

7. Planned Progression:

It is similar to job rotation, except that every movement from one job to another involves higher pay, position and duties. In job rotation, every movement involves more or less same pay and position.

Planned regression is more likely to occur at higher managerial levels, whereas, job rotation occurs mainly at lower level positions.

Advantages:

• It motivates employees to perform effectively.
• It may improve corporate image due to higher performance.
• It may lead to innovation in the organisation.

Performance appraisal systems

• Meaning

Performance appraisal is a process of evaluating work performance of employees. The purpose of appraisal is to improve individual and organisational effectiveness.

In the words of Wayne Cascio, "Performance appraisal is the systematic description of an employee's job relevant strengths and weaknesses."

Michael Crino, defines "Performance appraisal is the process of assessing quantitative and qualitative aspects of an employee's job performance."

• Benefits/Uses of Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal serves a two-fold purpose. The purpose could be either for evaluation of performance or for development of employees. In general, performance appraisal serves the following purposes:

1. Performance Feedback:

Performance appraisal provides performance feedback to the employees. Employees can come to know about their job related strengths and weaknesses. Such feedback enables the employees to correct their weaknesses and improve on their strengths.

2. Training and Development:

Performance appraisal information may be used to determine whether or not an employee or a group of employees requires additional training and development. Deficiencies in performance may be attributable to inadequate knowledge or skills. Accordingly, the organisation may decide to provide additional training to the employees.

3. Motivation:

Performance appraisal facilitates motivation of the employees. The high performing employees are given higher ratings in performance appraisal. They may be rewarded with monetary and non-monetary incentives.

4. Promotion:

Performance appraisal gives management a means of identifying employees for promotion. Past appraisals together with other background data enable the management to promote the right employees to higher posts.

5. Transfers:

Performance appraisal is useful in transfer decisions of employees. Effective transfer of employees is possible through the reports of performance appraisal.

6. Human Resource Planning:

The appraisal process aids in human resource planning. Accurate appraisal data regarding employees may provide management with important information to base decisions for future employment.

Without the knowledge of who is capable of being promoted, transferred and terminated; management is at a severe disadvantage with respect to framing various future employment plans.

7. Management-Labour Relations:

Performance appraisal helps to maintain good labour relations between the management and the labour. This is because; performance appraisal creates an healthy atmosphere in the organisation.

The employees are motivated to perform more effectively and the ineffective employees are encouraged to do away with their weaknesses or limitations.

8. Documentary Evidence:

Performance appraisal reports can be used as an important documentary evidence in case of disciplinary action taken against some ineffective employees. This is especially true in the case of organisations having a strong employees union.

9. Effective Communication:

Appraisal interviews and reports can be effective means of communication to the employee and can result in improved performance.

10. Career Development:

Performance appraisal enables managers to coach, counsel and assist employees in their career development.

LIMITATIONS OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

1. Halo Effect:

The performance appraisal may be based on one positive factor of the ratee. Several work related factors may not be considered for evaluation.

For example: if the rate is found to be highly punctual in reporting to duty, he may be also given higher scores for quality of work, discipline, etc., without conducting appraisal of such factors.

2. Horn Effect:

The performance appraisal may be based on one negative factor of the ratee. The rater may not evaluate several other job relevant factors.

For example: the ratee may frequently report late to work and therefore, the rater may give him low scores for quality of performance, speed of work, etc., without conducting appraisal of such factors.

3. Central Tendency:

Some raters may follow central tendency approach in rating the ratees. The main aspects of central tendency are:

Average scores are given to all ratees. Those who perform well are given average scores and those who do not perform tell are also given average scores.

Central tendency may be due to lack of information of the ratees performance.

Rater may be unfamiliar with the ratees, and if forced to evaluate, the ratee may play it safe by neither condemning nor praising.

4. Cost Factor:

Performance appraisal s an expensive activity. At times, experts may be appointed to conduct performance appraisal. Therefore, the organisation may have to pay good amount of fees to performance raters.

5. Problem of Leniency:

Some raters are very lenient in performance appraisal. They give high scores to everyone, irrespective of their performance. Those who perform well are given high scores and those who do not perform well are also given high scores. Such situation arises, when the rater wants to maintain good relations, especially with average or poor performers.

6. Latest Behaviour Effect:

Rating is influenced by the most recent behaviour ignoring the commonly demonstrated behaviour during the entire appraisal period. If the latest behaviour is good, the ratee will get high scores and vice-versa.

7. Problem of Strictness:

Some raters are strict in their appraisal. They tend to give low scores to all the ratees irrespective of their performance. Those who perform well are given lower scores and those who do not perform well are also given lower scores.

This situation may arise when the rater has high expectation of ratees' performance.

8. Spillover Effect:

In this case, the present performance appraisal is greatly influenced by past performance. " A person who has not done good work in the past is considered to be bad at work in the present as well."

9. Personal Bias:

The way an appraiser personally feels about a ratee may drastically affect the appraiser's objectivity. Also, if the rater has good relations or connections with the ratee, he may always tend to give higher scores to the ratee, even though the ratee does not deserve such high scores. Thus, personal bias may lead to favoured treatment for some employees.

10. Paper Work:

Some supervisors complain that performance appraisal is pointless paper work. They complain so, because many-a-times, performance appraisal reports are found only in the files rather than serving any practical use.

METHODS OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

There are several methods or techniques of performance appraisal. The most common methods can be broadly divided into two groups as follows:

TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES

1. Check List: A list is prepared containing various work related statements

such as:

• Quality of work,
• Speed of work
• Attitude towards work, etc.

Against the list, the employees are rated. The rater marks against the Yes or No squares to various statements. The main advantages are its simplicity, convenience, less time consuming and less expensive.

2. Confidential Reports:

This is an old and traditional method of appraising employees. A confidential report is a report on the subordinate s strengths and weaknesses. The confidential report is used for a variety of personnel decisions such as transfers, promotions, etc. This is a poor method of performance appraisal, as it does not provide proper feedback to the employees.

3. Critical Incident Method:

In this method, the rater records important incidents involving the ratee. If the ratee performs well in such incidents, then he is given high scores and vice-versa. For instance, in a particular incident in which a salesman convinces an argumentative customer to buy the product, then the salesman's performance may be given higher score.

4. Ranking Methods:

There are various ranking methods which are commonly used to evaluate the performance of the employees. Ranking methods offer convenience to evaluate the performance and they are less time consuming. The ranking methods used are:

• Simple ranking method.
• Alternation ranking method.
• Paired comparison method.

5. Graphic Rating Scale:

In this method, the raters use a graphic scale to appraise certain specific factors such as quality of work, quantity of work dependability, etc. The following is an example of graphic scale:

The graphic scale method is simple to understand, easy to conduct and less time consuming. However, there is lot of paper work and there are chances of rater bias.

6. Narrative Essay:

The simplest method is the narrative essay. In this, the rater describes in detail an employee's strengths and weaknesses and potentials, together with suggestions for improvement. If essays are written well, they can give detailed

feedback to the subordinates in respect of their performance.

MODERN TECHNIQUES

7. Role Analysis:

Role analysis is a process of analyzing the role of a manager in relation to roles of other managers who are affected by his performance.

The role set members can conduct performance appraisal of the focal role. The focal role can make necessary changes to improve his performance.

8. Assessment Center:

This technique is used for performance appraisal as well as selection and training. Some firms use this technique of performance appraisal, especially at the time of promoting managers to higher levels. The ratees are subject to various psychological tests, management games, oral presentations and such other various exercises.

9. Management by Objectives (MBO):

This technique can be used to measure the performance of subordinates or lower level managers. In MBO, the process involved is as follows:

• Superior and subordinate jointly define common goals.
• Jointly frame plans.
• Subordinate implements the plan.
• Joint review of plans — where performance appraisal o subordinate is done by the superior.

10. Bell-Shaped Curve Methods:

Nowadays, professional firms adopt Bell-shaped Curve method to appraise the performance of its employees. The performanl of the employees is plotted against a bell-shaped curve. Based on the performance, the employees are categorized into groups:

• High Performers
• Average Performers
• Poor Performers.
• Low Performers

The high performers are motivated with monetary and non-monetary incentives. The average performers may be provided with training. The poor performers may be terminated of transferred or asked to opt for Compulsory Retirement Scheme (CRS). At times, training may also be provided to poor performers to improve their performance.

11. 360 Degree Appraisal:

This method is used by large professional firms to appraise the performance of the employees, especially that of managerial personnel. Performance appraisal is conducted by various parties such as superiors, subordinates, clients, colleagues, pane of experts, etc.

This technique provides a balanced performance appraisal of the ratee. All the raters try to be as objective as possible in their rating.

12. Human Resource Accounting (HRA):

HRA deals with cost and contribution of human resources to the organisation.

• The cost of the employee includes cost of selection, training compensation, etc.
• Employee contribution is the money value of employee service to the organisation. Employee performance can bei rated as positive when contribution is more than the cost and vice-versa.

POTENTIAL APPRAISAL-IMPORTANCE

Potential appraisal is a future - oriented appraisal, whose main objective is to identify and evaluate the potential of the employees to assume higher positions and responsibilities in the organizational hierarchy. Many organisations consider and use potential appraisal as a part of the performance appraisal processes. The potential appraisal refers to the identification of the hidden talents and skills of an employee. The person may not be aware of them.

Techniques of Potential Appraisal:

• Self- Appraisal
• Peer Appraisal
• Superior Appraisal
• 360 Degree Appraisal
• Brainstorming Sessions
• Assessment Centres
• MBO
• Psychological and Psychometric Tests
• Management Games like Goal Setting Game Leadership Exercises, etc.

Importance of Potential Appraisal:

Potential appraisal is important to the individual employees as well as to the organisation.

1. Identification of Strengths and Weaknesses:

The potential appraisal enables the employees to know their strengths and weaknesses. This gives a chance or opportunity to the employees to correct their weaknesses and consolidate their strengths.

For instance, a particular employee may have good leadership skills to influence others to work willingly. For such employee the management may assign the leadership of a particular project or activity.

2. Identification of Training Needs:

Potential appraisal may enable the management to identify training needs of the employees. For instance, there may be decrease in productivity after the appointment of new employees. In such a case, management may provide training to the new employees to improve the knowledge and skills so as to increase the productivity of the organisation.

3. Information about Future Prospects:

Potential appraisal may enable the organisation to understand the future potential of the employees. In such a case, the management may make necessary arrangements to groom the employees to take up future assignments.

4. Retention of Competent Employees:

Potential appraisal may help to retain competent employees. Through potential appraisal, the management can identify the competencies and capabilities of the employees. This information can be passed on to the employees so that the employees feel a sense of pride of their competencies. When the management promises the competent employees of future career opportunities in the organisation, the employees may become loyal to the organisation and may not leave the organisation.

5. Advise on Career Development:

Potential appraisal may help the management to advise the employees on their career development. Potential appraisal may help to identify the career potential of the employee. Accordingly, the management may assist the employee to develop the career within the organisation.

For instance, the management may provide adequate training to the employee to develop new skills so that the employee can make career advances.

6. Motivation to Employees:

Potential appraisal may motivate the employees to improve their work performance. Potential appraisal may involve interviewing the employee regarding the level of knowledge attitude and skills which the employee possesses. The employee may feel that the management is seriously interested in the employee, and therefore, the employee will put in best possible efforts.

Greater efforts on the part of the motivated employees leads to higher performance of the organisation, and as a result of this, i the employees are motivated with monetary and non-monetary incentives.

7. Assigning Challenging Projects:

Potential appraisal indicates the strengths or competencies of the employees. The management may assign challenging projects to those employees who show good potential in handling challenging projects.

Key Takeaways:

1. Training is viewed as a short term learning process by which employees acquire the technical knowledge and skills necessary to perform effectively their tasks and responsibilities.
2. Retraining or refresher training is the process of learning a new or the same old skill or trade for the same group of personnel.

References:

1. Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management by J. Paulo Davim
2. Organisational Behaviour by Stephen K. Robbins