UNIT 4

TRENDS IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

4.1 COMPETENCIES – CONCEPT AND CLASSIFICATION

Competence refers to the knowledge and skills that enable effective performance of an activity or a job.

Some scholars consider competence as a combination of practical and theoretical knowledge, skills, and attributes which is required to improve performance. It can be also described as the quality of being well qualified, having the ability to perform a specific role. For instance, competency of a marketing manager includes IQ and EQ, and the skills for decision making, influencing and negotiation.

Examples of Different Competencies:

1. Initiative and Creativity: Plans and undertakes tasks without detailed instructions; makes constructive suggestions; creates creative solutions to problems, responds to situations as they arise, and so on.

2. Judgement: Makes sound decisions; bases decisions on facts rather than on emotion, analyzes problems skillfully; uses logic to reach solutions.

3. Cooperation/Teamwork: Works harmoniously with others to get a job done; responds positively to instructions and procedures; works well with peers and managers; shares critical information with everyone involved in a project; seeks opinions values working relationships, and so on.

4. Quality and Quantity of Work: Maintains high standards despite pressing deadlines; does work right the first time; corrects own errors; regularly performs the work productively. Also, focuses on completion of quantity of work.

5. Reliability: Completes work in a timely and orderly manner. Regular and punctual and is committed and dedicated to perform the assigned tasks.

6.Commitment to Safety: Duly complies with the safety policies and procedures. Assist team members in complying with safety standards.

7. Support of Diversity: Treats all people with respect; values diverse perspectives; participates in diversity training opportunities; provides a supportive work environment for the multicultural workforce; treats others fairly without regard to race, sex, color, religion, or sexual orientation; recognizes differences as opportunities to learn and gain by working together.

8. Job Knowledge: Possess good job knowledge and skills to undertake the tasks effectively. Also, makes efforts to gain additional knowledge and skills.

9. Communication: Demonstrates openness and honesty; listens well and speaks effectively during meetings and feedback sessions; expresses opinions; asks others for their opinions and feedback.

10.Customer Service: Responds effectively to customer queries; resolves customer problems to the customer s satisfaction; respects all internal and external customers; commits to exceeding customer expectations.

11. Problem Solving: Anticipates problems; sees how a problem and its solution will affect others in the organisation; gathers information before making decisions; weighs alternatives and arrives at right decisions.

• TYPES / CLASSIFICATION OF COMPETENCIES

1. Organizational Competencies: The mission, vision, values, and culture of the organization that sets the tone and/or the focus for which the work of the organization is carried out. For instance, the focus of the organisation is customer. orientation to gain competitive advantage. Therefore, all the resources and activities will be organised to meet the goal of customer satisfaction.

2. Core Competencies: This refers to general competencies specific to an organization. It is the way the organization and its members work.

Capabilities and/or technical expertise are unique to an organization. The core competencies differentiate an organization from its competition. An organisation's core competency is its strategic strength.

For instance, the core competencies of an organisation lie in the technologies, methods, or processes of the organization that create its competitive advantage.

3. Technical Competencies: Some organisations may focus on technical competencies of its employees. However, both technical and performance capabilities are to be considered carefully when employment decisions are made. For example, organizations that tend to select or promote employees solely on the basis of technical skills, thereby ignoring other competencies, may experience an increase in performance-related issues or problems.

4. Behavioural Competencies: Individual behavioural competencies are vital to any organisation. The behaviour of members, especially, that of managers is of utmost important. The managers or superiors should have the ability to command respect from the subordinates. Therefore, the managers should adopt the right leadership style (situational leadership style) to influence and motivate the subordinate to work willingly towards group objectives.

5. Functional Competencies: This type of competencies is specific to a particular job. For instance, a marketing manager should have the competencies to identify, anticipate and satisfy customer requirements. The finance manager should have the competency to obtain funds from the right sources, and also to ensure proper application of funds.

6. Cross Functional Competencies: Cross functional competency refers to the skills and abilities to work with cross functional teams. A cross-functional team is a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common goal. It may include employees from finance, marketing, operations, and human resources departments.

Typically, cross functional teams include employees from all departments and from all levels of an organization. Members may also come from outside an organization (in particular, from suppliers, key customers, or consultants. Each member of the team should have the competencies to offer an alternative perspective to the problem and potential solution to the task.

7. Individual Competencies: This type refers to a person's knowledge, skills, and attributes that contribute to effective performance. Some of the individual competencies include:

• Sound Judgement
• Effective Communication
• Reliability
• Commitment
• Innovation, etc.

8. Business Competencies: This refers to the knowledge and skills required in a particular business or industry:

• Customer Service: Shows attributes and abilities required to generate customer satisfaction.
• Work Ethics: Maintains high level of ethics and integrity in the organization.
• Accountability: Takes ownership and responsibility for the tasks assigned.
• Communication: Communicates effectively as well as understands instructions and information provided.

9. Leadership Competencies: Individuals as leaders need to have certain competencies to influence and motivate the subordinates to work willingly towards group objectives. The leadership competencies include:

• Influence: Inspires others to bring out the best in themselves and to trust in the leader's ideas, decisions, and recommendations.
• Resourcefulness: Shows creativity, takes initiative, and finds solutions.
• Results Orientation: Focuses on results and finds ways to achieve it.
• Commitment: Maintains enthusiasm and drive, not just in self, but also in team members or subordinates.

10. Management Competencies: Management competencies are required to get the work done through people. Therefore, managers should have the competencies to perform management functions such as:

• Planning - deciding in advance what is to be done, how it is to be done and who is to do it.
• Organising - identifying and grouping of work to be performed, defining and delegating authority and establish relationship to accomplish goals.
• Directing - effectively leading, communicating and motivating employees.
• Monitoring and Evaluation - monitoring actual work performance and taking corrective measures, if deviations are noticed.

4.2 LEARNING ORGANISATION

Learning organisation is the one that has developed the capacity to continuously learn, adapt, and change". B. P. Robbins and M. Coulter.

Peter Senge popularized the concept of the learning organization through his book The Fifth Discipline. "A learning organization is a company that facilitates the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself."

• Characteristics of Learning Organisation

1. Systems Thinking: A learning organisation involves systems thinking. A successful learning organisation needs to be supported by a collaborative learning culture. Every individual plays an important role in the overall organization's performance. Each individual is a part of the entire system. Therefore, in a learning organisation, every individual must think and learn for the betterment of the organisation as a whole rather than betterment of individual employees.

The learning organisation needs to operate as a system rather than each individual in the organisation thinking in his/her own interest. However, it is to be noted that corporate learners should respect and honour the ideas of their peers. Every idea matters as there is always a room for innovation.

2. Personal Mastery: Learning organisations require personal mastery of the individual employees. Employees gain knowledge and skills through training and development, and through work experience. There is a need to continuously improve upon through committed and dedicated learning on the part of employees. Individual employees should be receptive to learning.

Research indicates that most learning at the workplace incidental (as a result of some activity), rather than on account of formal training. Therefore, it is important to develop a culture where personal mastery is practiced in daily lite. Corporate learners must develop a lifelong learning perspective, wherein they value and understand the importance of continual growth

3. Mental Models: A mental model is an explanation of someone s thought process about how something works in their real world. (It is a representation of the surrounding world, the relationships between its various parts and a person' s intuitive perception about his or her own acts and their consequences). According to Peter Senge, mental models should be acknowledged and challenged in order to move beyond unfavorable behaviors and assumptions.

There is always a room for innovation. Corporate learners must be encouraged to test out new theories and approaches. No doubt there is always a risk in trying out something new. But trying out something new allows people to learn from their mistakes and continually improve.

4. Team Learning for Shared Vision: Team learning is the cornerstone of learning organisations. All members of the organisation must work as a collective problem solving team to achieve the desired goals.

There is a need for knowledge sharing infrastructure in the organisation. For example, an organisation needs to set up online-training repository, where learners can share training content with their colleagues. Everyone can benefit from the knowledge and expertise shared by the group members online. An online training is an repository where corporate learners i can share links and learner-generated online training content with their peers.

Team learning is the result of accumulation of learning of all individuals in the organisation. The advantage of team learning is improved problem solving and decision making capacity of the organisation due to better access to knowledge and expertise.

To make team learning effective, there is a need for forward thinking leaders, starting from the top management. Leaders must be committed to the process of shared vision. Leaders must challenge assumptions, encourage self-reflection and set a good example for their team members.

The following are some of the ways that promote forward thinking leadership.

• Hosting Live Webinars so as to interact with the team members. The team members get an opportunity to ask questions and to address their concerns.
• Setting up Corporate e-Learning Blogs — whereby leaders can post important ideas, and updates. The learners can pose questions to the leaders.
• Leaders and learners need to stay active on social media like Twitter, Instagram, etc.
• Regular Meetings with the Leaders and Learners to share ideas and to get feedback. The meetings can be held through video conferencing.

5. Role of the Leader: The role of a leader must be that of a mentor or a guide. He should encourage shared vision and challenge existing line of thinking. The leader should encourage the team members to continually work towards innovation. The leader must focus on the career development of competent members of his group.

6. Empowerment of Team Members: Learning organisation works towards empowerment of its members. In a traditional organisation, the management makes decisions and subordinates implement the decisions taken by the management. This means very few (managers) are the thinks and several others (subordinates) are the doers. In such organisations, there is little scope for learning and innovative thinking on the part of the subordinates. In learning organisation, all employees are empowered to make decisions and to learn from the failure or success of such decisions.

7. Innovation and Change: As mentioned under mental models, learning organisations create an environment for learning from innovation and change. The individuals are encouraged to challenge status-quo. The members of a learning organisation innovative because they learn, and they learn further because they innovate.

Learning organisations enable a continuous cycle of learning innovation, change and improvement.

8. Customer Centric: Client centric is an approach of doing business that focuses on creating a positive experience for the customer. Client centric businesses ensure that the customer is at the center of a business's philosophy, and operations. Successful organisations succeed because of customer support and loyalty. Therefore, a learning organisation is pro-active in ensuring that all employees are extremely customer centric. Most of the learning that takes place revolves around learning more about customer needs and implementing processes to improve customer satisfaction.

Apart from being customer centric, a learning organisation is socially conscious. They make efforts to work in the interest of all stakeholders including the general public.

• Benefits of Learning Organisation

The main benefits of a learning organization are:

• Facilitates innovation throughout the organisation. Ensures effective team work in the organisation. Generates high morale and job satisfaction. Gaining competitive advantage in the market. Improved efficiency.
• Links organizational resources to customer needs.
• Improving quality of outputs at all levels. Improving corporate image for being customer and society oriented.
• Increasing the pace of change within the organization.
• Retains competent and efficient employees.
• Improved relations with stakeholders.

4.3 CREATING AN INNOVATIVE ORGANISATION

Innovative organisations encourage their employees to come up with innovative ideas. The essence of an innovative organization lies in their employees' ability to contribute to the creative process of the organization Organisations need to provide autonomy to employees to implement their novel ideas.

Innovation means doing jobs in a different way and possibly making mistakes. If an organization cannot accept mistakes and punish employees who make them, then no employee will innovate. The role of organizational leaders is vital in innovative organisations Organizations lack innovation not because their employees lack the capability, but because they have not provided a supportive environment. Creating an environment conducive to innovation and eliminating obstacles is the responsibility of the whole team, but especially of the leader.

• Approaches to Create Innovative Organisation

1. Autonomy to Employees:

Employers that impose rules tend to suffocate the creativity of their employees. Rules and restrictions limit the freedom of human resources and they are reluctant to think outside the box.

The essence of an innovative organization lies in their employees' ability to contribute to the creative process of th organization. In any organisation, employees need to be given autonomy to practice their novel ideas.

Autonomy is believed to foster creativity as individuals produce more creative work and experience increased intrinsic motivation when they have a sense of control and ownership over their work and ideas. They perceive themselves as having a choice in how their goals are accomplished, whether those goals are set by their supervisor or chosen by themselves.

2. Provide Adequate Resources:

Innovative organisations must make it possible for the employees to convert their ideas into reality by providing them with adequate resources. Without the right resources, even the best ideas tend to fail.

When employees have good ideas, a leader should ensure that they receive enough resources to implement them. A leader must give the employees enough support so that the innovation can be pushed forward.

Take care to not provide too many resources too early. Doing so smothers the will to innovate. Just as every company claims to encourage innovation, so too does every individual claim to have innovative ideas. However, many endeavors are halfheartedly undertaken and put aside soon thereafter.

A commitment is the standard by which to judge passion, and investment in new ideas should follow the principles of lean startup: when an innovator has created something from scratch and found a clear direction, invest necessary resources only when investing populates corresponding output quickly.

3. Focus on Research & Development:

Innovative companies focus on R&D. They spend heavily on R&D to develop innovative products or solutions.

The most innovative companies in the world invest in their R & D department to allow their creative team to execute the innovative concepts for future product development. For instance, Amazon spent over US $ 16 billion in R&D in 2017. Also, companies like Samsung, Intel, Volkswagen, Alphabet and Microsoft each spent over US$ 12 billion on R&D in 2017.

4. Allocate Time for Ideas:

Management need to demonstrate the specific ways to find creativity so that the employees can implement innovation in

their work. Management need to allocate certain amount of time to nurture and develop innovative ideas.

For instance, a company can dedicate a day in a week or so to encourage the employees to experiment with new ideas. Also, companies can conduct weekly workshops to encourage your employees to brainstorm ideas tor an upcoming project.

Google was among the first companies to create a business model based on innovation. The company allocates 20% of the working time to nurture the innovative side of its employees. Remember that innovation develops from trial and error and it demands an investment of time. But when you deprive your employees of time, you suffocate the urge of your employees to learn different perspectives to their work.

5. Involve All Departments:

A company should not confine innovation to just their R&D department. Io implement an effective innovative culture, it is important that each and every department of the company is included in the process of innovative ideas.

When an organisation implements a holistic innovation strategy, it is possible to foster a change in the mindset of every member of the organisation.

6. Discourage Fear of Failure:

Failure is a part of the learning process. If management penalizes the employees for making mistakes, fear is created in the minds of the employees. Such an approach drastically affects the ability of employees to come up with creative ideas. Fear cannot generate creativity.

When employees are allowed to experiment with mistakes (not deliberate or reckless mistakes); managers are allowing them to think independently without any constraints of fear. So the employees are able to think beyond the boundaries of their job.

7. Accommodating Leadership Style:

Managers as leaders need to foster and nurture positive attitude of individual team members. The managers need to adopt an accommodating leadership style rather than a dictatorial leadership style.

Expecting the workers to do more in less time is one way to destroy the willingness of the workers to do something extraordinary. When a manager prefers short-term results over long-terms benefits of innovative ideas, it would surely destroy the innovative spirit of the employees. Rather than resorting to a'do more' approach, managers need to give the employees the room to experiment and learn so that they can improve.

8. Respect the Subordinates:

Intellectual arrogance is the biggest enemy of implementing innovation in any organization. When a superior disregards the ideas of the employees just because they are the subordinates, the process of creative thinking gets hindered. In such organisations, employees would be reluctant to contribute to creative ideas.

To promote a culture of innovation, the superiors need to do away with any preconceived notions about employees and rather allow them to speak their minds. Superiors need to encourage employees to share their opinion and be a part of every creative process in the organisation.

9. Recognize and Reward Innovation:

Employees feel valued when their efforts are recognized and rewarded. When an organisation wants to promote a culture of innovation, the management needs to implement an incentive policy that recognizes and rewards the employees depending upon the level of innovation in their work.

An incentive policy will make employees feel appreciated for their innovative efforts and it will pave the way to a culture of innovation in the organization.

Innovation provides a culture of creative thinking that enables the employees to think beyond the regular hurdles of their work and come up with something new and unique.

10. Open Communication:

Managers should encourage open communication. Employees should feel free to communicate with their superior in respect of innovative ideas. There should be a system of open communication throughout the organisation. The members of the organisation may communicate their innovative ideas with cross functional teams, whenever and wherever required. Communication across the organisation may help to improve the quality of innovative ideas due to the vital inputs shared by other members to make the innovative idea more productive.

4.4 INNOVATIVE CULTURE – CONCEPT AND NEED

Innovation culture is the work environment that leaders encourage to nurture and develop in order to generate innovative ideas. Organisations that adopt a culture of innovation generally believe that innovation is not just the arena of top leadership but can come from anyone in the organization.

Innovation cultures are valued by organizations that compete in markets which are subject to rapid changes, and therefore, maintaining the status quo is insufficient to compete effectively, thus making an innovation culture essential for success.

The level of innovation of an organisation heavily depends on their readiness and will of its employees to experiment with novel ideas, to build prototypes, to investigate opportunities for novel products i and services. The innovation culture largely depends on the support of the top leadership in the organisation.

• Need for Innovation

The need to be innovative is derived from market pressures Innovation culture is difficult to establish and to sustain. But it is essential for creating competitive advantage in the marketplace.

The need for innovation is required in the competitive business world due to the following reasons:

1. Competitive Advantage:

Innovative culture motivates employees to generate new product ideas. Employees make continual efforts to develop new products and to modify existing products with innovative ideas. New and innovative products gain customer acceptance. Therefore, innovative organisations gain competitive advantage in the market.

2. Motivation of Employees:

In any organisation, there is a need to motivate employees. Employees are satisfied with their jobs when they feel that they contribute meaningfully to the organisation. One of the ways to generate job satisfaction is to secure employees involvement in generating innovative ideas.

Once innovative ideas are generated, they are evaluated, and if feasible, are implemented. Implementation of innovative ideas helps to enhance the performance of the organisation. Higher performance calls for greater recognition and rewards to the employees.

Quite often, the employees who come up with innovative ideas are more concerned with intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic motivation. Theretore, management must recognize such employees and provide them with intrinsic motivation.

3. Retention of Competent Employees:

In any organisation, there are about 10 to 20% of the total workforce who are highly competent and at the same time highly committed and dedicated. The success of the organisation largely depends on the innovative contributions of highly competent, committed and dedicated employees. Therefore, it is of vital importance to retain the competent employees.

One of the ways to retain competent employees is to get them involved in generating innovative ideas, and at the same time recognizing and rewarding their productive efforts.

4. Expansion of Business:

Innovative culture helps to come up with new and improved products, which leads to enhancement of corporate image as well as brand image. As a result of goodwill or corporate image, an organisation can expand its business from the local markets to international markets.

5. Promotion of Individual Growth:

Innovation culture promotes growth of individual employees. Employees are willing to take part in creative activity at work place, especially when they are convinced about employer's desire to invest in career development of the employees. When employees believe that their career growth is valued by their employer; they are more likely to make innovative contributions. Also, employees who are aware about their company s processes, products and services are in a better position to discover innovative ideas and solutions.

6. Building Confidence in Employees:

Encouragement and autonomy bring confidence in the employees. They are willing to experiment and learn to come up with innovative ideas and solutions to face the challenges of competition in the local markets as well as in the international markets.

Organisations which follow innovative culture provide lot of encouragement and freedom to the employees to come up innovative ideas. Such organisations provide adequate resources to the employees to experiment with something new. Encouragement and freedom play an important role in instilling confidence in employees, which in turn helps to enhance individual abilities and skills.

7. Harmony and Team Work:

Innovation culture at the work place brings harmony and leads to team work. In innovative organisations, individuals require the support of departmental members as well as support from cross functional teams. The support from team members as well the support from cross functional departments lead to greater harmony and team work in the organisation. Harmony and teamwork gives a big push to innovative culture in professional organisations.

4.5 MANAGERIAL ROLE IN INNOVATION CULTURE

Managers play an important role in facilitating innovation culture in the organisation. Without the active support and participation on the part of the managers, innovation culture cannot make inroads in any organisation.

Innovation is not a temporary phenomenon but rather it is a long term strategy that demands an investment of time and efforts of the members of the organisation. Therefore, if management wants to ensure that your organization continues to benefit from the positive outcomes of innovation, the management needs to play an important role to make innovation happen.

To make innovation culture more fruitful, the following roles are performed by professional managers:

1. Provide Autonomy to Employees

2. Provision of Adequate Resources

3. Focus on R&D Efforts

4. Allocate Time for Creative Ideas

5. Discourage Fear of Failure

6. Adopt Accommodative Leadership Style.

7. Respect Subordinates' Ideas

8. Recognize and Reward Innovation

4.6 EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs, and are committed to work in the interest of the organization.

Employee engagement is applicable to all employees- managerial as well as non-managerial employees.

Employee engagement is different from employee satisfaction. Employee Satisfaction only indicates the degree of happiness of employees in the organisation. But employee satisfaction does not indicate the level of employee’s motivation, commitment and dedication. For some employees, being satisfied means getting paid for little or no work in the organisation. This means a good number of employees are satisfied because they merely do time pass rather than doing constructive work, especially in Government or even educational institutions.

Employee engagement relates to the relationship between an organisation and its employees. An engaged employee is the one who works with commitment and dedication in the interest of the organisation. An engaged employee has a positive attitude towards he organization and its values. An organization with "high" employee engagement is expected to outperform those with "low" employee engagement.

William Kahn provided the first formal definition of employee engagement as "the harnessing of organisation members selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances."

• Drivers of Engagement

The factors that drive employee engagement are as follows:

1. Employee perceptions of job importance: An employee's attitude towards the importance of job and the company have the greatest impact on loyalty and customer service than all other employee factors combined."

2. Employee clarity of job expectations: If expectations are not clear and basic resources are not provided, negative emotions such as boredom or resentment may result, and the employee may then is concerned with self-interest rather than working in the interest of the organisation.

3. Career advancement: In several organisations, it is being noticed that employees get involved in their jobs only when career advancements or improvements are assured to them.

4. Regular feedback: Constructive feedback is the key to giving employees a good feeling of their work performance. When superiors are supportive of their subordinates, the subordinates are more engaged than otherwise.

5. Relationships: When there are poor superior-subordinate relationships then no amount of perks will persuade the employees to perform well. Employee engagement is a direct outcome of how employees feel about their relationship with the superior.

6. Perceptions of Work Ethos and Values: When organisation respects ethical work values, there is generally, high level of employee engagement.

7. Training: When organisations provide effective training, then mot only the knowledge and skills improve but also the attitude of the employees. Effective training makes the employees more engaged with their work and the organisation.

8. Autonomy: When employees are given the freedom to perform their work without undue interference from the superiors, the employees are more likely to work with greater commitment and dedication.

• Type of Employee Engagement

Depending on the level of commitment, passion and integrity, the employees can be classified into three categories:

1. Actively engaged employees.
2. Not engaged employees.
3. Actively disengaged employees.

4.7 HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM (HRIS)

HRIS is also called as Human Resource Management System (HRMS). HRIS is defined as an "integrated system used to gather store and analyze information regarding an organization’s human resources' comprising of databases, computer applications, hardware and software necessary to collect, record, store, manage, deliver present and manipulate data for human resources function (Hendrickson).

Business Dictionary.com defines HRIS "as a system which seeks to merge the activities associated with human resource management (HRM) and information technology (IT) into one common data based through the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. " Susan M. Heathfield (Human Resources Expert) states "Human Resource Information System (HHRIS) is a software or online solution for the data entry, data tracking, and data information needs of the Human Resources, payroll, management, and accounting functions within a business organisation."

Personnel Required for Managing HRIS include:

(a) Systems Manager - is responsible for planning, monitoring and controlling the activities related to computerization of HR data.

(b) Systems Analyst - is responsible to study and analyse the problems and design solutions and programme specifications.

(c) Programmers - are required to develop computer programmes based on specifications of the systems analyst.

(d) Data Entry Operators — are responsible to feed the HR data in the computers for implementing the HRIS.

There are various Modules or elements of HRIS software which include:

• The Payroll Module
• The Training Module
• The HR Management Module
• The Benefits Administration Module
• The Employee Self-service Module, etc.

• Importance of HRIS:

1. Human Resource Planning:

HRIS can support human resource planning. HRIS can provide relevant data to forecast human resource requirements and also to forecast human resource supply. FIRIS can also facilitate quick comparison between HR requirements and FIR supply. If there are deviations between HR requirements and HR supply, necessary action can be taken depending on the situation.

For instance, if there is shortage of manpower, arrangements can be made to recruit or ire additional employees, and if there is surplus of manpower, arrangements can be made to reduce workforce.

2. Human Relations:

In any organisation, there is a need to have healthy relations between the management and the employees. There are several ways of maintaining good human relations in the organisation such as providing good working conditions, welfare facilities, timely and adequate compensation, training and development programmes, effective communication, and so on. HRIS information helps the management to design effective HR policies and to implement healthy practices so as to develop good human relations throughout the organisation. To maintain healthy relations, the management may sign agreements with employees' union, specially relating to employee’s compensation. The computers can maintain records of negotiations between the employee’s union and management, and the agreements signed by the management and the union leaders. The management at all levels and the employees can have access to the information relating to such agreements. Thus, the management and the employees are fully aware of the negotiations and agreements, which in turn may reduce conflict between management and the employees.

3. Employee Information:

An effective HRIS provides information which a company needs to track and analyze about employees, former employees, and applicants. The employee information is vital for decisions relating to human resources. A company needs to select a Human Resources Information System and customize it to meet its needs.

The HR Management Module in HRIS is a component covering many other HIR aspects from recruitment to retirement. The system records basic demographic and address data, selection training and development, capabilities and skills management compensation planning records and other related activities.

4. Employees' Payroll (Compensation):

The Payroll Module in HRIS automates the pay process by gathering data on employee time and attendance, calculating various deductions and taxes, and generating periodic pay cheques and employee tax reports.

Data is generally fed from the human resources module and time keeping module to calculate the pay and incentives to the employees. This module can encompass all employee-relate transactions as well as integrate with existing financial management systems.

5. Recruitment:

Information technology enhances many of the recruitment function's sub processes such as attracting applications, prescreening, and processing of applications.

Online job advertisements on corporate web sites and internet job boards, online CV databases, different forms of electronic applications, applicant management systems, and corporate skill databases are only few examples of the various ways by which information systems today support recruitment processes.

6. Selection:

HRIS facilitates proper selection of employees. HRIS can store data regarding past selection procedures. Management can refer the past data and accordingly tests and interviews can be conducted. Thus, HIRIS facilitates the selection of right candidate for the right job.

7. Reporting: The use of an HRIS system facilitates reports preparation and

presentations. An HRIS system stores all information relating to human resources including details regarding selection, training, performance appraisal, promotion, compensation, etc. The HRIS provides accurate and up-to-date information relating to human resources. Thus, the HRIS data can be used by HR managers to prepare reports relating to performance appraisal, compensating competent and loyal employees, promotion of employees, transfer of employees, etc.

8. Security and Risk Management:

Security and risk management is another crucial function which can be derived by HRS. The risk and security management can be done by following private and highly sensitive individual data and multiplatform security aspects which are perhaps the most serious factors that need to be taken into consideration.

4.8 CHANGING PATTERN OF EMPLOYMENT

In recent years there has been a change in the patterns to employment. The change in employment patterns has helped employers to develop a more flexible working pattern for their employees. These trends in employment patterns are:

Increasing self-employment - this area is increasing in many countries

Reduction in full-time employment -firms now use fewer full time employees and tend to offer more short-term contracts

Part-time working- there has been a growth in the level of part-time employment. This may be a lifestyle choice on the part of many, but firms have encouraged this trend as part time employment offers more flexibility Contractual employment - many firms now use contractors and consultants for a wide range of task. This has led to many previous employees setting up as self-employed contractors. Temporary employment - increasing numbers of employee have been on temporary working contracts. Again these are used by firms to ensure flexibility.

• Flexible Work Force:

Firms like flexible workforces as it enables them to adapt their employee levels to meet market demand fluctuations and to maintain their competitive advantage in the face of external changes.

To achieve greater flexibility, firms are using more part-time temporary and external contractors, which allow them to increase or decrease their workforce as required. It may also provide more flexibility to the employees, who may prefer to work from home select their own working hours and days. This is possible due to the improved communications technology, especially, the internet.

• Part-time Employment

Part-time employment provides flexibility benefits for both firms and for employees. For firms part-time employees are cheaper to hire and often do not have additional responsibility to pay allowances and benefits that are awarded to full-time staff. They may not have the same level of job security and tend to be easier to replace when they leave.

However, part-time employees may be less motivated and are probably less willing to volunteer to work additional time where required to cope with unexpected demand patterns. Part-time may not be loyal to the organisation, and they may leave the organisation for better opportunities elsewhere.

• Temporary Employment

A job may be considered temporary if employer and employee agree that the tenure of employment is determined by conditions such as a specific date, the completion of a task/project, or the return of their employee who has been temporarily replaced. The duration of employment is stated in the job contract.

• Flexitime Arrangements

Flexitime employment is a system of working for a fixed number of hours with the starting and finishing timings chosen within agreed limits by the employee.

Flexitime employees generally have a say in the selection of their hours which allows them more freedom to concentrate on their out of work commitments, such as child care.

      Advantages:

1. Retention of qualified staff who may not be able to work as per traditional hours
2. Equality of opportunity for people who would otherwise be prevented from entering the workforce
3. Work patterns which can accommodate variations in customer demand patterns
4. Success in tackling skills shortages
5. Reduces absenteeism and lateness
6. Creates a better sense of personal responsibility
7. Improves efficiency in core time and reduces overtime levels

• Portfolio Working

Portfolio working is a method of employment which is not dependent on any one client or company. Such employees are paid for a number of different skills, services that they offer; often from their own home office with the help of communications technology. Thus, a freelance or sell-employed person could be called a portfolio worker if he/she has a variety of clients to whom they offer different services, or a person who works part time at two or more organisations. The term portfolio working also includes people who work for an organisation part-time, but have their own business as well. Portfolio working increases the flexibility and mobility of a firm's human resources. However, portfolio working does not guarantee regular income to such employee. This is because there is no guarantee of fixed source of employment.

• Telecommute and Telework

To telecommute is to periodically or regularly perform work for one's employer from home or another remote location. Such employees work with the help of communications technology.

To telework is to perform all the work either from home or another remote location, either for an employer for self-employment. Their teleworker also makes use of communications technology to perform work operations.

The main advantages of telecommute or telework are:

1. The employee need not commute from home to office, thereby save time, money and effort required for travelling.
2. Such worker can maintain healthy work-life balance.
3. Such worker can work at his own pace and accordingly get paid for services.
4. The worker can save office space of the employer, which can be utilized for some other productive purposes.
5. Such employees have reduced carbon footprints, as there is limited or no travelling.
6. Employees are more productive and more loyal to the employers.

4.9 MANAGING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY

Nowadays, workforce in organisations has become richly diverse. Workforce in any organisation comes from different states, regions and even countries. Organisations are becoming increasingly cosmopolitan.

• In any large organisation in India, one may come across people belonging to different religions, languages and states.
• There is diversity in terms of demographics such as age, gender, educational levels, etc.
• Employee diversity is also in the form of differences in values, attitudes, behaviours and expectations.

Managing workforce diversity is a challenge to HR managers due to the following reasons:

1. More women are joining the organized work-force.

2. Younger employees with good education are increasing.

3. Workforce mobility is increasing.

4. International careers are becoming common.

5. Workforce is becoming increasingly cosmopolitan in cities like Mumbai.

6. The proportion of minorities in the workforce is increasing in public and private sector organisations.

7. Employees differ in terms of lifestyles and recreational interests.

8. Some employees put their personal goals ahead of total commitment to the organisation.

• Managing Workforce Diversity Practices:

Diversity among employees is an asset because it brings to the organisation a range of skills and talents. At the same time, individual differences pose a challenge to managers. Managers must be sensitive to individual differences and manage them effectively Some of the practices which management may adopt are as follows:

1. Forming committees or teams with members belonging to diverse groups.
2. Organizing informal get-togethers of members belonging to diverse groups.
3. Organizing cultural activities, where diverse talents can be showcased.
4. Celebrating different festivals such as Christmas, Diwali, Holi, etc., to develop a sense of belonging.
5. Treatment to all employees as members of one family.
6. Canteen menu to include diverse items from across India and even from other countries.
7. Internal politics by diverse groups to be discouraged.
8. Fair personnel policies (promotion, transfers, etc.) without much bias towards any ethnic group.

• Benefits of Managing Diversity:

Managing workforce diversity effectively brings benefits such as:

1. International firms report higher productivity in its diverse team-based plants as compared to their non-diverse plants. For instance, in one year, P&G reported 30% to 40% higher productivity at its 18 diverse team-based plants as compared to its non-diverse plants.

2. Employees become familiar with different cultures, customs and traditions, which in turn helps them to respect fellow workers.

3. Managing diversity develops team work among different groups with members belonging to diverse backgrounds.

4. Company can develop better relationships with suppliers, dealers and major customers, because the employees become Familiar with different languages, customs and culture. Knowing the customs, culture and traditions of stakeholders helps to improve social networking.

5. There are social benefits as well. Employees with good knowledge of different customs and cultures behave as good citizens and set up good example to others. This may help to reduce tensions and communal disharmony in the society.

4.10 MANAGING DOWNSIZING

In today's business environment, organisations are restructuring to become more competitive by cutting labour costs and to become more flexible in their response to the demands of the market place. One of the ways of organisational restructuring is downsizing. Downsizing refers to planned elimination of positions or jobs. It involves retrenchment of surplus manpower through Voluntary Retirement Scheme and other schemes. Lately, several large firms have resorted to downsizing to save employee costs and to improve employee efficiency.

• Causes of Downsizing

The main causes of downsizing are as follows:

1. Corporate Restructuring: In the recent past, there is the trend towards corporate reorganization due to acquisitions and mergers. Corporate restructuring refers to reorganizing a business firm. It is done to make best use of resources and to generate maximum return on investment. Hence, business firms undertake organisational restructuring by reducing the levels of management. Most firms now resort to downsizing and prefer flat organisations to reduce the cost of operations.

2. Surplus Staff: Many organisations, especially public sector enterprises are subject to surplus staff. Due to surplus staff, the overheads of the public sector units are very high due to salaries and other facilities provided to the excess staff. Hence, attempts are made by organisations to reduce surplus staff through downsizing.

3. Increasing Competition: Over the years, there has been increasing competition in the market place. Now-a-days, firms need to be cost-effective to remain competent in the market Therefore, firms are reducing the workforce, especially the semi. skilled, as the work can be done through automation. As a result of down-sizing, the company is in a position to reduce staff related costs.

4. Recession: Recession refers to decline in demand in the market During the recession time, companies have to face tough times to survive. Hence, during the times of recession, the companies may curb excess expenditure and may downsize employees.

5. Technological Developments: Modern world is witnessing continuous breakthroughs in science and technology, especially in the field of computers and electronics. The technological developments can pose a great problem to human resources, as their services can be displaced. A number of organisations are downsizing their manpower both managerial and non-managerial due to technological upgradation.

4.11 SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT WORK PLACE

Sexual harassment of women at the workplace has become one off the biggest challenges before Indian managers. There are genuine cases of sexual harassment, but at times there are also fake cases to falsely implicate males. Therefore, some of employers are in a dilemma.

• Forms of Sexual Harassment:

Sexual harassment at workplace includes any one or more of their following unwelcome acts or behaviour (whether directly or by implication) namely:

(i) Physical contact and advances, or

(ii) A demand or request for sexual favours, or

(iii) Making sexually coloured remarks, or

(iv) Showing pornography, or

(v) Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature.

• Government Legislation:

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 is a legislative Act in India that seeks to protect women from sexual harassment at their place of work. This statute superseded the Vishakha Guidelines for prevention of sexual harassment introduced by the Supreme Court of India. However, most Indian employers' have not yet implemented the law despite the legal requirement that any workplace with more than 10 employees need to implement it.

• Main Features of 2013 Act:

1. The Act defines sexual harassment at the work place and creates a mechanism for redressal of complaints. It also provides safeguards against false or malicious charges.

2. The definition of "aggrieved woman, who will get protection under the Act is extremely wide to cover all women, irrespective of her age or employment status, whether in the organised or unorganised sectors, public or private and covers clients, customers and domestic workers as well.

3. The Committee is required to complete the inquiry within a time period of 90 days. On completion of the inquiry, the report will be sent to the employer or the District Officer, as the case may be, they are mandated to take action on the report within 60 days.

4. Every employer is required to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee at each office or branch with 10 or more employees.

5. The District Officer is required to constitute a Local Complaints Committee at each district, and if required at the block level.

6. The Complaints Committees have the powers of civil courts for gathering evidence.

7. The Complaints Committees are required to provide for conciliation before initiating an inquiry, if requested by the complainant.

8. Penalties have been prescribed for employers. Non-compliance with the provisions of the Act shall be punishable with a fine of up to ' 50,000. Repeated violations may lead to higher penalties and cancellation of licence or registration to conduct business.

4.12 MANAGING THE PROBLEM OF ATTRITION

Attrition refers to a gradual reduction in work force without firing personnel, as and when workers resign or retire and are not replaced. Attrition mainly takes place in two forms:

•Attrition due to employees leaving an organization

•Attrition due to employees retiring from an organization.

The terms 'employee turnover and employee attrition' are used interchangeably. However, there is a slight difference. In case of employee turnover, the employee leaves the organisation, and the organisation makes arrangement for replacement. In case of attrition, the employee may resign from the job or retire from the job, and their company does not make any arrangement to replace the same.

When attrition takes place due to competent employees leaving an organisation, it poses a challenge to the managers. Reasons for attrition can be plenty and range from dissatisfaction due to low salaries, limited career growth opportunities, dictatorial superiors, lack of recognition, lack of authority, underutilization of skills and talents of competent employees, and better opportunities in other firms.

Nowadays, every company has access to the same technology and systems, but it is the human capital that creates the difference in Shaping the future of an organisation.

Retention of key talent - who are the strongest performers or those who have high potential, is of great importance to gain competitive edge in the market. Therefore, management must introduce innovative practices which would reward performers, retain them and help them grow with the organisation.

After analysing the reasons for attrition, HR managers need to manage attrition. In many organizations, managers are asked to identify potential cases of attrition before the employee actually puts in resignation papers.

For instance, many multinationals have the practice of asking their managers to prepare list of potential employees who are likely to quit. The list is then sent to the employee's superior and the HR manager so that when the employee actually quits or even does not quit, the organization is prepared for the quitting event or counselling the employee against quitting. The latter scenario happens when the employee is valuable to the organization and the HR manager identifies such attrition as a big loss to the company.

Further, attrition is also managed by the HR department by organizing periodic one-to-one sessions with the middle management and the managers having the same one-one session with their employees. The rationale for such sessions is that the employees would vent their frustrations or lack of comfort with the manager or with the organization and hence, ways and means can be found to address the employees concerns.

Attrition has become a challenge for companies like the Indian IT major, Infosys that has seen unprecedented attrition among its employees in recent months. The situation has deteriorated to the extent that the company is having to address investor and analyst queries about this issue and has had to come up with a plan to tackle the same.

Attrition in well-known companies affects their brand image and brand value. Considering the fact that companies like Microsoft, Unilever, P&G etc., are respected globally for their HR practices; attrition in these companies adversely affects image of being employees oriented.

Attrition is becoming expensive to the organizations as the replacement employees have to be hired and trained at a cost. Further, losing employees who are well versed with the organizational culture can mean a loss of valuable resources that lead to a situation where the organization stands to miss the potential value adding activities of the employees. It is for this reason that HR managers and organizations take attrition seriously and consider ways and means to curb the same.

The following are some of the measures to overcome the problem of voluntary attrition of employees and to retain them:

1. Matching jobs with the individuals so that the talents and skills of the employees are put to best use.
2. Adoption of employment relationship management (ERM) on the pattern of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) such as by conducting job satisfaction surveys, informal work environment, adoption of the technique 'Management by Walking Around (MBWA), etc.
3. Motivational training programmes so as to develop the right attitude towards the work and the organisation and to be loyal to the organisation.
4. Improvement in working environment by improving working conditions, welfare facilities, flexible working hours (wherever possible), redesigning the jobs, etc.
5. Adopting stress management techniques such as sabbatical leave programme, personal wellness centres, etc.
6. Retention bonus to employees which may be paid in lumpsum after a certain period of time.
7. Providing Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) facility.
8. Employee participation and empowerment by involving employees in various committees, inviting and rewarding for suggestions, etc.
9. Persuasive tactics by HR manager or the CEO to encourage the competent employees to remain with the organisation.

4.13 EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

Employee Empowerment is a philosophy, whereby employees are given the right amount of powers which they require to take decisions and achieve organisational goals. It gives employees ai sense of pride and ownership of their work.

Employee empowerment provides employees a certain degree of autonomy and responsibility for decision-making regarding their specific organizational tasks. It allows decisions to be made at the lower levels of an organization where employees have good understanding of the issues and problems facing the organization. David Bowen and Edward Lawler states employee empowerment refers to the management strategies for sharing decision-making power.

Employee empowerment can be done by:

1. Foster a Social Workforce: Employee empowerment begins with giving your staff access to the resources they need to become more productive and efficient. The employees are given access to social media networking.

Not only can social accounts give your employees a new way of interfacing with potential customers, but it also ensures that they're ready to advocate on the behalf of your brand in a positive light. It's easier than ever for employees to share branded content with their social networks, and it's important tor employers to take advantage of that.

2. Consult Employees : Empowered employees are trusted and are given right

authority, which promotes greater pride in their workplace. Empowered employees are more satisfied and actively engaged at work. Therefore, there is greater productivity, and lower absenteeism and employee turnover.

Empowering employees starts with open and frequent conversation. Employees need to be consulted on the projects they're involved with and seek out their opinions. Consultations with employees may help to generate innovative ideas to complete the tasks or projects.

3. Establish Guidelines:

Employee empowerment doesn't mean you have to givei employees complete freedom. Employees need to be given certain guidelines to undertake their activities. The empowered employees need to take decisions within the guidelines framed by the top management.

4. Create Flexible Teams:

The top management may allow the employees to create their own teams for specific projects, so as to choose the best suitable team members with the required knowledge, attitude and skills. The team leader may be given the authority to recruit new talent for making the teams more effective.

5. Encourage Open Communication:

Modern business organisations should encourage employees to freely make their observations and opinions known to the management. Also, it is of utmost importance for companies seeking employee empowerment to let the employees know that they appreciate and value their ideas. Provide rewards offer feedback, and acknowledge employees inputs, which will lead to greater commitment and dedication on the part of the employees.

6.  Inspire Employee Growth and Development: Empowered employees often feel that they have plenty of room togrow. Some leaders complain about demotivated employees but do nothing to inspire them in their careers. Even just by telling employees that the management want them to reach their Career goals would inspire the employees to make efforts towards growth and development.

Help youremployees establish a plan for their growth and offer Tewards as they advance. This will result in actively engaged emplovees and also reduce the chances of emplovee turnover.

• ADVANTAGES OF EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

1. It may lead to increase in productivity and efficiency.
2. It may help to reduce employee absenteeism and turnover.
3. It may encourage the employees to work with application and dedication (discipline).
4. Individual employees may develop a sense of self-esteem, self. efficacy and self-confidence.
5. Employee empowerment helps to improve attitude and skills of employees.
6. Employee empowerment helps in faster problem resolution as empowered employees need not refer to the chain of command for making decisions.
7. It provides better quality of customer service, which results in greater customer satisfaction.
8. It gives greater job satisfaction to the employees, which results in greater efforts on the part of the employees, which in turn leads to increase in organisational performance.
9. It leads to improved processes and procedures due to innovation and creativity on the part of the empowered employees.
10. Employee empowerment helps to reduce the costs as there is minimum wastages and optimum use of resources.
11. Empowered employees may embrace the change, which is crucial for companies that are changing fast and are driven by technological and other environmental changes.

4.14 EMPLOYEE ABSENTEEISM

Absenteeism takes place when employees remain absent without prior permission from superiors. The absenteeism is employee s intentional or habitual absence from work.

Excessive absences can lead to decreased productivity and can havei a major effect on company revenues and overall performance.

• Causes of Absenteeism

Some ot the common causes ot absenteeism include:

1. Addiction: Some employees get addicted to alcohol and/or drugs are more likely to remain absent as compared to non addicted employees. The addicted employees are subject to feeling of uneasiness or nausea and therefore, such employees find it difficult to report to work.

2. Burnout: Heavy workloads, stressful meetings, boring presentations and feelings of being unappreciated can cause employees to avoid going into work. Personal stress (outside of work) can lead to absenteeism.

3. Childcare and Eldercare: Employees may be forced to miss work in order to stay home and take care of a child/elder. The situation of absenteeism arises when normal arrangements go haywire or out of control. For instance, the care may fall sick or remain absent due to some problem or the other.

4. Civic Facilities: Employees may not get proper civic facilities. For instance, employees may not get proper transport facilities especially during bandhs or strikes, heavy rains, and so on. Therefore, in such situations employees may remain absent from work.

5. Depression: Depression is one of the leading causes of absenteeism in western countries, as well as in developing countries. Persons suffering from depression may resort to substance abuse such as drugs. Such persons may not find it worthwhile to report to work and therefore, remain absent from work without prior

permission from superiors.

6. Disengagement: Employees who are not committed to their jobs, coworkers and/or the company are more likely to miss work simply because they lack motivation to work. Such persons may give flimsy excuses to remain absent from work.

7. Events and Festivals: Some employees have a craze to enjoy events and festivals. In events like weddings and festivals, such employees eat a lot and drink a lot, and then they feel drowsy the next day or so and therefore, they may not report to work.

• Effects of Absenteeism:

There are negative effects of absenteeism, which are as follows:

1. Overburdens co-employees, as they may have to complete the work of absentee employees.

2. Reduces the productivity and performance of the organisation.

3. Delivery schedules in the market get affected, which may result in loss of goodwill of the firm, and also cancellation of orders.

4. There are chances of accidents due to work overload of the co employees who remain present at the work.

5. Absenteeism may have a spill-over effect on disciplined workers and they may also start to remain absent.

6. Absenteeism may spoil relations among the co-workers, as some of the co-workers may enter into disputes with the absentee workers. Therefore, the team work in the organisation may get badly affected.

7. Absenteeism may not enable the organisation to make optimum use of resources of the organisation.

8. Certain projects may be delayed due to absenteeism and therefore, there may be cost overruns.

• Management of Absenteeism:

There is a need to manage the problem of absenteeism as it has adverse effect on the productivity and overall performance of the organisation. The reputation of the company also gets affected at the market place, as the company may not be able to provide their right products or services in the market at the right time.

The following are some of the measures to manage the problem of absenteeism:

1. Attendance Policy: An official attendance policy makes expectations for work behavior and disciplinary action clear to all employees. Therefore, an organisation may frame a proper attendance policy as per work rules and which is fair both to the employees as well as to the organisation.

The attendance policy must be enforced effectively. Every employee found flouting the attending policy may be asked for proper explanation, and if the absenteeism is repeated continually, strict action may be taken against such employees. The type of action to be taken must be also mentioned in thei attendance policy.

The attendance policy may be revised so as to make it more effective in the interest of the employees and that of the organisation.

2. Identify the Causes of Absenteeism: Management must identify the major causes of absenteeism. Quite often, the causes of absenteeism may be due to the quality or behaviour of the superiors and also on account of poor policies and practices of the management.

Let the employee express the causes of absence. If the discussion regarding absences takes place as and when it happens, the employees may not give excuses for remaining absent. And• when the superior treats the employees with care and concern, the employees will make best efforts to report to work on regular basis rather than remaining absent.

If need be, necessary measures to be taken to overcome the problem of absenteeism. For instance, if employees remain absent due to the poor behaviour or quality of superiors, then necessary action to be taken against such superiors including their transfer or dismissal from the job.

3. Keep Track of Absences: The management must keep track of all absentees. Nowadays, biometric technology is used to record absenteeism of employees. Physical attendance muster can be analysed to track the absences. The Attendance Muster page, displays the monthly attendance data per employee along with the different leave types and other holiday.

4. Address the Problem of Absences: The management needs to address the problem of absences. When an employee remains absent, address the situation at the earliest. When employee returns to work, discuss the issue with him. However, the superior must not be rude and aggressive to deal with the situation. Disciplinary action can be taken in case of certain employees who regularly remain absent.

There are instances, where disciplined employees who hardly remain absent are harassed by superiors and the disengaged employees who flatter and shower cheap praise on their superiors are hardly questioned by poor quality superiors. This sort of biased treatment by ineffective superiors vitiates the work environment in the organisation.

5. Reward Good Behaviour: The management must recogize and reward good behaviour of the emplovees who hardly remain absent from work. Such employees may be provided with a certificate of appreciation and also monetary and non-monetary incentives.

4.15 WORK-LIFE BALANCE

It is a common phenomenon today, that the employees experience interference between their work lives and family lives. Managing work-life balance of one of the major challenges for the organizations in the 21st century. Work-life balance does not mean an equal sharing of time between work and personal life. It is said that employees chieve work-life balance when they happily fulfil their personal lives and at the same time that are accepted and respected at their workplace. According to Richard Hudson (2005), work-life balance may be defined "as a satisfactory level of inoolvenent or a fit' among the multiple roles in a person's life"

Work-life balance is increasingly becoming significant for organisations due to reasons, such as:

1. More and more women are joining the workforce. Hence especially, the working mothers find it challenging to balance their professional lives and personal lives.

2. In global organizations, business operations are carried out 24x7 Thus, the employees may have to work during odd working hours and it may disturb their family and work lives.

3. With the increasing cases of social disintegration like problems with spouses, children or elderly parents, employees place

greater emphasis on their families, health and well-being.

Work-life balance is a strategy to retain employees in thel organization. Therefore, it is necessary that organizations consider it as an important HRM function.

• MEASURES FOR WORK-LIFE BALANCE

The measures that encourage work-life balance among employees can be categorized into:

I. Flexible Work Options

II. Support Programmes

I. Flexbile Work Options (FWOs)

Traditional work schedules can cause problems for employees with families because:

(1) Excessive work hours prevent emplovees from spending enough time with their families

(2) The work day either starts too early or ends too late and thus does not allow for quality time with their families, and

(3) Work schedules often do not take care of childcare arrangements.

The traditional work schedules generate a lot of stress to employees. i Hence, recently, most well-established organizations have adopted the solution of FWOs. The flexi work options include flexi-time, permanent part-time employment, iob sharing, telecommuting and compressed work week.

1. Flexi-time: Flexi time is the system whereby employees may work with flexible start and finishing times within the appropriate span of hours, and work more than the number of ordinary hours of work to accumulate flexi hours which then may be taken as time off work at a later stage mutually agreed between the employee and supervisor. One of the major advantages of flexi time is that its cost to the organization is minimal. Many organizations that have implemented it have found that employee productivity is increased, and absenteeism and tardiness are decreased because employees can rearrange work hours to accommodate family responsibilities.

2. Part-time employment: Part-time workers have been in the workforce for a long time, but only recently has permanent part time employment been seriously considered as an alternative for working parents. For organizations, permanent part-time employment may be a solution to particular scheduling difficulties, such as providing sufficient coverage for peak periods, and it has been related to higher productivity and to lower absenteeism, tardiness, and turnover. Many permanent part-time employees are working mothers, for them, this option is a welcome alternative to either working full-time or leaving the workforce. Part-time employment can also aid students who are completing their education and have family responsibilities.

3. Telecommuting: Telecommuting places emphasis on allocating and getting work done satisfactorily rather than insisting on the physical presence of the employees at the office premises. Telecommuting involves performing job-related work at a site away from the office, then electronically transferring the results to the office or to another location. This programme allows the employee to work at his or her home and theoretically enables him or her to spend more time with the family. The individual telecommuter may experience greater autonomy, more flexible work hours, lack of interruptions, greater job opportunities, and potential savings in work-related costs such as food, clothing and transportation. In terms of family res ponsibilities, telecommuting may alleviate the need for day-care and allows the worker to stay with sick children while working. Employees can work while on maternity or paternity leave, stay current on their job, and remain home longer with their children.

4. Job sharing: Job-sharing is a voluntary work arrangement in which two people share responsibility for one full-time position. Each person has a permanent part-time post. They split the hours, pay, holidays and benefits between them according to how many hours each work.

5. Compressed work week: A compressed work week is a schedule in which a full forty-hour work week is compressed in less than five full days.

The following are the most popular compressed work week plans:

•Ten hours per day, four days per week

•Twelve hours per day, three days per week

•Four and a half day plan: four days of nine hours each followed by a four-hour-half-day.

II. Support Programmes:

The organizations help employees to cope with the problem of work life balance by providing them with support and assistance programmes like:

6. Counselling Services: An important employee assistance programme to strike a balance between work and family lives is counselling. Organizations can provide counselling services to their employees on-site or may refer to some outside counselling agencies. The employees may be able to focus on their productivity better, if they get proper counselling and guidance in areas, such as:

•Family issues

•Marriage issues

•Mental health issues, etc.

7  Mentoring Facilities : Mentoring refers to a professional relationship in which an experienced person i.e. the mentor assists the less experienced person i.e. the mentoree in developing his specific skills and knowledge for the latter's professional and personal growth. Mentoring is career-focused and provides professional and personal support to the employees. Now-a-days, mentoring acts as an important measure of work-life balance for the employees as the organisation dynamics has changed recently and it involves:

•Increase in young employees

•Increase in women employees

•Technological changes

8. Creche Facilities : In the pursuit of achieving work-life balance, employers may also provide creche facilities. With the increase in employment of women workforce, there has been a greater need for child care arrangements. For many employees, on-site or near-site child care is the most desirous solution. These employees are often tension-free as they feel that their children are near them and are provided with good quality child care.

9. Health and Wellness Programmes: Organizations may also provide health and wellness programmes to achieve work-life balance:

•Yoga and meditation programmes

•Education programmes on stress management, time management, etc.

•Subsidised and nutritional food services.

10. Sabbatical for Career Break: The organizations may also grant leaves to the employees for career break in their professional lives. The employees may take such leaves for reasons, such as:

•Parental leave

•Leave for higher education

•Leave for long vacation, etc.

4.16 DOMETIC AND INTERNATIONAL HR PRACTICES

Domestic HRM is the process of procuring, allocating to variousi departments and utilizing the human resources effectively in local countries. Domestic HRM manages the workforce within thei national borders.

IHRM refers to management of human resources at the international level to achieve organisational objectives.

• Differences between IHRM and Domestic HRM:

1. Nations Involved: IHRM is concerned-with managing employees belonging to many nations.

Domestic HRM is concerned with managing employees belonging to one nation.

2. Scope of Activities: International HRM addresses a broader range of activities than domestic HRM. These include international taxation, coordinating foreign currencies and exchange rates, international relocation, international orientation for the employees posted abroad, etc.

Domestic HRM is concerned with managing limited number of HRM activities at national level.

3. External Factors: International HRM has to deal with more external factors than domestic HRM. For example, government regulations about staffing practices in foreign locations, local codes of conduct, influence of local religious groups, etc. For example, if a apanese firm is permitted by the Government ot India to set up its subsidiary in India, the Japanese company is under legal obligations to provide employment to local residents.

In domestic HRM, there is limited or no influence of external factors. Domestic HRM is more influenced by internal factors such as various internal rules and regulations relating to management of human resources.

4. HRM Systems: Human resource managers working in an international environment face the problem of addressing HIR issues of employees belonging to more than one nationality. IHRM may have to manage employees from multiple nations. employees of the home country where the MNC has its headquarters, employees of the host countries where it operates, and employees from a third country, who have migrated in the host country and in the home country for the purpose of employment). Hence, the HR managers need to set up different HRM systems for different locations.

HR managers in domestic environment administer HR programmes to employees belonging to a single country.

5. Personal Issues of Employees: International HRM requires greater involvement in the personal life of employees. The HR manager of an MNC must ensure that an executive posted to a foreign country understands all aspects of the compensation package provided in the foreign assignment, such as cost of living, taxes, etc. The HR manager needs to assess the readiness i of the employee's family to relocate, support the family in adjusting to a foreign culture through cross-cultural training and to help in admitting the children in schools.

In the domestic environment, the involvement of the HR manager or department with an employee's family is limited to providing family insurance programmes or providing transport facilities in case of a domestic transfer.

6. Exposure to Risks: There is increased exposure to risks in international assignments. These risks include the health and safety of the employee and family. A major aspect of risk relevant to IHRM today is possible terrorism. Several MNCs

must now consider this factor when deciding on international assignments for their employees.

Moreover, human and financial consequences of mistakes in IHRM are much more severe than in domestic business. For example, it an executive posted abroad returns prematurely, it results in high direct costs as well as indirect costs.

7. Payments and Facilities: In IHRM, the payments and facilities to be provided to employees are quite high as compared to domestic HRM. The payments and facilities to be provided must be as per international standards.

In domestic HRM, the payments and facilities to be provided to the employees are comparatively less as compared to IHRM. The payments and facilities to employees must be as per domestic rules and regulations.

8. Tenure of Employment: Under IHRM, the employment tenure depends upon country to country. For instance, in western world, employees may have a limited tenure, as managements adopt hire and fire policy.

Under domestic HRM, the tenure of employment, especially in countries like India, the employees enjoy longer tenure, especially in public sector or Government organisations.

4.17 MILLENIAL (GEN Y) COMPETENCY MAPPYING

Generation Y, also called the Millennials. It includes persons bom betuoeen 1979 and 1999. (Some researchers consider Millemnials as persons who were born betuoeen 1980 and 1995). Millennials are the children born to Baby Boomers. Baby boomers are those who were born between 1946 and 1964.

Some of the Characteristics of Gen Y are:

• Gen Y gives importance to independence and autonomy in decision-making.
• They focus on the success of their own life and makes effort to achieve it.
• The Gen Y has passion for technology, whose use they have mastered.
• They belong to numerous social networks, both real and virtual.
• Gen Y are good at multitasking.
• They are quite demanding and they have a desire to get promoted and would be ever looking for privileges and improved facilities at the work place.
• They are educated, ambitious and generally mobile. They generally don't mind being shifted from one work centre to the other whether in the domestic arena or at the international level. •Currently, they comprise of about 40 to 50% of the total workforce in India and by 2020 they may constitute about 60 to 75% of the workforce, especially in the services sector.
• They're also less likely to have family obligations, which mean they prioritize upward mobility over job security.
• Millennials are more focused on finding work that continually offers new challenges.

• Competency Components:

• Knowledge- General and Technical Knowledge
• Attitude - Tendency to Behave
• Skills- People Oriented and Performance Oriented Skills.
• Other Behavioural Attributes

• Competencies Required:

The following are the competencies required by employees:

•Open-mindedness towards learning

•Ability to cooperate with people representing various backgrounds and cultures.

•Information Technology skills

•Language skills

•Logical thinking

•Self-evaluation

•Understanding of one's own strengths and weaknesses

•Sector specific knowledge reflecting current requirements of the organisation

•Project management skills

•Negotiation skills

•Professional experience

•Qualifications

• COMPETENCY MAPPING FOR GEN Y

Competency Mapping is a process of identifying key competencies for an organization and/or a job and incorporating those competencies throughout the various processes (i.e. recruitment and selection, training, job evaluation job evaluation, etc.) of their organization.

When competency mapping is done, job profile is created. Therefore, competency mapping is required to perform each role effectively.

• Process of Competency Mapping

Competency mapping can be done through the following ways:

• Job Analysis - (Job Description and Job Specification)
• Placement
• Performance Evaluation
• Identifying the Missing Competencies or Skills. (For instance, some employees may not have the required communication skills (like speaking, listening), commercial skills (like negotiation), Working Life Skills (like time management, etc.)
• Deciding the Required Training to develop competencies.

• Need for Competency Mapping Competency mapping is required for the following purposes:

• Recruitment and Selection

• Training and Development Placement
• Career Planning and Development
• Performance Appraisal
• Compensation and Motivation
• Succession Planning
• Employee Retention

Reference

1. manan prakashan - commerce 6
2. wikipedia
3. yourarticelibrary
4. managementstudyguide