Personnel Management Objectives

The objectives of Personnel Management are given below:

1. To achieve an effective utilization of human resources for the achievement of organization goals. Term life insurance rates provider need to manage all his agents in effective way to achievement organization goals.

 

2. To establish and maintain an adequate organizational structure and a desirable working relationship among all the members of an organization by dividing the organizational tasks into functions, positions, jobs and by defining the responsibility, accountability, authority for each job and its relation with other jobs/personnel in the organization. For example, a blinds company who is selling vertical blinds and roman shades blinds online, for them coordination of different departments is must. Inter company relation and intra company relation management is important part of personnel management.

 

3. To secure the integration of the individuals and groups with the organization by reconciling individual/group goals with those of an organization in such a manner that the employees feel a sense of involvement, commitment and loyalty towards it. The absence of this integration will allow development of frictions, personal jealousies and rivalries, prejudices, personnel conflicts, cliques, factions, favoritism and nepotism. These will produce inefficiency and result in failure of the organization.

 

4. To generate maximum development of individuals/groups within an organization by providing opportunities for advancement to employees through training and job education or by offering transfers or by providing retraining facilities. For example, a term life insurance rates providing company, for management they need to keep weekly target for their agents in such a way that term life insurance agents can achieve it easily.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

It is concerned with employees: Personnel Management is concerned with employees both as individuals and also as a group. Personnel Management is function or activity aiding and directing workmen in maximizing their personal contribution and satisfaction in employment, bringing them an equitable, just and humane treatment, and adequate security from employment.

 

It covers all levels of personnel: It refers not only to labor or, what you may call ‘blue collared’ employees, like craftsmen, foremen, operatives and labourers, but also the ‘white collared’ employees, like professional and technical workers, managers, officials, clerical workers, sales workers, etc.

 

The concern for the employees is to help them: The employees are helped to develop their potentialities and capacities to the full so that they can derive the greatest satisfaction from their work.

 

It is inherent in all organisation: It is as useful and effective in government departments and non-profit organizations as in a business organisation. Moreover, it covers all types of functional management such as production management, financial management, marketing management etc.

 

It is of a continuous nature: Personnel management requires constant alertness and awareness of human relations and their importance in everyday operations.

 

It attempts at getting the willing cooperation of the people for the attainment of the desired goals: This is necessary because work cannot be effectively performed in isolation without the promotion and development of an esprit de corps.

Human Resource Systems

If organization has got systems to punish but not to reward people, the former too become defunct over a period of time because a manager who does not have the power to reward forfeits his right to punish, at least in course of time.

 

Organizations vary in regard to the degree to which they provide careers to their employees, encourage participation, promote from within and orient their systems toward collective, group based performance. Many will have a mixture of the two choices mentioned above. In some cases, the system is a matter of choice and is meant to support a cultural orientation towards a cooperative rather than competitive climate. But most organizations covered by Peter and Waterman (included in Fortune USA 500 companies) seem to stress on “challenging and meaningful work” with stress on participation, upward mobility and group performance. In the Indian context social compatibility becomes a relevant issue.

 

We should also be careful in generalizing and in being prescriptive. For example, the concept of life-long employment and preference to employees’ children in employment which seem to work well in the case of Tata Steel proved to be disastrous in those of some other companies. Hence the need to be wary about the organizational context regarding strategic choices in human resource systems.

Formal Structure and Human Resource Systems

Organizations operate in an ever changing environment. Hence there is need for changing assumptions about organization structures also. Modern organizations involving high technology and educated workforce require relatively flat and not pyramidical structures. There is need for evolving new approaches and strategies in manpower and career planning systems and building them into organization planning. This is a major challenge and opportunity for personnel in the changing organizational context. Even online business companies dealing with blinds, roller shades, woven wood shades needs to have human resources systems.

 

Human Resource Systems

People are recruited and developed to do jobs defined by the organization’s formal structure; their performance must be monitored and rewards allocated to maintain productivity.

 

An analysis of the human resource system of large companies should yield information about what assumptions the designers of those systems hold about people. Are they people of McGregor’s Theory X type or Maslow’s self-motivators seeking self-actualization? There may be problems in articulating an individual manager’s beliefs, but one can deduce the real beliefs from the control systems they use. And since they are usually designed on an ad hoc piece-meal basis, one can find many incongruities and incompatibilities. For term life insurance agency also need to have human resource systems to manage their life insurance agents. If and organization has got systems to punish but not to reward people, the former too become defunct over a period of time because a manager who does not have the power to reward forfeits his right to punish, at least in course of time.

Strategy and Planning

We will continue our talk on some standards for Strategy and Planning for organization. Personnel should use information about their performance to gain recognition and acceptance. Numbers are important because words are imprecise. The role of personnel in strategic planning would be substantial if a personnel manager’s results guide has some of the following examples as performance standards:

1. Employee costs per unit of production service shall be held at…..(base year) and indexed to……… as a percentage of fixed and semi-variable expenses.
2. At least 66.6% of increased cost of improvements in the Long-term Agreement shall be met through improvement in employee productivity.
3. During the next….years, these shall be a reduction of……..% in down time of plant and machinery………..% in the avoidable waste of materials and……..% in absenteeism beyond authorized leave.
4. Ensure that 33.3% of saving arising out of the three factors above will be distributed to ensure improvement in the individual employee’s earnings. For example, when we plan to renovate house, we need to plan which type of blinds we are going to use, woven wood shades blinds or roller shades blinds or wood blinds only.
5. An individual employee must move up ………grades in his work span of…….years through careful manpower and succession planning.
6. At least 25% of vacancies in the managerial cadre shall be filled from amongst the lower job holders through appropriate training and development programmes.

ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT-1

Personnel should adopt the language of business and relate its effectiveness in relation to the business objectives concerning output, profit, and contribution to society. Peers in other functions focus on income, assets, liabilities, sales, costs and profits while personnel continue to talk about feelings.  

 

The traits which characterize personnel function today are: 

·         It is largely a reactive service

·         Employees are viewed as adversaries, not as partners or stakeholders

·         Employees constitute an element of cost, not an asset 

 

There is need for a change it personnel perspective to develop common interests and common language. Peter F. Drucker observes that few factors are as important to the performance of an organization as measurement. And, especially in personnel, measurement is the weakest area. Personnel should know how to objectively measure their activities, to get over the subjectivity myth and overcome the values conflict.

 

Until this happens, personnel would mean many things to many people and respect for and recognition of personnel would remain a far cry. Personnel should use information about their performance to gain recognition and acceptance. Numbers are important because words are imprecise. The role of personnel in strategic planning would be substantial if a personnel manager’s results guide has some of the examples as performance standards which we discuss in next post.

ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT-1

Managing in turbulent times requires organizations to raise basic questions as to their nature and purpose. Strategic management involves consideration of the following aspects:

·         Mission and Strategy

·         Formal Structure

·         Human Resource System

These three aspects are discussed there from the personnel management point of view.

 

Mission and Strategy 

An organization needs a reason for being i.e. mission, and a sense of direction as to how to carry it out i.e. strategy. Most of our organizations, particularly in the public sector, have multiple objectives. The loose definition of objectives and their plurality often provides an excuse to dilute accountability. The paucity of data on human resources often makes it difficult to include it in the process of strategy formulation. 

The macro-objective pf Gross National Product (GNP) an the standard of living and the micro-objective of Return on Investment (ROI) and quality of work life provide enormous opportunities for the personnel function to make significant contributions. Personnel should adopt the language of business and relate its effectiveness in relation to the business objectives concerning output, profit, and contribution to society. Peers in other functions focus on income, assets, liabilities, sales, costs and profits while personnel continue to talk about feelings.

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Political-3

Today we continue our talk on political as part of environmental aspects. Nevertheless, technological changes have reduced the dependence on muscle power in manual jobs, and manual labour in clerical and other white collar occupations. The advent of modern technology has rendered work on the shop-floor and the office more alike. Job content and methods of production are changing.

 

Modifications occur in the size and composition of work groups. The network of social relations among employees is also affected. Secular shifts in consumption patterns and technological developments have displaced artisans such as weavers, potters, fishermen, washermen, etc. Technical training institutions began to impart training in skills such as carpentry and weaving which once used to be the exclusive domain of people belonging to certain castes.

 

In retrospect, these changes had the following effects on the individuals: the link between caste and occupation was broken, the skill of artisans which was more personal and manual was replaced with the skill of technicians which is more impersonal and mechanical; job performance depended more on dexterity in handling machines than exercising one’s skill or craft and thus individual’s pride in his contribution to final output, for which Indian artisans were renowned was reduced.

Political-2

As a part of our talk on management still today we have discussed on so many important factors of the management like Concept of Human resources management, Human resources development, HRD mechanism, HRD planning, career planning, Organizational development, Quality management, HRD system, etc… Today we continue our discussion on one important environment aspects as political and we have already started our talk on this in previous post.  While legislation did play a positive role in bringing about desired changes in the direction of social and natural justice, it has also made employers and employees themselves legalistic. Over 1.5 lakh labor disputes are pending in courts.

 

In the organized manufacturing sector alone, over 3,000 man days per every 1000 persons employed are lost every year in the industrial disputes where both the parties seek to assert their respective rights. Litigation has grown due to increase in number of disputes and delays in adjudication.

 

Technological imperatives are limiting the options available. However, more number of jobs are lost due to sickness than due to modernization and automation. Delays in absorption, failure in adaptation, absence of economies of scale, high costs and cost-push tendencies due to the nature of competition have restrained the positive features of technology.

 

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Demographic-1

Over a period of time, the profile of employees, industrial workers in particular, has been changing. Labor is not restricted to certain castes and communities. Social mobility accounts for the emergence of a mixed industrial workforce. While in traditional industries this change is slow, one can notice it in relatively sophisticated industries such as engineering, oil refining and distribution, chemicals and petro-chemicals, machine-tools, etc. The background of the intermediate and lower cadres in the latter industries is overwhelmingly urban; their level of education is higher; they come from middle or lower middle classes. Moreover the old social barriers are breaking down. The old distaste among certain groups for manual work is gradually wearing off because the groups themselves have not retained their separate identity as of old and also because jobs are not wholly manual.

 

Higher skills and educational requirements expected of workers in modern factories and better wage levels have tended to blur further the traditional distinction between manual and non-manual workers. Employees are seeking and demanding parity in employee benefits among different categories and levels. The evolving social and political climate in the country also has its impact in shaping and expending these changes in the composition of workforce and their disposition towards work place.

Structure of the System-2

Today, we continue our discuss on Balancing differentiation and integration with example which is the function of the Structure of the System. We will discuss for other two remaining functions also and those are Establishing linkage mechanisms and Developing monitoring mechanisms

 

c)  Balancing differentiation and integration: For example, inputs from manpower planning should be available to line managers for career planning and HRD units for potential appraisal and development. Data from recruitment should be fed into the human resources information system. If salary administration and placement are handled separately, they should be linked to performance appraisals. Differentiation as well as integration mechanisms are essential if the HRD system is to function well.

d)  Establishing linkage mechanisms: HRD has linkages with outside systems as well as with internal subsystems. It is wise to establish specific linkages to be used to manage the system. Standing committees for various purposes (with membership from various parts and levels of the organization), task groups, and ad hoc committees for specific tasks are useful mechanisms.

e)  Developing monitoring mechanisms: The HRD function is always evolving. It therefore requires systematic monitoring to review the progress and level of effectiveness of the system and to plan for its next step. A thorough annual review reappraisal every three years will be invaluable in reviewing and planning the system. It may be helpful to include persons from other functions in the organization in the HRD assessment effort. 

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