Functions and operations of a personnel office

An organization is formed for the fulfillment of certain objectives like earning a desired rate of profit on investment, exploitation of certain natural resources, development of a given geographical area, and supplying to the public some essential goods or services. Machines, materials, money and all other non-human resources are the tools and aids that man uses to achieve his tasks. Thus, a proper selection of men is very much important for management of an organization. For example, Blinds Company who are sending their personnel for installation of roller shades and woven wood shades, need to be a proper person with technical knowledge as well as as individual too. 

 

However this is the most difficult of all the management tasks in an organization. Some people also say that ‘management’ means ‘managing managing men tactfully’. One often comes into contact with the personnel department of one’s office, for example, for selection, placement, training, discipline, grievance handling, wage administration, dismissal, etc. However, there are certain aspects of the work of a personnel department which may not be very obvious. When a company is doing term life insurance business online or when they have paperless officer, personal management may not be very obvious.

 

CHARACTERISTICS OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENTPersonnel Management is known by various names. These are Personnel Administration, Labor Management, Industrial Relations, Employee Relations, Manpower Management, etc. The manager who performs this function is also, likewise, called by various names, like Personnel Manager, Employee Relations Manager, Industrial Relations Manager, Labour Relations Manager, Labour Officer, Labour Welfare Officer, Welfare Officer, Personnel Officer, Employee Relations Officer, and Industrial Relations Officer.

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.

Formal Structure

People and tasks are organized to implement the organization’s strategy. The organization’s formal structure includes its systems of financial and operating control systems. The number of levels between the operator at the lowest rung and the chief executive at the highest rung in the hierarchy has increased from 5 to 15 in the last fifteen years or so. We have more people at the middle level to supervise and get work done than those who do the work. Mangers by themselves do not produce. Promotion policies designed to make individual aspirations are causing more problems in achieving organizational purposes.

 

Organizations need three levels: operating, managerial and strategic. At the operational level, the day-to-day management of the organization is carried out. The managerial level focuses on the processes by which the organization obtains and allocates the resources needed to carry out its strategy and objectives. The strategic level deals with policy formulation and overall goal setting; its objective is to position the organization in the best possible way to deal effectively with its environment. The three levels do not operate in a top-down system, but provide feedback loops for upward communication.

 

As mentioned above, in most Indian organizations the levels of managerial activity have been increased largely to accommodate the aspirations for promotions that individual employees have. In the process, employees are promoted, jobs are downgraded and responsibility is blurred.

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.

blinds, roller shades, woven wood shades

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.

 

blinds, roller shades, woven wood shades

Political-1

Political independence and democratic forces have raised the expectations of our people. Compared to most other developing countries in Asia and Africa, the democratic institutions in India are more developed, strong and active. There is an increasing demand from our people for a greater degree of involvement and participations in matters that concern and affect them.

 

Government intervention to regulate employment relationship and organizational performance has been on the increase in pursuit of the ideals enshrined in our Constitution and the objectives of Five-year Plans.

 

We have had much progressive legislation since independence to regulate working conditions and employment relations, abolish bonded labor, check contract labour, ensure equal pay for equal work, guarantee minimum wages, provide social security, etc. We also some stringent legislations like Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) and Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), which trade unions and civil liberty organizations abhor.

 

Employers and unions are critical about much of the legislative framework because it does not enable them to function the way they want to, but seeks to control. Non-compliance of legislation is fairly widespread because ‘state ways’ alone cannot change ‘folkways’; besides, weaknesses in administering the laws and loopholes in the provisions have aggravated the situation.

Demographic and Socio-cultural

Demographic

Today we continue our talk and demographic as a part of environmental aspects and we are going to discuss on another aspects and which is Socio-cultural. The sex composition of workers has also been changing. Earlier, women were recruited mainly as labor in agriculture and related traditional industries like plantations, etc. Now they are increasingly occupying white collar and managerial positions. Etc. Now they are increasingly occupying white collar and managerial positions. Working women, especially in developing countries like ours, are beginning to resist discrimination against them by employers and sexual harassment at work place.

 

Socio-cultural

Hindu religion and culture does not teach people to be idle. It is enjoined that one should do one’s duty not in return or expectation of its fruit but because it is one’s dharma. High quality work without supervision over long hours, almost unrelated to its fruits in monetary terms, is done by the self-employed persons, e.g., craftsmen, fishermen, housewives, and employees of small unorganized units, in towns and villages. On the other hand, the question of lack of work culture or ethics is discussed largely in the context of large scale organized industry primarily in urban areas. Even in urban areas office interior is different than in rural areas. In urban areas offices are having vertical window blinds with roman shades or other shades. Which in rural areas, offices are having curtains.

 

roman shades, vertical blinds

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.

HRD SYSTEM

The HRD subsystems or mechanism discussed so far should be thought of in isolation. They are designed to work together in an integrated system although any of them may exist in an organization that does not have an overall HRD plan. In isolation, these mechanisms do not afford the synergistic benefits of integrated subsystems. For example, outcomes of performances appraisals provide inputs for training needs, assessments, rewards, career planning, and feedback and performance coaching.  

 

PRINCIPLES IN DESIGNING HRD SYSTEMS  

Of course, HRD systems must be designed differently for different organizations. Although the basic principles may remain the same, the specific components, their relationships, the processes involved in each, the phasing, and so on, may differ from organization to organization.  

Designing integrated HRD systems requires a thorough understanding of the principles and models of human resources development and a diagnosis of the organization culture, existing HRD practices in the organization, employee perceptions of these practices, and the developmental climate within the organization. There are some principles related to focus, structure, and functioning should be considered when designing integrated HRD systems, we will discuss on each principles in our next post.

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