How To Training New Employees ?
The aims of this Article are to enable you to:
- Distinguish human resource management (HRM) from alternative approaches.
- List the main function of the personnel department.
- Discuss the merits of different form of training.
- Identify the problems of recruitment and promotion.
- Analyze problem of redundancy.
This is the first of four units which deal with the most important resource that a business has at its disposal, the people. This first unit looks at the formal attempts which a company makes to organize this resource, though its personnel department. It also introduces some of the themes of the following three units which look at the ways in which people in a business organization relate to one another.
Perhaps it is stating the obvious to say that a business will only work if the right people are in the right place at the right time. If a company does not find the right individuals to carry out all the necessary tasks it is likely to fail so much energy is usually expended in the attempt to find those individuals and keep them happy.
But that is only the first stage. Once you have found a certain group of employees, you have to get the best out them. This takes us into the area of psychology which you will find is particularly important in the following unit on motivation. Moreover, any good business organization relies on teamwork so it is vital to get people to work well together. This is also partly a question of psychology (or group psychology) as well. Certain individuals may well find themselves in positions of responsibility and power over other individuals and the way that power is exercised will have a strong bearing on the success of the enterprise. The study of leadership has always been considered important to an understanding of business and how to succeed in business.
The distribution of information from one individual to another has also became a crucial determinant of the prosperity of a business, especially in these days when (through computers, etc), the amount of information available is so enormous. In even a medium –sized business, it is impossible for every employee to have in his possession every price of information which might allow him to do his job better. The question is how to make sure the right information reaches the right individual at the right time. This is the field of communications which will be the subject of the last unit in this module.
This unit concentrates on the throughput of individuals in a business organization, the way they are "hired and fired" , etc. This is usually the business of the personnel department although, in many modern companies, the responsibility for making decisions about personnel is shared around between a number of people in general management positions rather than personnel specialists.
I. Human Resource Management (HRM):
The management of people has changed a great deal in the last hundred years, mostly for the best. Employees are now not so often regarded as "labor" to be exploited , an expendable factor of production. Instead personnel management has moved to the center of business planning.
Human resource management (HRM) is a style of personnel management which was developed in the 1980s to reflect the key importance of human being in a business's success. HRM was based on the following principle:
- human resources are the most important asset of an organization
- the effective management of human resources is the key to success.
- HRM must be integrated with corporate objectives and strategic plans
- The commitment of the workforce is essential
- It is important to manage the organizational culture effectively
- To produce high quality products, it is necessary to employ high quality staff
It may seem that all these point are obvious and incontestable, but it would be a mistake to assume that such an approach would work for every organization. An army at war, for instance, might prefer to stick to more traditional values like blind obedience and a rigid hierarchy of command. HRM can be very demanding in term of time and, in some cases, it may deflect the company from the single – minded pursuit of profit.
HRM implies a certain type of leadership and a preference for trust and delegation over systems imposed from above. But not all leaders fit this mode and there is nothing wrong with a system which works. Contrast the different approaches to parenthood. Is the best father one who always listens to his child's point of view and gives him the maximum freedom to grow in his own way or the one who is fully prepared to discipline that child (a more "Victorian" approach) ? At its best, HRM can be a strategy for the development of all staff but it can also be a control mechanism – only those who subscribe to the all - for –one –and- one- for- all corporate philosophy will survive.
For all that, much of this module will take the principle of HRM for granted and explore the ways in which personnel management can get the best result and contribute to the personal development of the human being within the organization.
II. The Personnel Department:
The personnel department is usually responsible for a wide variety of function, including the following:
- assessment of future manpower need
- advertising staff vacancies
- selecting staff through interviews, etc
- negotiation individuals within the company
- promoting individuals within the company
- staff training
- sorting out disciplinary problems
- implementing redundancy decision and other staffing changes
- Implementing pension schemes, etc.
The management and distribution of wages may also be handled by the personnel department although it is more likely to be handled by the accounts department. As with the other departments, much will depend on the nature of the organization and its business objective.
III. Redundancy Problems:
Besides supervising training opportunities, the personnel department is also often called upon to handle redundancies. Most Personnel Mangers would say that this is the least pleasant aspect of their jobs.
If a firm needs to cut back, how does it decide which employees to make redundant? "Last in, first out " seems fair but many firms have an odd structure. Voluntary redundancy may also seem fair for those people who are likely to volunteer. But they are either likely to be the ones who can find jobs easily elsewhere or possibly people who are just over optimistic in which case there may be little problem.
As an alternative to redundancy, it may be possible to make the same work-force work fewer hours (see Unit Nine). Restraints of overtime are often considered but there may be problems if skills are not interchangeable, for example, a compute department could be over-loaded whilst the production department is over-manned. One variation on this theme is for many workers to go on short time, perhaps unit business "pick up" again.
Some firms particularly with an elderly work force, may just use "natural wastage" .Quite simply, employees who leave the company are not replaced so the workforce slowly shrinks. This may again lead to an odd age structure.
Firms may actually ask outside firm to come in and assist people to find suitable jobs .This seems constructive and may lead to better industrial relations. An alternative and may lead to better industrial relations. An alternative is to try to see how far people can relation or how far the firm might actually diversify, for example in the per-war yeas where shipbuilding turned to prefabrication.
There is a tendency to think that making redundancies is an admission of failure and, even in hard times, most firms can avoid such drastic steps by policies of natural wastage, etc. Few things are as damaging to the morale of the workforce as the disappearance of colleagues. Trade unions may act to protect the interests of their members and it will be very difficult for the company to inspire the loyalty of its employees in future.
IV. Recruitment Methods:
At the opposite end of the scale .the Personnel Department may also be responsible for bringing people into the company . How do you select the right man or woman for the job that needs to be done?
First you must make sure that the right people get to hear about the vacancy. How you do this depends on the nature of the organization and the vacancy but it may be through advertising in the local or national press, through an employment agency, through "head-hunters"(who match positions in one company with individuals in another). Through word of mouth, etc. Ideally, such methods will produce satisfactory number of applicants. How then do you select the right individual?
The "traditional" route, for management positions at least, is through the letter of application, the curriculum vitae, the checking of references and the interview. You may well be familiar with this procedure yourself, perhaps form having been on the receiving end .But there are other ways of dividing the sheep from the goats.
Interviews don't have to be conducted by senior personnel from the prospective employers. There is also interviewing by the peer group which may be a better way of judging who will work well together. Skills can be tested e.g. for typing, computing or manual skills or psychological tests can be used. Sensitivity analysis is another possibility. The use of sociometric, e.g. judging people's reactions in groups, is helpful The failure to do this with conventional interview methods is often most apparent after the wrong individual has been given the contract. Other methods of selection include desk top appraisal and role playing.
The possibility of not recruiting people (e.g. Secretarial staff) directly but using agency staff ('temps') reduces risks because the individual remains on the books of the agency. It also reduces problems of redundancy but may cause jealousies if agency staff is being paid more, whilst also there may be a problem of a lack of reliability and loyalty to the firm.
At a management level, there are specialist recruiting agencies who aim to match an experienced manager with the right post. Such agencies are often known as "headhunters" because they may “steal" a manager who is already working perfectly well for one company but methods are not generally underhand. Such agencies may charge a flat fee or a percentage of the first year's salary.
The selection of a particular individual is usually part of an overall strategy for recruitment within the organization. This is usually known as manpower planning.
V. The Need for Promotion Strategy:
Once an individual has been recruited, he or she will generally expect to have the opportunity to rise through the ranks of the company. Of course, not everyone will be successful in this respect and it often falls to the Personnel Department to make decisions (especially at the lowest levels) about who should be promoted to a higher grade.
To be seen to be fair, the personnel department needs to look at appropriate age or experience. In many organizations, age is a crucial factor (e.g. the Civil Service) and if you are the wrong age for a particular promotion you are likely to get stuck at that particular stage in the hierarchy unit you retire. But many age limits seem to have no particular logic because in most jobs, age does not really affect your ability to perform the necessary tasks well.
Just because a certain individual has been employed by a company for a period of time does not mean that it will be easy to judge whether they deserve of promotion .Their colleagues and superiors often have widely differing opinions of their abilities so it is hard to decide whose judgment should count for most. The problems of objectivity or subjectivity of present supervisors, including problems of jealousies when staff is well qualified, have to be taken into account.
VI. Employee Appraisal:
The Personnel Department of any large company will normally be expected to keep accurate records of employee turnover and other information which will be of importance to the future of the company .This is the function usually know as control. The control exercised by the personnel department should tie in with the management of information undertaken by other departments.
Control looks at labor turnover and the various different measures of this. But when controlling through data we need to consider the worthwhile ness of data in terms of accuracy, speed and costs. It may cost more to put together the information than can reasonably be gained from the exercise.
VII. Keep Control of Labor Turnover:
Labor turnover is generally measured by the number of people leaving the firm or organization per 100 employees per year. Therefore, for example if the firm has 500 employees and
40 people leave it in one year, labor turnover would be said to be 8%.
In general it is assumed that high labor turnover is undesirable. This is because the cost of recruitment can be high in its own right and also because recruits are more likely to have lower productivity and be prone to more accidents during the initial period. There is also the cost of training them for the relevant job. On the other hand, a very low rate of labor turnover may mean that workers have become very slack or complacent or perhaps even are overpaid. There have been some signs of this in the past in the newspaper industry.
Therefore, usually when we look at labor turnover we try, in a larger firm, to make sure that we are comparing like with like. For example, if we find that younger people are more likely to leave, it would be unfair to compare one branch where the majority of employees are very young with another branch where most of the employees are much older and to assume that there was anything wrong with the first department.
VIII. An analysis by age and gender will therefore help us slightly more:
We might try to see, therefore, if people have left to join other firms and what are the reasons for this. Is it because of the attractiveness of the job or because of salaries, or condition of service are much better? If it is, can the firm do anything about this, for example, making jobs more attractive through more relevant training or paying more and /or being able to promote more of the better people?
In other cases there may be less to worry about if, for example, people have been promoted form one branch to another. Even here, however, some care need to be taken because in some cases people may disguise their resentment at being at a particular branch or depot and be able to obtain promotion elsewhere either within the firm or outside.
IX. Accounting for Resignations:
The term "resignation" is usually reserved for relatively senior members of staff who make an unexpected decision to leave a company .Usually this is very inconvenient as it is expensive to replace experienced staff .The shorter the notice the more difficult it is .Resignations should be carefully analyzed. Why has that person resigned? Some firms try to obtain reasons from employees who are leaving. Unless there is a certain amount of confidentiality people may be unwilling to give their true reasons. For example, somebody who detests their boss is not likely to give this as a reason when handing in their notice.
Problems of resignation may be contrasted with high labor turnover because of dismissals. If there are too many dismissals this may indicate not so much that things are wrong with the employees as those things are wrong with the firm. Were the people recruited of the right caliber in the first place? Were there any indications? Were they said to be work shy in references obtained from schools or previous employers?
Women may decide to leave because of pregnancy. Rather than resign, they may choose to claim their entitlement to a period of paid leave while they are having the baby then not go back to work afterwards, In due course, they may resign, citing other motives .Such practices have the unfortunate by-product that employers are skeptical about employing women in the first place, some especially if they have recently married. Here and elsewhere, some care has to be taken in an analysis. It is not unknown for people to have left the firm for reasons very different from the "official" ones.
In other cases people may have moved because of the family, including the spouse changing job and therefore moving home. People may have resigned because of ill health. If the ill health is nothing to do with the firm then this may be of any great importance for personnel policy. If, however, people are resigning for reasons which are associated with mental health, perhaps because of the stress of the job, then the reasons for this should by analyzed.
X. Self-Assessment:
1. What is meant by manpower planning?
2. What knowledge is required in order for to be successful?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of internal promotion?
4. What would you imagine are the advantages and disadvantages of employing generalists rather than specialists as managers of a particular organization?
5. How can training be combined with full-time employment?
What are the merits and demerits of the various solutions to the problem of lack of time for study?
6. Compare and contrast various different types of "internal" training.
