Master of Business Administration- MBA Semester 3 MU0010 Manpower Planning and Resourcing - 4 Credits (Book ID: B1228)

Q1.Describe knowledge management.

"Knowledge management is the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge. This definition has the virtue of being simple, stark, and to the point. A few years later, the Gartner Group created another second definition of KM, which is perhaps the most frequently cited one (Duhon, 1998): "Knowledge management is a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise's information assets. These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, and previously un-captured expertise and experience in individual workers." Both definitions share a very organizational, a very corporate orientation. KM, historically at least, is primarily about managing the knowledge of and in organizations. The operational origin of KM, as the term is understood today, arose within the consulting community and from there the principles of KM were rather rapidly spread by the consulting organizations to other disciplines. The consulting firms quickly realized the potential of the Intranet flavour of the Internet for linking together their own geographically dispersed and knowledgebased organizations. Once having gained expertise in how to take advantage of intranets to connect across their organizations and to share and manage information and knowledge, they then understood that the expertise they had gained was a product that could be sold to other organizations. A new product of course needed a name, and the name chosen, or at least arrived at, was Knowledge Management. The timing was propitious, as the enthusiasm for intellectual capital in the 1980s, had primed the pump for the recognition of information and knowledge as essential assets for any organization. Perhaps the most central thrust in KM is to capture and make available, so it can be used by others in the organization, the information and knowledge that is in people's heads as it were, and that has never been explicitly set down. Another way to view and define KM is to describe KM as the movement to replicate the information environment known to be conducive to successful R&D rich, deep, and open communication and information accessand deploy it broadly across the firm. It is almost trite now to observe that we are in the postindustrial information age and that an increasingly large proportion of the working population consists of information workers. The role of the researcher, considered the quintessential information worker, has been studied in depth with a focus on identifying environmental aspects that lead to successful research (Koenig, 1990, 1992), and the strongest relationship by far is with information and knowledge access and communication. It is quite logical then to attempt to apply those same successful environmental aspects to knowledge workers at large, and that is what in fact KM attempts to do.

Q2.Explain the different levels of talent engagement.

Level One:

Basic Engagement: a basic level of engagement uses motivational factors we have known about for decades, such as clear direction, good supervision, empowerment, career development, open communication, recognition and creating a great place to work. Such initiatives all involve doing something for employees, however, and are thus paternalistic. If Herzberg is right, it is questionable whether superficial improvements can yield great productivity gains. When employees complain about poor working conditions they are defending themselves against having to admit that they feel undervalued, disengaged and have a low sense of self-worth. Needing to blame something external to them, working conditions is a convenient scapegoat. Fixing these elements just pushes employees to look for something else to blame. Poor working conditions don't exist in "great places to work" but ownership is still concentrated in the managerial ranks, so nothing fundamental has changed. Employees leave organizations with a feeling of frustration often citing slow career progress but it just might be their feeling of powerlessness that is really at fault. Employee engagement surveys tell us nothing about how employees might feel about something they have never experienced. Level Two: Employees as Suppliers of Services a deeper level of engagement requires a culture that encourages employees to think of themselves as running their own businesses, as suppliers of services. Most organizational cultures, being paternalistic, take far too much responsibility for developing people. Employees should learn to see their managers as customers and be trained on how to market and develop their businesses for themselves. Such business development involves being proactive to keep abreast of the needs of key internal customers and thinking creatively about additional ways of adding value for them. If employees were able to take on extra responsibilities for more pay, they might feel some of the ownership that small business owners feel and show greater initiative to improve organizational performance. Career development, reframed as business development, is thus in the hands of employees. Servant leadership has been offered as a way to better engage employees, but this idea is also paternalistic because of its emphasis on serving the needs of employees. John F. Kennedy got the direction of service right when he said: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. A culture of engagement, at this level, requires managers to treat employees as supplier-partners and to encourage a feeling of ownership over as much of the business as they want to take upon themselves. To become effective suppliers of services, employees need training and support to offer more solutions and be less dependent on managers to spoon-feed them. Level Three Engaging Leadership Level three engagement requires a deeper culture change because it asks managers to fundamentally reframe how they see their roles. It goes beyond level two engagements by encouraging managers to be more proactive in seeking input from employees but it also puts more pressure on employees to do more thinking and be less content to merely follow directions. Level three engagements entails shifting from heroic, transformational leadership to a more engaging model, where managers move from being solution-generating goal scorers to facilitators, catalysts and coaches. The level 5 leaders described by Jim Collins have humility for good reason: the world is too complex and fast changing for any one person to know it all. Managers who base their confidence on the ability to create solutions can struggle at times to appear confident. It is easier to base one's confidence on the ability to ask a small set of repeatable

facilitative questions. It's not a matter of never scoring any goals. Comparing business to sports, it's like being a playing coach rather than sitting on the side lines just coaching. Solution generators ask factual questions to understand the issues so they can develop their own solutions. By contrast, engaging leaders solicit ideas rather than facts by asking variations of: "what do you think?" such as:

What do you see as the main issue? What do you see as options for dealing with this problem? What is your preferred option and why? What are the benefits, costs and risks of your preferred option? Who else needs to be involved? What will it take to execute your plan?

Engaging questions need not be confined to brainstorming sessions or quality circle meetings. Managers can ask such questions whenever team members come to them with a problem. Managers need to reframe their role from authoritative decision maker and answer giver to that of catalyst, facilitator and coach. To achieve this level of engagement requires managers to give up some of that they most love doing: immersing themselves in substantive business issues and solving challenging strategic problems. It is not enough to ask employees how they might solve their own work-related problems. Employees who are interested in a deeper level of engagement need to learn more about business strategy so they can be drawn into higher level discussions about fundamental business direction. This is a harder level of engagement to achieve because it deprives managers of some of the ammunition they use for their own career success. In future, they need to be rewarded for team success more than for their own great ideas and decisions. Level Four: Beyond Ownership to Passion Level four engagements involves an even more significant culture change. Now, instead of viewing employee ideas merely as good suggestions, their contributions are reframed as bottom-up leadership. Greater confidence is thus required of employees to challenge their bosses while managers need to develop more receptivity to being challenged. This move engages employees by making them feel a stronger sense of providing direction to the organization, or at least a small part of it. The feeling of showing leadership can create a stronger sense of ownership than can merely making a suggestion. Naturally, people are most passionate about their own ideas. When employees promote new products or process improvements to their bosses, they often display much more passion than they do for their regular work. There is a strand of our complex concept of leadership that entails challenging the status quo in just this manner. Leadership is a romantic notion people like to see themselves as leaders for the same reason they want to emulate their heroes in sports, music or the movies. It is one thing to encourage employees to develop and promote a better way, but the motivational icing on the cake is to see such initiatives as leadership bottom-up thought leadership. A good example is the Sony employee who invented PlayStation and influenced his senior management to develop it. Such leadership is similar to that of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi who challenged their respective governments to change; King to improve the treatment of African Americans and Gandhi to gain independence for India from Britain. The key trait for showing such leadership is the courage to speak up for one's beliefs in spite of the potential risks. Leadership shown bottom-up is pure leadership because it is totally distinct from management and position. King and Gandhi

had a leadership impact on their respective governments without any involvement in managing the implementation of their proposals. The same is true of bottom-up leadership. The empowering feature of this type of leadership is that even those employees without any inclination or talent to be a manager can still show leadership in the sense of promoting a better way. The culture change required to fully implement this level of employee engagement entails recognizing that much of executive activity is really management, suitably upgraded as a nurturing, supportive, coaching function. On this view, executives only show leadership when they too promote a better way. When executives operate in facilitative mode, using engaging questions, they are really using a managerial technique, not showing leadership. Thus, engaging leadership, as described in level 3 employee engagement, is really engaging management. The challenge for executives, if they want to achieve such a passionate level of employee engagement, is to relinquish their monopoly on leadership. They need the humility and emotional intelligence to shift their identity to one where they call themselves executives who only occasionally show leadership. Making such a major mind shift requires executives to put aside their own ego needs and see the potential for employee engagement of sharing the leadership load. Quick Wins: Culture change can be time consuming and expensive but it is possible for at least some managers to become more engaging with minimal effort. However, they need to reposition their roles as catalysts, coaches or facilitators to their team members to avoid violating employee expectations that managers must be answer givers. Managers could also selectively encourage some team members, those they feel would be most receptive, to start thinking of themselves as self-employed service providers. A pilot project could verify the productivity gains of such moves. Reducing the Gap between Dependency and Empowerment As organizations move through the four levels of employee engagement, they increasingly reduce the gap between dependency and empowerment. Heroic transformational leadership concentrates the psychological sense of ownership at the top and maximizes dependency in everyone else. Recognizing that leadership can be shown bottom-up goes a long way toward equalizing this balance of power, thus creating more shared ownership and a stronger group effort to help organizations prosper. The three deeper levels of employee engagement share an important feature: they all engage the brains of employees and stimulate them to do more thinking for themselves and for the good of the organization.

Q3.Describe the major approaches of talent development.

Talent development, part of human resource development, is the process of changing an organization, its employees, its stakeholders, and groups of people within it, using planned and unplanned learning, in order to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage for the organization. Roth well notes that the name may well be a term in search of a meaning, like so much in management, and suggests that it be thought of as selective attention paid to the top 10% of employees, either by potential or performance. While talent development is reserved for the top management it is becoming increasingly clear that career development is necessary for the retention of any employee, no matter what their level in the company. Research has shown that some type of career path is

necessary for job satisfaction and hence job retention. Perhaps organizations need to include this area in their overview of employee satisfaction. The term talent development is becoming increasingly popular in several organizations, as companies are now moving from the traditional term training and development. Talent development encompasses a variety of components such as training, career development, career management, and organizational development, and training and development. It is expected that during the 21st century more companies will begin to use more integrated terms such as talent development. Washington Group International, in their paper "The Nuclear Renaissance, A Life Cycle Perspective defined two logical laws of talent development: First law of talent development: "The beginnings of any technologyrich business are all characterized by a shortage of large numbers of technically trained people needed to support ultimate growth" Second law of talent development: "The resources will come when the business becomes attractive to the best-and brightest who adapt skills to become part of an exciting opportunity"

Talent development refers to an organization's ability to align strategic training and career opportunities for employees.

Q4. Distinguish between internal and external sources of recruitment.

Edwin Flippo defined Recruitment as the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the Organization. Recruitment involves estimating the available vacancies and making suitable arrangements for their selection and appointment. In order to attract people for the jobs, the Organization must communicate the position in such a way that job seekers respond. To be cost effective, the recruitment process should attract qualified applicants and provide enough information for unqualified persons to self-select themselves out. Thus, the recruitment process begins when new recruits are sought and ends when their applications are submitted. The result is a pool of applicants from which new employees are selected. The general purpose of recruitment is to provide a pool of potentially qualified job candidates. Specifically, the purposes are to: Determine the present and future requirements of the Organization in conjunction with its personnel-planning and job-analysis activities. Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost. Help increase the success rate of the selection process by reducing the number of visibly under qualified or overqualified job applicants. Help reduce the probability that job applicants, once recruited and selected, will leave the organization only after a short period of time. Begin identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be appropriate candidates. Induct outsiders with a new perspective to lead the Company. Infuse fresh blood at all levels of the Organization. Develop an Organizational culture that attracts competent people to the Company. Search for people whose skills fit the Companys values.

 Devise methodologies for assessing psychological traits. Search for talent globally and not just within the Company. Design entry pay that competes on quality but not on quantum. Anticipate and find people for positions that do not exist yet. Increase Organizational and individual effectiveness in the short term and long term. Evaluate the effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for all types of job applicants. Management has to attract more candidates in order to increase the selection ratio so that the most suitable candidate can be selected out of the total candidates available. Recruitment is positive as it aims at increasing the number of applicants and selection is somewhat negative as it selects the suitable candidates in which the unsuitable candidates are automatically eliminated. Though, the function of recruitment seems to be easy, a number of factors make performance of recruitment a complex one. Internal Sources: Persons who are already working in an Organization constitute the internal sources. Retrenched employees, retired employees, dependents of deceased employees generally constitute the internal sources. Whenever any vacancy arises, someone from within the Organization is upgraded, transferred, promoted or even demoted. External Sources: External sources lie outside an Organization. The Organization can have the services of: (a) Employees working in other Organizations; (b) Job aspirants registered with employment exchanges; (c) Students from reputed educational institutions; (d) Candidates referred by unions, friends, relatives and existing employees; (e) Candidates forwarded by search firms and contractors; (f) Candidates responding to the advertisements, issued by the Organization; and (g) Unsolicited applications/ walk-ins.

Q5.What are the benefits of manpower demand forecasting?

Forecasting is valuable for two reasons: The end-result if accurate is very valuable. An accurate forecast may improve likely hood of achieving all organizational goals for the year. It can help identify risks, clarify what needs to be done and sets fair expectations. The process of forecasting makes managers sensitive to change and helps them to curtail their flamboyant decision making on the manpower expenditure side is and helps focus on achieving the business goals. It also enables them to understand the impact of their actionsn the organizations and their own future and helps build consensus.

Sometimes consensus is critical. The fact that everybody has agreed on a forecast may be more essential than its accuracy, particularly if the consensus involves many firms and organizations crossing organizational and cultural barriers. Consensus works both ways. An agreed forecast can be self-fulfilling. Some of the other benefits of forecasting are:

It does not put stress on the system. Lower stress on the system means lower manpower turnover. Lower stress on the system means lower costs, and no need to do any unplanned expenditure. Lower stress on the system means work gets delivered on time every time to the client. Lower stress on the system means work gets delivery as per the quality standards every time to the client. Lower stress on the system means that client does not make any escalations against employees and does not threaten to withdraw the business on concerns of quality or timeliness. Lower stress on the system means lesser procedures and interference from the quality team or the management team. Lower stress on the system means more freedom of control to resolve issues in the budding stages, than letting them reach a point where escalations arise. Lower stress on the system means the employees have a stress free life and greater work-life balance. Lower stress means the employees get enough time to spend with family and their presence can help resolve concerns or issues which if unresolved can grow exponentially and cause life changing events to occur. Lower stress means the employees are able to learn more and add more value to the business and contribute more in terms of productivity. Lower stress can be extrapolated to mean world peace (though some may not agree). Hence better demand forecasting, means happiness for all concerned. Lower stress levels do not kill employees through massive heart attacks. But poor demand forecasting leading to higher stress levels can be harmful to the employees individual health.

Q.6: Mr. Aravind works at K&D Company. Recently two fellow team members were shifted to another team and their work was handed over to him. This affected his performance and also left him dissatisfied. Finally, he forwarded his resignation letter to the HR Department. The HR Manager decided to conduct an exit interview with Mr. Aravind. What questions do you think that the HR manager would want to ask Mr.Aravind?
Possible Exit Interview Questions Tell me about how you decided to leave the organization? What could have been done early on to prevent this situation developing or lend a basis for you to stay with us? How do you feel about this organization? What extra responsibility or position would you have welcomed that you were not given?

 How could the organization have enabled you to make fuller use of your competency and potential? What training would you have liked or required that you did not get, and what effect did this have? How well do think your training and development requirements were evaluated and met? What do you say about communications within the organization and your department? What changes would you make towards the environment or feel of the organization? What changes or improvement could be made to the way that you were inducted for your role? What will you say about the way your performance was measured, and the feedback given for your performance results? What will you say about how you were motivated, and how that can be improved? Can you provide any unreasonable examples of policy, rules or instructions you have encountered here? What particularly is it about the other organization that makes you want to join them? What are they offering that we are not? (If appropriate) Can you be persuaded to renegotiate or discuss the possibility of staying? A proper closure in the exit interview, for both the organization and departing employee encourages positive and professional ties between the two.

Master of Business Administration- MBA Semester 3 MU0010 Manpower Planning and Resourcing - 4 Credits
Q1.What benefits do an organization get out by setting up an academy?

Increase the number of people who are trained to sell, deploy or use the services or products of the company increase sales of products indirectly through 1 Increases the perceived quality of the company's products/services (because trained people use the product/service better and therefore have a better opinion of its quality, recommend it more to others etc.) Have a readily available pool of people that can be hired, usually at reduced training costs (because the academy already trained them many at a time, thus saving money compared to if they were all trained one by one) Lastly the company can make some money by selling certifications for graduating the academy (e.g. examination fee)

Q2.What are the steps involved in manpower planning?

Manpower Planning which is also called as Human Resource Planning consists of

putting right number of people, right kind of people at the right place, right time, doing the right things for which they are suited for the achievement of goals of the organization. Human Resource Planning has got an important place in the arena of industrialization. Human Resource Planning has to be a systems approach and is carried out in a set procedure. The procedure is as follows: 1. Analysing the current manpower inventory- Before a manager makes forecast of future manpower, the current manpower status has to be analysed. For this the following things have to be notedo o o o

Type of organization Number of departments Number and quantity of such departments Employees in these work units

Once these factors are registered by a manager, he goes for the future forecasting 2. Making future manpower forecasts- Once the factors affecting the future manpower forecasts are known, planning can be done for the future manpower requirements in several work units. The Manpower forecasting techniques commonly employed by the organizations are as follows: I. Expert Forecasts: This includes informal decisions, formal expert surveys and Delphi technique. ii. Trend Analysis: Manpower needs can be projected through extrapolation (projecting past trends), indexation (using base year as basis), and statistical analysis (central tendency measure). iii. Work Load Analysis: It is dependent upon the nature of work load in a department, in a branch or in a division. iv. Work Force Analysis: Whenever production and time period has to be analysed, due allowances have to be made for getting net manpower requirements. v. Other methods: Several Mathematical models, with the aid of computers are used to forecast manpower needs, like budget and planning analysis, regression, and new venture analysis. 3. Developing employment programmes- Once the current inventory is compared with future forecasts, the employment programmes can be framed and developed accordingly, which will include recruitment, selection procedures and placement plans. 4. Design training programmes- These will be based upon extent of diversification, expansion plans, development programmes, etc. Training programmes depend upon the extent of improvement in technology and advancement to take place. It is also done to improve upon the skills, capabilities, knowledge of the workers. Q3.Describe the different types of selection interviews. Employing a new candidate for a company is very difficult for the interviewer. Because in this job market competitors are increased and new interview

methods are introduced. There are many types of interviews. If you attended any interview you can realize that you had faced the given below interview types 1. Face to Face interview: Most of the interviews are face to face interviews. This is also known traditional interview in which job seekers meet the employers in face to face. Whether you are fresher or experienced you are in need to attend the interview. The advantage of the traditional interview is that the employer and job seekers can get to know each other about their environment. In face to face interview, they may ask questions like the strengths and weakness of the candidates, expecting salary etc. Before interview the candidates should have knowledge about the company, their products and financial positions. Also the candidates must be prepared with their resumes. Most employers will ask questions from the resumes. So be prepared and dress neatly while going for interview. 2. Group Interview: Group interviews are conducted by some large companies for graduates who are all interviewed at one time. They may give some exercises to solve in a group and observes how the candidates react with other people. The group interview will show the candidates
o o o o o o

Knowledge level Leadership qualities Communication skill Team work Listening Capacity Reaction under stress

In group interview express your opinion confidently and allow others to speak. Dont interfere while other candidates speak. After the interview send at least one thank you letter, to the head of the committee 3. Behavioural Interview :In behavioural interviews, candidates are asked to explain their skills, experience, activities, hobbies, school projects, family life anything really as examples of your past behaviour. The purpose of this type of interview is to predict future based on past experiences. This interview shows the candidates willingness in learning, willingness to travel, self-confidence and Creativity. Listen each question carefully, and give an example that provides an appropriate description of how you demonstrated the desired behaviour. 4. Telephone Interview: Telephone interview is a technique used to recruit the candidates for employment through phone. The main purpose of conducting telephone interview is to reduce the expenses of the out of state or out of town candidates. Telephone interview is also conducted in professional manner as like other interviews. During telephone interview you have to sell yourself only through your voice and confidence in speech. At the last, if you dont have confirm information, be sure to ask for the interviewers exact title and name spelling, along with a street or email address, so that you can send a thank you note. This method is used to obtain additional information about a candidates skills and experience than can be obtain from the application or resume. In this method, you never know when a company is going to call and you may not be prepared for the interview at that time. This will become one of the advantages for the company to know your capability and this situation makes them to judge you. Most of the companies use this method to eliminate the candidates who dont have essential skills, knowledge, education etc. Candidates who are capable for the required position will attend the next level face to face

interview. 5. Panel Interview: In Panel interviews or Committee interviews candidates will meet several higher authorities and this method is used to hire for advanced positions. Questions may be asked by all panel members and you can expect any type of critical questions from them. Try to answer for all questions and be sure to impress all of the interviewers. The Panel members may be:
o o o o o

The supervisor The manager The human resource officer The union representative Employees who are in recruiting team

Make eye contact with each member of the panel while you answering the question. Preparing best before the interview will succeed you in this type of interview. 6. Stress Interview: Stress interview creates discomfort in you and the main purpose of stress interview is to give you stress and difficult situation. This type of interview is to test the candidates ability in stress situations. The interviewers may try to introduce stress by asking continuous questions without giving time to think and answer the questions. Starting you might be asked to wait in the waiting room for an hour before the interview. The interviewer might openly challenge your believes or judgment. You might be called upon to perform an impossible task on convincing the interviewer to exchange. Answer each question in calm as it comes.

Q4.How does Human Resource Accounting help the organization in its effort for development of employees?
Human resource is an important asset in the organization whose value goes on increasing with its right placement, application and development in the organization. In spite of vast physical resources with latest technology, an organization may quite often find itself in financial crisis if it does not have the right persons to manage its affairs. Thus human resource is a very valuable asset for the organization which aims to progress in all directions amidst heavy competition. Though the concept of Human resource Accounting is very old, organizations have-not made any effort to assign ay monetary value to this in their accounting practice till the recent past. The real efforts for viewing the human resource as an asset was started by behavioural scientist from 1960 onwards who tried to develop appropriate methodology and procedure for finding out the cost and value of the people in the organization. They attached the failure of conventional accounting practice to value the human resource of an organization along with material resources. Hence, human resources were identified as the value of production capacity of an organization, and the value of customer goodwill. There are two major reasons why human resource accounting has been receiving so much attention in the recent years. a) There is genuine need for reliable and complete management of human resources. b) Traditional framework of accounting is in the process to include a much broader set of measurement than was possible in the past.

c) People are the most important assets of an organization and yet the value of this asset does not appear in financial statements. This information does not get included in management information systems. Conventional accounting of human resources consists of taking note of all expenses of human capital formation which does not seem either to be correct or meeting the actual needs. Human resource accounting, in simple terms, means accounting for people as the organizational resources. Human resource accounting is the process of identifying and measuring data about human resources and communicating this information to the interested parties. It is the measurement of the cost and value of people to the organization. It involves measuring costs incurred by private firms and public sector units to recruit, select, train and develop employees and judge their economic value to the organization. Objectives of HR Accounting: The objective of HRA is not merely the recognition of the value of all resources used by the organisation, but it also includes the management of human resource which will ultimately enhance the quantity and quality of goods and services. The main objectives of HR Accounting system are as follows: a) To furnish cost value information for making proper and effective management decisions about acquiring, allocating, developing and maintaining human resources in order to achieve cost effective organisational objectives. b) To monitor effectively the use of human resources by the management. c) To have an analysis of the human assets i.e. whether such assets are conserved, depleted or appreciated. d) To aid in the development of management principles. and proper decision making for the future by classifying financial consequences of various practices. e) In all, it facilitates valuation of human resources recording the valuation in the books of account and disclosure of the information in the financial statement. f) It helps the organisation in decision making in the following areas: Direct Recruitment vs. promotion, transfer vs. retention, retrenchment vs. retention, impact on budgetary controls of human relations and organisational behaviour, decision on reallocation of plants closing down existing units and developing overseas subsidiaries etc. Advantages of HR Accounting: Human Resource Planning anticipates not only the required kind and number of employees but also determines the action plan. The major benefits of HR accounting are: a) It checks the corporate plan of the organisation. The corporate plan aiming for expansion, diversification, changes in technological growth etc. has to be worked out with the availability of human resources for such placements or key positions. If such manpower is not likely to be available, HR accounting suggests modification of the entire corporate plan. b) It offsets uncertainty and change, as it enables the organisation to have the

right person for the right job at the right time and place. c) It provides scope for advancement and development of employees by effective training and development. d) It helps individual employee to aspire for promotion and better benefits. e) It aims to see that the human involvement in the organisation is not wasted and brings high returns to the organisation. f) It helps to take steps to improve employee contribution in the form of increased productivity. g) It provides different methods of testing to be used, interview techniques to be adopted in the selection process based on the level of skill, qualifications and experience of future human resources. h) It can foresee the change in value, aptitude and attitude of human resources and accordingly change the techniques of interpersonal management Limitations of HR Accounting: Human Resource Accounting is the term used to describe the accounting methods, system and techniques, which coupled with special knowledge and ability assist HR management in the valuation of personnel in financial terms. It is based on the assumption that there is great difference among the employees in their knowledge, ability and motivation in the same organization as well as across organizations. There are some who produce more, understand faster and show efficiency in training programmes as compared to others. HR accounting facilitates decision making about the personnel, either to keep or dispense with their services or to provide training accounting development and application in different industries and organizations has not fully grown. There are many limitations which make the management reluctant to introduce HR accounting in their organizations. Some of these limitations are given below: a) there is no proper clear-cut and specific procedure or guidelines for finding cost and value of human resources of an organization b) If the period of existence of human resource is uncertain, valuing them under uncertainty in future would be unrealistic c) There is a fear that HR accounting may dehumanize and manipulate employees. For example an employee with a comparatively low value may feel discouraged and develop a complex which will affect his competency to work. d) The much needed empirical evidence is yet to be found to support the hypothesis that HR accounting as a tool of the management facilitates better and effective management of human resources. e) In what form and manner, their value to be included in the financial statement is the question yet to be classified on which there is no consensus in the accounting profession. f) There is a constant fear of the opposition from the trade unions that placing a value on employees would make them claim rewards and compensation based

on such valuation. g) As human resources are not capable of being owned, retained and utilized, unlike the physical assets, there is a problem for the management to treat them as assets in the strict sense. h) In spite of its significance and necessity, tax laws do not recognize human beings as assets.

Q5.What is the major hindrances that one encounters while carrying out manpower planning?
The actual process of human resource planning shown in Figure I is affected by many environmental factors. Specifically, internal factors such as goals, tasks, technology, organization structure, the kinds of people employed by the enterprise, the demand for and supply of managers within the enterprise, the reward system, and various kinds of policies do affect human resource planning. Some organizations are highly structured; others are not. For some positions - such as the position of sales manager - skills in human relations may be of vital importance, while the same skill may be less critical for a research scientist working fairly independently in the laboratory. Although there are many situational factors that can be considered, the focus here is on some policies that have particular relevance to staffing. Many factors in the external environment affect human resource planning, including the level of education, the prevailing attitude in society (such as the attitude toward work), the many laws and regulations that directly affect staffing, the economic conditions, and the supply of and the demand for managers outside the enterprise. Effective staffing, then, certainly requires recognition of the internal and external situational factors. The Internal Environment Affects Human Resource Planning The internal factors selected for this discussion concern the staffing of managerial positions with personnel from within the firm as well as from the outside, determining the responsibility for staffing, and the need for top management support to overcome resistance to change Promotion from Within. When an enterprise has a policy of promotion from within, advancements, generally speaking, are restricted to persons within the firms. This means that people are hired at a relatively low level and proceed upward in the organizational hierarchy. The exclusion of outsiders, then, virtually establishes a monopoly for people within the firm. This practice may contribute to the morale of the organization. It also means opportunities for advancement of employees. However, it may prevent the introduction of new ideas from outsiders. And it may encourage the dangerous practice of promoting people by seniority and not by competence. Moreover, the enterprise just may not have qualified personnel available who can effectively pursue ambitious enterprise objectives. Effects of External Environment on Human Resource Planning Factors in the external environment do affect staffing in varying degrees. These influences can be grouped into educational, sociocultural, legal-political, and economic constraints. For example, the high technology used in many industries requires extensive and intensive education. Similarly, managers in our sociocultural environment generally do not accept orders blindly; they want to become active participants

in the decision making process. Furthermore, now and in the future, managers have to be oriented toward the public, responding to their legitimate needs, and they must adhere to high ethical standards. Legal and political constraints also require firms to follow laws and guidelines issued by various governments. The economic environment - including competition - determines the external supply of and demands for managers. Finally, one must look beyond the immediate external environment and recognize the worldwide influences primarily brought about by advanced communication technology and the influence of multinational corporations. In the future, it will not be unusual for large international firms to have top management teams comprised of managers of many different nationalities. Thus, the concept of the external environment that influences human resource planning becomes broader and for many firms has a worldwide scope.

Q6.Ms. Lalita Singh has joined Triumphant India Private Limited. As an HR Manager, how would you prepare an induction programme for her?
HR Department: The Human Resource department handles all the details of recruitment and gives the official start date as a new employee of staff. The HR Department also issues the staff identification card, keeps your record and will issue you with some information when you collect your staff ID card/number. Department: The department where new employees will work and the management team will welcome new employee and ensure that he/she becomes familiar with the work area, colleagues, Important policies and procedures, health and safety issues and most importantly a new employees immediate work needs. Finance Department: This will take care of the new employees salary and pension arrangement plans. Employee Training and Development: HR department co-ordinate the welcome, induction and orientation process information and formal induction events. Employee training and development will provide details of training courses, dates and financial assistance for training and development for all new employees. Information is generally available in hardcopy format or on the company website. Information Technology: This will provide new employees with IT support, online access login details and e-mail account etc. As a new employee joining this large organisation it will take time to settle in and fit in, find out what you need to know. In all cases the HR manager or other experienced employees should help new employees with any immediate questions you may have. Other key staff Contacts are ready to help and welcome new colleagues.

Formal Induction Informal Induction

1. Informal Induction: In this the new employees are instructed to report to the HR department for an explanation of organization policies before being referred to the manager for on the job briefing on specific work process. In informal orientation, new employees are put directly on the job and are expected

to adjust themselves on the new job and organization. Informal orientation tends to be brief; may last for an hour or may be less than an hour. Example: A sales person is asked to go along with a tenured high performing sales person or his manager to make sales calls and learn about the product and the selling skills during the calls. 2. Formal Induction Here the management has a structured programme which is executed when new employees join the firm. Formal induction is more elaborate and is spread over a couple of weeks or months. Most formal induction programmes consist of three stages: General introduction to the organization often given by the HR department. Specific orientation to the job and the department, typically given by the supervisor or manager. Follow up meeting to verify that the important issues have been addressed and employee questions have been answered. This follow up meeting usually takes place after a week of joining between the new employee and the manager. A formal induction programme is shared by the HR specialists and managers. The HR manager covers areas as: Introduction: to supervisors, trainers and colleagues. Organization issues: organization history, history of the employer, names and titles of important executives, departments, layout of physical facilities, probationary period, product line, production procedure, organization policies and procedures, disciplinary regulations, safety procedures. Employee benefits: pay scale, pay days, vacation and holidays, rest breaks, training and education benefits, counselling, insurance benefits, retirement programme etc. Supervisors outline the main job duties: job location, task and overview of job, safety requirements and relationship to other jobs. The choice between formal and informal induction will depend mainly on the goals and objectives of the organization. The more formal the programme the more the new employee will acquire a set of standards. Many organizations prepare certain induction manual and induction PowerPoint presentations which they keep on the intranet. These can be accessed only by the company employees. It is helpful when employees join in small numbers at different point of time, when a separate induction programme cannot be held. This is also helpful to clarify any doubts an employee may have regarding certain organizational practices. In an informal programme individual differences are maintained.