1.What are the key human resource elements?

Answer: Nine Basic Elements of Human Resource Practices

1.Planning and Appraisal: How an organization sets goals, plans performance, provides
ongoing coaching, and evaluates performance of employees (individuals and/or teams).

2. Individual and Team Development: How an organization identifies the needs for
employee skill development, education, and growth and how they meet those needs.

3.Career Planning: How an organization strives to help employees to learn their strengths
and to match these strengths, aptitudes, preferences, and abilities to future work.

4.Hiring: How an organization defines and fills positions and roles with qualified people
from within and/or outside the organization; how an organization orients these new
employees.

5.Career Pathing: How an organization (for key positions and roles) determines the logical
progression of jobs, roles, assignments, and development to provide a sufficient pool of
qualified candidates and incumbents.

6.Succession Planning: How an organization systematically identifies key roles and

positions, determines performance requirements and targets a group of people to fill these
positions and roles in the future.

7.Job Design: How an organization determines the best methods for accomplishing a work
product or result. The two major types are the individual job and the team.

8.Classification: The systematic process for evaluating the size and appropriate salary ranges
for different jobs and roles in an organization.

9.Compensation/Recognition/Other Rewards: How an organization pays and rewards

employees (individuals and/or teams), through salary, bonuses, benefits and/or non-financial
rewards.

2.What do you mean by Human Resource Accounting (HRA)? Discuss the objectives and
advantages of HRA.

Answer:

The American Association of Accountants (AAA) defines HRA as follows: HRA is a process of
identifying and measuring data about human resources and communicating this information to
interested parties.

According to Stephen Knauf, HRA is the measurement and quantification of human organizational
inputs such as recruiting, training, experience and commitment
Objectives:

1. Providing cost value information about acquiring, developing, allocating and maintaining
human resources.

2. Enabling management to monitor the use of human resources.

3. Finding depreciation or appreciation among human resources.

4. Assisting in developing effective management practices.

5. Increasing managerial awareness of the value of human resources.

6. For better human resource planning.

7. For better decisions about people, based on improved information system.

8. Assisting in effective utilization of manpower.

Advantages:

1. The system of HRA discloses the value of human resources, which helps in proper
interpretation of return on capital employed.

2. Managerial decision-making can be improved with the help of HRA.

3. The implementation of human resource accounting clearly identifies human resources as

valuable assets, which helps in preventing misuse of human resources by the superiors as
well as the management.

4. It helps in efficient utilization of human resources and understanding the evil effects of
labour unrest on the quality of human resources.

5. This system can increase productivity because the human talent, devotion, and skills are
considered valuable assets, which can boost the morale of the employees.

6. It can assist the management for implementing best methods of wages and salary
administration

3. What is Manpower Planning? Mention five essential elements/steps of manpower planning.

Answer:

Stainer defines manpower planning as Strategy for the acquisition, utilization, improvement, and
preservation of an enterprises human resources. It relates to establishing job specifications or the quantitative
requirements of jobs determining the number of personnel required and developing sources of manpower.

The planning process is one of the most crucial, complex and continuing managerial functions which,
according to the Tata Electrical Locomotive Company, embraces organization development, managerial
development, career planning and succession planning.
It may be rightly regarded as a multi-step process, including various issues, such as:

A. Deciding Goals or Objectives:

The business objectives have been determined; planning of manpower resources has to be
fully integrated into the financial planning. It becomes necessary to determine how the human
resources can be organised to achieve these objectives.

For this purpose, a detailed organisation chart is drawn and the management of the company
tries to determine how many people, at what level, at what positions and with what kind of
experience and training would be required to meet the business objectives during the
planning period. The management of this company considers a time 5 pan of five years as an
optimum period for this purpose.

B. Audit of the Internal Resources:

The next step consists of an audit of the internal resources. A systematic review of the
internal resources would indicate persons within the organisations who possesses different or
higher levels of responsibilities. Thus it becomes necessary to integrate into the manpower
planning process a sound system of performance appraisal as well as appraisal of potential of
existing employees.

C. Formulation of the Recruitment Plan:

A detailed survey of the internal manpower resources can ultimately lead to as assessment of
the deficit or surplus of personnel for the different levels during the planned period. Whilst
arriving at the final figures, it is necessary to take into account the actual retirements and
estimated loss due to death, ill health and turnover, based on past experience and future
outlook in relation to companys expansion and future growth patterns.

D. Estimating Future Organisational Structure and Manpower Requirements:

The management must estimate the structure of the organisation at a given point of time. For
this estimate, the number and type of employees needed have to be determined. Many
environmental factors affect this determination. They include business forecast, expansion
and growth, design and structural changes, management philosophy, government policy,
product and human skills mix, and competition.

E. Developing of Human Resource Plan:

This step refers to the development and implementation of the human resource plan, which
consists in finding out the sources of labour supply with a view to making an effective use of
these sources. The first thing, therefore, is to decide on the policy should the personnel be
hired from within through promotional channels or should it be obtained from an outside
source.

The best policy which is followed by most organisations is to fill up higher vacancies by
promotion and lower level positions by recruitment from the labour market. The market is a
geographical area from which employers recruit their work force and labour seeks
employment
 4 Discuss in details the Employee Exit Process.

Employee exit management is the process used within many businesses to terminate employees
contracts in a professional manner. It applies to employees who have resigned and those that
have been terminated by the company.

Employee Exit process

Employee exit process ensures that all the documentation and processes are followed in a professional
manner by organizations and businesses.

The employee who wants to resign will discuss with his Manager, submits his resignation to his
Manager. The Manager should put his comments on the resignation letter and forward it to HR.
(these comments can be To be relieved by dd/mm/yyyy, or some other special comments) HR on
receipt of the Resignation letter, enters in the software, the date of receipt of resignation letter, terms
and conditions of resignation if any special is there. and comments of Manager, the payroll changes
are made accordingly as per the relieving date decided, the software generates the receipt of
resignation letter, along with a no dues format, with employee name, roll no, dept already pre-
printed on the no dues format. These letters and format are handed over by HR to employee, +
details of PF transfer forms, withdrawal forms as applicable. All the payroll changes, PF changes
are scheduled to take action on the relieving date in software. HR prepares the matter of Relieving
letter and gives it to the Manager for suggestions / comments. The relieving letter is kept ready.
Usually before / on the relieving day or some 2 days ago, the employee submits all no dues, and
other forms to the HR and takes his relieving letter. The sample questions below will help to
facilitate these goals. They must be used as soon as the employee and the organization are aware
that the employee will be leaving. It is only appropriate not to leave these questions until the exit
interview. How will the employees knowledge be advantageous to the organization; their opinions,
experience, introductions to their contacts, colleagues etc., before the employee leaves? Will the
employees meet up happily with managers or successor or colleagues to advise them so that the
organization will benefit from their knowledge and experience before their departure? How to
help the employees to pass on knowledge and experience to their successor before they leave the
organization? How and when will the employee prefer to pass on knowledge to the successor?
How does the organization agree for this knowledge to be transferred? Are employees happy to
help the organization by naming a successor? Employers or HR managers will get the most for the
organization and be able to best help to the departing employee by being positive, constructive,
understanding and helpful, prior to and during the exit interview process. Treat people with respect
and dignity, and usually they will respond in kind.

5 What are the benefits of setting up a training academy?

Answer:

Organizations set up training academies where they provide a training course with/without certification in the
area of their specialization to fresher candidates. Sometimes candidates with lesser experience are also
considered. The candidates are charged fees for this course and are hired on successful completion of the
course. The setting up of the academy involves answering the below mentioned questions:
Why set up an academy?
Who will do the training?
Where will the training be conducted?
How will it be conducted?

Benefits of setting up a Training Academy

By setting up an academy, an organization can get following benefits:
(1) Reduced Hiring Costs As lesser number of employees will be hired by using consultants and
more number of students will be hired from the training academy, the hiring cost is reduced. Also the
organization generates revenue on every candidate trained.
(2) Reduced Training Cost During the training period the candidates are not paid salary, so the cost
of salaries paid during the training period is saved. The cost of salaries is a big component of training
costs. For a BPO offering an average salary of INR 10,000 per month and a training duration of 2
months. Salary costs are INR 20,000 per employee during training. It may have hired 1000 employees
last year and trained them and borne the cost of 2 Crores towards salaries during training. But by
setting up an academy it saves on 2 crores in terms of salary costs.
(3) Reduced Training Period Train to Hire process completely concentrates on training the new
candidates, only the selected candidates are paid at the end of the training. As a large chunk of the
training is conducted by the academy, the training period of the company reduces substantially. Their
go-live time is the shortest.
(4) Improved Bench Strength The organization has ready replacements available in case of
employee turnover or any additional manpower required for expansion. The academy always has
excess people than what the organization requires. This gives the organization the flexibility to
backfill at short notice and expands the business in the shortest possible time. The candidates ready in
waiting to join the organization is called the bench strength.

The Who and Where part of the questions can be explained as follows: Academy is the centre
where the training would take place. The organization has to first decide whether the training will be
conducted by the in-house trainers or it will be outsourced to vendors who have expertise in the
required training subject.

Once this is decided, the organization identifies a place for the Training Academy where the training
would take place. Training Academy is either situated in the existing part of the organizations
premises or a low cost area where the cost of land is relatively cheap. Organizations set up the
Training Academy in the existing premises because it saves them any additional cost and makes it
easier to make resources available to the candidates.

Sometimes, the organization is reluctant to use its office space to avoid any administrative issues,
maintain safety, and avoid information leakage about their products or schemes etc. These issues may
arise due to having candidates inside the premise, who are yet not the organizations employees.
Therefore, the Training Academy is set up outside the company premises.
Other reasons for different premises are:
(i) Not enough space in the company premises
(ii) Organization reluctant to have the Academy in their premises
(iii) Training outsourced to a vendor

When the academy is to be set up in another location, then a low cost area is identified where the cost
of land is relatively cheap. When the Train to Hire process is outsourced fully or partly to a vendor,
the centre could be provided or arranged for by the vendor. This saves the organization any
administrative burdens. The other reason could be that the organization is looking at the academy as a
separate business venture.

Benefits of setting up an academy for the organizations for the company, managers, and employees
are :-

FOR THE COMPANY

Reinforce corporate strategy, culture, and vision.
Establish expectations for performance excellence, resulting in a systematic approach to professional
development, improved job satisfaction, and better employee retention.
Increase the effectiveness of training and professional development programs by linking them to the
success criteria (i.e., behavioral standards of excellence).
Provide a common framework and language for discussing how to implement and communicate key
strategies.
Provide a common understanding of the scope and requirements of a specific role.
Provide common, organization-wide standards for career levels that enable employees to move
across business boundaries.

FOR MANAGERS:
Identify performance criteria to improve the accuracy and ease of the hiring and selection process.
Provide more objective performance standards.
Clarify standards of excellence for easier communication of performance expectations to direct
reports.
Provide a clear foundation for dialogue to occur between the manager and employee about
performance, development, and career-related issues.

FOR EMPLOYEES:
Identify the success criteria (i.e., behavioral standards of performance excellence) required to be
successful in their role.
Support a more specific and objective assessment of their strengths and specify targeted areas for
professional development.
Provide development tools and methods for enhancing their skills.
Provide the basis for a more objective dialogue with their manager or team about performance,
development, and career related issues

6 Write short notes on the following:

a)Competency Mapping
 Competency mapping identifies an individual's strengths and weaknesses. The aim is to
enable the person to better understand himself or herself and to point out where career
development efforts need to be directed. Competencies are derived from specific job families
within the organization and are often grouped around categories such as strategy,
relationships, innovation, leadership, risk-taking, decision-making, emotional intelligence,
etc.
The steps involved in competency mapping are presented below:

1. Conduct a job analysis by asking incumbents to complete a position information

questionnaire(PIQ). This can be provided for incumbents to complete, or used as a
basis for conducting one-on-one interviews using the PIQ as a guide. The primary
goal is to gather from incumbents what they feel are the key behaviors necessary to
perform their respective jobs.

2. Using the results of the job analysis, a competency based job description is developed.
It is developed after carefully analyzing the input from the represented group of
incumbents and converting it to standard competencies.

3. With a competency based job description, mapping the competencies can be done.
The competencies of the respective job description become factors for assessment on
the performance evaluation. Using competencies will help to perform more objective
evaluations based on displayed or not displayed behaviors.

4. Taking the competency mapping one step further, one can use the results of ones
evaluation to identify in what competencies individuals need additional development
or training. This will help in focusing on training needs required to achieve the goals
of the position and company and help the employees develop toward the ultimate
success of the organization.

b)Succession Planning

Succession planning is a process for identifying and developing new leaders who can
replace old leaders when they leave, retire or die. In dictatorships, it aims for continuity of
leadership, preventing a chaotic power struggle by preventing a power vacuum. One of the
types of career planning is succession planning. Succession planning is a technique for
identifying and developing internal employees with the potential to fill important
organizational positions. Succession planning ensures the availability of experienced, skilled
and competent employees that are prepared to assume these roles as they become available.
Succession planning increases the progress of qualified employees from individual
contributors to managers and leaders. Thus:
It prepares present employees to undertake key roles
It develops talent and long-term growth of employees
It improves workforce capacities and performance of employee
It improves employee commitment and thus enables retention of employees
It ensures its support to employees throughout their employment term
 It meets the career development requirements of existing employees
It understands the increasing difficulty of recruiting employees externally
It focuses on leadership continuity and improved knowledge sharing
It provides more efficiency in monitoring and tracking of employee proficiency levels and skill
gaps.