India is being widely recognized as one of the most exciting emerging economics in the world.

Besides becoming a global hub of outsourcing, Indian firms are spreading their wings globally
through mergers and acquisitions. During the first four months of 1997, Indian companies have
bought 34 foreign companies for about U.S. $11 billion dollars. This impressive development has
been due to a growth in inputs (capital and labor) as well as factor productivity. By the year 2020,
India is expected to add about 250 million to its labour pool at the rate of about 18 million a year,
which is more than the entire labour force of Germany. This so called ‘demographic dividend’ has
drawn a new interest in the Human Resource concepts and practices in India.

Indian HRM in Transition

One of the noteworthy features of the Indian workplace is demographic uniqueness. It is

estimated that both China and India will have a population of 1.45 billion people by 2030;
however, India will have a larger workforce than China. Indeed, it is likely India will have
986 million people of working age in 2030, which will probably be about 300 million more
than in 2007. And by 2050, it is expected India will have 230 million more workers than
China and about 500 million more than the United States of America (U.S.). It may be noted
that half of India’s current population of 1.1 billion people are under of 25 years of age.
While this fact is a demographic dividend for the economy, it is also a danger sign for the
country’s ability to create new jobs at an unprecedented rate.

With the retirement age being 55 to 58 years of age in most public sector organizations,
Indian workplaces are dominated by youth. Increasing the retirement age in critical areas
like universities, schools, hospitals, research institutions and public service is a topic of
considerable current debate and agenda of political parties.

The divergent view, that each society has a unique set of national nuances, which guide
particular managerial beliefs and actions, is being challenged in Indian society. An emerging
dominant perspective is the influence of globalization on technological advancements,
business management, and education and communication infrastructures are leading to a
converging effect on managerial mindsets and business behaviors. And when India
embraced liberalization and economic reform in the early 1990s, dramatic changes were set
in motion in terms of corporate mindsets and HRM practices as a result of global imperatives
and accompanying changes in societal priorities. Indeed, the onset of a burgeoning
competitive service sector compelled a demographic shift in worker educational status and
heightened the demand for job relevant skills as well as regional diversity. Expectedly, there
has been a marked shift towards valuing human resources (HR) in Indian organizations as
they become increasingly strategy driven as opposed to the culture of the status quo.
Accordingly, competitive advantage in industries like software services, pharmaceuticals,
and biotechnology (where India is seeking to assert global dominance), the significance of
HRs is being emphasized. These relativities were demonstrated in a recent study of three
global Indian companies with (235 managers) when evidence was presented that positively
linked the HRM practices with organizational performance. In spite of this trend of
convergence, a deep sense of locality exists creating more robust ‘cross vengeance’ in the
conceptual as well as practical domain.

Key HRM Practices in Indian Organizations

HRM Practice Observable Features

Percentage of employees with formally defined work roles is very high in the
Job Description
public sector.

Strong dependence on formal labour market. Direct recruitment from

institutions of higher learning is very common amongst management,
Recruitment engineering and similar professional cadres. Amongst other vehicles,
placement agencies, internet and print media are the most popular medium for
recruitment.

Strong emphasis on security and lifetime employment in public sector

Compensation including a range of facilities like, healthcare, housing and schooling for
children.

Training and Poorly institutionalized in Indian organisations. Popularity of training

Development programs and their effect in skill and value development undeveloped.
Key HRM Practices in Indian Organizations

HRM Practice Observable Features

Performance A very low coverage of employees under formal performance appraisal and
Appraisal rewards or organisational goals

Moderately variable across industries. Seniority systems still dominate the

Promotion and
public sector enterprises. Use of merit and performance limited mostly to
Reward
globally orientated industries.

Limited in scope. The seniority based escalator system in the public sector
provides stability and progression in career. Widespread use of voluntary
Career Planning
retirement scheme in public sector by high performing staff. Cross functional
career paths uncommon.

Driven by proactive court rulings, ILO guidelines and legislature provisions.

Gender Equity
Lack of strategic and inclusion vision spread.

The central government has fixed 15 per cent reservations for scheduled castes,
Reservation
7.5 per cent for scheduled tribes and 27 per cent for backward communities.
System
States vary in their reservation systems.

TOP 10 HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES-POST RECESSION

Top Ten HR Practices that can help you achieve your organizational goals every year:

1. Safe, Healthy and Happy Workplace: Creating a safe, healthy and happy workplace will
ensure that your employees feel homely and stay with your organization for a very long time.
Capture their pulse through employee surveys.

2. Open Book Management Style: Sharing information about contracts, sales, new clients,
management objectives, company policies, employee personal data etc. ensures that the employees
are as enthusiastic about the business as the management. Through this open book process you can
gradually create a culture of participative management and ignite the creative endeavor of your
work force.. It involves making people an interested party to your strategic decisions, thus aligning
them to your business objectives. Be as open as you can. It helps in building trust & motivates
employees. Employee self service portal, Manager on-line etc. are the tools available today to the
management to practice this style.

3. Performance linked Bonuses: Paying out bonuses or having any kind of variable compensation
plan can be both an incentive and disillusionment, based on how it is administered and
communicated. Bonus must be designed in such a way that people understand that there is no
payout unless the company hits a certain level of profitability. Additional criteria could be the
team's success and the individual's performance. Never pay out bonus without measuring
performance, unless it is a statutory obligation.

4. 360 Degree Performance Management Feedback System: This system, which solicits
feedback from seniors (including the boss), peers and subordinates, has been increasingly
embraced as the best of all available methods for collecting performance feedback. Gone are the
days of working hard to impress only one person, now the opinions of all matter, especially if you
are in a leadership role (at any level). Every person in the team is responsible for giving relevant,
positive and constructive feedback. Such systems also help in identifying leaders for higher level
positions in the organization. Senior managers could use this feedback for self development.

5. Fair Evaluation System for Employees: Develop an evaluation system that clearly links
individual performance to corporate business goals and priorities. Each employee should have well
defined reporting relationships. Self rating as a part of evaluation process empowers employees.
Evaluation becomes fairer if it is based on the records of periodic counseling & achievements of
the employee, tracked over the year. For higher objectivity, besides the immediate boss, each
employee should be screened by the next higher level (often called a Reviewer). Cross – functional
feedback, if obtained by the immediate boss from another manager (for whom this employee's
work is also important), will add to the fairness of the system. Relative ratings of all subordinates
reporting to the same manager are another tool for fairness of evaluation. Normalization of
evaluation is yet another dimension of improving fairness.

6. Knowledge Sharing: Adopt a systematic approach to ensure that knowledge management

supports strategy. Store knowledge in databases to provide greater access to information posted
either by the company or the employees on the knowledge portals of the company. When an
employee returns after attending any competencies or skills development program, sharing
essential knowledge with others could be made mandatory. Innovative ideas (implemented at the
work place) are good to be posted on these knowledge sharing platforms. However, what to store
& how to maintain a Knowledge base requires deep thinking to avoid clutter.

7. Highlight performers: Create profiles of top performers and make these visible through
company intranet, display boards etc. It will encourage others to put in their best, thereby creating
a competitive environment within the company. If a systems approach is followed to shortlist high
performers, you can surely avoid disgruntlements.

8. Open house discussions and feedback mechanism: Ideas rule the world. Great organizations
recognize, nurture and execute great ideas. Employees are the biggest source of ideas. The only
thing that can stop great ideas flooding your organization is the lack of an appropriate mechanism
to capture ideas. Open house discussions, employee-management meets, suggestion boxes and
ideas capture tools such as Critical Incidents diaries are the building blocks that can help the
Managers to identify & develop talent.

9. Reward Ceremonies: Merely recognizing talent does not work, you need to couple it with
ceremonies where recognition is broadcast. Looking at the Dollar Check is often less significant
than listening to the thunderous applause by colleagues in a public forum.

10. Delight Employees with the Unexpected: The last but not least way is to occasionally delight
your employees with unexpected things that may come in the form of a reward, a gift or a well-
done certificate. Reward not only the top performers but also a few others who are in need of
motivation to exhibit their potential.

The field of Human Resource Management is developing very fast & every department of human
activity is realizing its importance in the smooth functioning of the organization. Innovative
techniques are developed to improve the work culture, so that the employees are motivated to give
in their best to the organization. There is tough competition everywhere & to survive with grace,
one will have to accept the changes in this modern world and adopt the latest human resources
practices. Those who refuse to change will be left behind & will have to accept defeat. So it is
imperative to implement the latest human resource practices in the organization.

The latest techniques in the field of Human Resource Development are:

Employees for Lease: Sometimes the organizations depend upon consultancy agencies or
individual consultants for their expertise to tap and utilize their expert knowledge. The consultancy
agencies offer expert advice and the execution of the advice is left to the employees of the
organization. The employees may in some of the cases fail to covert the know-how into a project.
Under such circumstances, new types of organizations will emerge, which would be called as
Employee Leasing Organization. These leasing organizations will be principal employers and send
the required number and kind of employees to various organizations on lease basis. They collect
the fee & other charges from various industries & pay the salaries, provide benefits to the
employees. The Leasing company will pay complete salary and benefits to the employees
irrespective of the number of days that the employee is sent to various organizations on lease.

This type of agreement is beneficial to the leasing company, specialist employees and the industry.
The industry with limited budget can utilize the expert advice & service of most competent human
resources.

Moonlighting by Employees: This is a situation, which arises among employees on account of

dissatisfaction from present wage & salary structure. They feel that employer enjoys the increased
profit and that they are being exploited by the employer. Consequently they agitate for hike in
wages or take up another part-time job or business simultaneously with that of the original job.
This is also known as Double Jobbing.

Moonlighting by employees affects almost all the functions of Human Resource Management. The
effects of Moonlighting would be mostly negative & it poses challenges to the personnel manager.
Presently very limited number of employees does moonlighting, but the number of employees will
go on increasing due to change in employee values & expectations. Management will have to take
all possible care in selection process about the possibility of moonlighting by the prospective
candidates.

Dual Career Groups: There has been a tremendous increase in the number of female employees
in all types of organizations due to:

* increased career orientation among women in recent years.

* creation of variety of jobs.

* higher level commitment

* better performance.

* Less demanding & agitative oriented.

* Economic Freedom.

* Better Social Status.

* Aspirations for quality of work life.

Due to dual career groups, both wife & husband will be loaded with grievances & problems as
both of them share their problems, both at work and off the job. In view of overloading of the
problems to both the members in dual career groups, they spend heir time and energy in solving
the problems or in getting the grievances redressed for both the parties. So, there will be possibility
of less commitment to the work in the organization by both the parties.

Due to this new trend in HR, in a nutshell, the HR manager should treat people as resources, reward
them equitably, and integrate their aspirations with corporate goals through suitable HR policies.

Flexi-time & Flexi-work: The number of hours in a day, number of days in a week and work
schedule when the worker has to perform is normally stated in the Job Description. The concept
of Flexi-time has been introduced in order to suit the convenience of the workers without affecting
the organizational functioning. Flexi-time is a program that allows flexible entry and leaving times
for employees. Flexi-time increases productivity, decline in absenteeism, and reduction in
employee turnover & increase in morale.

Flexi-work: It is a program that allows flexibility in handling the type of work in various
departments of the organizations in systematic way by the employee during his tenure of
employment in an organization. For example, a candidate may be selected as a clerk in the
Personnel Department and after two years he may be allowed to take up work in any other
department of the organization.

Training & Development: Organizations spend a lot of time and resources in training, developing
and educating their employees in tune with the job awareness and organizations' requirements.
This is mostly due to the absence of linkage between the industry and universities. Organizations
in future will establish their own educational institutes. These institutes will frame their course
curriculum to suit the requirements of various jobs in the organization as a whole. These institutes
will go on changing the course curriculum depending upon the changes in technology, work
methods, production process, activities and so on. The intake of these institutes depends on
exclusive requirements of organization. After the completion of the course, the candidate will be
awarded a diploma and absorbed by the organization. This management arrangement will
automatically take care of the problem of unemployment and underemployment. This arrangement
will also minimize the duration of time to be spent by the candidate in his educational process.

Management Participation in Employees' Organizations: With the formation and recognition

of employees' organizations, the management cannot make unilateral decisions those affect
employee relationship directly or indirectly. Decisions relating to policies on employment,
training, transfer, promotion, adoption of latest technology etc. are no longer determined by
unilateral action of management and must now be discussed with the representatives of employees'
organizations. Decisions on the policies and administration may still rest with management, but
they are frequently subject to question and criticism by union representatives under a formal
grievance procedure. This technique enables the two parties to exchange ideas, opinions,
information and knowledge to understand each other's viewpoint, with an open mind and thereby
avoid all misunderstandings. Thus, the management representatives may provide effective plans,
suggestions, advice organization and directions for sound management and functioning of
federations and unions for the common good of both the parties.

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING: is an institutional process for solving problems arising directly

out of employer-employee relationships. Through collective bargaining. the two parties become
responsive to each other. Employees ventilate their problems relating to wages, employee benefits
etc. while the management puts forth its demands regarding employee co-operation and
commitment so as to maximize its profits. Thus, the two parties discuss the problem and each party
tries to solve the problems of the other. The scope of collective bargaining is wider as the solutions
for common problems can be found directly through negotiations between both the parties.

COLLABORATIVE MANAGEMENT: It is the general practice that the owners and/or their
representatives manage the organization. But most of the organizations have started allowing their
employees to participate in management. It is viewed that different parties concerned with the
organizational activities will manage the organization through participation. Such type of
management system is referred as 'Collaborative Management'. Employee's participation in
management was initiated to satisfy workers' psychological needs, to develop a sense of
belongingness and loyalty to the organization.

Change is the law of nature. It is necessary way of life in different circles. Though there may be
some discontentment during the early days of change, people learn to meet the changes and adopt
themselves to the changing situations. The management in future will try to:

* Give up authoritarian style of leadership and adopt participative style of leadership.

* Follow human relations approach and partnership approach towards employees.

* Encourage creative skills and abilities and reward those talents.

* Shift the emphasis from legal and rule bounded approach

* Participate in trade union activities; recognize human resource as a profit centre and as a basic
instrument to earn profits rather than as a cost centre.

* Understand the fact that human resource management will dominate all other functional areas of
management.

Further, the role of all Personnel Manager will also change. Those changes will be as follows:

* Personnel manager and individual manager will give emphasis on overall development of human
resources.
* Human Resource Management function will be extended to cover career planning and
development, organization and development, organize climate, role analysis, national wage policy,
social justice etc.

Today competition is very tough and if an organization has to survive in the race gracefully, it has
to constantly upgrade its skills and sharpen its capabilities. Many new techniques are implemented
in the organizations to motivate the employees and to help them perform to their optimum capacity.
By using the above-mentioned techniques and many other programs, the organization tries to make
the workers and employees more competent, committed & comfortable to do a given job.

HR Managers should do the following things to ensure success-

 Use workforce skills and abilities in order to exploit environmental opportunities and
neutralize threats.
 Employ innovative reward plans that recognize employee contributions and grant
enhancements.
 Indulge in continuous quality improvement through TQM and HR contributions like
training, development, counseling, etc
 Utilize people with distinctive capabilities to create unsurpassed competence in an area,
e.g. Xerox in photocopiers, 3M in adhesives, Telco in trucks etc.
 Lay off workers in a smooth way explaining facts to unions, workers and other affected
groups e.g. IBM, Kodak, Xerox, etc.

HR Managers today are focusing attention on the following-

 Policies- HR policies based on trust, openness, equity and consensus.

 Motivation- Create conditions in which people are willing to work with zeal, initiative and
enthusiasm; make people feel like winners.
 Relations- Fair treatment of people and prompt redress of grievances would pave the way
for healthy work-place relations.
 Change agent- Prepare workers to accept technological changes by clarifying doubts.
 Quality Consciousness- Commitment to quality in all aspects of personnel administration
will ensure success.
  Due to the new trends in HR, in a nutshell the HR manager should treat people as resources,
reward them equitably, and integrate their aspirations with corporate goals through suitable
HR policies.

NEW TREND OF UPGRADING TALENT

A downturn can give smart companies a chance to upgrade their talent.

Downturns place companies' talent strategies at risk. As deteriorating performance forces

increasingly aggressive headcount reductions, it's easy to lose valuable contributors inadvertently,
damage morale or the company's external reputation among potential employees, or drop the ball
on important training and staff-development programs. But there is a better way. By emphasizing
talent in cost-cutting efforts, employers can intelligently strengthen the value proposition they offer
current and potential employees and position themselves strongly for growth when economic
conditions improve.

Companies can maintain their attractiveness to internal and external talent by using cost-cutting
efforts as an opportunity to redesign jobs so that they become more engaging for the people
undertaking them. A job's level of responsibility, degree of autonomy, and span of control all
contribute to employee satisfaction. Headcount reductions provide a powerful incentive to use
existing resources better by breaking down silos and increasing the span of control for challenging
managerial roles-thus improving the odds of engaging key talent in the redesigned jobs.

In addition to redesigning roles, companies cutting jobs should carefully protect training and
development programs. These are not only essential to maintaining workplace morale and
increasing long-term productivity, but they also give people the skills necessary to carry out
redesigned jobs that have greater spans of control. During the last recession, International Paper
continued offering classes at its leadership institute by replacing external facilitators with the
company's senior leaders. This approach not only reduced the cost of delivery but also, thanks to
the involvement of senior leaders, redirected the content of the leadership program by tying it more
closely to decisions and skills affecting the company's current performance.

Before undertaking widespread layoffs, companies should use their performance-management

processes to help identify strong employees. Companies that conduct disciplined, meritocratic
assessments of performance and potential are well placed to make good personnel decisions. These
companies should also bring additional strategic considerations to the decisions. They should
assess which types of talent drive business value today and which will drive it three years from
now, as well as which talent segments are currently available and which will be in the future-
keeping in mind, for example, that new MBAs will be equally available in two years. They should
also look at which types of talent would take years to replace or develop-for instance, skilled
electric utility engineers in an environment where retirements are dramatically reducing supply.
Performance management well informed by key strategic questions can minimize the negative
cultural impact of downsizing, improve the bottom line, and help identify talented people the
company should try to retain.

Companies that are reducing staff must focus relentlessly on the internal cultural and external
reputational implications of cost-cutting efforts. Although strong employer brands are resilient, it's
difficult to reestablish brand strength once the culture has been damaged. The way many
companies conduct large-scale downsizing decreases efficiency, morale, and motivation on the
part of remaining employees. It also increases voluntary turnover among high performers and
compromises a company's ability to attract strong talent in the future, as potential employees
wonder how risky it is to take a job there.

Counteracting these tendencies requires creativity. Some companies gave generous severance
packages and assistance with job searches to the workers it laid off and launched a program that
paid one-third of salary, plus benefits and stock options, to ex-employees who agreed to work for
a local charity or community organization. Steps like these protected Cisco's employer brand by
attempting to make departing employees feel better about Cisco and underscored the company's
commitment to its people for those who remained. The results were measurable: employee
satisfaction remained high, and Cisco retained a prominent spot on Fortune magazine's "Best
Companies to Work For" list.

A strong employer brand is also important for companies undertaking selective recruitment even
as they cut personnel costs elsewhere. Using slowdowns to uncover and hire displaced talent is
often fruitful. Studies have shown that although overall levels of recruitment may level off or even
fall, the quality of workers hired rises in recessions. And opportunities to find and hire displaced
talent may be particularly valuable during this downturn, as massive downsizing in the financial-
services sector makes available to nonfinancial companies a large pool of highly educated and
motivated professionals who previously might not have considered jobs outside their previous
employers or industries.

Some organizations are moving surprisingly quickly in response to these opportunities in the talent
market. Many standing in line for three hours to learn more about an employer that offered a newly
interesting brand of "job stability."

Cost cutting during a downturn is often necessary to ensure a company's current profitability and
future competitiveness. Rather than freezing all hiring and employee-development programs,
companies should use this period as an opportunity to upgrade talent and better engage existing
staff. This means reinventing a percentage of the capital liberated from cost cutting into, for
example, selective recruiting and development programs and in efforts to safeguard the culture
and to redesign jobs so that they are more engaging to the remaining employees.