HR Formulas

1. Attrition Rate
Total number of people left the organization in the period / (Headcount at the
start of the period + Heads recruited during the period)

2. Manpower Turnover
Total number of left the organization in the period / Average headcount in
the period

3. Human Capital ROI

This measures the return on capital invested in pay and benefits. The
formula is:
Revenue - Nonhuman Expenses/Pay and Benefits
Pay includes all money spent on regular and contingent labor.

4. Human Capital Value Added

This uses a similar formula to Human Capital ROI but divides by the
number of full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). The formula is:
Revenue - Nonhuman Expenses/Full-Time Equivalents

This yields a profit per FTE. These two measures are views of the
profitability attributable to human effort.

5. Human Capital Cost

This is simply the average pay per regular employee. The formula is:
Pay + Benefits + Contingent Labor Cost/Full-Time Equivalents

It can be augmented by added in contingent labor. In that case, we would

take total labor expenses, including benefits costs, and divide by FTEs,
including contingents.

6. Human Economic Value Added

This is net operating profit after tax, minus the cost of capital divided by
FTEs, including contingent labor. The formula is:

Net operating profit after tax - Cost of capital/FTEs

7. Human Market Value Added

This divides market capitalization by FTEs, including contingents. The
formula is:
Market Capitalization/FTEs

INTERVIEW SKILLS

Assess on
• Competence: Can he / she do the job ?
• Motivation: Will he / she do the job ?
• Match: Will he / she fit in (Team / organisation )?

Interview structure
1. Opening, rapport building and basic knock out items
2. Current and previous roles
3. Aspirations and Awareness
4. Education and upbringing
5. Circumstances and interests
6. Closing, wrap up

Current and Previous Roles

• Tell me about your career to date starting with your current job and
responsibilities?
• How did your interest in this job develop?
• How are you measured? How well are you doing comparatively? Why?
• What are the most satisfying aspect of your role, and the most frustrating?
(What do you enjoy most, and the least?)
• What aspect of your job is the most challenging (and easiest)?
• What part of the job do you consider to be your most successful? Why?
and least successful?
• What are your greatest achievements at work? Most significant
disappointment or failures?
• What is the most complex task you have undertaken?
• Take me through your typical working day?
• Tell me about your current and previous bosses. (What kind of people are
they? The best, the worst )
• Tell me about your previous roles? - Why did you move? What factors
influenced your move to ..? How would you describe your career to date?
• Describe the work you do.
• Why do you like your work?
• What areas of your work that you do not enjoy?
• Why do you describe your achievements as achievements?
• What areas do you need to improve in?
• If I were to ask your Manager to describe you, what do you think he would
say?
• If I were to ask the people in your team to describe you what would they
say?
• What are your goals for the next 3 years?
• What would you like to be remembered for?
• How would you do things differently in your work?
• What are the points when you find people in your team getting stressed?
• When do you feel stressed? Can you tell me about the last time you got
stressed?
• If you had to run your team (or company), what would be your priorities?
• What are the 3 most critical things in your job?
• How do you handle your people? If they have a grievance, what do you
do?
• How do you check for quality?
• When do you know there is a quality problem?
• What do you do about it in your present job?
• When you retire what would you like people to say about you?

Aspirations and Awareness

• What are the most important factors you consider before taking a job? How
should it be structured to provide you with satisfaction? What motivates you
(and demotivates)
• Where do you want to be in two years time?
• What do you see as your strengths and limitations? (what will help you
achieve your aspirations?)
• How would your colleagues / boss customers describe you, etc.?
• Anything you would like to change about yourself? Why?
• What do you see as the qualities of a successful ...?
• How do you stack up against them? (strongest / weakest ) What experience
have you had using these skills? and evidence
• To what extent do you consider that progress in your role or career is
representative of your ability?
• How do you cope with conflict? (Any examples?)
• What have been the high points in your life?
• What have been the low points?
• What would you have like to have done differently?
• What do you consider have been the critical points in your life?
• How would you describe your life today?
• Which role in your life do you enjoy the most?
• What do you like about yourself? What do you not like about yourself?
What are you proud of in life ?

Education and Upbringing

• Tell me about your education - any achievements, any regrets / How

successful were you? Would you recommend that your younger
brother/sister goes to the same school? Why?
• Why did you study (etc.) and why select.......?
• What did you learn out of university which is relevant to a .....role?
• Apart from your studies what other university activities did you get
involved with / How do you relate that experience to your career?
• In retrospect do you feel you should have done something different?
• Tell me about your childhood? How do you get on with your parents ( On
which occasions have you disagreed with your parents)
• What sort of expectations did your parents have about your career and
education? What do your brothers and sisters do (older, younger)? Have you
discussed this job with your parents?
• Who has influenced you the most? Why?
• How do you relate to your father/mother?
• Who has most influenced your personal development?
• What would you have liked to study if you had a chance all over again?
• What do you like about your studies?
• How much of it do you feel applies to your work now?
• Which areas do you think you need to upgrade yourself?
• What do you think of the present education system?
• What are your colleagues doing now?
• What relevance do grades have to the workplace?

Circumstances and Interests

• How is your health? Any days off in the last year?

• What is the most serious illness you have had?
• Any plans for marriage? (for non married people)
• What are your major interests outside work? Any notable achievements?
How much time do you devote to your leisure activities?
• Any positions of responsibility? How did you come to be ...? Why do you
think you were selected? What is involved in the role? How successful
were / are you?
• What do you know about the IT scenario in India? Describe.
• Can you compare your approach to your work versus leisure activities?
• What risks do you see in moving to... (Company)
• What do you do in your spare time?
• How do you divide your time between your professional growth and
personal growth? What is the nature of investments made?
• Have you attempted to carry on your early interests? What prevented this?
• What do you expect your company to do to enhance your interests?
• How watertight are your interests from your work?

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8 THINGS YOU SHOULD NOT DO IN GROU[P DISCUSSION

8 things you should NOT do in a GD

Kshipra Singh

March 18, 2008

A group discussion or GD, is a form of many-on-many discussion. It has become an

inseparable part of admissions to management institutes and your selection in
campus interviews.

A GD is held to identify certain traits that companies and institutes like to see in their
employees or students. Let's take a look at the traits which the evaluators look out
for in a candidate during the GD.

~ Knowledge: Whatever you do in a GD, your knowledge about the subject can't be
replaced by anything else. You are required to talk in a GD but inputs that don't
contain any substantial value will not help in any way. Be a voracious reader to
increase your knowledge on various subjects. Newspapers, TV, magazines, news
portals etc are great sources of knowledge.

~ Alertness and presence of mind: In a GD you are required to carefully listen to the
other person's thoughts and keep an argument, example or a supportive statement,
fact, example ready to participate in the discussion. Here comes into picture your
alertness and ability to think and act immediately. As you participate in a GD, make
sure that you sit with an attentive mind and keep taking down the relevant points
put forward by others.
7 ways to initiate a B-school group discussion

~ Communication: You may have a lot of good points to put across but if you can't
communicate them clearly, you won't stand a chance when it comes to impressing
the evaluators. Practice communicating in a clear and effective way with your
friends, family or study group.

~ Confidence: Your self confidence adds a lot of value to your candidature. Look at
every group member as you speak, avoid too much hand movement and looking at
evaluators.

~ Leadership and team skills: Your participation in a GD clearly establishes not only
your leadership skills but also your capability to work in a team. To meet the
objectives, a good leader has to be a team player.

~ Goal orientation: Since so many people participate in a GD, the chances of the
discussion moving away from the subject are high. Your focus on the goal can get
you some extra points.

Now, as you are being evaluated for the above discussed traits, you must avoid
things that can work to your disadvantage and might cost you the selection. Here are
some things that you must avoid doing as a GD participant:

~ Initiating the discussion without proper subject knowledge

Although initiating the discussion helps you get the immediate attention of the
evaluators, sharing irrelevant details just for teh sake of talking can work to your
disadvantage. Start first only if you know the subject well otherwise wait for others
to start and get a feel of the subject before entering into the discussion.

~ Snatching another's chance to speak

Give your group members a chance to speak. Talking more won't get you through
the GD. In fact it will give the evaluators a feeling that you are not a team player.
Making short and relevant contributions of 20-30 seconds 3-4 times in the discussion
is enough.

Group discussions: Myths demystified

~ Interrupting others

Let the other person finish his comment before you speak. Interrupting someone is
counted as a negative trait. Remember, it is a discussion not a debate. Don't jump at
the conclusions. Listen carefully to the other person before putting your point across.
~ Dialogue
In a GD you are expected to communicate with all the members of the group. Do not
keep looking at one person while talking. Establish eye contact with all the members
of the group. It is a many-on-many discussion not one-on-one.

~ Shouting or dominating
Keep you emotions in check. Do not try to dominate the others or let your emotions
rule you. Sometimes it might happen that a group member might say something that
hurts your feelings such as a comment on your race or religion, make sure that you
do not get into an argument. Your focus should be to effectively meet the goals of
GD topic.

'I nailed my IIM group discussion & interview!'

~ Showing off
You have to put across your knowledge on the subject during the GD but you have to
be very careful about the thin demarcation between showing off and knowledge
sharing. For eg, using statistics and facts during the GD is a good thing to do but you
must not overdo it enough to nauseate the group members.

~ Low self confidence or insecurities

As we have seen earlier, one of the traits evaluated during a GD is your self
confidence. Do not hesitate to speak confidently, even if you might be short of ideas
or knowledge on the subject. Listen to others and put across your thoughts in a clear
and audible voice. Make sure that you make eye contact with all the group members.

~ Slang and negative gestures

GD is a formal discussion. Avoid informal words and negative gestures. For eg avoid
words like gonna, wanna, ya etc. Similarly avoid gestures like pointing fingers,
tapping the desk with the pen.

If you ensure that you do not commit these mistakes during the GD, you will not
have to worry too much about the negative marks and your chances of getting
through it also become much brighter.