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Q.1 What are the functions that HR attempts to fulfill in any organization.

Answer: - A human Relations Programme thereby attempts at enhancing employee mot ivation and workplace morale through an improved three-way communications and th rough employee participation in the decision making processes. Human relations s eek to emphasise 'employee' aspects of work rather than technical or economic as pects. For example while it might be in the best interest of an organization to have a employee skilled and completely proficient in one job/ set or responsibil ities, todays organization provides opportunities for employees to multi-skill and acquire knowledge of new yet related jobs/responsibilities. These acts as a mot ivator for employees as they benefit by learning new skills / jobs and given an opportunity can perform and excel in another job. It also seeks to make employme nt and working conditions less impersonal. The human relations approach emphasis es policies and techniques designed to improve employee morale and job satisfact ion. For example it is common place in organizations to provide for / encourage employee empowerment where-in the team brings about creative measures to reduce cost/ improve customer satisfaction. Such teams design and implement self-driven initiatives to bring about the business result. It is believed that this is acc ompanied by increased employee efficiency and reduction in employee dissatisfact ion. An understanding of emerging workplace human behaviour can be summarised as: i) Assist the manager to develop a better realization of how his own attitudes a nd behaviour play a part in everyday affairs of the team and its morale; ii) Assist the manager to develop a keener sensitivity towards the team members and interpersonal dynamics. iii) Partner with the managers in helping him drive the business goals and take part ownership of work challenges and how best to resolve them . iv) Enable him to anticipate and prevent problems, or at least to resolve more e ffectively those that he cannot avoid; and v) Network with other teams with related dependencies and help resolve inter-tea m business impacting challenges. This Scope of Human Relations springs up from the problems which have many diffe rent causes and perspectives. Halloran has stated these as: Every person brings a unique set of talents, ambitions and work experience to a job. These personal attributes change over time, often as a result of the degree of success or failure the person experiences in the work world. Matching so man y unique sets of personal qualities to a standardized technology can create prob lems. The organizational aspects of a company, such as its size, geographic location, ec onomic health, and degree of automation, define the scope of work and the activi ty in each work division. These frequently arbitrary, structural definitions oft en cause difficulties in human relations. Innovations in technology and production methods generally require the restructuri ng of job roles and responsibilities. Radical changes in basic organizational st ructure can cause severe strains between employees and management and create int ense problems in human relations. Promotion of individuals to positions of greater responsibility and authority gen erally creates a need for changed behaviour patterns between the new supervisors and their former peers, which in time, can create human relations problems.

Inexperienced employees may not be able to perform their roles or tasks in work g roups in a competent manner. The time they take to adjust can not only create pr oblems with production schedules, but can also create particular kinds of human relations problems between them and their coemployees and supervisors. The variety of causes of human relations problems lead to the conclusion that no one programme or single approach can create conditions for good human relations . Therefore, as shared earlier it in common for organizations and individuals in organization to constantly innovate and resolve challenges that will benefit bo th the organization as well as the employee. This helps understand the key HR objectives which can be best illustrated by und erstanding the functions that HR attempts to fulfil in any organization: i) Human Resource Planning estimating the need for resources in order achieve th e desired business results. HR plans can be both short term/immediate as well as long term / strategic. The HR team partners with the line managers to understan d the business goals and targets for the year and then together plan the HR need s in order to meet the goals. ii) Acquisition of human resources staffing the organizations with the right mix of skills and competencies at the right time. It also includes HR initiatives l ike promotions and internal job posting to fulfil this requirement for human res ources. Staffing teams in organizations are usually a separate group of speciali sts who work closely with the line managers to understand the skills and compete ncies needed for the job and engage together to select the best talent for the o pen positions. iii) Training and employee development focuses on managing training activities t o upgrade skills and knowledge as well as soft skills like team building and lea dership. The training team is again a group of HR specialists who propose the tr aining program and consult with the line managers to ensure that the program ach ieves the desired outcomes. iv) Building performance management systems focuses on the right processes to se t goals for performance as individuals/teams and related measurement methods. Th is is a core HR activity and is supported by the HR generalist. v) Reward systems establishing appropriate compensation systems and reward mecha nisms that would reward the desired outcome and results in accordance with the c orporate values. This again forms a part of the HR generalists tasks. How employe es progress in a organization how they are paid w.r.t. internal and external mar ket factors, what employee benefits are offered, are some aspect that this funct ion redresses. vi) Human Resources Information Systems that would take care of the operational transactions from the time an employee joins till the time the employee exits, l ike personnel files, compensation administration, payroll, benefits administrati on and issuing letters and testimonials. This task is supported by as separate H R operations team who act as a HR helpdesk and provide information to the employ ees/managers

Q.2 Discuss the cultural dimensions of Indian Work force. Answer:-

Q.3 Explain the need for Human Resource Planning system Answer:- Human Resource planning can be defined as a process by which an organiz ation ensures that it has the right number and kinds of people, at the right pla ce, at the right time, capable of effectively and efficiently completing those t asks that will help the organization achieve its overall objectives or in other words HRP can be defined as planning for the future personnel needs of an organi zation, taking into account both internal activities and factors in the external environment. Need and Importance of HRP Human resource Planning translates the organization objectives and plans into th e number of workers needed to meet these objectives. The need and importance of HRP is as follows: HRP helps in determining the future manpower requirements and avoids HRP helps in problems like over staffing or understaffing in the organization. tackling wit h the factors like competition, technology, government policies etc. that genera tes changes in the job content, skill requirements and number and Now a days th ere is a demand of exceptional types of personnel required. intellectual skills w hile the existing staff becomes redundant, the HR manager has to attract and ret ain qualified and skilled personnel and also required to deal with issues like c areer development, succession planning for which he takes A proper and realisti c human resource plan is needed to the help of HRP. ensure equal employment and p romotional appointments to the candidates fro weaker sections, physically handic apped and socially and politically oppressed HRP provides valuable and timely i nformation for various designing citizens. and execution of personnel functions l ike recruitment, selection, transfers, It promotions, layoffs, training and devel opment and performance appraisal. helps the organization to anticipate imbalanc e in human resources, which in turn HRP facilitates planning for will facilitate reduction in personal costs. future needs which will help in better planning of assignments to develop managers and to ensure the organization has a steady sup ply of experienced and skilled employees. Factors affecting Human Resource Planning HRP is a dynamic and on going process. The process of updating is not very The si mple, since HRP is influenced by many factors, which are as follows: type of or ganization determines the production process and number and type of The human r esource needs of an organization depend on the staff needed. strategic plan adopt ed by it. For e.g. the growth of a business calls for hiring Organization of addi tional labor, while mergers will need a plan for layoffs. operates under differ ent political, social environment and has to carefully formulate the HR policies and so the HR manager has to evolve suitable mechanism to deal with uncertainti es through career developments, succession planning, HRP also depends on the ti me periods and accordingly retirement schemes etc. the short and long-term plans are adopted. And this time span is based on the The type and quality of informa tion degree of environmental uncertainties. used in making forecasting is an impo rtant factor influencing HRP. Accurate and timely human resource information sys tem helps in getting better quality HRP is required to ensure that suitable can didates should be personnel. appointed at the right kind of job. So these are some of the factors that affect the human resource planning. Limitations of Human Resource Planning It is very difficult to ascertain future manpower requirements of an It is more relevant to the organization, as future is always uncertain. It is a time countri es that face the problem of scarcity of human resources. It is beneficial in t he organizations that consuming and costlier process. adopt a professional approa ch and at the same time are conscious about the HRP is beneficial where adequat e skilled manpower is changing environment. HRP is also made difficult in the or ganizations that have a very available. high labor turnover.

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