HRM HOME ASSIGNMENT NO.

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Q.1. Are people always an organizations most valuable assets? Why or Why not? Discuss the challenges faced by HR Managers in the current scenario. ANSWER: Well, according to me, It depends on the organization and it depends
on the people. Generalizations are usually incorrect. Unskilled labor is readily available and can be picked up or discarded at will. Certain company CEOs are more a detriment than an asset. The companies would be much better off without them as HP discovered and other companies you may be familiar with. There are times during which cash is more valuable than people. This is currently proving to be so for certain financial organizations and also for certain automotive companies. Also many companies have discovered they can run their companies and more money without people. They outsource almost everything including the manufacturing of their products. Yes, It is true fact that "A motivated employee can make a significant difference to the company's bottom line in terms of bringing in new orders, meeting customer needs, developing new products and performing heroic efforts to achieve a company goal," he said. People also bring new information and ideas into the organization and turn that information into profit. Insights of the fact that 'The right people is the most valuable asset of organization'. If the organization always hire the right members, so I agree that people is the most valuable asset of organization but unfortunately many organizations can not have the right recruitment process. It might be assumed that professionals in the workforce somehow magically acquire the critical adaptive skills, including the information-gathering skill of connectedness, effortlessly. Our experience strongly indicates otherwise. From students preparing to enter the workforce, to mid-career professionals struggling to re-enter the workforce, to

mainstream employed professionals who continuously must add value to their employer, the issues are consistent. They need to learn how to: develop an independent image and reputation; build a "structure of connectedness" to gain access to information; and develop foresight to remain viable in the workforce long-term. The most valuable asset of every organization for the future is brainpower, despite the fact that "employees do not show up as an asset on the bottom line". The basic steps to attract and keep good people are to: 1. recognize and channel the growing energy of self-determination into the achievement of mutually beneficial goals; 2. provide the skills of career self-management that would enable people to become independent; 3. establish and manage a creative, challenging work environment that makes people want to stay; and 4. provide authentic leadership with a compelling vision of the future.

CHALLENGES FACED BY HR MANAGERS IN CURRENT SCENARIO:

Globalisation:- Many Indian firms are compelled to think globally, something which is difficult for managers who were accustomed to operate in vast sheltered markets with minimal or no competition either from domestic or foreign firms. Indian firms need to move from one end of each continuum to the other end as shown below:

Rigid, hierarchical and tall structure

Flexible, flat and team based structures

Family centric, closed minded & secretive environment

Dispersed ownership, open minded & transparent

Caste ridden, superstitious, laidtrack styles of manag.

Rational thinking & vibrant styles of mangement

Changed Employee Expectations: Employees demand empowerment and expect equality with the management. Previous notions about managerial authority are giving way to employee influence & involvement along with mechanisms for upward communication and due process. If we look at the workers unions of Otis, Hindustan Lever, ICI, TOMCO, Blue Star, and Central Bank. They rewrite their agenda to include quality and better customer service and are even accusing the management of malpractices. So every time there is need to redraw the profile of the worker and discover new methods of training, hiring, remunerating and motivating employees.

Outsourcing HR Activities: The trends towards outsourcing has been caused by several strategic and operational motives. HR departments are divesting themselves from mundane activities to focus more on strategic role. Outsourcing has also been used to help reduce bureaucracy and to encourage a more responsive culture by introducing external market forces into the firm through the biding process. It is a big challenge before the HR manager to prove that his/her department is as important as any other functions in the organization. The relevance of HR is at stack. Changing Workforce Dynamics: Frequently, physical relocation is required. The increasing number of dual-career professionals limits individual flexibility in accepting such assignments and may hinder number of dual-career professionals limits individual flexibility in accepting such assignments and may hinder organizational flexibility in acquiring and developing talent. Some demographic changes in the workforce having their own implications to the HR managers are: (i) (ii) increasing number of working mothers, a steady decline of blue-collar employees who are giving way to whitecollar employees (iii) increasing awareness & education among workers.

Balancing Work-life: Balancing work & life assumes relevance when both husband and wife are employed. Travails of a working housewife are more than a working husband, thus balancing it is becoming a major challenge for HR manager. So a programmed aiming balancing work-life is required and are supposed to include: Childcare at or near the workplace, Job Sharing, Care for sick children and employees, On-site summer camp, Training supervisors to respond to work and family needs of employees, Flexible work scheduling, Sick leave

policies, Variety of errands from dry cleaning, dropping children at schools, making dinner reservations etc and many more like the same or other. Making HR activities ethical: Hiring ethical strong employees is only the beginning. The need to institute mechanisms to ensure ethical conduct of employees is increased a lot with the passage of time. The Hr manager needs to carefully screen applications for jobs, weed out those who are prone to indulge in misdemeanors and hire those who can build a value driven organization. Organizational Restructuring: Peter Ducker prophesies in his book(The New Realities) is showing its color and many big companies has reduced their number of management grades, elimination of layers, & redrawing reporting lines within their organization. ITC, HLL, Godrej & Boyce, RPG Enterprises, Raymond, Shaw Wallace, Ballarpur Industries, Compton & Greaves are some of the companies that are doing so. Changes are required particularly during the time of Acquisitions and Mergers also during the bad weather of the firm. This is of need to keep people with and working effectively and efficiently. These are done according to the changing character of competition, as major companies operate through complex web of strategic alliances of varying degrees of permanence. Managing Diversity: Its value is getting more important issue because of: Increase in the number of young workers in the work-force, increase in the number of women joining the work-force, increase in the proportion of ethnic minorities in the total work-force, increase in mobility of work-force, international careers & expatriates are becoming common, international experience as a pre-requisite for career progression to many top-level managerial positions. Organizations that can manage diversity better trend to be more flexible because they have broadened

their policies, are more open-minded, have less standardized operating methods and have developed skills in dealing with resistance to change. Attitude towards Unions: Unionization is preferable because to remain unionfree costs the organization heavily. Pay raises, out of turn promotions, generous perks & other benefits need to be doled out frequently to appease workers. General perception of managers is to avoid unionization but it is very beneficial to the organization. It provide a mean for workers to express before the management conditions prevailing in the workplace. But at the same time because of voice mechanism or the instrumentality role, unionized firm have lower turnover rate and encourage organization to provide more rational and professional management. So the work of HR mangers gets tough here to decide whether is should be there in the organization or not and if yes then how to control it. Strings of the union are required to be checked time to time for better performance in the firm.