INDIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATION

(AN ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED INTERNATIONAL B-SCHOOL)

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

CASE STUDY:1

A policy is a plan of action. It is a statement of intention committing the management to a general course of action. When the management drafts a policy statement to cover some features of its personnel programmes, the statement may often contain an expression of philosophy and principle as well. Although it is perfectly legitimate for an organization to include its philosophy, principles and policy in one policy expression.

Q1. Why organizations adopt personnel policies explain the benefits?

Q2.What are the sources and content of personnel policies?

Q3.Explain few personnel policies?

Q4.Explain principles of personnel policies?

ANSWERS:-

Ans1. Importance of Personnel Policies for an Organization :-

Communicate values and expectations for how things are done at your organization

Keep the organization in compliance with legislation and provide protection against employment claims

Document and implement best practices appropriate to the organization Support consistent treatment of staff, fairness and transparency Help management to make decisions that are consistent, uniform and

predictable Protect individuals and the organization from the pressures of expediency

BENIFITS

Policies mirror the philosophy, goals, and mission of the organization.

Some benefits that may be addressed are:

Medical and dental:  

A. If the organization provides a plan for either or both medical and dental coverage, it may not necessarily pay all of the costs.

B. How much an employee pays and how much the organization pays for any plans offered, exactly what is covered, and what the employee gets or doesn't if she doesn't participate in the plan, should be specified. (Most plans have their own information packets for each employee, so that policy needn't describe the plan itself.)

Long- and short-term disability:  

A. These benefits often go along with medical/dental. B. The same guidelines apply: spell out who pays how much, what do benefits cover and

for how long, etc..

Travel reimbursement:  

A. An organization may choose to reimburse employees for all or part of their work-related travel.

B. This usually does not include travel from home to work, but does include travel between workplace sites, travel to meetings and conferences, etc..

C. Travel reimbursement can be either a direct refund of money spent (the price of an airline ticket to a conference, based on the presentation of a receipt, for instance) or a standard per-mile cost for driving.

D. It may include all expenses (conference fees, hotel and food costs, and mileage reimbursement ) or only some of them.

E. If you reimburse people for travel, be consistent, and treat everybody in the organization equally.

Vacation:  

A. How much do people get?B. Does it increase with time in the job? C. Can it be taken at any time, or are there restrictions? D. How soon after beginning work can vacation time be taken? E. What must employees do to arrange vacation time?

Family and personal leave:  

A. How much do people get? B. Is it paid or unpaid? C. Under what circumstances can it be taken?

Retirement plans (e.g., 401K)

Life Insurance

Ans2. SOURCES OF CONTENT OF PERSONNEL POLICIES:-

Organizations commonly have written policies in the following areas:

Code of Conduct Confidentiality Conflict of Interest Working conditions Attendance Hours of Operations Termination (Voluntary and Involuntary) Recruitment Compensation Performance Management Learning and development Benefits and Eligibility Overtime Privacy Employee Information Bereavement Leave Compassionate Leave Vacation Sick Leave, Short Term Disability, Long Term Disability Maternity, Parental, and Adoption Leave Unpaid Leave Jury Duty Family Leave Grievance/Conflict Resolution Formal complaint process Disciplinary Discrimination and Harassment/Respectful Workplace Health and Safety Accident Reporting Workplace Violence Alcohol and Drug Use Policy Use of Company Equipment General policy on the review and update of organization policies

Ans3. Brief study of the personnel policies :-

Code of Conduct :-

The Organization and its employees must, at all times, comply with all applicable laws and regulations. The Organization will not condone the activities of employees who achieve results through violation of the law or unethical business dealings. This includes any payments for illegal acts, indirect contributions, rebates, and bribery. TheOrganization does not permit any activity that fails to stand the closest possible public scrutiny.All business conduct should be well above the minimum standards required by law.Accordingly, employees must ensure that their actions cannot be interpreted as being, in anyway, in contravention of the laws and regulations governing the Organization’s operations.Employees uncertain about the application or interpretation of any legal requirements should refer the matter to their supervisor, who, if necessary, should seek appropriate legal advice.

Conflict of interest :-

The Organization expects that employees will perform their duties conscientiously, honestly, and in accordance with the best interests of the Organization. Employees must not use their positions or the knowledge gained as a result of their positions for private or personal advantage. Regardless of the circumstances, if employees sense that a course of action they have pursued, or are presently pursuing, or are contemplating pursuing may involve them in a conflict of interest with their employer, they should immediately communicate all the facts to their supervisor.

Hours of Operation :-

Some organizations set a very strict work schedule or require certain numbers of hours; others simply ask that employees do their jobs and leave the rest up to them. Whatever your organizational environment, it should be plainly described, so there are no misunderstandings about what's expected.

How many sick days, paid holidays, vacation days, and personal leave days do employees get? Do they have to work for a certain length of time before they're eligible?

What is the policy for taking time off? Some places are very relaxed and allow people to take their time as they need or want it. In other places, vacation or leave time has to be arranged beforehand. Are people expected to find someone to cover for them while they're gone, or will the organization arrange that? How will taking time affect each person's job?

Can an employee work at home at least some of the time?

Can workers vary their schedules (e.g., work four ten-hour days as opposed to five eight-hour days, or work any 40 hours in a given week), or are they set?

Is there comp time? (Compensatory, or "comp" time is taken as time off to "pay back" hours worked over and above what the employee is paid for or expected to work.) If it is allowed, can it be taken at will, or only under certain circumstances? By when must it be used?

Termination :-

It is unfortunate, but occasionally you hire the wrong person, or hire the right person at the wrong time in her life. Firing someone is very difficult and traumatic for both parties involved. It is only fair that employees know if the organization is dissatisfied with their work, and have both help and time to try to improve. It is also only fair, after a certain point, when the employee's efforts have been unsuccessful or haven't been made at all, that the organization be able to terminate that employee and hire someone who will be able to do the job.

Your personnel policy should spell out the reasons for which employees can be terminated, the steps that will be taken before termination becomes a reality, the necessary time span, the required documentation (sometimes this is specified by law), and the people who will be involved. Policy should also cover what happens when an employee is terminated: Is there a severance package? Is there an appeal procedure? What if the employee wants to sue? Anticipating these issues will go a long way toward making a painful process as reasonable as possible.

Ans4. PRINCIPLES OF PERSONNEL POLICIES :-

A good personnel policy will help match each employee in the correct position and make your company into an organized and coordinated team.

It outlines job training for each position, and following the guidelines should make every employee fully prepared for their work.

Personnel policies create security within the opportunity, and provide incentive and recognition.

Explicit policies help your employees perform their jobs at their best and work toward career goals and the future.

CASE STUDY:2

Recruitment is understood as the process of searching for and obtaining applicants for jobs, from among whom the right peoples can be selected. Theoretically, recruitment process is said to end with the receipts of applications, in practice the activity extends to the searching of applications so as to eliminate those who are not qualified for the job.

Recruitment refers to the process of receipt of applications from job seekers. In reality, the term is used to describe the entire process of employee hiring. These are recruitment boards for railways, banks and other organization.

Q1. Explain in details the general purpose of recruitment?

Q2.Explain the factors governing Recruitment?

Q3.Explain the Recruitment process with diagrams?

Q4.Explain Recruitment planning?

ANSWERS :-

Ans1. GENERAL PURPOSE OF RECRUITMENT :-

The general purpose of recruitment is to provide a pool of potentially qualified candidates to meet organisational need. Its specific purposes are to:

I. Determine the present and future requirements of the organisation in conjunction with the personnel planning and job analysis activities.

II. Increase the pool of job candidates with minimum cost. Help increase the success rate of the selection process by reducing the number of under qualified or overqualified job applicants.

III. Help reduce the probability that job applicants, once recruited and selected, will leave the organisation only after a short period of time.

IV. Meet the organisation’s legal and social obligations regarding the composition of its workforce.

V. Start identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be appropriate candidates.

VI. Increase organisational and individual effectiveness in the short and long term.

VII. Evaluate the effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for all types of job applicants.

Ans2. FACTORS GOVERNING RECRUITMENT :-

FACTORS AFFECTING RECRUITMENT

Ans3. RECRUITMENT PROCESS WITH DIAGRAM :-

1. Identify vacancy 2. Prepare job description and person specification

3. Advertising the vacancy 4. Managing the response 5. Short-listing 6. Arrange interviews 7. Conducting interview and decision making

1. IDENTIFY VACANCY

The recruitment process begins with the human resource department receiving requisitions

for recruitment from any department of the company. These contain:

• Posts to be filled

• Number of persons

• Duties to be performed

• Qualifications required

2. PREPARE JOB DESCRIPTION AND PERSON SPECIFICATION

The basic needs for jobs and persons with specializations and work experience are specified.

3. ADVERTISING THE VACANIES :-

Locating and developing the sources of required number and type of employees (Advertising etc).

4. MANAGING THE RESPONSE :-

The responses are manipulated keeping the basic needs for the recruitment.

5. SHORTLISTING :-

Short-listing and identifying the prospective employee with required characteristics.

6. ARRANGE INTERVIEWS :-

Arranging the interviews with the selected candidates.

7. CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS AND DECISION MAKING :-

Finally the interviews and other employment tests are carried out and the expert panel gives the decision on absorbing the candidates.

Ans4. RECRUITMENT PLANNING :-

The Recruitment Planning and Tracking System is an extensive and comprehensive system that helps an organization in automating the recruitment process completely.

This system has provisions for drawing up exhaustive requirement plans at various levels. These requirement plans drive the recruitment process.

The system allows the user to draw up detailed recruitment plans and schedules. The system has provision for capturing information pertaining to multiple sources of recruitment such as advertisements, campus recruitment, placement agencies, etc.

The system also has provision for capturing detailed information pertaining to applicants along with the source through which application has been procured.

The system completely automates the evaluation and short listing process. The system imparts high degree of flexibility in terms of defining the

evaluation process by specifying the types and order of evaluation procedures. The system generates the entire range of related documentation automatically. The system is fully integrated with the Employee Details System. Extensive and effective reporting functions provide you a snapshot of your

recruitment activities.

CASE STUDY :3

Navin AGM materials, is fuming and fretting. He bumped into Kiran, GM Materials, threw the resignation letter on his table, shouted and walked out of the room swiftly.

Navin has reason for his sudden outburst. He had been driven to the wall. Perhaps details of the story will tell the reasons for Navin’s bile and why he put in his papers, barely for months after he took up his assignment.

The year was 2005 when Navin quit the prestigious SAIL plant in Mumbai. As a manager material Navin enjoyed the power. He could even place an order for materials worth Rs. 25 lakh. He needed nobody’s prior approval.

Navin joined a pulp making plant located at Pune as AGM Materials. The plant is owned by a prestigious business house in India. Obviously perks, designation and reputation of the conglomerate lured Navin away from Public Sector.

When he joined the pulp making company, little did Navin realize that he needed prior approval to place an order for material worth Rs. 12 lakh. He had presumed that he had the

authority to place order by himself worth half the amount he used to do at the mega steel maker. He placed the order material arrived, were received, accepted and used in the plant.

Trouble started when the bill of Rs. 12 lakh came from the vendor. The accounts department withheld payment for the reason that the bill was not endorsed by Kiran. Kiran refused to sign the Bill as his approval was not taken by Navin before placing the order.

Navin felt fumigated and cheated. A brief encounter with Kiran only aggravated the problem. Navin was told that he should have known company rules before venturing. Navin decided to quit the company.

Q1. Does the company have an orientation programme?

Q2. If yes how effective is it?

Q3.How is formal Orientation programme conducted?

Q4.If you were Navin what would have you done?

ANSWER:-

Ans1. The company do not have any kind of orientation programme. If it supposed to have orientation programme the Navin would not have faced the dejection.

Ans2. N/A

Ans3. Orientation sessions vary in length from a one-day basic presentation to a full week of seminars, demonstrations, and tours. A variety of formats can be used for the formal orientation of employees. Consider the following when making your orientation plans:

Verbal presentations by key personnel

Videotapes of organizational activities or special events

Individual meetings with Subordinate personnel.

Slide or computer presentations

Tours of organization and the community.

When selecting the individuals who will be speakers, facilitators, or panel members, be certain those persons are friendly, knowledgeable, good speakers, and excellent role models for new employees. Having the friendliest and most enthusiastic individuals participate in sessions (including the bus driver who provides a tour of the community,

support personnel who work at the sign-in desk, and the food service persons who prepare the meals) will provide a welcoming tone.

Ans4. COURSE OF ACTION AS IN THE PLACE OF NAVIN :-

In place of Navin Firstly and fore mostly I would have gone through the company policies and regulations before joining the organization and before leaving the steel giant sail.

If the rules and regulations have matched my own ethics then only I would have taken up the job.

After taking up the job if any kind of professional harassments happens with me then I can challenge my job providers for an explanation.

But if I join without being known to the company rules and regulations then I would have no option other than to resign like Navin.

CASE STUDY : 4

Bitter it may taste, shrill it may sound, and sleepless nights it may cause, but it is true. In a major shakeup Airbus. The European aircraft manufactures has thrown a big shock to its employees. Before coming to the details of the shock, a peep into company’s resume.

Name AirbusCreated 1970President CEO : Vijay M.Employees 57000Turnover 26 Bn (Euro)Total Aircraft sold (Feb 2007) 7187Delivered 4598Headquarters Paris(France)Facilities 16Rival Boeing

Airbus announced on February 27, 2007 that it would shed 10000 jobs across four European countries and sell six of its units. The same day the helpless workers did what was expected of them- downed tools and staged protests. The protesting workers at the Airbus’s factory at Meaulte, northern France, were seen picketing outside the factory gate after holding up production a day earlier. To be fair to Airbus, its management entered talks with unions before the job loss and sale was formally announced. But the talking did not mollify the agitated workers.

Job sheathing and hiring of units are a part of Power and restructuring plan unleashed by Airbus to save itself from increasing loss of its ground to the arch rival, Boeing Co.

Airbus Power & Strategy was first mooted in October 2006 but sparkled a split between France & Germany over the distribution of job losses and placement of future ones. Later the two countries agreed to share both job losses and technology.

The power and plan, if finalized, would mean a 3 percent reduction to Airbus’s 55000 employee strength.

Q1. Why would Power and Focus on shedding jobs to save on costs?

Q2. Are there no alternative strategies?

Q3.Will the proposed shedding of jobs and scale of six units will Airbus to survive the intense competition from Boeing?

Q4.Comment on the whole issue?

Ans1. Reasons behind adaptation of POWER & FOCUS on Shedding jobs to save cost :-

It is Airbus' first major effort to transform itself into an integrated company rather than a myriad of national interests. The main features of Power and focus on shedding jobs is restructuring plans to achieving a reduction in overhead and costs while finding partners for the aero structures sites the company wants to sell.

The company wants to downsize its workforce and increase the rate of production of existing airplanes as a way of generating cash. 

Power focus on shedding cost was a way to improve cash which was needed as an emergency measure to survive the competition from Boeing.

Ans2. Alternative Strategies :-. They can go for a partnership with another aero company to save their market. They can go for selling A MINORITY STAKE in the Market. From there they can earn

money to evolve with new ideas and survive in the market handsomely. Airbus can hire some specialist by shedding a few numbers of jobs (especially of those

who are in the age category of 50-55). Those specialist can help them to generate ideas

which will help them to evolve with new designs within their estimated budget.(this point may not work if the internal cash is not sufficient)

Ans3. Comments on company’s proposal of shedding jobs and scale of 6 units :-

The organization do not have enough fund to go for a new model of aircraft. They have to design new aircraft in order to remain in the market as their main rival

Boeing is coming up with new models of aircraft and ruling a major part of the market. By shedding jobs they can save the money which flows a salary for 10000 employees. And by selling 6 units they can avoid the cost of those 6 plants and will get a huge

amount of money in their hand to come up with a new model and survive in the market. But selling of 6 units and shedding job will create an agitation within the employees. The company has to tackle this agitation. If they successfully handle the agitation then

they can go for the selling 6 units and shedding jobs.

Ans4. THE WHOLE SENARIO:- The whole issue is about how to handle a competitive market when the company

is in monetary crisis. In the time of crisis the main role of human resource department is to handle the

sensitive issues with a huge attention to avoid agitation inside the company. The operating countries has to operate in a synchronising manner to avoid further

loses. Job shedding or selling units should not be the last option to save the company. The company should think from all the angles to save their operations. MORALE : IN THE TIME OF CRISIS OPERTING TOGETHER CAN

GENERATE WONDERFUL IDEAS AND SHED LOSES. AND INTERNAL CLASH CAN MAKE A COMPANY TO GO DOWN DAY BY DAY.