MU0010 – Manpower Planning and Resourcing

Assignment Set- 1 Q.1 What are the obstacles in Manpower Planning ?

Ans : Obstacles in Manpower Planning

The major obstacles in manpower planning are as follows:

(1) Non Optimal Utilization of Manpower: The biggest obstacle for manpower planning is the fact that organizations cannot optimally use their manpower once manpower planning begins. During manpower planning, the number of resources required for a job is decided based on the total work load, the process to be followed and the criticality of the job. Once the analysis is done, it is decided that one person can only handle a certain portion of the workload and hence for any additional workload, additional resources need to be hired proportionately.

Over a period of time, the total workload may change, the processes may change, the criticality of the job may change and new technological innovations may make the job far easier to accomplish. However when the same employees are asked to step up the productivity, they resist accepting any additional workload and resist even deployment of new technology, hence making it hard for the management to maximize the use of their manpower. This makes the organizational processes ineffective or inefficient and hence the organization as a whole becomes ineffective or inefficient and loses out to competition which may be able to remain lean in terms of number of resources and highly effective and efficient.

(2) Absenteeism: Every organization has witnessed an increase in absenteeism. This has lead to errors creeping in the manpower planning exercise. If the plan stated that 4 employees are required to manage the total workload, increased degree of absenteeism leads to the partial failure of the manpower planning exercise.

(3) Lack of Employable Labor : People are not employable. The slow pace of acquiring business required competencies by people at large also result in low employee productivity. All manpower planning is done basis a certain productivity level considered as a benchmark. And low productivity has negative implications for manpower planning.

Modern Manpower Control and Review Processes

(i) Any increase in manpower is to be approved by the top most levels of the management today.

(ii) Manpower budgets created on the basis of manpower planning act as control mechanisms to keep the manpower cost and headcount under certain defined limits.

(iii) Usually the productivity of any organization is calculated using the formula: Productivity = Output / Input.

Example: 5 products are sold during the day/ 8 hours of effort put in during the day. i.e., the sales productivity of the employee is 5 products per day.

But a rough guide of employee productivity used today is: Employee Productivity = Total Production / Total no. of employees

· Example: 50 products are sold during the day/12 employees were responsible for selling 50 products during the day. i.e., the sales productivity of each employee is 4.17 products per day.

(iv) The rate of manpower turnover, exit interviews and absenteeism are sources of measuring dissatisfaction level of manpower. To eliminate employee dissatisfaction and to ensure better utilization of resources a study of the reasons causing the dissatisfaction level is required.

(v) Overtime is paid to employees due to real shortage of manpower, inefficient management or improper utilization of manpower. Manpower planning requires a study of the overtime statistics.

The current pace at which business is done today is very fast. Many organizations either do not have data or are overwhelmed with data. Non availability and non utilization of the data are also reasons for complicating the situation. In some organization even the existing technologies available for manpower planning are not optimally used. This also creates obstacles in manpower planning.

Example: Business Scenario for Obstacles in Manpower Planning (Lack of employable labor)

The entire BPO industry is suffering with this scenario of lack of employable labor. In a dynamic business scenario, manpower planning is critical to organizational growth and stability. It is integral to recruiting, retaining, retraining and redeployment of talent. Linked to business needs of the organization, the process of manpower planning is much more complicated than it seems. Manpower planning involves developing skills and competencies of existing employees to meet market demands which can change with time. Manpower planning also requires having a contingent plan in place in case of any eventuality (talent shortage).

Out of every 100 candidates interviewed only 10 of them are employable. Majority of them are unemployable by the BPO industry. It’s a known fact in the BPO industry. The manpower planning exercise requires BPO companies to budget for travel to the interiors of the state, travel to other states. It also needs to budget for providing new joiners with relocation allowance. It has to make provision for some joining bonuses as well when the hiring by all companies was at its peak. It decided to lower the level of hiring and spend additional time on training candidates. It needed to engage external

organizations to evaluate the voice and accent capability or the potential of the candidate in order to validate its own findings with that of an independent agency, so that no potential candidate was rejected and no candidate who was not trainable was hired.

The manpower planning required inclusion of non standard practices to ensure that the hiring targets were met so as to ensure that migration of client business processes from other countries to India was as per committed timelines.

In fact some of the BPO’s in India also have operations in countries like Philippines. Due to the inability of the India BPOs to hire in some cases, work is split up between India and Philippines.

Q.2 Explain demand forecasting techniques.

ANS: Demand Forecasting Techniques

Forecasting is an expensive way to help a company plan and prepare for the future years. Forecasting is not fortune telling; it is but an educated guess of how much manpower will be required and utilized by a firm or organization. It is a tool used to help in budgeting and allocating finances or hiring employees as perfectly as possible. One of the important features of forecasting is the quality of manpower resources (knowledge, skill, values and competency, capacity etc) as well as the quantity of manpower resources.

There is no right way of forecasting, but there are many different types of forecasting methods. Each one is specifically planned and designed to help different retail organization and it is up to each of them to choose the model which is best and most appropriate for them.Manpower planning is done based on the manpower forecasts.

The common manpower forecasting techniques are:

(1) Expert Forecasts

This is a group forecasting method in which experts present their independently developed forecasts to the group. However, the experts do not meet each other. The group keeps refining their forecasts until a group consensus is reached. This is called as the Delphi technique. In this method managers estimate future manpower requirements based on their experience and judgment.

(2) Trend Analysis

This technique requires studying the past data of an organization. Based on the past forecast, utilization and requirement actually experienced in the business, the future forecast is made. For example, if an organization had 12 secretaries in the firm and this number were increasing by 1 secretary every year for the last 4 years. Then the trend analysis would forecast a requirement

of 13 secretaries for the following year. That is one additional secretary for the year.

Past data is used to make future predictions. Known or Independent variables are used for predicting unknown or dependent variables, using the trend equation called “Predictive analysis”. Based on trend equation, we find ‘Line of Best Fit’ and then it is projected in a scatter diagram, dividing points equally on both sides.

The time series analysis has three goals:

(i) Forecasting (also called predicting), (ii) Modeling (iii) Characterization.

The logical order in which to tackle these three goals depends on the key objective. The idea of deciding the order is to ensure that one task leads to another and /or justifies the other tasks. Sometimes the objective is getting better forecasts. Then the order is forecasting, modeling and characterization. Sometimes the objective is to understand and explain what is going on. Then modeling is the key, though out-of-sample forecasting may be used to test any model. Often modeling and forecasting proceed in an iterative way and there is no ‘logical order’ in the broader sense. You may model to get forecasts, which enable better control, but iteration is again likely to be present.

The trend equation is:

Y^ = a + b X + E

Y^ = Estimated value of Y

a = Constant or Intercept

b = slope of trend line

X = independent variable

E = Error term

Explained variation – means the extent to which the independent variable explains the relative change in the dependent variable. Higher the explained variation, lower the error value leading to accurate forecast.

R2 = Explained Variation

1- R2 = Unexplained Variation

Trend Analysis – Line of Best Fit

This process may be followed at the organization level as a whole or for parts of the organization based on department, location etc. Doing this at a granular with assumptions being documented and shared with the approving authority increases the forecast accuracy. The drawback is that you follow practices that you followed in the past. If the organization is experiencing the same rate of growth then this may work. But for extraordinary circumstances either good or bad for the organization, the trend analysis forecasting method often fails. Also this may build in turn the organization teeth to tail ratio unfavorable for making profits or enhancing profits. Teeth are the no. of employees who are directly into revenue earning jobs. E.g.: production employees, operations employees and sales staff. Tail is the no. of employees who are enabling the employees involved in directly revenue earning jobs. E.g.: secretaries, finance, administration & human resources.

(3) Work Study Technique

It is a technique that can be used when it is possible to apply work measurements to know how long operations should take and the amount of labor required. It is calculated in two ways.

· Work-Load Analysis

· Work-Force Analysis

i) Work-Load Analysis

One more method of forecasting is by evaluating the work load in a department or job role. This then enables deciding the no. of employees required for doing the job. This depends on the nature of the work load in a branch, department, or a division in a firm or organization.

Example: In BPOs, if an agent can handle 18 calls in a day of about 25 minute duration. If 2 lakh calls are received in a month, then the workload is evaluated on a per day basis. Calls receivable per hour are plotted. Then the no. of employees required to service those number of calls is calculated. Also the service level is considered. Some clients do not want to keep their customers on hold for more than 1 minute, in such cases the service level may be taken as 100%. This requires for staffing additionally such that the customers are not on hold for more than 1 minute. Staffing is decided to ensure per hour manpower adequacy to support the service level required by the client. The client understands the cost involved and is willing to pay for a higher service level. Based on all the above inputs the workload evaluation technique allows forecasting manpower demand.

ii) Work-Force Analysis

In workforce analysis a sufficient margin for absenteeism, labor turnover and idle time on the basis of past experience is made. This allows for completing the total job at hand undertaken by an organization despite the challenges of labor turnover or absenteeism. The organization needs to make reasonable prediction of labor turnover or absenteeism. However, if the actual labor turnover or absenteeism exceeds the predicted value, then it puts the business under loss. This could mean the profits of the company reducing or the company experiencing a loss. As we all know that a business organization with high overheads cannot sustain losses for more than a certain number of weeks or months depending on the business. This would mean many people go jobless if the company happens to shut down. Therefore the workforce analysis has to be done with caution and by an experienced person with data validated for the past periods. Also the forecasting person, needs to be able to keep in mind any seasonal variations and special events that are likely to occur for the predicted period. Demand forecasting is a very responsible job. The entire organizations future depends on this. The organization leaders get involved to ensure that the demand forecasts are realistic and there is a reasonable buffer built in, so as to be able to sustain any deviations without a severe compromise in profitability or credibility with the client.

(4) Managerial Judgment Technique

This is a simple technique. In this the managers of different departments sit together, discuss and arrive at conclusions as to the number employees required for future operations based on their past experiences. This technique involves a “top-down” or “bottom-up approach.”

· In “Top-down” approach the managers prepare departmental forecasts. These are viewed by department heads and a decision is taken.

· In “Bottom-up” approach the managers submit their departmental proposals to top managers who arrive at forecast.

Neither of these forecasts is accurate but both when combined could achieve effective results. This technique is used in smaller retail organizations or where there is not enough data available.

(5) Cost-Benefit Analysis

This is a term that refers both to:

(i) Helping to appraise, or assess, the case for a project or proposal, which itself is a process known as project appraisal; and

(ii) An informal approach to making economic decisions of any kind.

Under both definitions the process involves, whether explicitly or implicitly, weighing the total expected costs against the total expected benefits of one or more actions in order to choose the best or most profitable option. The formal process is often referred to as either CBA (Cost-Benefit Analysis) or BCA (Benefit-Cost Analysis).

Benefits and costs are often expressed in money terms, and are adjusted for the time value of money, so that all flows of benefits and flows of project costs over time (which tend to occur at different points in time) are expressed on a common basis in terms of their “present value.” Closely related, but slightly different, formal techniques include cost-effectiveness analysis, economic impact analysis, fiscal impact analysis and Social Return On Investment (SROI) analysis. The latter builds upon the logic of cost-benefit analysis, but differs in that it is explicitly designed to inform the practical decision-making of enterprise managers and investors focused on optimizing their social and environmental impacts.

Work that is done by hand can be done faster by machines. It is also uniformly done. Number of employees is also less, hence you save up every month on their salary but it has gone into the purchase of a machine which is a onetime investment. So it does prove to be beneficial to the firm or organization. E.g. tagging or stamping an item or product for sale.

(6) Markov Analysis

This is a mathematical technique. It forecasts the availability of internal job candidates. In this analysis, various job classifications can be predicted based on past movements (transfers, promotions, attrition, new joiners, resignations, and retirement).

(7) Statistical Judgment Technique

This technique concentrates on using the past to predict the future by identifying trends, patterns and business drives within the data to develop a forecast. This forecast is referred to as a statistical forecast because it uses mathematical formulas to identify the patterns and trends while testing the results for mathematical reasonableness and confidence. These include ratio-trend analysis and econometric models. In ratio trend analysis the ratios are calculated for the past data and these are used to calculate future manpower requirements. Example:

These models are built up by analyzing past statistical data

Q.3 What are the inputs provided by HR for Manpower planning

Ans: Inputs Provided by HR for Manpower Planning

Some of the relevant inputs provided by HR for manpower planning are:

(1) Specific business goals of the organization drawn from the vision and mission statement for the period for which manpower planning is to be done.

(2) The controllable variables such as the productivity data, productivity incentives, cost of training and cost of benching (if any). Benching here refers to a state of having excess staff, mostly as a result of preparation for anticipated business requirements and occasionally as a result of business process reengineering or some reduction in planned business.

(3) Which departments will grow and by what percentage?

(4) Which are the new confirmed clients likely to be added or withdrawing during the course of the year?

(5) Which are the unconfirmed clients likely to be added or withdrawing the business during the course of the year?

(6) The uncontrollable variables modifying the scenario for the year under consideration (PESTLE). PESTLE stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental Scenario.

(7) The maturity level of the organization in terms of people capability between 1-5 wherein:

- Level 1 is Initial (inconsistent management)

- Level 2 is Managed (people management)

- Level 3 is Defined (competency management)

- Level 4 is Predictable (capability management)

- Level 5 is Optimizing (change management)

(8) The changed organization structure at a high level in terms of the business verticals and the support horizontals if any.

Apart from providing inputs for the orientation program, the HR function provides the requisite inputs in each of the 5 steps of manpower planning.

Therefore it is safe to say that HR plays an important role in the manpower planning process. Human resource management is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business according to Michael Armstrong. Human resource management (HRM) means employing people, developing their capacities, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirements.

Q.4 Write a detailed note on competency mapping system and its components.

Ans: Competency Mapping (Skills Inventory)

A competency mapping evaluates all aspects of the person with respect to the job role to be performed by the person. It evaluates knowledge, skills, attitude, reflection of attitude that is behavior and possibly values where as skill mapping is restricted to just that skill. We are using the terms here interchangeably only so that some companies would like to start with skill and then increase the scope to evaluate the entire set of competencies. But in true life these cannot be interchangeably used as their scope varies.

A competency mapping exercise results in a report which contains information on knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences of current employees. It aims to identify the skills an employee has demonstrated or has not demonstrated. If the job role requires the employee to demonstrate skills which the employee has not demonstrated, then that becomes a development area for the employee. Skills can be developed through paid and unpaid work experiences, volunteerism, hobbies, work experiences, and through everyday

experience in life. A skills inventory report shows an employee which skills he or she possesses and at what proficiency level.

Example: An employee Rahul thinks he possesses the same level of skills as Vijay. He also believes his compensation of INR 3 lakhs per annum is far lower than Vijay’s compensation of INR 6 lakhs per annum. Therefore Rahul feels that he is being unfairly compensated by the company and starts looking out for another job. But if the company had done a competency mapping exercise or skills inventory exercise, Rahul would have known that he possesses only 4 of the 10 critical competencies and is at proficiency level 2 whereas Vijay possesses 8 of the 10 critical competencies and is at proficiency level 4. Then if Rahul is objective, he would start focusing on enhancing his competencies to Vijay’s level and beyond so that he could get the same level or higher level of compensation, designation and recognition. He would not focus on looking out. This makes Rahul realize that it is not the company which is being unfair to him, but his own limitations that are restraining him from getting higher compensation, growth and recognition. His focus then becomes building competencies rather than looking out for jobs.

Competency Mapping System

The four essential components of competency mapping system are:

(1) Classification system

(2) Measurement unit

(3) Process of measurement

(4) Accessible Data, Information and Knowledge

Classification System:For any meaningful competency mapping or skills inventory management program, a clear, well defined and detailed system of classification is important to have in place. Without a clear classification system, any inventory management program will tend to fail. Competency mapping or skills inventory cannot be assigned numbers as easily as numbers are assigned to any physical products. A soft skill is particularly hard to define and therefore it is important that a good classification system is in place, so that everyone is referring to the same behaviors, skills and level of the competency. When it comes to creating the grading system for building a skills inventory, the problem often arises from a lack of standardized definitions for skills. There are no defined standards acceptable worldwide. Internally in the organization we don’t want a comparison between apples and oranges. We want a fair comparison and hence a good classification system is essential.

If the skills are defined earlier by the HR team leading the competency mapping or skill inventory exercise then the managers do not have to repeat the time consuming process of defining skills. They focus on evaluation of the skills critical for the success of the organization. They focus on identifying the

high performing employees to participate in a skills inventory initiative and decide which skills are important to the organization’s success.

An objective system is important. An established list of predefined skills and an agreed-upon set of rules by which to measure them enable competency mapping or skills inventory. Initially an organization should focus on a few critical skills. As the ability of the organization to map competencies or skills improves, in the future additional skills can be inventoried and managed. As a foundation for establishing a skills program, many organizations begin by agreeing on the main objectives and identifying the skills that most closely impact these goals. An objective skills classification system frees decision-makers to focus on the exact skills and organization’s objectives, and hence helps to fairly establish the parameters for a successful initiative.

Measurement unit: While companies have some difficulty tracking their inventory of office supplies or other physical resources – which can be measured by number of units, weight, or volume – calculating employee competencies or skills is a different matter.

Organization A & B have 4 customer service executives and 1 customer service manager respectively. Refer Table 5.4 and analyze if the team and individuals are equal in terms of competencies? Of course, they are not at all equal in terms of their competencies.

Table of Measurement Unit

Many organizations can rely on subjective forms of assessments for the answer. For example, employees are asked to self-asses their own skills. Self-assessment is a subjective form of evaluation. Self-assessments are inaccurate, with inexperienced employees overrating their skills or experts underrating their ability. Personal verification is subject to individual influence and may not be a question of a manager being just, but more influenced by familiarity with certain employees. How do you measure an employee’s level of skill? Clear definitions help managers identify employee’s level of skill or skills. A well planned measurement system enables decision-makers to rely on objective data and they are not forced to rely largely on unreliable,

subjective skills data. Online skills measurement tools are now available and give managers the unit of measure they require to account for skills levels on a regular basis. Unlike subjective measures, these metrics will not differ from one department to another. The whole system is evaluated, delivered, and reported online.

The objective measurement system calculates changes in skills levels over a period of time. That is, with a constant and well detailed unit of measure to track skills, employees and managers may document skills improvement. The management and managers should track skills inventories, identify shortfalls (skills gaps) and surpluses (skills strengths). They should also differentiate between the skills levels of different employees, information that is vital to meeting the demands of each client or project.A constant unit of measure enables decision makers i.e. managers to analyze skill levels within the organization.

Process of Measurement: The requirement for an easily-administered measurement procedure is probably the most neglected need of a skills inventory plan. An organization’s ability to evaluate skills on a regular basis and arrive at a suitable measurement can determine program success.

Ease of use and meaningful feedback are important characteristics of an effective measurement system.

While the organization may not have to re-measure or re-evaluate its skills inventory with the same frequency as it tracks other items, repeat measurement is essential. Without the ability to deliver repeat evaluation, a skills inventory management initiative becomes nothing more but a one-time employee test, with unstable data that cannot track changes in an organization’s supply of skills. Many organizations have made unsuccessful attempts at tracking skills in the past, and often they still apply the same wrong strategies till today. Employees can be asked to complete and submit self-rating forms, or they can be asked to take a test associated with a career milestone such as a training event or a periodic review. Unfortunately, the results of such assessments often “disappear” into a records system without re-emerging as actionable information for the organization or for the employee. As results fail to show action, the usefulness of this initiative is compromised, and participation declines.

The secret for a successful skills inventory management lies in the ability to automate test administration and provide quick, actionable feedback. Through an online testing system, employees can take a skill evaluation in their own time without the requirement for supervision. Results are calculated and delivered immediately. The online system addresses two issues which have negatively impacted skills inventory management efforts:

(i)Ease of Testing: It makes it easy for the employees to undertake the skills assessment at their own time and when they are ready. It also allows repeat testing 3 months later or at some point in the future. Online tests ask questions from a questions bank, so different questions are presented to the employee.

Fast, Meaningful Feedback: An effective online skills inventory management provides quick or immediate feedback. Armed with this knowledge managers constitute a team with complementary skill sets. It also enables to send the employee to the right training programs or take good performance-related decisions. Performance evaluation in most organizations is not objective and tends to remain subjective. For employees, the quick feedback stimulates self improvement and is provided at the time when motivation for improvement is strongest immediately after an evaluation. A repeatable evaluation system enables employees and managers to track skills improvement over a period of time.

Accessible Data, Information and Knowledge:The success of any inventory management initiative is based on its ability to deliver constant, actionable results. Skills inventory management is also no exception. The immediate accessibility of objective metrics helps managers to take action such as what training an employee needs, provide assignments that leverage existing skills and provide assignments that develop skills that need to be improved (such assignments require the employee to be mentored) and identifying the right employees to be part of project teams.

With an online skills inventory management system, exact and relevant data is just easily accessible. No one needs to manage large amounts of data. If a manager is to manage large amounts of data, his/her initiative in the exercise declines. But if the data is automatically managed by the online system, then his/her inclination is not dented. Using the data and information, managers gain more knowledge about their team member’s competencies. Over a sustained period of knowledge of the proficiency levels of different skills, help managers take wise decisions and enable them to demonstrate greater wisdom in decision making. The need for skills inventory management is the highest today in the post recessionary period.

Motivating Employees :Motivating and educating employees about the advantages of the Competency mapping system is important. It is not only the job of the HR department, but also the management, to motivate them constantly. Today skills are the only currency that carries a lot of value in the present knowledge-driven economy. An employee’s value is determined by the depth of skills he possesses. Any procedure that enhances skills becomes important to the employee as well as to the organization. This is the basic assumption in educating employees about working towards enhancing their skills.For an organization, building a skills inventory has many advantages from improving operational efficiency and productivity to competitive advantage in the marketplace. It creates a learning environment and is a great internal employee building strategy that an organization is able to retain employees as well as successfully attract new employees.

Q.5 Discuss External sourcing in detail .

ANS: External Sourcing

When you hire staff or contract staff who has never worked with your organization earlier, then it is called as external recruitment. Examples are:

Advertisements in Media:Advertisements of the job openings in newspaper and journals magazines are generally used as a source of external recruitment.

Campus Selections in Institutions:Various colleges and institutions are a good source of recruiting well qualified executives, engineers, medical staff etc.

Employee Referrals: Organizations encourage internal employees by providing benefits for referring friends and relatives for some position in their organization.

Consultants:They identify candidates matching the job profile and charge a fee for providing candidates till you find the right candidate who accepts the offer.

Data Banks: Organizations collect CVs of candidates from different sources like employment exchange, training institutes etc. and screen and shortlist the candidates.When the business grows and if the business is manpower intensive, then additional resources are required. Therefore external recruitment is done. This is the only way to scale up the business. Also it brings in a freshness of thought and perspective. Capable people from the world’s best organizations bring best practices with them. They bring the culture of performance and meritocracy. External recruitment has many advantages. If the job role requires tremendous experience (e.g. 15 years), it is better to hire someone externally than to wait for people in your own organization with 4 years experience to gain 11 more years of experience.

Q.6 List the strategies for managing redundancy.

ANS: Resourcing Strategy

Large organizations today employ human resource specialists to manage, coordinate or lead employee resourcing. This may have been seen as a passive role of a HR person, but in a dynamic business context with globalization, this is no longer a passive area, it is in fact the most active area and is a burning issue in companies present in the BPO space in India. It has been extremely hard for them to scale-up operations as and when required. Growth is stunted not on account of infrastructure or leadership, but due to the lack of resources or the inability to identify, attract and engage them.

In fact, successful recruitment must be proactive. Organizations can take one of three actions to fulfill their employee resourcing:

(i) Reassign job responsibilities and tasks between employees such that employees get exposure in newer areas and are able to take on larger set of responsibilities. It requires organizations to multi-skill resources and use sophisticated assessment and development programs.

(ii) Reallocate people within the organization. By allowing high performing employees to take different roles or leadership roles, the challenge of hiring staff for those different roles or leadership is resolved.

(iii) Recruit new staff from the market.

Organizations have usually followed the last option of hiring externally without leveraging internal capability and developing internal capability.

Strategy for Redundancy

The global recession that set-in, in 2008, has forced organizations to consider strategies for managing redundancy. The challenges of having to give up a large workforce or having to issue pink-slips (an American term that refers to being fired or laid off from one’s job) have been daunting.

Some of the strategies used are:

Strategy 1: Organizations only consider undertaking projects where the risks are minimal, the natural attrition can address the challenge of redundancies and no undue costs or strain on the business is experienced for laying-off the workforce.

Strategy 2: Hire very cautiously and work with vendors till the requirement is really seen to stay.

Strategy 3: To review performance very critically, so as to ensure only the high performing employees continue, the rest can find employment elsewhere.

Strategy 4: Pay the lowest and attract workforce to join, lay-off if required by providing few months pay in lieu of a notice.

Strategy 5: Ensure the contracts are drafted such that it gives them enough levers to recover the cost of any sudden fluctuations in manpower requirements.

Strategy 5: This is extremely difficult, but another strategy is to work with advance payments, to minimize the impact of such redundancy situations. For smaller entities, this seems to apply when specially working

Strategy 6: Moving business to a low cost destination where the labor-arbitrage can make the business profitable, effective and efficient.

Strategy 7: Leveraging technology to reduce operational costs, manpower costs, automating or moving to more niche areas of business allows the business to remain profitable.

Strategy 8: Acquiring inorganically businesses to benefit from the scale of operations or ramping up the business such that the scale of operations benefits the organization exponentially.

Strategy 8: Entering into associated businesses. Sometimes diversifying into newer areas to deploy workforce productively or minimize the need for the same type of workforce.

Strategy 9: Or use a combination of the above as the situation demands or any other innovative strategies developed.

MU0010 – Manpower Planning and ResourcingAssignment Set- 2

Q.1 Explain different types of scores used to interpret test results.

ANS: Interpreting Test Results:Test results are generally presented in terms of numerical scores, such as raw scores, standard scores, and percentile scores. In order to interpret test scores effectively, the scoring system used needs to understood. The type of scores used is as follows:

I) Raw Scores : These refer to the unadjusted scores on the test. Usually the raw score is the number of questions answered correctly, as in mental ability or achievement tests. Some types of assessment tools and personality tests have no "right" or "wrong" answers. In such cases, the raw score may represent the number of positive responses for a particular trait. Raw scores do not provide any useful information. E.g. consider a candidate who gets 25 out of 50 questions correct on a test. It’s hard to know whether "25" is a good score or a poor score. When the results are compared with the other individuals who took the same test, you may discover that this was the highest score on the test.

II) Standard Scores: Standard scores are converted from raw scores. This indicates where a candidate’s score lies in comparison to a group. e.g. if the test indicates that the average or mean score for the group on a test is 50, then a candidate who gets a high score is above average, and a candidate who gets a low score is below average.

III) Percentile Score: A percentile score is another kind of converted score. A candidate’s raw score is converted into a number indicating the percent of employees in the group who scored below the test taker. E.g. a score at the 70th percentile means that the candidate’s score is the same as or higher

than the scores of 70% of those who took the test. The 50th percentile is known as the median and represents the middle score of the distribution.

Q.2 Describe the different types of induction program

ANS: Types of Induction

An organization needs to make a strategic choice before designing an induction/orientation programme. They are:

1) Formal Induction

2) Informal Induction

Informal Induction:

In this the new employees are instructed to report to the HR department for an explanation of organization policies before being referred to the manager for on the job briefing on specific work process.

In informal orientation, new employees are put directly on the job and are expected to adjust themselves on the new job and organization. Informal orientation tends to be brief; may last for an hour or may be less than an hour.

Example: A sales person is asked to go along with a tenured high performing sales person or his manager to make sales calls and learn about the product and the selling skills during the calls.

Formal Induction

Here the management has a structured programme which is executed when new employees join the firm. Formal induction is more elaborate and is spread over a couple of weeks or months. Most formal induction programmes consist of three stages:

(i) General introduction to the organization often given by the HR department.

(ii) Specific orientation to the job and the department, typically given by the supervisor or manager.

(iii) Follow up meeting to verify that the important issues have been addressed and employee questions have been answered. This follow up meeting usually takes place after a week of joining between the new employee and the manager.

A formal induction programme is shared by the HR specialists and managers. The HR manager covers areas as:

(i) Introduction: to supervisors, trainers and colleagues.

(ii) Organization issues: organization history, history of the employer, names and titles of important executives, departments, layout of physical facilities, probationary period, product line, production procedure, organization policies and procedures, disciplinary regulations, safety procedures.

(iii) Employee benefits: pay scale, pay days, vacation and holidays, rest breaks, training and education benefits, counselling, insurance benefits, retirement programme etc.

(iv) Supervisors outline the main job duties: job location, task and overview of job, safety requirements and relationship to other jobs.

The choice between formal and informal induction will depend mainly on the goals and objectives of the organization. The more formal the programme the more the new employee will acquire a set of standards. Many organizations prepare certain induction manual and induction powerpoint presentations which they keep on the intranet . These can be aceesed only by the company employees. It is helpful when employees join in small numbers at different point of time, when a separate induction programme cannot be held. This is also helpful to clarify any doubts an employee may have regarding certain organizational practices. In an informal programme individual differences are maintained.

Q.3 What are the benefits of setting up an academy for the organizations?

ANS: Setting up an Academy

Organizations set up training academies where they provide a training course with/without certification in the area of their specialization to fresher candidates. Sometimes candidates with lesser experience are also considered. The candidates are charged fees for this course and are hired on successful completion of the course. The setting up of the academy involves answering the below mentioned questions:

· Why set up an academy?

· Who will do the training?

· Where will the training be conducted?

· How will it be conducted?

Benefits of setting up a Training Academy

By setting up an academy, an organization can get following benefits:

(1) Reduced Hiring Costs – As lesser number of employees will be hired by using consultants and more number of students will be hired from the training academy, the hiring cost is reduced. Also the organization generates revenue on every candidate trained.

(2) Reduced Training Cost – During the training period the candidates are not paid salary, so the cost of salaries paid during the training period is saved. The cost of salaries is a big component of training costs. For a BPO offering an average salary of INR 10,000 per month and a training duration of 2 months. Salary costs are INR 20,000 per employee during training. It may have hired 1000 employees last year and trained them and borne the cost of 2 Crores towards salaries during training. But by setting up an academy it saves on 2 crores in terms of salary costs.

(3) Reduced Training Period – Train to Hire process completely concentrates on training the new candidates, only the selected candidates are paid at the end of the training. As a large chunk of the training is conducted by the academy, the training period of the company reduces substantially. Their go-live time is the shortest.

(4) Improved Bench Strength – The organization has ready replacements available in case of employee turnover or any additional manpower required for expansion. The academy always has excess people than what the organization requires. This gives the organization the flexibility to backfill at short notice and expands the business in the shortest possible time. The candidates ready in waiting to join the organization is called the bench strength.

The ‘Who’ and ‘Where’ part of the questions can be explained as follows: ‘Academy’ is the centre where the training would take place. The organization has to first decide whether the training will be conducted by the in-house trainers or it will be outsourced to vendors who have expertise in the required training subject.

Once this is decided, the organization identifies a place for the Training Academy where the training would take place. Training Academy is either situated in the existing part of the organization’s premises or a low cost area where the cost of land is relatively cheap. Organizations set up the Training Academy in the existing premises because it saves them any additional cost and makes it easier to make resources available to the candidates.

Sometimes, the organization is reluctant to use its office space to avoid any administrative issues, maintain safety, and avoid information leakage about their products or schemes etc. These issues may arise due to having candidates inside the premise, who are yet not the organization’s employees. Therefore, the Training Academy is set up outside the company premises. Other reasons for different premises are:

(i) Not enough space in the company premises

(ii) Organization reluctant to have the Academy in their premises

(iii) Training outsourced to a vendor

When the academy is to be set up in another location, then a low cost area is identified where the cost of land is relatively cheap. When the Train to Hire process is outsourced – fully or partly to a vendor, the centre could be provided or arranged for by the vendor. This saves the organization any administrative burdens. The other reason could be that the organization is looking at the academy as a separate business venture.

Q.4 Discuss intrapreneurship in detail

ANS: Intrapreneurship

When entrepreneurship describes activities within a firm or a large organization it is referred to as Intrapreneurship.

Intrapreneurship may include corporate venturing, when large entities spin-off organizations.In 1992, The American Heritage Dictionary acknowledged the popular use of a new word, intrapreneur, to mean "A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation". Intrapreneurship is today a tool used by corporates to harness the true potential of their high performers which integrates risk-taking and innovation approaches apart from reward and motivational techniques which were usually thought as only possible by entrepreneurs.Intrapreneurship is the practice of entrepreneurship by employees within an organization.

Example :A classic case of intrapreneurs is that of the founders of Adobe, John Warnock and Charles Geschke. They both were employees of Xerox. As employees of Xerox, they were frustrated because their new product ideas were not encouraged. They quit Xerox in the early 1980s to begin their own business. Currently, Adobe has an annual turnover of over $3 billion. While this could have happened inside Xerox, alas it did not.

Steve Jobs has described the development of the Macintosh computer as an intrapreneurial venture within Apple.

Features of Intrapreneurship

Entrepreneurship involves innovation, the ability to take risk and demonstrate creativity. An entrepreneur will be able to look at things in novel ways. He will have the capacity to take calculated risk and to accept failure as a learning point. An intrapreneur thinks like an entrepreneur looking out for opportunities, which profits the organization he/she is employed with. Intrapreneurship is a novel way of making organizations more profitable where imaginative employees entertain entrepreneurial thoughts. It is in the interest of an organization to encourage intrapreneurs. Intrapreneurship is a significant method for companies to reinvent themselves and improve performance.

Intrapreneurship and Employee Engagement

The highest form of employee engagement is possibly intrapreneurship. Organizations can benefit from engaged employees, by listening to them, understanding their needs, thoughts and plans, allowing employees to practice intrapreneurship and create wealth for themselves and the organization.

Engagement is also directly proportional to the amount of listening that an organization does and the action it takes thereafter to respect the employees’ thoughts and plans. Engagement is possible when an organization nurtures the employee and the employee nurtures the organization.

A lot of companies are known for their efforts towards nurturing their in-house talent to promote innovation. “Skunk Works” group at Lockheed Martin is a prominent example. This group was formed in 1943 to build P-80 fighter jets which it did successfully.At “3M” employees can spend 15% time working on projects they like for the betterment of the company. On the initial success of the project, 3M even funds it for further development, thus promoting employee engagement.

Employee Needs

Employees need the following:

1. Someone to listen to their ideas of growing the company

2. Someone who will provide the framework for creating something valuable

3. Someone who use their capabilities in creating something valuable

4. Someone who allows them to do what they do best

5. Someone to provide them feedback in a non threatening manner

6. Someone who is interested in their growth and development

7. Someone who respects and values them

8. Someone who does not doubt their integrity

9. Someone who knows to differentiate between engaged employees and disengaged employees

10. Someone who ensures they are not treated in the same manner as disengaged employees

Attend to employee needs and enhance talent engagement. If you as an employer don’t listen to your engaged employees, they will find other better employers who will, or they will find venture capitalists who will listen to them

and fund them, or they will find friends and relatives to fund their own business and create a business empire of their own.

Appreciate and value the engaged employees and the talent which is engaged. You will not only gain in higher productivity, but may stand to exponentially grow your business because of committed and talented employees.

Q.5 List the tips for successful career planning.

ANS: Tips for Successful Career Planning

Career planning is not a difficult activity, it is fairly simple. It is an activity that is fulfilling, providing the accomplishment of goals in your present career or planning for beginning a change to a new career. Career planning for an employee should be a happy, rewarding and positive experience. Few tips are provided below:

(1) Make it an Annual Activity

Many people do a lot of things or activities differently every year. They take up new hobbies or try playing a new sport, so why not take up career planning? Every individual must find a day or a weekend once a year or more often if you feel the need or if you’re planning a total career change; and plan an escape for yourself. Try and concentrate so that you have the time and energy to truly pay attention to your career and realize what you actually want from your career and finally from life.

If career planning becomes a yearly activity individuals will feel more assured in their career choice and the path in which their career is shaping up. Individual will be prepared to face the many challenges and hurdles that lie ahead in all their jobs and careers.

(2) Develop a Career Path

Organizations chart a career path for most job roles with numerical significance to increase employee length of service in the organization and gain maximum employee contribution. A career path is the milestones that one needs to achieve to reach the career goal.

Example: In a BPO, a technical support agent may need to become a Level 2 – technical support before being promoted to a team leader. After becoming a team leader, the technical support agent can go on to become an assistant manager, manager, senior manager and eventually an associate vice president.

(3) Present your Transferable Skills

Sometimes we introduce ourselves to people while networking or seeking jobs as the designation that we have. For example, I am contact centre agent. By doing so, it may narrow the way people look at your skills or you. Instead identify yourself as a person who could resolve issues, research, solve complex situations, enhance the company’s image in the customers mind, juggle multiple tasks, meeting goals and deadlines, and manage time and information apart from being a quick learner. These skills could easily be applied to a wide collection of jobs in many different careers.

(4) Analyze Hobbies and Pastimes

Take time and observe the activities you like doing when you are not working. Assess the non-working activities when doing career planning. Many times your hobbies and leisurely activities can give you great insight into future career paths. Think you cannot change a hobby into a career? A lot of people do it all the time. E.g. a great painter was once a successful business person who only painted in his free time or as a hobby. He was encouraged and motivated by his friends to take it up as a career option. It was not until then that businessman took an honest look at his hobby and decided he should change it to his career. No doubt he was good at his job, but he was even better at painting and painting was what he loved doing.

(5) Consider Likes and Dislikes

In an individual’s life needs and wants are part of life. Change is one factor which is constant in life; everybody changes nothing remains the same. In a similar manner our likes and dislikes change too. Something we enjoyed doing one year ago may not be interesting to us and it gives us displeasure. You need to take time to ponder or consider on the things in life too and just not in the job that you feel strongly about. Make a list of all the likes and dislikes and use this to assess your present job position and career path. If your job and career covers most of the like things, then your career is on the right path. But, if it covers more things in the dislike, then it is high time to start looking for new jobs and a new career.

At last, take time to consider about what it is you really want or looking for in your job or from your career. Do you want to make a difference to the world by your work or do you want to become famous or to be financially independent. You want to bring about a major change then take time to understand and evaluate the ambitions that motivate your sense of success and happiness?

(6) Track & Communicate Achievements

Most people do good work and over a period of time forget it. They don’t keep a record of the good work done or their achievements. It then becomes a struggle when creating a convincing resume or CV when it’s time to hunt for a new job. Keeping a track of past achievements is not only useful for creating a resume but it’s also handy for career planning. Many a times recollecting past accomplishments or achievements will often bring a smile to your face and bring to mind forgotten success. One or two things may cause a trigger and thus searching and planning a career shift begins. This may be a job that

allows you to accomplish the kinds of things that you wanted and it makes you happy and most proud.

(7) Study Job Trends and Career Opportunities

Study the job trends and career opportunities in the market. It helps in the career planning process particularly long-term. You can create your own job opportunities. Even if the demand for the job you do is decreasing, if you have fantastic skills and know how to market yourself, you will be in a position to find a new job.A career path with growing jobs may have lower demand next year. Look out for areas of high growth, areas that are of interest to you. Research prepares you to position your strengths for different job roles and state why you are best suited for the job. One of the keys to job and career success is having a vast set of competencies. This makes you exclusive in terms of achievements, knowledge, skills, and education and hence enhances your chances for getting the job that you desire.

(8) Self Development

Nothing ever learnt is wasted. However, there are many people in the world who are averse to learning and developing themselves. They have never seen the connection between personal success (financial, status) and learning and self development.

Some people learn and put a lot of effort in self-development till completion of college or getting a steady good job. Then they too become averse to learning. The only people who will thrive in the new economy of the 21st century are the people who will learn and relearn. The others, who choose not to learn, will be akin to slaves.

Learning leads to power and success. Never miss an opportunity to educate yourself or learn and grow more as a person and as a professional. Aggressively seek to learn what you have an interest in even if your company does not pay for it and even if it costs a fortune if they enhance your career opportunities. Decide which educational qualifications or experiences will help you achieve your career goals. Keeping looking for, opportunities that propels you on your career path towards your career goal.

(9) Dream with your Eyes Open

Where would you like to be career-wise after 2 years, 5 years and 10 years? Keep multiple options open while researching different career paths.

(10) Set Career and Job Goals

Keep SMART career goals. SMART being specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. An important part of career planning is setting short-term (in the coming year) and long-term (beyond a year) career and job goals. This allows you to fine tune your goals or change your goals if required.

Q.6 Write a detailed note on E- manpower planning

ANS: E-Manpower Planning

(1) Software for Manpower Planning

HRMS (human resource management system)/HRIS (human resource information system) are basically computer software and hardware tools which are used to collect, store and update, retrieve and analyze data pertaining to human resources. These tools ensure that the data is safe, secured and accessible to authorized personnel. It is also possible to transfer this data or information in required formats. For instance, it will automatically process total manpower data into excel sheets and charts for various data fields.

The information typically is details about below mentioned particulars:

(1) Employee Demographics – Details like name, address, qualification, contact number, date of birth, sex, marital status etc.

(2) Employee Tracking – Details like date of joining, current and previous profiles, performance reports etc.

(3) Skills Inventory – Details of competencies and capabilities of the employee, trainings attended and accreditations etc.

(4) Payroll – Compensation details and structure, past payout, attendance, leaves etc.

(5) Benefits – The perks offered to employees such as car, company accommodation etc.

Many a times HRMS/HRIS is a part of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool used by the organization to manage all the resources. Since human resources are also a part of the resources the organization possesses, it is managed using an ERP solution.

Some of the renowned ERP solutions are:

(i) SAP’s ERP Solution

(ii) IBM’s “E-Business on Demand”

There are innumerable customized HRIS tools, knowledge management systems and learning management systems in the market. Management can use the information collected by the HRIS tool to effectively gauge its current manpower in terms of numbers, skills, competencies, cost etc. The findings in turn can be indicators of future actions. For example, if an organization plans to set up another unit, it can easily decide how many and which employees can be deployed from the existing set up. Also, it will know how many new

employees need to be hired at various levels. The system can also predict future manpower requirements for the organization if provided with a systematic input. These inputs are generally called ‘queries’ in IT sphere.

Example: An organization is currently managing its operations with 40 workmen, 8 supervisors and 2 mangers to achieve a desired output (100%). If the output is to be doubled for this unit, then the manpower has to be doubled. However, managing complex and detailed requirements like locations, skills, cost, age, sex, qualification etc. becomes difficult and time consuming. HRIS will help you with these details with ease and comfort saving you time and cost. Generating trends on performance, turnover, individual productivity, allocation etc. is a matter of seconds with the help of technology.

Cascading the Vision

In most organizations the CEO and directors envision the long term goal; top management creates a value chain and builds processes to realize the plan. Middle management, supervisors and workmen execute the plan. It is very important that different levels receive or view the plan as the organization wants them to perceive. For instance, if the organization plans to be the ‘largest retailer in India’, for the sales executives it may mean ‘x’ units to be sold per day. It would also mean changes in processes and modification in roles.

The vision, mission should be cascaded down the organization as SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound) goals for each job role. When the employees see a tangible plan with clear objectives, they believe and participate and thus the engagement level is much higher. Basically clarity of goals and simplified information is invaluable. A lot of information would be required to execute such a plan. Moreover the information needs to be complete, accurate, relevant and timely (CART).This is where technology can assist in cascading the vision, mission down the organization with the help of tools like HRIS and ERP solutions.

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