New Techniques in Human Resource Management

By

Rameesha Kalra
Monika Bhatia
Lecturers
School of Management
Ansal Institute of Technology
Gurgaon
 

The field of Human Resource Management is developing very fast & every department of human activity is realizing its importance in the smooth functioning of the organization. Innovative techniques are developed to improve the work culture, so that the employees are motivated to give in their best to the organization. There is tough competition everywhere & to survive with grace, one will have to accept the changes in this modern world and adopt the latest human resources practices. Those who refuse to change will be left behind & will have to accept defeat. So it is imperative to implement the latest human resource practices in the organization.

The latest techniques in the field of Human Resource Development are:

Employees for Lease: Sometimes the organizations depend upon consultancy agencies or individual consultants for their expertise to tap and utilize their expert knowledge. The consultancy agencies offer expert advice and the execution of the advice is left to the employees of the organization. The employees may in some of the cases fail to covert the know-how into a project. Under such circumstances, new types of organizations will emerge, which would be called as Employee Leasing Organization. These leasing organizations will be principal employers and send the required number and kind of employees to various organizations on lease basis. They collect the fee & other charges from various industries & pay the salaries, provide benefits to the employees. The Leasing company will pay complete salary and benefits to the employees irrespective of the number of days that the employee is sent to various organizations on lease.

This type of agreement is beneficial to the leasing company, specialist employees and the industry. The industry with limited budget can utilize the expert advice & service of most competent human resources.

Moonlighting by Employees: This is a situation, which arises among employees on account of dissatisfaction from present wage & salary structure. They feel that employer enjoys the increased profit and that they are being exploited by the employer. Consequently they agitate for hike in wages or take up another part-time job or business simultaneously with that of the original job. This is also known as Double Jobbing.

Moonlighting by employees affects almost all the functions of Human Resource Management. The effects of Moonlighting would be mostly negative & it poses challenges to the personnel manager. Presently very limited number of employees does moonlighting, but the number of employees will go on increasing due to change in employee values & expectations. Management will have to take all possible care in selection process about the possibility of moonlighting by the prospective candidates.

Dual Career Groups: There has been a tremendous increase in the number of female employees in all types of organizations due to: -

* increased career orientation among women in recent years.
* creation of variety of jobs.
* higher level commitment
* better performance.
* Less demanding & agitative oriented.
* Economic Freedom.
* Better Social Status.
* Aspirations for quality of work life.

Due to dual career groups, both wife & husband will be loaded with grievances & problems as both of them share their problems, both at work and off the job. In view of overloading of the problems to both the members in dual career groups, they spend heir time and energy in solving the problems or in getting the grievances redressed for both the parties. So, there will be possibility of less commitment to the work in the organization by both the parties.

Due to this new trend in HR, in a nutshell, the HR manager should treat people as resources, reward them equitably, and integrate their aspirations with corporate goals through suitable HR policies.

Flexi-time & Flexi-work: The number of hours in a day, number of days in a  week and work schedule when the worker has to perform is normally stated in the Job Description. The concept of Flexi-time has been introduced in order to suit the convenience of the workers without affecting the organizational functioning. Flexi-time is a program that allows flexible entry and leaving times for employees. Flexi-time increases productivity, decline in absenteeism, and reduction in employee turnover & increase in morale.

Flexi-work:  It is a program that allows flexibility in handling the type of work in   various departments of the organizations in systematic way by the employee during his tenure of employment in an organization. For example, a candidate may be selected as a clerk in the Personnel Department and after two years he may be allowed to take up work in any other department of the organization.

Training & Development: Organizations spend a lot of time and resources in training, developing and educating their employees in tune with the job awareness and organizations' requirements. This is mostly due to the absence of linkage between the industry and universities. Organizations in future will establish their own educational institutes. These institutes will frame their course curriculum to suit the requirements of various jobs in the organization as a whole. These institutes will go on changing the course curriculum depending upon the changes in technology, work methods, production process, activities and so on. The intake of these institutes depends on exclusive requirements of organization. After the completion of the course, the candidate will be awarded a diploma and absorbed by the organization. This management arrangement will automatically take care of the problem of unemployment and underemployment. This arrangement will also minimize the duration of time to be spent by the candidate in his educational process.

Management Participation in Employees' Organizations: With the formation and recognition of employees' organizations, the management cannot make unilateral decisions those affect employee relationship directly or indirectly. Decisions relating to policies on employment, training, transfer, promotion, adoption of latest technology etc. are no longer determined by unilateral action of management and must now be discussed with the representatives of employees' organizations. Decisions on the policies and administration may still rest with management, but they are frequently subject to question and criticism by union representatives under a formal grievance procedure. This technique enables the two parties to exchange ideas, opinions, information and knowledge to understand each other's viewpoint, with an open mind and thereby avoid all misunderstandings. Thus, the management representatives may provide effective plans, suggestions, advice organization and directions for sound management and functioning of federations and unions for the common good of both the parties.

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING: is an institutional process for solving problems arising directly out of employer-employee relationships. Through collective bargaining. the two parties become responsive to each other. Employees ventilate their problems relating to wages, employee benefits etc. while the management puts forth its demands regarding employee co-operation and commitment so as to maximize its profits. Thus, the two parties discuss the problem and each party tries to solve the problems of the other. The scope of collective bargaining is wider as the solutions for common problems can be found directly through negotiations between both the parties.

COLLABORATIVE MANAGEMENT: It is the general practice that the owners and/or their representatives manage the organization. But most of the organizations have started allowing their employees to participate in management. It is viewed that different parties concerned with the organizational activities will manage the organization through participation. Such type of management system is referred as 'Collaborative Management'. Employee's participation in management was initiated to satisfy workers' psychological needs, to develop a sense of belongingness and loyalty to the organization. 

RECOMMENDATIONS : -

Change is the law of nature. It is necessary way of life in different circles. Though there may be some discontentment during the early days of change, people learn to meet the changes and adopt themselves to the changing situations. The management in future will try to:

* Give up authoritarian style of leadership and adopt participative style of leadership.
* Follow human relations approach and partnership approach towards employees.
* Encourage creative skills and abilities and reward those talents.
* Shift the emphasis from legal and rule bounded approach
* Participate in trade union activities; recognize human resource as a profit centre and as a basic instrument to earn profits rather than as a cost centre.
* Understand the fact that human resource management will dominate all other functional areas of management.

Further, the role of all Personnel Manager will also change. Those changes will be as follows:

* Personnel manager and individual manager will give emphasis on overall development of human resources.
* Human Resource Management function will be extended to cover career planning and development, organization and development, organize climate, role analysis, national wage policy, social justice etc.

Today competition is very tough and if an organization has to survive in the race gracefully, it has to constantly upgrade its skills and sharpen its capabilities. Many new techniques are implemented in the organizations to motivate the employees and to help them perform to their optimum capacity. By using the above-mentioned techniques and many other programs, the organization tries to make the workers and employees more competent, committed & comfortable to do a given job.

CONCLUSION:-

Human resource management is a process of bringing people and organizations together so that the goals of each other are met. The role of HR manager is shifting from that of a protector and screener to the role of a planner and change agent. Over the years, highly skilled and knowledge based jobs are increasing while low skilled jobs are decreasing.

HR Managers should concentrate on the following areas to ensure success: -

* Use workforce skills and abilities in order to exploit environmental opportunities and neutralize threats.
* Employ innovative reward plans that recognize employee contributions and grant enhancements.
* Indulge in continuous quality improvement through TQM and HR contributions like training, development, counseling, etc.
* Utilize people with distinctive capabilities to create unsurpassed competence in an area.
* Decentralize operations and rely on self-managed teams to deliver goods in difficult times e.g. Motorola is famous for short product development cycles. It has quickly commercialized ideas from its research labs.
 

Rameesha Kalra
Monika Bhatia
Lecturers
School of Management
Ansal Institute of Technology
Gurgaon
 

Source: E-mail May 8, 2008

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