Perhaps more than any other HR activity, health and safety offer HR manager an opportunity to be more proactive than reactive. Read: The Concept of Occupational Safety and Health There are a number of strategies that can be used by organizations to ensure a healthy and safe workplace and ensure compliance with legal requirements. Some are: Design Safe and healthy systems of work Exhibit Strong management commitment Inspect Workplace for health and safety problems Establish Procedures and controls for dealing with health and safety issues Develop Training programs Set up Health and safety committees Monitor Safety policies Draw up Action plan and checklist 1. Design safer systems of work: The most direct approach to ensuring a safe and healthy workplace is to design systems of work that are safe and without risk to health. This can often only be done satisfactorily at the design, planning or purchasing stage. It may Continue reading
Human Resource Management Basics
Industrial Disputes – Meaning, Prevention and Settlement
Industrial disputes are organised protests against existing terms of employment or conditions of work. According to the Industrial Dispute Act, 1947, an Industrial dispute means “Any dispute or difference between employer and employer or between employer and workmen or between workmen and workmen, which is connected with the employment or non-employment or terms of employment or with the conditions of labor of any person” In practice, Industrial dispute mainly refers to the strife between employers and their employees. An Industrial dispute is not a personal dispute of any one person. It generally affects a large number of workers’ community having common interests. Prevention of Industrial Disputes: The consequences of an Industrial dispute will be harmful to the owners of industries, workers, economy and the nation as a whole, which results in loss of productivity, profits, market share and even closure of the plant. Hence, Industrial disputes need to be averted Continue reading
Manpower Planning Process – Problems, Barriers and Solutions
The centrality of manpower in production process of corporate entities has long been acknowledged by organization managers and administrators. It is an on-going process (integrated approach), not a once and for all phenomenon. Its process involves interrelated activities and the plan must continue to be modified to meet prevailing circumstances. As a plan, it is embedded with implementation programmes designed to ensure availability of adequate qualified persons. Such implementation programmes include recruitment and selection (employment) of required skilled personnel to perform jobs that will allow the enterprise meet both the corporate and individual goals. The plan implementation programme also entails training and development of personnel and performance appraisal as well as other related personnel administration functions. The term ‘Manpower Planning’ at organizational or corporate level is also known as micro-human resources planning and it has much to do with personnel management or personnel administration. The terms “manpower, ‘human resource”, and Continue reading
Reprimands in the Workplace
Reprimanding is a form of punishment which is can be used in decreasing problematic behaviors. It simply means to be scolded, yelled at, and bawled out or to be chastised verbally for exhibiting unwanted target behavior. Reprimands are useful when a person is engaging in mannerisms that call for immediate action because maybe it is harmful to others, self, or to property. Reprimands should be explicitly and selectively used in response to particular mannerisms or behaviors. They should also be inclusive of a statement of the required behavior which of course is the opposite of inappropriate behavior. For the reprimands to be effective the user must be specific. They should also come immediately, use a physical demeanor or a firm voice, back up the reprimand with some loss of privileges, and encourage the person to behave appropriately by stating the correct behaviors explicitly. In this article, we will focus on Continue reading
Stress – Causes, Challenges and Prevention Measures
Stress is a natural reaction generated within the body of a person to tackle a particular situation or event with focus, toughness and strength. The stress allows people to find out the unknown and hidden areas within them to face a situation. The stress mainly happens in two steps. One is the external stimulus referred to as the stressor that arises in an environment and the second is the response generated by the body to tackle that particular external stimulus. Stress could be basically categorised into different types. Eustress is the term that was coined to explain positive gains due to stress whereas distress is the stress that causes painfulness and negative fall backs. Hyper stress is the overreaction of a body due to the difficulties of worry or trauma and hypo stress is the under reaction or instability of a body due to an external circumstance. Chronic stress on Continue reading
Human Resource Management (HRM) – Definitions, Objectives, Scope and Importance
Definitions of Human Resource Management (HRM) Human Resource Management (HRM) is concerned with the “people” dimension in management. Since every organization is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to high level of performance and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the Organization are essential to achieving organizational objectives. This is true regardless of type of organization – Government, business, education, health, recreation or social action. Those organization that are able to acquire, develop, stimulate and keep outstanding workers will be both effective, able to achieve their goals, and efficient (expanding the least amount of resources necessary). Those organization that are inefficient and ineffective risk the hazards of stagnating or going out of business. According to Thomas G. Spates, Human Resource Management (HRM) is a code of the ways of organizing and treating individuals at work so that they will get the Continue reading