Traditional performance appraisals, can be both subjective and simplistic. At times, they can also be deemed to be “political”. In an attempt to improve this methodology, some companies have turned to 360 degree performance appraisals. 360 degree performance appraisals pool feedback from a department’s internal and external customers to ensure a broader, more accurate perspective of an employee’s performance. 360 degree performance appraisal is an attempt to answer the question: “How can a supervisor evaluate an employee he or she sees only a few hours each week?” Using internal and external clients 360 degree performance appraisal offer an alternative by which organizations may gain more useful performance information about employees. Because all clients/customers an employee comes into contact with can conceivably have input into the performance appraisal, this methodology can also makes them more accountable to their customers. Using a courtroom metaphor, one could say that, rather than having a Continue reading
Human Resource Management Basics
Benefits of Work-Life Balance
Work-Life Balance doesn’t necessarily mean fewer hours at work. It is about people feeling satisfied by having an extent of control over how, when and where they work, how they can manage their time and stuffs they want and need to do. This balance is achieved when an individual’s right to a fulfilled life inside and outside paid work is accepted and respected as a norm, to the mutual benefit of the individual, business and society. The key aspect of work-life balance only from an employer’s viewpoint is numerous. They are of importance because providing an employee with a balanced work-life existence is for the employer and employee. For an example, if the employee is satisfied and happy, the whole exercise must make business sense to the enterprise. In 21st century, life is increasingly difficult with people managing multiple roles. Therefore, they will only stay with a job that offers Continue reading
Motivating Employees with Stock Options
Employee stock options plan is a company wide incentives plan whereby the company contributes shares of its own stock or cash to be used to purchase such stock to a trust established to purchase shares of the firm’s stock for employees. The firm generally makes these contributions annually in proportion to total employee compensation, with a limit of 15% of compensation. The trust holds the stock in individual employee accounts, and distributes it to employees upon retirement, assuming the person has worked long enough to earn ownership of the stock. Many companies use employee stock options plans to retain and attract employees, the objective being to give employees an incentive to behave in ways that will boost the company’s stock price. By issuing employee stock options as compensation, organizations can preserve and generate cash flow. The cash flow comes when the organizations issues new shares and receives the exercise price Continue reading
Introduction to Organization Development
Organizations change from time to time. Changes with respect to continuous improvements, diversity, and work process engineering require the organization to move forward through a process called organizational development. Definition of Organization Development: Organization development is a process that addresses system wide change in the organization. Change agent: Change agents are individuals responsible for fostering the change effort and assisting employees in adapting to changes They are may be internal employees, or external consultants. What is change? Organization development efforts support changes that are usually made in four areas: The organization’s systems Technology Processes People Two metaphors clarify the change process. The calm waters metaphor: It describes unfreezing the status quo, change to a new state, and refreezing to ensure that the change is permanent. Kurt Lewin describes the status quo can be considered an equilibrium state. Unfreezing, necessary to move from this equilibrium, is achieved in one of three Continue reading
Employee Resourcing – Meaning, Objectives and Applications
In the conduct of performance of any business, it has often been regarded that the employees constitute the most important part of the organization. The employees are the backbone and foundation of the business because they make its operation possible. They are part of every success story, as well as the unfortunate failure of the organizations. Employees are the most valuable asset of the business. Overtime, the proper management of the company’s workforce has been called upon by concerned groups and even by the management itself. Various programs and practices have been designed and geared towards improving them and developing their skills so that they can be better assets in the operation of the organization. Successful human management skills have been called upon in order to improve the workforce. Effective employee recruitment and staff selection, improving the performance of the workforce, and reduction of staff turn-over are some of the Continue reading
Information System (IS) Applications in Human Resource Management (HRM)
A unified data model provides a single, accurate view of HR activities ranging from recruitment, employment, training, performance management, compensation management and real time management. Oracle human resource leverage workflow and internet-based processes optimize various HRM activities. The system maintains global HR data in case of Trans-national companies and total organizational human resource data in case of national companies in a single location for accurate and easy availability. The system of applications of Information Technology (IT) in HRM is referred to as Human Resource Module. HRIS merges some of HRM functions with the IT field, wherein the planning and programming of data processing systems have evolved into standardized routines and packages of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. ERP integrates the human resource module with finance, production, and sales and administration modules. Generally, traditional HRM functions are common to all organizations. They consist of tracking data regarding personal histories, family details, Continue reading