Employee Performance Appraisal and Corrective Measures

The end of each year HR and line managers become so active with the assessment of performance of employees. However this appraisal is not a year end process rather needed to be carried out throughout the year as a continuous HRM proses. The job not finished when a talent or pool of talent recruited in any organization. It is uncommon to see that few of those talent becomes unprovoked, the poor performer after a certain period. Research shows that employees become de-motivated for various causes and among them few are:

1. Lack of Recognition of Competence: Employees expected that organization will give proper value of their knowledgeable, skill and experience. If not, only perk and benefits can not keep their competence high for a longer tenure.

2. No autonomy at all: After a certain period of engagement with the work and organization, employees seeks the exercise self-regulation, within the guidelines, to achieve business goals. If they just monitored and instructed all the time, they lose their motivation to achieve innovative and wonderful new business ideas.

Pic Source: http://www.e3050.com

3. No clear career path: Only increment or raise of salary can not able to keep employees' morale high in the organization. They want to see that after 5 years where they can reach if they perform really well aligned with organization business goal and vision. A better succession plan is mandatory as well as the crystal clear career path for each level.

4. Proper training and development plan: Employees deserve to get training to attain further development of their career. If an organization failed to provide proper training to them and a good training plan is missing there, certainly it is tough for HR to keep the employee on track.

Based on the above points in any business organization may find that, their employees tend to turn in work late, lack of commitment, missing of seriousness, lack of focus on assignments, missing deadlines as well as no longer act as a team player as they were earlier. So, corrective measures with proper actions need to be adopted to overcome this situation. And this the time to do so. Year end is here and performance appraisal system has to be very scientific. Those companies already implemented e-HRM, its high time for them to use the database. All the best in each single employee throughout the world. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!

P.S: Any of my articles/write-ups can be shared, modified, used anytime for better Human Capital Management, with or without giving credentials. I do believe: Sharing is Caring :)

© Shaki, Ahmed R (2012), Candidate of PhD in HRM, UUM

e-HRM for Academic Institution for Better Performance Management!

Managing performance is one of the crucial responsibilities not only for the HR personnel as well as all head of departments or line manager. The way performance managed and supervised in the corporate world in present challenging global market is really impressive. However, in my observation Academic Institution (Universities) is far behind of this trend and somehow academicians are not properly judged or even less utilized. My point is not against to the academicians nor even raising my finger to them, but the main reason is still we may see that registrar department doing the recruitment work for the university, no proper HR department or practices there. Even worst there always very badly visible two stream. One academician and another one is administrative staffs, even the rules, policies, etc. also significantly different which caused huge grievances.

Pic Source: brihaspathionline.com

To resolve this issue, again I am requesting to the management of academic institution to implement e-HRM. Various researchers have shown that online performance appraisal systems reduce costs and increase the speed through the process. Additional advantages of those systems include the shortage of previous year’s data that helps top management to compare the employees’ results and evaluations for the last years in an easier way. Across the world, we have seen that requirements for talented scholars as academicians rapidly growing. So, there is always the presence of local as well expat academicians in academic institutions. Some create different performance management system for local and international academic staff. Honestly speaking it just creates more trouble in a long run. No parties will feel ownership for the institution then. Creating a challenging performance management system for the academic staff will push them to think out of the box, and for sure they won’t stick up only the textbook then. University’s need to employ a lecturer only those who at least have one or two-year corporate experiences. Thus, it will ensure the fine mix of knowledge both from academic text books and real-life experience.

As we knew that business leaders are counting on academic institutions: schools, colleges, universities and other training establishments for infusing well-qualified fresh talent into industry. In turn, academic institutions are continually determined for improving their output both in terms of numbers, and the quality of talent offered for varying jobs in different types of organizations. The excellence of output from an academic institution depends on the quality of their faculty, support services and infrastructure. Attaining these higher levels of excellence, institutions need to set high-performance goals for their academic and non-academic staff. These goals should be effectively measured at frequent intervals to bridge performance gaps, if any. Institutions which can efficiently manage the performance of their faculty, and other employees can leave their mark on industry.

Thus, having the best from class performance management system which only can be ensured through implementing e-HRM is not only a need of the hour but an enabler of excellence in an academic institution. Think about it and put your comments.

P.S: Any of my articles/write-ups can be shared, modified, used anytime for better Human Capital Management, with or without giving credentials. I do believe: Sharing is Caring :)

© Shaki, Ahmed R (2012), Candidate of PhD in HRM, UUM

From The Court Of HR: Why Employees Leave Organizations?

Numerous reasons are behind for leaving current workplace. Each new day HR starts fighting with posting job advertisement in Website(s), LinkedIn, Twitter, Newspaper, Head-hunters and so on. Question is why? Why employees leaving even though the work environment is superb, perk and benefits market standard etcetera. Much has been claimed that, employees leave because of poor HR policies. If anyone sticks too long to a company s/he is taken for granted that s/he won't leave and also perceive that perhaps not getting a job outside. In addition to that organization culture and environment plays crucial role to retain the employees.

Let me give my own example. I quit from one reputed organization earlier in my life because of my bad manager. I tried a lot to cop-up with that manager style of work, attitudes but still unable to keep myself motivated in the long run. Even though that person completed his Masters from USA but still lack of positive attitudes like giving right recognition, provide adequate facilities and never appreciate for good work. However, he is the Head of HR for that organization. I do believe many of you had the same experience.  

Some of you already raised you eye-brew that I am pointing my fingers to that poor fellow without saying about my lack of skills or others. Trust me Manager(s) is one of the main reasons for employees’ drives away from the company. Allow me to share one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. That study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called "First Break All The Rules." The survey result not surprising me as it said if you're losing good people, look to their manager. Manager is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization as well as manager is the reason why people leave. When people leave they take knowledge, experience and contacts with them, straight to the competition. According to that book authors, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman: "People leave managers not companies," Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious, too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit - often over a trivial issue. Talented men leave. Dead wood doesn't.

Allow me to share another case happened in the corporate world. ‘S’, got an offer as a senior HR executive from a reputed business giant located at Malaysia. Previously, he was working as HR officer in a Singaporean company based in Jurong, Singapore. He was thrilled by the offer as the salary is good with re-location benefits, company had all the right systems in place with employee-friendly HR and e-HRM system, a state of art new office premises, healthy and renowned caterer for employee canteen and the CEO is very popular for his awesome charisma. ‘S’ seems happy to get the offer but within six months he quit from that Malaysian company. He walked out because of his immediate supervisor’s racial attitudes with him. ‘S’ leaves the company not for better pay or profile but for the manager.

What HR Can Do To Tackle Such Situations:

1. Ensure good ‘Exit Interview’ practice for every level of employees.

2. Strict and well circulated ‘Sexual Harassment’ policy.

3. Proper and regular ‘Employee Rewards and Recognition’ practices.

4. Follow-up meeting with every department with HR at least twice in a year, better in each quarter.

5. Well articulated policy for ‘Grievance Handling’ and have online option for HR service desk.

6. Ensured career path for everyone with succession planning and training.

P.S: Any of my articles/write-ups can be shared, modified, used anytime for better Human Capital Management, with or without giving credentials. I do believe: Sharing is Caring :)

© Shaki, Ahmed R (2012), Candidate of PhD in HRM, UUM

Work Life Balance: (It's Not A Joke With A Joke)

Every Human Capital Managers' one of major responsibility is make sure, employees work-life balance are there. HR professionals have to promote work-life balance to retain and motivate employees. As Jonathan Huie mentioned that, "The concept of Work-Life Balance can become a two-way street - give as well as take. Think of it as an extension of Flex-Time. Flex-Time doesn't create less work, it simply allows employees to rearrange their work hours to fit their life priorities. Work-Life Balance should be the same - an opportunity for your employees to do what is most important in each moment - both taking a day to nurture a sick child, and also taking a Sunday evening to prepare that important presentation. By taking a leadership position in offering a Work-Life Balance program before it is demanded, you have the opportunity to set the ground rules as well as to position your company as an innovator in human resources".  (Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2332342)

Pic Source: http://www.tcd.ie/wiser/balance/

Before ending about this issue let me share one of hilarious conversations between two colleagues which I got by email from Amit Bhagria http://www.younghrmanager.com/ Young HR Manager Inc, 15 Nehru Place, New Delhi, India. Enjoy!!! :)  

This is good...

During lunch break one afternoon at work, Rajgopalan and
Shakaracharya were chatting.... 

Rajgopalan: Shankar, I've been working late every day since I have
joined here & hence I got a promotion and very good bonus this
appraisal.

Shankaracharya: How could it be Raj? Is that the only secret?

Rajgopalan: No, in the process of staying after office hours, I
have also gathered a lot of General Knowledge; & my boss also asked
me such questions at appraisal time. 

Shankaracharya: Like what? 

Rajgopalan: For example, do you know who is Graham Bell?

Shankaracharya: No 

Rajgopalan: He's the inventor of the phone in 1876; if you spent more time in office after office hours you would know this! 

The next day, the same discussion took place:
Rajgopalan: Do you know who Alexander Dumas is?

Shankaracharya: No 

Rajgopalan: He's the author of "The 3 Musketeers", if you spent
more time in office after office hours you would know this!

The next day, once again:

Rajgopalan: And do you know who Jean Jacques Rousseau is?

Shankaracharya: No 

Rajgopalan: He's the author of "Confessions", if you spent more
time in office after office hours you would know this!

This time, Shankaracharya got irritated and said:

Shankaracharya: And you, do you know who is Balachandra Appaswamy?

Rajgopalan: No 

Shankaracharya: He's the guy roaming with your wife every evening
!! If you stop spending more time in office after office hours, you
would know this! 

Moral: There is 'something' important in life than Work and General Knowledge. Enjoy life.

P.S: Any of my articles/write-ups can be shared, modified, used anytime for better Human Capital Management, with or without giving credentials. I do believe: Sharing is Caring :)

e-HRM and Employee Satisfaction.....

Human Capital function of an organization is accountable for complying with the Human Resources needs of the organization. Along with other business functions in human capital also align their strategies, policies and practices with organization mission, vision and goal. Human Capital Management or Human Resources Management whatever we named it, improving the system each and every day. There is no point of satisfaction unless HR practitioners every day try to improve the service both for external and internal customers. Electronic Human Resources Management (e-HRM) is one of such development for HR.

In any organization employees have different perceptions about the term "e- HRM". e-HRM is basically a web-based solution that takes advantage of the latest web application technology to deliver an online  real-time  Human  Resource  Management Solution. It is comprehensive but easy to use, feature-rich yet flexible enough to be tailored to organizations specific needs. It also refers to the processing and transmission of digitized information used in HRM, including text, sound and visual images, from one computer or electronic device to another. It will be able to meet the demands of today's Human Resource Management.

Using e-HRM technology is a way of aligning and coping up with organization HR strategies, policies and practices.  The e-HRM technology supports the HR function through web-technology based channels. The e-HRM provides a portal which enables managers, employees and HR professionals to view extract or alter information which  is  necessary  for  managing  the  HR  of  the organization. HR personnel have to keep it in mind that employees’ satisfaction is must for smooth working of an organization.  Without this, peaceful running of an organization is not possible.  If some changes are done in the organization and employees are not satisfied with it then the results of those changes are not in favor of the organization. So, before implementing e-HRM within the organization as well as after implementation HR personnel have to recheck repeatedly that employees are happy with the service or not. The satisfaction factors of employees' satisfaction towards e-HRM are can be Faster Communication, Improvements, Benefits, Employee Management, Time Efficiency and Client Oriented.

Please feel free to contact with me if you have any further query about e-HRM. Thanks

© Shaki, Candidate of PhD in HRM, UUM