Human Resources Management - Recruitment, Selection, Appointment And Promotion

RECRUITMENT -
It covers the entire gamut of activities relating to entertainment, acceptance, selection and approval for appointment and not the actual Appointment itself or posting in service.

Once there is clarity about the organisational objectives then there is a sound Manpower Planning done which the moves to its implementation stage out of which Recruitment is the first step.

The net for recruitment should be cast wide to reach out widest in pursuance of the best available talent to the extent practicable, keeping in mind the cost and time.


SOURCES OF RECRUITMENT:

1. Direct Recruitment - Sourced fresh from outside the organisation

2. Indirect Recruitment- Sourced from existing employees viz. internal promotions, deputation, delegation, transfer, reemployment, short term contract, etc.

Advantages Of Direct Recruitment:

1. Provides equal opportunity to all.

2. Induction of fresh energy into the organisation.

3. Widens the ambit of selection and makes possible to tap wider market for supply of desired human resource.

4. Motivates existing employees to keep themselves efficient and updated with latest trends lest they lose out on higher positions to outside players.
Disadvantages of Direct Recruitment:
1. New recruits lack experience and practical know-how thus leading to cost increase of the organisation on training them.

2. Kills initiative of internal candidates.

3. Places inexperience over experienced.

4. Older employees cannot compete successfully with new entrants as they are out of touch with studies,etc.

In India, both the sources of recruitment are used at the right mix for overall benefit of the organisation. Direct recruitment is done and along with that a certain proportion of posts are reserved for indirect recruitment so that there is balancing out of experience and fresh talent that keeps the organisation efficient and mobile.

STEPS IN RECRUITMENT,SELECTION,APPOINTMENT AND PROMOTION:
1. Job requisition
2. Designing the Application forms for applicants
3. Advertisement
4. Scrutiny of applications
5. Selection of candidates from applications received
6. Communication to selected candidates
7. Appointment & Placement of candidates


CIVIL SERVICE RECRUITMENT IN INDIA:
Article 309 of the Indian Constitution empowers the Central Government and State Governments to regulate recruitment and conditions of service of persons appointed to public services and posts through an act of appropriate legislature that is subject to limitations that it cannot override constitutional provisions else it would be declared null and void and struck down.
The Parliament passed the All India Staffing Patterns Services Act 1951 that governs the conditions of service of All India Service Officers.

EXAMINATIONS CONDUCTED OF SELECTION TO CIVIL SERVICES:
1. Essay type test.
2. Short Answer objective test.
3. Aptitude tests
4. Personality tests
5. Performance test
6. Interview.

RECRUITING AGENCY FOR THE CIVIL SERVICES:
1. Union Public Service Commission: Refer - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Public_Service_Commission

FUNCTIONS OF THE UPSC:
i. To conduct examinations for appointment to the services of the Union and conduct interviews for direct recruitment.
ii. To advise on any matter referred to them and on any matter which the president may refer to the appropriate commission;
iii. To exercise such additional functions as may be provided for by an Act of Parliament regarding the services of the Union and also with respect to the services of any local authority constituted by law; and
iv. It shall be the duty of the Union Public Service Commission if requested by any two or more states, to assist those States in framing and operating schemes of joint recruitment for any service.

Further, UPSC shall be consulted:
i. On all matters relating to methods of
recruitment to Civil service and for Civil Posts.
ii. On the principle to be followed in making promotions and transfers form one service to another
iii. On all disciplinary matters affecting a person serving under the Government of India in a civil capacity including petitions relating to such matters.
iv. On any claim for the award of pension in respect of injuries sustained by a person while serving under the government of India in a civil capacity and on any question as to the amount of any such award.


 OTHER AGENCIES OF RECRUITMENT:
1. Respective State Public Service Commissions for State Civil Services recruitment.
2.Staff Selection Commission  - To conduct examinations and/or interviews to make recruitment to Group “B” and Group “C” posts for the various Ministries and Departments of the Government of India.
3. Railway Recruitment Board
4. CSIR(Council of Scientific and Industrial Research)


PROMOTION:
Promotion is "an appointment from a given position to a position of higher grade, involving a change of duties to a more difficult type of work and greater responsibility,accompanied by change of title and usually an increase in pay" - L.D. White

PROMOTION IN CIVIL SERVICES:
1. Promotion from State Civil Services to All India Services - To the tune of 33% of the total vacancies. The promotions are made by a committee instituted for each state that comprises of the Chairman of the UPSC or his representative, a senior officer of the govt. of India,the Chief Secy to the govt. of that particular state in question, the senior Financial Commissioner in the state civil secretariat, the Development Commissioner and the Senior most Divisional Commissioner.

2. Promotion in State Civil Services From Allied Services - Promotion to the respective State Civil Services from tehsildars,persons holding ministerial appointments,block development and panchayat officers,etc. For this a committee is appointed consisting of the chief secy as chairman and two such officers as members nominated by the state government which makes a selection out of the eligible officials and then forwards to the State PSC for its views on the names of candidates thus selected for the posts to be filled. This procedure has curtailed the powers of the Commission and made it rather a rubber stamp that only endorses the decision of the state govt. This needs to be reviewed.

PRINCIPLES OF PROMOTION:
1. Merit - It is applied in cases of promotion to higher level posts.

2. Merit cum Seniority - In cases of promotion to middle level posts, here merit comes first.

3. Seniority - Promotions in lower rung posts, but even here it is ensured that exceptional merit is rewarded by quick promotion.

Human Resource Management: Job Analysis And Job Description

DEFINITIONS:

JOB - Collection of tasks, duties, responsibilities, which as a whole comprise the established assignment to an individual employee.

PURPOSE OF JOB ANALYSIS:
Job Analysis (a.k.a Job Study) - Determination through observation and study of comprehensive information regarding a job with a view to specifying tasks and necessary abilities, knowledge and skills required to perform it. It is carried out by the HR Department and aided by the respective departments of the organization.

METHODS EMPLOYED FOR JOB ANALYSIS/JOB STUDY:
1. Interview and Questionnaire with the incumbents, department Managers and other higher officials directly and indirectly related to that particular Job.

2. Observation and Collection of Data regarding the Job.

3. Participation by the HR official directly/indirectly in the Job activity till analysis period and gain information regarding the same first hand.

4. Technical Conference - Here the information regarding the Job is collected from experts, usually supervisors and not procured directly from actual Job incumbents. The drawback of this method is that at time experts might give answers based on past or outdated experiences or abstract perception since they are not in tune with the current and first hand scenario.

5. Self Recording or Diary maintained y the Job Analyst.

6. Positive Analysis Questionnaire - The HR Manager rates a Job on 194 parameters/descriptions by judging the degree to which each count is present in the Job.

7. Management Position Analysis Questionnaire

ADVANTAGES OF JOB ANALYSIS:
1.Provides with First Hand Job Related Information

2.Helps in creating right Job-Employee fit.

3.Helps in establishing effective hiring strategies.

4.Guides through performance evaluation and Appraisal Process.

5.Helps in analysing Training and Development Needs.

6.Helps in deciding compensation and benefits.



LIMITATIONS OF JOB ANALYSIS:
1. It provides only a snapshot of a particular job.
2. Since Jobs change over a period time due to internal and external factors affecting the organisation therefore, Job analysis to be effective and changes accordingly should have an in-built mechanism for periodically assessing jobs via observations, interviews or brief questionnaire/checklist. This will be much more less expensive and time consuming as compared to starting from scratch every time there is a contingency.

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PURPOSE OF JOB DESCRIPTION:
Job Description - Well written duty statements which accurately describe what is being done on a job as well as work functions and reporting relationships helping recruitment policies as well as employees understand their jobs better and approximate performance to desired levels.

Point wise:
1. Recruiting, interviewing and selection
2. Orientation and training
3. Setting performance standards and or goal statements
4. Designing performance appraisal forms
5. Jo evaluation
6. Clarification and renegotiation of roles
7. Career progression ladders

METHOD OF JOB DESCRIPTION:
On the basis of Job Analysis a specific and taut Job Description is prepared.

ADVANTAGES OF JOB DESCRIPTION:
1.It helps specify and clearly cut out roles and performance levels for all that leads to total efficiency in the organization.
2.It helps cost effectiveness and time management and accountability and responsibility fixing in the organisation's employees.
3.Aids maintenance a consistent and rightful salary structure.

LIMITATIONS OF JOB DESCRIPTION:
Prescriptive job descriptions may be seen as a hindrance in certain circumstances^:

• Job descriptions may not be suitable for some senior managers as they should have the freedom to take the initiative and find fruitful new directions;
• Job descriptions may be too inflexible in a rapidly-changing organization, for instance in an area subject to rapid technological change;
• Other changes in job content may lead to the job description being out of date;
• The process that an organization uses to create job descriptions may not be optimal.

Human Resource Planning And Strategy

Human Resource Planning is not an isolated paper exercise but an integral management function. It formally links organisational strategy with human resource practices. HR Planning is necessary to counteract pulls and pressures of globalisation and optimise the efficiency of the HR in an organisation.

HR Planning takes place at several levels :

1) Strategic Manpower Planning: Aggregated workforce Planning.

2) Tactical Planning: It addresses career planning and development needs of personnel in the organisation. Career planning of homogeneous groups of employees to maximise individual and organisational capacities and end the peculiarities and specific career needs of professions within the organisation.

3) Operational Planning System: Posting and deployment planning of individuals.


MANPOWER PLANNING:
Manpower is defined as the total knowledge, skills, creative abilities and aptitudes of an organisation's work force.
It is a process by which an organisation forecasts the quantity and requisite qualifications of persons required by the organisation at some future point and ensures that right number and kind are employed at the right time to ensure unimpeded functioning of the organisation.
It is also a technique of correcting imbalances (problem of excess supply or shortage of manpower) between manpower demand and supply in an organisation at an organisational(micro) as well as country wide economic(macro) level.

The two aspects of Manpower Planning are:
1) Quantitative - Formulation of recruitment plans to avoid unexpected shortages, etc.
2) Qualitative - Identification of training needs to avoid skill shortages.

REQUIREMENTS FOR EFFECTIVE MANPOWER PLANNING AT ORGANISATIONAL LEVEL:
1. Adequate planning and consensual personnel policy to eliminate haphazard expansion of personnel so that there is a logical forecasting of manpower needs at least ten years in advance.
2. Personnel policy must be developed at the headquarters or comparable level and better if academic guidance is sought from academic and research institutions.
3. Staffing section must be under the charge of a duly qualified and trained personnel officer who with his/her experience and academic soundness of the specialisation can guide it in the definite direction.
4. Manpower planning should involve proper mix of different categories of workers that is determined by the policy and the socio-economic status of the country.
5. Proper and accurate implementation of the personnel department policy should be facilitated by giving more responsibility to unit chiefs at head offices and in the field levels.
6. Effective evaluating system of individual and staff quantitative as well as qualitative performance.
7. Personnel department must bring in regular researches into various aspects of personnel administration in collaboration with training institutions and universities to identify future requirements and trends(futuristic approach).
8. Training programmes should be need based, task oriented and use practical simulations where trainees work and supply their skills.
9. Role clarity of officers to avoid clashes and overlapping which would only delay policy determination and implementation.
10. Manpower planning is a continuous, networked cyclical process requiring constant review and adjustments to be fruitful.

PROCESS OF MANPOWER PLANNING:
1. Clarity between Manpower plan and objectives of the organisation.
2. Assessment of the Manpower situation in the organisation so that a proper plan is laid out.
3. Projection of Manpower Requirements - Present moment and long term plans of manpower demand and supply in an organisation.
4. Classification and interpretation of information so that a clear cut policy and implementation is chalked out.
5. Developing work standards and performance norms so that each employee is clear about the minimum level of work to be put in as well as the quality of work. Also the employee should be aware of the promotion and appraisal standards so that they may work in a channelized manner and not feel frustrated.
6. Anticipating Manpower problems and resolving them.
7. Supply of Personnel.
8. A well rounded budget to carry out the same.
9. Continuing Research studies.


ASPECTS OF MANPOWER PLANNING:
1. Organisational Planning and Development.
2. Career Development.
3. Terms of Employment.
4. Employee welfare.
5. Personnel records
6. Morale and Motivation
7. Management-Staff relations
8 Personnel Research and Review
9. Effective Communication.
10.Motivation of employees through Decentralisation, Delegation and Job Enlargement.


\One can very well understand the advantages that Manpower Planning possesses for an organisation and the country. Now let us look at its shortcomings.

SHORTCOMINGS OF MANPOWER PLANNING:
1. It stresses more on quantification techniques than education requirements which is less useful to developing countries.
2. Training is need based and more organisation prone rather than the individual. Labour market analysis should be employed as an integral part of Manpower planning to keep up with the changing external and internal environment that helps assess relative priorities for training investments can lead to a training strategy more conducive to long term sustained development.
3. Pay differentiation in public and private sector should be analysed and remedied for an effective manpower planning as the shortage and unplanned exit of staff is a major outcome of this not being done.
4. There should be a greater focus on the educational profile of the workers than their occupational results so that there is a direct impact on the educational institutions of the country and would lead to their betterment as well thus leading to a greater social engineering and development as well as on the organisational level, general training which enhances the overall competencies of the trainee might be more cost effective and safer in the long run.

MANPOWER PLANNING IN THE CIVIL SERVICE:
Bureaucratic right-sizing is imperative in today's times and that calls for a sound Manpower Planning at the civil services level  and a complete overhauling.

Let's take at a few recommendations to carry out the same effectively:
1. The number of ministries should be kept low to contain administrative costs and for political considerations if new ministers are warranted then they should be appointed under Ministers with a major portfolio within an existing Ministry.

2. One administrative structure should be maintained to keep all closely related activities in the context of a government's priorities to retain the validity and integrity of a ministry to help the officials in it carry out their responsibilities effectively and be held accountable.

3. Administrative reforms recommendations should be taken with seriousness to ensure effective service delivery without any leakage or spillage and wastage of natural resources and funds.

4. Skewed staff - line employee ratio should be balanced out immediately and effectively. This can be done by an effective system of Panchayats helping in combining functions of several field departments in a single individual whose work can be supervised by higher functionaries of the Panchayati Raj system.

5. Surplus staff should be eradicates, redeployed and a liberal system of exit should be offered to surplus staff. For the time being recruitment should be limited only to functional posts while vacancies at the secretariat and clerical levels should not be filled.

6. Reduction in number of general holidays as recommended by the 5th Pay Commission should be implemented as it will help in better utilisation of existing staff. Lateral level into civil service on a contractual level should be encouraged to increase mobility and fill shortages at any point. Officers must be encouraged to join voluntary organisations of repute as well as educational and research institutions during mid-career thus help in widening the knowledge base of officers concerned.

7. Instability of tenure of civil servants has lead to a reduction in their autonomy, independence and authority and prone to political influence and coercion as well as an unfruitful and unproductive tenure marked with confusion and frustration. So there should be a mandatory fixed tenure period for all to see the true utilisation of their knowledge, skills and capacities that would lead to the true growth of the country.