HR Back To Basics
HR Back To Basics
The policies and practices involved in carrying out the “people” or human resource aspects of a
management position, including recruiting, screening, training, rewarding, and appraising.
1. HRD aims at anticipating the needs of the organization and meeting them in a planned way.
2. It includes developing the capabilities of line managers to handle development, grievances,
performance appraisal and punishment of their team.
3. It emphasizes on motivating the employees and building up a good work culture.
Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operations and
responsibilities of a specific job. It comprises of job description and job specification.
Q5. What is the difference between job description and job specification?
Job description comprises of the job title, location, job summary, duties & responsibilities, tools
that will be used to perform the job and the working conditions. It is a written statement which
includes the above information. A proper job description helps in advertising the vacancy
effectively and attracting the right talent while Job specification comprises of the qualification
that a particular job seeks in the candidate. It includes educational qualifications, work
experience, personal qualities etc.
Q6. What is Recruitment?
1. Recruitment is the process of identifying, screening and hiring the most suitable
candidate for a job vacancy.
2. The candidate might be hired internally or from external sources
3. The process must be performed in timely and cost-effective manner
4. It can also be termed as a process linking the employers and the employees
The recruitment process tries to get the best manpower for the organization. It can be considered
as the first strategic step towards the success of an organization.
Q8. What are the various internal and external sources of recruitment?
There can be two kinds of sources of recruitment for organizations - Internal and External.
Internal recruitment - It means getting the candidate from within the organization to fulfil a
vacancy.
External recruitment - It means getting the new candidate to the company. The sources of these
employee could be many:
There can be various internal and external factors which affect the recruitment process.
Internal factors: The factors which are under the control of organization are called internal
factors.
These could be:
1. Recruitment policy of the organization
2. Human Resource Planning
3. Expansion plans
4. Cost of recruitment
External factors: These are the factors which are not under the control of the organization.
These could be:
1. Availability of talent
2. Brand image of the organization
3. Politico-social environment
4. Legal conditions
5. Economic condition of the market
6. Recruitment policy of the competitors
Many organizations outsource their recruitment services to the placement agencies. The main
advantages of doing so are as follows:
Q11. List the e-recruitment techniques. What are the advantages of e-recruitment?
E-recruitment means using the internet for recruitment services. Three main techniques used in
e-recruitment are:
1. Recruitment aims at searching for the talent and promoting the candidates to apply for the
position while selection is the process of screening the candidates to fill a position with
the most suitable candidate.
2. Recruitment process get a pool of candidates for the selection process to work and choose
the best one.
3. Recruitment encourages more and more people to apply while selection eliminates
unsuitable candidates to zero down on the best one.
4. There is no contractual agreement between the employee and the employer in the
recruitment process while after the selection a contract is agreed upon by the employee
and the employer.
1. 90-degree appraisal-- Where the performance feedback is taken only from the Supervisor.
2. 180-degree appraisal- Where the performance feedback is taken from the peers.
3. 360-degree appraisal- Where the performance feedback is taken from the supervisor the
subordinates, the peers, and the self-appraiser.
Q15. What kind of work culture do you think increases the motivation level of an
employee?
Following are some of the characteristics of the culture that increases motivation level of an
employee:
10. Proper execution of these plans will result in a continued group and prosperity to those
involved.
11. As a group we feel that the biggest area for improvement is the recruitment and training
aspect. Since the largest resource the group has is its manpower, utilization of manpower
in a proper way can yield great results.
Q16. What are the various internal and external sources of recruitment?
There can be two kinds of sources of recruitment for organizations - Internal and External.
Internal recruitment - It means getting the candidate from within the organization to fulfil a
vacancy. Internal recruitment can be done by:
External recruitment - It means getting the new candidate to the company. The sources of these
employees could be many:
There can be various internal and external factors which affect the recruitment process.
Internal factors - The factors which are under the control of organization are called internal
factors.
These could be -
1. Recruitment policy of the organization
2. Human Resource Planning
3. Expansion plans
4. Cost of recruitment
External factors - These are the factors which are not under the control of the organization. These
could be -
1. Availability of talent
2. Brand image of the organization
3. Politico-social environment
4. Legal conditions
5. Economic condition of the market
6. Recruitment policy of the competitors
1. Terms of recruitment
2. Sources of recruitment
3. Using the services of placement agents
4. Payment terms and conditions for placement agents
5. Recruitment of contractual employees
6. Obtaining requirements from departments
7. Selection process
8. Employment terms and conditions
Poaching in recruitment means hiring the employee of a competitor who is working in the same
capacity as desired by you. This is a major challenge faced by the HR managers as it causes the
leakage of talent from an organization and effects its productivity.
Q21. What qualities would you look for in consultants before getting them on board for
your recruitment activities?
Q23. If you are required to recruit expats, what qualities will you try to judge during the
interview?
When there is a shortage of skills and talents at a particular geographical location, the company
tries to hire people from other geographical locations. These people are called expats. Sometimes
the companies require only expats for certain positions - depending on their recruitment strategy.
While hiring expats it is important to judge following qualities in them:
Equal employment opportunity means an equal and fair treatment for all people. There is no
discrimination among the employees or candidates based on: race, age, sex, marital status,
disability, sexuality, pregnancy etc. Equal employment Opportunities help in overall
development of both the society as well as the organization. They help the organizations in
creating a good image for themselves and discharging their social responsibilities.
Motivation can be defined as the enthusiasm of an employee which causes him to take actions at
work.
Q26. Which non-monetary factors do you think help in building up the motivation level of
employees?
1. Respectful treatment
2. Recognising the individual and performance
3. Training
4. Regular performance and behavioural feedback
5. Clear communication from the management
6. Involvement in activities that desire responsibility
7. Challenges
8. Clearly defined goals and plan of action
Q27. What kind of work culture do you think increases the motivation level of an
employee?
Q28. Explain Maslow's theory of hierarchy of needs. Do you think it applies in real life?
Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs believes that everyone has some needs arranged in
hierarchical order. Only when a lower need is satisfied, does the higher need come into picture.
Thus, the incentives offered to the workers at each level have to be different.
Q29. Who proposed theory X and Y of motivation? What were the major differences
between X and Y observations?
Theory X and Y of motivation was proposed by Douglas McGregor. The major difference
between these theories are:
1. Theory X takes a negative view of the employees while the Theory Y takes a positive
view.
2. Theory X believes that employees are lazy and do not like work while Theory Y believes
that employees enjoy work.
3. Theory X believes that money is the only motivation for work while Theory Y believes
that the satisfaction that employees achieve after doing a work well is a bigger
motivation.
4. Theory X believes in doing the business in an authoritarian way while Theory Y tries to
remove the barriers employees find in the way of their work.
Q30. Explain Employee Motivation and few non- monetary effective ways to motivate
employees
Motivation can be defined as the enthusiasm of an employee which causes him to take actions at
work.
1. Respectful treatment
2. Recognising the individual and performance
3. Training
4. Regular performance and behavioural feedback
5. Clear communication from the management
6. Involvement in activities that desire responsibility
7. Challenges
8. Clearly defined goals and plan of action
Q31. What is employee motivation? Which non-monetary factors do you think help in
building up the motivation level of employees?
Employee motivation is defined as the level of energy, commitment, persistence and creativity
that a company's workers bring to their jobs. In general, better employee motivation leads to
better engagement and productivity.
1. Respectful treatment
2. Recognising the individual and performance
3. Training
4. Regular performance and behavioural feedback
5. Clear communication from the management
6. Involvement in activities that desire responsibility
7. Challenges
8. Clearly defined goals and plan of action
Q32.What kind of work culture do you think increases the motivation level of an
employee?
Following are some of the characteristics of the culture that increases motivation level of an
employee:
Frederick Taylor put forward a theory about worker’s motivation. Its main features are:
Mayo’s theory believes that money is not the only motivation for workers. They are highly
motivated by factors like:
1. Taylor’s theory focuses on the negative aspect of a worker’s behavior while Mayo’s
theory focuses on positive aspects.
2. Taylor’s theory treats money as the biggest motivation while Mayo’s theory lays more
emphasis on non-monetary factors.
Q36. Explain Maslow's theory of hierarchy of needs. Do you think it applies in real life?
1. Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs believes that everyone has some needs arranged in
hierarchical order. Only when a lower need is satisfied, does the higher need come into
picture.
2. Thus, the incentives offered to the workers at each level have to be different.
Herzberg came out with two-factor theory of motivation which believed that there are certain
factors which enthuse motivation in workers while others de- motivate them. The factors
demotivating the workers are called the hygiene factors.
1. Recognition
2. Challenges
3. Responsibility
The other set of factors are hygiene factors – their presence doesn’t motivate the employees but
their absence surely de-motivates them. For e.g. –
1. Work conditions
2. Salary
3. Job security etc.
Q38. Who proposed theory X and Y of motivation? What were the major differences
between X and Y observations?
Any system that you espouse to develop the remuneration system must be comprehensible,
practical, and acceptable. The remuneration system must comprise of 2 components, base rate
and the scope for increasing the base rate.
While determining the system you should essentially take into consideration the below
mentioned points in the mentioned order.
a. Job Descriptions: With the help of Job Descriptions you can determine the characteristics of
the particular job and will also help in determining the factors like skill, experience, effort and
working environment.
b. Job Evaluation: With the help of job evaluation you can again determine the compensable
factors. There are various analytical as well as non - analytical methods to evaluate a job, for
e.g., point ranking and factor comparison method in analytical ways and Ranking and Job
Grading in Non – analytical methods. By conducting the job evaluation you can determine the
worth of the job done by the employee.
c. Job Hierarchy: Once you have taken care of assessing the compensable factor, now is the
time when you will look into the hierarchy of the job and evaluate where in the hierarchy the
particular job falls in, is it in the top or middle or the lower side of the hierarchy.
d. Pay Surveys: Once you have established the hierarchy of the job, you now shall establish the
pay differentials. For this you need to conduct a market survey to see what the prevailing rates of
the job are in the same industry and set your pay scale in line with the market standards.
e. Pricing Jobs: Once you are done with the survey, you match your salary for the job and the
salary paid in the market for the same job.
And then you decide the pay level for each job hierarchy designed by you and then grouping the
different pay levels into pay grades.
HRIS stands for Human Resources Information System. The HRIS is a system that is used to
collect and store data on an organization’s employees.
In most cases, an HRIS encompasses the basic functionalities needed for end-to-end Human
Resources Management (HRM). It has a system for recruitment, performance management,
learning & development, and more.
The Collective Bargaining is a technique to reach a mutual agreement between the employer
and the employee. Here the representatives of both the parties viz. The union and the employer
meet and discuss the economic issues such as wage, bonus, number of working hours and other
employment terms.’
1) Preparation: At the very first step, both the representatives of each party prepares the
negotiations to be carried out during the meeting. Each member should be well versed
with the issues to be raised at the meeting and should have adequate knowledge of the
labor laws.
2) Discuss: Here, both the parties decide the ground rules that will guide the negotiations
and the prime negotiator is from the management team who will lead the discussion.
Also, the issues for which the meeting is held, are identified at this stage.
3) Propose: At this stage, the chief negotiator begins the conversation with an opening
statement and then both the parties put forth their initial demands. This session can be
called as a brainstorming, where each party gives their opinion that leads to arguments
and counter arguments.
4) Bargain: The negotiation begins at this stage, where each party tries to win over the
other. The negotiation can go for days until a final agreement is reached. Sometimes,
both the parties reach an amicable solution soon, but at times to settle down the dispute
the third party intervenes into the negotiation in the form of arbitration or adjudication.
5) Settlement: This is the final stage of the collective bargaining process, where both the
parties agree on a common solution to the problem discussed so far. Hence, a mutual
agreement is formed between the employee and the employer which is to be signed by
each party to give the decision a universal acceptance.
Under these methods new or inexperienced employees learn through observing peers or
managers performing the job and trying to imitate their behavior. These methods do not cost
much and are less disruptive as employees are always on the job, training is given on the same
machines and experience would be on already approved standards.
1. Coaching
2. Mentoring
3. Apprenticeship
4. Understudy
Off-the-job training methods are conducted in separate from the job environment, study material
is supplied, there is full concentration on learning rather than performing, and there is freedom of
expression.
Q45. Explain 180 Degree Performance Appraisal System and 360 Degree Performance
Appraisal System?