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CHAPTER ONE
PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
1.0 PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT: AN OVERVIEW
Personnel management is one of the functional areas of management, which is concerned mainly with the human resources of an organization. The human resources of an organization, of course, consist of all individuals regardless of their roles who are engaged in any of the organizational activities.
1.1 DEFINITION
Personnel management has been defined in many ways. For instance, personnel management is defined as:
v The effective management of human resources of an organization.
v It is also defined as putting human energy to productive use.
v Or the recruitment, selection, development and utilization of, and accommodation to human resources by an organization.
The following authors also defined Personnel Management in different ways.
a. Flippo (1982) opined that it is a process of planning, directing, controlling organizing and coordinating of the procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance, and separation of human resources to the end that individual organizational and societal objectives are achieved.
b. Nwachukwu (1990) said it is the implementation of human resources (manpower) by and within an enterprise.
c. Lawal (1993) defined it as the effective and efficient utilization of human resources to accomplish the predetermined objectives of a company.
d. Falana (1994) referred to it as the concepts, theories, policies, programmes and activities, which are connected with the acquisition and utilization of men towards the achievement of the organizational goals.
e. Lastly, Suleiman et al (2001) concord that it is all efforts directed at acquisition and utilization of men towards accomplishment of organizational goals and maximizing the potential of men.
No matter the definition give, personnel management, being one of the functional areas of management has as its main focus the human elements of production factors.
Personnel management is a basic function of every enterprise regardless of its size or its product or service. To sustain itself, an organization must acquire and manage people. Personnel management then is a process of attracting, holding and motivating people. It is a process in which all managers both line and staff are explicitly involved.
1.2 THE OBJECTIVES OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
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1.3 NATURE OF PERSONNEL FUNCTION
Personnel management exists in the organization in two related but distinct forms which may sometimes be confused. The first is the relationship between a manager and his/her subordinates in the same department. This is a line function. Being a manager implies responsibility for directing the work of others. In this sense, every manager is a managing personnel. Therefore, the personnel manager is a line manager.
The second form is the existence of personnel management as a specialized staff department, which provides supporting services for the organization. Persons in the personnel department are staff personnel specialists. It is the job of the staff personnel department to provide assistance and support to the rest of the organization. In dealing with the problems involve din developing and maintaining a cohesive and productive work force. However, the broad, personnel managerial functions must be joint effort of managers within the organization.
1.4 FUNCTIONS OF THE PERSONNEL MANAGER
The personnel manager who is a specialist contributes to the organization in three ways:
1. He advises on personnel functions.
2. He assists with personnel functions.
3. He executes personnel policy.
Although personnel management is often thought to exist only in large organizations, this is not the case at all. All organizations, large or small have a personnel function. In large organizations, the functions of personnel management are performed by specialists who may devote themselves only to one area such as training and development in an organization employing only a few people, all the functions may be done by one person whose principal responsibilities lie elsewhere. In addition, personnel management is not confined to profit seeking institutions alone. All organizations exist for some purpose and it is the factor of goals and purpose rather than the measurement of success by profit that determines the need for personnel management.
THE POSITION OF PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT IN AN ORGANIZATION
Human resource, the focus of personnel management is the most important resource in any organization. He gives value to and activates the other resources such as financial resources, machines and equipment, etc.
However, the position of personnel department in an organization is dependent on the size of the organization and the level of importance attached to the functions by the management. While some organizations give the function a first level managerial importance or responsibility. Others give it a subordinate position in which the Personnel Manager reports to the Administrative Manager or even the Production Manager, if that is the focus of the management.
1.5 ORGANIZATION OF PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT
As said earlier, the size of an organization will determine the organization of personnel functions. Generally, small organizations often merge personnel functions with administrative works and make a manger to be responsible for both functions. This is illustrated in Figure 1.1 below.
Figure 1.1
Managing Director
Production
Manager
Administration/Personnel Manager
Finance
Manager
Marketing
Manager
Training &
Development
Salaries & Wages
Welfare & Union
General Services
N.B: It should be noted that the Administrative/Personnel manager takes responsibility for all the duties above.
The diagram above will be quite different if the organization is large and also places high importance to personnel functions. Thus, Figure 1.2 portrays a typical position of personnel department.
Managing DirectorFigure 1.2
General Manager
(Finance/Accounts)
General Manager
(Production/Operation)s
General Manager
(Admin/Personnel)
General Manager
(Sales & Marketing)
Personnel
Manager
Administrative
Manager
N.B: Here, different officers who report directly to the Personnel Manager take responsibility for each of the functions above.
v Draw out the divisions of small, medium and large personnel departments.
v Draw organizational chart of personnel departments.
1.6 ROLE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANZIATION
The role of personnel management centres around providing and maintaining a cohesive and productive workforce. Within this overall purpose, several distinct areas emerge.
1. Human Resources Planning:
Human resources planning is concerned with the organization’s long and short-term goals and how these relate to the available and needed human resources. By assessing the present personnel in terms of such factors as age, skill, level and potential for advancement, and by including an estimate of losses, the personnel manager can make forecasts of the organization’s future needs. Human resources’ planning also has an important qualitative aspect in terms of the type of individual needed in the future.
2. Determination of Proper (Organization) Staffing Level:
Determining the proper number of persons needed is a critical factor, which must always be considered in the personnel system. Too many people and the organization incur excessive costs; too few and the organization risks poor quality and quantity of the goods and services it provides. The personnel manager must find a balance.
3. Recruitment, Selection and Placement:
Recruitment consists of finding applicants for positions the organization is trying to fill. Selection consists of making choices among applicants to choose those most qualified. It is important because certain skills and traits are either impossible or difficult to acquire through training and development.
In terms of placement of workers, the successful applicants are placed where they will be most useful.
4. Personnel Training:
Training helps to provide workers with the proper skills and abilities. It is the process of behaviour change or behaviour modification.
5. Management Development and Career Planning:
While training is usually thought of in connection with the lower level, hourly employees, management development is associated with high level, graduate recruitments and other attempts to provide an adequate supply of future managers. It is the entire process of recruitment, selection, placement, job rotation, performance appraisal, wage and salary administration – in a word, the entire personnel arsenal – to insure that future managers are available in the proper quality and quantity.
Career planning involves balancing the organization’s need for workers, supervisors, and managers with the needs and desires of the individual employee. For instance, career planning assumes that some nurses in the hospital will wish to become administrators. Others will prefer career of professional nursing. Still others may wish to pursue totally different careers. It is obviously impossible to meet the desires and expectations of everyone. Career planning seeks to achieve a better balance.
6. Performance Appraisal:
Good performance appraisal is important for insuring that the most qualified persons rise to the top of the organization. It also helps to insure that those with lesser qualifications do not advance past their capacity level. Penalties are attached to performance, which is below standard while exceptional performances are recognized and rewarded.
7. Wage and Salary Administration:
This means establishing a relationship between the employees’ contributions and the wage and salary received. Workers must receive their compensation as having a relationship to what they feel is their contribution. The organization’s wage scale must not also fail to relate to the external market, for instance, the scale or payment of competitors.
8. Labour Relations:
The roles of personnel management in the field of labour relations are to:
i. Represent management in preparing for and negotiating the collective agreement.
ii. Advise and assist management in the administration (interpretation, application, enforcement) of this contract and in grievance handling.
iii. Act as the representative of management in Arbitration.
iv. Advise and assist management in the formulation, interpretation and follow-up of those policies and procedures that will foster good union – management relations.
9. Workers’ Safety and Health:
Safety is directed at controlling unsafe actions, and mechanical conditions and preventing accidents while health is applied to the environmental factors and stresses in the work place, which without control, would cause sickness and impaired health e.g. temperature, noise, dust, etc.
The emphasis in safety is based on 3Es of safety:
a. Engineering: The company must make plans for safety by designing safety into the job either by eliminating accidents or by protecting employees through safety guards and protective clothing and equipment.
b. Education: The employee is trained to do his job safely by using the correct tools and methods. He must also be indoctrinated with safety principles after which the foreman must continue to develop safety consciousness.
c. Enforcement: The supervisor conducts a continuous appraisal of employees’ attitudes, work methods and use of equipment and takes disciplinary actions in unsafe actions even if there is no injury.
10. Staff Discipline:
Discipline here refers to the enforcement of company’s rules and regulations. Discipline is required only when other measures have failed. Ordinarily, if employees feel that the rules by which they are governed are reasonable, they will observe them without question. That is to say, they will respect the rules not because they fear punishment, but because they believe in doing things the right way.
To minimize discipline:
i. Management should avoid introducing too many rules, especially rules that seem unrelated to the job at hand.
ii. The employees’ skills and interests should match the job. Where the failure on the job is due to poor assignment, it may be corrected by better training or a transfer.
iii. There should be adequate communications. Many apparent discipline problems are merely misunderstanding that can easily be settled in face-to-face conversation.
Where discipline is required, the security of the penalty must be determined. Ordinarily, the sequence of penalties under progressive discipline is a s follows:
a. Oral warning: When an individual fails to maintain standards, or breaks a rule, a clear oral warning that repetition may eventually call for discipline is in order. The supervisor should, of course, concentrate on helping the subordinate figure out ways to prevent these troubles from recurring.
b. Written warning: This is the first formal stage of progressive discipline. Psychologically, perhaps, they are different from oral warnings, but they are made part of the employee’s record – and they can be presented as evidence if more serious penalties follow or if the case is taken to arbitration.
c. Disciplinary lay offs (to be distinguished from layoffs due to lack of work): Usually, they are for several days or weeks. Some organizations skip this stage of discipline altogether, particularly when it is hard to find a trained replacement, and on the ground that it is too cumbersome to replace an employee for just a few weeks.
Moreover, the disciplined employee may return from his layoff in an even nastier mood than when he left. On the other hand, there are some employees who pay little attention to oral warnings but to whom actual punishment, such as loss of income, is convincing proof that the organization means business. A lay off may shock them back to their sense of responsibility.
d. Discharge: This remains the ultimate penalty. The expense of training a new employee makes the loss of an experienced one very costly to the organization and the hardships that face an individual who has been discharged make unions reluctant to permit its use. Many arbitrators refer to discharge as: Industrial Capital Punishment.
e. Demotion: This is seldom used as a disciplinary measure; it is ordinarily reserved for situations in which an employee has been mistakenly promoted or is no longer able to perform his job. As a disciplinary measure, demotion has a number of demerits. Losing pay over a period of time is a long, slow form of constant humiliation, as compared with the sharp slap of a layoff. Managers with substandard performance are rarely laid off or formally demoted. Instead, they are often quietly transferred without cut in pay from responsible jobs with substantial promotional opportunities to dead-end jobs with little or no opportunity for salary increase or promotion. Or in some companies, they are requested to ‘resign’.
11. Transfer and Promotion of Workers:
The personnel manager initiates the transfer of workers from one job to another. While some employees are made to shift side ways, some may be moved upward. Transfers are sometimes used when employees have trouble with their work or develop personal friction with their boss or fellow employees.
12. Personnel managers also provide some benefits and services in form of staff welfare. They include medical facilities, canteen, recreation, etc.
13. Personnel managers also keep the records of the members of staff.
CHAPTER TWO
ENVIRONEMNTAL CHALLENGES OF PESONNEL MANAGEMENT
2.0 INTRODUCTION
We live in a world of change. The personnel manager must anticipate environmental changes by altering its own policies and structure in time to meet new conditions as they arise. Because the environment within which personnel manager are operating is dynamic, not static, personnel managers must always be aware; must be proactive not reactive so as to fit in, and meet the challenges posed by the environment.
In general, human beings have a number of inborn drives and abilities, but their behaviour patterns also are directly influenced by factors in their environment and by experiences that result from interaction with other people and with the objects that surround them. Therefore, this lecture intends to review specifically the environmental and experimental influences upon worker behaviour and managerial responsibilities for recognizing and working with these influences. In particular, we shall discuss technological, demographical and organizational challenges of personnel management in Nigeria.
2.1 TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGES OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA
Technology is the way of doing things. It is the harnessing of scientific and technical knowledge for the purpose of improving the state of the human race. Through the years, technology has built upon the advancements of previous eras until a rather complex and very productive application of scientific knowledge has been reached.
2.2 THE SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGY
Ø Technology brings about adjustments in organizational policies concerning manpower. Selection techniques must be developed and applied to identify the individual who possesses the necessary skills and to locate potential workers who have the aptitude to be trained to meet skill level requirements.
Ø Technology increases the employment standards for beginning positions while present employees must be retrained to meet the needs of new jobs rather than hiring completely. (Personnel managers must choose between hiring new workers or retraining present workers).
Ø The training of workers (both new and old) must be expanded significantly to meet the needs of technology that is highly dynamic. New training techniques must be mixed with traditional approaches. In-house training must be interspersed with external professional help.
Ø Wage and salary must also be affected by technology. While the basis of monetary incentives is to reward the worker for his own personal effort – the extension of his efforts and abilities beyond the average level of performance, with technology, the typical worker does not control the pace at which he works. As a result, more efforts on his part may not result in increased productivity. But appropriate wage and salary policy must be put in place to cope with technological change.
Ø Technology has also moved recruitment process away from the traditional newspaper advert to the Internet. This would of course attract applicants from within and outside the country.
Technology has led to the reduction of production cost, primarily through a decrease in labour costs. This has also affected the rate of employment.
The personnel manager of today must be a much more knowledgeable, astute individual then was true of the personnel manager in less technologically developed times. The personnel manager must be able to deal with the human needs and hostilities that may occur also. He must be capable of bridging two separate worlds – the world of technology and the world of humans with their weaknesses and sensitivities.
2.3 EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGY UPON THE MANAGER
· Increased ability to think in quantitative terms.
· Ability to communicate in the “new way” to a new set of people about new things.
· Ability to comprehend what advanced technology can or cannot do.
· The aptitude to learn.
2.4 DEMOGRAPHIC CHALLENGES
These refer to the characteristics of human populations such as sex, age, size, growth, density, distribution and vital statistics. Therefore, we shall discuss issues like:
a. The family:
The family unit of the employee normally has a significant influence upon his performance at work, as it shapes his mental and physical behaviour patterns. The family unit determines many of the responsibilities, roles, value systems, and other factors that have a bearing upon the employees’ attitude and ultimate performance.
Question: What type of family units would the personnel manager of today work with?
b. Generation gap (youth vs. old):
The values and behaviour of young workers in the labour force (and youth everywhere) are becoming more widely separated from the values of the older workers. The older generation are firm believes in success, security, status, competition, power, money, etc. On the other hand, the younger generation believes in establishing a personal identity, authentic relations between men and man, believes in the exploitation of science, technology and affluence to improve the conditions of man rather than for profit, cooperation and mutual aid etc.
c. Woman in the workforce:
They are young, brilliant, educated, pretty and ambitious and are found in many professional fields – medicines, accountancy, engineering, law etc. Some of them are married, some are single parents, while some a re unmarried. They are economically viable and know their rights, unlike in the past.
d. Religion:
This refers to the beliefs of the people. It may be described as “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, uniting into a single community all of those who adhere to those beliefs and practices”. Members of a religious group share common values and attitudes regarding supernatural power and spiritual relationships. Religion plays an important role in determining socially acceptable behaviour through ethical means.
Personnel managers of today must cope with various religious beliefs and still achieve the goals of the organization. Others are: people with physical disabilities but educated.
2.5 ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGES OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA
An organization is a group of persons organized for a particular purpose; a structure through which individuals cooperate systematically to conduct business.
An organization consists of various departments and units that must work together. These units and departments also consist of individuals from various backgrounds with individual goals, which are sometimes in harmony with organizational goals and often in conflict.
The labour unions are becoming powerful forces for effecting change.
2.6 PROFESSIONAL CHALLENGES
Various professionals are employed in organizations. With different backgrounds and expectations, the personnel manager must appropriately classify the jobs to reduce tensions while new fields must be accommodated.
The psychology of individual workers must be studies with a view to creating conducive working environment in the organization. Consequently, training and retraining of personnel must not be handled with loose hands.
Personnel managers and officers must also join their professional colleagues in workshops and seminars through their professional body - Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM).
CHAPTER THREE
JOB DESIGN
3.0 INTRODUCTION
Before the industrial revolution, the family was the basic economic unit. Father worked in the fields. Mother processed the food, cooked the meals, made the clothes and did the household chores. Brother and sister were assigned simple tasks almost as soon as they could walk. Labour relations and family relations were the same. The economy was dominated by cottage industries, that is, usually small-scale industries carried on at home or out of the home by family members using their own equipment. Economically, the farm was almost self-sufficient. A man was his own boss. The older man taught the younger what he knew and together they performed the same job. The work was creative and satisfying.
However, the industrial revolutions brought major changes in the way work was performed. The workers of pre-industrial revolution did a whole job from beginning to the end. The industrial era brought about specialization. Elaborate machines were introduced plant, or a foreman with complete control over a department, we have staff departments such as engineering, production, marketing, purchasing and personnel. No person performs more than a small part of the whole job or has significant control over what he or she does. This is the essence of job design, a mark of industrial revolution. The industrial revolution has been a revolution not only in technology but also in human relations. As technology grew more and more complex, people became more dependent on one another and the problems of working together became more troublesome.
Economically, specialization has brought great advantages: increase in production, reduced cost, more profit etc. But it has brought many disadvantages as well: boredom and the loss of a sense of individual importance, of accomplishment, of pride in work. How much satisfaction can a worker obtain from spending the entire day doing the same job? And because there is specialization jobs must be designed.
3.1 JOB DESIGN: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
It involves the examination and evaluation of existing or proposed method of performing a specific task. The primary reason is to improve the operation of the existing system or to develop the most efficient system possible.
It is widely believed that job satisfaction and motivation have declined, hence the need to provide internalized motivation and to restore challenge and meaning to work. The thrust of these is to change the job itself.
Just as product engineers design products, so should industrial engineers and supervisors design jobs. They should study the needs of the operation and the capabilities of people and machines and develop jobs to strike the best balance which satisfies all of the relevant factors.
The objectives of job design are to establish:
i. The sequence of operation.
ii. Efficient means of work.
iii. Time standards.
iv. The optimum factory layout for routing the product.
v. The best possible tooling.
vi. Reasonable amount of job satisfaction.
In trying to improve jobs and make them easier for workers, the analyst tries to do three things:
a. To get rid of as many human movements as possible.
b. To shorten the movement he cannot get rid of, and
c. To make the necessary movements less tiring.
3.2 STEPS IN ANALYZING JOB METHODS
a. Choose the operation to be studied for possible improvement.
b. Analyze the job, listing precisely all details of the job as it is currently being performed or planned.
c. Examine and question all the details. The questions, why, what, where, when, who and how should be answered.
d. Propose a new method by eliminating all unnecessary details; combine details of the job where practical. Rearrange the details of the job in a better sequence.
e. Institute the proposed new method by selling your idea to superiors and those who will perform the job user a new method. All these would lead to mass production work.
3.3 NATURE OF MASS PRODUCTION WORK
Mass production jobs are concerned mainly with:
i. High specialization (breaking down jobs into very small parts).
ii. Specifying exactly how each part should be done (separating the physical work from thinking).
CHARACTERSITCS OF MASS PRODUCTION JOBS
a. Elimination of all employee discretion: Each man must learn to give up his particular way of doing things, adapt his methods to the many new standards and grow accustomed to receiving and obeying directions covering details, large and small, which in the past have been left to individual judgment.
b. Workers are deprived of any real sense of skill since they contribute a little each to the total product.
c. Lack of sense of completion or even a feeling of progress towards a goal: Since each employee does only a small, specialized part of the total job, he rarely has a chance to look at the final product and say “my hand work”.
d. Monotony: Many routine jobs are considered monotonous precisely because they provide no means of checking progress.
e. Lack of variety: Mass production jobs tend to be tedious and repetitive. If a worker simply tightens one or two bolts over and over again, there is lack of variety.
f. Lack of attention: Routine jobs attract very little attention. They are so routine that one’s conscious mind is free to wander at will. On the other hand, research scientists enjoy their work because it is constantly news and challenging and absorbs all their attention. Jobs like this are said to require depth attention.
g. Lack of social relations: The physical confinement of many factory jobs reduces the opportunity for social relations. Assembly line workers are restricted to a very small area and can talk only with those directly on either side, or occasionally, across the line. Of course, work breaks provide an opportunity for social contacts.
3.4 ADJUSTING TO MASS PRODUCTION WORK
Employees have adopted various measure s to adjust to mass production work. They include among others:
1. Day dreaming: This is by thinking of their future plans or how they intend to make it in life.
2. Games and high jinks: Making a game out of work provides variety, gives the workers a chance to show creativity, and supplies goals to work toward. A lawn mower may mow his lawns infancy Figure Rights.
3. Modifying the job: Workers can sometimes reduce the monotony of their jobs by introducing variations in their work that are unplanned by management. They may exchange work, modify parts of the job, or avoid some parts altogether.
4. Anti-management activities: Anti-management activities are an overt reaction tot eh frustration of mass-production work. Active union participation, for example, provides an opportunity to release aggressive and to enjoy a sense of skill and accomplishment that is denied on the job. Similarly, sabotage and wild cat strikes enable a demoralized work group to let off steam. These inadequacies of job design have led to Job Redesign.
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 JOB REDESIGN
This is a term describing efforts to restructure jobs to reduce dissatisfaction and increase productivity, especially in mass production industry. Job redesign is viewed as a means of reducing high turnover and absenteeism rates. Some of the approaches of job design include:
4.1 JOB ROTATION
Here, workers are permitted to switch jobs either in terms of a fixed schedule or on an ad-hoc basis (to cope with absenteeism or emergencies) without changing the characteristics of the jobs themselves.
§ gain more variety in their work and perhaps in their social relations;
§ learn additional skills;
§ do not get stuck with a dirty task permanently.
Management also benefits since workers become able to perform a number of different jobs in the event of an emergency.
Oppositions to job rotations are due to the following:
Being an “expert” on one particular type of work gives them a feeling of status and importance that they lose when they move around.
4.2 JOB ENLARGEMENT
It combines tasks “horizontally”, typically lengthening the work cycle. At times, the worker may be permitted to follow a job from beginning to end. Longer job cycles require additional skills and provide a greater sense of variety, task identify, and accomplishment.
4.3 JOB ENRICHMENT
This approach goes beyond job enlargement in that it adds “vertical” or quasi-managerial elements, especially planning, supply, and inspection. Therefore, it contributes to workers’ sense of autonomy and control over their work.
Unlike job rotation and job enlargement, job enrichment involves adding to the work cycle, work of a more responsible, rather than just a different nature.
Job enrichment frequently includes the following elements:
§ Introducing new and more difficult tasks not previously handled.
§ Increasing the accountability of individual workers for their own work.
§ Introduce elements of planning and coordination.
§ Giving workers additional authority and freedom on their own jobs.
4.4 SELF-MANAGING WORK TEAMS
This advanced form of job redesign involves a group form of job enrichment. Typically, such teams (sometimes called “autonomous work groups” meet periodically to determine job assignments, schedule work breaks and even decide the rate of production).
Work teams may be given responsibility for developing relations with vendors, setting work pace, t raining new employees. Sometimes, work team members serve in roles normally reserved for staff personnel or supervisors, chairing the plant safety committee, redesigning equipment or troubleshooting customers’ problems.
4.5 ESTABLISHING NATURAL WORK UNITS
Jobs can be rearranged into natural units or batches, so that the employee can gain a feeling of accomplishment every time a batch is finished. The desire to finish a unit has a strong pulling power, thus, enhancing motivation. Furthermore, establishing units helps pinpoint job responsibility and measure performance. For example, each member of an office typing pool can be made responsible for the work of a given manager or department. It is important to point out, however, that assignments of this nature must be made carefully to ensure that the workload is divided fairly.
4.6 UNDERLYING MOTIVATIONAL MECHANISMS
Job redesign frequently leads to greater satisfaction, higher quality, lower turnover and higher productivity.
LIMITATIONS
Job redesign will not be equally motivating for everyone. Not everyone wants more responsibility. Some people already obtain all the challenge and stimulation they want, either at home or at work (over-stimulation can be even more frsut4rating than under-stimulation). The evidence is somewhat mixed, but it suggests that when jobs provide increased opportunity for learning and discretion, people with strong ego needs respond more positively to work than do those with weak ego needs. This does not means that the more challenge the better. Jobs can be made more challenging than even workers with high ego needs want or are able (two separate points) to handle. The difficult trick is to find the right amount of work stimulation for every worker.
Ego needs are not the only relevant factor. Employees who are satisfied with their “hygiene” (pay, security, supervision) are more likely to react favourably to redesigned work than are those who are dissatisfied. Expectations also play a role: University/Polytechnic graduates expect more challenging work than do the secondary school graduate workers.
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 JOB ANALYSIS
Job analysis is the breaking down of a job into its component parts. It is used to describe the techniques of revealing the facts about the job.
The components of job analysis are:
Job title, work location, salary range.
Skill, experience, training and education requirements.
Length of additional training required after employee is hired.
Previous jobs within the organization likely to quality employees for this job.
Jobs for which successful completion of this job qualifies employees.
Analytic, technical, and behavioural requirements. The kinds of equipment to be operated (e.g. computer and printer), interpersonal skills required, etc.
Working conditions such as cleanliness, noise, stress, travel, safety risks.
Role relations: who evaluates employee? Who sends employee directives that employee must obey? To whom does employee turn for supplies or information?
5.1 PURPOSE OF JOB ANALYSIS
Detailed and explicit knowledge about every job is necessary:
Ø to know how to recruit and whom to hire;
Ø to know how much to pay employees on one job, relative to those on another (that is, for job evaluation);
Ø to design promotional ladders;
Ø to set sensible workloads;
Ø to evaluate the effectiveness of selection and training programmes.
5.2 METHODS OF COLELCTING JOB ANALYSIS INFORMATION
Job analysis is usually conducted by the personnel department; ideally by utilizing questionnaire, by interviewing a sample of those doing the job and those supervising, and by actual observation.
All these should however be carefully used as there is enormous opportunity for misinformation. Employees could inflate the significance of their jobs (both for ego satisfaction and to justify higher pay) and supervisors may be misinformed.
Job analysis has two elements:
a. Job description and
b. Job/personnel specification.
i. Job Description:
Job description studies the job and concerns itself with the content of the job: tasks, working conditions and responsibilities.
Basic Features of Job Descriptions:
The following features must be incorporated in job descriptions:
· Reasons for the existence of the job.
· The key tasks involved in the job.
· The end results expected.
· Formal authority allowed, e.g. formal authority, recruitment, staff discipline.
· Resources job commands – budget, staff numbers, vehicles, equipment.
· Qualifications required.
Reasons for Job Description:
Organizations carry out job descriptions for the following reasons:
v It helps to clarify posts for new recruits.
v It can be used as selection guide by interviewers.
v It assists in planning and assessing training.
v It provides the basis for performance assessment.
v It is a prerequisite for job evaluation.
v It helps in review of organizational structures by clarifying basic units (i.e. jobs).
ii. Job/Personnel Specification: Job specification/personnel specification considers the person who is to perform the job in terms of personal characteristics. Specification emphasizes the experience, education and skills the incumbent must bring to the job. They include among others appearance, education and qualifications, intelligence, emotional stability, age and health of the incumbent.
Research has been carried out into what a personnel specification ought to assess. Among the better known methods are Alec Rodgers Seven Point Plan (1951) and J. Munro Fraser’s Five Point Plan (1966).
5.3 THE SEVEN POINT PLAN
This was devised by Professor Rodger and draws the selectors’ attention to seven points about the candidate:
i. Physical attributes: Health, strength, appearance, voice and other physical attributes.
ii. Attainments: General education, job training and job experience.
iii. General intelligence: Capacity for complex mental work, general reasoning ability.
iv. Special aptitudes: Pre-disposition to acquire certain types of skill.
v. Interests: Inclination towards intellectual, social, practical, constructive or physically active leisure pursuits.
vi. Disposition: Steadiness and reliability, degree of acceptability to and influence over others, self-reliance.
vii. Background circumstances: Domestic circumstances, occupation of family, marital status, dependents, etc
5.4 THE FIVE POINT PLAN
The points, which Munro Fraser selected, are:
a. Impact of others: Physical make-up, appearance, relations with colleagues, customers and other contacts.
b. Qualifications: Education, training and job experience.
c. Brains: Innate abilities, quickness of apprehension.
d. Motivation: Drive and initiative, personal standards and self-imposed goals.
e. Adjustment: Ability to cope with stress and pressure, deviations from routine and general upsets.
Note: Most personnel specifications include achievements in education because there appears to be a strong correlation between management potential and higher education.
During the selection procedure, comparisons can then be made between the available candidates and the pre-determined specification. The best way of ensuring that the personnel specification does relate closely to the job in question is to list the critical or key elements of the job description. Besides, each item you can then enter those attributes, which the jobholder will have to have in order to be able to meet the required standard of performance for that part of the job. You can then cross-relate all the items which indicate a specific physique, interests, or intelligence, before drawing up your final specification.
5.5 JOB PERFORMANCE STANDARDS
Armstrong (1977) defined a job performance standard as a statement of the conditions that exists when a job is being performed effectively. Performance standards are used when it is not possible to set time-based targets. Standards are sometime described as standing or continuing objectives, because their essential nature may not change significantly from one review period to the next if the key task remains unaltered, although they may be modified if new circumstances arise.
A job performance standard will state a job desirable, specified and observable results. This result should be quantified in terms of level of service or speed of response. It is the minimum attainment required from any worker performing the job, and to be effective, performance measures must be included. Performance measures would provide evidence of whether or not the intended result has been achieved.
5.6 JOB EVALUATION
This is the systematic comparison between jobs to assess their relative worth. Job evaluation requires job analysis to provide factual information about jobs. The most crucial benefit of job evaluation is that it produces a defensible ranking of jobs on which rational and acceptable pay structure can be built.
FEATURES OF JOB EVALUATION
This includes:
· Logic, fairness and consistency.
· Contains some level of subjectivity.
· Basic information obtained from job analysis.
· Standard are relative, not absolute.
· Carried out in groups, not by individuals.
· Provides evidence for design of pay scales, but does not determine the scale.
· Assess jobs not people.
CHAPTER SIX
6.0 HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING/MANPOWER PLANNING
Human resource planning is a step-by-step procedure designed to ensure that the personnel needs of the organization would be constantly and appropriately met.
Effective human resource planning will enable one to identify the areas where a shortage or excess of manpower is likely to occur in the future, or where there is inefficient use of people. Armed with this information, one can take steps to deal with the situation before it becomes a crisis.
6.1 PURPOSE OF MANPOWER PLANNING
a. To help determine recruitment levels, thereby avoiding expensive and unsatisfactory panic measures when you suddenly realize that you are short-staffed, or the frustration of losing business through lack of trained staff to handle it.
b. To anticipate redundancies and, if possible, find ways of preventing them and their attendant human and financial costs.
c. To monitor the ratio of manpower to other costs, in order to assist decisions regarding the best use of financial resources.
d. To provide a basis for training and development programmes geared to meet the needs of the business and related to company succession plans.
e. To identify future accommodation requirements in the form of working space, canteen or recreational facilities.
f. To ensure the optimum use of the human resources currently employed.
g. To provide for future manpower needs of the organization in terms of skill, number and age.
6.2 MANPOWER DEMAND
Manpower demands will be determined by the use that one is currently making of the manpower presently and by the directions which one plans that the business should take in future.
Identification of manpower needs is not a once-for-all exercise. A whole range of factors can influence the demand for particular numbers or types of employee. These factors include:
a. Market fluctuations, affecting demand for the firm’s product, and hence the number of people required to make it.
b. Changes in the availability of raw materials, affecting levels of production and hence manpower requirements.
c. Technological advances which obviate the need for some jobs and alter the skills required to perform others. Some changes – a decision to computerize certain systems, for instance can usually be considered well in advance of the event, preventing panic reactions. Others will be a more immediate response to a technological breakthrough, and will need to be implemented straight away, in order to keep abreast of the competition.
d. Government intervention n(in health and safety, for example), may lead, directly or indirectly, to the creation of new jobs or the realignment of responsibilities in order to comply with legal obligations.
e. Mergers and takeovers can affect every aspect of company life. Corporate objectives are likely to change, as may the climate of the whole organization. Parts of the present organization structure may therefore be rendered obsolete, and new additions may be required.
f. Internal problems, such as unexpected industrial relations difficulties, may also, through their effect on production, influence the manpower demand. Additional employees may be necessary to help make good the deficit in the short-term. Alternatively, the disruption may lead to loss of orders and a subsequent decrease in demand for manpower.
g. Changes in the cost of labour relative to that of other resources.
Each of these factors forms a variable in the company manpower planning process. It is never easy to predict what the future holds but if we identify some of the areas of potential change, we can at least estimate the likely direction of future demand. In some instances, we may wish to go further and try to be more precise, through the use of more specialized management forecasting and decision-making techniques such as time series analysis, linear programming, and probability theory. These are outside the scope of our present discussion.
6.3 THE MANPOWER PLANNING PROCESS
1. Identify and assess the relevant internal and external factors: These factors include government legislation, social values, technology, economic conditions, etc. They also include people and structure and other internal factors.
2. Human resource needs forecasts.
3. Audit of current jobs and employee skill.
4. Develop human resource plan: The plan is aimed at matching the supply of labour with demand that has been obtained. The human resource plan also provides the foundation for career and succession planning. This step will identify where employees are likely to be obtained, where employees will be needed and what training and development they must have.
5. Implement the plans: The plans, which are mere mental efforts, would remain just plans, unless conscious efforts are made to implement the plans.
6. Review of the plans: To ensure that plans continue to have relevance, they should be reviewed overtime to incorporate changes in the internal and external environment.
6.4 METHODS OF FORECASTING FOR HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
Effective manpower planning, recruitment and development is the basis for optimal and successful operation of all organizations. It involves overall determination of a broad line of manpower requirements and estimated cost for achieving a set plan of an organization over a definite period.
Forecasting manpower needs of an organization involves determination by the human resources department of the short and long-term manpower requirements as stipulated in the job description and job specifications. Most managers consider several factors when forecasting manpower requirements.
From a practical point of view, the demand for organization’s product or service is paramount. Thus, in a manufacturing firm, sales are projected first. Then the volume of production required to meet these sales requirement is determined. Finally, the staff needed to maintain this volume of output is estimated.
6.5 MANPOWER SUPPLY
Manpower supply can be analyzed from two perspectives: internal and external. Therefore, the organization has to look within and outside the organization.
The kind of data that would be required internally are:
a. An age breakdown of the existing workforce, to show where the concentrations occur, and to highlight any imbalances or likely problem areas.
b. A skill’s breakdown to show how many people are proficient in the key skills required by the business.
c. Training plans to identify what can be done to improve and diversify the skills of the existing workforce.
d. A succession plan to indicate who can succeed whom in the hierarchy.
e. An analysis of labour turnover for each category of employee, related if possible to the age analysis. This will again reveal potential problems, such as excessive wastage among trainees. This might mean that you will have a shortage of skilled workers in a few years.
EXTERNAL SUPPLY
1. The pattern of immigration into and emigration from the area, to see if the population is growing, shrinking, or changing in composition.
2. Population density at various distances from the plant, to make sure that the area is sufficiently populated to provide some hope of finding employees.
3. The nature of the output from the education system, to determine whether sufficient numbers of apprentices or trainees with the right educational background will be available.
4. Local transport facilities and patterns of travel to work.
5. The competition for recruits, to help you gauge your ability to attract and retain employees of the right caliber.
6.6 PROBLEMS OF MANPOWER PLANNING
i. Lack of information or inability to obtain the right kind of information. This may be due to the following:
§ People within the organization may be reluctant to be specific about their objectives or their needs. Others may mistrust the whole idea of trying to plan in this way, assuming that this is just management’s way of preparing for redundancies. Another group may feel that any attempt to plan ahead in a rapidly-changing economic and technological environment is futile, and resent the time spent on it.
§ Insufficiently developed personnel record systems. Without the right information, appropriately classified and stored in a system from which it can readily be retrieved, the assessment of supply from within the organization will prove very difficult.
§ Lack of knowledge of the labour market.
ii. Lack of expertise: Sophisticated manpower planning models required expertise to build.
iii. Time: It will take time to establish the right kind of information systems and to interpret the data you can obtain.
iv. Future uncertainties: Only a few can predict what the future holds. Economic changes may affect the demand for your goods or services; technological changes may alter your methods of working; social and political changes may influence people’s attitude to work and to the kind of work that they are prepare to undertake. We cannot pretend that this uncertainty does not exist.
6.7 OVERCOMING PROBLEMS IN MANPOWER PLANNING
1. Involvement of those concerned in preliminary planning discussions, to try to win their backing for a process which, though less than perfect, is still immensely preferable to just letting events take their course.
2. Make some responsible for the regular collection and updating of the kind of information needed by the organization, manpower planner. This is a responsibility of personnel department.
3. Make formal and informal contacts with other employers, and familiarize yourself with the content of same published statistical sources, particularly census information and do regular scanning of the local newspapers and an intelligent appraisal of current recruitment trends.
4. Systematic process of data collection and interpretation and a continuing concentration on what you are trying to achieve.
5. identify current trends and consider any likely changes in the factors which underlay those trends, and come up with a prediction which is as accurate as it unfolds, to see how it compares with the plan. It should be possible to update both the plans and the premises upon which it is based and to improve the planning expertise in the process.
CHAPTER SEVEN
7.0 RECRUITEMNT OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Recruitment is finding applicants for a vacant position. It is a process of enlisting people within and outside the organization to fill gaps in the organization’s manpower.
Recruitment takes place after a comprehensive human resources planning and job analysis have been done. Usually, a manager:
i. notifies the personnel unit that an opening needs to be filled;
ii. this is accompanied by the submission of a requisition to the personnel unit;
iii. the personnel manager then reviews the job description and job specification to have detailed information about the jobs;
iv. internal sources of recruitments are checked through transfers, promotions and job postings;
v. where unavailable or inadequate, external sources are contacted.
7.1 METHODS OF RECRUITMENT
Recruitment of personnel could come from two (2) sources: internal and external.
INTERNAL RECRUITMENT
In many cases where there is a job to be filled, the best place to start looking will be inside the organization.
Internal recruitment increases staff morale, saves time, reduces labour turnover and existing staff are well-known as regards weaknesses and strengths/talents. Its major disadvantages are that it may tend to too much familiarity and it may also tend to recruiting less qualified workers.
EXTERNAL RECRUITMENT
Once we move outside the ranks of the existing workforce, we find a large array of recruitment sources available. Some of them will be completely free, or may cost little to nothing while others will cost a lot.
METHODS OF RECRUITING EXTERNALLY
1. Raiding: This refers to hiring employees from other companies.
2. Advertisement.
3. School recruiting.
4. Private employment agencies (consultancy firms).
5. Government employment services (Ministry of Labour).
6. Employees’ referrals (word of mouth).
7. Professional contacts.
8. Unsolicited applications.
9. Casual callers.
7.2 CONSTRAINTS ON RECRUITEMENT METHODS
The choice of method to use will depend on a number of factors. They include among others:
a. Candidate expectations: The job-seeking habits of your target market are a prime consideration. It is more likely to recruit a competent systems analyst through a specialist agency or advertisement in one of the computer journals than through a notice in the corner shop window. Unskilled help may be found through a factory gate notice or some other local medium which suits their reading habits and expectations.
b. Cost considerations: Although important, cash alone is not an appropriate determinant of which recruitment method to use. Cost effectiveness is what is important.
As a general rule, where you are seeking to recruit a number of people for the same kind of position, it will be more cost effective to place the advertisement, using an appropriate medium, rather than to engage the services of a consultant. This is because you will only pay for the advertisement once, however, many candidates would respond. If you work through a consultant, you will be required to pay a fee for each individual appointed.
c. Organizational policies: Some organizations, prompted either by social conscience and a public-spirited attempt to reduce the number of unemployed, or by cost considerations, make it a policy to approach the government agencies first. Others use specific media for their product advertising and therefore try to keep their recruitment advertising in line. Yet, others determine to keep their own involvement to a minimum by always using consultants to help fill senior appointments.
d. Time.
e. Technicality of the position/availability within the organization.
f. Historical factors: The method chosen is also influenced by its outcome. Does it produce the quality and quantity of replies for which you had hoped? Such monitoring should enable you to highlight the most effective methods for the employee categories you need. Usually, this will be linked to the candidate expectations.
ADVERTISING
In general, advertising is the activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in print or on the air.
7.3 DISTINCTION BETWEEN BLIND ADVERT, CLASSIFIED ADVERT AND DISPLAY
Blind Advert: It refers to an advert designed to conceal the true identify of the advertiser and its address.
Classified Advert: An advertisement, usually brief and in small type, printed in a newspaper or magazine under headings with others of the same category. It could offer to buy or sell a product or service; offer of employment or change of name etc.
Display: To show something to people or put if in a place where people can see it easily; an advertisement designed to catch the eye.
7.4 CHECKLIST FOR GOOD JOB ADVERT
A good job advert should:
i. Be brief, concise and provide sufficient details about the position to be filled.
ii. Provide details about the employing organization.
iii. Make details of all essential personnel requirements.
iv. Make reference to any desirable personnel requirements.
v. State the main conditions of employment, especially salary.
vi. State to whom the applications or enquiry should be directed.
vii. Present the information in an attractive form.
7.5 KARIMU-ADELEYE NIGERIA LIMITED
VACANCIES
Applications are needed for the positions of Personnel Manager and Marketing Manager.
Requirement: Minimum of B.Sc. or HND in Business Administration or Marketing will be preferred or any relevant Social Science courses. MBA/M.Sc. is an added advantage.
Age: Applicants for this post must not be below 28 years and not above 35 years.
Contact: The General Manager, Karimu-Adeleye Nigeria Limited, P. O. Box 777, Lagos.
Closing Date: All applications must be forwarded on or before two weeks of publication.
7.6 APPLICATION FORM
It gathers together much information, which the organization finds useful, such as work experience, educational background, health histories, etc. It also collects personal data needed for personnel records. A statistical analysis can then be made of the relationship between each item and actual job success.
USES OF AN APPLICATION FORM
1. Well-designed forms will aid the selection of candidates to go forward to the next stage in the selection procedure.
2. A sophisticated application form can become an accurate predictor of ultimate job success.
3. The application form provides a framework upon which a subsequent interview can be built. It obviates the need for the time-wasting collection of background facts, such as names and addresses of previous employers. By studying the form carefully prior to the interview, the interviewer will be able to identify any point which requires investigation.
4. If the candidate is selected, the form can become the basis of his permanent personal record, encapsulating all the details of his life before joining the company.
5. If the candidate is not selected, you may still wish to keep the form pending a suitable alternative vacancy in the future.
6. Regardless of whether the applicant is selected, the application forms, which have been completed, will provide you with useful information for an analysis of the labour market: what kinds of people are interested in joining you, where they live, what their pay expectations are. This will be of existence in the assessment of the external availability of manpower.
7.7 DESIGNING AN APPLICATION FORM/DESCRIPTION OF A GOOD APPLICATION FORM
Consideration must be given to both content and layout. It may be necessary to design more than one form as different types of jobs require different information and emphasis. Data about hobbies and interests may be of great relevance to a position where the employee is required to socialize and entertain on behalf of the company, but they may be less so for jobs which do not require such activity.
Content: The acid test is whether the information is something that you need to know in order to assess the candidate’s suitability. Ask yourself why you need to know a man’s religion or how many children he has. You may have plans to send him abroad in which case the first two might be relevant.
The wording of questions must be clear and unambiguous, so that the candidate knows what is required of him.
Layout: Not only may the questions asked vary according to the type of job for which the form is designed. The space required in which to answer those questions will vary. Candidates for positions where the educational requirements, for instance, are high, will need plenty of space to write their qualifications, and mature candidates will need space in which to list their past employment.
As with any document for external use, your application form conveys an impression of your company. The quality of the paper and the reprographic process, as well as the actual design of the form, will induce some kind of reaction, whether favourable or unfavourable. The more logical the sequence of questions and simple and uncluttered (orderly) its appearance, the more inviting it will be to applicants.
7.8 CHECKLIST OF APPLICATION FORM DATA
Identification:
§ Name.
§ Address.
§ Telephone number.
§ Marital status.
§ Date of birth.
§ Place of birth.
§ Nationality.
§ Name of post applied for.
Education:
§ Schools attended: names and dates.
§ Examination passed.
§ Higher education: names and dates of institutions attended.
§ Examinations passed.
§ Other qualifications and courses attended: names and dates.
Occupation:
§ Names and addresses of all previous employers.
§ Dates of employment (month and year).
§ Job title.
§ Synopsis of main responsibilities.
§ Final salary.
§ Reason for leaving.
Recreation:
§ Hobbies, sports and other pastimes.
Miscellaneous:
§ Health record: History of illness plus attendance record in last job.
§ Driving licence/possession of own car.
§ Positions of responsibility held (at school, university, polytechnic and socially).
§ Source: Hackett, P. (1979): Success in Management: Personnel (London: John Murray Publishes Limited).
Note: Although applicants may lie about this information, most of it can be checked by independent means.
CHAPTER EIGHT
8.0 STAFF SELECTION PROCESS
Attracting qualified job applicants is just the first step in the process of acquiring new employees. Once an appropriate field of candidates has been attracted, the next task is to pick out the individual who will be both willing and able to perform the job to your satisfaction. The firm must develop techniques for selecting among these applicants those to be accepted for employment.
In a nutshell, selection deals with finding the best people for a given job. All selection procedures are a two-way process: you are selecting the candidates and the candidates are selecting you.
8.1 DETERMINING THE ORDER
The selection process resembles a series of hurdles. Some of the contenders will fall at the first fence and others at the second; so that the field is progressively narrowed down to leave only one survivor or few survivors. While the idea of making the first hurdle so difficult that few will surmount it has its attractions, candidate expectations or considerations of cost and time may weight against this. As a general rule, you should try to strike a balance between the following:
i. Assess key criteria early in the procedure: If physical fitness, for instance is vital, assess the medical test early enough.
ii. Try to whittle down numbers as fast as possible: A well-designed application form can save hours of unnecessary interviewing or test administration; a test which can be administered to a group of applicants simultaneously will both save your time and shift out the unsuitable applicants.
iii. Avoid the procedure becoming too labour-intensive.
iv. Bear in mind the candidates’ expectations.
8.2 THE SELECTION PROCESS
Although the number and sequence of hurdles varies from firm to firm and from job to job, the selection process may take the following steps:
i. First contact interview.
ii. Complete application form/blank.
iii. Applicant testing.
iv. Main interview.
v. Reference checks.
vi. Medical examination.
vii. Placement.
a. First contact interview: At this stage, prospective candidates are interviewed at the time of the first contact by the Personnel manager to determine this/her suitability for the job.
b. Complete application form/blank: Here, the prospective candidate is given a blank application form to fill. The application form gathers together much information which the organization finds useful, such as work experience, educational background, health histories, etc. It also collects personal data needed for personal records. A statistical analysis can then be made of the relationship between each item and actual job success.
c. Applicant testing: This applies to any selection criterion used whether it is physical endurance or visual ability as a form of test that the applicant must pass before being selected. The charge made against the use of test, and in fact, all selection criteria is that they are still being used without any attempt to determine if an actual relationship exists between the test score and job performance.
d. Main interview: The interview has long been the most widely used selection device since it enables the person responsible for hiring, to appraise the candidate and his behaviour directly. The main charge leveled against the interview is that it is not a valid measure of the items on the job specification. Critics have charged that the interview does not measure things that it is supposed to measure, as it tends to reflect far more the biases of the individual doing the interviewing. Hiring decisions are said to be made more on the basis of making a good impression during the interview than on one’s ability to actually perform on the job.
However, interview can make a positive contribution to selection since:
i. It can help us to assess the candidate’s capacity and motivation to perform a particular job. It is especially useful when we are trying to assess a person’s disposition or impact on others.
ii. It can help the candidate to formulate his own assessment of the job and the organization.
CHAPTER NINE
9.0 TESTING FOR SELECTION
Testing is not an alternative to interviewing. It is another step in the selection process, which can be used to gather information about candidates. Tests will help us to assess what a candidate can do; the interview may throw light on whether he will do it.
If we want to know whether a candidate can type at a certain speed or can drive a trailer, we have two alternatives. Either we ask him, relying on the accuracy of his own assessment and on his honesty, or we test him, thereby providing ourselves with the opportunity to assess his abilities and measure them against the standards for which we know (from our personnel specification) that we are looking.
Tests have been developed in an effort to find more objective means of measuring the qualifications of job applications. One of their major advantages is that they may uncover qualifications and talent that would not be detected by interviews or by listings of education and job experience. Firms use tests to eliminate the possibility that the prejudice of interviewers or supervisor, instead of potential ability, will govern selection decisions.
TYPES OF SELECTION TESTS
a. Performing Tests: These are tests to measure specific skills required in a job. A shorthand and typing test, for instance, can indicate both the speed and accuracy of candidates for shorthand secretarial or typing positions. Similarly, a driving test can indicate the proficiency of, say, a heavy goods vehicle driver.
The attraction of performance tests is that they can be related closely to the job for which the applicant is being considered. He is, in fact, being tested on his ability to do a part of the job to a specified standard. Where skills are clearly differentiated and standards are known, this is very helpful.
However, not all jobs can be tested. How can jobs like sales representative be measured? Here, the characteristics that make for success are less obvious, the requisite skills not so easy to test. Nor are performance tests useful in selecting inexperienced workers.
b. Knowledge Tests: these are designed to assess what an applicant knows about a subject relevant to the job. A graduate of law should be versed in basic principles of law.
c. Aptitude Tests: While performance tests measure the proficiency of an individual in performing specific tasks or skills, aptitude tests measure an individual’s potential to learn. They are designed to assess whether candidates have the basic abilities to develop particular skill or knowledge in the future. They take two main forms:
i. General aptitude tests: For instance, by testing someone’s ability to place rods in holes in a board, you may assess weather his hand and his eye are sufficiently well coordinated for him to learn a particular job on the assembly line. Similarly, by giving an applicant a written series of pairs of words, some (but not all) of which are identical, and asking him to identify the mismatches, you can assess whether he has enough clerical aptitudes to be able to check accurately through written data.
ii. Trainability tests: These attempts to measure the trainability of a candidate. For example, one could be taught how to use a machine or take a small part of the job and, under standardized conditions, instruct the applicant in how to carry it out. You then test him to see if he can now do the task.
This method has the added advantage that it enables the applicant to experience some of the actual job content. This can be a very powerful self-selection device. Either he likes what he sees, in which case his motivation to do well is increased, or he does not like it, in which case he may decide to withdraw his application. Both parties will then be saved the expense and frustration that would be caused if the candidate’s aversion to the job was not discovered until after he had joined the company.
d. Intelligence tests: When mental and reasoning abilities are crucial to the success of an employee, an intelligence test will most likely be administered to each individual for a position. This is on the assumption that alert, bright people can learn almost any job more quickly than those whoa re less intelligent. On the other hand, for some simple, repetitive jobs, management may wish to assure itself that intelligence is not above a certain level. Very bright employees are soon dissatisfied with such jobs.
Psychologists are not unanimous in recommending the use of intelligence tests, nor is there general agreement on the concept of “intelligence” itself – that is, on what is being measured by the test. Further, psychologists argue that intelligence tests are “culturally biased” in favour of those who have had extensive education.
e. Personality tests: Personality is a complex web of factors, which reflect the whole of a person’s character: it includes the extent to which he is introvert or extrovert, happy-go-lucky, proud, expedient and practical. Pencil and paper tests that have been designed to assess personality usually take the form of a self-recognition exercise.
A typical question might be: “true or false: ‘I work hardest when I believe I will be praised for my work by my supervisor’”. Most of these paper-and-pencil tests claim to give a well-rounded picture of the applicant’s personality, but many observers argue that they are superficial, easily faked and misleading.
9.2 ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS OF A GOOD TEST
Before any test can be used as a satisfactory measurement device, the reliability and validity of the test must be determined.
A reliable test: Is one which will produce consistent results when repeated on a number of occasions. If your test is not reliable, you might select people on one occasion whom you would have rejected on another. Reliability can be affected both by the actual design of the test and by the conditions under which it is administered. You can assess reliability by administering the test to a number of groups of people who might be expected to achieve a similar pattern of scores. This is preferable to asking individuals to repeat the test, as familiarity will affect their results.
A valid test: Must act as an accurate predictor of effective job performance. This will be judged according tot eh criteria that you determine for measuring effectiveness; your criterion data.
Limitations of tests as a selection instrument: Apart from the general considerations of time, expertise and patience, which tend to make testing seem something of a luxury in some situations, there are number of specific limitations:
a. Tests do not tell you why someone does well or badly.
b. Test reliability and validity may be reduced by the existence of stress, faking or familiarity, each of which will tend to distort the results. If candidates are particularly nervous, they may well under perform on the test. If they have seen the test before, they may have an unfair advantage.
c. Knowledge of results may have an adverse effect. If the applicant learns of his results on a particular test, this may either undermine his confidence or give him an inflated ego. If, on the other hand, his boss or colleagues are aware of his results, this can influence their judgments of him and provide him with undue help or hindrance in the job. This is likely to influence his overall job performance in the direction indicated by the test, turning it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
d. Tests may be discriminatory. Some types of tests are more difficult for people from one culture or background to succeed in than for others.
e. Tests constitute an invasion of privacy. The candidate (testee) may unwittingly give away information about himself, which he would rather not disclose.
9.3 DEALING WITH DIFFICULTIES
1. The assessment centre: This is a group selection programme designed to measure a whole range of attributes using traditional test and interview methods. Aside these, the assessment centre creates the kind of situations where the physical stamina, leadership ability, problem-solving and deductive powers, communication skill and son on, of the candidates, could be clearly demonstrated and observed. Thus each activity in the so-called assessment centre is carefully designed to stimulate parts of the job and to enable a team of trained assessors to see how each candidate actually does perform, not just what skills he seems to possess.
But an assessment centre is not something which can be undertaken lightly. Detailed analysis of the job, expert activity design, fully trained assessors, and sometime with a group of candidates of broadly similar age, expectations and experience are required. This all adds up to a more expensive and sophisticated selection procedure than, rightly or wrongly, most small companies are prepared to justify.
2. Trainability testing: The strengths of trainability tests tie in the fact that the candidates take a part of the job itself and assess the performance of that, rather than trying to measure deduced component skills. This method requires more time to administer them ordinary aptitude tests, as the candidate must be taught the task first. It also requires the availability of a trainer to instruct them, and a careful analysis of time and standard constraints. But the benefits we have outlined are thought by some for far outweigh the extra effort.
CHAPTER TEN
10.1 JOB INTERVIEW
Job interview is one of the selection processes. The aim is to obtain and assess information about the job applicant which will allow a correct and valid judgment to be made on his future performance. It is also a way of ascertaining the correctness of the information provided by the applicant in his curriculum vitae.
Generally, interviewing involves processing and evaluating evidence about the capabilities of an applicant in relation to the person’s specification.
10.2 JOB INTERVIEW PROCESS
Job interview provides a face-to-face encounter between the job applicant and the employer or the representatives of the employer. There are five basic processes involved in job interview viz:
a. Preparation: the organization employing must make preparation to know the type of candidate it needed for each vacancy. The firm must do job analysis to know the vacant jobs and also take the decisions on who and who will make the panel.
b. Introduction: The interviewer(s) must be trained and made known to the job applicants at the day of the interview.
c. Interviewing: This stage involves face-to-face communication between the parties involve din the interview. Either party could ask questions and expect response. Often, the interviewee is always at the receiving side as he/she will not want to ask questions that could jeopardize his chance of getting the employment opportunity.
d. Probe Session: Here, the interviewers ask questions bothering on the competency and the capability of the job applicant. The goal is to clarify salient issues that will enable the panel to make objective decision.
e. Closing the Interview: After the necessary questions have been asked, the interviewers are expected to be pleasant by thanking the applicant for coming and wishing him well. Above all, they are not expected to make any official announcement other than to say the candidate will hear from them soon about the result.
10.3 DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE ROLE OF JOB INTERVIEW AND THE ROLE OF SELECTION TEST
Tests will help to assess what a candidate can do: the interview may throw light on whether he will do it. Effective job performance requires both the ‘can’ and the ‘will’ elements: the ability and the motivation.
1. Ask him relying on the accuracy of his own assessment and on his honesty, or
2. We test him, thereby providing ourselves with the opportunity to assess his abilities and measure them against the standards for which we know (from our personnel specification).
10.4 INTERVIEWING STRATEGY
There are three basic elements of good interviewing:
a. Contact: Establish rapport. Unless you make contact with the interviewee, you are unlikely to persuade him to talk. If he does not talk, you will learn nothing.
b. Content: Once he starts to talk, consideration must be given to what he is saying, to see how it relates to what you, as the interviewer, want to know.
c. Control: It is vital that you retain control of the interview and can steer the discussion in an appropriate direction. This way you can find out what you need to know, within the time that you have available. Exercising control will mean bringing the interviewee gently back to the point and preventing him re-treading ground that has already been satisfactorily covered.
d. Staffing: (The panel) interviews may be conducted on a one-to-one basis, two-to-two basis or panel interview. The decision to use a panel or two or more separate interviewers depend on:
v Candidate expectations: At more senior levels, it is normal to have a panel.
v Candidate convenience: If separate interviews would mean a return visit, a panel may be preferred.
v The speed with which a decision sis required.
e. Planning: Before conducting any interview, it is important to spend some time thinking about:
Ø What you hope to achieve and planning how to set about it.
Ø If the interview is to be one in a sequence, it is vital to identify the purpose of each interviewer and the areas to be covered at each stage.
Ø Review the information you currently possess and highlight any gap or area hat requires clarification.
10.5 TYPES OF JOB INTERVIEW
1. Structured: Questions to be asked are preplanned.
2. Unstructured: Where the questions are not planned.
3. Stress: Deliberate attempts to create pressure and see how a well trained candidate will perform.
4. Depth interview: Detailed questions are asked.
5. Group or panel interview: Where people with diverse specializations engage in the interview process.
10.6 ROLE OF JOB INTERVIEW
a. To determine the suitability of the applicant.
b. It provides information about the candidate and the organization.
c. It makes the organization attractive to the applicant.
d. It provides an opportunity for the applicant to prove his worth.
e. It is a means by which the applicant and the organization agree over remuneration and other areas.
10.7 QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES
It is better to break the ice with a few pleasantries at the start of the interview. This will help tog et both you and t eh interviewee on the right track. The general rules of questions are listed below:
a. Ask open questions and listen to the replies.
b. Link your questions to the candidate’s replies or your own last question.
c. Probe each reply to find out what the candidate is really saying, without putting him on the defensive.
d. Keep to a logical sequence of questions so that you do not confuse him.
e. Use silence to give the interviewee time to think and to encourage him/her to say more.
f. Make encouraging noises, nod, and look interested, to keep him talking.
g. Avoid interrupting him more putting words in his mouth.
h. Avoid multiple, ambiguous questions which do not get you much further form.
i. Avoid using leading or yes/no questions which limit the scope of the candidate’s replies.
j. Avoid using mannerisms that the candidate may find distracting.
10.8 PROBLEMS OF JOB INTERVIEW
1. Interviewer’s domination.
2. Inconsistent questions.
3. Premature judgment.
4. Italo effect.
5. Leading questions.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SELECTION PROCEDURE
Once the precise nature of the job to be filled has been defined, the next step is a process of analysis to identify the attributes required in the person who is to fill it.
One traditional method of compiling a personnel specification was devised by Alec Rodger, called THE SEVEN POINT PLAN. It draws attention to seven aspects of the individual:
Physique: Health, strength, appearance, voice and other physical attributes.
Attainments: General education, job training and job experience.
General intelligence: Capacity for complex mental work, general reasoning ability.
Special aptitudes: Predisposition to acquire certain types of skill.
Interests: Inclination towards intellectual, social, practical, constructive or physically active leisure pursuits.
Disposition: Steadiness and reliability, degree of acceptability to and influence over others, self-reliance.
Circumstances: Mobility, age, domiciles.
This list can be translated into a personnel specification in the following manner:
Job title: _____________________________________________________
Department: __________________________________________________
Essential
Desirable
1.
Physique, health and appearance:
§ Height
§ Build
§ Hearing
§ Eye sight
§ General health
§ Looks
§ Dress
§ Voice
§ Sex
2.
Attainments:
§ General education
§ Job training
§ Job experience
3.
General intelligence:
§ Tests
§ General reasoning ability
4.
Special aptitudes:
§ Mechanical
§ Manual dexterity
§ Skill with words
§ Skill with figures
§ Artistic ability
§ Musical ability
5.
Interests:
§ Intellectual
§ Physically active
§ Social
§ Aesthetic
6.
Disposition:
§ Acceptability
§ Leadership
§ Stability
§ Self-reliance
7.
Circumstances:
§ Age
§ Marital status
§ Dependents
§ Domicile
§ Mobility
§ Other points
*Prepare scoring sheet for interview rating.
CHAPTER TWELVE
12.0 MEDICAL CHECKS
Medical examinations are used to disqualify persons from being hired because of physical limitations. From the organization’s point of view, the medical examination helps to avoid excessive medical cost resulting from injury or illness on the job. It also helps the potential employee avoid work that may result in crippling type injuries (e.g. police, soldiers).
12.1 REASONS FOR MEDICAL CHECKS
1. To safeguard the health of those engaged on hazardous work, e.g. the employment of bronchi tics in adverse atmospheric conditions.
2. To safeguard the health of vulnerable groups, e.g. epileptics who should not be put near moving machines.
3. To safeguard the health and safety of others, e.g. employment of people with contagious diseases.
4. To ensure that some specific job requirement can be met, e.g. to test for colour blindness in the case of designers or electricians.
5. To meet regulations by the government or regulatory body.
12.2 THE PRACTICE OF OBTAINING MEDICAL CHECK
Medical check is needed to avoid unnecessary medical bills in the organization. Apart from this, firms must check the health status of applicant to avoid spread of diseases especially if such diseases are containable. For example, cancer, cough. Such ill-health employee is not only dangerous to other employees but also to the public who come into contact with him in the course of his duty.
Consequently, firms do employ qualified physician to examine the health status of would-be employee before the appointment letter is finally released. In some cases, especially in the public sector, employees are expected to undergo medical examination after one to two years of employment before such employee is confirmed. Failure to pass this examination and certified to be healthy by a government hospital is tantamount to automatic withdrawal of service after the expiration of this period. Although much is left to be desired from this exercise because employees often sit at home and such medical certificates of fitness is brought to him as long as he has the money to pay for it.
12.3 FORMAT FOR MEDICAL CHECK
There is no universally agreed format for medical checks. In private sector, a qualified medical practitioner either within or outside the organization is employed to determine the health state of the potential employee. Once the physician certified that the candidate is okay, then such candidate is employed. It should be noted that the organization pays for the medical examination.
However, this is not the case in the public sector. As said earlier, after a certain duration, often two years, the employee who needed to be confirmed go for the medical check on his own and get the report. The report is then submitted via a request letter for conformation of appointment routing same through the appropriate authority. This is considered during the Appointment and Promotion Committee meeting (APC) at the end of the year and such decision to confirm is automatic as soon as necessary documents are attached to the letter.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
13.0 USE OF EMPLOYMENT REFERENCES
Employment references are means of obtaining information from former employer or teachers. References serve a useful purpose in helping in the placement of the individual. Former employers and teachers can sometimes supply information about aptitudes and abilities that the employer may better utilize the individual’s talent.
13.1 TYPES OF EMPLOYMENT REFERENCE
A candidate can be asked to nominate referees who are prepare to supply information concerning the applicant’s past life and character. This can come in four main forms:
a. Unsolicited Testimonials: This is produced by the prospective employee claiming that a previous employer or teacher has written that the bearer is honest and diligent. This should be treated with caution as it might have been written/manufactured by the candidate.
b. Letters: This may come in response to a specific request but should be used with caution as the referee may be the candidate’s friend and accomplice.
c. Structured Reference Forms: This is designed to ensure that you obtain information in a standard format and enables you to identify evasions and omissions.
d. Telephone References: This may be used as a substitute for, or in addition to the other methods.
13.2 THE PRACTICE OF THE USE OF EMPLOYMENT REFERENCES
References are a useful source of additional information about a candidate. However, no matter how well the referee knows the candidate, and no matter how honesty he tries to answer your questions, in the last analysis, the decision about the applicant’s suitability for this particular job, in this particular organization is yours.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
14.0 INDUCTION TRAINING OR ORIENTATION
This is an attempt to “install” a new employee so that he/she is sufficiently acquainted with the company to feel comfortable and learn the job. The orientation of employees helps them adjust more readily to their new jobs and to the organization. Because of orientation, they make fewer errors and experience greater job satisfaction. Without adequate orientation, their production levels will be lower because of the tendency to make more errors than employees who receive adequate orientation.
14.1 THE NEED FOR INDUCTION
The essence of induction is to introduce the new employee to the environment in the organization. A good orientation programme will:
a. Create a favourable impression of the organization and work.
b. Enhance interpersonal acceptance of new employee by the work group.
c. Eliminate adjustment problem by creating sense of security, confidence and belongings.
14.2 INDUCTION TASKS
A standard induction checklist might include:
a. Tour of the building, to locate fire exists, rest and recreational facilities, canteen, car park, pay office and other sections relevant to the new comer.
b. Information about the organization, to give him a more detailed idea of the company’s operations, what business it is in, its history and future plans.
c. Information about terms and conditions of employment, to reinforce and answer any queries on the contract of employment or written particulars.
d. Information about the job, including a job description.
e. Introductions to the people with and for whom he will be working.
f. Issue of clothing and equipment so that the new staff will not feel an odd man out for too long.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
15.0 EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
Performance appraisal is a periodic review or evaluation of an employee’s performance. It is the regular, formalized and recorded review of the way in which an individual is performing on his job. It is normally carried out by the job-holder’s immediate boss, although different approaches to performance appraisals are available.
There are two basic approaches to performance appraisal:
· The traits-oriented approach:
This involves the assessment of personal qualities, such as appearance, punctuality, leadership skills, level of cooperation with staff, etc.
· The results-oriented approach:
This requires that the outcomes or results achieved by the staff form the basis of the assessment, e.g. sales figures, costs incurred, wastage rate etc.
15.1 THE NEED FOR FORMAL EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
1. Identifying training needs: It helps to point out employee’s specific need for training which can lead to improved performance.
2. To improve employee’s performance: It can provide an opportunity for discovering factors responsible for sub-standard performance.
3. Identifying potential: Performance appraisal can provide data on employee’s potential which can be used to plan the succession to key jobs.
4. To determine pay (Compensation): It helps in determining the appropriate pay.
5. For disciplinary documentation: It provides a documentary evidence to support the need for any disciplinary measure.
6. To aid recruitment and selection: performance appraisal can indicate a pattern useful in the recruitment and selection of candidates. For instance, it can show that a significant number of successful or weak managers received training from a particular school or major in particular fields.
7. Improving motivation: Performance appraisal can improve motivation by providing the opportunity to praise hardworking staff and an opportunity to those who can improve to do so.
15.2 SYSTEMS OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
1. Open System: The appraisee has the opportunity to discuss his performance with his boss, and to contribute, to a greater or lesser extent, to the record of the appraised.
2. Closed Systems: Here, the boss assesses and records without discussion.
As pressures for more employee participation and more open approach to management increase, the tendency is towards more openness in appraisal.
15.3 RESPONSIBILITY FOR APPRAISAL
Several responsibilities exist:
1. Immediate supervisor: This is the most common choice since he is responsible for a unit.
2. Subordinates: Subordinates evaluation is also possible. This system may also cause the supervisor to be excessively concerned with popularity.
3. Peers appraisal: This is done by the peers.
4. Self-appraisal: This is done by the staff since has is in the best position to appraise his own performance.
5. Group appraisal: This is done by two or more managers who are familiar with the employee’s performance and as a team they appraise the employee.
6. Combination of the above.
15.4 REQUIREMENTS OF GOOD QUALITY EMPLOYEE APPRAISAL SYSTEM
1. Job related: The appraisal must be job related and determined through job analysis. Subjective factors such as initiative, loyalty should not be used since they are difficult to define and measure.
2. Performance expectations must be clearly explained to the subordinates in advance of the appraisal period.
3. There should be standardization inn the appraisal system, i.e. employees in the same categories under the same supervisor should be appraised using the same evaluating instrument.
4. Open communication with employees to know how well they are performing.
5. A formal procedure should be developed to permit employees the means for appealing against appraisal results that they do not consider fair.
7. The appraisal should be done by qualified appraisers who know what to appraise.
15.5 PROBLEMS IN PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
1. Objectivity: Rating loyalty, attitude and personality cannot be measured.
2. Hallo effect: When the appraiser perceives one factor as being of paramount importance and gives a good overall rating to an employee who rates high in this factor.
3. Recent behaviour bias: This is using a recent event to judge his whole behaviour.
4. Personal bias: Such as rating an employee on characteristics such as race, religion, sex, etc.
5. Leniency: By giving of underserved high rating.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT NEEDS
See pages 106 – 128 (Human Resource Management, Sulaimon et al).
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
16.0 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Education is a process of teaching, learning, and training especially in schools, pro-colleges to improve knowledge and develop skills (Hornby, 2000).
Education encapsulates training and development which is the focus of this chapter. Basically, training addresses intervention to improve the individual’s knowledge, skill and attitude on the job. The goal is to bring about performance improvement in the trainee. Training is job specific and job related. Development is a higher step on training. It sharpens the skills of employees in advanced forms.
16.1 DEFINITIONS OF TRAINING
Training is the use of systematic and planned instruction and development activities to promote learning, (Armstrong, 1988).
Training could also be defined as a systematic and organized procedure by which non-managerial staff learns technical knowledge and skill for a definite purpose, (Sulaimon, et al, 2001).
Furthermore, training is the process by which members of organizations are taught to acquire knowledge, and skills they need to perform effectively the job at hand (Fagbohungbe, 2006).
Training is concerned with enhancing the knowledge and skills of employees on the job. It deals with how to improve the knowledge and attitude of the workers on their current jobs. Training is more narrow in perspective.
16.2 DEFINITIONS OF DEVELOPMENT
Development is the process of building the knowledge and skill of organizational members so that they will be prepared to take on new responsibility and challenges, (Jones, et al, 2000).
Development is also defined to mean helping individual worker to handle future responsibilities with little concern for current duties (Werther and Davis, 1996).
Development could further mean the broad scope of improvement and growth of the individual human facilities, attitudes, and personality traits. It is a long-term educational process utilizing a systematic and organized procedure by which managerial personnel learn conceptual and theoretical knowledge for general purposes.
16.3 DISTINCTION BETWEEN EDUCATION TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Education is a life-long learning process, which provides the individual with knowledge and life skills that will assist the individual in decision-making and integrate him into societal realities. Education incorporates training and development and further gives the individual a holistic picture of life and how to be successful in life. Education is broad and general and provide the general knowledge.
Training is a specific knowledge given to employees on the job. Training addresses intervention to improve the individual knowledge, skill and attitude. Training is always job-related and job specific. Training programmes are given to employees to help them to improve upon their jobs.
Development is further higher step on training to corroborate the common idea that “quest for knowledge is insatiable for man”. Development, as mentioned earlier, sharpens the skills of employees, a deliberate programme of an organization to mould into the desire shape its future leaders who are expected to perpetuate the business of the organization most efficiently and effectively.
Traditionally, training and development are often logged together by organizations especially when the size of such firms is small. Training and development could be further differentiated as itemized below:
i. Training is targeted at the current job performance while development is future job performance.
ii. Training requires lower level education while development requires formal education at higher level.
iii. Training is designed to acquire technical and mechanical knowledge and skills while development is for managerial and human relation competence skills.
iv. Training is designed to make employee efficient and effective while development is designed to produce effective organizational leader.
v. Training is based on narrow view of knowledge and skill acquisition while development is broader view of knowledge and skill acquisition.
vi. Lastly, training is tied heavily to extrinsic rewards like salary and fringe benefits while development is tied to intrinsic rewards like advancement, achievement, and self-actualization.
16.4 OBJECTIVES OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
The objective of training and development of an organization is to achieve its human resource development strategies by ensuring that it has the skilled, knowledgeable and competent people required to meet its present and future needs.
The above statement could be classified into three objectives viz:
i. To improve the performance of existing employees.
ii. To help people in the organization to develop their potentialities and capabilities so that the organization can meet its future requirements for managers, supervisors and higher grade professional, technical, and sales or production staff within the organization.
iii. To shorten learning time so that new employees can reach the peak of efficiency and effectiveness within the shortest time frame.
16.5 BENEFITS OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
The advantages of training and development are as summarized below:
i. It improves individual, team and coronate performance in terms of output, quality, speed, and overall productivity.
ii. It increases the commitment of workers by encouraging them to identify with the mission and objectives of the organization.
iii. It helps to manage change by increasing understanding of the reasons for change and providing people with the knowledge and skills they need to adjust to new situations.
iv. It helps to develop a positive culture in the organization and provide higher levels of service to customers.
v. It improves operational flexibility by extending the range of skills possessed by employees in the organization.
vi. It attracts high quality employees by offering them training and development opportunities, increasing their levels of competencies and enhancing their skills, thus enabling them to obtain more job satisfaction, to gain higher rewards and to progress within the organization.
vii. It assists in developing leadership skill, motivation, and general positive work attitude in employees.
viii. It stimulates proactive management as opposed to reactive or putting out “fire” management.
ix. It leads to improved profitability, eliminate sabotage behaviour, and improve labour-management relation.
x. It enhances organizational development and career development of the workforce.
16.6 ANALYZING THE TRAINING NEEDS
Training should be concerned with identifying and satisfying development needs. That is, fitting people to take on extra responsibilities, increasing all-round competence, equipping people to deal with new work demands, multi-skilling and preparing people to take on higher levels of responsibility in the future. Training analysis helps to achieve this easily. Training needs of the organization should be analyzed then followed by that of the departments, teams, functions or occupations within the organization and for individual employees. The analysis should then look vividly at the business plan, human resource plans, performance and development views, job, role and competency analysis before developing the training programmes. Job role and competency analysis for identifying training needs entail:
v Describing the content of jobs and roles by reference to key activities and outcomes.
v Defining the performance standards required in terms of quality and output.
v Defining the knowledge, skills, and competencies needed to perform the job in order to meet the performance standards.
16.7 STEPS IN TRAINING PROGRAMMES
The major steps in designing a training programme are:
i. Define training needs.
ii. Decide what sort of training is required to satisfy these needs.
iii. Use experienced and training trainers to plan and implement training.
iv. Follow-up and evaluate training to ensure that it is effective.
16.8 TRAINING METHODS
There is a wide variety of training methods that can be used. These can be divided into:
i. On-the-job method: These are practiced on a day-to-day basis or as part of a specially tailored programme. These include demonstration, coaching, planned experience and mentoring.
ii. Off-the-job method: These are used in formal training course away from the place of work. These includes lectures, talks, discussions, case studies, role playing, simulation, group exercise and workshops.
iii. On or off the job method: These include e-learning, instruction, assignments, projects, guided reading, computer-based training, interactive video and video.
Some of these training methods are discussed below:
a. Job rotation: Here, employees are made to move from one job to another within the organization over a certain period time.
b. Intership: The trainee first attend classroom session to acquire the theoretical aspect of the job, then later proceed to workplace to practicalize what they have been taught in the classroom. Examples are those who read education courses who are mandated to go for practical teaching practices at 300 and 400 levels.
c. Apprenticeship: This happens when an experienced and skilled worker tutors inexperienced employees on the job.
d. Coaching: In coaching, employees are placed under the direct guidance of a supervisor who should be observed and initiated on the job.
e. E-learning: This is based on ‘connectivity’. That is, the process by which computers are networked, share information and connect people to people.
f. Vestibule training: Here, the actual work conditions are simulated in a classroom materials, files and equipment that are used is actual job performance are also used in training.
g. Role playing: This is a method of human interaction that involves realistic behaviour in imaginary situations. Here, a hypothetical behaviour situation is enacted while participants vicariously substitute themselves into role positions. Examples are the Business game and In-basket.
h. Lecture: This is a direct face-to-face encounter between the trainer and the trainees in classroom often in colleges or school environment. The lecturer organizes his materials and gives it in form of a talk or sermon.
It should be noted that the first four training methods discussed above are on-the-job methods while the last give are off-the-job training techniques.
16.9 TRAINING EVALUATION
Training evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of training and to indicate where improvements are required. Hamblin (1974) defined training evaluation as “any attempt to obtain information (feedback) on the effects of a training programme and to assess the value of the training in the light of that information”.
Four levels of training evaluation have been suggested by Kirkpatrick (1994):
i. Reaction level: This measures the reactions of those that participated in the training programme. His recommendations at this level include:
§ Determine what you want to find out.
§ Design a form that will quantify reactions.
§ Encourage written comments and suggestions.
§ Get 100 per cent immediate response.
§ Get honest responses.
§ Develop acceptable standards.
§ Measure reactions against standards, and take appropriate action.
§ Communicate reactions as appropriate.
ii. Learning level: This level obtains information on the extent to which learning objectives have been attained. It will aim to find how much knowledge was acquired, what skills were developed or improved, and as appropriate, the extent to which attitudes have changed in the desired direction.
iii. Behavioural level: This level evaluates the extent to which behaviour has changed as required when people attending the programme have returned to their jobs. The questions to be answered are the extent to which knowledge, skills, and attitudes have been transferred from the classroom to the workplace. Ideally, the evaluation should take place both before and after the training.
iv. Results level: This provides the basis for assessing the benefits of the training against its cost. The evaluation has to be base don before and after measures and has to determine the extent to which the fundamental objectives of the training have been achieve din areas such as increasing sales, raising productivity, reducing accidents or increasing customer satisfaction. These results must be quantified.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
17.0 ADMINISTRATION OF COMPENSATION
Wage and salary administration means establishing a relationship between the employee’s contribution and the wage and salary received. It also means ranking jobs in some fashion that corresponds to their contribution. Workers must perceive their compensation as having a relationship to what they feel is their contribution. The organization’s wage scale must not also fail to relate to the external market, for instance, the scale or payment of competitors. Nevertheless, payments must not be made in excess of what the job is worth. At the same time, the wage and salary scale must not be so low that it fails to attract or retain workers. Making these determinations when labour union is involved adds a complicating dimension. (Pages 132 - )
17.1 IMPORTANCE OF COMPENSATION
1. Economic importance: It is used to satisfy our basic needs.
2. Psychological importance: It conditions our behaviour. Why do people wake so early and come back late contended?
3. Social importance: Money (through compensation received) is used to determine our social status.
4. Growth importance: Money is an indication of growth in the organization since advancement on the job is accompanied by increment, and therefore manifestation of individual growth in the organization.
5. Motivation: It serves as a motivator towards increased performance.
17.2 OBJECTIVES OF REMUNERATING WORKERS
a. To attract, hold and motivate them to put in their best.
b. To ensure their cooperation on a continuing basis/to ensure desired behaviour.
c. To make sure the right type of employees are attracted to the company.
d. To help employees maintain a reasonable standard of living.
e. To promote employer-employee relations.
f. To reduce employee turnover.
17.3 SYSTEMS OF REMUNERATION
a. Pay: This refers to the base wages and salaries employees receive.
b. Incentives: These are compensation forms such as bonuses, commissions and profit-sharing plans.
c. Benefits: These represent a more indirect type of compensation and include health insurance, vacation pay, retirement pensions, canteen services, recreational services, etc.
17.4 METHODS OF REMUNERATION
a. Straight wages and salaries: Wages are income received by workers on hourly, daily or weekly basis and paid to labourers who work in the factory and farms. They are also referred to as blue-collar workers.
b. Incentives:
i. Piece-rate wage: It involves making payment at an agreed rate per piece produced.
ii. Time-rate wage: Wages are paid according tot eh time spent on the job.
iii. Bonus: This is the amount being given the workers as a sort of encouragement for a good return.
iv. Commission: This is a reward paid, mostly to salesmen for sales made. It is generally calculated on agreed percentage.
BENEFITS AND SERVICES
Apart from the normal wages and salaries, personnel management provides a number of welfare programmes. They include:
Ø Subsidized cafeteria.
Ø Health services.
Ø Education to workers and children.
Ø Insurance programmes.
Ø Paid holidays.
Ø 13th month pay.
Ø Discount on purchase of company’s products.
Ø Death benefits, etc.
17.5 DETERMINANTS OF COMPENSATION
v Government legislation.
v Nature of the organization’s work.
v Demand and supply of labour.
v Work technology.
v Ability of the company to pay.
v Trade union ability to influence pay.
v Qualification and experience of the worker.
v Relative work of the job: This is determined by job evaluation.
v Going rates: This is determined by what other employers in the same locality or industry are paying for comparative jobs.
v Cost of living index: The use of the cost of living index as a salary determinant means that salaries are periodically adjusted upward to enable employees to maintain their purchasing power.
17.6 JOB EVALUATION
Job evaluation establishes the relationships between wages on various jobs within the organization. All forms of job evaluations are designed to enable management to determine how much one job should pay relative to others.
The point system is the most common system of job evaluation, though the ranking, job-classification, and factor-comparison methods are also widely used.
RANKING METHOD
This involves listing a given set of jobs in order of importance, from highest to lowest, taking into account the characteristics of each job as a whole (though sometimes specific factors, such as job difficulty, are given special attention).
THE JOB CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM
This is used by many government agencies. First, a set of job classification or grades is established (say from Grade 1 to Grade 16); then the level of difficulty of each classification is carefully described; and finally individual jobs are fitted into what seems their most appropriate classification.
ANALYTICAL/JOB FACTOR SYSTEMS
These take a number of different forms. What they have in common is the breaking down of the job into a number of factors, and the assigning of points or, in the case of factor comparison, money values, to each factor.
Analytical methods divide jobs into components, tasks, responsibilities and other factors and assess the job factor by factor.
Job evaluation is a systematic way of applying judgment, but it does not eliminate the need for exercising judgment. It is not an automatic process, for it is administered by people and is subject to all the human frailties.
In essence, however, all forms of job evaluation are designed to enable management to determine how much one job should pay relative to others.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
18.0 EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE
Discipline is an indispensable aspect of life since there is always a need to maintain orderliness. Discipline is the outward mark of respect to rule, i.e. a statement of what may or may not be done.
Discipline is required only when other measures have failed. Ordinarily, if employees feel that the rules by which they are governed are reasonable, they will observe them without question. That is to say, they will respect the rules not because they fear punishment, but because they believe in doing things the right way.
18.1 HOW TO MINIMIZE DISCIPLINE
1. Management should avoid introducing too many rules, especially rules that seem unrelated to the job at hand.
2. The employees’ skills and interests should match the job. Where the failure on the job is due to poor assignment, it may be corrected by better training or a transfer.
3. There should be adequate communications. Many apparent discipline problems are merely misunderstanding that can easily be settled in face-to-face conversation.
Where discipline is required, the severity of the penalty must be determined. Ordinarily, ,the sequence of penalties under progressive discipline is as follows:
a. Oral warning.
b. Written warning.
c. Disciplinary layoffs (to be distinguished from lay offs due to lack of work). Usually they are for several days or weeks.
d. Discharge: This remains the ultimate penalty, but one that is being used less commonly. Many arbitrators refer to discharge as: industrial capital punishment.
18.2 RED-HOT STOVE RULE
The red-hot stove rule was introduced by Douglas McGregor to assist managers in imposing discipline without generating resentment from subordinates. According to him, disciplinary measures should follow the conditions of a hot-stove, thus:
1. There should be a warning as depicted by the redness of a red-hot stove.
2. The red-hot stove burns anybody that touches it: impersonal.
3. The red-hot stove burns immediately it is touched.
4. The extent of ‘burn’ is determined by the extent of touch: consistency.
5. A red-hot stove burns as many times as it is touched.
In view of the above:
a. There must be a clear warning that an action will lead to discipline.
b. Discipline must be imposed impersonally: no favouritism.
c. Discipline should be imposed immediately there is a violation of rules, not deferred.
d. The extent of punishment should be determined by the extent of rules violation. Also, where two workers commit the same offence, they should be given the same punishment.
e. Discipline should be carried out as many times as rules are violated.
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