Current HR Issues and Skills Required for Future HR Managers

Course: Name of the faculty: Subject: Human Resource Management

Submitted by: Group Members

CONTENTS
Disclaimer.......................................................................................................3 Chapter 1: Objective.......................................................................................3

Chapter 2: Methodology..................................................................................3 Chapter 3: Analysis of responses for Current HR Issues.................................3 After analyzing the information from feedback HR profession we sought the result that there are some significant issues which negative impact could be massive but they are under less concern part. For instance Discipline management. It seems that due to good education, improved social environment and maturity of the market these points are not a big concern for HR professional. We would like to highlight some of such concerns.........5 Employee benefit and services, Employee privacy these are very common organization and employees are already getting such services in almost all kind of organization Internet abuse, Sexual harassment issues are less concern due to education and healthy social environment. We have done our survey in India that why we have got women in workforce as low concern area but it could be one of the high concern issue in Middle East. So categorizing the concern depends of multiple other variables as well............5 Chapter 4: Analysis of responses Skills Required for Future HR Managers.....5 Chapter 5: Limitations.....................................................................................8

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Disclaimer The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions or strategies of any other person or entity. We make no representations as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information in this paper and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. Chapter 1: Objective The purpose of the study is to find out major HR issues of concern for line managers. This study also aims at finding out their expectations from HR professionals with respect to the level of specific knowledge, and skills required for tackling such issues. The questionnaire is appended to collect information for data collection from line managers. Chapter 2: Methodology The methodology was in the form of a questionnaire consisting of (a) 42 HR issues; and (b) 63 general areas on HR knowledge and skills required. The sample size consisted of 40 line managers from whom feedback was taken. Respondents were from the Banking and Pharmaceutical functional domains i.e. 25 respondents from Banking and 13 respondents from the Pharmaceutical sector. Based on the rating per item in the questionnaire on a 1-4 scale with 1 being not important and 4 being most important, the numbers were plotted on an excel sheet. Chapter 3: Analysis of responses for Current HR Issues As per provided information in shared analysis sheet, we found that level of concern are highly depends on nature of business area as well. So we have roughly tried to co-relate the variables and drawn the result. On basis of feedback from HR professionals, we have categories the knowledge and skill requirement in three types of concerns: High, Medium and Low respectively. High Concern Among the 43 HR issues that we sought feedback from different HR professionals, employee attrition seems to be the biggest concern. This is probably because most of the responses are from HR professionals working with large MNC banks which have their back offices in India. The presence of many large banks in Mumbai provides a large number and variety of job opportunities for candidates. Balancing work & family programs, motivating employees and selection of employees rank second in the priority table. This can easily be attributed to the number one cause of attrition. Motivation of employees and providing for a good work life balance is key to retaining employees and reducing attrition. At the selection stage it is very important that HR professionals identify and on board candidates whos attrition risk is low, so as to reduce the employee turnover.

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Cost control, Deployment & Re-deployment of resources, performance management and salary fixation rank # 3 in the priority order. Re- Deployment and deployment of candidates and performance management are HRD activities which have gained a lot of importance in the recent years. It is key to ensuring that employee do not feel that their jobs are monotonous and attrite. Organizations have realized the importance of having strong performance management systems in place to ensure that managers and employees receive feedback and are able to identify development needs and career goals on a regular basis. Performance management systems also link to cost control measures because of the increments which employees have come to expect on an annual basis. Salary fixation at on boarding stage and for existing resources is a very important factor and organizations have been investing in consultants who conduct market research and ensure that employee salaries are in alignment to the market- once again to ensure employees are happy and do not attrite. We found that motivation and selection of employees are also one of highly concern part. Motivating the employee periodically is a mammoth job as every employee having their own way to get motivate. In currently complex environment of job, its a massive job to perform by HR profession. The market is huge and highly technical oriented. In order to fulfill the requirement of client organization required various type of employee and this is one of the most challenging job for the HR professional to fulfill it. Medium Concern There are various other concern which are huge in number and HR processional needs to tackle them tactically. We would like to highlight some of major concern below. Absenteeism Career plateauing Cost and benefit comparisons of HR programmers Ethics in workplace Global markets and competition Handling employee grievance Human resource planning Managing change Managing high talented personnel Pay-for-performance schemes Training and development Abstinence and career plateauing. These are very common and required periodic attention otherwise it has very adverse effect on productivity of the organization. Such issue are very common in work condition where day to day activities are very similar in nature and there are limited option available to perform some different activity.HR professional required to put the effort to make these employee motivated. Cost and benefit comparisons, Ethics in workplace, Global market and competition are other major concerns. Sometime HR professionals activities are non transition kind of activity that is not very easy to quantify, in such cases cost benefit compression become a major concern. HR professionals have to make the recommended ethics in place in the work environment. Also, Global market is quite Page 4 of 8

open and there are significant amount if completion posses between the organization. HR professions should have ability to hand these concerns. There are other major concerns which required attention are Handling employee grievances, Human Resource planning, Managing high talented personnel, pay-forperformance and Training and development. These concerns are quite challenging for the HR processional for instance pay-for-performance. We know that employee recognition is good tool to motivate the employee but if wrong people get recognized in place to correct person or if HR promote only the individual performance then it might create a adverse effect so it is very importance that right people get recognize and awarding system should be equally distributed in team and individual performance. It requires proper HR planning in place. Low Concern After analyzing the information from feedback HR profession we sought the result that there are some significant issues which negative impact could be massive but they are under less concern part. For instance Discipline management. It seems that due to good education, improved social environment and maturity of the market these points are not a big concern for HR professional. We would like to highlight some of such concerns. Downsizing Employee benefits and services Employee privacy Internet abuse Outsourcing HR services Sexual harassment Women in workforce Employee benefit and services, Employee privacy these are very common organization and employees are already getting such services in almost all kind of organization Internet abuse, Sexual harassment issues are less concern due to education and healthy social environment. We have done our survey in India that why we have got women in workforce as low concern area but it could be one of the high concern issue in Middle East. So categorizing the concern depends of multiple other variables as well.

Chapter 4: Analysis of responses Skills Required for Future HR Managers On basis of feedback from HR professionals, we have categories the knowledge and skill requirement in three type of Importance: High, Medium and Low respectively. High importance Among the 63 questions we sought feedback on from HR professionals, designing of a performance appraisal system; Written/Verbal communication skills, Handle employee grievances /conflict resolution and decision making skills were the top in terms of priority. The importance of having a good performance appraisal system has been highlighted even under the HR issues. The key to employers reducing attrition is to have a smart performance management tool that identifies the key skills that an Page 5 of 8

employee needs to have for the current job that is being performed coupled with a realistic measurement scale. The performance appraisal system should also be designed in a manner where employees can tie an evaluation of their skills and performance onthe current job to the objectives of the team/department/company. Additionally it is also important for the company to capture the career goals and development needs of each employee so that it can gauge its own performance, in terms of addressing these needs voiced by employees. Communication skills within the BFSI sector are extremely important to line managers as large MNCs continue to set up their back offices in India. The job usually requires communication with clients, global counterparts and senior management (because of flat organization structures). This also has a direct implication on the job specification and recruitment activity where organizations are investing additional time and effort to gauge communication (verbal and written) skills of candidates. Once candidates are on boarded some companies also invest in additional communication training programs to prepare employees for their daily jobs. Decision making skills ranks #3 in the feedback we have received. The importance to this factor can be attributed to the flat organization structures that large MNCs prefer having. Employees are usually empowered to make decisions at the appropriate levels. Managers are encouraged to delegate duties to their subordinates so that they can invest more time focusing on larger and strategic issues. As a result of this junior employees feel important and believe that they have responsible jobs, eventually leading to job satisfaction. Handle employee grievances is one of the most common and tedious task for HR managers. Everyone having their own way to perform the task and there are various kind of task being perform in organization, In such scenario conflict in work is natural and HR should have appropriate conflict management skill to confront the issue. There are multiple way to handling the conflict like confronting, withdrawing, negotiating etc. The HR manager should have equipped with these skills and aware of their appropriate uses. Medium importance There are many activity related to HR which required good amount to attention from HR professional, these activities sometime very generic in nature and become very sporadic to categories and take action. As per feedback from survey we have classified below activity under medium concern by HR professional. Conduct job analysis Recruiting skills Conduct training needs assessment Develop career development programs Conduct performance counseling Conduct salary surveys Coordinate employee benefit and service Thorough knowledge of legal aspects of HR/IR Ensure legal compliance Develop overall HR polices skills Results orientation Skill to respond to the market demands Negotiation skills

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Conducting Job analysis is very significant stage under recruitment process. it helps in creating a proper job description one basis of job requirement. This leads to requite appropriate resource in the organization. Recruitment skill is equally important in the process. Develop career development programs by conducting training needs assessment is not only provide the more skilled resource in organization, It also help for HR professional to pursue the employees for longer period in the organization. Skill enhancement is basic instinct of human, if it does not happen in periodically then either employee suffer from career plateau ting or move to different organization. So it is very important for HR processional to handle this part efficiently. Conduct performance counseling, Conduct Salary survey, Coordinated employee benefit and survive, Ensure legal compliance, Develop overall HP policy skills, Skill to response to market demands are some other imports aspects of HR professionals which required to handle proficiently. HR manager should have these skills in order to manage the human resource and take the optimal use of it. Low Importance In current era of globalization where growth requirement of an organization is very high and market is very competitive in nature. Human resource play most significant role in any organization. In order to use the human resource in best possible way one could not ignore below skills of HR processional. These are might be categories as low priority as per our survey but it has good probability to play key role in organization under different situation. Human resource demand and supply estimates Create employee selection program Conduct of domestic enquiry Negotiate with unions Implement an assessment center Culture management skills Handle HR issues in mergers & acquisitions For instance Implementation of assessment center, This could be very significant for marketing jobs, similarly Negotiated with Unions skill play a key role in organization where unions are active. Knowledge of research methodology, accountancy, product management, quantitative technique, e-business, economics are under low priority However knowledge of business ethics and general management and employee participation schemes are substantially under high side.

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Chapter 5: Limitations The sample size consisted of 40 line managers from whom feedback was taken.

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