Challenges to HRM

• Challenges can be understood by studying the

environment of HRM

• HR Manager should always be aware of the changes

in his external & internal environment.

 Some of the important challenges faced by HRM:

1) Technological Developments

• As a result of technological advances made in almost all

fields, jobs have become more intellectual.

• Modernization ends with problems like

retrenchment, lay-offs, unemployment,
dislocation of workers, etc.

• Thus, HR Manager has to make proper assessment

of manpower needs, retraining, skills
upgradation, etc.

2) Changes in the political & legal environment

• In order to meet the changes in political & legal

environment, awareness of legislation at state and
central level becomes necessary for proper
utilization of human resources.

3) Globalisation
 • As the industrial world is becoming globalised and
informatonalised, HR Managers are expected to
play more competitive roles.

• They should be aware about employees’ and

company’s needs in foreign markets, designing
suitable compensation packages, planning about
spouse’s job and children’s education in other
country, if needed making arrangements of
training in foreign country’s local language, etc.

4) Socio – cultural factors

• Organisations do not operate in isolation.

Thus, organizations have to be alert always before

taking any decision.

• The HR Manager should evaluate beforehand the

impact of any business action upon the society so
that the people’s beliefs, morals, customs, ethics,
values, etc. are not hurt.

5) Changing mix of the workforce

• Another challenge to HR Manager is increasing

workforce diversity.

• This includes : more young and highly educated

people, more female employees, increasing levels
of married female workers, etc.

• Prohibition of discrimination and the need of

positive actions for redressing imbalances in
 workforce have made job for HR Managers more
challenging.

6) Trade Unions

• Trade Unions refer to any combination of workers for a

common cause.

• Trade Unions act as a challenging force for HR

Manager in decisions like signing of agreements,
recruitment, selection, training and development
programs, retrenchment, etc.

7) Management of Human Resources

• The new workforce is educated, talented, well-

qualified and conscious than their predecessors.

• So, HR Manager has to be conscious and tough

while leading and motivating, winning employees’
commitment, etc.

Role of the HR Manager

o HR Manager plays a variety of roles.

o Earlier, the main role of the manager was to procure

& maintain a commited workforce.
 o But with the passage of time, increasingly critical
nature of problems and challenges in the effective
utilization of human beings has elevated the status of
HR Manager.

 Different roles played by the HR Manager are:

1) The Counsellor

• HR Manager acts a counselor for the employees facing

problems related with health, work, colleagues,
family, supervisors, financial, mental, physical,
children education, marriage, etc.

• Employees discuss their problems with the HR

Manager and he offers suitable solutions to solve
their problems.

2) The Advisor

• HR Manager advises the management regarding

Human Resources Planning, recruitment,
selection, training and development, appraisal,
compensation, integration, separation, etc.

• HR Manager advises management in case of

industrial disputes, etc.

• On the other hand, he also provides assistance

to the workers by conveying their problems to
the management.
 3) The Mediator

• In case of some conflicts and disputes, HR

Manager plays the role of a peacemaker between
the management and the employees.

4) The Conscience Role

• This role is that of a humanitarian who

advises management of its ethical obligations to
its employees.

5) The Liaison Role

• Generally, HR Manager acts as a

spokesperson for or representative of the
organization.

6) The Change Agent

• He acts as a catalyst in introducing new

changes in the organization.

7) The Problem Solver

• Problems related with HR in any part of the organization are

tackled by the HR Managers.
8) The Welfare Role

• As per The Factories Act, 1948, where 500 or

more workers are employed, one welfare officer
should be appointed. Otherwise, HR Manager acts
as a welfare officer. He is concerned about
facilities like crèche, canteen, shelter, lunch and
restrooms, etc.

9) The Legal Role

• HR Manager plays a vital fire-fighting role during:

grievance handling procedure, settlement of
industrial disputes, collective bargaining,
handling disciplinary action, joint consultation,
etc.

Job Evaluation
Definition

Job evaluation is the process of analyzing and

assessing the various jobs systematically to ascertain
their relative worth in an organization.
 • Jobs are evaluated on the basis of their content and are
placed in the order of their importance.

• In this way, a job hierarchy is established in the

organization, the purpose being fixation of satisfactory
wage differentials among various jobs.

• It should be noted that in a job evaluation programme,

the jobs are ranked and not the job holders. Job
holders are rated through performance appraisal.

Job Evaluation Process

The Job Evaluation process starts with defining objectives of
evaluation and ends with establishing wage and salary
differentials.

The main objective of job evaluation is to establish

satisfactory wage and salary differentials. Job analysis should
precede the actual programme of evaluation.

A job-evaluation programme involves answering several

questions. The major ones are:

i. Which jobs are to be evaluated?

ii. Who should evaluate the jobs?

iii. What training do the evaluators need?

iv. How much time is involved?

v. What should be the criteria for evaluation?

vi. What methods of evaluation are to be employed?

 Job – Evaluation Process

Methods of Job Evaluation

Job-evaluation methods are of two categories:

(1)Non-analytical and (2) Analytical.

1) Non-Analytical Methods
Ranking and Job-Grading Methods come under this
category because they make NO use of detailed job
factors. Each job is treated as a whole in determining its
relative ranking.

a) Ranking Method

• This is the simplest, the most inexpensive and

the most expedient method of evaluation.

• The evaluation committee assesses the

worth of each job on the basis of its title or on
its content, if the latter are available

• But the job is not broken down into elements or

factors. Each job is compared with others and
its placed is determined.

• This method has several drawbacks. Job

Evaluation may be subjective as the jobs are
not broken into factors. It is hard to measure
whole jobs.

b) Job-Grading method

• As in the ranking method, the Job-grading method

(or job-classification method) does not call for a
detailed or quantitative analysis of job factors.
It is based on job as a whole.
• The difference between the two is that in the
ranking method, there is no yardstick for
evaluation, while in job-grading method, the
number of grades is first decided upon, and
the factors corresponding to these grades are
then determined.

• Facts about the job are collected and

matched with the grades which have been
established.

• The essential requirement of the job-grading

method is to frame grade descriptions to cover
discernible differences in degree of skill,
responsibility and other job characteristics.

• Job grade are arranged in the order of their

importance in the form of a schedule.

• The lowest grade may cover jobs requiring greater

physical work under close supervision, but carrying
little responsibility. Each succeeding grade
reflects a higher level of skill and
responsibility, with less and less supervision.

• The Advantages of the job-classification method

include its simplicity and inexpensiveness.
Secondly, in organizations where number of jobs
is small, this method yields satisfactory
results.

• The Disadvantages of this method are:

o Job grade descriptions are vague and not

quantified;

o Difficulty of convincing employees about

the inclusion of a job in a particular grade
 because of vagueness of grade descriptions;
and

o More job classification schedules need

to be prepared because the same schedule
cannot be used for all types of jobs.

2) Analytical Methods
These include the point-ranking method and the factor
comparison method.

a) Point – Ranking Method

• The system starts with the selection of

job factors, construction of degrees of
each factor, and assignment of points to
each degree.

• Different factors are selected for different for

different jobs with accompanying differences
and degree and points.

• The Advantages of point system are:

o A job is split into a number of factors. The

worth of each job is determined on the
basis of its factors and not by
considering the job as a whole.

o The procedure adopted is systematic and

can easily be explained to the
employees.
 o The method is simple to understand and
easy to administer.

• At least two defects are noticed in the point

system.

o Employees may disagree with the points

allotted and the factors and their
degrees identified.

o Serious doubts are expressed about the range of points allotted

and matching them with the job grades.

b) Factor Comparison Method

• Under this method, one begins with

selection of factors, usually five of them
– mental requirements, skill
requirements, physical exertion,
responsibility, and job conditions. These
factors are assumed to be constant for all the
jobs.

• Each factor is ranked individually with

other jobs.

For example, all the jobs may be compared

first by the factor ‘mental requirement’. Then
the skills factor, physical requirements,
responsibility, and working conditions are
ranked.

Thus, a job may rank near the top in

skills but low in physical requirements.
• Then total point values are then
assigned to each factor. The worth of a
job is then obtained by adding together
all the point values.

• An advantage of the factor-comparison

method is that jobs of unlike nature – for
example, manual, clerical and supervisory –
may be evaluated with the same set of
factors.

• But, the method is complicated and

expensive.