job satisfaction triggers

employees often moan on job satisfaction, triggering a series of knee jerk reactions by way of salary surveys, satisfaction surveys, review of perquisites, inter-personal relationships in work spheres, review of appraisal styles etc. Helping employees to value the distinction between work satisfaction, work-life satisfaction and life satisfaction can improve the climate better and lower dissatisfaction levels. what can improve satisfaction at work ( eg work space) and what can improve life satisfaction ( eg healthy vacation plans)both need to be made tangible so that employees clearly see their values. The three areas can be categorised to include various elements as per employees' perceptions.Even a workshop for such a classification can help employees introspect that can reduce attrition levels to a great measure.

A new role for HR head.

At macro structure,to enhance flexibility layers must be lowered; will assist faster appreciation of business strategies and at the same time easen communication channels ensuring clarity and openness ; At resourcing and planning level, an area that needs to be cleaned up is employment contracts; Allocate a higher percentage of Employment expenses under Capital budgeting; provide for temp staffing; vacation policies; Cafeteria options in Contracts ;supportive C&B elements designed to meet employee needs rather than administration convenience.; there can be a case for merger of salary bands. and Titles taken closer to functions;without 'managerial label frills'; clustered to job families built around functional needs of organization; dispense with job evaluation points,grading and classifications; rather go for seamless integration. Maintenance perspectives need to shift from conventional wage and salary administration to closer monitoring of employee performance; supported by a dedicated Performance Management Budget and Delegation of Authority for Review and its administration ; reviewed periodically by Board level Compensation Review Committees. There need to be Factors and Parameters identified to monitor all the above by HR Manager.

functional controls and organisation designs.

organisation designs can help effective controls over functions. In an organisation where levels are defined clearly, eg :by way of grading positions within a function or marking career steps for enlarging scope of ones functional area, performance can be monitored easily and controlled effectively. However where business needs alone is taken as basis by which job evaluation results are alone taken into consideration for defining positions, then the levelling will get blurred because of overlapping salary maps based on such evaluation points. In such a scenario, defining Positions and classifying them by Grades becomes difficult, thereby functional control becomes slippery. This dilemma is often seen when you need to balance performance management and reward management through Job evaluation systems.An option could be to use Job evaluation Results for a better understanding only, and not to allow them to influence organisation structure or Position Grades. In the sense C&b policies need to be based on Organisation structure and Performance needs and should not be in drivers seat for business controls.

resource accounting framework - needs innovative approaches

the basics of resource accounting largely rests on the business objectives. this is no different for human resource as well.however hr accounting in a way needs unique systems for measurement and scales. cost is one common factor; often factored as CTC or valued gross remuneration or atleast salaries and benefits. so also headcount numbers, turnover and absenteesm. all these can be combined as Full Time Equivalent -FTE and FTE Cost. Nett FTE is a strong and valid indicator of utilisation and a valid scale for measuring functional performance, be it Sales, Production, Profit OR even Loss. The correlation can give an interesting scenario for many strategic initiatives involving people. At the other end of accounting, what is very slippery is Talent, Governance, and Community needs. For eg, employees are the only resource that holds potential to appreciate over time. What we need is a valid scale to measure Talent development, retension and utilisation. That way we can enhance FTE value ,through compounding, across fixed time spans of business cycles. Similarly Employee Brand if measured can provide Brand Equity value, untangible, but valid. Quantification is a challenge; but Community perception if measured through an independent agency can help a credible evaluation.

diversity,equality and reward management

as commercial needs forces organisations to embrace a diverse workforce, in real world, this often poses a challenge to internal equality values and principles. Often Organisation's capabilities to balance diverse needs without compromising equality values gets tested. HR leaders have a greater role to play in maintaining a broad,pluralistic,integrating policies only to help maintain a ethical internal organisational climate. major flash points are compensation and benefits policies, performance, reward management and power delegations. It is imperative that policies reflect organisational values that upholds equality without discrimination. Equally important is that such policies provide scope to address needs of employees' cultural-country background. What needs to be firmly implemented is to ensure that business drivers need to stay completely un-tainted from employees' race/colour/religion/region/country/language/gender factors. For eg, in C&B, Basic pay need to be delinked from these factors, where as Annual Vacation Travel to Home base or Contributions to Social Security net can be linked to an employee's country of origin. Policies often reflect the maturity level of organisations on these counts, where HR is solely responsible.

Integrated Design for Resource Planning

Once the business context is suitably insulated and interfaced, the next stage ie resource planning and design stage sets in. Organisation Design sequence involves an alignment of the various organisational elements (processes, people, structure, culture, leadership) in relation to the path the organisation is going (direction setting) to deliver the required business results in the marketplace (context). Normally the focus of sequence is on the hr process elements though there is an emerging trend to recognise roles of Finance, Talent and Governance over resource planning and design. The recent trends to evolve more accurate budgeting and forecasting tools towards personnel cost planning has enhanced credibility and quality of HR projections. Also the need to attract, measure, preserve, develop talent and competence has given rise to new measurable scales to assess the efforts of Training and Development. To certain extant this has improved credibility and also opened scope for measuring transfer of learning.

Insulation and Interface Roles of HR

Business Genesis and Community Needs are two major areas that influence industry hr practices. While former is largely driven by commercial interests the latter gets reflected from socio-political framework within which the business need to managed. Even though these areas form a part of boundary management and relies heavily on the stewardship capabilities of leadership positions within an organisation, it often relies on strong functional support from HR leader as well. Organisations need a social insurance cover and to that functional need can be managed only through active support from hr function. Often this gets reflected within the scope of Apex Office HR function and becomes part and parcel of HR Agenda that the HR leader need to manage and carry to the Shareholder. The impact of this function often has far reaching consequences to entire hr chain of actions down below. Notwithstanding above, the emerging trend is to demarcate certain areas under "Corporate Social Responsibility" , CSR, away from hr; more towards Public Relations, Environmental Affairs, Marketing etc. Often the areas covered in CSR relates to Corporate Image , Branding, Corporate Citizenship initiatives and even elements like Environmental issues, Greenhouse Gas norms, Carbon trading etc and in itself it helps greater focus to those areas as well as more time for HR leader for internal HR areas. However such demarcation always demands more financial resources; and not available in vast majority of organisations.

Commercial soul and empathetic needs.

commercial soul dictates that hr stands for business; that the business strategies are paramount as hr stays only if business survives.So we bring in competence assessment, balance score card, goal oriented appraisals, productivity linked incentives, risk based rewards, structured authority levels, evaluated jobs, attractive severance packages. Perhaps organisation management and people management came from a need to organise force to win wars and could easily be transported into commercial and trade wars in the market.
human behavior and eastern spiritualism directs towrads an holistic approach to human capabilities and aspirations of humans from life. Business needs are just an element in that pursuit, and success on human behaviour control, in an organisation context, depends on how well the employee is encouraged to balance the two.
there is undoubtedly a case for professional empathetic social work.

business phase defines hr priorities

business phase impacts hr priorities in a significant way. Priorities during business Inception stages and terminal stages are well known. Not so, during a growth phase, when cash flows are beginning to rise and profits predictable. Chances are one may get caught into unnecessary frills, cosmetics and experiments, with little or no gain. More common are unnecessary participation in environment scanning (surveys/research etc), System modifications, duplication of processes, drift in cost controls, restructuring initiatives, new communication forums, Events etc. Instead at these times, hr can streamline and get more focussed and meaningful to employees' career life and enrichment. Areas like On the Job conveniences,new utility softwares,skill upgradation, cross functional training, improved/latest office equipments, in-house housekeeping and facility infrastructure, avoid overstaffing, encourage vacations, etc .in short stick to business essentials.