Personnel management

Personnel management

Introduction

Personnel management is concerned with the effective use of the skills of people. They may be salespeople in a store, clerks in an office, operators in a factory, or technicians in a research laboratory. In a business, personnel management starts with the recruiting and hiring of qualified people and continues with directing and encouraging their growth as they encounter problems and tensions that arise in working toward established goals.

• In addition to recruiting and hiring, some of the responsibilities of a personnel manager are:
• To classify jobs and prepare wage and salary scales.
• To counsel employees.
• To deal with disciplinary problems.
• To negotiate with labor unions and service union contracts.
• To develop safety standards and practices.
• To manage benefit programs, such as group insurance, health, and retirement    plans.
• To provide for periodic reviews of the performance of each individual employee, and for recognition of his or her strengths and needs for further development.
• To assist individuals in their efforts to develop and qualify for more advanced jobs.
• To plan and supervise training programs.
• To keep abreast of developments in personnel management.

To understand the personnel manager's job think of how you would deal with the following examples of challenging employee situations:

The firm's employees - especially the most qualified ones - can get comparable, if not better jobs with other employers.

When a firm faces a scarcity of supervisory and specialized personnel with adequate experience and job capabilities, it has to train and develop its own people. This can be time consuming and expensive.

The cost of hiring and training employees at all levels is increasing, for instance, several thousand dollars for a salesperson. A mistake in hiring or in slow and inefficient methods of training can be costly.

Personnel managers must comply with the law by employing, training and promoting women and persons from minority groups. The problem in doing so is that many of these employees have not had appropriate experience and education in the past.

Most employees, whether or not represented by labor unions, continue to seek improvements in direct compensation, employee benefits, and working conditions. All commitments must be based upon what the firm can afford, comply with current practices of other employers, and be understood and accepted by the employee. To do this, all employee policies and operating procedures should be developed and negotiated with great care.

Some employees may not perform satisfactorily simply because their firm offers competitive compensation, benefits, and working conditions. In addition to these financial or physical compensations, they want responsibility, the opportunity to develop, and recognition of accomplishment in their jobs.

The law have established requirements for pension and other benefit plans, and also bar mandatory retirement at age 65. Complying with such changes presents real challenges.
Personnel management works to achieve practical solutions to such problems. In large firms, it generally provides support to line management. In this staff capacity, the personnel department has the responsibility to develop and implement policies, procedures, and programs for recruitment, selection, training, placement, safety, employee benefits and services, compensation, labor relations, organization planning, and employee development.

Often, the owner-manager of a firm also has to be the personnel manager. In such a case it is necessary to have an overview of current trends and practices in personnel management.
All small businesses must staff their operations. This involves bringing new people into the business and making sure they are productive additions to the enterprise. Effective human resource management matches and develops the abilities of job candidates and employees with the needs of the firm. A responsive personnel system will assist you in this process and is a key ingredient for growth.

Human resource management is a balancing act. At one extreme, you hire only qualified people who are well suited to the firm's needs. At the other extreme, you train and develop employees to meet the firm's needs. Most expanding small businesses fall between the two extremes i.e., they hire the best people they can find and afford, and they also recognize the need to train and develop both current and new employees as the firm grows.

One function of personnel management deals with how to hire and train the right people and addresses the characteristics of an effective personnel system, such as:

• Assessing personnel needs.
• Recruiting personnel.
• Screening personnel.
• Selecting and hiring personnel.
• Orienting new employees to the business.
• Deciding compensation issues.

Another function addresses the training and development side of human resource management. A third function deals with how the personnel system and the training and development functions come together to build employee trust and productivity. These three functions stress the importance of a good human resource management climate and provide specific guidelines for creating such a climate.

Human Resource Management Audit Questionnaire

• Does the business have a plan for forecasting long-term personnel needs?
• Are there guidelines for hiring personnel, or are employees hired based on gut feelings?
• Are there job descriptions for all positions?
• What do employees like about their jobs?
• What do employees dislike about their jobs?
• Why do employees leave the organization?
• Is there an active training program? Is it based on an assessment of where the firm is now or where it should be in the future?
• Are a variety of training programs available?
• How is morale in the firm?
• Do employees really believe what you have to say?
• Are all employees treated fairly?

Personnel management has been a recognised function in the USA since NCR opened a personnel office in the 1890s. American personnel managers worked within a unitarist tradition, identifying closely with the objectives of their organization (key concept 1.3). It was natural for HRM to emerge comparatively smoothly from this perspective.

In other countries, notably Australia, South Africa and the UK, the personnel management function arrived more slowly and came from a number of routes. Moreover, its orientation was not entirely managerial. In Britain its origins can be traced to the 'welfare officers' employed by Quaker-owned companies such as Cadburys. At an early stage it became evident that there was an inherent conflict between their activities and those of line managers. They were not seen to have a philosophy compatible with the worldview of senior managers. The welfare officer orientation placed personnel management as a buffer between the business and its employees. In terms of organizational politics this was not a politically viable position for individuals wishing to further their careers, increase their status and earn high salaries.

Personnel Management is an important aspect of educational administration for achieving the educational goals. This Education Department constitutes nearly one-third of the total government employees in the state. It involves a systematic process of recruitment, selection and posting of employees and pre-service and in-service training programmes for them.

This is the first major section in Personnel Management. It has nine

subheadings.

1. Steps in hiring the right people

2. The interview process

3. Effective interviewing

4. Effective questioning

5. Telephone interview questionnaire

6. Reference checking questionnaire

7. Candidates position rating process

8. Employment contract

9. Commission sales agreement

Article By:

S. Shiny Nair

e- Mail: S. Shiny04@gmail.com