Human Resources Articles

Performance appraisal, normally in corporate world called as appraisal. Appraisal is the structured analysis of employee’s performance and to understand the areas on which employee needs improvement in order to sustain himself or herself in the competitive corporate world.

“Effectiveness = Confidence+ Competence”.

Well this is not a mathematical formula I am speaking about here but it’s the formula which each and every company should follow to bring in more effectiveness leading to success of the organization. You see there is one word which I have highlighted in Bold- “Competence”. If you see the broad meaning of this word, it is about doing things efficiently and successfully. This gave rise to Competencies in the organization which are the qualities (both functional and behavioural) that the company looks for in prospective candidates to be part of their organization. In this article we shall discuss what is the concept of Competency Mapping and why it is important for an organization.

Organizations typically conduct different type of test to assess job applications. The main motive of the test is to provide a potential employer with an insight into whether employee is able to meet with the intellectual demand of the job requirement and how well employee fit into organization culture. The test is a series of standardized series of problem or questions that usually assess a skill, abilities, personal knowledge. The test is very effective means of determining whether employees are qualified for a particular job and it is challenging for any organization to select a right candidate as wrong candidate can lead to huge cost to company in terms of productivity and profitability.

The organizations are now facing major challenges with increasing globalization, technological changes and increasing competition. Added to this various organizational changes such as structure and hierarchies, changes in employees’ priorities, diversity and their demographic characteristics. These change have changed the role of HR in an organizations from workforce management to workforce development. Although the role of an HR is evolving for a long time but it has gained increasing importance after organization began to perceive their employees as resources. Earlier HR department was used to be static but now success of business in new locations having different culture and workforce capability depends on how flexible and creative the HR department is.

After the industrial revolution, Labour rights have become an integral part of the social and economic development. The communication between employees (workers), the employer (manager) and the government which is responsible for making the laws for them are known as Industrial relation or labour relation. These labour laws are responsible for the employee well-being in the industry which will include hiring and suspension, maternity leave, working hours, pension and formation of a union. International Labour Organization (ILO) is the first organization at the international level to be responsible for the labour issues. In the constitution of India, there are certain laws which look after the workers provisions. According to Article 15, there should not be any discrimination in the workplace on the basis of religion, caste, gender, race and place of birth.

When it comes to performance appraisal, one method that has been used most extensively is the bell-curve performance appraisal system. After gaining traction in the late 90s, it went on to become one of the most widely used performance appraisal system, one which was followed by most of the top companies in the world. But, of late some major companies which earlier were the advocates of this system are themselves letting go of this system. This has led to a major debate as to whether it is time to let go of this immensely popular and successful (?) appraisal system.