Manual HR systems

The devil is in the details someone once said, and this is certainly true with respect to designing an HR system. The HR manager may talk in broad terms about the recruiting, selection, and other HR functions he or she wants to install. But eventually, creating the HR system requires translating the HR manager’s broad preferences (for “a selection program that produces more qualified candidates,” for instance) into specific, “how exactly will we do this” policies, guidelines, tools, and paperwork or computerized processes. This means actually creating the infrastructure of the HR system

Doing so is not easy. Consider the paperwork required to breathe life into a company’s HR system. Just to start with, recruiting and hiring an employee might require a Notice of Available Position, a Help Wanted Advertising Listing, an Employment Application, an Interviewing Checklists, various verifications of education, and immigration status, and a Telephone Reference Checklist. You’d then need an Employment Agreement, Confidentiality and Non-compete Agreement and an Employer Indemnity Agreement. To process that new employee you might need a hiring Authorization Form, an Employee Background Verification, a New Employee Checklist, and various forms for withholding tax and to obtain new employee data. And to keep track of the employee once on board, you’d need – just to start – an Employee Changes Form, Personnel Data Sheet, Daily and Weekly Time Records, an Hourly Employee’s Weekly Time Sheet, an Overtime Permit, an Expense Report a vacation Request, an Absence Request, an Affirmative Action Summary, and an EEO Policy Statement and Analysis of promotions . Then come the performance appraisal forms, a Critical Incidents Report, Notice of Probation, First (or second) Warning Notice Form, a Disciplinary Notice, a New Employee Evaluation, a Performance Evaluation and a Letter of Commendation , and (eventually) a Retirement Checklists , Notice of Dismissal Reduction in Workforce Notice, Employee Check – out Record, Separation Notice, and Employment Reference Response....

The preceding list barely scratches the surface of the policies, procedures and paperwork needed to run the HR system part of a business. This has several implications. First, you obviously can’t wing it. Perhaps with just one or two employees one could keep track of everything in memory, or just write a separate memo for each HR action, and place it in a folder for each worker. But with more than a few employees one needs to create a human resource comprised of standardized forms.

Very small firms can handle all or most of this sort of HR record keeping through manual paper and pencil forms and systems. But as the company grows, various parts of the HR system – payroll, or appraising, for instance – will have to be computerized if the firm is to remain competitive. After all a HR manager probably don’t want to spend twice as much money and time on HR as their competitors.

Mistakes Win Sucess...

One of my friend gave some tips on how you can create a work culture that encourages prudent risk taking:

Be accommodating:Encourage and build a climate where problems are accepted and mistakes acknowledged. Do not respond to a mistake by an immediate scolding. Try to solve the problem, aAccept MistakesSubordinates must be taught that errors are part of the cost of development. A mistake provides an excellent opportunity to learn and improve on whatever is being done. On the other hand, irrational and repeated mistakes should not be tolerated.

Tolerate failure:Many innovations and concepts are not successful initially. Persistence and the ability to deal with disappointment and failure are therefore essential. To learn from one’s mistakes, one must be able to accept failure, analyze the reasons for the failure and then take the appropriate action. As Akio Morita, the Chairman of Sony says, “when customers see our products they only see success, they do not see the 99% of failures that made that product possible”.

Do not be conditioned by past failures:There is a tendency for managers to be conditioned by past mistakes and failures. This encourages conservatism and caution. Past mistakes must be acknowledged and learned from. They must never be allowed to impede risk taking options in the future.

It is always easy for managers to take the path of least resistance and seek out only the risk free options. This not only reduces managers to being mere clerks who routinely and mechanically follow some laid down rules and never look beyond them, but it also affects a company’s overall success.

As Bill Gates, the CEO and Chairman of Microsoft says, “How a company deals with mistakes suggests how well it will bring out the best ideas and talents of its people, and how effectively it will respond to change. When employees know that mistakes won’t lead to retribution, it creates an atmosphere in which people are willing to come up with ideas and suggest changes. This is important to a company’s long term success.”

Moreover, in certain industries not making mistakes is a sure sign of a shirker. For example, in the media industry one can often hear old timers say “only those who work make mistakes”.

These are the people who have realized the wisdom in the words of the great Italian sculptor and artist Michaelangelo who once said: “Trifles make perfection and perfection is no triflend then, more importantly, discuss how the mistake could be avoided in the future.

Recruiting costs minimisation

Recruitment costs are becoming increasingly heavy on the pockets and there is a dire need for them to look for something cheap without compromising on the quality of recruits. And with the rise in costs, they are growing more cautions about recruitment expenditure.

Organizations are using a host of innovative and at the same time, run-of-the-mill methods to hire employees. But in order to be effective and innovative, the compromise has been settled on the high costs. The hiring costs have shot up manifolds and companies have started to get affected in their P&L accounts. The average recruitment cost per employee can range anywhere between Rs 50,000 to 60lakhs, depending on the position.

So how do companies hire fresh talent? They usually have a host of methods ranging from internal movements where the company advertisers the position within the organization. This method is considered to be very cost effective as the employee is already a cultural fit and the talent stays within the organization. They also advertise in the mainstream press though it is usually as it includes not only the advertising cost but also the cost of processing, screening and interviewing the candidates.

Many other companies have on-campus and off-campus initiatives for hiring fresh graduates. They also use an optimum channel mix strategy for hiring experienced people. The channels of hiring would include in-house technical recruiters using portals and own network, employee referral program, placement consultants etc.
Recruitment costs are taking up a major part of the annual budgets of the organizations and are engaging a lot of resources. Companies are working in the direction of reducing these costs so as to save on the costs and allocate funds towards strategic project. The best way to minimize recruitment cost is to make sure the role of consultancy agencies is reduced to the minimum. Recruitment agencies are the best forms of cost effective hiring as one can outsource the ‘headache’ to a specialist firm and only pay on successful completion of the assignment.

Companies are working on reducing the average cost per hire by relying on employee referrals, innovative recruiting mechanisms and reducing the reliance on head-hunters. The average cost per hire is approximately Rs 30,000-40,000. To recruit the best talent along with a faster turnaround time companies are creating a planning schedule for all critical positions and identify people (insiders) for such positions which impact business. In some cases organizations maintain a three great candidate ratio for each position and relevant database. Such initiatives can reduce Recruiting costs.


Internal referral is the most effective and cheapest mode of recruitment. Employees are encouraged to refer people for different positions. It ensures to attract the best talent and also gives an empowering signal to employees about their engagement within the company.

One of the most cost effective modes of recruitment is the daily walk-in interviews that conducted at company’s offices. This way, recruiters will be able to capture the profiles of a significant number of potential candidates that help the recruitment process. Walk-ins are undoubtedly the best and inexpensive mode of hiring, and it has proved effective in volume hiring opine many HR managers. —

Punctuality leads to success

Punctuality in a city like Mumbai is rare virtue. Creative excuses that people make when they are late and most of the people fail to stick to appointed time.

It is appalling to see people arrive late to work, meetings and even seminars. Lateness is now an accepted norm and fifteen to thirty minutes delay is routine. And if one is fifteen minutes late in starting from home, he can expect his day to end at least three hours late. It’s called the law of momentum in action.

Globalization today has brought many pressures and punctuality is one of them. Asians and Americans are much tolerant of lateness whereas European and people from the Middle East can’t stand it. The Urban Indian today is quite a globe trotter and lateness can causes more damage than one can ever imagine to one’s professional life.

Time is all the while belongs to the individual and can be called his own. Respect it and spend it diligently because it is running out. Everyday you have lesser time than yesterday it is a resource that will end on a day. Realize that and make good us of it. —

Globalisation is two-way traffic: Azim Premji

"The world's richest Muslim entrepreneur defies conventional wisdom about Islamic tycoons: He doesn't hail from the Persian Gulf, he didn't make his money in petroleum, and he definitely doesn't wear his faith on his sleeve."


That's how the Wall Street Journal describes Azim Premji, Chairman & CEO of Wipro Technologies, one of the largest software companies in India, in a story about "How a Muslim Billionaire Thrives in Hindu India."


He has tapped India's abundant engineering talent to transform a family vegetable oil firm, Wipro Ltd, into a technology and outsourcing giant, notes the influential US financial daily.


By serving Western manufacturers, airlines and utilities, the company has brought Premji a fortune of some $17 billion - believed to be greater than that of any other Muslim outside of Persian Gulf royalty, it notes.


Such success, Premji says in an interview with the Journal, shows that globalization - a force Islamist activists decry as Western neo-colonialism - is turning into "two-way traffic" that can bring tangible benefits to developing countries.


Premji's rise is already inspiring some Indian Muslims to embrace the modern, globalised world, the journal says yet, to many in India's Muslim community, Premji's enormous wealth, far from being inspiring, shows that success comes at a price the truly faithful cannot accept.


But unlike some Muslim community leaders, Premji bristles impatiently when the plight of the broader Muslim populace is cited. "This whole issue of Hindu-Muslim in India is completely overhyped," the 62-year-old executive says as cited by the Journal.


Premji's private philanthropy is dispensed through a foundation that's managed by a Hindu former Wipro executive and cuts across religious lines.


After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, US officials asked the Azim Premji Foundation to help start an education programme that would instil moderate values in Islamic schools. The foundation declined the religion-focused project, according to its chief executive, because "we are working for all."

Premji, the Journal said, scoffed at the idea he should display his Muslim identity or champion the cause of Muslim advancement in India. "We've always seen ourselves as Indian. We've never seen ourselves as Hindus, or Muslims, or Christians or Buddhists," he was quoted as saying.


As a prominent Muslim businessman in the 1940s, Premji's late father, M.H. Premji, faced repeated requests for support from Pakistan's fiery founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who offered the father a cabinet minister job in the new Muslim country.


But the Premji family didn't believe in a religious state, and refused to move. "We did not think in these terms," Premji says as cited by the Journal. "There were roots in India, there were roots in Bombay. Why should one in any way dislodge these roots?"


While India's Muslim groups complain about facing daily discrimination, Premji says the only time he has been singled out because of his Muslim heritage wasn't in India but at a US airport shortly after 9/11.


In doing business in India, he maintains, "I don't think being a Muslim or being a non-Muslim has been an advantage or disadvantage. It's just been based on the merits of the opportunities."


As Wipro becomes a global powerhouse, company officials say they seek to hire the best regardless of creed. "All our hiring staff are trained to interview in English," Premji is quoted as saying. "They're trained to look for Westernised segments because we deal with global customers."