Assignment Code: BRL-008/TMA/2022-23

Course Code: BRL-008

Assignment Name: Human Resources

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status:Verified by Professor

Attempt all the questions.

(A) Short Type Questions: 10x7

Q1) What is the importance of Human Resource Management in Retail organization? Explain.

Ans) Human Resource Management in Retail is turbulent and sensitive. In other factories or sectors, the end user or consumer isn't physically present with the action-takers. They don't know who, where, or how they are. In the retail setting, the end user or consumer is present every minute of the work. In retail, effort begins and ends with the customer. Human Resource Management is hence volatile and sensitive.

Retail companies provide services. Human resources drive the company's business performance. Back-end and front-end employee effectiveness determines organisation success. Human Resource Management affects every other organisation function. Retail workers, especially at the front end, must be highly involved and committed to their work. They must execute multiple roles concurrently.

Roles include:

1. Service Designer: After examining the customer's needs, desires, and expectations, the employee will decide the final retail service package. This requires store staff training in consumer need analysis.

2. Performer: Retail staff performs services. He/she must deal with unpredictable issues and achieve quality performance through involving customers.

3. Technician: Salespeople should know about diverse products. In retail, manufacturers usually train employees, or, in large multi-brand stores, companies appoint trained technical salesmen.

4. Associate: Manufacturers and retail organisation employees work together to serve customers. Employees are expected to interact with customers and deliver high-quality service. Additionally, some services could require group participation.

5. Friend: A retail employee must act as a friend to both customers and their fellow team members. Co-workers and clients seek the assistance, cooperation, direction, and support of others on a variety of concerns. Every member of the retail organisation must proactively address these needs.

6. Empathizer: The most important quality factor in retail services is empathy. When contact staff are sympathetic, customers feel at ease and judge the product's quality to be higher. Retail staff members must be patient and inclined to feel for their clients.

7. Assurer: Words and actions should reassure customers. Services are intangible, flexible, and perishable; thus, clients want assurance. Contact personnel represent Retail Company to customers. An assurer must be a contact employee.

8. Salesman: Retail employee performance boosts the company's image. The Store's customers may use other Company services. Employees will interact closely with customers.

9. Marketing Intelligence: Contact employees for marketing intelligence. They examine client responsiveness to company rules and quality criteria. Employee feedback is valuable.

10. Researcher: Service businesses, especially retail, thrive on innovation. Retail workers are often innovators. As an invention, it should create a need in the consumer.

Q2) What is job analysis? Explain the methods of job analysis.

Ans) Job analysis is a process of determining which characteristics are necessary for satisfactory job performance and analysing the environmental conditions in which the job is performed. It analyses the work content of job & job content of work. The process of job analysis leads to development of two documents viz., job description and job specification. Job description indicates the tasks and responsibilities, job title, duties, machines, tools, and equipment, working conditions and occupational hazards that form part of the job whereas job specification comprises of the capabilities required to perform job, education, experience, training, judgmental skills, communication skills and personal skills required to perform the job effectively.

Methods of Job Analysis

Job analysis methods can be categorized into three basic types:

Observation Method: Observation of work activities and worker behaviours is a method of job analysis which can be used independently or in combination with other methods of job analysis.

Three methods of job analysis based on observation are:

1. Direct Observation: Using direct observation, a person conducting the analysis simply observes employees in the performance of their duties. The observer either takes general notes or works from a form which has structured categories for comment.

2. Work Methods Analysis: This method is used to describe manual and repetitive production jobs, such as factory or assembly-line jobs. This method is used by industrial engineers to determine standard rates of production.

3. Critical Incidents Technique: It involves observation and recording of examples of particularly effective or ineffective behaviours. Behaviours are judged to be “effective” or “ineffective” in terms of results produced by the behaviour. In this method a person using the critical incidents must describe behaviour in retrospect, or after the fact, rather than as the activity unfolds.

Interview: In this method, the Analyst interviews the employee, his supervisor and other concerned persons and record answers to relevant questions. The interviewer asks job related questions, and a standard format is used to record the data.

Questionnaire: In this method properly, drafted questionnaires are sent to jobholders. Structured questionnaires on different aspects of a job are developed. Each task is described in terms of characteristics such as frequency, significance, difficulty, and relationship to overall performance.

Q3) What is meant by manpower planning? Explain the major objectives.

Ans) In order to carry out the organization's integrated strategy, management must decide how to shift the organisation from its existing manpower position to its intended manpower position. This process is known as manpower planning. Future personnel planning is closely related to an organization's strategic business plans. Demands from customers determine budgets and labour estimates. Effective management of resources such as equipment, money, and labour enables businesses to meet their needs.

If labour requirements are appropriately planned for in terms of the required profile, numbers, time, and location, the company will have an advantage over rivals in terms of output consistency. Effective workforce planning results in the highest productivity in terms of completion dates and product quality. Not only will it increase employee competency, but it will also guarantee that employees advance with the company. This aids in slowing the rate of attrition. To accomplish its goals, an organisation on a development trajectory needs competent personnel. Forecasting the precise workforce size is the essence of manpower planning.

Objectives of Manpower Planning

The goal of manpower planning is to determine with accuracy how many employees are needed who possess particular abilities. The decision-makers can use it to gather important information that will help them choose the quantity, timeline, and method of employee recruitment and selection. If not, the Organization would experience issues with a lack of human resources available when they were needed.

The following is a list of manpower planning's goals:

1. Planning for future manpower requirements helps organisations achieve their goals.

2. It makes it possible for the organisation to meet the demands of planned expansions, diversification, and growth.

3. It seeks to determine whether there is an excess or lack of labour and proposes plans of action to address it.

4. Planning for human resources makes it possible to anticipate staff churn and directs the creation of retention tactics.

5. It lessens the threat brought on by the lack of necessary manpower.

6. It is feasible to employ the available human resources more efficiently and productively with the help of manpower planning.

7. A good manpower plan ultimately reduces the cost of wages, salaries, and other human resources.

8. It offers a plan for adjusting to the changes. A sound strategy enables the organisation to provide excellent labour despite shifting market conditions and personnel changes.

9. It serves as a foundation for arranging future training and development initiatives for human resources.

10. An organization's promotion policy can be designed and implemented with the help of manpower planning.

Q4) Define recruitment? Discuss the marks demerits.

Ans) Searching for potential employees and encouraging them to apply for roles within the organisation is what Edwin Flippo meant by recruitment. Estimating the number of open positions and creating appropriate plans for their selection and appointment are all part of recruitment. The Organization must communicate the position in a way that job seekers respond to in order to recruit candidates for the open positions.

The recruitment process must draw competent candidates and provide unqualified people enough information to self-select out in order to be cost-effective. Therefore, the hiring process starts when new hires are needed and ends when their applications are turned in.

Demerits of Recruitment

Limited Choice: The Organization is compelled to choose applicants from a small pool. It could have to settle for hiring fewer qualified candidates at the expense of quality. Inbreeding: It prevents talented individuals who are accessible outside the Organization from joining. Existing personnel might not look for novel solutions or add the required dynamism to business operations.

Inefficiency: Promotions based on tenure rather than performance could be advantageous for underwhelming candidates. They don't put in the effort to earn their keep.

Bone of Contention: Infighting among staff members vying for scarce, higher-level roles in a business may result from internal recruitment. The competition for coveted positions may get increasingly acrimonious as the years pass.

Q5) What is meant by selection? Explain various steps in section process.

Ans) The process of selecting the best applicant for the open position in a company is called selection. In other words, selection refers to the process of eliminating unqualified candidates and choosing those with the necessary skills and qualities to hold open positions inside the business.

Although the terms "selection" and "recruitment" are used interchangeably, both have distinct purposes. The latter is a positive procedure that attracts more and more candidates and encourages them to apply for the jobs, whilst the former is a negative process that eliminates as many unqualified applicants as possible in order to hire the ideal candidate.

Steps in Selection Process

1. Job Design: This step involves reviewing the task and making choices for how to complete all that needs to be done. A precise explanation of how work will be completed most effectively and efficiently is the result of this step.

2. Position Description: The official document that outlines a position is called a position description. Position descriptions should be evaluated at least every five years and revised as frequently as major responsibilities change.

3. Forming a Selection Committee: Members of the selection committee should be as broad as possible to represent a range of viewpoints on a particular position's occupant or needs. Supervisors, peers, clients or customers, or other important stakeholders may be included on the committee.

4. Recruiting: A quality applicant pool is produced via quality recruiting. Any recruitment attempt should aim to cast a wide net in areas where it is expected that there will be qualified candidates.

5. Initial Screening of Candidates: The quantitative criteria are those elements that allow a straightforward yes/no choice to be made based on each applicant's application materials and other provided papers.

6. Phone, Video or other Pre-Interview Options: You may control your recruitment expenses by using phone, video, or other pre-interview options. These tools are also highly useful for separating out your remaining candidates.

7. Campus Visits and In-Person Interviews: The search chair or committee should decide on a realistic schedule of events for the campus visit and make sure that everyone who might be interested is made aware of the plans.

8. Recommendation for Hire: If the decision to hire a certain applicant has been agreed upon, you must explain why the candidate was chosen and make sure that all necessary approvals and final arrangements have been made.

9. Offers and Notices to Applicants: The applicant should prepare for negotiations on a wide range of issues, including starting pay, the start date, the number of years of credit, vacation time, relocation expenses, pre-scheduled time off, etc. 

Q6) What is the training? Explain the various methods in training.

Ans) If ability and knowledge are imparted with adequate care, human resources are the sole resource among all that appreciate through time. Over time, human resources develop into assets. Without training that can be updated with the most recent advances in the world in general and the retail scenario in particular, we cannot survive in the challenging and changing environment of today.

In a retail setting, the personnel engaged must have people-interaction skills in order to give customers high-quality experiences. There may be certain performance issues if the staff of the retail organisations are not regularly trained on the changing consumer profiles and expectations. Therefore, for firms striving to provide superior customer service, training staff on key business dimensions both during and after induction is crucial.

Methods in Training

On-the-Job Training: With this approach, the trainee is given a regular task and given the training needed to accomplish it. Under the instructor's direction and control, the pupil learns. The apprentice picks up knowledge through doing and watching the job. As a result, it is known as learning by doing.

The following methods are employed to instruct personnel while they are working:

1. Coaching: This method is typically used to teach staff at the manager level. The other employee categories are also affected. It is a one-on-one conversation. An employee's performance is closely monitored by a superior or subject-matter expert, who then takes appropriate action. This method focuses on locating areas for improvement and recognising flaws.

2. Mentoring: For training, junior staff are paired with seniors. The seniors will educate the juniors on a variety of organisational matters, job performance approaches, culture and traditions, vision and mission, teamwork and group dynamics, etc.

3. Committee Assignments: Under this approach, the employees are proposed as committee members to encourage learning. The employee will have the chance to take part in decision-making, observe other team members at work, and look into any organisational issues using this way.

Vestibule Training: With this approach, a training facility called a vestibule is built up, and real-world workplace scenarios are simulated there. Employing equipment and machines that are identical to those used in the workplace allows expert trainers to deliver instruction.

Apprenticeship Training: In this approach, learners are given both theoretical teaching and hands-on training in training facilities. Industrial Training Institutes have been developed in India by the government for this reason. The primary goal is to create well-rounded craftspeople. Typically, during the training phase, a stipend is paid. It also goes by the name "earn while you learn" plan.

Classroom Training: This approach involves giving instruction in corporate settings or academic settings. The trainees are taught knowledge and skills using lectures, case studies, group discussions, and audio-visual aids. Some businesses run their own training facilities or educational institutions. Conceptual learning and problem-solving techniques are best taught in a classroom setting.

Internship Training: Essentially, it is a cooperative training programme between commercial organisations and educational institutions. Candidates who are chosen to continue their regular studies for the required time. In order to develop their practical knowledge and abilities, they also work in some factories. Using this strategy, theory and practise are better able to coexist in harmony.

Q7) Define communication? Why is communication in the plays key role in the management.

Ans) You can communicate verbally or in writing. In written communication, the text in the message is a mirror of your ideas as opposed to vocal communication, when listeners can understand what the speaker is trying to communicate. In order to prevent message misunderstanding, written communication or messages should be precise, clear, and concise. Written communications allow employees the chance to express their views or suggestions in writing while also providing a permanent record for usage in the future.

For an organisation to function well, effective communication is crucial. In an organisation, communication is necessary at different levels and for different purposes. Following are some reasons why communication is crucial:

For Manager-Employee Relations: A key element of management-employee relations is effective information and decision-making communication. Employees cannot complete the work for the boss unless they are adequately informed of what has to be done. Additionally, he ought to be knowledgeable on some fundamentals, like how to communicate and what outcomes can be anticipated from doing so. The majority of management issues are brought on by ineffective communication. With an effective communication system, the chances of misunderstanding and misrepresentation can be reduced.

Motivation and Morale: Another fundamental technique for motivation is communication, which can raise staff morale in a company. Conflict and low morale at work are primarily caused by improper or poor communication between co-workers or between a manager and his subordinates. To increase employee motivation, managers should be clear with them about what needs to get done, how well it needs to get done, and what can be done to improve performance. He is capable of creating a written statement that explains the connection between professional and personal goals as well as how the two are related.

Increase Productivity: Maintaining good human relations inside the organisation and encouraging employee or worker ideas or proposals and putting them into practise whenever practical are both made feasible by efficient communication. Additionally, it is inexpensive to boost production. Employees give their work reports, comments, complaints, and suggestions to management via communication. Organizations should have efficient and prompt communication policies and procedures to prevent delays, misunderstandings, confusion, or factual errors and to foster harmony among all parties involved, including the departments and individuals.

The absence of communication can cause an organisation to degenerate and eventually die, just as it does in the human body without blood circulation. It is a deliberate transfer of important information between the sender and the receiver from two sources. A common understanding is created through communication.

(B) Essay Type Questions: 15x2

Q8) Explain what is meant by hierarchical nature of needs. Is this hierarchy rigid? Discuss with suitable examples.

Ans) Abraham Maslow developed the needs theory, sometimes known as "Need Hierarchy Theory." One of the earliest and most well-known ideas or models of motivation is this one. In order to understand human behaviour, Maslow took into account a number of requirements and claimed that these needs had a hierarchy, with some needs being lower-order needs compared to other higher-order needs. The higher-order need will not be active unless the lower-order need is met, and it will stop motivating the individual once the lower-order need is met, according to his other theory. Maslow has suggested five main requirements hierarchy levels.

His thesis states that needs are:

Physiological Needs: These are critical requirements for maintaining human existence. The basic physiological needs that rank first on the priority list for need fulfilment are food, water, warmth, shelter, sleep, medical, and education. According to Maslow, no other driving elements can function unless these needs are somewhat met in order to maintain life.

Security or Safety Needs: These are the requirements to be free from physical threats like the worry of losing a job, property, supply of food, or place to live. Additionally, it offers defence against any emotional trauma.

Social Needs: People seek social recognition because they are social beings. People strive to meet their societal requirements for friendship, acceptance, and affection.

Esteem Needs: Maslow asserts that after their social needs are met, people seek respect from both themselves and from others. Such needs result in the gratification of things like power, prestige, position, and self-assurance. In addition to external esteem variables like status, recognition, and attention, it also contains internal esteem aspects like self-respect, autonomy, and accomplishments.

Need for Self-Actualization: According to Maslow's hierarchy, this is the most important need. It is the desire to grow, realise one's potential, and achieve self-fulfilment. It is the desire to become what one is capable of being. To achieve something and use all of one's potential. 

Q9) What is performance appraisal? Explain various performance appraisal methods.

Ans) Performance appraisals are used to evaluate workers' work performance systematically and to determine a person's potential for future growth and development. Thus, performance evaluation is a methodical approach to monitoring and evaluating an employee's work over a specific time period and making plans for his future.

Performance evaluation is typically conducted in the following systematic ways:

1. The managers assess employee remuneration and contrast it with goals and plans.

2. The manager examines the variables influencing employees' work performances.

3. Employers can help their staff members perform better by providing them with guidance.

Every person in an organisation strives to meet the group's common goals and objectives. However, not every employee has the same skills and attributes. The characteristics of the people vary from person to person. Not everyone is equally effective and capable. But everyone must cooperate.

Performance Appraisals Methods

Let's now talk about the performance appraisal procedures for the two common ways that are offered. Both the traditional and modern approaches are as follows:

Traditional Approach

This strategy has only been utilised as a means of calculating and supporting employee wages. It has been used as a tool to decide on incentives and penalties for the employees' prior performance. This strategy was past-focused, emphasising solely the previous performance of the employees over a predetermined period of time. This method ignored the employee's training and development needs or potential career growth opportunities while evaluating the developmental components of his performance.

Some of the conventional performance evaluation techniques that Organizations may use are as follows:

1. Essay Appraisal Method: This conventional way of evaluation, often known as the "Free Form method," entails a description of an employee's performance by his or her boss.

2. Straight Ranking Method: One of the earliest and most basic performance evaluation methods is this one.

3. Paired Comparison Method: This approach compares every employee to everyone else in the group.

4. Critical Incidents Methods: With this approach, the employee is evaluated based on significant situations and how they were handled by the employee. It has both unfavourable and advantageous aspects.

5. Field Review Method: To evaluate and grade the supervisors' respective subordinates, a senior member of the HR department or a training officer speaks with and interviews them.

6. Checklist Method: A checklist with details of how people behave at work is handed to the reporter.

7. Graphical Rating Scale Method: This method evaluates an employee's quality and quantity of work using a graphic scale that shows various levels of a specific trait.

8. Rating Scales Method: Numerous number scales are used in rating scales to reflect various performance criteria associated to a work, including dependability, initiative, output, attendance, attitude, etc.

Modern Approach

The performance appraisal process has become more structured and formal as a result of the modern approach to performance development. It comprises a feedback procedure that aids in enhancing communication within the Organization as well as the bonds between superiors and subordinates.

Some of the current performance evaluation techniques that organisations might use are as follows:

1. In order to evaluate a group of employees' readiness to assume more responsibility in the future, assessment centres frequently use techniques such as social/informal events, examinations and exercises, and assignments.

2. Human resources are important assets for every organisation, according to the human resource accounting method. Finding the relative value of these assets in terms of money is the goal of the human resource accounting approach.

3. MBO can be defined as a procedure whereby subordinates and employees collaborate to identify shared objectives.

4. Developed by Kaplan and Norton, the balanced scorecard technique offers a framework of different metrics to enable a comprehensive and balanced perspective of employee performance.

5. The most thorough appraisal method is a 360-degree feedback evaluation, commonly referred to as "multi-ratter feedback," in which feedback on an employee's performance is obtained from all sources with whom the employee interacts while doing his or her duties.