Employee separations… Types of Employee Separations… Voluntary Separations › HRM Megaposts

Administration of Human Resources in Organizations

Administration of Human Resources:

1. Employee separations
2. Types of Employee Separations
3. Voluntary Separations
4. Involuntary Separations
5. Severance Pay
6. Promotions of Employee
7. Employee Transfers
8. CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
9. Internalizing CSR: Initiatives of HRM
10. HR’s Role in Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility
11. Three Key Areas of Corporate Social Responsibility
12. Quality of work life
13. Hour of Work and Quality of Work
14. Improvement of the quality of work life
15. Quality Circles - Objectives of Quality Circle
16. Brainstorming
17. Pareto analysis - Seven steps to identifying the important causes using Pareto Analysis
18. Cause and effect diagram (or fish bone diagram or Ishikawa diagram)

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Employee separations

Employee separation is a sensitive issue for any organization. Usually, an employee leaves the organization after several years of service. Thus, the permanent separation of employees from an organization requires discretion, empathy and a great deal of planning. An employee may be separated as consequence of resignation, removal, death, permanent incapacity, discharge or retirement. The employee may also be separated due to the expiration of an employment contract or as part of downsizing of the workforce. Organizations should never harass the employees, especially in the case of resignation, just because they are quitting the organiza¬tion. In fact, a quitting employee of the organization must be seen as a potential candidate of the future for the organization and also the brand ambassador of its HR policies and practices. However, many organizations are still treating their employees as "expendable resources" and discharging them in an unplanned manner whenever they choose to do so.
Each organization must have comprehensive separation policies and procedures to treat the departing employees equitably and ensure smooth transition for them. Further, each employee can provide a wealth of information to the organization at the time of separation. Exit interviews can be conducted by the HR department to ascertain the views of the leaving employees about different aspects of the organization, including the efficacy of its HR policies.

Definition:

According to Yoder, separation is a negative recruitment. It may be In the form of resignation, dismissal or discharge, suspension, retrenchment or lay-off.
Facts
When someone feels it is time to bid goodbye, in most cases the person is seen as a villain. By some magic, all his good qualities suddenly seem to evaporate and the person is made to feel like a traitor to the cause. Unless someone has been unprofessional, it is important that those who leave do so with good feelings for the company and its people. At the end of the day, former employees who have been treated gracefully at exit time, can be powerful brand ambassadors
A severance agreement is a contract, or legal agreement, between an employer and an employee that specifies the terms of an employment termination, such as a layoff. Sometimes this agreement is called a "separation" or "termination" agreement or "separation agreement general release and covenant not to sue." Like any contract, a severance agreement must be supported by "consideration." Consideration is something of value to which a person is not already entitled that is given in exchange for an agreement to do, or refrain from doing, something. More >>

Reasons for Separation

Employee separation constitutes the final stage in the staffing process of an organization.An employee can leave the organization for any reason which he deems fit for seeking separation. However, separation is classified basically into two types. These are: voluntary separation and involuntary separation. Voluntary separation refers to the separation of employees on their own request, while involuntary separation means the separation of employees for organizational reasons which are beyond the control of the employees. We shall now discuss the causes of these separations in detail.
• Voluntary SeparationVoluntary separation, which normally begins after a request is placed in this regard by the employee, can happen due to two reasons: professional reason and personal reason. We shall now discuss these reasons in detail.
• Professional reasons Employees may seek separation when they decide to seek better positions, responsibilities and status outside the present organization. Efficient employees would seek to expand their realm of knowledge and skills continuously by working in different capacities/positions in various organizations. In their quest for greater responsibility, power and status, they may seek separation from the organization.
• Personal reasons The important personal reasons for voluntary separation are relocation for family reasons like marriage of the employees and health crisis of family members, maternity and child-rearing. For instance, when working women get married, they often prefer to settle in the partners place of occupation. Similarly, an employee may seek voluntary separation to look after the child or parent.
• Involuntary Separation As mentioned earlier, an involuntary separation is caused by the factors which remain beyond the purview of the employees. However, these factors may be classified broadly into health problems, behavioural problems and organizational problems. We shall now discuss these factors in detail
• Health problems Major health problems crippling the employees may make them invalid or unfit to continue in the profession. For instance, accidents causing permanent disabilities and illness of the employees like brain stroke and other terminal illnesses can lead to their involuntary separation. Death of employees is another factor which results in their involuntary separation.
• Behavioural problems An employee's objectionable and unruly behaviour within the organization may also lead to his involuntary separation from the organization. When the employees behaviour is unethical or violates the code of conduct in force, the organization may initiate disciplinary actions, which may eventually result in his termination. This may constitute an act of involuntary separation. Consistent failure to reach performance goals by an employee can also result in his involuntary separation.
• Organizational problems Organizational problems are another important factor that contributes to the involuntary separation of employees. The poor financial performance of an organization may cause it to terminate the services of some of its employees as part of cost control measure. Such terminations are also classified as involuntary separation. Similarly, automation, organizational restructuring and rationalization can also result in employee termination, discharge or layoff, broadly called involuntary separation.

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Types of Employee Separations

• Voluntary Separations
o Quits or Resignations
o Voluntary Retirements System (VRS)
• Involuntary Separations
o Dismissal
o Retrenchments
o Layoff
o Right sizing
o Retirement

A vacated or unfilled job within an organization results in tangible, measurable costs as well as intangible costs. The intangible costs include the uncompensated increased workloads other employees assume during the vacancy, the added stress and tension during and after the turnover, declining employee morale, and decreased work group synergy.

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Voluntary Separations

An Employee Leaves an Organization of His or Her Own

Voluntary separations of this type can be minimized through equitable compensation, benefits programs, and the creation of strong links between the employee and the organization. While some quits can be avoided, the circumstances surrounding many employee quits are completely beyond the control of the organization (e.g., the relocation of a spouse or a change in family dynamics or size).
1. Voluntary retirement
When a company realizes that it needs to downsize its scale of operations, its first task is to examine alternatives to layoffs. One of the most popular of these methods is early or Voluntary retirement.
In case of voluntary retirement the normal retirement benefits are calculated and paid to all such employees who put in a minimum qualifying service Sometimes the employer may encourage the employees to retire voluntarily with a view to reduce surplus staff and cut down labor costs.
Attractive compensation benefits are generally in built in all such plans (referred to as golden handshake scheme).To reduce post retirement anxieties companies these days organize counseling sessions, and offer investment related services (e.g. Citibank , Bank of America) Some companies extend medical and insurance benefits to the retirees also e.g. Indian Oil corporation.
Voluntary retirement in case of government servant
Supreme Court of India
Dinesh Chandra Sangma vs State Of Assam & Ors on 5 October, 1977
The court held that "there is no question of acceptance of the request for voluntary retirement by the government, when the government servant exercises his right under Fundamental Rule 56(c)." under the said rule, a government servant enjoys an option in the absolute terms to warrant a retired with three months previous notice after he reaches 50 years of age or has completed 25 years of service, and the consent of the government is not necessary to give legal effect to the voluntary retirement of the government servant.
The Fundamental Rule 56(c) give a right to say no to the government employee's request to the voluntary retirement if any departmental proceedings were pending or contemplated against him. (B.J Shelat v. State of Gujarat, AIR 1978 SC 1109.)
Tata Motors offers VRS to cut costs on weak demand.
(Feb- 2015) Tata Motors, the country's largest auto maker by revenue, cut staff by offering a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to reduce costs as weak demand and shrinking market share pressure it to streamline its Indian operations. The Tata Group flagship, one of the oldest automobile companies in India, employs about 27,000 people in the country as on 2015.
Describing the VRS, being offered to all categories of employees, as a 'people initiative', Tata Motors said that through this the company's India operations would "enhance its competitiveness" in a fiercely competitive market.Unlike the usual VRS that entails a one-time payment, the seven-decade old company is offering an attractive package which includes a monthly salary comprising basic and dearness allowance that begins on the date of separation till the employee turns 60. While for employees, this ensures an assured monthly income, for the company it will help avoid taking a one-time financial knock on its books.
The scheme also offers a medical insurance cover for a period of 10 years post separation and normal retirement benefits such as provident fund, gratuity, superannuation, encashment of un-availed leaves and leave travel assistance due but not claimed.
The people initiative will complement the strong product portfolio it has announced till 2020, including the launch of two new products every year for its passenger vehicle business, and several new products and variants for its commercial vehicles business, Tata Motors said in a statement.
5,000 employees opt for Voluntary Retirement Scheme at Nokia Chennai factory
INDIA (CHENNAI): Nearly 5,000 of the 6,600 permanent employees of handset manufacturer Nokia plant at Sriperumbudur near here have opted for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) announced by the company last month. Nokia India Employees Union sources told that the employees who had opted for the scheme, which entitles a benefit of around Rs 2 lakh, did so out of fear of job loss. "About 5,000 people have left the company. Actually, they were not interested to leave. But out of fear of losing the job later without even the VRS compensation, they opted for the VRS," they claimed.
The Finnish company last month sold its mobile unit to software major Microsoft but the plant near Chennai ran into rough weather over tax disputes between Centre and state governments. The company, which aimed to support the employees over the uncertainity of their future, announced the VRS scheme at the Chennai factory last month.
In its statement , Nokia said it has introduced "several" new initiatives under the Bridge programme to provide support to the employees which include -- working with industry experts to identify new employment areas, conducting awareness programmes in 40 locations in Tamil Nadu including Chennai. "The awareness sessions is to share information and insight into over 30 different skill development modules and employment outlook trainings across industries like garment, automotive, retail, hospitality," it said. The Bridge programme is also aimed at inviting employers to "facilitate engagement and placements", it said. Through the Bridge programme, Nokia said, globally about 18,000 employees have benefitted.
MTNL offers VRS to about 20,000 employees
MAY 2012, INDIA, MUMBAI: State-owned MTNL, which provides telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai regions, offered voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to about 20,000 employees, as part of its efforts to turn profitable. MTNL had suffered a loss of Rs 929.7 crore for the quarter ended December, 2011.
ONGC sweetens VRS package; offers employees medical benefits without extra cost
To trim its excess workforce and reduce the number of non-performing employees, state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has come up with a sweetened separation package. ONGC's new voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) offers lucrative medical benefits without any cost to employees. It will be available until the first week of July. Its previous VRS scheme did not provide free medical support after retirement. In the past six years, barely 476 people opted for VRS.
ONGC's more than 33,200 employees produce 26.92 million tonnes of oil a year. In comparison, 1,450 employees at Cairn India produce 10 million tonnes a year. At Cairn India's level of productivity, ONGC would be able to do its job with less than 4,000 people, although the state-run firm says it is not a fair comparison because ONGC is an integrated energy company.
In India Any Government servant can apply for voluntary retirement, three months in advance, only after the completion of twenty years of his qualifying service, provided there is no vigilance or Departmental Enquiry pending /initiated against him/her.
Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely.A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.
Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to work any more (by illness or accident) or as a result of legislation concerning their position. In most countries, the idea of retirement is of recent origin, being introduced during the 19th and 20th centuries. Previously, low life expectancyand the absence of pension arrangements meant that most workers continued to work until death. Germany was the first country to introduce retirement in the 1880s.
Nowadays most developed countries have systems to provide pensions on retirement in old age, which may be sponsored by employers and/or the state. In many poorer countries, support for the old is still mainly provided through the family. Today, retirement with a pension is considered a right of the worker in many societies, and hard ideological, social, cultural and political battles have been fought over whether this is a right. In many western countries this right is mentioned in national constitutions.

Quits

QuitsAn employee decides to quit when his or her level of dissatisfaction with the present job is high or a more attractive alternative job is awaiting the individual. The reasons for dissatisfaction may be because, of the job itself or because of job extrinsic factors such as supervision, company policy, compensation advancement opportunities, health, spouse relocation and the like.
Thanks to economic boom, jobs are available in plenty. Competent people will get multiple offers in given time. Some of them stay with the organization in the name of loyalty or some other commitment Majority accept the more attractive offers and prefer to leave the company.
Depending on the employee's reason, comfort with the employer, and dedication to the job, voluntary termination may be sudden and unexpected without warning to the employer, or with a certain amount of notice given. Generally, employers prefer that a departing employee provide at least some notice to the employer, often at least two weeks, this often called a two-weeks notice. Those in compliance with this requirement are more likely to be rehired by the same employer in the future, to receive their full benefits from the employer, and to get a better reference for future employers.
Quits are seen more in information technology industry mainly by women employees. As per the research on quits of woman employees, the reasons identified were marriages, pregnancy, child care after birth and family care responsibilities.
Facts
A non-compete agreement is a document signed by an employee agreeing that, should the employee choose to leave the company, he or she will not work for a competitor for a specified period of time. Non-competes are used when employees have access to critical information. The legality of non-competes depend on state laws, the scope of the restrictions, and precedents set in court decisions.
Most executives cited the lack of challenges or opportunity for career growth, rather than inadequate compensation, as the main reason they left their last job, according to a recent survey by executive search firm Korn/Ferry International. Twenty percent cited ineffective leadership, while 17 percent said the attractive job market was why they left their last jobs.
An employee giving his or her two-week notice of resignation usually comes with little surprise. According to an article by Entrepreneur magazine, early warning signs include more personal phone calls, closed office doors and increased sick days. Other signs: the often vocal employee suddenly becomes passive, a normally quiet employee gets loud, and an employee who suddenly seems happy.
USA : Severance package is pay and benefits an employee receives when they leave employment at a company. Severance packages are most typically offered for employees who are laid off or retire. Severance pay was instituted to help protect the newly unemployed. Sometimes, they may be offered for people who resign, regardless of the circumstances; or are fired. Policies for severance packages are often found in a company's employee handbook, and in many countries are subject to strict government regulation. Typically, severance pay amounts to a week or two of pay for every year that the employee was with the company. Executives may receive a month's pay for each year of service and senior executives generally receive severance pay as outlined in the employment contract. In addition to pay, severance packages can include extended benefits, such as health insurance and outplacement assistance to help the employee secure a new position.
Severance contracts often stipulate that the employee will not sue the employer for wrongful dismissal or attempt to collect on unemployment benefits, and that if the employee does so, then they must return the severance money.
Potential new-hires are increasingly negotiating severance packages and outplacement assistance as a condition for accepting job offers, according to a U.S.A Today article. Executives are likely to negotiate these employment terms but the practice is spreading down through the ranks. Career experts agree that this form of negotiation was once considered bad form but is now generally accepted.
The basic idea behind this concept is to help the employee at the time of need. When the employee is laid off, his monthly income ceases all of a sudden. The situation becomes still worst if the employee has a family dependent on him! Many people have faced this awful situation during the time of recession.
However, if the person is on the severance package, he may avail the benefits that will help him to cope up with the ill situation.
Severance agreements are more than just a "thank you" payment from an employer. They could prevent an employee from working for a competitor and waive any right to possibly pursue a legal claim against the former employer. Also, an employee may be giving up the right to seek unemployment compensation. It is important to review a severance agreement carefully and contact an employment attorney to assist with the review.

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Involuntary Separations

Involuntary separations occur when management decides to terminate its relationship with an employee because of either economic necessity or a poor fit between the employee and the organization. Examples of involuntary separations include discharges, layoffs, and downsizing or "right"-sizing (a term used by firms to make downsizing appear more palatable, generally positioning it as an attempt to make the firm the "right" size for its needs by implementing layoffs).

Dismissal

Usually, this process is perceived negatively by employees. An employer uses his right to terminate the contract of an employment. There can be many reasons for an employer to terminate the contract of employment but some of the common reasons are:
• Non-Performance
India's largest software services provider TCS axed 1,000 jobs in the country due to non-performance by its employees.
• Indiscipline
• Misconduct
• Insubordination
• Theft and etc.
Wrongful dismissal will tend to arise first as a claim by the employee so dismissed. Many jurisdictions provide tribunals or courts which will hear actions for wrongful dismissal. A proven wrongful dismissal will tend to lead to two main r
emedies: reinstatement of the dismissed employee, and/or monetary compensation for the wrongfully dismissed.
Facts
On a recent flight, the managing director of an international broking firm was sitting next to Journalist. With two hours of uninterrupted time at our hands, I asked him how he handled losses in his business. "Recently, one of my employees made a calculation mistake and we lost $250,000 at the click of a button," he said. "So, did you fire the guy?" I asked him. "Of course not!" he said, "I paid $250,000 for his training. Why would I fire him?"
His answer left me dumfounded and taught me a great lesson in handling people who goof up. Firing the man is not the optimum solution, fixing the loophole of error is.
To expect flawless execution from team members and colleagues would be quite unreal. People do make errors based on incorrect or incomplete data, altered information or simply, wrong judgment. But to terminate someone's services or take severe irrevocable action against them, would be an even bigger blunder. Here is what you can do, when you are faced with a loss, on someone else's erroneous
execution.

India, Maruthi Suzuki India, Ltd. violence

18,July,2012: Maruthi Suzuki India Ltd.,general manager human resource was burnt to death at manufacturing plant located at Maneser (Haryana) by the workers in a dispute between workers and management due to the disciplinary action taken against worker by the management. Workers union alleges that this incident was caused due to the supervisor made objectionable remark against a permanent worker, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste category. When we opposed it, they misbehaved with us and suspended the worker that led to violence. Company had huge loss of property, damage and burned, police complaint was filed and the Indian penal code (IPC) against the workers who indulged in violence, killing general manager, severely hurting almost 100 workers and 40 executives and managers. Companies top Management decided to dismiss the workers who ever involved in these activities and declare that there is no further reinstatement of dismissed employees.
In U.S More than 25% of employers have terminated employees for misusing the Internet, according to a recent American Management Association survey. Recent surveys of Internet use in the workplace indicate a majority of workers use these tools for personal use. Management experts suggest organizations should have a written computer usage policy with specific consequences for violation.

Termination

Termination means removal of employee from employment by his employer mainly on the following grounds,
• Due to the expiratory of employment contract period between employee and his employer.
• Due to the Ill-health of the employee.
Being terminated for any of the items listed below may constitute wrongful termination:
• Discrimination: The employer cannot terminate employment because the employee is a certain race, nationality, religion, sex, age, or in some jurisdictions, sexual orientation.
• Retaliation: An employer cannot fire an employee because the employee filed a claim of discrimination or is participating in an investigation for discrimination. In the United States, this "retaliation" is forbidden under civil rights law.
• Employee's Refusal to Commit an Illegal Act: An employer is not permitted to fire an employee because the employee refuses to commit an act that is illegal.
• Employer Not Following Own Termination Procedures: Often, the employee handbook or company policy outlines a procedure that must be followed before an employee is terminated. If the employer fires an employee without following this procedure, the employee may have a claim for wrongful termination.

Retrenchment (permanent removal of employee)

Retrenchment, like lay-off, also results in separation of the employee from the organisation. Retrenchment means a permanent termination of the services of an employee for economic reasons in a going concern. An employee to be retrenched is required to be given three months notice before his retrenchment or in lieu of the notice he must be paid his remuneration for the period of the notice. The retrenched employee is entitled to get gratuity payment from his employer. For retrenchment of the employee, notice is required to be given to the appropriate government authority and permission for retrenchment must be obtained from the authority. The principle of 'last come, first go* is followed for deciding which employee should be retrenched.

Indian employees inadequately prepared for retirement: Survey

Millennials in India are inadequately prepared for their post-retirement life as retirees are facing challenges in form of rising consumerism, higher medical and education expenses, as also weakening joint family system, says a survey.
According to the Willis Towers Watson Global Benefits Attitudes Survey, employees are facing the issue despite the fact that Indians save more than their counterparts in the western world.
Increasing consumerism, spiralling medical and education expenses, inflationary pressures and a weakening joint family system are some key reasons for this concern, the report said adding that "if not acted upon soon, in the next decade or two, India might be faced with the critical challenge of retirees having inadequate income".
Moreover, research indicates the proportion of workers who are beneficiaries of a formal retirement savings plan (via either the state or an employer) is relatively low. Most workers have to provide the majority of their income in retirement from their own wealth.It is high time that employers seize the opportunity to educate and prepare employees for retirement.
Else, a decade or two down the line, the country could be facing a distressing scenario of retirees having inadequate income over a retirement period potentially longer than their earning lifetime.
Recent studies have indicated that the three foremost motivations for saving are buying a house, saving towards children's education and/or wedding and provision for an income in old age.
"Lack of awareness, unrealistic assessment of what to expect on retirement and a short-sighted approach to retiral savings are potential causes of this concern,
Patel added that employers should use retirement planning tools to understand the effect of their retirement plans on the overall savings for employees and must play a key role in educating them.
The primary reason organization engage in downsizing is to promote future, competitiveness. According to surveys, they do this by meeting five

Objectives :

1. Reducing costs. Labour is a large part of a company's total costs, so downsizing is an attractive place to start cutting costs.
Facts
Aug-2015: Renault Nissan,India- Since struggling to increase in sales after market recovery, the company has decided to go for optimisation strategy by retrenching 1200 jobs from its workforce. Overall plant has 8000 employees with a plant capacity of 400000.
June 2014: Foxconn India announced layoffs/retrenchment to its employees due to continuous fall in business and fall in production since it is major supplier to Nokia India,which has been struggling to stand in its competitive market, subsequently it has started cutdown in its production and its employees.
4/12/2012, London: British Airways division planned to cut 400 cabin crew for the purpose of minimising cost due to slowdown in the economy. unlike other organisations, British airways opted for voluntary scheme to retrench its employees.
source:TOI
year 2012:The Indian telecom company Aircel, which has about 66 million customers and a pan-India 2G presence, scale down operations in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat in its bid to cut costs and reallocate resources to profitable zones. The company has about 800 employees and 6 million customers in these five circles.
TOKYO, 2012: Sony's cellphone division planned to cut nearly 1,000 jobs of its global workforce, mostly in Sweden by the next two fiscal years through March 2014. Sony Mobile Communications said the job cuts are an effort to reduce costs and boost profits. The Japanese electronics and entertainment company posted record losses for the fiscal year ended March-2012, battered by competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc.
Zurich, Nov, 2012: SWISS airlines belongs to Lufthansa Germany airlines decided to cut almost 100 jobs in human resource, financial, sales departments as a cost cutting measure due increase in fuel cost and sluggish growth in market.
2. Replacing labour wth technology. Closing outdated factories, automating, or introducing other technological changes reduces the need for labour. Often, the labour savings outweighs the cost of the new technology.
Dec,2012: The United States based Citigroup bank planned to cut jobs, which can be replaced by way of automation as a measure for minimising expenses due to financial crisis and slowdown in the economy.
3. Mergers and acquisitions. When organizations combine, they often need less bureaucratic overhead, so they lay off managers and some professional staff members. After software maker Oracle Corporation acquired PeopleSoft, it laid off about 5,000 employees, almost one out of ten. It kept most of PeopleSoft's technical employees so that the company could continue meeting plans for product development and support, meaning the vulnerable positions were those involving administrative functions.
4. drop in demand: when there is a situation of a drop in demand for goods or commodities produced by concerned organisation, to save cost of employees will be retrenched. TATA Steel in United Kingdom cut nearly 900 jobs due to drop in demand for steel in European market.
Facts
May 2012 Google Inc acquired (buyout) Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, following this in August 2012 Google Inc cut 4000 jobs in the United States due to drop in its profits due to drop in sales and announced severance package costs about $275 million for the retrenched employees . Google stated that his decision was taken to minimise its costs and make business profitable in future.
4. Moving to more economical locations. In recent years, British Columbia has been attractive to U.S. film and television production companies. Other moves, however, have shifted Canadian jobs to other countries. Celestica Inc. announced that it would close an electronics factory employing 700 people in the Montreal area. Celestica has been shifting operations from North America and Western Europe to low-cost Asian countries.
Facts
Unilever to cut 500 jobs in Britain
LONDON: The Anglo-Dutch food and cosmetics giant Unilever planned to cut 500 jobs in Britain as part of a restructuring programme. The retrenchment would occur by the end of 2013, added the company whose brands include Lipton tea, Persil washing powder and Signal toothpaste. Unilever company has operations in more than 100 countries, employing over 171,000 employees.
NEW YORK: Global food and beverages giant PepsiCo will cut 8,700 jobs across 30 countries as part of a programme to save up to USD 1.5 billion by 2014 to offset high commodity costs and increased spending on advertising and marketing.
Citigroup let go of 100 employees across India in January 2012 month, many functional heads received an unusual brief.
Finnish-German telecom equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks, which had 74,000 employees worldwide, announced plans to reduce its global workforce by approximately 17,000 by the end of 2013, adding that its restructuring plan was aimed at cutting annual costs by one billion euros ($1.3 billion) compared to 2011 outlays. (2,900 job cuts in Germany and 1,200 in Finland.
More than 1000 to lose jobs in Finland as Nokia shifts base to Asia
Apr, 2012,: Squeezed by fierce competition from Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Samsung Electronics and cheaper brands running Google Inc.'s popular Android software, Nokia has been forced to slash costs, primarily affecting its operations in Europe. Nokia has already closed plants in Germany, Hungary and Romania; and now it's the turn of the Finnish assembly plant. Some 1,000 of the 3,500 jobs in Salo (Town in southern Finland) - which until recently was Nokia's flagship assembly hub - are being cut this year.
Feb, 2012, BOCA RATON: Procter & Gamble Co plans to cut a total of 5,700 non-manufacturing jobs as part of a new plan to reduce costs by $10 billion by the end of fiscal 2016, Chief Executive Officer Bob McDonald said.
Layoff
This is the separation of an employee initiated by the employer due to business reverses, the introduction of labor-saving devices, or the reduction in the demand for particular skills. Management, as temporary measures during periods of business recession, industrial depression, or seasonal fluctuation, resorts to layoff or downsizing. Most managers say that downsizing is their toughest decision. To help employees who have lost their jobs, employees can provide services such as outplacement or helping employees find a new job, relocation assistance, and family counseling.
Companies can justify layoff decisions by such evidence as lagging sales, growing inventory, or a depressed economy. Employers should also provide evidence that they considered all other options, such as transferring employees into vacant positions, placing them in newly created part-time positions, or allowing them to work a shorter workweek.
Facts
ET Bureau | 22 Oct, 2015: Samsung Electronics proposed to lay off almost 5 per cent of its staff in India across managerial-level executives and factory and blue-collar workers as the Korean chaebol takes steps to become leaner and reduce costs amid slowing sales, five senior industry officials said.
The remainder would likely be shunted out in phases by December and March, with a total of 750 to 1,000 employees set to lose their jobs unless their performance improves. At that time, there were about 22,000 employees in Samsung India, including workers at the company's two factories.
Textile sector: 45 lakh persons become jobless in last 2 years
INDIA: About 45 lakh people in the textile sector have lost jobs in the last two years mainly due to global economic slowdown and problems at domestic front, apparel exporters body Apparel Export Promotion Council said.
The recent trend toward downsizing leading to massive layoffs has been triggered by three factors:
• Decline or crisis in the firm - There is a decrease in the demand for the firms' products or services due to a recession in business climate and increased international competition.
• Technological advances enabling many companies to produce more with fewer people
• Organizational restructuring - modification of the firm's structure to become less hierarchical by cutting out the layer of middle management. More Detailed >>
The following are some of the alternatives to layoffs:
1. Freeze hiring
2. Restrict overtime
3. Re-train/Re-deploy
4. Switch to job sharing
5. Use unpaid vacations
6. Use a shorter workweek
7. Use pay reductions
8. Use sabbaticals
9. Implement early retirement programs
IT companies which have announced job cuts in 2012.
• In May, Hewlett Packard (HP) announced it will lay-off 27,000 employees across the globe. This included 9,000 job cuts in the USA, while CEO Meg Whitman assured that this move would not affect employees in India.
• Sony in April said it will shed 10,000 employees as part of its 'One Sony' initiative. This means that the company will lose 6% of its global staff in a bid to once again become profitable.
• As part of its restructuring programme, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) would slash 5,000 jobs. In August, reports quoting insiders came that the company would fire another 3,000 staffers.
• The embattled Japanese manufacturer Sharp in August announced it would cut 5,000 jobs as part of its cost cutting efforts. Later, sources said that the company would sell two plants and, thus, slash 3,000 jobs, while news reports said Sharp may eventually shed 10,000 jobs.
• Nokia Siemens' restructuring programme includes 2,900 job cuts in Germany in March, while 630 jobs were slashed in Finland. The company shed 3,500 jobs in Latin America as it exited a service and maintenance deal with Brazil's Oi.
• Alcatel-Lucent decided to let go off 5,000 employees in order to lower its spending and produce more profit. All divisions except research and development would be affected by this move, which would be completed by 2013-end.
• Under Google, Motorola Mobility cut 4,000 jobs across the globe. This move, announced in August, translates into 20% employees of the company being laid off as part of the restructuring process. The company would also shut down approximately 30 offices across the world and 'shrink operations' in India.
• In July, Cisco announced that it would lay off 1,300 people from its workforce, which amounts to 2% of its total staff. The technology giant was compelled to take this step as its sales reduced under intense competition and limping economic conditions.
• In February, Alliance@IBM, an organisation by IBM employees, released data that IBM laid-off 1,202 employees in various business units throughout the world. It reported the data based on the severance documents it received from the staffers who were let go by the company.
Source: TOI
Retirements
Retirements occur when employees reach the end of their careers. The age for an employee's superannuation differs. In some States it is 58 years and in Central Government it is 60. There is a thinking to raise the limit to 60 and 62 respectively as there is shortage of skilled people to fill up the vacant jobs.
Retirement differs from quits. When the employee superannuates and leaves the organization, he or she carries several benefits with himself or herself. Such a privilege is denied to the employee who quits. Second, retirement occurs at the end of an employee's career but the quit can take place at any time. Third, superannuation shall not leave any soured relationship behind the retiree but a quit is likely to result in hurt feelings with the employer.
Facts
A recent AARP national survey of 1,500 workers age 45 to 74 showed that nearly 70% plan to work in some capacity during their retirement years. Companies can leverage this tremendous source of experienced human capital. Mature, older workers can be positioned as mentors or assigned to cross-generational teams so that workers of all ages can learn from and appreciate each other.
Faced with the expected wave of retiring baby boom employees, organizations are looking to entice retirees and seniors back into their organizations as employees or as consultants. Several new websites have emerged to address these organizational needs. The websites are: yourencore.com, seniors4hire.org, enrge.us and seniorjobbank.com.
Germany stands first in quiet low unemployment and it is still trying towards full employment next followed by France stands second in world countries . Due to the low unemployment, companies in these countries are facing hard situation in finding experienced and talented employees to attract in to their companies. Hence, the companies are planning to raise the payment of incentives to their employees with postponement of retirement age to retain the employees and also induce women workforce to maintain the required level of workforce.
Facts
80 is the new 65 when it comes to retirement
CHICAGO - When it comes to retirement, many middle class Americans said 80 is the new 65 and plan to delay retirement because of worries over money, according to a new survey.
Three-fourths of those surveyed said they expect to work in their retirement years. One quarter said they will "need to work until at least age 80" to live comfortably in retirement.
Of Americans who will work in retirement, "47% said that they are going to continue in the same job or a similar job of similar responsibility," Joe Ready, Well Fargo's director of institutional retirement and trust, told Reuters Insider.
"That raises a lot of social and economic implications. Will they have the physical ability to work, the mental capacity? What does that mean for the younger work force in terms of coming through and looking to get ahead?"
Three-fourths of Americans said it is more important to have a specific amount saved before retirement, regardless of age, while only 20% said it is more important to retire at a specific age regardless of savings.
"For several years now, we've seen that Americans are undersaving for retirement and a majority do not trust the stock market as a place to invest for retirement," Ready said.
"We did find a bright spot among middle class Americans — more than three-quarters do not want to retire with mortgage debt. This is an important goal, particularly for younger Americans," said Laurie Nordquist, director of Wells Fargo institutional retirement and trust.
Eighty-six percent of respondents said it's important to own their home debt-free by retirement.
Severance packages (Compensation that an employer gives to someone who is about to lose his or her job.)are most typically offered for employees who are laid off or retire. Severance pay was instituted to help protect the newly unemployed. Sometimes, they may be offered for people who resign, regardless of the circumstances; or are fired. More >
Facts
There is no legal requirement in the U.S. to provide severance pay to terminated employees. Many employers routinely give severance packages to employees in order to bridge the gap between one job and the next and to hedge themselves against lawsuits. On average, severance-paying organizations provide terminated employees between one and two weeks pay for each year of service.
Severance contracts often stipulate that the employee will not sue the employer for wrongful dismissal or attempt to collect on unemployment benefits, and that if the employee does so, then they must return the severance money. More >>

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[ 5 ]

Severance Pay

Severance pay is authorized for full-time and part-time employees who are involuntarily separated from Federal service and who meet other conditions of eligibility.
severance pay is the compensation or benefit paid in the form of money by employer at the time of resignation on mutual agreement, retirement, laid off or employee leaving the company on any reason expect on dismissal by misconduct.Typically, severance pay amounts to a week or two of pay for every year that the employee was with the company. Executives may receive a month's pay for each year of service and senior executives generally receive severance pay as outlined in the employment contract. In addition to pay, severance packages can include extended benefits, such as health insurance and outplacement assistance to help the employee secure a new position.
Severance pay amounts may have peaked in 1999 when employers were giving laid off workers an average of twenty-four weeks of pay, according to a study by finance publisher Kiplinger. The study observed that the decline was a result of employees changing jobs more frequently than in previous years, since severance pay is based on the length of employment.
The Severance package may include the following:
1. The employees remaining regular pay
2. An additional payment based on months of service
3. Payment for unused vacation or sick leave
4. A payment in lieu of a required notice period
5. Medical, dental or life insurance - Some employers offer a continuation of insurance benefits but they would not foot the paying of the bills
6. Retirement benefits
7. Stock options
8. Unemployment benefits - Fired employees can claim unemployment benefits if they were fired for reasons other than serious misconduct.
Facts:
Dell India has laid off around 70 people in the Dell software group (DSG) that was set up some nine months ago in Bengaluru. DSG, which has nearly 110 people in India spread across Bengaluru and Hyderabad, was expected to become a 400-500 people strong unit in Bengaluru, but the plans were drastically scaled back following Dell's $67 billion acquisition of EMC. It's not clear if the unit became redundant following the EMC acquisition or whether Dell's business priorities changed after that expensive acquisition.
The company offered a three month severance package to the affected employees. Company executives told the employees that the layoffs were due to a "strategic decision".
TNN | Mar 3, 2016, 02.45 AM IST
A severance package's worth varies from company to company, as well as from employee to employee. Employers may consider the following circumstances when determining how much severance to offer:
• Pay level/salary received prior to termination
• Duration of employment
• Position at company
• Performance
• And other pertinent factors
It is important to remember that although you may feel like you deserve severance, employers are not required to provide one in the event of a layoff.
Facts
May 2012 Google Inc acquired (buyout) Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, following this in August 2012 Google Inc cut 4000 jobs in the United States due to drop in its profits due to drop in sales and announced severance package costs about $275 million for the retrenched employees . Google stated that his decision was taken to minimise its costs and make business profitable in future.

Eligibility for Severance Pay

To be eligible for severance pay, an employee must be serving under a qualifying appointment, have a regularly scheduled tour of duty, have completed at least 12 months of continuous service, and be removed from Federal service by involuntary separation for reasons other than inefficiency (i.e., unacceptable performance or conduct).
Computation of Severance Pay Fund
An employee's severance pay fund may consist of two parts-the basic severance pay allowance and an age adjustment allowance, if applicable.
Basic severance pay allowance
The basic severance pay allowance consists of-
One week of pay at the rate of basic pay for the position held by the employee at the time of separation for each full year of creditable service through 10 years;
Two weeks of pay at the rate of basic pay for the position held by the employee at the time of separation for each full year of creditable service beyond 10 years; and
Twenty-five percent of the otherwise applicable amount for each full 3 months of creditable service beyond the final full year.

Age Adjustment Allowance

The basic severance pay allowance is augmented by an age adjustment allowance consisting of 2.5 percent of the basic severance pay allowance for each full 3 months of age over 40 years.
Thus, any severance pay you may have received in the past is taken into account when applying the limit. Severance payments will be equal to your weekly pay at the time of separation and will be paid out at regular pay period intervals (usually biweekly) until the severance pay is exhausted. The only deductions made from severance pay are taxes, social security (if applicable), and Medicare.
Facts
Potential new-hires are increasingly negotiating severance packages and outplacement assistance as a condition for accepting job offers, according to a USA Today article. Executives are likely to negotiate these employment terms but the practice is spreading down through the ranks. Career experts agree that this form of negotiation was once considered bad form but is now generally accepted.

"There is no law which compel to pay severance pay"

There is no legal requirement in the U.S.A to provide severance pay to terminated employees. Many employers routinely give severance packages to employees in order to bridge the gap between one job and the next and to hedge themselves against lawsuits. On average, severance-paying organizations provide terminated employees between one and two weeks pay for each year of service.
Employers are not legally required to give severance pay to fired employees. However, they may do so only under two circumstances:
o Some states require employers to give a small severance pay when they close down a facility or laying off a large number of employees
o An employer is legally required to give severance pay if workers are led to believe they would be paid when they leave employment. This is evidenced by:
• A written contract stating the severance would be paid
• A promise that employees will receive severance pay
• A history of the company giving severance pay to other employees in the same position
• An oral promise to the employees that severance will be paid
Some employers routinely give severance packages to long-serving employees who were fired for reasons other than serious misconduct, as a way of softening the blows of being laid-off.
Employers with formal severance policies spend less on severance packages than those that do not, according to a study by Right Management Consultants Inc. Companies with informal policies tend to incur higher administrative and severance costs associated with the packages due to policy decisions that are made on a case-by-case basis, often resulting in more generous packages.
In INDIA there is a law which compel to pay gratuity to terminated employee.
Not in the name of severance pay, unlike United States and other countries, There are certain labour laws in India compel for payment of certain an amount for retrenched or terminated employee from the employment by his employer.
In India there is a law (Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972) for payment of an amount to an employee who is having minimum of five years of continuous service in concern organisation get terminated by his employer. According to section 4 of Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, the gratuity is to be calculated at the rate of 15 days salary last drawn by an concerned employee who is having minimum five years of continuous service in concern organisation. For this purpose, in the case of Lalappa Lingappa v. Laxmi Vishnu Textile Mills (All India Reporter 1981 Supreme Court 852), it was held that the interrupted service by reason of sickness, leave, Lay-off, strike, lockout or cessation of work not due to any fault of employee should not be regarded as a break in continuity of service. Payment of gratuity is not applicable to employee who has been dismissed from the service for the reason of indiscipline or misconduct.
In the case of Babu Ram V. Phoenix Mills (1999 (1) labour law Journal 2 58), the court held that there was a service of petitioner has been terminated by dismissal, it cannot be said that he was in continuous service from the date of employment will the date of superannuation.
In INDIA there is a law which compel to pay retrenchment compensation to retrenched employee.
In India there is a law ( Industrial Dispute Act, 1947 ) compels for payment of retrenchment compensation to retrenched employees .according to section 25F(b). The retrenchment compensation shall be 15 days of last drawn salary multiplied with number of years of service completed by an employee in the concerned organisation. Honorable Supreme Court of India held that retrenchment compensation is intended to give relief for sudden and unexpected elimination of employment.
The compensation to the employee has been eliminated retrenched but not dismissed, such employee he's having the right to claim an amount in the form of compensation or gratuity under above mentioned labour laws. This sort of compensation or gratuity may be treated as Severance Pay in India. In fact, many of the employees or not aware of these labour laws which gives them the right to claim an amount for the retrenchment or termination but not dismissal due to misconduct or indiscipline.

Severance Package as Goodwill to Employees

Many companies offer severance package as a sign of goodwill to former employees. A good severance package says a great deal about the humanity of a business manager. It may be designed in such a way that the size and the financial capacity of a business company are also considered. The severance package need not be elaborate; it just has to be an honest gesture on the part of the employer.
Having a good severance package to offer a departing employee creates a lasting impression of understanding and goodwill.
A severance agreement is a contract, or legal agreement, between an employer and an employee that specifies the terms of an employment termination, such as a layoff. Sometimes this agreement is called a "separation" or "termination" agreement or "separation agreement general release and covenant not to sue." Like any contract, a severance agreement must be supported by "consideration." Consideration is something of value to which a person is not already entitled that is given in exchange for an agreement to do, or refrain from doing, something.
Severance contracts often stipulate that the employee will not sue the employer for wrongful dismissal or attempt to collect on unemployment benefits, and that if the employee does so, then they must return the severance money.
Severance agreements are more than just a "thank you" payment from an employer. They could prevent an employee from working for a competitor and waive any right to possibly pursue a legal claim against the former employer. Also, an employee may be giving up the right to seek unemployment compensation. It is important to review a severance agreement carefully and contact an employment attorney to assist with the review.
If you were promised a certain amount of severance by your former employer and you have not seen that money or have only seen a portion of it, your employer has violated a contract and you can sue for that money and breech of contract.
While severance is not the same as an actual wage-as you did not actually work for that sum of money-the fact that you entered into a contract stating that a certain amount of severance pay would be granted is enough to justify a lawsuit.

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[ 6 ]

Promotions of Employee

In simpler terms, promotion refers to upward movement in present job leading to greater responsibilities, higher status and better salary. Promotion may be temporary or permanent depending upon the organizational requirement. According to Clothier and Spriegel,
“promotion is the transfer of an employee to a job which pays more money or one that carries some preferred status.”
In the corporate sector employee promotions doesn't make much difference as that of in government sector. In the government the word promotion is the ultimate desire for an employee for the service rendered by him in the organisation and this is the only way for an employee career development in the government sector. Promotion is the ultimate motivating factor for any employee because moves employee forward in hierarchy of concern organisation added with additional responsibility, higher respect, honour, with increase in grade pay and allowances.
In countries like India, employee promotions are withhold by employers if any enquiry is pending on concerned employee due to his disobedience of duties or misuse of his powers especially in government departments. Until clearance of enquiry pending before COMPETENT AUTHORITY on concerned employee promotion will not be given. It is the responsibility of employee on whom enquiries pending should prove his innocence before concerned competent authority.
Employers should not show any discrimination between men and women with regard to promotion according to section 5 of Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.

Purpose and Advantages of Promotion

Promotion stimulates self-development and creates interest in the job. According to Yoder, “promotion provides incentive to initiative, enterprise and ambition; minimizes discontent and unrest; attracts capable individuals; necessitates logical training for advancement and forms an effective reward for loyalty and cooperation, long service etc.” The purposes and advantages of promotions are to:
• recognize employee’s performance and commitment and
motivate him towards better performance;
• develop competitive spirit among employees for acquiring knowledge and skills for higher level jobs;
• retain skilled and talented employees;
• reduce discontent and unrest;
• To fill up job's vacant position that is created due to retirement, resignation or demise of an employee.In this case next senior employee will be promoted to the vacant job.
• utilize more effectively the knowledge and skills of employees; and
• attract suitable and competent employees.
Favouring family members leads to employee disengagement: Study
In a study conducted by TJinsite, research and knowledge arm of TimesJobs.com, a large proportion of employees expressed that competency should be the most important criteria for employment or promotion. And, they feel disengaged when relatives are given a key position or promotion, bypassing talented employees. The study highlighted that nepotism policies -favoritism towards family members- degrade level of commitment, loyalty and the sense of ownership amongst employees and leads to higher attrition rate.
"Nepotism is most commonly seen in family run businesses. And, family run businesses (FRBs) constitute most businesses in India. While favouring family members is very common in family businesses, it runs the dual risks of demoralising non-family members and increasing complacency among family members. The after effects of favouring family members for a senior level position on the existing employees are severe

Types of Promotions

Different types of promotions are discussed below.
a) Up or Out Promotion: In this case, an employee either earns a promotion or seeks employment elsewhere. Out promotion usually leads to termination of employee and joining some other organization in a better position.
b) Dry Promotion: In this type, promotion is given in lieu of increase in salary. For example, when an university professor is made Head of the Department, there is no increase in salary.
c) Paper promotion: Paper promotion happens on seniority of employee in government sector having different departments. Paper promotion is an employee promotion given to the employee belonging to the parent department, but indeed working in another department on transfer, on request of employee or due to exigency of work. Paper promoted employee draws salary pertaining to job in another Department, but not according to promotion’s job in the parent Department.
The reason for giving paper promotion is, generally in government sector, employee promotion will be given in order of seniority of employees subjected to the vacancy position created. Whoever is most senior employee amongst all employees in the same cader, out of them top senior employee will be given promotion. When a top senior is working in another Department, in such cases to fill up the vacancy position, promotion on paper will be given to such employee, because he’s not occupying job in the parent Department. Subsequently promotion will be given to the next top senior who is working in the parent Department. Paper promoted employee draws salary pertaining to the job of another Department only but not according to the job, which got paper promoted in the parent Department.
The main objective of a promotion is to protect the right, seniority of an employee and reserve his/her promotion seat in the parent department when an employee reverts to his/her parent department.
Facts
Morning Star is a tomato processing company based in California, with revenues of $700 million and over 400 employees. These unremarkable facts would not qualify for a cover story in Harvard Business Review by management guru Gary Hamel (December 2011). What makes the company remarkable is that it has no bosses, titles or promotions. Can companies be managed without bosses, titles or promotions? More >
The Domino's Pizza chain focused on its store managers to reduce worker turnover from a staggering 158% down to 107%, according to a StartupJournal.com article. To accomplish this, Domino's HR department deployed a store manager strategy of hiring more selectively, coaching them on how to create better workplaces, and motivating them with the promise of stock options and promotions.

Promotion Program and Procedure

Every organization should make advance plans for promotion programme. A carefully planned promotion programme has four elements:
a) formulation of promotion policy,
b) identification of promotion channels,
c) promotion appraisal, and
d) centralized records. We shall discuss each element in detail.
a) Formulation of Promotion Policy:
Each organization needs to maintain a balance between the internal sources of personnel promotion and external sources by means of recruitment. Hence, promotion must be based on consistent, fair and clear cut policy. The National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) has suggested a promotion policy on the following lines:
• Encouragement of promotion within the organization instead of looking outside to fill vacancies in higher places.
• An understanding that ability as well as seniority will be taken into account in making promotions. Ability, efficiency, attitude, job performance, physical fitness, leadership, experience, and length of service are some of the factors considered in making promotions.
• Drawing up an organization chart to make clear to all the ladder of promotion. Where there is a job analysis and a planned wage policy, such chart is quite easy to prepare.
• Making the promotion system clear to all concerned who may initiate and handle cases of promotion. Though departmental heads may initiate promotion, the final approval must lie with the top management, after the personnel department has been asked to check from its knowledge whether any repercussion is likely to result from the proposed promotion.
• All promotions should be for a trial period to ascertain whether the promoted person is found capable of handling the job or not. Normally, during this trial period, he draws the pay of the higher post, but it should be clearly understood that if “he does not make the grade” he will be reverted to his former post and former pay scale.
b) Promotion Channels:
Promotion channels should be identified and recorded on paper. This process is related with job analysis and career planning of an organization.
c) Promotion Appraisals:
The promotion of an employee is entirely dependent upon his/her performance appraisal outcome.
d) Centralised Records:
The education, experience, skills, abilities and evaluation of all employees should be recorded and maintained in a centralised manner by the department of the organization, because basing on these attributes, promotion is given to an employee.

Bases of Promotion

Promotion is given on the basis of seniority or merit or a combination of both. Let us discuss each one as a basis of promotion.
Seniority as a basis: It implies relative length of service in the same organization. The advantages of this are: relatively easy to measure, simple to understand and operate, reduces labour turnover and provides sense of satisfaction to senior employees. It has also certain disadvantages: beyond a certain age a person may not learn, performance and potential of an employee is not recognized, it kills ambition and zeal to improve performance.
Merit as a basis: Merit implies the knowledge, skills and performance record of an employee. The advantages are: motivates competent employees to work hard, helps to maintain efficiency by recognizing talent and performance. It also suffers from certain disadvantages like: difficulty in judging merit, merit indicates past achievement, may not denote future potential and old employees feel insecure.
Employees who reach office early more likely to get promoted
LONDON: Want to bag a promotion at work? Reach office early!
Employees who arrive at work earliest are most likely to get a pay rise, regardless of their performance and total time worked, according to a new study. Researchers also found that those who turn up late and leave the office last are more likely to be overlooked for promotions.
"We think it's a cultural thing. Those who turn up early are thought of as hard workers, while if you turn up later, you're perceived as lazy," said Kai Chi Yam, who led the research at the University of Washington.
Researchers surveyed 149 pairs of employees and managers about when each arrived at work and how the manager rated the employee's conscientiousness and performance.
People who started later were rated worse, particularly when their managers were early risers. There was no evidence that people who went home early were seen as less productive.In a second experiment, students took the role of a manager in a fictional scenario to rate staff performance.
They were told that the employees' performances were identical but their start times varied. Late start times led to lower ratings, even though productivity and total hours were the same.
The study is to be published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
INDIA: Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) employees approached Andhra Pradesh High Court on the irregularities in their promotions. Aggrieved employees allege that their promotions are not being done in accordance with prescribed regulations, which prescribes merit, suitability and seniority of employee should be considered while promotions. In response to this, the honourable High Court of Andhra Pradesh issued interim stay on the promotion of employees.
The economic Times, 22-dec-12
Seniority-cum-Merit as basis: As both seniority and merit as basis suffer from certain limitations, therefore, a sound promotion policy should be based on a combination of both seniority and merit. A proper balance between the two can be maintained by different ways: minimum length of service may be prescribed, relative weightage may be assigned to seniority and merit and employees with a minimum performance record and qualifications are treated eligible for promotion, seniority is used to choose from the eligible candidates.
Facts
Employees have no "vested" right to promotion
Feb, 2012, NEW DELHI (India): The Delhi High Court said though employees have no "vested" right to promotion but they should not be deprived of it "arbitrarily" and without any reasonable ground by their employers.
"It is true that no employee has a vested right for promotion but respondents (employer) cannot act arbitrarily and without any reasonable excuse defer the meeting of Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) and thereby deprive the employee of his legitimate expectations for being considered for promotion to a post if he is eligible for being promoted," a bench of justices B D Ahmed and V K Jain said.
March, 2012: In the other case women officers recruited in short service commission of Indian Air Force, filed a petition in the Delhi High Court for making them eligible for promotion and permanent job. The High Court issued orders to Indian Air Force in favour of women officers to make there jobs permanent and promote them to the higher rank with all consequential financial benefits .

Demotion

Demotion refers to the lowering down of the status, salary and responsibilites of an employee. Demotion is used as a disciplinary measure in an organization. The habitual patterns of behaviour such as violation of the rules and conduct, poor attendance record, insubordination where the individuals are demoted. Beach (1975) defines demotion as “the assignment of an individual to a job of lower rank and pay usually involving lower level of difficulty and responsibility”.
Causes of Demotion
Demotion may be caused by any of these factors:
• Adverse business conditions: Employees may be demoted because of recession faced by company.
• Incompetency of the employee: It happens when an employee finds it difficult to meet the required standard.
• Technological changes: When employee is unable to adjust with any technological change made by the company.
• Disciplinary measure.
Yoder, Heneman, Turnbull and Stone (1958) have suggested a fivefold policy with regard to demotion practice.
• A clear and reasonable list of rules should be framed, violations of which would subject an employee to demotion;
• This information should be clearly communicated to employees;
• There should be a competent investigation of any alleged violation;
• If violations are discovered, there should be a consistent and equitable application of the penalty, preferably by the immediate supervisor;
• There should be a provision for review. (In a unionised case, this will be automatic via the grievance procedure; in a non-unionised case, the employer will need to make other provisions for review).

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[ 7 ]

Employee Transfers

A transfer is a horizontal or lateral movement of an employee from one job, section, department, shift, plant or position to another at the same or another place where his salary, status and responsibility are the same.
Yoder and others (1958) define transfer as “a lateral shift causing movement of individuals from one position to another usually without involving marked change in duties, responsibilities, skills needed or compensation”. Transfer may be initiated either by the company or the employee. It also can be temporary or permanent.
Transfers are generally affected to build up a more satisfactory work team and to achieve the following purposes;
1. To increase the effectiveness of the organization.
2. To increase versatility and competence of key positions.
3. To deal with fluctuations in work requirements.
4. To correct incompatibilities in employee relations.
5. To correct erroneous placement.
6. To relieve monotony.
7. To adjust workforce.
8. To punish employees. (Generally in government organisations, employees who commits mistakes or malfeasance will be treated with transfer to other place where he cannot act according to his wish or misuse his job position. )

Reasons for employee transfers:

1. To avoid favoritism and nepotism.
2. To avoid gaining capacity of influencing and egocentrism.
3. To avoid monotony in the work of an employee.
4. Makes an employee accountable to his seat, so as not to find mistake by his successor.
5. So as to avoid excess dependency on particular employee, otherwise may affect the purpose of hierarchy and lose control over subordinates.
6. To create transparency among the employees and their work.
7. It limits taking advantage and sole control over the seat or section.
8. To avoid unnecessary influence on others for their own advantage.
9. To make conversant of different seats work.
10. To maintain healthy relationship in between all the staff members to retain harmonious environment to avoid unnecessary disputes.

Importance of employee transfers

Transfer of employees is must and essential in an organisation for the purpose of minimising politics between employees, to ensure cordial relationship between employees, to increase transparency in work, to obviate syndicate of employees for unethical purpose and to obviate nepotism in organisation.
Employee transfers is considerable, as most essential when a position of employee is a top-level in hierarchy. Especially in the governmental organisations employees holding top-level positions are affected with frequent transfers for the reason, to obviate nepotism into increase transparency in the work. Organisations having no transfers for their employees may create their own informal groups for their common interest and their own benefit. Subsequently, this may leads to secrecy in the flow of work, eventually, no transparency in work. Employee transfers less organisation may definitely see organisational politics among employees, that which leads to fall in coordination in between employees, eventually may lead to drop in overall organisational performance.

Drawbacks from employee transfers

Inauguration point of view, transfer of employees will definitely benefit organisation and also keeps away disturbances and misunderstandings in between employees. However, there are a few drawbacks out of employee transfers that effect individuals or employees. Below listed are a few drawbacks due to employee transfers.
• Employees who are having attachment with the organisation and their morale maybe disturbed due to transfer to some other location.
• Family members of employee who got transferred maybe psychologically disturbed because they have to shift their entire family to new location for which it may take time to get accustomed to new place.
• Definitely, employee transfer will financially cost to him by way of shifting of his households and furniture in transportation.
• In case of your employees, employee transfer may lead to resignation for the reason he may not willing to leave current location if that location is his native place.
Types of Transfers
Employee transfers may be classified as below.
a) Production transfers: Such transfers are made to meet the company requirements. The surplus employees in one department/section who are efficient might be absorbed in other place where there is a requirement. Such transfers help to stabilise employment.
b) Replacement transfers: This takes place to replace a new employee who has been in the organization for a long time and thereby giving some relief to an old employee from the heavy pressure of work.
c) Versality transfers: It is also known as rotation. It is made to develop all round employees by moving them from one job to another. It also helps to reduce boredom and monotony.
d) Personnel or remedial transfers: Such a transfer is made to rectify mistakes in selection and placement. As a follow up, the wrongly placed employee is transferred to a more suitable job.
e) Shift transfers: This is pretty common where there is more than one shift and when there is regularised rotation.
Facts
Ericsson lays off 22 executives in India,
Feb, 2012. The Indian arm of the world's largest telecoms gearmaker, Ericsson, is trimming and redeploying staff as it faces lukewarm operator spends in a fiercely competitive market.
Nearly 22 executives across categories have been fired on performance grounds and another 100 are likely to be transferred to sister organisations like Ericsson India Global Services, Ericsson Supply Site Jaipur, R&D centres and the regional technical centres (RTCs) to boost efficiencies, a top company executive aware of the development .
Transfer Policy
Every organization should have a fair and impartial transfer policy which should be known to each employee. The responsibility for effecting transfers is usually entrusted to an executive with power to prescribe the conditions under which requests for transfers are approved. Care should be taken to ensure that frequent or large-scale transfers are avoided by laying down adequate selection and placement procedures for the purpose. A good transfer policy should:
1. Specifically clarify the types of transfers and the conditions under which these will be made;
2. Locate the authority in some officer who may initiate and implement transfers;
3. Indicate whether transfers can be made only within a sub-unit or also between departments, divisions/plants;
4. Indicate the basis for transfer, i.e., whether it will be based on seniority or on skill and competence or any other factor;
5. Decide the rate of pay to be given to the transferee;
6. Intimate the fact of transfer to the person concerned well in advance;
7. Be in writing and duly communicated to all concerned;
8. Not be made frequently and not for the sake of transfer only.

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[ 8 ]

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)

In 1990s, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility underwent a change with the advent of new economic order. The definition by The World Business Council for Sustainable Development brings out the tact that CSR is "The continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large."
Thus in the present scenario, there has been a movement from reactive postures to proactive, but unilateral boundary spanning functions to interactive engagements with the stakeholders.
There has also been an important shift towards a more systematic understanding of the relationships that exist between the organizations and their stakeholders in the society.

Why should corporates have social responsibility?

The reason is that corporates have immense resources and tremendous potential to impact their surrounding through the policies and their business conduct.
Every decision of corporates from extraction of raw materials to employment of labour, from sale of a product to a policy decision of starting business in an area and that of winding up has the potential to tremendously impact lives of thousands of people directly or indirectly.
Therefore there is a need to hold them accountable as their nature and scale causes innumerable risk to the society
-Sri Justice Madan Lokur of the Supreme Court said

Definition:

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is typically described as self-regulation that is part of a corporation's business model and strategic plan. In a perfect world, CSR means that a business monitors itself to make sure it adheres to legal, ethical, environmental, and international standards across its operations.
Corporate Social Responsibility is titled to aid an organization's mission as well as a guide to what the company stands for and will uphold to its consumers. Development business ethics is one of the forms of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. ISO 26000 is the recognized international standard for Corporate Social Responsibility(currently a Draft International Standard).
The concept of business responsibility has moved from the narrow concept of maximizing the shareholder's return to a broader concept where corporate social responsibility is embedded in the very practices involved in doing the business.
India`s new Companies Act 2013 (Companies Act) has introduced several new provisions which change the face of Indian corporate business" Companies Act 2013 (Companies Act) has introduced several new provisions which change the face of Indian corporate business. One of such new provisions is Corporate Social Responsibility . The concept of CSR rests on the ideology of give and take. Companies take resources in the form of raw materials, human resources etc from the society. By performing the task of CSR activities, the companies are giving something back to the society.
Ministry of Corporate Affairs has recently notified Section 135 and Schedule VII of the Companies Act as well as the provisions of the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014 (Corporate Social Responsibility Rules) which has come into effect from 1 April 2014
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Applicability:

Section 135 of the Companies Act provides Every company having net worth of rupees five hundred crore or more, or turnover of rupees one thousand crore or more or a net profit of rupees five crore or more during any financial year shall constitute a Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the Board consisting of three or more directors, out of which at least one director shall be an independent director. The Board of every company shall ensure that the company spends, in every financial year, at least 2% of the average net profits of the company made during the three immediately preceding financial years, in pursuance of its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy.
Provided that the company shall give preference to the local area and areas around it where it operates, for spending the amount earmarked for Corporate Social Responsibility activities.Provided further that if the company fails to spend such amount, the Board shall, in its report , specify the reasons for not pending the amount.
Further as per the Corporate Social Responsibility Rules, the provisions of Corporate Social Responsibility are not only applicable to Indian companies, but also applicable to branch and project offices of a foreign company in India.
Penalty can be imposed for non-disclosure of CSR as per the Companies Act 2013.
Corporate Social Responsibility: 4,195 companies spend nothing; show cause notices to 496 firms
Government has issued show cause notices to 496 companies for not complying with CSR norms while about 4,195 companies have not spent a single penny on corporate social responsibility activities, Parliament was informed. The reasons for not spending included companies not finding suitable implementing agency, delay in formation of CSR committee and inability to formulate a well conceived CSR policy.
Under the Companies Act, 2013, certain classes of profitable entities are required to shell out at least 2 per cent of three-year annual average net profit towards CSR activities. They have to provide reasons for not spending on such projects.Companies having a turnover of at least Rs 1,000 crore, minimum net worth of Rs 500 crore and those having net profit of Rs 5 crore or more in a financial year are required to comply with the CSR norms.
An assessment of CSR expenditure of 7,334 companies for 2014-15 indicates that 4,195 companies did not incur any expenditure on CSR, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. Besides, show cause notices have been issued by Registrar of Companies to 496 companies for non-compliance with the CSR norms.
Collectively, 3,139 companies have spent a total of Rs 8,803 crore on several CSR initiatives. Most of the funds have been spent on health care projects, environment and animal welfare, education and rural development activities.
By PTI | Updated: Nov 22, 2016, 03.39 PM IST
Some activities under Corporate Social Responsibility includes:
• Promotions of Education,“Educating the Masses and Promotion of Road Safety awareness in all facets of road usage,
• Drivers’ training,
• Training to enforcement personnel,
• Safety traffic engineering and awareness through print,audio and visual media should be included,
Child mortality,
Improving maternal health,
Promotion of gender equality
Social Business Projects:
“giving medical and Legal aid,treatment to road accident
CSR initiatives for the benefit of the predominately rural farming community:
(a) Capacity building for farmers covering best sustainable farm management practices.
(b) Training Agriculture Labour on skill development.
(c) Doing our own research on the field for individual crops to find out the most cost optimum and Agri - ecological sustainable farm practices.
Providing effective consumer grievance redressal mechanism.
• Protecting consumer’s health and safety, sustainable consumption, consumer service, support and complaint resolution.
• Consumer Protection Activities
• Consumer Rights to be mandated.
• all consumer protection programmes and activities” on the same line as Rural Development, Education etc.
Donations to IIM (A) for conservation of buildings and renovation of classrooms would qualify as “promoting education” and hence eligible for compliance of companies with Corporate Social Responsibility.
Donations to IIMA for conservation of buildings and renovation of classrooms would qualify as “protection of national heritage, art and culture, including restoration of buildings and sites of historical importance” and hence eligible for compliance of companies with CSR.
Disaster Relief
• medical aid can be covered under ‘promoting health care including preventive health care.’
• food supply can be covered under eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition.
• supply of clean water can be covered under ‘sanitation and making available safe drinking water’
Enabling access to, or improving the delivery of, public health systems be considered under the head “preventive healthcare” or measures for reducing inequalities faced by socially & economically backward groups”?
Renewable energy projects
Contribution towards the Prime Minister's relief fund
Facts
A total of 920 companies listed on NSE spent a total of Rs 8,345 crore towards CSR activities in 2015-16, higher than 895 companies that collectively spent Rs 6,526 crore in the preceding fiscal.
A business is untrue to its social responsibilities if it concerns itself only with producing goods and services which the customers want and generating profits needed to form the capital for tomorrow's risk, investment and growth. It can be assumed that business enterprises are independent of each other and taken as a whole are dependent on the society from which they draw their resources and supply products and services.
The traditional way of looking at business was to produce a product or provide a service and to make a profit at any cost and by any means. Maximization of profit was the only guiding force. There was one and only one responsibility of business and that was to use its resources and engage its activities to increase its profits. The basic responsibility was to produce wealth for its own survival.
Bowen's book Social Responsibilities of the Businessman in 1953 is the beginning of modem period of literature about corporate social responsibility. Bowen defines Corporate Social Responsibility as "The obligation of businessmen to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those lines of action which are desirable in terms of objective and values of our society"
(Bowen 1953, p.6). Bowen's definition emphasizes the values and objectives of the society. He further discusses saying that Corporate Social Responsibility rests on two fundamental premises. Firstly as a form of social contracting, it exists at the pleasure of the society. Secondly it acts as a moral agent within the society. These two ideas provided the basic premises about the evolution of the thinking about Corporate Social Responsibility.
BUSINESS WITH ETHICS
Some CSR initiatives that any SME can strive to achieve include simply conducting its business in an ethical manner; paying all taxes and duties, providing a healthy working environment, adhering to basic social security regulations such as minimum wages, ESI, (The Employee State Insurance) PF, etc, shunning cash-based transactions, and avoiding corrupt practices to solicit business — each of these will contribute to a much more equitable society than what we have currently inherited. SMEs are the bulwark of the economy, accounting for more than 45 per cent of industrial output, and more than 40 per cent of India's exports. A widespread adoption of ethical business practices among SMEs can have far-reaching implications for the country.

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[ 9 ]

Internalizing CSR: Initiatives of HRM

The role of HR function in embedding the CSR values in the corporate culture is immense and has been underlined also. An organization can exhibit a better image in the minds of people by presenting itself as an excellent employer which cares for its people and involves them in the ambit of social responsibility. This involvement of employees indicates the strategic importance of HRM in the CSR initiatives of an organization. Human Resource policies, forming the framework for the culture in the business management, create awareness towards the need to achieve the business goals in the best possible and ethical manner (Agrawal, 2007). With the help of HR functions, the socially responsible values can be inculcated and sustained in the organizational culture through the following ways:
• The HR department should take the responsibility to develop a formal policy on sustainable practices involving employees. British gas, for example, used employee volunteering as a vehicle to achieve business-driven culture. The success of the initiative led to the development of a formal policy on employee volunteering. The company developed the ‘Cardiff Cares’ volunteering initiative with the purpose of encouraging employees to raise funds and donate some of their time to the local community (Redington, 2005). Employee fundraising was a way to show support for the local community, to build positive team spirit in the organization and to create a ‘winning’ environment at the workplace. The managing director and the HR team’s strong commitment enabled the initiative to be a big success improving the employee retention levels and employee satisfaction.
The orientation programme of newly recruited candidates should be designed in a manner that corporate philosophy about CSR gets highlighted. The commitment of top management towards CSR is very important which should be expressed in tangible terms to reinforce the right kind of behavior in the organization. Wipro, for example, inculcates CSR values amongst its workforce right at the beginning during the induction process. Corporate presentations, keeping employees updated through mails, regular newsletters are the instruments used to keep employees energized about the organization’s socially responsible initiatives.
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The designing of Performance Management System should be done in such a manner that it measures the socially responsible initiatives taken by employees.
This becomes important as the internalization of CSR in an organizational culture requires that appropriate behaviors get appraised, appreciated as well as rewarded. Otherwise, the organization might fail to inculcate it amongst all employees due to lack of positive reinforcement.
• The Training facilities may also be made available to instill the CSR culture among employees. This becomes necessary to make employees learn and practice CSR activities. The training of employees through “CSR Living Our Values Learning Tool” at Cadbury Schweppes (Young, 2006), the major global beverage and confectionary organization, has been a good example of partnership between HR and CSR. The company has also included social responsibility in the latest management development initiatives like the global “Passion for People” management skills programme.
• Empowerment of managers by giving them decision-making authority shall help in executing social responsibility at local level. It becomes important when an organization with plants or units at multiple locations around the world operate. Armed with decision making authority, the managers will be able to appreciate and assess the needs. Therefore, the employees may be appropriately authorized to encourage initiative in the area of social responsibility. Clear reporting and review mechanisms may be put in place in the organization which shall improve the focus and effectiveness of CSR (Mehta, 2003) .
• Code of ethics of an organization can stimulate social responsibility to a great extent reinforcing amongst its employees the underlying values. Training on code of ethics should be undertaken by the organization. Best Buy, a fortune 100 company and the largest specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States and Canada, has initiated ethics training for its employees. Electronic Data Systems (EDS) has a global CSR strategy which is well supported by HR function and the employees (Redington, 2005). The HR department of the company has also developed an e-learning course for its employees built around the Department of Trade and Industry, CSR Competency framework.
• Responsible Human Resource Management practices on equal opportunities, diversity management, whistle blowing, redundancy, human rights, harrasment shall give credibility to the CSR initiatives of the organization. It is beyond doubt that protecting human rights such as denial or prevention of legal or social rights of workers is a very important issue under CSR. Companies like Wipro, Infosys, Dabur, and ICICI have even framed whistle blowing policy, providing protection to the employees who come to know about any unethical practice going on within the organization, covering a whole gamut of subjects and showing their positive approach towards unethical practices.
Facts
The National Whistleblower Center was established in US,1988 to improve environmental protection, nuclear safety, and government and corporate accountability. Its primary goal is to ensure that disclosures about government or industry actions that violate the law or harm the environment are fully heard, and that the people who risk their careers to expose wrongdoing are defended.
The separation of employees during mergers, acquisitions, downsizing etc. should be strategically aligned with the business strategy as well as Corporate Social responsibility. Retraining, retention, redeployment of people can be worked out with aggressive communication, information campaigns and outplacement services in place to assist the transition of people from the organization. Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), for example, provided outplacement services to the employees of its foods division at Bangalore when they were unable to move to Mumbai in 2006. Over 60 firms and 25 placement agencies were contacted by the company to arrange for multiple job interviews for a number of employees
Social Reports or Sustainability Reports should be prepared to underline the organization’s commitment to social or sustainable practices. In India, the top management, in their messages, speeches to shareholders and in annual reports has been resorting to social reporting but it should be made more formal in nature (Bhatia, 2005 & Raman, 2006). Tata Steel Limited, for example, has been preparing Sustainability Reports under the stringent guidelines of Global Reporting Initiatives, 2002 on economic, environment and social performance.
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The Human Resource department should effectively measure and evaluate CSR activities. The value added by CSR in the form of direct results, such as, economic savings and indirect results like increase in employee satisfaction, less employee turnover, measured by staff attitude surveys, shall indicate contribution to improved business performance. There is also a need to conduct periodic review of the CSR activities. CurAlea Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd.

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[ 10 ]

HR’s Role in Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility

The world is a smaller place thanks to the Internet, global trading and new communication and technology advances. More U.S. companies are expanding overseas, and now manage a global workforce that has unique benefits, rules/laws, and different languages and currencies. With this global expansion comes a “responsibility.”
When companies are global, an important challenge in garnering success is to respect other cultures and workforce environments and start forming a global profile or social consciousness. Recognize these differences with a sound Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plan that can simultaneously increase shareholder value, boost employee engagement and increase employer brand recognition.
Human Resource Departments play a critical role in ensuring that the company adopts Corporate Social Responsibility programs. Furthermore, HR can manage the CSR plan implementation and monitor its adoption proactively, while documenting (and celebrating) its success throughout the company. Human Resources technology can help with a Corporate Social Responsibility program, including reducing the company’s carbon footprint to benefit the planet. Start with these areas:
• Implement and encourage green practices.
• Foster a culture of social responsibility.
• Celebrate successes.
• Share and communicate the value of corporate social responsibility to employees and the community.

Implement and Encourage Green Practicesfor Corporate Social Responsibility

Implement green practices to assist in environmental waste reduction, while promoting and encouraging stewardship growth, better corporate ethics and long-lasting practices that promote both personal and corporate accountability. The value inherent in embracing green aspects of corporate responsibility is clearly understood, given the direct impact that rising energy and utility costs has on employees’ pocketbooks. Conservation has become an accepted means of making our planet healthier. Reducing each employee’s carbon footprint is a great way of getting energy conservation and recycling waste initiatives off the ground. Here are suggestions to start:
• Recycle paper, cans and bottles in the office; recognize departmental efforts.
• Collect food and donations for victims of floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters around the globe.
• Encourage reduced energy consumption; subsidize transit passes, make it easy for employees to car pool, encourage staggered staffing to allow after rush hour transit, and permit telecommuting to the degree possible.
• Encourage shutting off lights, computers and printers after work hours and on weekends for further energy reductions.
• Work with IT to switch to laptops over desktop computers. (Laptops consume up to 90% less power.)
• Increase the use of teleconferencing, rather than on-site meetings and trips.
• Promote brown-bagging in the office to help employees reduce fat and calories to live healthier lives and reduce packaging waste, too.

Foster a Culture of Corporate Social Responsibility

Creating a culture of change and responsibility starts with HR. Getting the younger employees, who are already environmentally conscious, excited about fresh Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives is a great way to begin. A committed set of employees who infuse enthusiasm for such programs would enable friendly competition and recognition programs.
Over the past few years, major news organizatrate ions have reported on large, trusted companies that have failed employees, shareholders and the public (i.e. Enron, Lehman, WaMu). These failures created a culture of mistrust in the corporate world. All too often, employees and employers at all levels, who competed for advancement and recognition in harsh workplaces, were forced to accept corporate misconduct and waste as “business as usual.”
Employer brands are being eroded and the once sacred trust that employees had with stable pensions, defined benefits and lifelong jobs, are being replaced with pay for performance and adjustment to new learning goals. In this environment, Corporate Social Responsibility can go a long way in rehabilitating the employer brand with potential new hires and society at large. It can help defeat the image that corporate objectives are rooted in single minded profit at the expense of society and the environment.
Social and community connections that are encouraged by employers give employees permission to involve their companies in meaningful ways with the community. Employers can connect with their employees and the community through:
• Company matches to employee charitable contributions;
• Community programs and volunteer days;
• Corporate sponsorship of community events; and
• Encouraging employees to participate in walkathons, food banks, and so forth.'

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[ 11 ]

Three Key Areas of Corporate Social Responsibility

Focusing on three key areas for Corporate Social Responsibility can help create a cohesive map for the present and future:
• Community Relations,
• Training and Development, and
• A Cohesive Global Corporate Social Responsibility Platform
Encouraging Community Relations through your HR team includes implementing reward programs, charitable contributions and encouraging community involvement and practices. Examples of these programs include sending emails and company newsletters to staff members that highlight employees and managers involved in community relations or creating monthly reward programs to recognize efforts by individuals within the company.
Training and Development programs that explain the connection between the company’s core products or services and the society at large, their value to the local community and ways in which employees can get involved in appropriate CSR projects would sustain and direct these initiatives.
Global Corporate Social Responsibility policy, centrally managed, is important to acknowledge successes and measurements according to accepted standards. Central to measuring and communicating these results is the use of a Web-based Human Resources Information System (HRIS) that is available globally to employees and managers with any Web browser. In order to encourage and maintain a clear and cohesive global workplace, it is critical for the entire global workforce of a company to be on a single, multi-functioning HR platform, which allows for distributing a sound corporate responsibility plan.
Having a global HR solution that offers companies flexibility, ease of use and the right mix of tools is essential to the success of both employees and employers alike, as they manage and maintain work-life balance and thrive in a changing environment that includes taking on social responsibility. The success of your Corporate Social Responsibility plan is possible with an HRIS that provides the capability to effectively plan, control and manage your goals, achieve efficiency and quality, and improve employee and manager communications.
The flexibility of your HRIS system is critical to tracking and pursuing a sound Corporate Social Responsibility plan and a Web-based system provides an unparalleled level of both scalability and accessibility to implement your Corporate Social Responsibility plan at a global level. This is an increasingly important endeavor, as companies, societies and people coexist productively and in harmony, across the planet we all inhabit.
CSR in India is several decades old, where large corporate houses have been role models in adopting the local society they depend on for land, labour and some other resources. However, CSR has remained an elusive practice, adopted only by a limited number of large corporates, and is yet to become a mainstream initiative even among large companies. In this context, SMEs (Small and medium enterprises) in India have a key role to play, in bridging the social divide while building a prosperous India.
BUSINESS WITH ETHICS
Some CSR initiatives that any SME can strive to achieve include simply conducting its business in an ethical manner; paying all taxes and duties, providing a healthy working environment, adhering to basic social security regulations such as minimum wages, ESI, (The Employee State Insurance) PF, etc, shunning cash-based transactions, and avoiding corrupt practices to solicit business — each of these will contribute to a much more equitable society than what we have currently inherited. SMEs are the bulwark of the economy, accounting for more than 45 per cent of industrial output, and more than 40 per cent of India's exports. A widespread adoption of ethical business practices among SMEs can have far-reaching implications for the country.

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[ 12 ]

Quality of work life

According to J. Richard and J. Loy, "QWL is the degree to which members of a work organisation are able to satisfy important personal needs through their experiences in the organisation".
While the task force set in 1979 by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) defined QWL as a process of work organisation which enables its members at all levels of to actively participate in shaping the organisation's environments, methods and outcomes. This value based process is aimed towards meeteing the twin goals of enhanced effectiveness of organisation and improved quality of life at work for employees. Quality of work life efforts are systematic efforts made by an organisation to give its employees a greater opportunity to affect the way in which they do their jobs and the contributions they make to the overall effectiveness of their organisation.
Richard E.Walton explains quality of work life in terms of eight broad conditions of employment that constitute desirable quality of work life (QWL). He proposed the same criteria for measuring QWL. Those conditions/criteria include :
1. Adequate and fair compensation.
2. Safe and healthy working condition.
3. Opportunity to use and develop human capacities.
4. Opportunity for career growth.
5. Social integration in the work force.
6. Constitutionalism in the work organisation.
7. Work and quality of life and
8. Special relevance of work.
Work is an integral part of our everyday life, as it is our livelihood or career or business. On an average we spend around twelve hours daily in the work place, that is one third of our entire life; it does influence the overall quality of our life.
It should yield job satisfaction, give peace of mind, a fulfillment of having done a task, as it is expected, without any flaw and having spent the time fruitfully, constructively and purposefully. Even if it is a small step towards our lifetime goal, at the end of the day it gives satisfaction and eagerness to look forward to the next day.
Facts
Work-life balance describes the when, where and how individuals work, leading them to be able to enjoy an optimal quality of life. Work-life balance is achieved when an individual’s right to a fulfilled life inside and outside paid work is accepted and respected as the norm, to the mutual benefit of the individual, business and society.
QWL: ACTIVITIES AND CONCERNS
Walton provides eight conceptual categories for analysing the features of QWL. They are "adequate and fair compensation, safe and healthy working conditions, immediate opportunity to use and develop human capacities, future opportunity for continued growth and security, constitutionalism in ihe work organization, work and the total life space, and the social relevance of work life". The International Labour Office Lists the following areas as concerns of QWL.
• Hours of work and arrangements of working time.
• Work organization and job content.
• Impact of new technologies on working conditions.
• Working conditions of women, young workers, older workers and other special categories.
• Work-related welfare services and facilities.
• Shopfloor participation in the improvement of working conditions.
Nadler and Lawler list the types of QWL activities as participative problem-solving, work restructuring, innovative reward systems and improving the work environment.
Davis and Newstrom could perceive a wide range of QWL activities as open communications, equitable reward systems, a concern for employee-job security, and participation in job designs. According to him, emphasis should be placed on employee skill development, the reduction of occupational stress and the development of more co-operative labour management relations.
Facts
INDIA, 2012: 20-year-old woman had labour pain, she had to give birth to her daughter within a rice mill in Alapakkam village in Madurantagam, 78 km south of Chennai state, where she was working as a bonded worker for five years for a daily salary of Rs 8/- (0.15$) (as against the norms of Rs 113.50 per day under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. Under the bonded labour System (Abolition) Act 1976,a labourer should have the freedom to work anywhere and there should not be any advance payment that would hold him back.).
The owner of the mill did not provide medical help. Deterioration of their health without medical care has forced them along with other 19 employees at the rice mill to revolt against the mill owner. Based on a plea by one of the workers who escaped from the mill a few day's ago, Kancheepuram collector sent a team of revenue officials and doctors to inspect the mill on Thursday. The team rescued 21 people including 11 children.
The factors that influence and decide the Quality of work life are:
1. Attitude
2. Environment
3. Opportunities
4. Nature of Job
5. People
6. Stress Level
7. Career Prospects
8. Challenges
9. Growth and Development
10. Risk Involved and Reward
Attitude: The person who is entrusted with a particular job needs to have sufficient knowledge, required skill and expertise, enough experience, enthusiasm, energy level, willingness to learn new things, dynamism, sense of belongingness in the organization, involvement in the job, inter personnel relations, adaptability to changes in the situation, openness for innovative ideas, competitiveness, zeal, ability to work under pressure, leadership qualities and team-spirit.
Environment: The job may involve dealing with customers who have varied tolerance level, preferences, behavioral pattern, level of understanding; or it may involve working with dangerous machines like drilling pipes, cranes, lathe machines, welding and soldering machines, or even with animals where maximum safety precautions have to be observed which needs lot of concentration, alertness, presence of mind, quick with involuntary actions, synchronization of eyes, hands and body, sometimes high level of patience, tactfulness, empathy and compassion and control over emotions.
Opportunities: Some jobs offer opportunities for learning, research, discovery, self-development, enhancement of skills, room for innovation, public recognition, exploration, celebrity-status and loads and loads of fame. Others are monotonous, repetitive, dull, routine, no room for improvement and in every sense boring. Naturally the former ones are interesting and very much rewarding also.
Nature of Job: For example, a driller in the oil drilling unit, a diver, a fire-fighter, traffic policeman, tram engine driver, construction laborers, welder, miner, lathe mechanic have to do dangerous jobs and have to be more alert in order to avoid any loss of limb, or loss of life which is irreparable; whereas a pilot, doctor, judge, journalist have to be more prudent and tactful in handling the situation; a CEO, a professor, a teacher have more responsibility and accountability but safe working environment; a cashier or a security guard cannot afford to be careless in his job as it involves loss of money, property and wealth; a politician or a public figure cannot afford to be careless, for his reputation and goodwill is at stake. Some jobs need soft skills, leadership qualities, intelligence, decision making abilities, abilities to tram and extract work from others; other jobs need forethought, vision and yet other jobs need motor skills, perfection and extreme carefulness.
People: Almost everyone has to deal with three set of people in the work place. Those are namely boss, co-workers in the same level and subordinates. Apart from this, some professions need interaction with people like patients, media persons, public, customers, thieves, robbers, physically disabled people, mentally challenged, children, foreign delegates, gangsters, politicians, public figures and celebrities. These situations demand high level of prudence, cool temper, tactfulness, humor, kindness, diplomacy and sensitiveness.
Stress Level: All these above mentioned factors are inter-related and inter-dependant. Stress level need not be directly proportional to the compensation. Stress is of different types - mental stress/physical stress and psychological or emotional stress. A Managing Director of a company will have mental stress, a laborer will have physical stress, a psychiatrist will have emotional stress. Mental stress and Emotional stress cause more damage than physical stress.
Career Prospects: Every job should offer career development. That is an important factor which decides the quality of work life. Status improvement, more recognition from the Management, appreciations are the motivating factors for anyone to take keen interest in his job. The work atmosphere should be conducive to achieve organizational goal as well as individual development. It is a win-win situation for both the parties; an employee should be rewarded appropriately for his good work, extra efforts, sincerity and at the same time a lethargic and careless employee should be penalized suitably; this will motivate the former to work with more zeal and deter the latter from being so, and strive for better performance.
Challenges: The job should offer some challenges at least to make it interesting; That enables an employee to upgrade his knowledge and skill and capabilities; whereas the monotony of the job makes a person dull, non-enthusiastic, dissatisfied, frustrating, complacent, initiative - less and uninteresting. Challenge is the fire that keeps the innovation and thrill alive. A well-accomplished challenging job yields greater satisfaction than a monetary perk; it boosts the self-confidence also.
Growth and Development: If an organization does not give chance for growth and personal development it is very difficult to retain the talented personnel and also to find new talent with experience and skill.
Risk Involved and Reward: Generally reward or compensation is directly proportional to the quantum of work, man-hours, nature and extent of responsibility, accountability, delegated powers, authority of position in the organizational chart, risk involved, level of expected commitment, deadlines and targets, industry, country, demand and supply of skilled manpower and even political stability and economic policies of a nation. Although risk is involved in every job its nature and degree varies in them; All said and done, reward is a key criteria to lure a prospective worker to accept the offer.
Conclusion: A happy and healthy employee will give better turnover, make good decisions and positively contribute to the organizational goal. An assured good quality of work life will not only attract young and new talent but also retain the existing experienced talent.
Facts
The Great Place to Work Institute is a research and management consultancy based in the U.S. with international affiliate offices throughout the world. The Institute works each year with Fortune Magazine and other publications throughout the world to compile the "Best Companies to Work For" lists, which appear in 25 different countries. Visit the institute at GreatPlacetoWork.com.
Consumer products maker SC Johnson ranked number seven on Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company has a devoted workforce as evidenced by its remarkably low turnover rate of two percent. Among SC Johnson's unique employee perks are: flexible work schedules, no meeting day Fridays, paid sabbaticals, and lifetime membership at the company fitness center.

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[ 13 ]

Hour of Work and Quality of Work

In the early industrial period, working hours remained 10 to 11 hours per day. Due to social and humanitarian considerations, a move towards the reduction of working hours originated. This concern was reflected in the popular slogan of the 1886 International Association of Working Men: 8 hours work, 8 hours leisure, 8 hours sleep". "The first convention to be adopted by the new International Labour Conference was the Hours of Work (Industry) Convention (1919) which established the 8 or 9 hour day and the 48 hour week for industrial undertakings". By 1930. the same standard was adopted for the commercial and service sectors also.
The eight-hour day movement forms part of the early history for the celebration of Labour Day, and May Day in many nations and cultures.
Quality of work life does not alone refers to prescribed working hours in accordance with the labour laws, but also safer work timings to the employees, especially to the women. In the India The Factories Act, 1948, according to section 66, women employees are allowed to work in between the hours of 6 AM to 7 PM only. The factories act strictly restricts the woman to work in between at night hours in between 10 PM to 5 AM. It is opined that employees especially women, maybe abide to section 66 of the factories act, 1948. Legislators had formulated this law to prescribed safer timings to the women employees, keeping in the view of their safety.
Any organisation as a respect and etiquette, not to allow women employees, especially during night shifts to avoid unforeseen incidents and to seek welfare and safety of women. Companies especially BPOs & ITeS must see the safety of women and ensure better work timings and avoid women employees at nights. BPO,s and ITes should not only think about productivity with profitability and should also act socially responsible by not insisting women employees to work during night shifts. One should observe the principal "prevention is better than cure" it is always better to avoid problems rather than inviting them if they are certain. The Delhi gang rape incident on December 16 that has shocked the entire nation, ever since more than 80% of BPOs & ITeS women employees have started leaving office early hours before nightfall.
Facts
There is no federal law or mandate that requires an employer to give workers lunch breaks or rest periods,
although most companies allow and encourage them. Studies have found up to 58% of American workers skip their lunch break. Health and workplace experts suggest that this practice ultimately leads to worker burnout and diminished productivity.
The unintended costs associated with irregular schedules, night shifts and extended hours are eroding the profits of American businesses, according to a study by Circadian Technologies, Inc. The profit-eroding factors for businesses with shift operations include lower productivity, higher absenteeism, greater employee turnover, increased health care costs, and more job-related accidents.
According to a CareerJournal.com article on workaholism, a recent study found that highly effective managers worked an average of 52 hours a week, while less productive managers averaged 70 hours of work per week. Managers who logged more hours also reported twice the level of stress-related health problems, such as stomach ailments, headaches, lower-back pain and common colds.
In a recent Randstad survey of state-owned companies, 80% of employees said they received work-related calls and emails beyond office hours. Nearly 69% said they volunteered to work post-office hours while 79% received work-related calls and emails on holidays. Long hours lead to a dip in productivity and creativity.
In early 20th century, QWL Movement achieved considerable attention and hours of work became a prominent concern to increase the quality of life through improved QWL. Many innovative ideas were suggested for the efficient management of time for the employee and employer. These included flexitime, compressed work week, part-time work and telework. Among these alternate working arrangements, flexitime was found to be successful in Europe, Japan, United States and Canada.
A survey showed that men tend to prefer innovative companies that are financially healthy and offer quality products and services, good training and career prospects, whereas women look for factors like easy accessibility, flexible work arrangements, pleasant atmosphere.
While older respondents had greater concern for strong management, values and image, quality products and good work atmosphere, the younger workforce look for technological innovativeness, flexible working arrangements and global career opportunities.
Before entering into the details of flexible working hours, an appraisal of Indian working conditions and social responsiblities need to be mentioned to appreciate the application of these ideas in the Indian context.
Facts
According to The Factories act, 1948 in India
• Subject to the provisions of Section 51 no worker should be allowed to work more than nine hours in a day. [Section 54]
• The timings of work should be fixed in such a way that no worker should be required to work continuously for more than five hours; and he should be allowed to avail an interval for rest of at least half-an hour during his work in a day. [Section 55]
• The period of work of a workman should be so arranged that inclusive of his interval for rest under Section 55 should not spread over more than ten and a half hours in any day. [Section 56].
• Women is not allowed to work during the night hours from between 10 P.M. and 5 A.M. Factories act 1948, shall allow women to work in between the hours of 6 A.M. and 7 P.M. only. [Section 66]
European Union (EU) directives
The directives require:
• maximum average working week (including overtime) of 48 hours over a 17 week reference period
• minimum daily rest period of 11 consecutive hours in every 24
• breaks when the working day exceeds 6 hours
• minimum weekly rest period of 24 hours plus the 11 hours daily rest period in every 7-day period
• minimum of 4 weeks paid annual leave
• night work restricted to an average of 8 hours in any 24-hour period
The Adamson Act was signed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. The law established for railroad workers an eight-hour workday with additional pay for overtime work. This was the first federal law that regulated the hours of workers in private companies in the U.S. The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act made the eight-hour work day a "legal work day" work throughout the nation.
In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1937 applies to employees in industries engaged in, or producing goods for, interstate commerce. The FLSA establishes a standard work week of 40 hours for certain kinds of workers,
Long hours at work doubles depression risk: Study
WASHINGTON: British white-collar workers ( person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work) who spent 11 hours or more at work each day faced double the risk of depression as those who worked seven-eight hours a day, said a study published on Wednesday.
The research, published in the open-access science journal PLoS ONE, followed more than 2,100 civil servants -- who had no previous depressive episodes or psychological risk factors - for an average of nearly six years.
Those who worked long days were 2.3 to 2.5 times more likely to have a major depressive episode, said the study led by Marianna Virtanen of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and University College London.
The link remained the same even when researchers made adjustments for factors such as alcohol and drug use, social support or lack thereof, and strain at work. Still the total number of depressive cases was only 66, or a rate of 3.1 percent, less common than the five percent rate seen in the general population.
"Although occasionally working overtime may have benefits for the individual and society, it is important to recognize that working excessive hours is also associated with an increased risk of major depression," said Virtanen.
The study did not draw conclusions about why the link exists, but said it could be related to factors that were not studied -- such as work-family conflicts, prolonged increase in stress hormone levels and difficulty unwinding after work.
Also, since the study was limited to British civil servants, a larger population sample would be needed to determine if the link exists among blue collar workers or private sector employees, its authors said.
25 Jan, 2012, The Economic Times.
Flexible working leads to rise in revenue, productivity: Study
Flexible working practices have increased employees' productivity and revenue generation of Indian companies, says a study.
According to a report by workplace provider Regus, 79 per cent of Indian companies surveyed said that their productivity increased due to flexible working practices, while 77 per cent linked increasing revenues directly to flexi-working.
The report noted that 72 per cent of respondents say that workers in their company feel healthier thanks to flexible working.
"Technology and network improvements as well as worker demands for a better work/life balance have driven flexible working to become the norm rather than the exception. This survey confirms the business case for flexible working revealing that global businesses see increased productivity and greater revenue generation as directly linked to flexible working practices," Madhusudan Thakur Vice-President Regional South Asia at Regus.
These findings are part of a new global research report from Regus based on responses from 16,000 senior business managers in 80 countries.
Overall, 72 per cent of global businesses reported that increased productivity is a direct result of flexible working practices. In almost all cases, (68 per cent) firms declare that flexible working has led to staff generating increased revenue.
Facts
Employers give more flexibility, but less money
Employers are giving employees more flexibility to work from home and work various hours as long as employees get work done, but they’re not willing to pay more for various work-life benefits. This is according to a new study released from the Society for Human Resource Management and the Families and Work Institute.
There are nearly 22 million "graveyard-shift" (shift of work running through the early hours of the morning, especially one from midnight until 8 am.) workers in the U.S., according to online medical information provider Healthology. Up to 20% of shift workers report falling asleep on the job. These workers are more likely to experience stomach problems, colds, flu, weight gain, heart problems and higher blood pressure caused as a result of the stresses that shift work can put on a person's body.
According to the U.S. Census, Americans spend more than one-hundred hours commuting to work each year, with an average daily commute taking about 24.3 minutes. New York, Chicago, and Newark, New Jersey recorded the nation's highest average commute times. The lowest average commute times occurred in Corpus Christi, Texas, Wichita, Kansas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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[ 14 ]

Improvement of the quality of work life

Improvement of the quality of work life

The earlier approach to human resource development emphasized individual development through training and proper supervision. However, with the increasing complexity of organizations and society, it was soon realized that training individuals plays only a limited role in the development of organizations. The need for improving the quality of work life through making the job more satisfying and productive has been greatly felt. Factors such as the nature of the job or the role and involvement of employees in work decisions are important for improving the quality of work life. The methods used to do so are job enrichment, job design, and role interventions (Pareek, 1993). An understanding of these methods and their application in extension organizations are essential for extension managers to improve the performance of extension agents. Studies have shown that the work environment of extension organizations is poor and needs improvement (Jhamtani & Singh, 1989, 1992).
Job Enrichment and Job Design
Job enrichment refers to detailed analysis of the work to know the factors which make it a satisfying experience. Job enrichment uses the job as the medium of developing employees and changing organizational practices. Some of the factors which increase job satisfaction are a sense of achievement in the job, recognition for the job, the nature of the work itself, and opportunities to learn new things and grow.
The principles of job enrichment, according to Herzberg (1966), are removing controls while retaining accountability, introducing new tasks, giving a complete unit of work, granting job freedom, and helping employees to become expert in their tasks.These principles can be practised by extension managers to increase the quality of work and job satisfaction among extension personnel.
Job enrichment programmes were successful in improving the quality of work and job satisfaction. However, it was found that job enrichment had a limited view of the job, and the need for greater emphasis on human values was realized. This led to the concept of job design, which refers to structuring a job to satisfy the technical, organizational, social, and human requirements of the person performing the work (Davis & Taylor, 1979). Based on the humanization of work, job design aims at increasing the quality of work life through treating the employees as human beings and emphasizing their development and involvement in work decisions.
It emphasizes the use of extrinsic and intrinsic job factors, employee participation in management, autonomy, adaptability, and variety. The concept of job design can be used by extension managers to increase participation of extension personnel in the planning and management of extension programmes, which will improve the quality of their work life.
Role Interventions
The study of roles, which are the positions employees hold in an organization, as defined by the expectations of significant persons and the individuals occupying the positions, is a comparatively neglected aspect of organizations. Roles are an important dimension in increasing organizational effectiveness. Through their roles, people are linked with the organization. This linkage increases organizational effectiveness by integrating the individuals with the organization. Such integration increases mental well-being and personal effectiveness (Pareek, 1993). The purpose of role-based intervention is to increase the mutuality of roles in organizations. Role-based interventions are done through learning situations such as process laboratory, group discussion, and use of questionnaires and schedules. Role-based interventions in extension organizations will result in increased work commitment, motivation, creativity, and team spirit.
Facts
It doesn't matter what size company you work for; flexibility matters. Workplace flexibility programs benefit employers of all sizes and industries, resulting in increased employee job satisfaction, lower turnover and lower insurance costs, according to the new report from The Society for Human Resource Management and the Families and Work Institute.
An estimated 15 to 20 million U.S. workers telecommute from home at least part of their work time. The advantages of telecommuting include better recruitment incentive for hiring, higher worker productivity resulting from less commute time, and better office space use efficiency. A disadvantage of telecommuting is the decrease in synergy achieved when workers are physically near one another.
Gender diversity acceptance
Companies are realising about the importance of gender diversity at workplace, which supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. In support of LGBT community, different countries recent judicial judgements created awareness about the feelings and their acceptance in the society.
India: Many companies have started preparing friendly workplace, which supports LGBT community like that of normal people. Companies have realised about their feelings and workplace inferiority of LGBT and even unable to disclose their identity due to fear of separation from normal work environment and relationship breakups.
There are employees belonging to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT ) community, but their identity is undisclosed in the organization due to fear of isolation and sometimes may lose the job. Now the companies realised the need to support LGBT community at workplace to hold the talent among them, productivity can be increased to 30% to 40% by LGBT community when they need not hide his/her identity in their organizations, HR experts says. Multinationals companies like IBM (International business machines), Google and Infosys has started sensitization programmes for their employees to build awareness about LGBT among them. IT giant Google started Google’s employee network group for LGBT in India in 2010 for talent inclusion. Many other multinational companies feel that if company is not gay friendly, may start losing talented employees of this community, future clients and subsequently revenues. To make good business should accept gender diversity and culture. As an example of this, Bangalore-based IT company employee, before leaving job, he mentioned in an exit interview that “I quit because the firm didn’t have support for the LGBT community”. Thereafter the company did not respond for it.
Infosys, well-known IT company employee setup Infosys Gay, Lesbian, and You (IGLU) was set up in the year 2011. IGLU focus is to ensure employees having a safe and harassment free workplace, irrespective of their sexual orientation. The members are given choice to know about them or to remain undisclosed.

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[ 15 ]

Quality Circles - Objectives of Quality Circle

A quality circle is a volunteer group composed of workers , usually under the leadership of their supervisor , who are trained to identify, analyze and solve work-related problems and present their solutions to management in order to improve the performance of the organization, and motivate and enrich the work of employees. When matured, true quality circles become self-managing, having gained the confidence of management.
Quality circle
Participative management technique within the framework of a company wide quality system in which small teams of (usually 6 to 12) employees voluntarily form to define and solve a quality or performance related problem. In Japan (where this practice originated) quality circles are an integral part of enterprise management and are called quality control circles.
www.businessdictionary.com
"A Quality Circle is volunteer group composed of members who meet to talk about workplace and service improvements and make presentations to their management with their ideas." (Prasad, L.M, 1998).
Quality circles enable the enrichment of the lives of the workers or students and creates harmony and high performance. Typical topics are improving occupational safety and health, improving product design, and improvement in the workplace and manufacturing processes.
These are related especially to the quality of output or services in order to improve the performance of the organization / department and motivate and enrich the work of employees. This group carries on continuously as a part of organization-wide control activities, self and mutual developments and control and improvement within the workplace utilizing quality control techniques with all the members participating. Generally six to twelve volunteers from the same work area make up a circle. The members receive training in problem solving, statistical quality control and group processes. Quality Circle generally recommends solutions for quality and services which may be implemented by the management. Thus Quality Circle is not merely a suggestion system or a quality control group but extends beyond that because its activities are more comprehensive. Furthermore, it is not a taskforce because it can be made a permanent feature of the organization or a department.
Quality Circles (QC) or Quality Control Circles (QCC) : History
• Pioneered by Japanese.
• Japanese nomenclature: Quality Control Circles (QCC), generally now known as Quality Circles (QC) or some call it as Small Group Activity (SGA).
• 1962: First QC Circle was registered with QC Circle Head Quarters in Japan.
• 1974: Lockheed Company, USA started Quality Circle movement.
• 1977: International Association of Quality Circles (IACC) was formed in USA.
• 1980: BHEL, Hyderabad first in India to start Quality Circles.
• 1982: Quality Circle Forum of India (QCFI) was founded.
Facts
"Chorei" is a common morning meeting ritual in Japanese organizations. Each work day begins with a meeting where employees stand in a circle and share their day's work agenda or project status. Chorei is a cultural export in the expanding global economy. Practitioners of chorei believe this type of meeting technique can help improve communication resulting in better productivity.
There are various forms and styles of participative management. One of them which is widely applied and practised is ‘Quality circles’. The ‘quality circle’ concept first originated in USA which was very successfully applied in Japan afterwards. This technique boosted the Japanese firms to endeavour for high quality products at low costs.
Objectives of Quality Circle
The perception of Quality Circles today is 'Appropriateness for use1 and the tactic implemented is to avert imperfections in services rather than verification and elimination. Hence the attitudes of employees influence the quality. It encourages employee participation as well as promotes teamwork. Thus it motivates people to contribute towards organizational effectiveness through group processes. The following could be grouped as broad intentions of a Quality Circle:
1. To contribute towards the improvement and development of the organization or a department.
2. To overcome the barriers that may exist within the prevailing organizational structure so as to foster an open exchange of ideas.
3. To develop a positive attitude and feel a sense of involvement in the decision making processes of the services offered.
4. To respect humanity and to build a happy work place worthwhile to work.
5. To display human capabilities totally and in a long run to draw out the infinite possibilities.
6. To improve the quality of products and services.
7. To improve competence, which is one of the goals of all organizations.
8. To reduce cost and redundant efforts in the long run.
9. With improved efficiency, the lead time on convene of information and its subassemblies is reduced, resulting in an improvement in meeting customers due dates.
10. Customer satisfaction is the fundamental goal of any library. It will ultimately be achieved by Quality Circle and will also help to be competitive for a long time.
BENEFITS OF QUALITY CIRCLES
There are no monetary rewards in the QC’s. However, there are many other gains, which largely benefit the individual and consecutively, benefit the business. These are:
• Self-development: QC’s assist self-development of members by improving self-confidence, attitudinal change, and a sense of accomplishment.
• Social development: QC is a consultative and participative programme where every member cooperates with others. This interaction assists in developing harmony.
• Opportunity to attain knowledge:QC members have a chance for attaining new knowledge by sharing opinions, thoughts, and experience.
• Potential Leader: Every member gets a chance to build up his leadership potential, in view of the fact that any member can become a leader.
• Enhanced communication skills:The mutual problem solving and presentation before the management assists the members to develop their communication skills.
• Job-satisfaction: QC’s promote creativity by tapping the undeveloped intellectual skills of the individual. Individuals in addition execute activities diverse from regular work, which enhances their self-confidence and gives them huge job satisfaction.
• Healthy work environment: QC’s creates a tension-free atmosphere, which each individual likes, understands, and co-operates with others.
• Organizational benefits: The individual benefits create a synergistic effect, leading to cost effectiveness, reduction in waste, better quality, and higher productivity.
All these benefits are lasting in nature, which bring about progress over a period of time.

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[ 16 ]

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which a group tries to find a solution for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members. The term was popularized by Alex Faickney Osborn in 1953 through the book Applied Imagination. In the book, Osborn not only proposed the brainstorming method but also established effective rules for hosting brainstorming sessions.
Brainstorming can be defined as the methodology used to encourage every individual in the Circle to express freely their opinions or give ideas in an open discussion..
Brainstorming can be used to list down all the problem faced by an organization, their causes and the potential effects if a certain suggestion is implemented.
Brainstorming works by focusing on a problem, and then deliberately coming up with as many solutions as possible and by pushing the ideas as far as possible. One of the reasons it is so effective is that the brainstormers not only come up with new ideas in a session, but also spark off from associations with other people's ideas by developing and refining them.
Brainstorming can be an effective way to generate lots of ideas on a specific issue and then determine which idea – or ideas – is the best solution. Brainstorming is most effective with groups of 8-12 people and should be performed in a relaxed environment. If participants feel free to relax and joke around, they'll stretch their minds further and therefore produce more creative ideas.
A brainstorming session requires a facilitator, a brainstorming space and something on which to write ideas, such as a white-board a flip chart or software tool. The facilitator's responsibilities include guiding the session, encouraging participation and writing ideas down.
Brainstorming works best with a varied group of people. Participants should come from various departments across the organisation and have different backgrounds. Even in specialist areas, outsiders can bring fresh ideas that can inspire the experts.There are numerous approaches to brainstorming, but the traditional approach is generally the most effective becaus e it is the most energetic and openly collaborative, allowing participants to build on each others' ideas.
There are four basic rules in brainstorming (Osborn, 1963) intended to reduce social inhibitions among team members,stimulate idea generation, and increase overall creativity:
• No criticism: Criticism of ideas are withheld during the brainstorming session as the purpose is on generating varied and unusual ideals and extending or adding to these ideas. Criticism is reserved for the evaluation stage of the the process. This allows the members to feel comfortable with the idea of generating unusual ideas.
Four ways to deal with sudden criticism at workplace
It isn't easy to deal with criticism but it hurts a lot more when it catches you off guard. What's important, though, is how you react, for it can have a serious impact on your career. ET explains how you can take criticism in your stride, and make it work for you.
Don't React
Hold your words, and never try to guess what the other person is thinking. "Nobody likes feedback but one should refrain from reacting immediately . Reacting in an emotional way may have unwanted repercussions. When one reacts, the critic starts emphasising his point further, which leads to even more criticism," says Pravin Subba, head, human resources, Greenply Industries.
Hear Them Out
Try to see the critic's point. When you don't acknowledge what the other person is saying, the conversation is sure to take a negative turn. Ask the person who is criticising you for the specific instance and nature of your mistake. "I usually encourage employees to ask me questions while I am giving feedback. Once people know what they are being criticised for, they start relating to it. The whole process after that becomes smooth," says Subba.
Ask for Feedback
The person who is criticising you has his or her reasons and might even have a solution to offer. It is safe to ask them him how you can do better. "When my seniors criticise my work, I regularly ask them for feedback. This way I make sure I don't miss out on anything and with their perspective in my mind, it's much easier to rework a copy", says Nivedita Agashe, copywriter, Taproot India.
Be Confident
At times, you might realise that the person criticising you is wrong. Then too, you must wait for the right time, making sure he or she is ready to listen . "Make your point in a confident and detailed manner. Assess what you are saying in your head before you actually say it. If the other person is still not ready to listen, approach someone higher up and explain the situation. But use this only as a last resort," says Subba.
• Welcome unusual ideas: Unusual ideas are welcomed as it is normally easier to "tame down" than to "tame up" as new ways of thinking and looking at the world may provide better solutions.
• Quantity Wanted: The greater the number of ideas generated, the greater the chance of producing a radical and effective solution.
• Combine and improve ideas: Not only are a variety of ideals wanted, but also ways to combine ideas in order to make them better.
Brainstorming Steps:
1. Gather the participants from as wide a range of disciplines with as broad a range of experience as possible. This brings many more creative ideas to the session.
2. Write down a brief description of the problem - the leader should take control of the session, initially defining the problem to be solved with any criteria that must be met, and then keeping the session on course.
3. Use the description to get everyone's mind clear of what the problem is and post it where it can be seen. This helps in keeping the group focused.
4. Encourage an enthusiastic, uncritical attitude among brainstormers and encourage participation by all members of the team. Encourage them to have fun!
5. Write down all the solutions that come to mind (even ribald ones). Do NOT interpret the idea, however you may rework the wording for clarity's sake.
6. Do NOT evaluate ideas until the session moves to the evaluation phase. Once the brainstorming session has been completed, the results of the session can be analyzed and the best solutions can be explored either using further brainstorming or more conventional solutions.
7. Do NOT censor any solution, no matter how silly it sounds. The silly ones will often lead to creative ones - the idea is to open up as many possibilities as possible, and break down preconceptions about the limits of the problem.
8. The leader should keep the brainstorming on subject, and should try to steer it towards the development of some practical solutions.
9. Once all the solutions have been written down, evaluate the list to determine the best action to correct the problem.

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[ 17 ]

Pareto analysis - Seven steps to identifying the important causes using Pareto Analysis

Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto

(15 July 1848 – 19 August 1923),
was an Italian engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist and philosopher.

Pareto Analysis

The Pareto Chart or Pareto Diagram, named after the famous economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923), is a common tool for quality control and is used as part of a Pareto Analysis to visually identify the most important factors, most occurring defects, or the most common problems, or in other words "the vital few".
Pareto Analysis is a statistical technique in decision making that is used for the selection of a limited number of tasks that produce significant overall effect. It uses the Pareto Principle (also know as the 80/20 rule) the idea that by doing 20% of the work you can generate 80% of the benefit of doing the whole job. Or in terms of quality improvement, a large majority of problems (80%) are produced by a few key causes (20%). This is also known as the vital few and the trivial many. The 80/20 Rule may be applied to almost anything, from the science of management to the physical world.

What Is It?

The Pareto Chart is one of the 'Seven Basic Tools of Quality Control.' It helps highlight the most important factors from among a group of many factors. In quality control, it is often used to represent the most common sources of defects or the highest occurrence of defects. It is a simple bar chart that displays the number of occurrences on the left vertical axis and the category of occurrences on the horizontal axis. While not required, you ca
n add a right vertical axis which represents the cumulative percentage of the left axis to the total.
The Pareto Principle, or 80-20 Rule, is a general rule-of-thumb or guideline that says that 80% of the effects stem from 20% of the causes. Vilfredo Pareto originally observed that in Italy, 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the people. Dr. Joseph M. Juran, a 20th century evangelist for quality management, applied this principal to quality control and preferred the use of the phrase "the vital few and the useful many" to describe the 80-20 rule. Although the actual numbers may be different from case-to-case, the Pareto Principle is a guiding principle used in business for ...
• Customer Complaints (e.g. 80% of the complaints come from 20% of the customers)
• Management (e.g. 80% of the results come from 20% of the group)
• Sales (e.g. 80% of the profits come from 20% of the products)
• Quality Management for identifying the most important causes for defects (e.g. 80% of the problems come from 20% of the causes)
A pareto chart can help you quickly identify the most significant factors, but choosing which problems to fix may still require a cost-benefit analysis. If you have a single factor causing 50% of the problems, but it would cost you a million dollars to fix, and there are 3 other factors causing a total of 30% of the problems that would be much less expensive to fix, perhaps solving the 3 other factors first would be more beneficial.

Chart Example

Look at a part of your business where you have had consistency problems. An example might be customer service problems. Say you collect data on your customer complaints for April and find that you have problems with:
• delivery when promised (5 complaints)
• quantity delivered (12 complaints)
• invoice pricing errors (8 complaints)
• invoice quantity errors (2 complaints)
• damaged product (26 complaints)

Seven steps to identifying the important causes using Pareto Analysis :

1. Form a table listing the causes and their frequency as a percentage.
2. Arrange the rows in the decreasing order of importance of the causes, i.e. the most important cause first.
3. Add a cumulative percentage column to the table.
4. Plot with causes on x-axis and cumulative percentage on y-axis.
5. Join the above points to form a curve.
6. Plot (on the same graph) a bar graph with causes on x-axis and percent frequency on y-axis.
7. Draw a line at 80% on y-axis parallel to x-axis. Then drop the line at the point of intersection with the curve on x-axis. This point on the x-axis separates the important causes on the left and less important causes on the right.
This is a simple example of a Pareto diagram using sample data showing the relative frequency of causes for customer service problems. It enables you to see what 20% of complaints are causing 80% of the problems and where efforts should be focussed to achieve the greatest improvement.
The value of the Pareto Principle for a project manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20% of things that matter. Of the things you do during your project, only 20% are really important. Those 20% produce 80% of your results. Identify and focus on those things first, but don't totally ignore the remaining 80% of causes.

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[ 18 ]

Cause and effect diagram (or fish bone diagram or Ishikawa diagram)

Problem Solving Tools Used by Quality Circles
o Brainstorming.
o Pareto analysis.
o Cause and effect diagram (or fish bone diagram or Ishikawa diagram).

Kaoru Ishikawa

( July 13, 1915 - April 16, 1989)
was a Japanese university professor and influential quality management
Ishikawa diagrams (also called fishbone diagrams, or herringbone diagrams , cause-and-effect diagrams, or Fishikawa) are causal diagrams that show the causes of a certain event -- created by Kaoru Ishikawa (1990).
A common use of the Ishikawa diagram is in product design, to identify potential factors causing an overall effect and to help identify the root cause of non-conformances.
Ishikawa diagrams were proposed by Kaoru ishikawa in the 1960s, who pioneered quality management processes in the Kawasaki shipyards, and in the process became one of the founding fathers of modern management.
It was first used in the 1960s, and is considered one of the seven basic tools of quality management, along with the histogram, Pareto chart, check sheet, control chart, flowchart, and scatter diagram. See Quality Management Glossary. It is known as a fishbone diagram because of its shape, similar to the side view of a fish skeleton.

Causes

Causes in the diagram are often based on a certain set of causes, such as the 6 M's, described below. Cause-and-effect diagrams can reveal key relationships among various variables, and the possible causes provide additional insight into process behavior.
Causes in a typical diagram are normally grouped into categories, the main ones of which are:
• The 6 Ms: Men/people, machines, methods, materials, measures, mother nature
• 4 Ps - Places, Procedures, People, Politics
• 4 Ss - Surroundings, Suppliers, Systems, Skills
Causes should be derived from brainstorming sessions. Then causes should be sorted through affinity-grouping to collect similar ideas together. These groups should then be labeled as categories of the fishbone. They will typically be one of the traditional categories mentioned above but may be something unique to our application of this tool. Causes should be specific, measurable, and controllable.)

Data analysis

Case study of College of Engineering and Management Library
The management of Indira group of institutes has decided to promote the library as a central library of all the institutions run by Indira. Facing such an immense responsibility in a very short span of time made it obligatory to the library staff to organize the library system in a more better and competent way. Still being at its initial stage, the library activities were encountering many small problems frequently. To name few were:
1. Missing Books.
2. Misplacements.
3. Library usage.
4. Delivery of journals.
5. Number of copies per title.
6. Allocation of work among the staff.
7. Purchase related problems etc.

A committee was initiated to study the above problems and come out with efficient solutions to meet the requirements of the management. Lot of brainstorming was conducted and it was decided to solve these problems by implementing 'Quality Circle Program'.
A group was created and the problem of missing books was selected for observation on preferential basis. It was decided to solve the above problem by cause and effect analysis and the same was presented in the following diagram before the management committee:
The management acknowledged the solutions and accepted to implement the same on urgent basis. It helped the library to come out with great solutions. It was also noticed during the above operation that Quality Circles, if productively put into practice it can crack countless variety of problems in any context of expertise.

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Source: Human resource management (web). www.whatishumanresource.com (english)