Human Resource Posts

In the last blog we have discussed two perspectives namely Financial Perspective and Internal Process perspective out of four perspectives of BSC. Let's look at the remaining two perspectives.

Customer Perspective

We all know that the 'Customer is the king of the market' and that's why we need to ensure that we have a satisfied customer group in the market.

Each organization serves a specific need in the market and this is done with a target group in mind. There are many points to focus like the Quality, Price, Service, and acceptable Margins on the products and/or services.

The organization always tries to meet customers' expectations in the market and that's why any organization needs to keep its eyes on the market and be ready to adapt to changes quickly.

The existence of alternatives( competitors ) has a huge influence on customers' expectations and we need to focus on overall market trends to build satisfied buyers in the market.

This perspective answer the question: "How attractive should we appear to our customers?"

In short, we need to focus on three points-

1. Target Group in Market
2. The expectation of the Customers
3. Our Competitors

After focusing on these points definitely, we will be able to lure maximum potential customers in the market.

Learning and Growth Perspective

In today's competitive era, if we are not ready/capable of learning something new then it's next to impossible to survive in the market as 'nothing is constant only the change is constant.

Here knowledge is not important but advancing knowledge plays a vital role.

The organization's learning ability and innovation indicate whether an organization is capable of continuous improvement and growth in a dynamic environment or not. The dynamic environment is subject to change on a daily basis due to new laws, economical changes, technological changes, or even increasing competition.

This perspective answer the questions:

"How can we sustain our ability to achieve our chosen strategy ?"

To know more about the BSC please read my upcoming weekly Blog.

In the last Blog we have discussed the basics of BSC, let's start a discussion about four perspectives of BSC.

A Balanced Scorecard looks at an organization from four different perspectives to measure its health, each of these perspectives focuses on various sides of the company and creates a balanced view of the organization.

And yes all four areas of BSC are interrelated; we cannot ignore any out of four to the success of the organization.

Financial Perspective:

This perspective views organizational financial performance and the uses of financial resources.

We need to focus on two points:

• Is the company achieving its financial goals?
• How well do the strategies and operations contribute to improving financial health?

Well, now the question is how we can measure the output from a financial perspective?

These data are always past-focused, we need to gather two types of data.

1. Historical Data: How did we do last month, last week, last year, and so on.
2. Current Data: How are we doing right now, Today?

For instance,

1. Our net profit for the year versus last year
2. Our sales revenue this year versus last year

These measures of corporate performance are based on history and also vary from organization to organization.

As the BSC is a holistic approach, any key objectives that are related to the company's financial health and performance may include in this perspective as given below:

1. Cost Saving and Efficiencies: Specified Goals: Reduced production cost 10% by 2021
2. Profit Margins: increase operational profit Margins
3. Revenue Sources: adding new revenue channels/department/products

In the end,

• Are you making money?
• Are your investors happy?

If yes then be happy...

The financial health of your organization may be an indicator of your past decisions but still incredibly important.

Money keeps the company alive and the financial perspective focuses solely on this.

Internal Process Perspective:

This perspective views various organizational processes and the efficiency of the particular process.

1. From this view, the question should be asked what internal processes have added values within the organization and what activities need to carry in the organization (In all three perspectives).
2. The internal Process perspective looks at how smoothly your business is running (Here, Efficiency is important )
3. It's all about,
   • Reducing waste,
   • Speeding process/ production
   • Doing more with less

We need to focus on three points:

• Is the company improving the critical process?
• Are there any obstacles standing between ideas and execution?
• How quickly can you adapt to changing business conditions?

This perspective answer the question :

"what process we must excel at to satisfy our shareholders/financial Backers and customers?"

To know more about BSC please read my weekly Blog.

Development:

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) was originally developed by Robert Kaplan of Harvard University and Dr. David Northon as a framework for measuring organizational performance using the more " BALANCED " set of performance measures.

Traditionally companies used only short-term financial performance as a measure of success but now non-financial strategic measures are also added in order to focus on long-term success.

The BSC system evolved over the years and is now considered a fully integrated "Strategic Management System".

What is a Balanced Scorecard (BSC)?

• A Balanced Scorecard is a performance metric used to identify, improve, and control a business's various internal processes and resulting outcomes.
• Balance Scorecard is a framework to implement and manage strategies.
• The Balanced scorecard is derived from the idea of looking at strategic measures to get a more balanced view of performance. The concept of a Balanced Scorecard evolved beyond the simple use of perspectives, every business can implement it according to the requirements and therefore it is a holistic system for managing strategy.

Why do we need to implement it?

• The key benefit of using a BSC framework is that it gives way to the organization to "Connect the Dots" between various components of strategic planning and management and it means there will be a visible connection between Projects and Programs that people are working on it.
• BSC framework also helps management to meet pre-decided targets.

Perspectives of Balanced Scorecard:

Indeed a balanced scorecard plays a significant role to aid management to keep updated internal processes and the external Business world as well.

The framework Balanced Scorecard is divided into four areas (perspectives) that are critical to business success as given below.

1. Financial
2. Internal process
3. Learning and Growth
4. Customer

The BSC suggests that we view the Organization from four Perspectives to develop Objectives, Measures, Targets, and Initiatives (relative to each of these points of view).

To know more details about all four perspectives, read my upcoming weekly Blogs.

In the last Blog we have discussed a few tips on recruitment, let's glance at more tips.....

1. Remember only you are not interviewing
2. Look back years of the candidate's career
3. Trust your Gut
4. Don't be boring Interviewer
5. Represent Job Description
6. Think Like a Marketer

1. Remember only you are not interviewing:

Always keep in mind that only you are not hiring for a particular role, we have a competitive job market, most candidates we interview will also be interviewing elsewhere and that's why we need to be active, present a positive company image towards the employee.

2. Look back years of the candidate's career:

If we are hiring for an experienced person we need to ask questions related to his job experience, how he/she was handling difficult situations, and listen closely to the answer. you may learn a lot or what you need. Remember, don't forget to examine body language from it to know about his/her attitude towards the role.

3.Trust your Gut:

don't ignore your gut. If the candidate is found good on paper but still after interviewing something from the inner side tells you it's just not right then don't proceed without more investigation.

4. Don't be boring Interviewer :

Boring questions will bring boring answers. Don't ask such questions. Ask relevant questions about the job. Don't waste your time and candidate time by asking questions that answer doesn't matter to you.

5.Represent Job Description:

While interviewing candidates you need to represent the role and responsibilities for the profile as the candidate becomes more aware of the Job and is able to clear doubts.

6.Think like a Marketer :

Due to competition in the market, Human Resource Recruiters need to be marketer, we have to present our company in a unique way to attract talent from the market.

The process of recruitment is more difficult as all business owners want to hire more talent in the organization. Hence, we need to make proper strategies for hiring as better Recruitment & selection strategies result in the improvement of organizational outcomes. We can say investment in 'Recruitment and Selection process' is money well spent.

We all know that recruitment becomes tough day by day as the competition is growing in the market. If I talk about the IT industry each Organisation is fighting hard to find candidates for various IT profiles. Now all IT HRs are in trouble with lots of targets of hiring and it’s not as easy as ABC in practical. Sometimes it takes a very long time to get a response from the market for a particular profile. Still, we need to pay attention to many things to make a smooth & effective recruitment process.

1. Build your network
2. Attractive & Innovative Job Posting
3. Choose Right Person & Be polite to others
4. Communication: Be a good listener
5. Affordability
6. Talent v/s Experience

1.Build your network:

“Network is net-worth”. Without a network, it is too difficult to reach the right one. Every HR needs to develop a professional network. If I talk about the IT field we need to develop a network on LinkedIn to reach maximum people. Send connection requests to them Talk with them and scan candidates over there. Not only this we can use Facebook as well as the young generation addicted to it and target the suitable person over there.

2. Attractive & Innovative Job posting:

We are living in a competitive era, where we are fighting hard to even get responses from the market side and that’s why we need to be creative & innovative while preparing Job descriptions. prepare star lines to attract people, use different ways to post the job, give information regarding facilities the company is providing, any other attraction if the company has.

3. Choose the Right Person & Be polite to others:

After receiving lots of CVs for a particular role, it’s too critical to scan all and invite a few for Interviews. After interviewing all people we need to think about the best suitable person for the job.

HR needs to develop a habit to wish all the best to the not selected candidate. It creates a positive image of the company in that person's mind. And yes the second thing is, never use the “REJECTED” word for any candidate just say ‘unfortunately you are not selected’, even you can say ‘sorry to say that you are not best fit for the job’. I am saying this because there is no rejection, only the thing is our requirement and the capabilities of the applicant are quite different.

4. Communication: Be a good listener:

Communication skill is essential for all HR Professionals. While interacting with candidates, be open, communicate each and everything. HR needs to communicate all the rules, regulations, policies, agreement terms & conditions (If you have), Training period, and the pay scale during training ( If you are hiring fresher), etc. After discussing all the required things with the candidate, if the candidate is found comfortable then only arrange his/her interview otherwise it will be a waste of time for both Employers as well as Employees.

While taking interviews not only ask questions and get answers, be a good listener. Listening to the candidate with patience may be a different way of presenting but one has really deep knowledge about the same and at least gives the chance to present.

5. Affordability:

Always keep in mind the budget of the company for a particular position and don’t waste your valuable time with overqualified people. Say NO to them with respect, you can say ‘we don't have any requirement regarding your profile’.

6. Talent v/s Experience:

While recruiting people never fixed the experience parameter as it may be possible that the less experienced person has more talent. Carefully analyze the person and then only select the best out of them.

I will discuss more tips on recruitment in my next blog….

• Observation 
• Survey 
• Periodic Interview
• Attitude Measurement  
• Opinion Analysis
• Morale Indicators
  • Productivity
  • Absenteeism
  • Turnover
  • No. of accident
• Use suggestion Box 

• Sound & Effective Organisation
• Opportunity to rise
• Remuneration
• Personal attributes
• satisfaction level
• Supervision level
• Nature of work

• Ask the right question
• Don’t ask anything in annoying way
• Follow the performance data first
• Take the employee of the clock
• Listen to what they say
• Keep eye on their project

After doing all the right things to boost productivity and still employees' productivity plunging or not increasing, we need to look at the Employee Morale. Employee Morale is a decisive factor in an Organisation whether it is the Service sector or Manufacturing unit. It is one of the cornerstones of the business, only a few organizations pay attention to morale among employees in their organization and this is the major mistake from their side as it affects productivity which ultimately reflects in Organizational Growth & Productivity.

Let’s Discuss:

• What’s Employee Morale?
• Characteristics of Employee Morale.
• Relation between Morale & Productivity.

What is Employee Morale?

In simple terms employee morale is the standard of behavior of an employee which directly affects the productivity of the organization but it is a complex concept as there are ample factors that affect employee morale.

Definition:

Edwin Flippo: “ Morale is a mental condition or attitude of individual and groups which determines their willingness to cooperate”

Characteristics:

• Psychological concept
• Dynamic Nature
• Group phenomenon
• Reflect others

Psychological Concept:

Morale is a psychological phenomenon, it is the internal feeling of confidence, attitude, Zest, enthusiasm, satisfaction, etc. Moreover, it is the state of mind and emotions affecting the attitude and willingness to work that affect individual and organizational objectives.

Dynamic Nature:

Morale is Dynamic in nature; we cannot develop it overnight. Management has to make continuous efforts to build and maintain high morale among employees in the organization. It is a long-term concept.

Group Phenomenon:

Morale is not an individual phenomenon but it's the sum of the total employee’s attitude, feelings, and sentiments.

Reflect others:

We cannot measure morale directly but it is reflected in productivity, discipline, turnover, etc. To measure morale we need to look at other factors.

Relations between Morale and Productivity:

Davis Designed that there is not always a positive link between Productivity and Employee morale. There can be four combinations of Morale and Productivity

1. High morale-High productivity

This situation is likely to occur when the employees are fully motivated to achieve high performance not only this but satisfied with all financial & nonfinancial rewards & highly satisfied with their job role. Feeling proud to be part of the organization/team.

2. High morale-low productivity

This situation occurs when the employees waste their time in the workplace or use the time to satisfy their personal goals. They don't care about organizational goals. There are many factors responsible for this kind of Employee Attitude in the workplace such as

1. Lack of proper training,
2. Lack of support by co-workers or leaders,
3. Leaders/Superior behavior with him,
4. Irresponsible Management (If we talk about It or another small service sector Irresponsible HR )
5. Ineffective Supervision
6. Restrictive norms of the informal group
7. Outdated Technology & Methods

3.Low morale-High productivity

In a short period, it may be possible that with low morale Employee's productivity seems high but it is for a temporary or short span of time. Low Morale can not result in high productivity for a long time. this situation occurs when

1. Fear of losing a job,
2. Less availability of alternatives
3. Strict Supervision, Rules & Regulations
4. Punishment
5. Policies and strategies focus on high productivity only.

4. Low morale-Low productivity

This situation occurs when the organizational & individual goals are not satisfied & other factors like

1. Lack of motivation
2. Unclear Job role
3. Lack of harmonious Superior-Subordinate relationship

These all factors result in frustration, tension and grievances develop against managers which reflect low productivity. To pen down, morale is the paramount factor that gives a direct impact on productivity, Productivity impact on profitability, profitability impact on organizational growth. If the Morale is high then it will be possible to gain more fruits in the future but if it's low then it's Red Signal for any organization even the productivity is high but it will be for a short period of time only

I am not going to end the topic of Morale but will continue in the next blog with

1. Factor determining morale
2. Significance of high morale
3. Impact of low morale
4. Measurement of morale

To know about these please read my upcoming blogs of Human Resource…..