The New Performance Appraisal

As we all know the importance and role Performance Appraisal in the organization. So here are some mordern methods of performance appraisal which makes the whole process very easy:

1. 360 degree Appraisal Method:

                360 Degree Feedback is a system or process in which employees receive confidential, anonymous feedback from the people who work around them.

Who should conduct 360 degree performance appraisal?

• Peers
• Managers (i.e. superior).
• Subordinates.
• Team members.
• Customers.
• Suppliers/ vendors.

Anyone who comes into contact with the employee and can provide valuable insights and information.

What’s a 360 degree measure?

• 360 degree measures behaviours and competencies.
• 360 degree provides feedback on how others perceive an employee.
• 360 degree addresses skills such as listening, planning, and goal-setting.
• 360 degree focuses on subjective areas such as teamwork, character, and leadership effectiveness.

360 degree appraisal has four components: -

• Self appraisal
• Superior’s appraisal
• Subordinate’s appraisal
• Peer appraisal.

2. Performance Agreement:

Role requirements - these are set out in the form of the key result areas of the role: what the role holder is expected to achieve (outputs and outcomes).

Objectives in the form of targets and standards of performance.

Performance measures and indicators to assess the extent to which objectives and standards of performance have been achieved.

Knowledge, skill and competence - definitions of what role holders have to know and be able to do (competences) and of how they are expected to behave in particular aspects of their role ( competencies). These definitions may be generic, having been prepared for occupations or job families on an organization- or function-wide basis. Role-specific profiles should, however, be agreed, which express what individual role holders are expected to know and do.

Corporate core values or requirements - the performance agreement may also refer to the core values of the organization for quality, customer service, team working, employee development etc, which individuals are expected to uphold in carrying out their work. Certain general operational requirements may also be specified in such areas as health and safety, budgetary control, cost reduction and security.

A performance plan - a work plan that specifies what needs to be done to improve performance. A personal development plan, which specifies what individuals need to do with support from their manager to develop their knowledge and skills.

Process details - how and when performance will be reviewed and a revised performance agreement concluded.

3. Psychological Appraisals:
                  Large organization employs full-time industrial psychologists. When psychologists are used for evaluations. They assess an individual’s future potential and past performance. The appraisal normally consists of in-depth interviews, psycho1ogical tests. Discussions with supervisors and a review' of other evaluations. The psychologist then write an evaluation of the employee's intellectual, emotional, motivational and other-related characteristics that suggest individual potential and may predict future performance. The evaluation by the psychologist may be for a specific job opening for which the person is being considered. Or it may be a global assessment of his or her future potential. From these evaluations Placement and development decisions may be made to shape the person's career. Because this approach is slow and costly, it is usually required for bright young members who, others think. May have considerable potential within the organisation. Since the quality of the appraisal depends largely on the skills of the psychologists, some employees object to this type of evaluation, especially if cross-cultural differences exist.

The Mordern Recruitment:

Human resource management or managing “people” includes several activities. Today acquiring and retaining the employees is the biggest challenge. Thus staffing is a vital activity. Staffing facilitates the supply of employees. These employees are needed to fulfill the Organizational goals and objectives by their effective and efficient performance. And recruitment is a logical step in this staffing process. Recruitment is the process of creating huge pool of potential candidates. It attracts the prospective employees and stimulates them to apply for job.

Recruitment before nineteenth century was based on the apprenticeship system. Apprentices were not the employees of the Organization, but after completion of apprenticeship they were absorbed in the company. Compared to apprentices the skilled and qualified candidates were more desirable.

FORMS OF RECRUITMENT

              Forms of recruitment can be broadly categorized into two. One is centralized and the other is decentralized. Centralized recruitment is in action when the organization is having a centralized power structure and the departments are not involved in decision making, it is only concentrated in one central department. In government Organizations it is visible, like in State Bank of India.

Decentralized recruitment is having authority to each department to choose their staff. The companies who are geographically spread, or very big in size will find this form convenient. But the philosophy and Organization culture determines which to follow; like Bausch & Lomb have centralized recruitment form as well as G.E Opticals have the decentralized form.

NEW FORM OF RECRUITMENT:

E RECRUITMENT-

E-recruitment is a tool for many employers to search for job candidates and for applicants to look for job. Recent trend of recruitment is e-recruitment or the internet recruitment or on-line recruitment, where the process of recruitment is automated. The automation began in 1980 but was systematized in 1990 with the release of Restrac’s initial product. E-recruitment simply means the recruitment process through internet. Various methods can be used for it.

E-RECRUITING METHODS

Methods of e-recruitment are many, among those the important ones are-

• Job boards: These are the places where the employers post jobs and search for candidates. Candidates become aware of the vacancies. One of the disadvantages is, it is generic in nature. Special skill candidates to be searched by certain job boards.
• Employer web sites: These sites can be of the company owned sites, or a site developed by various employers. For an example, Directemployers.com is the first cooperative, employer-owned e-recruiting consortium formed by Direct Employers Association. It is a non profit organization formed by the executives from leading U.S corporations. Press release by Recruiters Network (February 20, 2003) showed the site has 98 members approximately 45 percent of which are Fortune 500 companies.

• Professional websites: These are for specific professions, skills and not general in nature. For an example, for HR jobs Human Resource Management sites to be visited like www.shrm.org. The professional associations will have their own site or society.

MODERN TRENDS OF E-RECRUITMENT

• Speedy communication: Company and the prospective employee can communicate with each other via the blogs. Thus blogs, podcasts, vodcasts are being considered a tool of e-recruitmant. No more the process can be blamed for being one way communication like mails, faxes only being speedy as done electronically. Podcasts are the services of digital media files. Vodcasts are the video podcasts.
• Candidate’s preference: History states that employers had the privilege to be selective in hiring process, especially in screening resumes but were not always fair. Because of the time constraint it was not possible to go through all the applications. Today the candidates can choose their employers as not only the financial state is known to them but also the culture is known. Applying for the Organization will no more be influenced only by the image.

• Search engine advertisement: Print ad is phasing out due the popularity of search engine ads. Pay-per-click is not only convenient but also more attractive.
• RSS feed: Job boards are embracing RSS feed. Hotjobs, Google deserves special mention. Google offers one to upload the jobs on Google Base even when one doesn’t have their own site. RSS can be read using software “RSS reader”. It is a family of web feed formats use to publish frequently updated works. Such as blog entries, news headlines in a standard format.

CONCLUSION-

         Traditional methods should not be replaced by the e-recruitment, it should supplement. The loopholes of e-recruitment can be covered by the traditional methods and recruitment process will be faster, global due to e-recruitment. One method should not replace the other. When two vacancies are there and two candidates are available the companies do not have much choice, thus they prefer to widen their search and attracts numerous applications. But when for two vacancies a company receive 2000 application, the in depth screening process is not possible. While other methods like campus interview, internal search has a personal touch. But receiving application in hand, communicating with candidates becomes time consuming without internet.

Article written by,

Arundhati Ghosh, Junior Faculty Member
Icfai National College,Kolkata

What's New In HR

Human resource management, if we see it from definition perspective “it is a process of bringing people and organizations together so that the goals of each others are met”.

If we see in practical situation the above definition its just one side of a coin which has limited HRM involvement but HRM today is a different story, it have changed the way we work, and also it helps an organization to survive in recessionary period. Managing and attracting the human resource in today’s time is very difficult task. The role of HR manager has changed a lot (Dancing differently on changing tunes of life) from being protector and screener to the role of Savior who acts as planner and change agent affecting bottom of the pyramid where it is blue collar workers & at the Top & Middle level executives.


The trends in human resource industry are dynamic in nature which contributes towards to achievement of organization goals. Over the years, highly skilled and knowledge based jobs have increased while low skilled jobs are decreasing. This calls for skill mapping through proper HRM initiatives.

Change is inevitable as said and that’s what Indian organizations are witnessing in management cultures, systems and working style. Alignment with global companies has forced Indian organization accept and incorporate change in every day life which makes role of HRM all the more important.

Some of the recent changes are as follows:

The policies of many companies have become people centric, traditionally the policies mainly focused on achievement of organizational goals showing negligence towards the human resource.

• Attracting and retaining of human resource has become difficult as loyalty factor is losing its shine, today HR personnel have to motivate and design healthy career road map to make them stay in the company.
• Human Resource Outsourcing is the new name in the industry to replace the redundant traditional HR department. Many HR outsourcing companies in India are already established and some are coming up to support increasing demand of corporate India.
• With the increase of global job mobility, recruiting competent people is also increasingly becoming difficult, especially in India. Therefore organizations are also required to work out a retention strategy for the existing skilled manpower.

HR managers today are focusing on policies (trust, openness & equality), Motivation, Relations. Due to new trends in HR the manager should treat people as resources, reward them equitably and integrate their goals with that of the organizational goals through suitable HR policies.

Conclusion:“I never predict. I just look out the window and see what is visible – but not yet seen” (Peter Drucker)
Trends in Human resource management have changed the way we work, as organizations are more depended on HRM to increase the success ratio in today’s competitive global environment. Trends will continue to come as time and opportunities will keep you guessing what’s next?

This article is given by:

Miss Priti Shah