Rules of thumb for company managers
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Abu Naser Bhuiyan
Better management practices are required in Bangladesh when our firms are more and more aspiring to be competitive at the global level. But many firms have not even started to realize the importance of practicing basic good management techniques. The basic management practice starts with selection of employees. Selection is the process of selecting the best candidates for jobs in an organisation. Selection can be both internal and external. Internal selection is the selection of candidates internally from the organisation. External selection uses information about externally recruited applicants to choose which of them will receive employment offers. Applicant screening is a form of selection that uses information to identify obviously worthy applicants before gathering additional selection information.
The permanent employees who perform key tasks specific to the organization are called the core workers. This core is then surrounded by one or more groups of peripheral workers. The reason for keeping peripheral workers is to keep the labour and other costs of the organization low and to maintain the level of profit higher. If a firm keeps a large number of core workers then it would be more rigid and if the firm fails to remain profitable in the long run then it would face difficulties to pay higher wages along with other benefits .e.g. pension, gratuity, etc. to the core workers.
On the other hand, if a firm keeps a mixture of core and peripheral workers and keeps the number of core workers low then it would be able to keep its expenses low and at the same time it would be able to avoid the hassles of unionization by the employees because peripheral workers have fewer rights and they are not union members.
Employee turnover is a measure of the extent to which employees enter and leave an organization. There are a variety of reasons for workers to leave an organization and these are: separation due to management action; involuntary or unavoidable separation; voluntary or avoidable separation. This third reason, the management has to take into account seriously because employees are leaving the organization not only because of the above two reasons but they are leaving due to job dissatisfaction or because they are not satisfied with their pay, conditions, etc.
Employee turnover is healthy for an organization up to a certain level but problems arise when employees start leaving the firm in considerable number because of job dissatisfaction. If the workers or employees start leaving and this affects the firm's productivity, the production of the firm decreases thereby increasing the cost of production and new recruitment and training. For this reason the task of the personnel manager is to adopt strategies that reduces employee turnover.
Redundancy can be defined as the termination of employment caused by an inadequate level of work. Redundancy is a fair reason for dismissal but only if carried out according to procedures lay down by law. An organisation can have surplus employees for many reasons. So, it may become essential for the firm to go for shedding employees
One of the processes of employee turnover is natural wastage to occur and in this way decrease the number of workers. But in many cases, it can be seen that decrease in the number of workers in this process is not becoming possible to fulfil the target of redundancy. The organization then goes for voluntary redundancy but the problem arises when organisation loses valuable workers through this process. And in that case the target cannot still be fulfilled through this means.
The organisation can go for early retirement. The advantage of this sort of redundancy is that the company can avoid the burden of paying the employees and at the same time can avoid paying money as pensions and gratuity.
If all of these methods of carrying out redundancies fail then the company follows the last weapon of voluntary redundancy. While carrying out this process, the company follows the methods of 'last in first out,' (LIFO). In this way the company can retain its experienced workers. The company makes redundant those who joined recently or later because these employees are young and new and finding jobs for themselves would not be a big problem. This means that those workers who perform well are kept and the less effective people are made redundant.
Training can be defined as a learning experience in that it seeks a permanent change in an individual that will improve his or her ability to perform on the job. Training can involve the changing of skills, knowledge, attitudes or social behaviour. Previously, it was believed that one time training was enough for the employees. But, at present, the ideology about employee training and development has changed and to keep pace with the dynamic competitive business world, organisations need to maintain a continuing process of training of employees.
Better management practices are required in Bangladesh when our firms are more and more aspiring to be competitive at the global level. But many firms have not even started to realize the importance of practicing basic good management techniques. The basic management practice starts with selection of employees. Selection is the process of selecting the best candidates for jobs in an organisation. Selection can be both internal and external. Internal selection is the selection of candidates internally from the organisation. External selection uses information about externally recruited applicants to choose which of them will receive employment offers. Applicant screening is a form of selection that uses information to identify obviously worthy applicants before gathering additional selection information.
The permanent employees who perform key tasks specific to the organization are called the core workers. This core is then surrounded by one or more groups of peripheral workers. The reason for keeping peripheral workers is to keep the labour and other costs of the organization low and to maintain the level of profit higher. If a firm keeps a large number of core workers then it would be more rigid and if the firm fails to remain profitable in the long run then it would face difficulties to pay higher wages along with other benefits .e.g. pension, gratuity, etc. to the core workers.
On the other hand, if a firm keeps a mixture of core and peripheral workers and keeps the number of core workers low then it would be able to keep its expenses low and at the same time it would be able to avoid the hassles of unionization by the employees because peripheral workers have fewer rights and they are not union members.
Employee turnover is a measure of the extent to which employees enter and leave an organization. There are a variety of reasons for workers to leave an organization and these are: separation due to management action; involuntary or unavoidable separation; voluntary or avoidable separation. This third reason, the management has to take into account seriously because employees are leaving the organization not only because of the above two reasons but they are leaving due to job dissatisfaction or because they are not satisfied with their pay, conditions, etc.
Employee turnover is healthy for an organization up to a certain level but problems arise when employees start leaving the firm in considerable number because of job dissatisfaction. If the workers or employees start leaving and this affects the firm's productivity, the production of the firm decreases thereby increasing the cost of production and new recruitment and training. For this reason the task of the personnel manager is to adopt strategies that reduces employee turnover.
Redundancy can be defined as the termination of employment caused by an inadequate level of work. Redundancy is a fair reason for dismissal but only if carried out according to procedures lay down by law. An organisation can have surplus employees for many reasons. So, it may become essential for the firm to go for shedding employees
One of the processes of employee turnover is natural wastage to occur and in this way decrease the number of workers. But in many cases, it can be seen that decrease in the number of workers in this process is not becoming possible to fulfil the target of redundancy. The organization then goes for voluntary redundancy but the problem arises when organisation loses valuable workers through this process. And in that case the target cannot still be fulfilled through this means.
The organisation can go for early retirement. The advantage of this sort of redundancy is that the company can avoid the burden of paying the employees and at the same time can avoid paying money as pensions and gratuity.
If all of these methods of carrying out redundancies fail then the company follows the last weapon of voluntary redundancy. While carrying out this process, the company follows the methods of 'last in first out,' (LIFO). In this way the company can retain its experienced workers. The company makes redundant those who joined recently or later because these employees are young and new and finding jobs for themselves would not be a big problem. This means that those workers who perform well are kept and the less effective people are made redundant.
Training can be defined as a learning experience in that it seeks a permanent change in an individual that will improve his or her ability to perform on the job. Training can involve the changing of skills, knowledge, attitudes or social behaviour. Previously, it was believed that one time training was enough for the employees. But, at present, the ideology about employee training and development has changed and to keep pace with the dynamic competitive business world, organisations need to maintain a continuing process of training of employees.