“There is a reason an airplane has both a pilot and a co-pilot, that’s the same reason organisation s need to have succession plans.”

Planning for the future is essential in every aspect of life. Planning in business is a core component of competitiveness. A business governed in an ad-hoc manner may have surges of growth and spurts of success but this will not be sustained for long. An organisation that practices planning for future time periods will have a higher probability of reaching success and will be more systematic in reaching their system objectives.

Dear Evil HR Lady,

Recently I was accused of a crime. I work for a laboratory, and I was accused of a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act violation. I was not guilty of violating HIPAA, but no one -- not my immediate supervisor, who was not present when the "incident" occurred, not my director, not the supervisor who believes he "caught" me, nor anyone from HR -- has ever had a conversation with me about this. No one has even asked me if I did what they think I did, which was supposedly to print out lab results for a co-worker.

 My bonus was taken away, allegedly by HR (that's what I was told), and I was made to sign a document that stated that this was a "final write-up" -- I'd never been written up for anything before. When I asked if I could say anything to this kangaroo court, I was told, "No, You are lucky you still have a job. You can go back to work now."

The Human Resource Function is mostly regarded by other departments as being an operational department doing day-to-day tasks. They are perceived to be a functional department rather than a strategic department like Marketing or Production. This attitude towards Human Resources can only stem from the evolution of human resources department.

In recent times, there has been a great amount of attention given to the subject of work-life balance both locally and globally. Work-life balance is a satisfactory level of involvement or a ‘fit’ between the multiple roles in a person’s life. A desirable work-life balance consist of effectively coping between paid work and other activities which are important to one’s daily living, whether it be spending time with family and friends, participating in sports and other recreational activities, or educational purposes. This work-life balance may tend to alter over time as people have constantly changing responsibilities and commitments in their work place as well as personal lives. However, it is extremely essential to maintain a healthy work-life balance as it can reap many benefits to the employees as well as the employers; as a result it will build strong communities and efficient businesses.

Layoffs are termination of jobs permanently or temporarily without regard to employee job performance, these mainly occur when particular positions are no longer needed or when a company is experiencing financial difficulties. Layoffs have become a very common phenomenon since the 1980s. These are initiatives taken by organisation s in an attempt to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Previous research indicates that layoffs are identified by the management of organisation s as means of cutting costs and redeveloping organisation’s that are declining.

What is Job evaluation?

Job Evaluation is defined as a method of determining the relative worth of a job to an organisation .

It’s a useful process because job titles can often be misleading- either unclear or unspecific- and in large organisation s it’s impossible for those in HR to know each job in detail.
As a rough guide, job evaluation, like many pay management techniques, tends to be desirable in organisation s. It usually becomes essential once employee numbers increase to more than 250. But each organisation is different and the use of JE techniques will depend on individual circumstances.  

Being a great manager is most certainly not an easy task, for some individuals managing comes naturally, but for others it may not be as easy. Most mangers get caught up spending time with individuals who need more assistance, however what is really essential is to spend more time cultivating the talents and strengths of your staff. A great manager’s fundamental task is to realize that every person will be unique, every job will be different and every workplace will be different.

At the gathering hosted by CIMA President, Gulzari Lal Babber, recently at the Cinnamon Grand, Udayasri Kariyawasam, Chairman of the IDB, presented his preliminary research findings on the barriers to performance in the public sector.

The negative impact of stress on employee productivity is heavily documented and constantly spoken about. The majority of authors conclude that stress is required in the right quantities. Creativity and productivity peak at different levels of stress. People are more creative at lower levels of stress and they are more productive at moderate levels of stress. A very high level of stress or a very low level of stress will hamper both creativity and productivity.

I had just finished my MBA and was looking for a new job opportunity and was going through the usual process, applying via email and going for interviews.

We go for an interview because we get shortlisted, and it is only fair to expect to be treated in a professional manner, but in most cases it is NOT. There isn’t any point if you have a great product and high sales if you do not know how to attract candidates. Interviewers forget that apart from judging the interviewee that the employer is judged, you give us an insight about your company on the way you behave and although you might not realize it we evaluate you too. Just listing some of the unprofessional situations I’ve come across during the past few months.