STRATEGIC HRM

1. STRATEGIC HRM DEFINATION

Strategic HRM is an approach to making decisions on the intentions and plans of the organization concerning the employment relationship and its recruitment, training, development, performance management, reward and employee relations strategies, policies and practices. The key characteristic of strategic HRM is that it is integrated. HR strategies are generally integrated vertically with the business strategy and horizontally with one another. The HR strategies developed by a strategic HRM approach are essential components of the organization's business strategy.

2. HRM vs Strategic HRM

HRM is Human Resources Management which is a strategic approach to the management of employees. HRM involves the process of employing people, developing their skills/capacities, and utilizing their services. But today, HRM has come across many changes, and the latest one is the Strategic HRM which is the most powerful idea currently. Strategic HRM can be termed as a branch of HRM.

In HRM, traditional methods are followed. Traditional methods means the selection or recruitment process and imparting training. This HRM process did not have any specific rules for different areas like recruitment, training, and utilizing the services. This is what makes the Strategic HRM different from HRM. In Strategic HRM, there are specific rules specified for specialized fields.

In HRM, there are no separate people for different areas whereas in Strategic HRM there are different people who are skilled in specific areas. It is not that the same persons will handle recruitment, training, and employee appraisal.

As the term itself denotes, Strategic HRM deals with strategic aspects of HRM. Unlike HRM, Strategic HRM mainly focuses on the programs with long-term objectives. Though HRM and Strategic HRM focus on increasing employee productivity, Strategic HRM uses many strategic methods.

Unlike the traditional HRM, Strategic HRM uses more sophisticated methods for improving overall employee motivation and productivity. Unlike the traditional HRM, Strategic HRM uses more systematic tools.

While the traditional HRM focuses mainly on employee relations, Startegic HRM focuses on partnerships with internal and external customers. When HRM has only short-term goals, Strategic HRM has long-term goals.When considering job design, there is a tight division of labor and independence specialization in HRM. On the other hand, the job division in Strategic HRM is flexible. When HRM has staff specialists, Strategic HRM has line managers.Summary:

1. HRM involves the process of employing people, developing their skills/capacities, and utilizing their services. Strategic HRM can be termed as a branch of HRM.2. While traditional HRM focuses mainly on employee relations, Startegic HRM focuses on partnerships with internal and external customers.3. When HRM has only short-term goals, Strategic HRM is for long-term goals.4. When HRM has staff specialists, Strategic HTM has line managers.5. When considering job design, there is a tight division of labor and independence specialization in HRM. On the other hand, job division in Strategic HRM is flexible.

3. Importance of Strategic Human Resource Management

Strategic Human Resource Management is normally performed to help companies and organizations best meet the needs and expectations of their employees while promoting and working towards achieving  the  company goals.

Strategic Human Resource Management also deals with any aspects of the enterprises that affect the employees, including employee hiring and firing, employee pay, their benefits, training, and administration issues of the employees.

Strategic Human Resource Management also provides work the incentives to employees, safety information, sick leaves and catering for vacation issues of the employees.

Strategic Human Resource Management is also concerned with the proactive management of an organization’s workforce or employees. Strategic human resource management requires thinking ahead leading and also putting up ways for a company to better meet its employee’s needs and vice versa for the employees. Strategic human resource management influences the way in which things are done in the organization including training, hiring and firing employees.

Strategic Human Resource Management helps companies work hard to meet the needs of their employees and cultivate a work atmosphere conducive for production purposes. Strategic human resource management also can help to improve the skilled employees working rate. Also strategic human resource management helps an organization improve the employee retention and help reduce spending on the hiring and training new employees.

Strategic Human Resource Management helps to reduce the costs for  the   organizations and thus earn them a competitive advantageStrategic human resource management also plays the role of identifying and analyzing the external opportunities and the threats

that may impede the company’s performance.  It also helps the organization to be a prospective one rather than just focusing in the present

Strategic Human Resource Management also helps the organization focus on its business and ensure consistency in its performance, putting together resources to ensure collective achievement of organizational goals, utilizing their potential to the firm’s advantage, using other resources of the organization like finances to ensure achievement of organizational goals.Strategic Human Resource Management helps to translate the business strategies into the human resource practices which helps the business to adapt to changes. This is because the time from the conception of the strategy to the execution of a strategy is shortened. It also helps the business to better meet its customer demands. Strategic human resource management helps the business achieve its financial performance through effective strategy execution.

4. Steps in SHRM

The process of developing a strategic human resources management (HRM) plan allows businesses of any size to better understand the human resources available to them, determine what human resources they will need, decide how to best use the human resources at their disposal, and develop a system to ensure human resources needs are sufficiently covered.1. Identify both opportunities and problems that can affect your HRM

plan. Consider the business environment, upcoming projects, potential drops in revenue, and anything else that may affect how many employees you’ll need and be able to hire.2. Consider your current and future demand for human resources.

Look at the quantity of employees you will need as well as the job functions they’ll have to perform. Finding a concrete number is nearly impossible, but estimating projected human resource needs will help you create a more effective HRM plan.  If necessary, provide online training opportunities to ready employees to step into positions with more responsibility.3. Analyze the human resources you have available. Look at the

strengths and skills of current employees, as well as their weaknesses. This will help you to better place each employee in a position to achieve their best and avoid problems that might arise when an employee is put into a position for which he has no aptitude. Consider your business environment, space and company culture as well to see how you can best use all of the available resources you have on hand.4. Create a plan to mesh the demand for human resources with the

human resources you have available. If the demand is greater than

the supply, you’ll need to determine how to fill that gap and find the additional resources you need. This may mean authorizing overtime hours, using contract or temporary workers, or hiring new employees. If you have more employees than you need, you’ll have to look for options to help you reduce the workforce in some way. This might involve early retirements, layoffs or even terminations.Developing a strategic human resources management plan will help

you more effectively and efficiently meet the needs your business has for qualified employees who can fulfill their job functions successfully. If you’re struggling with your HRM plan, there are eLearning opportunities available to help you improve your skills and create a better plan.

5. HR strategies

Strategic HRM as described in the last chapter is the process that results in the formulation of HR strategies. The terms ‘strategic HRM’ and ‘HR strategy’ are often used interchangeably, but a distinction can be made between them.

Strategic HRM can be regarded as a general approach to the strategic management of human resources in accordance with the intentions of the organization on the future direction it wants to take. What emerges from this process is a stream of decisions over time, which form the pattern adopted by the organization for managing its human resources and define the areas in which specific HR strategies need to be developed. HR strategies will focus on the specific intentions of the organization on what needs to be done and what needs to be changed.

This chapter starts by defining what HR strategies are and what they set out to do, continues with descriptions of different types of strategy with examples, and concludes with a list of the criteria for an effective strategy.

HR STRATEGIES DEFINED

HR strategies set out what the organization intends to do about its human resource management policies and practices, and how they should be integrated with the business strategy and each other. They are described by Dyer and Reeves (1995) as ‘internally consistent bundles of human resource

practices’, and in the words of Peter Boxall (1996) they provide ‘a framework of critical ends and means’.

The purpose of HR strategies is to guide development and implementation programmes. They provide a means of communicating to all concerned the intentions of the organization about how its human resources will be managed. They enable the organization to measure progress and evaluate outcomes against objectives.

TYPES OF HR STRATEGIES

Because all organizations are different, all HR strategies are different. There is no such thing as a set of standard characteristics. Research into HR strategy conducted by Armstrong and Long (1994) and Armstrong and Baron (2002) revealed many variations. Some strategies are simply very general declarations of intent. Others go into much more detail. But two basic types of HR strategies can be identified. These are: 1) overarching strategies; and 2) specific strategies relating to the different aspects of human resource management.

Overarching HR strategies

Overarching strategies describe the general intentions of the organization about how people should be managed and developed and what steps should be taken to ensure that the organization can attract and retain the people it needs and ensure so far as possible that employees are committed, motivated and engaged. They are likely to be expressed as broad-brush statements of aims and purpose, which set the scene for more specific strategies. They are concerned with overall organizational effectiveness – achieving human resource advantage by, as Boxall and Purcell (2003) point out, employing ‘better people in organizations with better process’, developing high-performance work processes and generally creating ‘a great place to work’.

The following are some examples of overarching HR strategy statements:

AEGON:

The Human Resources Integrated Approach aims to ensure that from whatever angle staff now look at the elements of pay management,

performance, career development and reward, they are consistent and linked.

The major factor influencing HR strategy was the need to attract, maintain and retain the right people to deliver it. The aim was to introduce a system that complemented the business, that reflected the way we wanted to treat our customers – treating our people the same. What we would do for our customers we would also do for our people. We wanted to make an impact on the culture – the way people do business.

Specific HR strategies

Specific HR strategies set out what the organization intends to do in areassuch as:

- talent management – how the organization intends to ‘win the war for talent’;- continuous improvement – providing for focused and continuous incrementalinnovation sustained over a period of time;- knowledge management – creating, acquiring, capturing, sharing and using knowledge to enhance learning and performance;- resourcing – attracting and retaining high-quality people;- learning and developing – providing an environment in which employees are encouraged to learn and develop;-l reward – defining what the organization wants to do in the longer term to develop and implement reward policies, practices and processes that will further the achievement of its business goals and meet the needs ofits stakeholders;- employee relations – defining the intentions of the organization about what needs to be done and what needs to be changed in the ways in which the organization manages its relationships with employees andtheir trade unions.

The following are some examples of specific HR strategies:

The Children’s Society:- Implement the rewards strategy of the Society to support the corporate plan and secure the recruitment, retention and motivation of staff to deliver its business objectives.

- Manage the development of the human resources information system tosecure productivity improvements in administrative processes.- Introduce improved performance management processes for managers and staff of the Society.- Implement training and development which supports the business objectives of the Society and improves the quality of work with children and young people.

Government agency:

The key components of the HR strategy are:

- Investing in people – improving the level of intellectual capital.- Performance management – integrating the values contained in the HR strategy into performance management processes and ensuring that reviews concentrate on how well people are performing those values.- Job design – a key component concerned with how jobs are designed and how they relate to the whole business.- The reward system – in developing rewards strategies, taking into account that this is a very hard driven business.

HR strategies for higher education institutions (The Higher Education Funding Council): 

1. Address recruitment and retention difficulties in a targeted and cost effective manner. 

2. Meet specific staff development and training objectives that not only equip staff to meet their current needs but also prepare them for future changes, such as using new technologies for learning and teaching. This wouldinclude management development.

3. Develop equal opportunity targets with programmes to implement good practice throughout an institution. This would include ensuring equal pay for work of equal value, using institution-wide systems of job evaluation. This could involve institutions working collectively – regionally or nationally. 

4. Carry out regular reviews of staffing needs, reflecting changes in market demands and technology. The reviews would consider overall numbers and the balance of different categories of staff.

5. Conduct annual performance reviews of all staff, based on open and objective criteria, with reward connected to the performance of individuals including, where appropriate, their contribution to teams. 

6. Take action to tackle poor performance.

A local authority: 

The focus is on the organization of excellence. The strategy is broken down into eight sections: employee relations, recruitment and retention, training, performance management, pay and benefits, health and safety, absence management and equal opportunities.

CRITERIA FOR AN EFFECTIVE HR STRATEGY

An effective HR strategy is one that works in the sense that it achieves what it sets out to achieve. In particular, it:

- will satisfy business needs;- be founded on detailed analysis and study, not just wishful thinking;- can be turned into actionable programs that anticipate implementation requirements and problems;- is coherent and integrated, being composed of components that fit with and support each other;- takes account of the needs of line managers and employees generally as well as those of the organization and its other stakeholders. As Boxall and Purcell (2003) emphasize: ‘HR planning should aim to meet the needs of the key stakeholder groups involved in people management in the firm. Here is a comment on what makes a good HR strategy:

A good strategy is one which actually makes people feel valued. It makes them knowledgeable about the organization and makes them feel clear about where they sit as a group, or team, or individual. It must show them how what they do either together or individually fits into that strategy.

Importantly, it should indicate how people are going to be rewarded for their contribution and how they might be developed and grow in the organization.

6. Barriers to Strategic Human Resource Management

1. Short term mentality: Short-term mentality and focus on current performance of SFIRM is the first barrier. Every manager act, long-term focus, because organization has been established with long-terms objectives/focus.

2. Strategic inability: Very often SHRM does not think strategically and he cannot think it to due in capability. This type of inability may be arisen for many reasons as lack of technical knowledge, insufficient training and the like.

3. Lack of appreciation: Sometimes top managers do not recognize the activities of strategic human resource management. So SHR manager does not get interest to do any innovative venture. A few appreciations may get them a substantial mental boost up.

4. Failure understand  role:  General  managerial   roles  may  not  be   fully understood by be managers. This failure be due to lack of knowledge about specialty of degree of responsibility. This failure may create distance between these managers

5. Difficulty in quantifying outcomes: Many outcomes may not be quantified. But SHRM   tries  to  enjoy the  contribution.   This   is  not always  possible. Participation, work etc. type function cannot be quantified because of their intangibility.

6. Wong perception on human assets: Investment in human assets may be regarded as high risk than that of technology and information. Though these technologies are run by the human resources. This wrong perception may inhibit the progress.

7. Resistance: SHR Managers may be resisted because of the incentives for change that might arise. The change implementer demand some incentives for efforts to execute the changed program. If these incentives are not given reasonably, they may create barriers SHRM.

In addition to these barriers there may be other points also. As for example, lack of union support, government backing, and weak financial position of company can act as bathers to SHR management

Role of HR in Organization's Growth Strategy

Bangalore: Growth is the central agenda of an organization. To expand its business a firm may take several strategies like emerging markets, mergers and acquisitions and innovation. But such diverse growth opportunities also comes with a vast range of people related challenges. Undoubtedly, the HR

branch of the company has to play a major role to retain this growth rate.Today HRs are the major strategic players for efficiency initiatives for the growth of their companies. By sourcing better talents across the globe for enhanced performance and leverage, HRs are also assisting the organization expansion process. The HR professionals must have the intellect to hire and retain the employee who has the potential to facilitate the growth aspect of the company.

Expanding in the emerging markets is not that easy for an organization. Especially when foreign companies have to get hold of the local talent; the hiring process seems like a daunting task. It is the HRs job to corporate with the local recruitment agencies to find out the best resources they can get in the market. They are also responsible to maintain the harmony of diverse cultured workforce.

The employers often tend to ignore the ethnic sentiments of their outsourced workers, mostly from third world countries. This feeling of ignorance sometimes leads to disastrous results. When the feeling of denial from management comes up in workers mind, they do not wish to give their best performance.

The HR of the company has a very critical role to play in such conflicting scenario. They have to comprehend the capabilities, employability, and cultural implications of talent accessible in the outsourcing nation. They also have to know how to prioritize the growth objective of the company in accordance with the leveraging opportunities offered by the outsourcing market.

One more critical aspect of growth strategy is mergers and acquisition. With M & A, the handling issue of the acquired company,s employees also comes into the picture. To sustain the talent advantage got due to M & A process HRs has to do thoughtful talent and organization planning.

Innovation is a major driver of growth. It is the HR professionals of the company who are responsible for stimulating the innovative environment in the work force.

To retain and excel the growth of the organization has to sustain and generate steady top-line growth. In such scenario, the HRs has to work for building a workforce with speed, flexibility, and adaptability to change. With a standard work environment built in association with the HR department does wonders for company productivity and growth.

2. Strategic Job Analysis , Job design & redesigning of Work System:

2.1 Concept, Process, Method & use of job analysis.

Concept

Job analysis is a process of gathering or collecting information relating to job description and job satisfaction. It is the systematic process of gathering and organizing the information relating to various aspects of job, which describes the job contents and minimum job requirements in terms of skills, efforts, responsibilities and working conditions. 

Where to place the employees in order to best utilize their skills and talent? How to determine the need of new employees in the organization? How to eliminate unneeded jobs? How to set realistic performance measurement standards? How to identify the jobs and prepare a plan to fill them?

Well, all this can be effectively done by a proper and thorough job analysis. Managers deal such kinds of challenges in day-to-day company operations where they need to fulfill effectively and efficiently fulfill the organization’s requirements related to human resource recruitment, selection, performance, satisfaction and cutting down and adding extra responsibilities and duties. And there is no scope where they can avert the risk of being wrong.

An effective and right process of analyzing a particular job is a great relief for them. It helps them maintain the right quality of employees, measure their performance on realistic standards, assess their training and development needs and increase their productivity. Let’s discuss the job analysis process and find out how it serves the purpose.

Job Analysis Process

Identification of Job Analysis Purpose: Well any process is futile until its purpose is not identified and defined. Therefore, the first step in the process is to determine its need and desired output. Spending human efforts, energy as well as money is useless until HR managers don’t know why data is to be collected and what is to be done with it.

Who Will Conduct Job Analysis: The second most important step in the process of job analysis is to decide who will conduct it. Some companies prefer getting it done by their own HR department while some hire job analysis consultants. Job analysis consultants may prove to be extremely helpful as they offer unbiased advice, guidelines and methods. They don’t have any personal likes and dislikes when it comes to analyze a job.

How to Conduct the Process: Deciding the way in which job analysis process needs to be conducted is surely the next step. A planned approach about how to carry the whole process is required in order to investigate a specific job.

Strategic Decision Making: Now is the time to make strategic decision. It’s about deciding the extent of employee involvement in the process, the level of details to be collected and recorded, sources from where data is to be collected, data collection methods, the processing of information and segregation of collected data.

Training of Job Analyst: Next is to train the job analyst about how to conduct the process and use the selected methods for collection and recoding of job data.

Preparation of Job Analysis Process: Communicating it within the organization is the next step. HR managers need to communicate the whole thing properly so that employees offer their full support to the job analyst. The stage also involves preparation of documents, questionnaires, interviews and feedback forms.

Data Collection: Next is to collect job-related data including educational qualifications of employees, skills and abilities required to perform the job, working conditions, job activities, reporting hierarchy, required human traits, job activities, duties and responsibilities involved and employee behaviour.

Documentation, Verification and Review: Proper documentation is done to verify the authenticity of collected data and then review it. This is the final information that is used to describe a specific job.

Developing Job Description and Job Specification: Now is the time to segregate the collected data in to useful information. Job Description describes the roles, activities, duties and responsibilities of the job while job specification is a statement of educational qualification, experience, personal traits and skills required to perform the job.

Thus, the process of job analysis helps in identifying the worth of specific job, utilizing the human talent in the best possible manner, eliminating unneeded jobs and setting realistic performance measurement standards.

Job Analysis Methods

Most Common Methods of Job Analysis

Observation Method: A job analyst observes an employee and records all his performed and non-performed task, fulfilled and un-fulfilled responsibilities and duties, methods, ways and skills used by him or her to perform various duties and his or her mental or emotional ability to handle challenges and risks. However, it seems one of the easiest methods to analyze a specific job but truth is that it is the most difficult one. Why? Let’s Discover.

It is due to the fact that every person has his own way of observing things. Different people think different and interpret the findings in different ways. Therefore, the process may involve personal biasness or likes and dislikes and may not produce genuine results. This error can be avoided by proper training of job analyst or whoever will be conducting the job analysis process.

This particular method includes three techniques: direct observation, Work Methods Analysis and Critical Incident Technique. The first method includes direct observation and recording of behaviour of an employee in different situations. The second involves the study of time and motion and is specially used for assembly-line or factory workers. The third one is about identifying the work behaviours that result in performance.

Interview Method: In this method, an employee is interviewed so that he or she comes up with their own working styles, problems faced by them, use of particular skills and techniques while performing their job and insecurities and fears about their careers.

This method helps interviewer know what exactly an employee thinks about his or her own job and responsibilities involved in it. It involves analysis of job by employee himself. In order to generate honest and true feedback or collect genuine data, questions asked during the interview should be carefully decided. And to avoid errors, it is always good to interview more than one individual to get a pool of responses. Then it can be generalized and used for the whole group.

Questionnaire Method: Another commonly used job analysis method is getting the questionnaires filled from employees, their superiors and managers. However, this method also suffers from personal biasness. A great care should be takes while framing questions for different grades of employees.

In order to get the true job-related info, management should effectively communicate it to the staff that data collected will be used for their own good. It is very important to ensure them that it won’t be used against them in anyway. If it is not done properly, it will be a sheer wastage of time, money and human resources.

These are some of the most common methods of job analysis. However, there are several other specialized methods including task inventory, job element method, competency profiling, technical conference, threshold traits analysis system and a combination of these methods. While choosing a method, HR managers need to consider time, cost and human efforts included in conducting the process.

Use of Job Analysis:-

Job analysis is useful for overall management of all personnel activities.

The same is specified as follows: 

1. Human Resource Planning:

The estimates the quantity and quality of people will be required in future. How many and what type of

people will be required depends on the jobs to be staffed. Job-related information available through job

analysis is, therefore, necessary for human resource planning.

2. Recruitment and Selection:

Recruitment succeeds job analysis. Basically, the goal of the human resource planning is to match the

right people with the right job. This is possible only after having adequate information about the jobs that

need to be staffed. It is job analysis that provides job information. Thus, job analysis serves as basis for

recruitment and selection of employees in the organisation.

3. Training and Development:

Job analysis by providing information about what a job entails i.e., knowledge and skills required to

perform a job, enables the management to design the training and development programmes to acquire

these job requirements. Employee development programmes like job enlargement, job enrichment, job

rotation, etc.

4. Placement and Orientation:

As job analysis provides information about what skills and qualities are required to do a job, the

management can gear orientation programmes towards helping the employees learn the required skills

and qualities. It, thus, helps management place an employee on the job best suited to him/her.

5. Job Evaluation:

The job evaluation refers to determination of relative worth of different jobs. It, thus, helps in developing

appropriate wage and salary structures. Relative worth is determined mainly on the basis of information

provided by job analysis.

6. Performance Appraisal:

Performance appraisal involves comparing the actual performance of an employee with the standard one,

i.e., what is expected of him/her. Such appraisal or assessment serves as basis for awarding promotions,

effecting transfers, or assessing training needs. Job analysis helps in establishing job standards which

may be compared with the actual performance/contribution of each employee.

7. Personnel Information:

Increasing number of organisations maintain computerised information about their employees. This is

popularly known as Human Resource Information System (HRIS). HRIS is useful as it helps improve

administrative efficiency and provides decision support^ Information relating to human resources working

in the organisation is provided by job analysis only.

8. Health and Safety:

Job analysis helps in identifying and uncovering hazardous conditions and unhealthy environmental

factors such as heat, noise, fumes, dust, etc. and, thus, facilitates management to take corrective

measures to minimise and avoid the possibilitiy of accidents causing human injury

2.2 Concept of Job Description, Job Specification, Job Design

Job Description:Job description is prepared on the basis of data collected through job analysis. Job description is a

functional description of the contents what the job entails. It is a narration of the contents of a job. It is a

description of the activities and duties to be performed in a job, the relationship of the job with other jobs,

the equipment and tools involved, the nature of supervision, working conditions and hazards of the job

and so on.

All major categories of jobs need to be spelled out in clear and comprehensive manner to determine the qualifications and skills required to perform a job. Thus, job description differentiates one job from the other. In sum, job description is a written statement of what a job holder does, how it is done, and why it is done.

Purposes of Job Description:

Job description is done for fulfilling the following purposes:

1. Grading and classification of jobs

2. Placement and Orientation of new employees

3. Promotions and transfers

4. Outlining for career path

5. Developing work standards

6. Counselling of employees

7. Delimitation of authority

Job Specification:

While job description focuses on the job, job specification focuses on the person i.e, the job holder. Job specification is a statement of the minimum levels of qualifications, skills, physical and other abilities, experience, judgment and attributes required for performing job effectively. In other words, it is a statement of the minimum acceptable qualifications that an incumbent must possess to perform a given job. It sets forth the knowledge, skills and abilities required to do the job effectively.

Job specification specifies the physical, psychological, personal, social and behavioural characteristics of the job holders. These contents of the job specification are contained in Table 5.1.

Usages of Job Specification: The usages of job specification include:1. Personnel planning2. Performance appraisal3. Hiring4. Training and development5. Job evaluation and compensation6. Health and safety7. Employee discipline8. Work scheduling9. Career planning

Job Design - Meaning, Steps and its Benefits

Job design follows job analysis i.e. it is the next step after job analysis. It aims at outlining and organising tasks, duties and responsibilities into a single unit of work for the achievement of certain objectives. It also

outlines the methods and relationships that are essential for the success of a certain job. In simpler terms it refers to the what, how much, how many and the order of the tasks for a job/s.

Job design essentially involves integrating job responsibilities or content and certain qualifications that are required to perform the same. It outlines the job responsibilities very clearly and also helps in attracting the right candidates to the right job. Further it also makes the job look interesting and specialised.

There are various steps involved in job design that follow a logical sequence, those that were mentioned earlier on. The sequence is as follows:

1. What tasks are required to e done or what tasks is part of the job?2. How are the tasks performed?3. What amount are tasks are required to be done?4. What is the sequence of performing these tasks?

All these questions are aimed at arriving upon a clear definition of a specific job and thereby make it less risky for the one performing the same. A well-defined job encourages feeling of achievement among the employees and a sense of high self-esteem.

The whole process of job design is aimed to address various problems within the organizational setup, those that pertain to ones description of a job and the associated relationships. More specifically the following areas are fine-tuned:

Checking the work overload. Checking upon the work under load. Ensuring tasks are not repetitive in nature. Ensuring that employees don not remain isolated. Defining working hours clearly. Defining the work processes clearly.

The above mentioned are factors that if not taken care of result into building stress within the employees.

Benefits of Job Design

The following are the benefits of a good job design:

1. Employee Input: A good job design enables a good job feedback. Employees have the option to vary tasks as per their personal and social needs, habits and circumstances in the workplace.

2. Employee Training: Training is an integral part of job design. Contrary to the philosophy of “leave them alone’ job design lays due emphasis on training people so that are well aware of what their job demands and how it is to be done.

3. Work / Rest Schedules: Job design offers good work and rest schedule by clearly defining the number of hours an individual has to spend in his/her job.

4. Adjustments: A good job designs allows for adjustments for physically demanding jobs by minimizing the energy spent doing the job and by aligning the manpower requirements for the same.

Job design is a continuous and ever evolving process that is aimed at helping employees make adjustments with the changes in the workplace. The end goal is reducing dissatisfaction, enhancing motivation and employee engagement at the workplace