Dear HR Dynamic Professional.
I just want to share a piece of information which I have .. This would be of great help for people who are basementing up in HR Hub career...
Date: 27-04-2010
"What's the difference between 'Recruiting' and 'Strategic Talent Acquisition'?"
The easy part of the answer is to define "recruiting". It is nothing more than filling open positions. It is an entirely tactical event.
The more complex part of the answer is the definition of "Strategic Talent Acquisition".
Strategic Talent Acquisition takes a long-term view of not only filling positions today, but also using the candidates that come out of a recruiting campaign as a means to fill similar positions in the future.
These future positions may be identifiable today by looking at the succession management plan, or by analyzing the history of attrition for certain positions. This makes it easy to predict that specific openings will occur at a pre-determined period in time.
In the most enlightened cases of Strategic Talent Acquisition, clients will recruit today for positions that do not even exist today but are expected to become available in the future.
Taking the long term strategic approach to talent acquisition has a huge impact on how an approach is made to a candidate. If the approach is purely tactical in nature, all we ask of the prospective candidate is "are you qualified and interested?"
However, if the approach is more strategic in nature, the intent of the call is to go much further, and the conversation becomes more relationship building. The candidate has an opportunity to explain his/her future career aspirations, and the recruiter gathers enough information to determine if there is a potential fit in the client organization. If during a strategic recruiting call the candidate declares that they are both qualified and interested, then the tactical nature of the call has been automatically fulfilled. If, however, the candidate lacks sufficient experience, or the timing for a career move is not propitious, then they become candidates for the future, and all the recruiter has to do is keep in touch until either they become available, or a position with the client organization opens up.
Most of the money spent on Strategic Talent Acquisition would have been spent in a tactical recruiting mandate anyway. The only additional cost is in collecting data on high-potential candidates and then keeping in touch with them until hire is made. The additional cost becomes insignificant compared to the value of hiring top competitive talent over time.
Strategic Talent Acquisition allows us access to a pool of competitive talent that would otherwise have been missed or even worse, ignored.
Clearly the business case for acquiring talent strategically is far more compelling than simply paying to fill positions today. What we are doing is adding a small incremental effort, in exchange for a huge potential reward.
You must have heard that, to attract people we sugar coat certain set of things before presenting to the mass.
It is just the same with Recruitment and Talent Acquisition.
Both means the same. But conventionally recruitment is used or has been used for mass recruitment, like for armed forces, govt. jobs, etc.
But when you associate with big organizations or companies, this term (Recruitment) has been transformed to Talent Acquisition, by which they mean, that they just don't hire a person, but they acquire a talent as we acquire assets.
It just means that people are vital and most integral part for the development of the organization.
Also, as they are Talent which has acquired, so they will be valued and will be well taken care by the organization.
DATE: 20-04-2010
Difference between Absent and LWP
As per our process, following is the difference:
Absent - When an employee takes leave without prior permission / information. It is an unpaid leave, even if the employee has balance of paid leaves. It comes under the category of LWP.
LWP - It is an unpaid leave, when an employee has no balance left for paid leaves in his account.
Absent : Absebt means if any employee avails leave and remains absent from duty without prior sanction any type of leave from his superior , such type of leave /off would be treated as absent and his salary shall be deducted
LWP : LWP means that if any employee avails sanctioned leaves but he doesn't have any leave in his account than such type of sanctioned leave would be treated as leave without pay.
LWP means leave without pay. There are two types of LWP one is authorised and the other is Unauthorized. The Unauthorized one is actually called absent. The authorized as well as Unauthorized LWP are not entitled for any pay. For computation of Earned leave or Gratuity etc. the authorized LWP is considered for determining the eligibility criteria but the the computation part is done on the actual attendance. Normally when no leave is due on any employees account he/she applies for authorized LWP. Other cases are considerations on the merit or in case of suspension for more than 4 days (as stipulated in model standing orders or certified standing orders of the company as the case may be) and no domestic enquiry is held and/or subsistence allowanace is paid for the period of suspension.
Details about payroll & their deduction
Payroll is the salary processing system.
Payroll can be seen from two aspects. One is from HR side and other from commercial people side. The HR persons process the payroll by means of sending attendance details or better say LWP details and other complete details that an employee is going to get in a particular month.
And after receiving those details the commercial people start making entry into payroll software and can be said start salary processing.
Well while processing salary fro a particular month we the HR personals provide complete LWP (Leave without Pay) details to the commercial dept.
While calculating LWP, we prepare the attendance sheet with teh weekly offs. And apart from weekly offs we check how many days an employee is absent, out of which how many days he was on leave that we crosscheck with leave applications. If the particular employee has given the approved leave application form and that leave is been there in his account then we put him on leave.
But If the person has not submitted the leave application form or he doesn't have any leave in his balance then for that particular day that employee will be assumed absent, and we will deduct his salary for that day.
Similarly if there is any provision to provide one days extra salary for an specific day if the employee does come, then we calculate one day extra salary for those employees who were present on that day.
Payroll Management terms
Payroll is the salary processing system.
Payroll can be seen from two aspects. One is from HR side and other from commercial people side. The HR persons process the payroll by means of sending attendance details or better say LWP details and other complete details that an employee is going to get in a particular month.
And after receiving those details the commercial people start making entry into payroll software and can be said start salary processing.
Well while processing salary fro a particular month we the HR personals provide complete LWP (Leave without Pay) details to the commercial dept.
While calculating LWP, we prepare the attendance sheet with teh weekly offs. And apart from weekly offs we check how many days an employee is absent, out of which how many days he was on leave that we crosscheck with leave applications. If the particular employee has given the approved leave application form and that leave is been there in his account then we put him on leave.
But If the person has not submitted the leave application form or he doesn't have any leave in his balance then for that particular day that employee will be assumed absent, and we will deduct his salary for that day.
Similarly if there is any provision to provide one days extra salary for an specific day if the employee does come, then we calculate one day extra salary for those employees who were present on that day.
I am Sending the Pay structure per month.
S.No EARNINGS
1 Basic 50% of Gross
2 HRA 40% of Basic "If Gross<=3000 then 30%"
3 C.A. 40% of Basic
4 Medical Basic/12
5 Educational SALARY RANGE AMOUNT
UPTO GROSS SALARY 3000/- TO 15000/- 200/-
UPTO GROSS SALARY 15000/- TO 18000/- 500/-
UPTO GROSS SALARY 18000/- TO 30000/- 1000/-
UPTO GROSS SALARY 30000/- 1500/-
6 S.P.A. Basic+HRA+C.A.+Medical+Educ. - Gross
DEDUCTIONS
1 P.F. 12% on Basic
2 E.S.I. 1.75% on Gross, If Gross <=7500
3 P.Tax Salary up to 2001 Rs. 16.00
Salary up to 3001 Rs. 25.00
Salary up to 4001 Rs. 35.00
Salary up to 5001 Rs. 45.00
Salary up to 6001 Rs. 60.00
Salary up to 10001 Rs. 80.00
Salary up to 15001 Rs. 100.00
Salary up to 20001 Rs. 150.00
Salary above 20001 Rs. 200.00
Payroll is divided in two parts viz
Monthly payroll which includes the following
* Basic salary
* HRA - 50 % of basic for four major metros & 40% for other metros
* Conveyance - Rs 800/p.m. if excess would be added to taxable salary
* Special allowance
Annual payroll
* Medical Reimbursement - Rs 15,000/- max p.a.
* LTA
* Meal Vouchers - Rs 50 per working day paid through Sodexho/Accor vouchers..
In payroll on monthly basis - monthly break up is paid and is subject to the following deductions viz:-
Monthly payroll
less -
Provident Fund - 12% of the basic
Profesional Tax - Rs 200 ( varies from state to state)
Income Tax -
Other deductions - like loans or advances etc
Net take home - Rs ....
Role of HR in Payroll
[b]HR functions enable organisations to maximise the contribution of people to delivery of the organisation’s goals.
* Providing Direction
* building the people strategy
* providing the framework of policies and procedures related to the employment of staff
* providing the tools to do this effectively
* providing guidance, support and advice on the effective implementation of the strategy, policies, procedures and tools.
Payroll
Payrolll is the financial record of employees' salaries, wages, bonuses, net pay, and deductions. Payroll involves the disbursement of funds to company employees and the management of the myriad withholdings related to taxes and retirement plans. Managing payroll can become quite complicated due to the diverse types of employees a company may employ; full-time, part-time, salaried exempt, salaried non-exempt, contractor, etc. This leads many companies to outsource their payroll to external companies. Payroll is one of a series of accounting transactions dealing with the process of paying employees for services rendered, after processing of the various requirements for withholding of money from the employee for payment of payroll taxes, insurance premiums, employee benefits, garnishments and other deductions.
Salary
A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which is specified in an employment contract. From the point of view of running a business, salary can also be viewed as the cost of acquiring human resources for running operations, and is then termed personnel expense or salary expense. In accounting, salaries are recorded in payroll accounts. Salary means the employee's rate of pay (in accordance with the pay rates) will be salary for all purposes, including superannuation (subject to relevant superannuation scheme rules), overtime, severance and termination payments. Participation in salary sacrifice arrangements or purchase leave options will not affect salary for these purposes.
Payroll Software
Payroll Software is a computer application which automates the payroll processing. It covers several aspects of Payroll Including Employee Master data, Salary structures and heads in an organization, Respective methods for calculation of Salary Heads and Employee salary values. Further it creates the reports such as Paychecks/Payslips, Salary sheets and other required reports towards payroll outputs. To know more detailed description on Payroll software, you can check at Payroll Software India website.
Salary Software
Salary Software is a computer application which automates the Salary processing. It covers several aspects of Salary Including Employee Master data, Salary structures and heads in an organization, Respective methods for calculation of Salary Heads and Employee salary values. Further it creates the reports such as Salary checks/Payslips, Salary sheets and other required reports towards Salary outputs. To know more detailed description on Salary software, you can check at Salary Software India website.
What are the general components of salary in India?
Basic Salary
Commissions/Incentives
Bonus
Dearness allowance
Child Education Allowance (better give as reimbursement to save tax)
Child Hostel Allowance (better give as reimbursement to save tax)
City Compensatory Allowance
Conveyance Allowance
House Rent Allowance
Leave Travel Allowance ( better give as reimbursement upto a maiximum of 15,000/- to save tax)
Lunch Allowance
Medical reimbursement to a maximium of 15,000/ (otherwise it will go in tax)
Newspaper allowance (better give as reimbursement to save tax)
Special Allowance
Gift voucher
Club membership (save tax)
Let me add a few words to the issues raised on Compensation & Benefits.
One basic thing is the status of employee/s concerned, department which such belongs to and probably the level of hazard related tasks such might be involved in and more importantly business environment and industry.
However some allowances not mentioned would include but not limited to the underlisted:
Fuel Allowance (Petrol/Diesel)
Driver's Allowance
Mobile/Cell Phone Allowance
Power Generator Alowance
Internet Access Allowance
Academic/ Professional Membership Allowance
Accident Free Allowance (for Drivers)
Night Shift Allowance
Furniture Allowance
Mortgage Allowance
Offshore/Rig Allowance
Gas Allowance (domestic)
Dressing Allowance-Marketing Team/TV Broadcasters
Sincerely the list can go on and on, but as I have earlier said staffers' status in the Company would certainly determine what he/she gets as compensation and the industry they belong to would be the launching pad for such.
UAE Salary Components
The very fact that the UAE is 80 per cent expatriate makes the concept of salary different to most countries in that people's needs are somewhat different, and it would be safe to say that the worker here is more transient than permanent. Without going into the fine print of UAE Labour Law, we look at salary composition from your perspective so that you know what is normal to expect when receiving your contract or negotiating your package. The days of the UAE as a hardship posting are numbered. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are places where people elect to come to live due to the benefits of tax free living, diversity of life and year long sun. A stint in a different part of the world is also of great benefit to your CV.
What one needs to understand about coming to work here is that, despite your circumstances, the reason why you should be employed here is because you bring skills to the table and that is what you are being compensated for. Having said this, if you are willing to take a certain salary, you can work away with minimal skills. Having an undergraduate degree is not necessarily a prerequisite for getting a job, but it is what differentiates white collar from blue collar, and indeed attested degree certificates form part of the recruitment process in many firms.
The real expat package, which was an all bells and whistles package still exists, but is no longer so prevalent. You still do get a number of companies posting employees for a stint in the UAE for anything up to 5 years and compensating them accordingly. The reason why they have to do that is that there is no one who understands their current business and has the skills and ability to apply that to a new environment, in a growing, dynamic country.
We have tried to break down the components of salary to give you a basic understanding of what to expect when trying to negotiate your contract
Basic Salary
This is obviously the main component of your compensation package and is paid monthly. Other components of your compensation may be based on this amount, such as annual bonus, for example.
Accommodation
While the trend is moving to paying all cash packages, there are still a number of companies who provide actual accommodation in lieu of housing allowance. The housing allowance component is to compensate you for the rent of the accommodation that you take. This is usually paid monthly and more and more does not actually cover the actual rent, due to the significant increases in cost of housing in recent years. Furthermore, despite the allowance being paid monthly, landlords usually require payment of rent on an annual, bi-annual or quarterly basis. This may require you either having the cash upfront or taking a loan for the amount payable, and so interest would increase the actual cost to you. For those that receive accommodation in lieu of housing allowance, this is paid for by the company, and covered to a limit. This, of course, is significant considering the rising cost of housing and will only start to settle at some point about 2008 when housing supply starts to meet the ever growing demand of workers. If accommodation is taken above the limit, the employee would pay the difference, either in cash upfront to the employer or landlord, or is taken monthly from the employee's salary. Some firms even offer a shifting grant to cover the costs involved in moving home if your rent is increased, although this is usually offered once every 4 years, if at all. Finally, there may be an option of accommodation or cash, and some companies force one of the options dependant on certain criteria
Transport Allowance
Companies provide transport allowance to cover general traveling considerations to and from work and inclusive of travel with regard to work. Significant other travel on behalf of work would be covered by a separate per diem policy, mission allowance or paid expenses. For more senior staff, there may be a car allowance either in provision of a car to a certain level or an allowance for purchase of a car depreciated over two to four years, along with a fuel allowance. The cars are either linked to status of position or to tasks undertaken. For example, sales jobs may require that you have a car to travel between certain pitches, whereas a director may need to display a certain status indicative of position, and have to be seen driving a new Mercedes. Some companies make it a requirement for you to have your own car already and as part of the job requirements and compensate you accordingly for petrol used at around the 60 fils per Kilometre.
Utilities
To cover the cost of water and electricity, some senior employees receive a utility allowance or a payment of actual bills. This is, on occasion, applicable to telephones, both land and mobile, as well.
Education Allowance
Due to the nature of the education system, some payment could be made to cover education of the employee's children. This could be limited by number of children, location (i.e. only UAE based children) or nationality. So typically, you could receive fees coverage of 2 or 3 children to a maximum limit of, say, 10,000 Dhs per child per year, provided that they study in the UAE. Of course the range is wide with this, from nothing at all to unlimited children with full fees paid. This all depends on the employer. It is worth noting that adopted children are neither covered here nor recognized as legitimate within the confines of the UAE, however, this is increasingly being ignored.
Furniture Allowance
While this allowance used to be more of a norm, it is less and less prominent, and provided more at a senior level, if at all. The amount is usually paid as a one off lump sum on engagement, to be repaid on a depreciation level of four years, if the employee was to leave during this time. Some companies pay this amount on a monthly basis, with no repayment required and some pay it every four years. (It may also only be applicable for those on a transfer basis to the UAE for a period of time. However, in this instance, staff are sometimes provided with furnished accommodation)
Bonuses
It is more usual than not for companies to offer bonuses, even some of the Dubai Government companies such as Dubai Holding, for example. However, bonus specifics are usually not stated in contracts. Bonuses are essentially wide ranging, from performance related bonuses linked to your own meeting of specific objectives to company wide schemes. In some cases, both are applicable. However, it is never safe to assume that you will receive a certain amount unless it is explicitly stated. In some instances only senior staff at director level and above will receive a bonus. Again, this all depends on the company - and the calculation of set bonus versus performance could be linked to basic salary or gross salary. Typically, if a performance related bonus is offered, it would be linked to a multiple of basic salary, from one time for average performance to three times for over performance of objectives. To be safe, assume in your calculations you will receive nothing, and then any bonus will be just that, a bonus!
Vacation Allowance
This is sometimes known as Annual Ticket and after a year of service allows you travel to back to your home country or point of origin as defined by your passport. Most companies pay this in some form, but in different ways. The different options are as follows: a cash allowance based on a set rate; the payment of the actual ticket; whether the rate used is certain level of IATA economy or business (for reference there are numerous levels of IATA; whether it is a peak, off peak or average rate); whether you receive a set predetermined amount; whether your family is covered. A typical allowance would be cash in lieu of tickets at payment of standard IATA covering spouse and up to three children, assuming the spouse does not already receive payment from another employer. Also, different rates and criteria could be used for different levels of the organization.
Insurance
Everyone receives the standard government healthcare, but many companies opt to provide some private coverage to either the employee or the employee's family with some level of restriction. In some cases a premium would be paid by the employee on use of a doctor or medical service. With regards to life insurance, more and more companies are offering this at different amounts relative to monthly basic salary, anything from 1 to 3 years.
Holidays
The typical number of days holiday that companies give are 30 days, which could be inclusive or exclusive or some public holidays and weekends. For example, if you were to take two weeks holiday and were to leave at the end of one week, you may have to include the middle weekend as part of your holiday entitlement. What you thought of as 10 days off, may have to be counted as a 12 day holiday. This needs to be checked specifically in your contract. However, holidays can range anything from 25 to 60 days and it would not be untypical to receive 40 days leave. Many people take these holidays in one batch during the year, often during the summer periods when it is very hot, though increasingly, due to set manpower plans, people are splitting up their holidays, as per usual Western practices.
End of service Benefit
Since there is no real retirement system per se, the labour law states that an end of service benefit must be paid after a year of service. This is usually 21 days a year after you have worked a year which rises to 30 days for any additional year above that. Some companies pay more than this, and typically at 30 days per year. This is usually based on basic salary, though can include other allowances as part of the calculation.
Starting and Ending Service
Usually you are covered for coming here and returning, by means of a ticket. Above this, some companies pay for extra elements, including shipping of items, and tickets for the families. Obviously, if you do not return home after you finish your job, then this is not applicable.
In sum
We have tried to give you an outline of what you might expect, but, of course, each company is different and you would need to check each of these points separately. Do not be surprised if you only receive a couple of the elements listed. What we have done is covered all the elements so that you can getter a fuller picture.
There may be other benefits or allowances that some companies provide such as health clubs and share options but our foremost intention is to provide the main information that will help you to ask the right questions if you are offered a position to really determine your total compensation package, and decide whether moving your family here is the move for you. Our advice would be to go into detail and clarify each point, especially if the contract is a translation of a set Arabic contract. Flexibility with regards to negotiating contracts is now more accepted but do not be surprised if you can not get them to budge. Just be clear what you are signing, because once your contract is signed you are more or less bound by the agreement.
Some additional notes
Not all companies will pay all the allowances. Indeed, some companies will provide just an all in cash salary, with no break down of allowances, while others will break down the basic and allowance element. The percentage split between the fixed cash elements of basic salary and allowances is usually around 60 to 40.
Remember, companies are different and will provide their compensation differently. Some industries pay higher than others and similar jobs in different companies can pay disparate amounts. The Oil and Gas sector pays the highest, with some areas of banking also offering high salaries. Senior positions at multinational companies offer some very high wages.
For UAE Nationals, the breakdown of the allowance element is important as the housing element, along with some UAE specific elements (such as social, child and cost of living) could play a part in their pension contribution. This make up is different for each emirate, and for government companies compared to the private sector.
Very few companies offer payment in currency other than UAE Dirhams as a matter of policy. Companies that are likely to even consider this option are multinationals or for those positions that involve significant travel away from a UAE base.
Overtime is usually applicable only at very junior levels despite UAE Labour Law stating a rate of 1.25 for extra hours worked up to maximum amount.
DATE: 15-04-2010
CTC-Cost To Company
CTC is the term used to denote the overall package an employer is going to offer you. This includes everything from salary to benefits and perks.
1. Usual components include basic salary & the usual components, medical benefits, vehicle and/or maintenance, telephone expenses, company's contribution to Provident Fund, Gratuity and Superannuation, group insurance schemes, leave travel benefits, incentives and bonuses, gifts during festivals, other annual/periodic payments if any, etc.
2. Salary as % of CTC is difficult to generalize. It depends on the components that make up the CTC as provided by a company. Even a lower CTC might mean a higher take home pay than an offer with higher CTC if the other components are arranged differently. Similarly, you cannot blindly infer that with increase in salary and position your pay as % of salary will increase/decrease. You have to assess each offer separately.
3. Indian companies usually talk in terms of CTC as the figures look more impressive. But often they may mislead a candidate. You need to carefully look at their offer and calculate yourself how much your take home pay will be. After all, all deductions are based on fixed percentages and you can easily arrive at a close figure. Even the company will guide you on this. Sometimes, even a lower take home pay may be beneficial if the other payments are made against vouchers/bills ( for e.g. telephones, cars, refreshment, etc.) This will ultimately lower your tax liability. Hence you should look at both CTC as well as Take home pay while negotiating. Don't use only one of the two to negotiate.
You also have to look at certain other criteria like work timings, no. of holidays, employee centric schemes for further education, etc. You can't put a money value to these things but obviously, you shouldn't ignore them as well.
COMMON CTC COMPONETNS
Basic
DA
HRA
Medical
Conveyance
Wash Allow
Uniform Allow
Spl Allow
Telephone Allow
LTA
PF
ESI
Medical Insur
Gratuity
Edu Allow
Variable Pay / Performance Linked Pay
Bonus / Statutory Bonus
Car Hire
Petrol and Maintenance
Driver Salary
CLA
Superannuation/Pension Plan Etc.,
A type of retirement plan set up by a company for the benefit of its employees. These types of plans use funds deposited by the company (defined benefit plan) or by the employee (defined contribution plan), with the funds growing in value until the employee retires. also called pension plan.
DATE: 14-04-2010
IT Recruitment's with Explanation
According to my knowledge:
Non-IT Recruitment includes many sector, it’s a very vast field. Sectors like: Banking & Insurance, Retail, Pharmaceuticals/Health care, Aviation, Manufacturing, Chemical/Petrochemical, Construction, Advt./Mass Communication/event Management comes under Non-IT Recruitment.
IT Recruitment is basically for Software Companies. An It Recruiter deals different types of IT requirements i.e. requirements related to different IT skills or technologies such as: Java, .Net, Oracle, SAP, Embedded, Linux, UNIX, HTML, DHTML, and XML etc.
One should have knowledge of all these technologies to work as IT recruiter.
Major IT is derived into ERP Technologies
1.ORACLE
2.SAP
3.PEOPLESOFT
4.SIEBEL
5.BAAN
And also SUN Technologies, Microsoft Technologies..Etc.,
IT Recruitment process is differ from the NON-IT recruitment process.
Note: Today we have in the market different products are available like database /Product/Applications. We have N number of competitors on that same.
First off all try to get a broad understanding of the types of companies with various domains like technologies in terms of :-
# Products and services offered
# Product development vs. project development
# Expertise/competencies of these companies - development, testing,
consulting, project manangement, product management, support etc.
The typical roles and responsibilities in these areas are :-
# A high level understanding of the domains and technologies -this is mainly for resume scanning.
# Understanding the technical terms helps IT Recruiter to assess the candidate's capability and potential by asking the right questions which is essentially the pre-technical screening.
As far as growth prospects or career is concerned ; the IT companies especially the one's in S/W development have requirements for their recruitments teams both at junior & senior level as overall hiring in these companies is relatively higher both due to new projects coming in & also due to the high attrition rate.
Also once one understands the industry and technologies well, one can diversify into other HR areas as well like employee relations since one begins to understand the employee issues in this sector.
Hierarchy of the IT Tree Levels:
Level 0:Software Trainee/Software Engineer/Software Consultant/Junior software engineer
Level 1: Software Engineer/Sr.S/W Engg
Level 2: Software Lead/Line manager/Team Manager
Level 3: Project Manager/Software Associate Manager/Project Co-ordinator
Level 4: Senior PM/Senior Associate Project Lead/Sr.Project co-ordinator
Level 5: India Area Project Manger(Based on company standards)
There are two types of Recruitment.
1. Internal Recruitment:-fill the vacancy by promotion of employee.
2. External Recruitment:-fill the vacancy by external source.
There are four popular method of External Recruitment.
a)Job Center
b)Job Advertisement
c)Recruitment Agency
d)Personal Recommendation
Recruitment methods divided in to three categories
1. Direct method
2. Indirect method
3. Third Party method
Direct method, sending travelling recruiters to the education institutions or colleges and they recruit the students from there. Campus recruiting. In co-operation with college placement office.
Indirect method, mostly advertising in Newspaper, journals,
Raido, Tv.
Third party methods, Private employment agencies,Consultancies, Employee referrals, job portals.
For IT Recruitment Major Portals:
1.DICE
2.NAUKRI
3.MONSTER
4.TOO STEP
5.JOB TRACK …Etc.,
Meaning of Recruitment:
Recruitment is an important part of an organization’s human resource planning and their competitive strength. Competent human resources at the right positions in the organisation are a vital resource and can be a core competency or a strategic advantage for it.
The objective of the recruitment process is to obtain the number and quality of employees that can be selected in order to help the organisation to achieve its goals and objectives. With the same objective, recruitment helps to create a pool of prospective employees for the organisation so that the management can select the right candidate for the right job from this pool.
Recruitment acts as a link between the employers and the job seekers and ensures the placement of right candidate at the right place at the right time. Using and following the right recruitment processes can facilitate the selection of the best candidates for the organisation.
Sources of Recruitment:
Every organisation has the option of choosing the candidates for its recruitment processes from two kinds of sources: internal and external sources. The sources within the organisation itself (like transfer of employees from one department to other, promotions) to fill a position are known as the internal sources of recruitment. Recruitment candidates from all the other sources (like outsourcing agencies etc.) are known as the external sources of recruitment.
Internal Sources of Recruitment:
1. PRESS ADVERTISEMENTS
Advertisements of the vacancy in newspapers and journals are a widely used source of recruitment. The main advantage of this method is that it has a wide reach.
2. EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES
Various management institutes, engineering colleges, medical Colleges etc. are a good source of recruiting well qualified executives, engineers, medical staff etc. They
provide facilities for campus interviews and placements. This source is known as Campus Recruitment.
3. PLACEMENT AGENCIES
Several private consultancy firms perform recruitment functions on behalf of client companies by charging a fee. These agencies are particularly suitable for recruitment of executives and specialists. It is also known as RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing)
4. UNSOLICITED APPLICANTS
Many job seekers visit the office of well-known companies on their own. Such callers are considered nuisance to the daily work routine of the enterprise. But can help in
creating the talent pool or the database of the probable candidates for the organisation.
5. EMPLOYEE REFERRALS / RECOMMENDATIONS
Many organisations have structured system where the current employees of the organisation can refer their friends and relatives for some position in their organisation. Also, the office bearers of trade unions are often aware of the suitability of candidates. Management can inquire these leaders for suitable jobs. In some organizations these are
formal agreements to give priority in recruitment to the candidates recommended by the trade union.
DATE:06-04-2010 ATTRITION RATE AND BENEFITS AND HOW TO CALCULATE
MEANING OF ATTRITION
These days ,very often we come across the word `ATTRITION'. This
word is being used in place of Employees turnover in an
organization, used earlier.
I was wondering whether is it the right word. If we go by the
dictionary meaning of this word it says:
" the wearing down of an adversary, making him weaker by repeatly
attacking them or wearing down of resources i.e. the process of
reducing the number of people who are employed by an organization by
not replacing people who leave the job."
I don't know what is the actual literal meaning of the word
attrition and how it has come in use in place of employees turnover.
Attrition is a natural reduction of personnel in the way of death, resignation, termination.
Attrition Benefits:
Attrition rates are considered to be beneficial in some ways:
• If all employees stay in the same organization for a very long time, most of them will be at the top of their pay scale which will result in excessive manpower costs.
• When certain employees leave, whose continuation of service would have negatively impacted productivity and profitability of the company, the company is benefited.
• New employees bring new ideas, approaches, abilities & attitudes which can keep the organization from becoming stagnant.
• There are also some people in the organization who have a negative and demoralizing influence on the work culture and team spirit. This, in the long-term, is detrimental to organizational health.
• Desirable attrition also includes termination of employees with whom the organization does not want to continue a relationship. It benefits the organization in the following ways:
o It removes bottleneck in the progress of the company
o It creates space for the entry of new talents
o It assists in evolving high performance teams
• There are people who are not able to balance their performance as per expectations, lack potential for future or need disciplinary action. Furthermore, as the rewards are limited, business pressures do not allow the management to over-reward the performers, but when undesirable employees leave the company, the good employees can be given the share that they deserve.
Some companies believe attrition in any form is bad for an organization for it means that a wrong choice was made at the beginning while recruiting. Even good attrition indicates loss as recruitment is a time consuming and costly affair. The only positive point is that the realization has initiated action that will lead to cutting loss.
ATTRITION RATE
A factor, normally expressed as a percentage, reflecting the degree of losses of personnel or materiel due to various causes within a specified period of time
The rate of shrinkage of manpower in size or number.
Reduction of employees by retirement, resignation & layoff.
A term used to describe voluntary and involuntary terminations, deaths, and employee retirements that result in a reduction to the employer's physical workforce.
CAUSES OF ATTRITION
Attrition is an expected yet dreaded cost of business. Essentially, there are two causes of attrition, which can be grouped into two broad categories—
Functional attrition and Preventable attrition.
FUNCTIONAL ATTRITION-
Functional attrition is unavoidable, inevitable turnover. Examples include employees who retire, employees who leave for a spouse's job transfer, and employees who leave because of health problems or to care for sick relatives. In other words, functional attrition is caused by circumstances that can't be controlled. You must expect and accept this type of turnover.
PREVENTABLE ATTRITION-
Preventable turnover, on the other hand, can usually be controlled and avoided but often isn't i.e.- Poor hiring practices, misguided policies, low salaries and inflexible corporate attitudes are some of the preventable reasons people leave companies.
Preventable turnover occurs when your company can change a policy or find a solution to keep employees from leaving but doesn't
Reasons & Measures of preventable attrition
a) Lack of job satisfaction – Employees resigns because they wants to advance their career, but their position is a dead end. They are a great employee and likes their company, but their goals just don't match with their position's potential.
Suggestion- Company could avoid the resignation by moving them into a position with growth potential & suitable profile.
b) Stressful work environment - Employee works for long hours with few rewards. S/He's expected to work 60 hours a week to meet her/is deadlines. They feels undervalued and overworked. At the end S/He's started looking for another job.
Suggestion- Company could prevent this by setting deadlines that are achievable in a 40-hour workweek & By offering monetary, non-monetary incentives.
c) Outside influences –Sometimes employee is approached by a competitor recruiter who promise them paying twice what their company is paying them and with far better benefits & Employee just take up their offer.
Suggestion-This could be prevented by paying employees what they're worth and having a comprehensive benefit plan.
d) Conflict with a manager – In a team people don’t prefer working with less efficient or careless, lazy person as it hampers their output also or inefficient person valued just because their team is efficient & valued. As a result conflicts, unrest is aroused that ends with resignation.
Suggestion- You could prevent this by assigning Bruce to another department or working with the manager and Bruce on conflict resolution.
The formula and correct logic behind calculation of ATTRITION RATE
[(No. Of attritions x 100) / (Actual Employees + New Joined)] /100.
Examples:
1) Actual Employees No. Of people left No. Of Joined Total Employees
(Opening BAL) (Attritions) (Current Headcount)
150 20 25 155
So according to the formula: ((20 x 100) / (150 + 25)) / 100
Which comes to 0.1142 i.e. 11%
Now as you had 150 previously and now 25 joined so it makes 150 + 25 =175
Now if you calculate 11.42% of 175 i.e. 175 x 0.1142 = 20
Which clearly shows that 175 - 20 = 155, which is your current headcount and at the same time you can say my attrition is 11.42% that shows you lost 20 employees of 150 and 25 more joined which makes count to 175.
2) Actual Employees No. Of people left No. Of Joined Total Employees
(Opening BAL) (Attritions) (Current Headcount)
100 50 0 50
This is the special case where we are considering attritions only keeping into mind that nobody has joined in particular month.
So according to the formula: ((50 x 100) / (100)) / 100
Which comes to 0.5 i.e. 50%
Now as you had 100 previously and now 0 joined so it makes 100 + 0 =100
Now if you calculate 50% of 100 i.e. 100 x 0.5 = 50
Which clearly shows that 100 - 50 = 50, which is your current headcount and at the same time you can say my attrition is 50% that shows you lost 50 employees of 100 and 0 joined which makes count to 50.
3) Actual Employees No. Of people left No. Of Joined Total Employees
(Opening BAL) (Attritions) (Current Headcount)
500 200 100 400
So according to the formula: ((200 x 100) / (500 +100)) / 100
Which comes to 0.3333 i.e. 33.33%
Now as you had 500 previously and now 100 joined so it makes 500 + 100 =600
Now if you calculate 33.33% of 600 i.e. 600 x 0.3333 = 200
Which clearly shows that 600 - 200 = 400, which is your current headcount and at the same time you can say my attrition is 33.33% that shows you lost 200 employees of 500 and 100 more joined which makes count to 400.
4) Actual Employees No. Of people left No. Of Joined Total Employees
(Opening BAL) (Attritions) (Current Headcount)
8000 5000 500 3500
So according to the formula: ((5000 x 100) / (8000 +500)) / 100
Which comes to 0.5882 i.e. 58.82%
Now as you had 8000 previously and now 500 joined so it makes 8000 + 500 =8500
Now if you calculate 58.82% of 8500 i.e. 8500 x 0.5882 = 5000
Which clearly shows that 8500 - 5000 = 3500, which is your current headcount and at the same time you can say my attrition is 58.82% that shows you lost 5000 employees of 8000 and 500 more joined which makes count to 3500.
Attrition rate is the Cost of the Company
Turnover Cost of Employee
(Calculating Cost per Employee)
The Employee turnover cost is defined as the Percentage of Annual Salary, including the other cost benefits given to an employee.
It can be calculated using the formula:
Turnover Cost =
Hiring Cost + Training Cost + Learning Curve Loss Cost + Termination / Separation Cost + Vacancy Cost
The following questionnaire can help in capturing the details to calculate the employee turnover cost
Turnover Cost Interview Questionnaire
Exit Interviews
1. Do you conduct exit interviews? {If no, please go to question 4}
2. Who is typically involved in an exit interview? {Please include the number of individuals involved and their titles/position}
3. How long does a typical exit interview usually last?
Administrative tasks
4. What types of administrative tasks are associated with an employee leaving the organization? {Ex. processing records, security, payroll, benefits; Notice Period}
5. How many individuals are typically involved in completing the administrative tasks associated with a teacher leaving? What are their titles/positions?
6. How much time does it take for ALL administrative tasks to be completed?
Advertising
7. In what ways do you advertise openings for a new / replacement positions? {Newspaper, Internet, etc.}
8. Do you usually advertise for multiple positions at the same time? If so, in a typical year, how many positions do you advertise for at one time?
9. What types of advertising costs do you typically encounter when trying to recruit for a position? {Please provide cost estimations for each category of advertising costs}
Recruiter
10. Do you use recruiters in trying to find qualified candidates? How many recruiters do you employ? {If none, please go to question 15}
11. What types of activities will a recruiter typically perform?
12. Is this recruiter paid on a consulting or salary basis?
13. If salaried, what is the salary range for a recruiter? If consulting, what is the typical consulting fee?{If consulting, please specify the amount of the recruiter’s time associated with the consulting fee.}
14. In a typical year, how many new teachers does the recruiter recruit? How many will actually be hired?
Travel
15. Do you pay any travel costs (either for the recruiter or the applicants) during the hiring process?
16. If so, what is the average per position?
Processing applicants
17. How do you process applications and resumes?
18. Who handles this task? {Please specify the number of individuals involved and their titles/positions}
19. How much time is associated with processing applications/ resumes?
20. What types of background checks do you perform on prospective employees?
21. Who is involved in this task? {Please specify the number of individuals involved and their titles/positions}
22. How many background checks do you typically conduct for a single position?
23. How much time is associated with conducting background checks on a single applicant?
Interviews
24. How many interviews do you typically conduct for a vacant position? Do you ever conduct multiple interviews with the same applicant?
25. Who usually conducts these interviews? {Please specify the number of individuals involved and their titles/positions}
26. How much preparation time do interviewers usually need for these interviews?
27. How long do these interviews typically last?
28. Once interviews have been conducted, how do you choose which applicant to extend an offer to?
29. Who is involved in this selection process? {Please specify the number of individuals involved and their titles/positions}
30. How long does the selection process typically last?
Co-ops
31. Does you district belong to an electronic co-op which does the screenings and qualifying of applicants? {If not, please go to question 35}
32. What are the costs associated with belonging to this co-op?
33. How does this co-op work? What steps does it eliminate in the hiring process?
34. How many positions in a typical year does your organization hire from the co-op pool?
Stipends and bonuses
35. Does your organization pay stipends to employees assigned to shortage areas (niche talent / expertise employees)?
36. In the past year, what percentage of such employees who received niche expertise stipends?
39. Does your organization pay other bonuses to new employees?
40. In the past year, what percentage of new employees received other bonuses?
Post-employment tasks
41. What types of administrative tasks must be completed after a candidate is hired? {Ex. establishing payroll, security, benefits, computer passwords, email; dissemination activities}
42. Who is involved in these tasks? {Please specify the number of individuals involved and their titles/positions}
43. How long does it typically take for these administrative tasks to be completed?
Orientation
44. What types of fresher support activities (Induction Plan) do you offer new joiners? {If none, please go to question 47.}
45. How many new joiners attend these activities in a year?
46. Who is involved in conducting these activities? {Please specify the number of individuals involved and their titles/positions}
47. What type of time commitment is usually required of the individuals involved? {Other than the fresher’s}
48. Are new joiners given any orientation materials? If so, what are the costs associated with the materials for EACH of them?
Training
49. How is your organization assisting employees with the new requirements for professional development training associated with certification?
50. For employees in their first year in the company, how much professional development will you organize? {In terms of cost for training, training materials}
51. How many days are the new joiners don’t attend work due to professional development training?
The following table can help in capturing the data to calculate the turnover cost
Turnover Cost Calculations
The following rules are used in all calculations of turnover cost. If any calculation deviates from these rules, a footnote describes the rule used for the calculation. Sources of information are also noted.
Estimations of time for the interview: - If multiple individuals are involved in a task, the reported time is divided evenly among all individuals involved.
Stipends, other bonuses and costs are computed for the amount invested in the resigned / terminated employee and the amount provided to new joiners filling the vacant positions.
Task Time on
Task Employees
Involved in the process Cost Per Year
SEPARATION COSTS
Exit Interview Minutes per individual
Grade – A
Grade - B
Separation Administration cost Hours per resignation
Grade – A
Grade – B
HIRING COST
Ad Cost
Recruitment Cost
Processing Applications
Position – A
Position – B
Reference Checks
Position – A
Position – B
Interviews
Position – A
Position – B
Post-employment Admin Tasks
Grade – A
Grade - B
Stipends
Grade – A
Grade - B
Other Bonus
Grade – A
Grade - B
TRAINING COSTS
Orientation
Grade - A
Grade – B
Training
Grade - A
Grade – B
The final turnover cost can be obtained, by adding up all these costs.
Attrition
Attrition refers to reduction in staff that are vacated through resignation, reassignment, transfer, retirement, or means other than layoffs.
Separation
Any termination of employment. It is generally classifiable as a layoff, voluntary quit, or discharge.
Employee Turnover
The ratio of the number of workers that had left in a given time period to the average number of workers.
DATE:06-04-2010
STATE PERSONNEL MANUAL
Types of Appointments
Employment and Records
Section 3, Page 2
Definition of
Appointment
Probationary
Trainee
An appointment is the approval or certification of an applicant or employee to
perform the duties and responsibilities of an established position subject to the
provisions of the State Personnel Act. The selection and appointment of all
personnel into classified state service shall be made by the head of the agency
subject to final approval of the State Personnel Director. Listed below are the
types of appointments.
Individuals receiving initial appointments to permanent or time-limited permanent
positions must serve a probationary period. The probationary period is an
extension of the selection process, and provides the time for effective adjustment of
the new employ or elimination of those whose performance will not meet
acceptable standards. The maximum length of the probationary period shall be not
less than three nor more than nine months of either full-time or part-time
employment from the actual date of employment. This includes time worked only;
periods of extended leave do not count towards the probationary period.
Employees with a probationary appointment receive leave, total state service credit,
retirement and health benefits. They are not eligible for severance pay or priority
reemployment consideration.
A trainee appointment may be made to a permanent position when (1) the job
specification includes special provisions for a trainee progression leading to regular
appointment, (2) recruitment efforts fail to attract qualified candidates, (3) operating
need warrants a trainee, or (4) the recommended applicant fails to meet minimum
State education and experience requirements. The trainee appointment, like the
probationary period, is also an extension of the selection process, and provides the
time for effective adjustment of the new employee or elimination of those whose
performance will not meet acceptable standards.
Employees with a trainee appointment receive leave, total state service credit,
retirement and health benefits. In reduction-in-force situations, trainees who have
completed six months of service or who had a permanent appointment prior to
entering a trainee appointment may receive severance pay and priority
reemployment consideration.
STATE PERSONNEL MANUAL
Types of Appointments, Continued
Employment and Records
Section 3, Page 3
Permanent
Time-limited
Permanent
A permanent appointment is a permanent full-time appointment to a permanently
full-time established position when the incumbent is expected to be retained in the
position on a permanent basis. A permanent appointment shall be given when (1)
the requirements of the probationary period have been satisfied, (2) an employee in
a trainee appointment has completed all training and experience requirements, or
(3) a time-limited permanent appointment extends beyond three years.
Individuals receiving initial appointments in state government must first serve a
probationary or trainee appointment before being eligible for a permanent
appointment.
Employees with a permanent appointment receive leave, total state service credit,
retirement and health benefits, and when applicable, severance pay and priority
reemployment consideration.
A time-limited permanent appointment is an appointment that has a limited duration
to:
•a permanent position that is vacant due to the incumbent’s leave of absence and
when the replacement employee’s services will be needed for a period of one year
or less,
•a time-limited permanent position. If an employee is retained in a time-limited
permanent position beyond three years, the employee shall be designated as
having a permanent appointment.
This type of appointment is distinguished from a temporary appointment by the
longer length of time, and from a regular permanent appointment by its limited
duration.
Individuals receiving initial appointments in state government must first serve in a
time-limited probationary appointment before being eligible for a time-limited
permanent appointment.
STATE PERSONNEL MANUAL
Types of Appointments, Continued
Employment and Records
Section 3, Page 4
Time-limited
Permanent
(continued)
Temporary
Part-time
Permanent,
Trainee or
Time-Limited
Employees with a time-limited permanent appointment receive leave, total state
service credit, retirement and health benefits. They are not eligible for severance
pay and priority reemployment.
An appointment for a limited term, normally not to exceed three to six months, to a
permanent or temporary position. Upon request, the Office of State Personnel
shall approve a longer period of time; but in no case shall the temporary
employment period exceed twelve consecutive months. Exception for students and
retired employees: Students are exempt from the twelve-months maximum limit. If
retired employees sign a statement that they are not available for nor seek
permanent employment, they may have temporary appointments for more than
twelve months. “Retired” is defined as drawing a retirement income and/or social
security benefits.
Employees with a temporary appointment do not receive leave, total state service
credit, health benefits, retirement credit, severance pay, or priority reemployment
consideration.
An appointment of less than full-time to a permanent or time-limited permanent full-
time position or to a permanent or time-limited permanent part-time budgeted
position on a continuing basis.
Employees with permanent part-time appointments that are 20-29 hours per week
earn leave benefits (prorated), total state service credit, and when applicable,
severance pay and priority reemployment consideration. They do not receive
retirement credit or health benefits; however, they may belong to the group health
plan by paying their own premiums.
Employees with permanent part-time appointments that are 30-39 hours per week
for at least 9 months per year earn leave benefits (prorated), total state service
credit, retirement credit, health benefits and when applicable, severance pay and
priority reemployment consideration.
Employees with appointments that are less than 20 hours per week earn no
benefits.
STATE PERSONNEL MANUAL
Types of Appointments, Continued
Temporary
Part-Time
Intermittent
Pre-Vocational
Student
Appointment
An appointment of less than full-time for a limited term normally not to exceed three
to six months. Upon request, the Office of State Personnel may approve a longer
period of time; but in no case shall the temporary employment period exceed
twelve consecutive months. Exception for students and retired employees:
Students are exempt from the twelve-months maximum limit. If retired employees
sign a statement that they are not available for nor seek permanent employment,
they may have temporary part-time appointments for more than twelve months.
“Retired” is defined as drawing a retirement income and/or social security benefits.
Employees with temporary appointments earn no benefits.
An intermittent appointment may be made to positions needed only for intermittent
periods of time. The intermittent service of an individual shall not exceed a total of
nine months during any continuous twelve-month period, except during extreme
emergencies when such periods of time shall be extended for the duration of the
emergency.
Employees with intermittent appointments earn no benefits.
This appointment is to be used to enable students to gain practical knowledge of
and further prepare for the particular occupational area. A suitable plan for training
under close supervision must be developed for the individual; in the case of a co-
operative, work-study, internship or similar appointment, the time schedule for
work must be determined.
A copy of the plan must be submitted to the State Personnel Director who is
responsible for determining an appropriate salary. Upon successful completion of
their training, individuals may be considered for any vacant position for which
qualified. Work time spent in a pre-vocational student appointment may be
counted toward the required probationary period.
Note: Certain benefits apply to students working in a co-operative
education program. This can be obtained from the Agency Personnel
Director.
DATE:05-04-2010
12 Ways to Stay on Top of Stress
It takes a million years for one gene to change in our bodies. One million years! I'm bringing this up because, physiologically, we're the same humans we were 300 years ago. But look at how things have changed in that short time. Some things make life easier now: washers and dryers, transportation, abundance of food, electricity, etc. But some things make life today more insane: cell phones, traffic, increased population, fake food, TV, busy schedules. I heard a statistic from a doctor-friend that we make more decisions in one day than people used to make in a year. No wonder we're stressed out and reaching for doughnuts or alcohol to cope.
All this craziness and high-speed living isn't going away. Since we can't change our genes, we have to create a map to navigate this crazy life. What can you do to try and stay on top of the stress so it doesn't affect your health, happiness, or waistline?
1. Exercise. Amen for endorphins. Believe me, they've helped me many days with my perspective. If you have to work out, then go take a brisk walk and get that blood flowing. It isn't about working out to lose weight -- it's about being healthy and staying sane.
2. Eat the real stuff. Crappy food (fast, processed, and loaded with sugar) doesn't help your chemical brain and body handle stress. Living food, real food, helps support your mind and body while it's trying to deal with the million things coming its way. Every time I reach for the chocolate, I'm looking to feel something from it. Don't get me wrong -- if it's just a little here and there because I enjoy the taste of it, great. But if I'm using it the minute I feel overwhelmed, then that's when that food is no longer OK to eat. It doesn't make the problem go away, and then I just feel bad about eating the food to pacify myself. Grab green food instead. Put things in your mouth that are going to support your immune function and keep you levelheaded.
3. Notice. Try not to let the stress overtake you. Recognize the situations that cause the stress and notice them coming your way. You have a better shot at fending off the full effects of the stress when you can anticipate it.
4. Get it off your chest. Talk to a friend or partner about the stress. Sometimes just getting it off your chest can help unload some of the burden.
5. Keep your sense of humor. If you do have the chance to talk about it, try to see the irony and humor in the wacky bits. I think someone is dead in the water once they lose their sense of humor.
6. Stay grateful. My daughter has large lungs and verbal skills she likes to display. Just when I start to wishfully think about her being quiet, I remind myself to be grateful that she can talk to me at all. In almost all of our problems are boatloads of blessings. "Oh, I don't feel like going to the gym." Well, Amen that you have the means and the health to even be able to wrestle with the idea of going to work out. Make a habit of saying thank you. You will notice the sunny spots a lot more often, and not just the gray skies and storms.
7. Ask, "What's the hurry?" Have some fun. We're always so busy going somewhere, we miss just enjoying the moment. If an opportunity comes your way to do something fun, take it.
8. Take a deep breath. When you feel the stress getting to you, take a moment. Get away, even if it's just for an hour, to be with yourself and your thoughts. Some people like to take a walk, meditate, lock themselves away in a beautiful bath, or go to church. Find the peace and the silence.
9. Keep it simple. Simplify where you can. Does Junior really need to be in 78 activities at the age of 5? Do you have to go to every little party or gathering you're invited to?
10. Turn of the TV. A lot of it is bad news anyway, and it robs us of hours that we could use to be getting other things done. Since everyone complains that they have no time, get some by unplugging from the tube.
11. Sleep. If you're rested, you have a better shot at handling things. Not to mention, you may not stress out as easily if you have a chance to recover at night.
12. Drink water. I have said it before: Americans consume 21 percent of their calories through liquid consumption. Hydrate with water. Help you entire system function better just by drinking enough water. Oh, and by the way, if you don't think that weight loss and proper hydration have a relationship, think again. Shift the paradigm on its side -- don't think about exercise and nutritional eating just as something you have to suffer through to get into those jeans. Instead, think of them as armor that will protect you in this crazy world, with all of the bazillion details you deal with every day.
New Employee Welcome Letter Template
Dear [Employee’s first name],
Welcome to FIU and the [department name] team! I am delighted you are joining us as a [new employee’s job title]. Your role is critical in fulfilling the mission of our department and FIU.
The enclosed information is designed to serve as an introduction to [department name] and provide resources that will help you make a smooth transition into your new role.
The [department name] team is here to support your transition so, please know that you can call on any of us to assist you. We are looking forward to you joining our team and your success at FIU.
Sincerely,
[Manager’s/Supervisor’s Name]
[Manager/Supervisor Title]
Date
Dear (New Employee Name):
I’d like to welcome you to (Name of Company). We are excited that you have accepted our job offer and agreed upon your start date. I trust that this letter finds you mutually excited about your new employment with (Name of Company).
As mentioned during the interviews, while your new position reports to me, I’d like to welcome you to the (Name of Department) on behalf of all the staff. Each of us will play a role to ensure your successful integration into the department.
We’re expecting you for new employee orientation on (Date), Tuesday at 9 a.m. You will meet with me to discuss your successful integration into our company and with Human Resources staff to learn about employment related issues. You’ll also meet with several coworkers so you can get a feel for the overall work of the department. Our dress code is casual.
Your new team anticipates taking you out to lunch to get to know you and to make sure you meet everyone with whom you will be working. Your agenda, for the rest of your first day, will involve planning your orientation with me and setting some initial work goals so that you feel immediately productive in your new role.
I anticipate that your second day will involve more coworker meetings to understand the department. You’ll also have the opportunity to continue with your new employee orientation plan and your initial work for the department.
Again, welcome to the team. If you have questions prior to your start date, please call me at any time, or send email if that is more convenient. We look forward to having you come onboard.
Regards,
Name of Your Department Manager / Boss
New Employee Welcome
Dear
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you as a new employee to (name of firm) I am very pleased
that you have chosen to accept our offer of employment and know that this is the beginning of a mutually beneficial association.
We encourage our personnel to take advantage of selected courses that are available in this vicinity, in order to improve their skills and learn new skills in related areas. The courses and their corresponding registration dates are listed on the employee bulletin board for your
review. If you decide to attend one of these courses, please advise your office manager and he will make the necessary arrangements.
Once again, welcome to (name of firm)
Age limits for PF
Can we start a PF fund for an employee who is 58 years old???He is also partially handicapped..and will he be able to withdraw the PF if he works till 60yrs.i.e;2years....what if he continues on payroll even after he is 60 years of age...is there any upper age limit for PF...
Alternatively, you can continue PF deduction & contribute to employee is in service ie., 60years. For continuance & contribution purpose upper age limit is not prescribed by EPF Act. As long as F & F settlment is made to employee, the contribution can be continued. After all PF is beneficary legislation.
Answer 2ur query is, i feel that you can start PF fund for 58yrs employee & he will be entitled to withdrawn at 60yrs when F&F is made
AFTER THE INTERVIEW
Even though the interview is over, your work is far from complete...
After each interview mentally review the questions asked by the interviewer and your responses to them. Were you caught “off-guard” by any questions? Could you have answered a question better, in more detail, or in a more focused manner? Quiz yourself after each interview and take notes. This will enhance future interview efforts.
It is advisable to send a thank you letter to the person(s) who interviewed you within twenty-four hours after the interview. It reinforces your interest in the position and can serve as an additional opportunity to separate you from the other candidates by recalling a notable topic or attribute discussed in your interview.
Most employers will tell you when you can expect to hear from them. If you do not hear by that date, it is appropriate for you to call them.
If the employer requests additional materials, such as an application, transcript, or references, send them as soon as possible.
If an employer indicated an interest in pursuing things further with you, but you are no longer interested in the opportunity, inform him/her of that fact as soon as possible.
Here are some things you can do:
Type or handwrite the letter. E-mail is not as personal, therefore it should be used in conjunction with a personal letter. If you absolutely cannot write a letter, an e-mail is better than not following up at all.
The letter should be brief and include the following:
1. Thank the interviewer for his/her time.
2. State the position for which you are applying.
3. Mention something from your interview to remind the interviewer who you are.
4. Describe in one or two sentences why you are the best applicant.
Address it to the recruiter, by name and title
Mention the names of the people you met at the interview.
Send a letter to appropriate individuals you interviewed with (always send to the main interviewer).
Keep the letter short, less than one page.
Mail the letter within 24 hours of the interview.
Thank the interviewer for his/her time.
Send a thank you letter for every interview you go on.
Demonstrate employer knowledge in 2-3 sentences.
Restate employment objective.
Answer the question – “What can you do for them?” based on something specifically discussed during your contact. Use accomplishment/ results statements that demonstrate your ability to meet those needs.
Sample Thank you Letter
April 6, 2010
Mr. Dominic Philips
Vice President Human Resources
Universal Tire Corporation
2000 Park Drive
Grand Rapids, MI 49525
Dear Mr. Maa….
As I was leaving your office on September 8, 2006 I was reflecting upon how much I enjoyed meeting with you and learning more about Universal Tire Corporation. I appreciate the time you spent with me discussing your opening for an Outside Sales Representative.
I believe my internship with Shemax, Inc. and my educational background in Marketing and Business Administration make me an excellent candidate for the position. You mentioned the importance of having an outgoing person with a lot of initiative. I feel that my experience in using my marketing, communication and customer service skills would exceed your expectations if given the chance.
I was also very impressed with Universal Tire’s commitment to investing in your employee’s future though the Tuition Reimbursement Program you mentioned. I look forward to hearing from soon. In the meantime, please call me at 271-3162 if there is any additional information I can provide to help you in your decision.
Sincerely,
Mahendra
DATE: 04-04-2010
What is the Difference between Internal and External recruitment
Internal or External Recruitment
The Internal Recruitment is the most favorite source of candidates in the stable and developed companies. The Internal Recruitment needs a strong support from other HR Processes, because the unmanaged internal recruitment process can lead to disappointed managers and employees in the organization. The Succession Planning and strong and consistent Performance Management are needed to ensure the success of the internal recruitment.
The internal recruitment can offer the chance to change the job position to anyone in the organization, but the efficient internal recruitment process needs a strong help from other processes to provide managers with the additional information to work with. In case of the unknown additional information, the internal recruitment process can not offer much of the value added. The internal job candidate should be known to the organization and the HRM Function should provide the hiring manager with the information about the background information.
The internal recruitment process has to be driven by strict and agreed HR Rules and HR Policies as the unclear rules for the process can bring a lot of tension inside the organization as the best employees can be easily stolen among different units and different managers. This issue looks pretty simple to solve, but the reality can bring difficult issues and conflicts among the management team and can affect the performance of the organization hardly.
Internal Recruitment Pros and Cons
The Internal Recruitment can build a strong loyalty with the organization as the employees have a chance to change their position after a period of time. The employees are not pressed to look for opportunities on the external job market.
The Internal Recruitment can be cheaper for the organization and can save the costs dedicated to the training and induction of new employees. Also, as the candidate knows the organization, the possibility of the failure is not a significant issue to the organization.
The Internal Recruitment needs strong management from the HRM Function, which can lead to the conflicts and the HRM Function has to have a position to be able to act as a strong facilitator in the conflict resolution.
The Internal Recruitment can lead to huge issues when the candidates come from one department. The managers have to have the right to protect their own interests in the organization as they are responsible for the smooth operation.
The Internal Recruitment does not bring new skills and competencies to the organization and organization with an intensive usage of the internal recruitment can suffer from the fresh blood.
External Recruitment Pros and Cons
The External Recruitment brings new people to the organization, which can be a huge benefit for the organization. The External Recruitment allows the organization to define the right requirements and the organization can select the candidate, which suits the organization best. The external recruitment can be in many situations quicker solutions, mainly in the situation, when the job market is full of potential job candidates.
The external recruitment and proper campaign increase the popularity of the organization on the job market, which helps to improve the position for further expansion.
On the other hand, the external recruitment is expensive and takes a lot of energy from the HRM Function to handle all the job candidates in the selection process.
The difference between Internal & External Recruitment.
Internal Recruitment:
Is when you try to fill up a position in your organization using internal available recourses. Which means that there are employees within the organization are fit for fill in the post created or required contrary to the External Recruitment.
This methods is helpful if you want to hire people in management postion usually the company prefers to recruit people from within the organization due to the fact there have been there longer they know the organization very well
External Recruitment:
Is when you advertise in the local or international papers to find candidates to fill in positions in your organization. This method is mostly used, this also includes outsourcing recruitment.
Sometimes when organizations fails to find employees within the organization suitable to fill in a position created they used the external recruitment method.
Internal recruitment is inhouse recruitment which u will do for ur company only i.e filling up the position of ur company itself.
External recruitment is providing candidate to ur client to fill their position. It means work for ur client.
Thare are so many softwares to maintain the database or else u can maintain on excel sheet as well.
Consultants and Consulting AND Consulting Systems In INDIA
This is a very good time indeed for consultants. As corporations have been Reorganizing and downsizing, merging and globalizing, the consulting Business has been booming. During the 1990s, U.S. revenue from consulting increased by at least 10% each year and by as much as 20% to 30% in some of the larger firms. Unfortunately, the 2000 economic downturn reversed these trends, and most consulting firms experienced dramatic decreases in revenues and were forced to lay off many of their consulting and support staff. Nonetheless, by 2003, resurgence occurred, and consulting again became a growth market as many corporations turned to consulting firms to meet internal needs. This resurgence continues today. The future looks bright for consultants, as projections suggest a steady growth in the demand for consultants ‘services in the next decade. This book is about what consultants do and how they do it—or, more precisely, what effective consultants do, because there is a big difference between being a consultant and being an effective consultant. In the chapters that follow you will be provided with a step-by-step process that can provide successful outcomes to both you and your clients. The chapters have plenty of examples and cases of the process used by effective consultants, as cases and examples are one of the best ways to learn the consulting business. Also provided as part of each chapter are short pieces of expert advice by established consultants and users of consulting services.
Before we start with the details of the consulting process, however, let’s define some of the basic terms and approaches used in the consulting area. And what better way to begin than with a case:
The case of UneekGraphix, a company that is starting to feel pain caused by a decline in revenues. You might ask yourself, as you read the case, what would you do if you were the consultant who was called in by UneekGraphix. How would you proceed to help this company with its most recent problem? UneekGrafix is a small graphics company that was founded about 10 years ago by 3 graphic artists who met while they were working for a major advertising agency. UneekGrafix quickly established a reputation for its creative, often-off- beat designs for CDs, book covers, display advertising, exhibits, logos, and promotional items. In 10 years’ time, the company acquired several major clients and increased its staff from the 3 founding employees to more than 80 designers and supportstaff. However, in the last 2 years the company lost three major clients and has had difficulty finding new business. As a consequence, revenues have declined. Last month, the company had the first layoff in its history. The top management at UneekGrafix is concerned and perplexed—concerned about the decline in revenues and perplexed about what to do about it. As their president said, “There is something going on in the market that we don’t understand, and we have to get a grasp on this quickly before we take another big hit in revenues.”The UneekGrafix scenario is not uncommon in a competitive business climate. A new company is started by some talented people, experiences fast growth with a very bright future, and suddenly hits a wall. Company officials cannot quite figure out what’s wrong. What they are currently doing has been quite successful in the past, but it does not seem to be working now. This would seem like an opportune time for UneekGrafix to turn to a consultant. They are having considerable difficulty in determining what is causing the downturn in revenues, and a consultant could bring a fresh perspective to the problem. The consultant might conduct a thorough diagnosis, both of UneekGrafix’s internal operations and its customers and market. Perhaps the consultant would make some recommendations as to what the company needs to do to reverse the decline in revenues. Or, perhaps the consultant might help the management team at UneekGrafix take a good look what services and products are demanded by the market and compare that with what the company is providing, and then help the team decide what direction to go in the future. This case is a good example of what consultants might be called on to do, as well as why their services are so valuable to the client. In the chapters that follow, we look at how consultants have assisted a variety of companies and agencies.
For example, there is the case of a shoe manufacturer who was struggling with the decision as to whether to begin selling their shoes online, the case of the Department of Child and Family Services of a large state that “lost” children in its system and turned to consultants to help them design a system in which all children in their care were accounted for and monitored, the manufacturing company that wanted to introduce Six Sigma in its facilities around the world, and the case of the consultant who was conducting a management retreat with the executive group of a large medical center when a hidden agenda quickly emerged was not part of the retreat agenda.
This is what consultants do: help organizations and individuals that have a need. The big question is how to most effectively help the client, and that is what this book is all about. Many consultants are very effective and make important contributions to the success of the organizations for which they consult. These consultants assist businesses in a variety of ways, from solving staffing and management problems to introducing new technology and helping organizations weather all manner of external and internal changes. Other consultants, unfortunately, are less effective—and less successful. Often, this is because they simply never learned the basics of the consulting process. They merely assume that because they have expertise in some subject area that clients will be eager to follow their advice. The ultimate goal of consulting is to increase an organizations’ level of effectiveness. This requires considerable skill and understanding of the organization’s people, problems, and culture, as well as a strong grasp of the best strategies for assisting organizations to change. The purpose of this book is to provide you with the basic skills and strategies you need to be an effective consultant. If you follow the step-by-step process outlined here, you will vastly increase your chances of achieving successful outcomes for you and your clients. We will get back to UneekGrafix soon, but let’s first clarify what is meant by the term consulting.
HOW WE DEFINE CONSULTING
In this book, a consultant is defined as someone who either advises a client -another person or an organization on the desirability of taking some action, or who assists the client in making a decision or then assists the client in planning or implementing action as determined by the client. Several points are stated or implied by this definition:
First, a consultant works for other people (or organizations) called clients. These clients, or beneficiaries of the consultant’s services, can be individuals, groups, or organizations.
Second, a consultant helps these clients achieve goals that the clients, not the consultant, identify. The point here is that the client usually decides what problems need attention or what initiatives need to be implemented, and the consultant is hired to address these.
Third, a consultant provides a specialized skill or expertise that the client, or client organization, is unable to provide on its own. For example, it is common for companies to hire a consultant to train employees in a new computer technology or to conduct a study on a topic in which the consultant, but no one in the hiring organization, has expertise.
Fourth, although consultants may influence decision making by virtue of their knowledge or expertise, consultants usually have little power or authority to make changes. A consultant may recommend changes, and even how to make them, but the client retains ultimate authority over whether and which changes to implement.
To apply this definition to the UneekGrafix scenario, if you were to consult to UneekGrafix, the company would be called the client. You would be working on the problem that the company identified, which in this case is the loss of revenues, although that might lead to looking at different areas of concern. What you would bring to UneekGrafix is probably some specialized expertise in strategic management, or market analysis, or some related area, which the company does not have, or at least does not have with the level of sophistication needed. Finally, you surely will be able to influence what decisions the top management team makes regarding their Over all strategy based on your research and expertise. However, the final decision on what to do and when to do it rests in the hands of UneekGrafix’s management. Managers get paid to make and execute decisions, consultants do not.
TWO APPROACHES TO CONSULTING
Now that we have defined, in general terms, what consultants do, let’s get a bit more specific. Not all consultants use the same approach to serve a client’s need. Regardless of the goal of the projects, consultants typically will take one of two basic approaches when they work with clients. They will function as experts or as facilitators. Although most consultants position their services toward one approach or the other, effective consultants know how to modify their approach depending on the nature of the problem or project the client wants them to tackle. In other words, they function as a combination of expert and facilitator, refining their approach in response to the needs of their clients. That said; let’s take a brief look at the differences in these two basic approaches to consulting.
Consultants as Experts If you ask someone to tell you what a consultant does, most people would describe a consultant as someone who is “an expert” or who offers expert advice. Medical doctors are frequently used as examples. You explain your symptoms to a doctor, who in turn asks you a few important questions and then tells you what you need to do to get better. The process is typically fairly quick and simple, although not always painless. The situation is not too different in the business context. Usually, a client brings a problem to a consultant, who then asks the client many questions. The consultant may gather a variety of diagnostic data related to the problem by reviewing company records or market data, for example. The consultant may also interview a broad sample of people through out the business. The consultant then analyzes the data, arrives at a diagnosis of the problem, and tells the client what the organization needs to do to improve or eliminate the problem. On occasion, a consultant will also assist in implementing the recommendations, thereby taking more of a facilitator role. Let’s go back to the case of UneekGrafix and look at how an expert consultant might approach the company’s dilemma. Once the top executives at UneekGrafix made a decision to seek the assistance of a consultant, they interviewed three consulting firms that specialized in market Strategy or strategic planning. Each firm made a presentation to the executives at UneekGrafix and, on the basis of the presentation and interviews, the company chose a firm that had considerable expertise in the graphics industry. After the consultants had a good understanding of what the company executives expected from them, the consultants first conduct interviews with company personnel. The purpose of the interviews was to identify the products and services offered by the company as well as to understand what the company saw as their primary customers and markets. The consultants then began a series of customer and market analyses. They interviewed current as well as former customers of UneekGrafix. They also talked with companies that had never used UneekGraphix to better understand how the company is perceived in the marketplace. Another focus was on the company’s competitors—what were they doing that was bringing them business? The consultants also conducted a very thorough market analyses. They were particularly interested in examining which products and services were increasing in use and which were declining. Also of interest was an understanding of what the market would look like in 5 years, particularly how technology was changing the need for products and services of the kind offered by UneekGrafix. Having completed the analyses, the consulting firm presented their findings to the senior management team of the company, both in an oral presentation as well as a written report. The report also included several recommendations as to how the company might reverse the decline in revenues and begin again on the growth path. As the UneekGrafix example demonstrates, the obvious advantage of employing experts as consultants is that they have knowledge that is not available in the client organization. As the business world becomes more complex, faster paced, and technical, experts can be an invaluable resource. The consultants hired by UneekGrafix had several special skills. One is that they had a good understanding as to what type of information to collect and how to collect it in order to make wise decisions about the future. Moreover, they were experts on the graphics field. They also had a good understanding of strategy—how to position a company such that the company might establish a competitive advantage over its competitors. The managers at UneekGrafix were stuck and didn’t know what to do about the decline in revenues, and the expert consultants gave them new insights about their business and offered several valuable recommendations on ways to restart the business. That is why consultants are so valuable. As with any approach to consulting; there are some possible problems for those who use the expert approach. One potential concern from the client’s perspective is that the expert may not fully appreciate the nature of the client’s business and may recommendations that cannot or do not address the problem the consultant was hired to solve. Alternatively, a client may end up with some wonderful recommendations but be unable to implement any of them because of the unique politics or culture of the company. All too frequently, experts present clients with nicely bound reports that detail the results of an analysis of a problem together with recommendations the company might take to help it operate more efficiently or compete more effectively. The report may be right on target, but because the report was put together outside the organization and the key company executives did not participate in the analysis or decision making process, they may not take the recommendations seriously. Executives are bombarded with reports of all types, and unless there is a strong insider championing the value of its recommendations, a consultant’s report can become just another document that is filed away and never seen again.
Consultants as Facilitators
A basic assumption of the consultant-as-facilitator approach is that it will ultimately be up to the client to decide how to solve the problem the consultant was brought in to investigate or to implement the project on which the consultant was hired to work. The consultant’s role is to assist the client in going through the steps necessary to solve the problem or conduct the project. The consultant does not tell the client what solution is best under the circumstances. Neither does the consultant implement changes or take actions. Instead, the focus is on assisting the client in defining the problem, analyzing the situation, evaluating possible solutions, and deciding on the best solution and the best way to implement the option chosen. Let’s go back to the UneekGrafix case look at how a consultant using the
facilitator approach might have worked with the company. Inane effort to understand and reverse the downturn, the company decided to hire a consulting firm that specialized in collaborative strategic planning. After interviewing three firms, they hired one that came highly recommended by one of their suppliers. After discussing what the company expected from their firm, the consultants designed a planning process that would involve and engage many of the key personnel at UneekGrafix. Each week, for 10 weeks, 15 of the key design and support managers met to complete a step in this process and, between meetings, teams prepared for the next meeting. For example, in preparation for one meeting, the teams called on current and potential customers to ask them what they needed and wanted from the company. In preparation for another meeting, the teams collected information on their competitors, particularly those that were taking business away. The role of the consultants was to help UneekGrafix design the planning process and act as facilitators at meetings. They did not collection formation for the firmer recommend a business strategy—that was the job of the UneekGrafix managers. Yet this does not mean that the consultants were ineffective. Quite the contrary—because of the process designed by the consultants and their facilitation skills, at the end of the 10 weeks the 15 managers who had been meeting had developed a strategic plan for the firm that they felt confident would put them back on
the road to growth and profitability. One obvious advantage of the facilitator approach we have just out-lined above is that the client is very involved both in analyzing the problem and deciding on a plan of action. As a result, the client is likely to have a strong sense of commitment to and ownership of whatever action the organization decides to take, increasing the probability that decisions will be implemented. Another advantage of the approach is that the managers became very knowledgeable about their business and about their customers as well as their competitors. This knowledge should be very helpful in making future decisions. However, problems can arise with the facilitator approach. One rather obvious problem can occur if the decision makers in the client organization do not have the knowledge or the time to make wise decisions. We rely heavily on experts in all aspects of our lives, from medical doctors, dentists, and lawyers, to computer gurus, architects, and building contractors, to name only a few. These experts provide critical services in areas in whichour knowledge are inadequate. Similarly, there are times when expert opinion is desperately needed in specialized areas of business.
Another problem that can arise with the facilitator approach is that the client group may not be capable of making tough decisions. In many collaborative efforts, the aim is to accommodate all the participants’ view points and to keep peace in the company. As a consequence, although a consensus may be achieved, it may be at the cost of making the best decision. Ideally, a good facilitator/consultant will make sure that this does not happen; however, the danger that the group will arrive at a less-than-optimal decision is a very real one. This book does not favor either the facilitator or the expert model. As the examples we have mentioned point out, both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. The point being made here is that there are several ways to approach a client assignment. The key is to understand which approach best fits the situation and which one will be effective in moving the client forward. By the time you finish this book, you should be better equipped to make such an assessment.
INTERNAL VERSUS EXTERNAL CONSULTANTS
Most people think of consultants as being self-employed or being employed by a firm that provides consulting services. These external or outside consultants are not regular employees of the client’s company but work with the client on a temporary assignment. External consultants typically spend relatively short periods of time at client companies. They contract for a specific project, and once the job is finished they move on to another project, and often to another company. Of the people who call themselves consultants, the largest percentage falls into this category of externals. Among these externals, quite a few are “Lone Rangers”—people who are self-employed, work alone, and operate out of home offices. However, by far the largest numbers of external consultants are employed by consulting firms. Many of these firms are quite small, with 5 to 20 consultants. Firm sizes vary considerably beyond that. Among the largest consulting companies, a few employ upwards of 10,000 consultants. Accenture, the largest consulting firm, at least in the management consulting field, has
some 90,000 consultants on staff. External consultants are an immensely varied lot, with an almost infinite variety of knowledge and skills. There are consultants who specialize in everything from store layouts to recycling, product packaging, parks and recreation, risk management, animal care, inventory control, reading programs, water pollution, and nuclear energy. There are consultants who will help you design a golf course, others who will help you select the proper grass and sand, and others who will advise you on how best to manage your golf tournaments. Name it, and you probably can find a consultant who specializes in it. However, not all consultants are externals. Another sometimes-ignored
group of consultants are those who work for a company, often as full-time employees, usually in staff positions. Most of these internal consultants are employed in medium-sized or large companies. Smaller companies—for instance, those with fewer than 200 employees—either do not have the need for internal consultants or simply cannot afford to maintain them on staff. Although some internal consultants may have the term consultant in their title, such as organizational development consultant
, manydonot.Their business cards may describe them as human resources specialists, safety officers, quality coordinators, product engineers, training designers, master teachers, financial analysts, or use similar designations. Their major responsibility, however, is to provide consulting services to other people or units in their organizations. Based on the services they perform, they are clearly consultants as defined in this book. Now that you know a little about the two major types of consultants, you’re ready to learn some of the advantages of working as an external versus an internal consultant or of hiring one to work for you (see Table 1.1).One advantage of hiring externals is that they usually have worked with a lot of other companies and have direct experience with solving the problem or conducting the project the client is tackling. For example, if a client wants to install enterprise-wide software, such as SAP or PeopleSoft, hiring an external consultant who has overseen numerous installations would be a critical and necessary addition to the process, especially if the client has little or no experience with such projects. Another reason to hire an external consultant is that this individual
brings a fresh pair of eyes to a problem or project. Involving someone who can provide a new and objective perspective can be a tremendous boon to a project, as we found with the case of UneekGrafix.
Still another advantage of hiring an external consultant is that it may be more cost effective than maintaining a variety of experts on the payroll with expensive benefits and compensation. Most companies cannot afford the luxury of having a wide range of experts on the full-time staff. Renting experts only when they are needed is a great way to receive help in specified areas, for specified periods of time, without adding staff and costs to the company payroll. Although these advantages may seem like reason enough to hire externals, bringing on internal consultants also has its benefits. One advantage is that they are always available, assuming that they are not involved in a
Differences between Internal and External Consultants
External Consultant Internal Consultant
Lots of experience with other Always available Companies Direct experience with similar more familiar with organizational problems culture Fresh perspective Understands politics of getting things done Cost effective must live with results project for someone else in the company. In addition, they are generally
more familiar than external consultants with the company’s people and culture. Often, they better understand how things get done, including who really makes decisions and what to say and do when approaching these people. In addition, unlike external consultants, who come and go, internals have to live with the consequences of a project, which can be a strong incentive to be concerned with the outcomes. Amy Glynn, an internal consultant at Dow Jones & Company, Inc., notes in the following “From the Expert Box” the advantage of being an internal consultant is that you remain engaged in the real-time evolution of the organization. Amy claims that From the Experts .The Internal Consultant’s Role at Dow Jones & Company by Amy Glynn, Global Consultant, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Over the past several decades, many organizations have realized great benefits from utilizing external consultants not only for strategic planning but for re-engineering core processes and administering various corporate functions. But, while this strategy was largely successful, managing these consultants and their resources was often cumbersome and time-consuming. Typically, an external adviser does not have an emotional attachment to a client organization or a long term interest in furthering the organization’s mission. External consultants and their firms are driven by revenue and the ability to provide new products or services. In reaction to these issues, over the past few years, companies created the role of internal consultant. While their responsibilities are similar to those of external consultants, a few aspects of the job make it distinct. The role of the internal consultant can be viewed as “in sourcing” of the duties that were historically entrusted to external consultants: strategy development, process redesign, and so forth. The internal consultant performs the same functions but is differentiated by his or her commitment to the organization and the focus on one client. My role as an internal international human resources consultant is to serve as a project manager to ensure that Dow Jones meets a set of long-range goals. I provide cross-functional oversight for a variety of projects by coordinating corporate staff globally. This involves managing internal resources as well as employing external vendors and consultants on an as-needed basis. For example, we are currently working on a project to ensure that all our employment practices are compliant globally with both privacy and discrimination legislation. This requires that I manage the internal resources of local management, the legal department, and the local recruiting functions. The management of external resources includes both outside legal counsel and local recruiting firms. The advantage of being an internal consultant is that you remain engaged in the real-time evolution of the organization. Not only do I know DowJones’s culture of success but I am also part of that culture. This advantage can be a disadvantage in that sometimes the most creative solutions require a fresh perspective and the ability to take a risk in making recommendation. Therefore, the role of change agent in an organization requires credibility to obtain support from senior management as well as objectivity to deliver progressive results.she not only knows the Dow Jones’s culture of success but that she is also part of that culture. According to Amy, this insider information sometimes gives her an advantage over an external consultant when attempting to impart change in her organization. On the down side, some internal consultants complain that their recommendations are taken less seriously than those of externals, particularly by top management. Internals are usually in the midrange of the company hierarchy, most often in a staff unit (as opposed to an operations unit). Because of this positioning, units or individuals may think that they can accept or ignore the consultants’ services or advice. In addition, top management may feel more comfortable dealing with an external consultant rather than sharing the company’s problems (or hanging out its dirty
laundry) to someone in a midlevel staff position. By this time you may be wondering which is better—being an external consultant or an internal one (see Table 1.2). If you are an external consultant, you’ll probably get to travel a lot, probably will get to work on a variety of different projects, and will learn about the insides of a lot of companies. Certainly you’re not going to be bored, and you’ll gain valuable experience. Another plus is that externals are generally paid more than internals, and sometimes they have the option to turn down projects on which they don’t want to work.For some people, the advantages of being an external consultant can also be disadvantages. Some externals complain about the constant travel and about having to be away from home for long stretches of time. There are also likely to be many 12-hr days. If you’re out on your own, you’ll need to do a lot of marketing to find business. And, of course, like anyone who is self-employed, the mortgage and health insurance bills
Advantages and Disadvantages of Being an Internal Versus an External
Travel a lot
Regular paycheck
Variety of projects
Have to live with results
Taken into confidence
Less boring
Company-paid benefits
Often taken less seriously
keep coming in even if you aren’t working. Being on the payroll of a large consulting company eliminates some of these disadvantages in that the large firms usually have a specialized staff to do the marketing and to acquire consulting contracts, and they also provide steady paychecks and benefits. Internal consultants usually don’t travel as much as externals, which give them much more time to spend with their families and friends and to attend to home responsibilities. They receive regular paychecks, and
their employer pays for health insurance and benefits and contributes to a retirement fund. For some internals, working with the same people again and again, particularly if they are enjoyable to work with, is rewarding. In the negative column, this usually means that their clients and projects are less varied than those of externals. Often, internals are assigned a project, or expected to learn a specific set of tasks, and that becomes their specialty or focus. As with any such overview, there are many exceptions to the rules just mentioned. Some internal consultants travel a lot, for example, and some externals don’t; and some internals take home healthy paychecks, while some externals have a tough time meeting the bills. The important point is that within the field of consulting a major distinction is made between in ternal and external consulting. Whether to hire an external or an internal consultant, or to become an internal or an external, is a matter deserving of serious thought and discussion. This book should expand your understanding of these questions.
Now that we have the basic definitions out of the way, we can begin the details of the consulting process. The last decades has been one of continual change in organizations, and along the way consultants and corporations have learned a lot about the conditions and situations that facilitate change as well as those that impede or derail the process. For example, goals that are vague and not quantifiable (not measurable) appear to be an invitation for disaster, so one critical task for the consultant is to assist the client in clarifying the goal and them measurable results necessary for a project to be deemed successful. Involving key personnel who will be affected by the change also greatly enhances success rates; these personnel can provide valuable input and, through their involvement, ideally become committed to ensuring the success of the project. The goal of this book is to teach you the basics of what consultants and researchers have learned about how to be an effective consultant. By following the process we outline in this book, you should improve your chances of success tremendously. This process consists of seven steps that, when followed sequentially, give an order and logic to the consulting
Process:
1. Establishing expectations and goals (chap. 2)
2. Formalizing the agreement: Proposals and contracts (chap. 3)
3. Developing a project strategy: Diagnosis and data collection; interviewing (chaps. 4 and 5)
4. Preparing the feedback/assessment report: Moving the client to action (chap. 6)
5. Presenting the findings: Moving from diagnosis to commitment to action (chap. 7)
6. Initiating action (chap. 8)
7. Ending the project (chap. 9)
The length of time it takes to complete each of these steps varies widely Depending on the project; a step may take an hour to complete, or it may take several months. However, completing each step is critical to the success of a project, and ignoring the sequence (e.g., implementing changes without diagnosing problems) often guarantees failure. Chapters 2 through 9 of this book discuss each of these steps in detail and demonstrate the step-by-step process effective consultants follow. We end this book with some final thoughts that outline four basic principles of effective consulting.
Many people who call themselves consultants are unfamiliar with the process outlined in this book. Yet whether a consulting project is a success or a failure depends largely on whether the consultant follows this process and understands the principles behind it. The focus of this book is on how to complete a consulting project to your satisfaction and the satisfaction of the client. At the end of each chapter, we
Provide a set of key success factors to assist you in making your consulting experiences more effective. For those of you using this book in the class-room, these success factors can be used as a guide for classroom discussion or for potential student projects. For those of you using this book in your consulting business, you can use these success factors as a measure or checklist for your work. You might also use these factors for important dialogue with your clients and colleagues. Each chapter includes a chapter-relevant expert advice box that contains consulting advice written by an expert in the field. These boxes address a specific topic related to the chapter material in which the box is embedded. These expert advice boxes are practical case examples of the expert’s experience with consulting and bring the chapter material to life. Finally, at the end of the book, we have provided an annotated bibliography of books on chapter topics. So, now that we know a little about what consultants do and what you’ll learn from this book, it’s time to begin to develop the skills for success. Establishing Expectations and Goals the success or failure of a consulting project is often determined in large measure long before a contract is signed or anyone has agreed to work together. This is true whether the consultant and client have never met or if they have worked together on many projects. In either case, the first phase of a project—typically the first face-to-face meeting—is extremely important, as this is when the expectations and goals of the project are established. If the consultant and client have never worked together, then the first phase of the project is also when both parties assess whether they will be able to work together effectively and comfortably. For your first meeting with a client or prospective client to be successful, it is essential that you come prepared. You need to know which questions you want to address, as well as how to respond to the client’s questions. In this chapter we discuss the questions you and the client need to answer during the initial phase of a project as you are getting to know each other, discussing the project, and evaluating the pros and cons of proceeding. The goals and tone of the first meeting or meetings between you and a client or prospective client are likely to be different depending on the circumstances that brought you together. We therefore begin with a brief discussion of the ways consultants and clients usually make contact.
MAKING CONTACT
There are several ways consultants and prospective clients make contact with one another. Some of the more common scenarios include the following:
• A consultant calls a prospective client to discover the services offered by the consultant, and the consultant’s firm. The prospective client suggests a follow-up meeting.
• A company has a problem that it needs help in addressing or a project on which it needs help. The vice president of human resources has received the names of three external consultants who seem to be qualified to handle the project and asks each of them to visit the company for a meeting and to give a presentation.
• The general manager of a manufacturing facility is planning a major project and knows she will need considerable assistance. She contacts an internal consultant with whom she has worked in the past and asks the consultant to work on the project.
• A department manager meets an internal (or an external) consultant in the company cafeteria, hall, or a similar location and asks the consultant to come by his office, adding “I have a problem I want to discuss with you.”
• A consultant receives a letter from a federal agency soliciting proposals for a project. Interested parties are given a number to call for further information.If you and the client have never worked together, as in the first example, the client will inevitably want to learn about your background and Qualifications and, if relevant, that of your consulting firm. You will probably meet several times to discuss how the client might use your services, your strengths and qualifications, and your general and consulting-related experience. The initial phase of your relationship may seem to drag on forever. The client may not have even decided for certain to go ahead with the project you are discussing. Talking about it with you may be part of the process of making this decision. Considerable time—months, perhaps—may elapse between your initial meeting and when you and the client actually start working together. Frustration tends to mount in such situations. You are likely to feel as if you are saying the same things to the same people over and over again, yet no decision or payment is forth coming. In contrast, as in the third scenario, you and the client may already have an established relationship and perhaps have worked together in the past. In this case, you will have to spend little or no time getting to know one an other. Moreover, if you are an internal consultant, you are probably obligated to undertake assignments that are given to you, and many of the decisions about how to handle projects may have already been made. In this case, the efficient way to proceed would be to discuss the details of the project as soon as possible and, if necessary, begin to draw up and sign a letter of agreement.
Regardless of how initial contact is made, several important tasks need to be accomplished during the initial phase of the relationship between a consultant and a client. The remainder of this chapter focuses on these tasks.
OVERVIEW OF THE INITIAL PHASE
The overall goal in the initial phase of a project, whether you are an internal or an external consultant, is to learn in some detail about the problem facing the client or the project to be undertaken. If you are not familiar with the company for which the client works, you will also want to learn about the organization. The initial discussion between you and a client is likely to focus on the
Following:
• What does the client say needs to be fixed or to be accomplished, and why? What specific outcomes are requested?
• What does the client want you to do? What is expected of you? What will be your roles and responsibilities on the project?
• What units will be involved in the project? How well are they operating currently? Who will be involved in the project? What kind of support can you expect from them?
• What is the status of the project? Is the project something the client is just thinking about doing, or is the client ready to proceed? Are other consultants being considered for this project? Who makes the final decision about whom to hire? When is the project supposed to begin? When does the project have to be completed? At some time during the initial phase of a project, assuming there appears to be a good fit between your skills and the client’s needs, you may want to discuss formalizing an agreement or a contract to work together.
In the next chapter, we review the details of drawing up such an agreement. Whether the initial phase of a project is brief or lengthy, and whether the client is an old friend or a new contact, covering the points outlined in this chapter is good practice. This will ensure that you understand what the client wants, help to prevent either you or the client from making unwarranted assumptions, and give you a chance to learn about the client and the unit with which you will be working, as well as give the client a chance to become more familiar with your background and work style.
FIRST MEETINGS
Typically, clients initiate first meetings, usually because the client’s company wants to hire a consultant for help with a project or to resolve a problem. If you and a prospective client have not worked together before, the purpose of this meeting is usually simply to explore the possibility of working together. The focus is on finding out about each other and on determining whether there is a good fit between what the client wants and what you do. Obviously, clients want to hire someone who is capable of solving their problems and carrying out their projects, so assessing your competency will be a major concern. In fact, the client’s highest priority will most likely be determining whether you or the firm for which you work is qualified to handle the work. If you do not pass the competency test, your first meeting is likely to end rather quickly. You will want to address several key issues in the first meeting as well. The first is what the client wants done. What is the problem that needs fixing, or what does the proposed project involve? There is also the important issue of whether you feel competent to handle the project. Can you do a good job? Are the project demands reasonable? In addition, you will want to determine whether you will be able to work with the people involved. In the “From the Expert” box in this chapter, Maureen Ausura, corporate vice president of human resources at Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), discusses the qualifications consultants must have to work for ADM. We note throughout this chapter the importance of understanding the organization’s history and culture. Ausura agrees and claims that
to work as a consultant at ADM, the consultant must be flexible and find solutions that are consistent with the ADM culture. For Ausura, understanding ADM’s culture, history, and business philosophy is a must. The consultant must also exhibit high levels of customer service and a willingness to work with the ADM team.
ADDRESSING THE SPECIFICS
Having outlined some of the broad purposes of the initial meeting, we turn now to some of the specifics. Suppose, for example, that a prospective client calls an external consultant on the phone or asks an internal consultant to drop by her office. What does the consultant need to learn from the client, and what does the consultant want the client to learn? In the following section we discuss the specific pieces of information each party will want to learn during the initial phase of the project, as well as ways to elicit the information. Bear in mind that these are only suggestions. You should develop your own set of questions and tailor them to each situation. Defining the Problem Assuming that the client has contacted you, the initial conversation, whether on the phone or in person, will typically start out with the client From the Experts …Criteria for Selecting Consultants at Archer Daniels Midland by Maureen Ausura, Corporate Vice President, Human Resources, Archer Daniels Midland Company In general, I use consultants on a project or ongoing basis when expertise or data are not readily available in house. I therefore view our consultants as an ex-tension of the human resource staff. When the decision is made that we need outside expertise, a request for a proposal is sent to consulting companies explaining our need. Responses are narrowed to three to five, and those groups are invited in to make a presentation. During that presentation, the firm is evaluated using the following
Criteria:
• The consultants must be recognized subject-matter experts. Because we are depending on them to provide resources we do not have, we do not have time for people to try out new practice areas on us.
• They must have prior experience working with large multinational manufacturing firms. The Internet is wonderful, but only a small percentage of our population uses a computer on a daily basis in their jobs. Consultants who work with professional staffing companies frequently come in with state-of-the-art technology that will not work in our environment. Language capabilities and cultural understanding of locations outside the United States are critical in most programs we undertake.
• They must be flexible and willing to find solutions to fit our culture, business practices, and employee population.
• They must be responsive and available to the team working on the project. I expect a high level of customer service and follow-through before, during, and after the completion of a project.
• We want to meet the team who will be working on the project, not just the salespeople, and hear from them how work will progress and definite answers to questions or concerns.
• The consultants need to be somewhat familiar with our business, philosophy, and history before they try to sell us services. I met with one consultant who spent an hour trying to sell me a program that we had just implemented. When he set up the meeting, he was very vague about the purpose, and we both wasted precious time.
• The consultants need to know when to stop selling.
• They need to be cost competitive. Cost is an important consideration, but not the only one. We look for consultants who are willing to work with us to find ways to reduce and manage the costs. We are looking for value and a return on our investment.
Telling you about the problem or project that he or she wants handled: “Hi,I’m Mary Smith from X company. We are the second largest manufacturer of gears in the United States. We need help with a problem we’re having in our marketing and sales department. Mike Johnson gave me your name as some one who might be able to help us.”Some consultants would respond by giving Mary a rundown of their impressive client list, what wonderful consultants they are, and how they can solve almost any problem. We strongly recommend against such grandstanding. Listening, not telling, is one of the most valuable skills in the consultant’s repertoire. Mary obviously wants to talk about the problem—this is why she contacted the consultant in the first place. A far better response would be to say something like “Thank you for calling me. It sounds like an interesting problem. Can you tell me more about it?”In this case, it would be better if the consultant let Mary do the talking but helped her maintain her focus on the problem. At the same time, the consultant needs to be alert to vague descriptions of problems or projects; references to “motivational problems,” “communication problems,” or “change projects “can have different meanings depending on who is using the expression. Regardless of the terms that are used, you and the client need to be sure that you have defined the problem or parameters of a project in the same way before you sign a contract. Your task is to probe for more detail as well as examples until you fully understand the nature of the problem or project in which you will be involved. Questions such as the following can be helpful in eliciting the detailed information you’ll want and need:
• What do you mean when you say your company is having a motivational problem?
• Could you give me some examples of the problem?
• How long has this problem been going on?
• Who is affected by the problem?
• How has it affected the people in your organization?
One of the reasons to probe fairly deeply is that the presenting problem—the one the client identifies may not be the real or underlying problem at all. That is, the client may say that the company is having a problem motivating its line workers but, deeper questioning, suggests that the underlying problem is actually a disagreement between the union and management over work rules. Only probing questions will get to the bottom of the problem and thus to the underlying issues. A word of warning is in order here: Not all prospective clients will want to go into great detail about a project until they have a good idea that they want to work with you. Clients do not want to hang out dirty laundry, or divulge trade secrets, to someone who may not be interested in the project or qualified to help them. Respect the client’s wishes and do not push for details beyond the point where the client is willing to go. The questions you ask will vary, of course, depending on the problem or project being discussed. The point is that your goal is to understand then problem or project at a fairly concrete and specific level. If you keep that goal in mind, questions should flow easily. Agreeing on Expected or Hoped-For Outcomes For a project to be a success, both you and the client need to agree on the specific outcomes for which the client is hoping. Does the client want a certain percentage increase in the number of employees who can use new software? Does the client want an increase in sales figures? If so, how much of an increase? Does the client expect the company’s over all profits to go up? By how much? How the client answers these questions can mean the difference between accepting a project that is doomed to failure from the beginning and embarking on one that has a reasonable chance of success. Among the questions you will need to ask is “Why do you want to undertake this project?” and “What outcomes are you looking for?” The answers should help clarify the reasons the client called you in as well as the outcome the client (or, equally likely, the client’s boss) expects. Addressing Past Successes and Failures Some times it is useful to ask a prospective client whether the company (or unit) has tried to deal with the problem or undertake the project previously. In particular, you will want to try to find out if the client’s company has tried to solve the problem with little or no success. Questions such as the following are good at eliciting this information:
• Is this a new problem?
• If not, how was the problem handled in the past?
• How have similar problems been handled?
• How successful were those efforts?
• Why were those efforts not more successful? Plan of Action It behooves you to clarify your role as soon as possible.
For example, does the client want you only to implement action or to diagnose a problem and recommend a solution? You may want to ask the client directly: “Have you decided how you want the problem [or project] handled? Is this something you want me to help with?” The work the client wants you to do will obviously be different depending on whether the client has already decided how to proceed. At one extreme is the client who simply wants the consultant to implement action, such as a training program to teach employees a new statistical process control program. If you have the qualifications and are willing to design and implement the program, the project can move ahead quickly.
However, what happens if you are unconvinced that providing this type of training, or even training itself, will solve the company’s problem? In this case, further discussion is definitely in order. It is often helpful under such circumstances to ignore the proposed solution for the moment and to reexamine the problem from a variety of viewpoints. When done diplomatically and sensitively, this approach often leads to a plan of action that better serves the client’s needs and goals. This is one of the ways you can add value to the client organization. At the other extreme from the client who has strong feelings on how a project should be handled is the one who has no idea how to deal with the problem or conduct the project; in fact, the client wants the consultant to answer this question. Between these two extremes is the client who claims to be pretty sure what needs to be done, but, just to be sure, the client would like the consultant to come up with a diagnosis and solution. This situation frequently arises when there is disagreement among key players in the organization about how to proceed. The consultant has been brought in as a neutral third party. Consultants who have faced this situation find three bits of advice extremely useful. First, you need to fully understand the dynamics of the situation. It is often useful to interview some of the key players in the organization to get their side of the story. Second, you need to remain neutral and objective. Third, you need to back up your conclusions with good, hard data. Consultant’s Role Developing a clear understanding of your role is a primary objective during the initial phase of any consulting assignment. If you are not clear about your role after discussion of the preceding questions, you definitely need to clarify it. One approach is to ask “I think I understand your problem [or project]. What do you see as my role here? How can I best help you?” You must understand both broadly and specifically, what the client wants you to do. Only then can you decide whether you have the skills and the time to assist the client. Sometimes clients are very vague about the role they envision for the consultant. In this case, you need to take a leadership role and recommend ways to proceed as well as outline ways you could assist the client.Other clients have specific—sometimes very specific—ideas about what they want the consultant to do. They may go so far as to say something like “I need someone to facilitate the 2-day annual planning retreat for the company’s management team on April 20 and 21.”Learning about the Company the initial phase of a project is also when you should become familiar with the company or the unit requesting assistance. You might say, for example, “I think I have a good understanding of what you’re looking for now. However, I’m not that familiar with your company [or unit]. Could you give me a brief overview?” Clients usually are quite good at describing their companies. Occasionally, before beginning to answer, they will ask you what you would like to know. This is a legitimate question that you should be ready to answer. Most consultants start with the basics, such as the company’s major products and services, and then ask the specifics, including some or all of the following:
• Who are the company’s major clients?
• How many employees does the company have?
• Where are the facilities located?
• Where will the project under discussion take place?
• In a few words, how would you describe your company culture?
At this stage, you often need no more than a broad understanding of the setting in which the project will take place. However, depending on the depth of the conversation up to this point and the nature of the project, you may feel it is necessary to address a few specific issues, such as whether the employees with whom you will be working are unionized or whether the company is going through a downsizing. Letting the Client Learn about You Assuming that you and the client have not worked together before or are not familiar with each other, you may want to volunteer information about yourself or about your firm. There are a couple of ways to go about this. One is simply to say something like the following: “I’m sure you’d like to know a little about me [or my firm]. Let me give you a brief idea about who I am [or who we are] and the type of projects I[or we]have been involved in.” Alternatively, you may say something like this: “I’ve been asking you all sorts of questions about your company. I’m sure you have questions you’d like to ask me [or about my firm]. What would you like to know?”It is good consulting practice to have a short presentation ready to intro-duce you—usually nothing elaborate or detailed. Here is one
Example:
I’m with a small firm of four consultants who have been in business since 1990 and have been quite successful. We specialize in the health care field and have worked with some leading hospitals in this area, such as County Central, Metro Normal, and Bethesda. Much of our work has focused on helping hospitals redesign their information systems to increase the effectiveness of health care delivery as well as to ensure compatibility with managed-care programs. If the project under consideration is similar to other projects in which you (or the firm for which you work) have been involved, it is important to note this. The explanation might go something like this: “We just finished a project at County Central that was very similar to yours. It worked out quite well. Jim Haller was the person we worked with at County. You
might want to give him a call.”Although the focus of this conversation is on selling your services, we recommend that you use an informational (and soft) approach. At the same time, you want to put your best foot forward. Everybody, even the most inexperienced consultants, has a best foot. Tell the client about your strengths and how they relate to the client’s situation. No client wants to hire someone who lacks confidence and who is not good at what he or she does. So, although you should not lie about your skills or accomplishments, do not minimize your abilities or experience. Prospective clients vary in how much they want to know about candidates for consulting projects. Surprisingly, many do not want to know much. They accept at face value that the consultant is qualified. In other cases, a prospective client may want detailed information, including people the client may contact for references. In addition to a list of references, have a résumé available and/or an information packet about your firm. These can be sent to the client, or left with the client, to read when convenient. Some consultants find it useful to describe their approach, especially if it is unusual. Details are not necessary; just provide enough basic information to highlight (and sell) areas in which you or the firm excel. For example, one human resource consulting firm prides itself on its collaborative relationships. Consultants with this firm typically form project teams consisting of 12 to 15 employees who represent a cross-section of levels and units of the client company. This team does most of the research and design concerning the company’s new human resources policies and procedures, using the consultants as facilitators and resource people. The consultants with this firm claim that this approach leads to better policies and procedures as well as to greater employee acceptance of changes. Also, because they are proud of their success, consultants with this company are eager to explain their approach to potential clients. Project Status If the client has not been clear about when the project will start, it is a good idea to ask directly. The client may still be thinking about whether to do the project, or the client may not only have committed to doing it but also already has a budget in place. You can find out this information by asking
Something like this: “What is the current status of the project? Have you already decided definitely to do it, or are you still in the exploratory stage?”Knowing the timeline for the project is also useful, if not essential. Asking when the client would like to start the project and when it will need to be completed are often important considerations in deciding how to plan your time and accommodate other commitments. Hiring Issues Many consultants suggest that at some point in the initial phase of a project
That you find out from the client who will be doing the hiring. You might inquire, for example: “Who will be deciding which consultant gets this job? Will that be you, or will others be involved in the decision making?”It may well be that the person with whom you have been meeting does not have final decision-making authority over which consultant gets the job. Or perhaps this person will make are commendation and someone else will have the final say, or perhaps he or she was asked to find four or five consultants who seem able to handle the project and to submit their names to some other person or persons who will decide. Whatever the process, you need to focus much of your attention on the person who will be deciding whom to hire.FeesMost clients do not ask about fees during initial meetings. They have something that needs to be fixed or changed, and their focus is on finding someone capable of taking care of it. This is less true in the nonprofit sector. Because nonprofit firms often have very limited budgets, prospective clients with nonprofits may be quick to ask about your fees. If the client says there are limited funds for the project, assure the client that there might be ways to complete some or the entire project within the allocated budget. As a general rule of thumb, if the client asks your fees, answer as honestly as possible. If you have a set daily fee, tell the client this figure. If you
bill on a project basis, explain that it is impossible to quote a project fee until there are well-defined project parameters. Commenting on the Competition Clients sometimes ask consultants to compare themselves with the competition. This is always a difficult question to answer. Most consultants hear only bits and pieces about their competitors and rarely see them in action, so it is somewhat unfair even to ask a consultant to make a comparison. Some consultants note that they have limited information and therefore are not able to compare themselves with other individuals or firms. However, being able to benchmark your work and pricing is important to your consulting success. One way of better understanding your competition is to join professional organizations in your area of expertise. The associations often provide benchmarking studies to their members that can help with your pricing and projects. Regardless of how much or how little information you have about your competition, never badmouth other consultants, as this reflects negatively on the whole profession. Instead, emphasize your ability to handle the project under discussion and focus on similar projects you have handled successfully. If your style differs considerably from a competitor’s, you may want to point this out. Consulting firms have different areas of specialization, and they differ in approach or strategy. Making clients aware of these differences assists them in making informed decision about whom to hire. Discussing Bad Experiences Occasionally, a client will say something like: “We have had bad experiences with consultants in the past. How do we know that working with you will be different?”One effective way to handle this question is to ask the person about those experiences: “What happened? What should the consultant have done differently? What would have made the consulting process better?” Ideally, the consultant will then suggest ways to structure the project to en-sure that the same problems do not occur. Focus on talking about your credentials, as well as those of any other consultants who will be working with you. Also strive to shift the discussion to past successes in similar organizations or similar projects. Finally, you may want to explain that by working to develop a relationship characterized by collaboration and the client’s involvement, you and the client should be able to significantly improve the chances of achieving positive results.
DECIDING WHETHER TO PROCEED
Consultants turn down projects for any number of reasons, including scheduling conflicts and concerns about the details of a project. To avoid wasting each other’s time, you should let the client know as soon as possible if you will not be able to proceed. The direct approach—that is, telling the client directly that you are unable to do the project, and why—usually works best. Then send a follow-up letter to thank the client for setting up the meeting and to express interest in possibly working together in the future. You may want to recommend another consultant to handle the project, either during the meeting or in the thank-you note. If you are interested in working on the project and eager to proceed, or at least to discuss the project further, make this clear. You might want to say something like this: “This sounds like a very interesting project. I’ve handled several projects like this successfully in the past and feel confident I could do a good job. How would you like to proceed?”If you and the client have been discussing the project over the telephone rat an off-site location, you might suggest visiting the client for an hour or so at the client’s place of business. This offers both of you a chance to continue talking and may give you an opportunity to talk to some of the other people who will be involved in the project, including key decision makers. This is good practice for both external consultants and internal consultants.
PREPARING FOR A VISIT
Before the visit, you may want to ask the client for printed information about the company, such as an annual report, information about the company’s products, and perhaps an organizational chart. The Internet is also a good source of information about corporations. In addition to reviewing the company’s Web site, you may want to search the online business press for newspaper and magazine articles on the company. Articles in the popular and business press can also yield valuable information on the company’s market, whether it is a publicly held and financial data. Coming prepared for an on-site meeting is critical. Many consultants send a letter or an e-mail confirming the time and location of the meeting and to say that they are looking forward to getting together with the client and other key people in the company. They also include information about themselves and/or their firms. If you will be
Making a presentation, you may want to confirm the preferred content and length of the talk.
VISITING
The purpose of an on-site visit is to ensure that the right chemistry exists between you and the client. Making a positive impression is important. Managers as well as other employees are likely to be evaluating your interpersonal skills as well as your overall image. Dress professionally, and be sure to demonstrate your best skills interacting with others. You typically will meet first with the contact person at the company, to review the agenda or itinerary. This provides a good opportunity for you to talk more about the project or issue with the client. Frequently, you will be making a presentation before several people who will be involved in the project or for key decision makers in the company. Presentations are typically about 20 to 30 minutes long but may last up to an hour with questions. Plan on using overheads, PowerPoint slides, or other visual tools to highlight key points and to reinforce your message. The presentation should be clear and free of jargon, well organized, and offer practical approaches and solutions. Corporate boardrooms are not the place to recycle a presentation you gave in college or a conference paper on recent theories in the field. You will usually be asked to talk about how you would deal with the problem or project at hand. The presentation outline might be as follows:
• Thank everyone for the invitation to visit.
• Acknowledge the problem to be addressed or the project to be undertaken and review what the client would like to accomplish.
• Talk briefly about your experience or your firm’s experience in dealing with such assignments.
• Briefly outline how you would approach the problem, while noting that you would need input from the client before deciding exactly how to proceed. Include examples of work you have done with other clients, particularly those in similar businesses. Also note how your choice of an approach would help the client accomplish its goals. Be sure to allow plenty of time for discussion. This is essential. To get the
Discussion going, you might want to ask the members of the group for their reactions to the presentation. Questions such as “Is this the approach you are looking for?” and “What suggestions do you have for improving the method?” are appropriate.
Take advantage of the discussion period to gather information from the perspective of company personnel on the problem or project and, equally important, how the people think it should be handled.
Consultants often interview key people who will be involved in the decision about which consultant to hire or who are affected by the problem or project. Interviews can be brief —20 to 30 minutes each, enough to give each person time to offer his or her perspective. The questions you should ask should be similar to the ones discussed during the initial consultant-client meeting. (Of course, they will need to be modified to fit the situation.) For example, you should probably start by telling the person you are interviewing a little about yourself or the firm for which you work and what precipitated your visit to the company. You might then say something like this: “Mary has given me some background on the problem you’re having in Marketing and Sales. I wonder if you could give me your perspective on the problem, especially how it’s affecting your unit.”Next, you may want to explore how the person thinks the problem should be handled. You may also want to talk briefly about some of the specifics of your approach. At the conclusion of the interview, express your desire to work with the employee, and assure the person that the project will be handled as effectively as possible. By this time, you should have plenty of information about the company and a good idea as to an approach to handling the company’s project or solving its problem. You may well want to share some of these ideas and observations and to begin discussing how best to proceed. The client may want to go in to some detail about approaches the company has tried that have failed. The client may also want to go over some of the specifics of the project, such as when it will start, how long it will take, and important deadlines. As we mentioned earlier, at some time in the initial interviews you need to find out who has final decision-making authority about which consultant to hire. It may well be that the person who initially contacted you has
This power or perhaps this person will recommend a consultant and some one else will have the final say. It may also be that your contact was asked to find four or five consultants who seem able to handle the project. The initial contact would then submit those names to some person or persons who will decide who gets the job. Whatever the process, you need to focus much of your attention on the decision makers. Be sure to write a follow-up letter saying that you enjoyed visiting and that you would very much like to work with the client.
GAINING DECISION-MAKERS’ TRUST
The next step is to ensure that the decision makers are comfortable working with you and serious about proceeding. The best way to make this happen and increase your odds of landing a contract is to be sure you have achieved everything you set out to accomplish during the initial phase of the project. These objectives can be summarized in the following
Questions:
• Do you have a good understanding of the client’s problem or project?
• Do you have a good understanding of what the client wants you to do?
• Have you gathered enough information about the client’s company—at least, enough to feel comfortable working with this client?
• Have you clearly explained your approach, including any unique features? Are you comfortable that the client appreciates and accepts? Your approach, including these features? Assuming that you have decided that you want to work on this project, it is now time to get serious about getting a contract.
We will discuss the details of contracts in the next chapter. For now, emphasize that you are interested in working on the project and confident you can do a good job. Saying something like the following is appropriate: I think I have a good understanding of what you are looking for, and I am [or wearer] very interested in working with you. I [or we] have been quite successful with projects like this in the past, and I think we can provide just what you’re looking for on this project. I’d like to start putting together a project plan as well as a letter of agreement. Do you have any suggestions as to how we might proceed?
Alternatively, you might suggest a way to proceed:
I would like to start putting together a strategy and project plan as well as a letter of agreement. I’d like to sit down with you and any other key people either now or at another time and start outlining the details, such as when we can start, who should be involved, and so on. Does that sound like an acceptable strategy? Sometimes the client will want to continue the discussion right then. At other times, the client will ask to first see a proposal, including a breakdown of costs. In either case, you and the client should spend some more time going over details of both the project and how to proceed. Having these details at hand will be useful when it comes time to writing the proposal.
In some cases, clients may say that they need to “check with some of the other managers” before proceeding or “think about the project before making a final decision.” They may be interviewing other consultants and unable to make a decision about who to hire until everyone has been interviewed. Delays in making a decision about whom to hire are not uncommon. The client may have concerns about a consultant’s qualifications or the fit between them that he or she may not have expressed. In an effort to determine whether there are non verbalized issues about which the client is concerned, you may want to say something like “Do you have any concerns about anything I’ve said or about my [or our] approach?” This is a good time to deal with any concerns the client may have about the consultant’s style or approach. If the client does not volunteer any specifics, then you may want to ask when you should be in touch.
SUMMARY
Before the consultant and client can sign a contract and develop a strategy for addressing a problem or project, there must be a consensus on the definition of the problem or nature of the project, what the client wants done, as well as whether there is a good fit between the client’s needs and the consultant’s capabilities. Failure to fully answer these questions before moving into the next stage of signing a contract and developing a project strategy is inviting disaster. Addressing these issues early in the project, before either party has made any commitment, is not only good consulting practice but also an effective way to increase the odds of successful outcomes. Ensuring that you can answer each of the following key success factor questions is critical to having an effective first phase of a consulting project
and later on as well.
KEY SUCCESS FACTOR FOR ESTABLISHING EXPECTATIONS AND GOALS
• Do you understand the client’s project or problem?
• Do you understand why the client wants to undertake the project as well as the outcomes the client expects?
• Do you know what the client expects of you?
• Have you learned about the organization or unit requesting the services?
• Have you gathered as much information about the company culture as possible?
• Have you found out who the decision maker is for the project?
• Have you familiarized the client with your experience or the strengths of your firm and how you typically approach a problem?
• Have you decided whether you want to pursue the assignment? Do you have the interest, the time, and the skill to complete it effectively?
• If the project is one you want to undertake, have you committed to entering into a formal agreement with the client?
Formalizing the Agreement:
Proposals and Contracts By the time you have successfully completed the first phase of the consulting process, as outlined in chapter 2, you and the prospective client will probably have a good understanding of the purpose of the project as well as the desired outcomes. Moreover, you will probably have decided on a basic strategy for accomplishing those outcomes, as well as on your expectations and roles. That’s a great start! However, the project cannot begin until you and the prospective client formalize, in writing, the details of what you have decided. Most often it is the consultant’s responsibility to prepare this document and to submit it for approval to the client. The document may be in the form of a letter of agreement or a formal proposal (these terms are defined more clearly a bit later). If the client accepts the conditions of the letter of agreement or proposal as submitted or as amended, and if both parties acknowledge their desire to and, the conditions under which they will work together, then a legal agreement (contract) has been reached. To summarize, the proposal/contract phase of a consulting assignment starts with the preparation of a proposal or a letter of agreement and ends when both the consultant and the client sign an agreement to proceed with the project they have been discussing. If you have ever purchased a car or a house or taken out a loan, you
Probably are well aware of the amount of paperwork that often accompanies these transactions. Although filling out reams of forms may be time consuming and a bit frustrating, it is an essential part of the process of making large purchases, as the forms detail in very specific language both parties’ obligations and rights. That is exactly the purpose of the formal agreement that you and the prospective client will sign. Up until this point, you and the client have probably talked about the project in only general terms. You have probably been focusing on trying to understand what the client wants to accomplish, and the client, in turn, may have been soliciting ideas from you on how best to meet the company’s objectives. In this consulting phase, you and the client will work out and put in writing the project strategy, including what work will be done, where it will be done, who has responsibility for what, when the work will start and end, and the cost of the project. Ideally, during this phase, any problems that could hinder the success of the project will be identified, discussed, and resolved. Agreeing to, and committing the details and responsibilities of the project to writing, is one very important reason that the contracting phase is so critical to the success of any consulting project. Another reason the contracting phase is critical is that this is when you and the client enter into a contract that will be in effect for the duration of the project. A contract is a legally binding agreement—in this case, between you and the client organization—that outlines your obligations and responsibilities and those of the client. Because both you and the client commit to whatever is stipulated in the agreement, it is important that considerable thought and care go into the preparation of this document.
This is not to say that all contracts are absolutely final and cannot be changed during the life of a project. Indeed, there is likely to be constant discussion and contracting between you and the client throughout the project. For example, the original contract may have stipulated that the staff at all five of the company’s facilities would receive training in quality techniques; however, because the company has recently acquired three more sites, modification of the agreement is necessary. Or, perhaps two of the original sites were closed, or a new group of managers has taken over part way into the project and wants to shift the emphasis of the project. Any of these events may necessitate a change in plans and thus a change in the contract. As with the original document, however, both parties need to agree to any revisions. Because so many companies and government agencies request proposals or letters of agreement before hiring a consultant, we devote much of this chapter to the preparation of these documents. Whether a proposal is detailed and well constructed or general and hastily written can mean the difference between whether the consultant who wrote the proposal is hired or the project is awarded to someone else. In other words, writing an effective proposal or letter of agreement is critical. Before going into the mechanics, however, we first need to define some of the frequently used terms and consider some legal issues of proposals and contracts.
CLARIFYING THE TERMS
The terms proposal, letter of agreement, and contract are often used quite loosely and can raise more questions than they answer. In the following sections, we sort out the differences among them. Proposals when an agency of the federal government is seeking help with a project, it issues a request for proposals (RFP). The RFP outlines the work the agency would like done and, sometimes, the type of firm it thinks would be qualified to do the work. Firms that want to bid on the work respond to the RFP
by submitting a proposal to the agency. The proposal describes, among other things, how the firm would handle the project and how much it would charge to do the work. Some times the proposal also includes support materials that attest to the firm’s capability to complete this type of project effectively.
The government agency that issued the RFP then reviews the proposals it has received and awards a contract to one of the firms. The firm that submitted the winning proposal is given a formal contract, drawn up by the government agency and the consulting firm. This is a legal document, binding on both parties, that describes in detail what the consulting firm will do as well as the payment it will receive. When both parties sign the agreement, it becomes a contract to which both sides must adhere. Proposals are very common for government projects, and they also are used in the private sector. Most often, they are required by companies looking to initiate large-scale projects, for example, the installation of an enterprise wide software system. In this case, the company may solicit proposals from several consulting groups that specialize in such work, choose one, and draw up a formal contract between the company and the firm. As the term suggests, proposals outline (or propose) how the consultant or consulting agency will perform the work the client desires. They usually include the various tasks to be completed, timelines, fees, the consultant’s qualifications, and whatever other information the client has requested. This information may be presented in several formats—as a brief memo, a letter, or a lengthy formal document—depending on the client’s specifications. On occasion, a proposal is accepted as is by the client. At other times, the client will ask for changes to the proposal. Certainly another option is that the client will not accept the proposal and will award the contract to another consultant.
Contracts
The term contract usually refers to a legally binding document, often prepared with the help of an attorney. When signed by both the seller and buyer, for example, a real estate contract officially and legally turns over the ownership of a house from one owner to another. In the example used earlier, the contract between the government agency and the consulting agency is usually drawn up with the help of an attorney and legally commits the consultant to do the desired work and commits the agency to pay the consultant. A consulting contract typically will cover such matters as what work the consultant will perform and what the consultant will get paid. The contract may also cover a variety of other legal issues; such has who has the rights to material the consultant develops while under contract to the client and the conditions under which the contract may be terminated. The contract may even contain a non compete clause restricting the consultant from working for one of the company’s competitors within a designated time period. Both parties, the consultant and the client, must agree to all parts of the document and must sign the contract before it is legally binding and will be honored in a court of law. There is considerable diversity of opinion as to the preferred form and length of proposals and even whether a written document is necessary unless a client specifically requests one. Always put the details
of any assignment on which you will be working in writing, and have some written record that the client has agreed to the terms you have laid out. In the “From the Expert” section for this chapter, Kerry Weinger, a partner in Baker & McKenzie LLP, highlights some of the legal questions that can arise when preparing contracts. Kerry believes not only that a formal contract is necessary but also that consultant
should engage the services of an attorney when drawing up a contract or a letter of agreement. There are benefits to working with an attorney who specializes in consulting contracts; such an attorney can help with the wording of the contract as well as assist with the handling of issues such as confidentiality and copyrights. Kerry emphasizes the importance of communicating clearly with your client both in writing and verbally, especially with regard to the scope of the work to be performed, the fees or rate schedules, expenses, service-level agreements, and completion dates. Although a contract between you and a client does not have to be highly formal and prepared by an attorney (although that may be very desirable in many situations), you and a client have a contract when both of you agree, even orally, that you will provide a service in exchange for a payment. As you will see, many consultants send clients’ letter of agreement that serve as both a proposal and, when both parties sign, a contract. We discuss contracts and legal issues at greater length later in this chapter. From the Experts …The Importance of Written Contracts by Kerry Weinger, Partner, Baker & McKenzie LLP Having a strong, flexible contract is the foundation for a strong consultant client relationship. There are several legal concerns that can arise during the course of the relationship, and these need to be addressed in the contract. Each agreement needs to be customized depending on the person and company with whom you will be working, although you may want to begin with a template, or standard agreement. Often, the prospective client will have a standard agreement that either the prospective client or the prospective client’s attorney has prepared. Be wary of such agreements and review them carefully. Frequently, they are vague or contain
Provisions slanted in the prospective client’s favor. Likewise, standard agreements may not contain provisions essential for your protection. If the prospective client insists on using its standard agreement, discuss any concerns you have with the prospective client. Remember, terms are negotiable. If the prospective client has issued a purchase order, be sure to confirm that it does not supersede or conflict with any part of the written agreement you and the client have. Standard agreements often contain provisions that you may find objectionable. For example, it may say that the consultant will not work for any of the prospective client’s competitors during the project and for a period of 1 year or more after the project is completed. If you’re inclined to accept such a provision, you may want assurances that you will receive work from the prospective client in the future or other income to compensate for agreeing to this noncompetition clause. To assuage a prospective client who is persistent about including this provision, consider negotiating to replace the clause with a confidentiality provision. This provides the client with protection from disclosure of its proprietary information. The prospective client’s standard agreement may also contain a section that any disagreement should be resolved close to the prospective client’s physical location, such as at the home office. To reduce your exposure to the costs
of retaining legal counsel and dealing with the dispute potentially in a far-off location, negotiate that resolution needs to take place closer to your physical place of business. Alternatively, it may be more cost-efficient, and resolution of the dispute quicker to achieve, if you insert a clause stating that arbitration, rather than litigation, will be used to resolve disputes. Letters of Agreement Having defined proposals and contracts, which leave the third term, letter of agreement. Consultants often prepare letters of agreement instead of formal contracts, particularly for small projects. In the typical consulting arrangement, the consultant discusses a project with the client, and they arrive at an understanding as to how the project will be handled as well as what the consultant will be paid. The consultant then prepares a short (one- or two-page) letter, usually on the consultant’s letterhead, outlining the agreed on terms. The consultant then signs the letter and sends it to the client. If the client agrees to the contents, he or she signs the letter also. The presence of both signatures makes the document legally binding (technically, a contract), and the work can begin. The reason letters of agreement are used so often is that they are very\convenient. For example, if a company has a small project it wants to undertake, it doesn’t make sense for the company (or the consultant) to spend a lot of time developing an RFP, reviewing proposals, and then hiring lawyers to prepare and review contracts. The cost for that lengthy process could be one hundred times the cost of the project it self. Instead, many consultants and their clients simply prepare letters of agreement that cover the important points of both a proposal and a contract in a short, easily constructed document.
CHOOSING A FORMAT
Which format you will use a formal contract or a letter of agreement depends primarily on the client’s requirements and expectations. Government agencies, for example, usually require consultants to submit formal proposals that conform to agency-specific guidelines. By contrast, most private sector organizations accept brief letters of agreement in lieu of a formal contract. However, for a large, complex project, even a small company may require a lengthy, detailed proposal to ensure that both
parties are in agreement on the project’s many details. Frequently, formal contracts are also required if the consultant will be privy to proprietary information or products, whether already in use or being developed. Clients are obviously concerned about protecting such information and products and will use the contract to ensure that they are covered for all manner of contingencies. Companies, government agencies, and individual clients have different preferences and different rules. Before sitting down to write a proposal, find out what the client expects. Consultants of ten describe the format they usually use for proposals and ask whether that format is satisfactory for the project being discussed. Alternatively, you may want to ask the client what information is needed, in how much detail, and in what format. You may also ask for a sample proposal that exemplifies the preferred format and length. Your request may not be granted, but it is sometimes worth asking if you are confused about the format of the proposal or contract the client expects.
LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS
As we have noted, all proposals and letters of agreement become legally binding once both parties agree to and sign the document. In the following section we address some, although by no means all, of the questions about contracts that arise in the practice of consulting. When is a contract legally valid? For a contract to be legally valid, two conditions must be met. First, there must be mutual consent, and second, there must be valid consideration. Mutual Consent both sides must enter into a contract freely and by their own choosing. Contracts cannot be one sided, with one party deciding what the other will
do without the (freely given) agreement of the second party. A document is not legally binding if one of the parties was coerced, or misled, or simply never agreed to the terms of the document. Valid Consideration Each party to the contract must receive something of value. A contract is not binding unless each party receives something that would be deemed to have value in a court of law. In the consulting business, the consultant usually provides service to the client, and the client, in exchange, provides financial remuneration to the consultant.
ORAL OR WRITTEN CONTRACTS
Are oral agreements valid contracts? An oral contract can be as legally binding as a written one. Indeed, many of the contracts we agree to every day fall in to this category. A person who cuts someone’s grass or cleans her apartment probably has an oral contract to perform that service. In exchange, the person performing the service expects a specific, agreed-on payment. Many consulting contracts are based on oral agreements, particularly if the client and the consultant are both in-house employees. For example,
the vice president of sales might well ask an internal consultant to help plan and facilitate a retreat for the members of the sales department. The consultant would probably agree to assist (it is not wise to say no to a vice president). The consultant’s remuneration would more than likely be the consultant’s regular salary, so the matter of fees would be a nonissue. Given this situation, it is more than likely that neither party would even consider formalizing the arrangement. Recently, however, many companies are using written contracts even when both parties work for the same company. Some of this stems from a growing emphasis on the exchange of payments and accountability for intradepartmental services. Thus, if a manufacturing unit wants the line employees trained on Six Sigma, it may have to pay the company’s internal training unit, much as it would pay an external firm, to provide the training. Another reason for the increased frequency of written contracts even between coworkers is that oral contracts are a recipe for potential problems. Sometimes people do not remember the details of what they agreed on, especially if the two parties discussed the project in January and work is not in full swing until June. Or, as occasionally happens, the manager who made the oral agreement with the consultant may have left the company and never told the replacement what the agreement entailed. For these reasons, all agreements should be put in writing, regardless of whether you are working as an internal or an external consultant. A short memo often suffices; sometimes, a somewhat more formal letter of agreement or proposal is necessary; finally, complex projects may well require a lengthy contract, drawn up by an attorney from the client’s legal department. Regardless of the format of the document, both parties should acknowledge verbally and in writing that they accept the terms and should retain copies of the agreement. There are other compelling reasons to always prepare detailed legal contracts. For example, does the work involve copyright or patent issues? Will products be developed during the project? Are there questions about who will have the rights to the products? Are there questions of liability? In short, if there any legal issues related to your work (and there often are), seek the counsel of an attorney and having the attorney prepares a contract. (As noted earlier, the client often has a company attorney do this.)In addition to the legal advantages of having a written agreement, the process of preparing the document forces both parties to clarify exactly what results they expect from the project and from each other. If there are questions down the line about the terms on which the two parties agreed, or about any other details, the written agreement should provide the answer. If changes are necessary once the project is underway, a memo describing the changes, signed by both parties, should satisfy a legal challenge. Contract Disputes Consultants frequently are concerned about their legal recourse in the event that the client does not honor the oral or written contract. As in most conflicts between two parties in a service relationship, you should first try to work out the disagreement with the client directly. If this approach is not successful, then going the legal route and hiring an attorney to pursue your in tersest is certainly an option. Rarely do consultants pursue the legal route, however. Most think that taking legal action simply takes too much time, effort, and money. Now that we have defined the important terms and provided insight on some of the legal concerns, let’s begin learning how to write a good proposal.
CONTENTS OF A GOOD PROPOSAL
The rest of this chapter focuses on the writing of proposals (which are similar to letters of agreement), as this is the critical part of formalizing your agreement with a prospective client. A well-defined and clear proposal, one that describes the major parts of the consulting project, is the key to successful consulting. Moreover, having a well-constructed proposal will eliminate at least 90% of the problems that are likely to arise during a consulting assignment. So, let’s begin. What should be in the proposal? As noted earlier, the answer depends on the nature of the project and the client’s requirements. However, here are the basics. At the very least, a proposal must contain a few sentences about the problem being investigated or the project being undertaken. It must also include a little information about the consultant’s approach to handling the problem or project, as well as the major activities the consultant will perform, how long the project will take, and the client’s fee to do the work. Beyond the basic information, proposals vary considerably. Some contain statements concerning confidentiality, patent rights, who can terminate the contract, noncompetition clauses, and other issues of concern to
the client and the consultant. The following list provides an overview of the issues most often covered in proposals:
• Why is the proposal being submitted? Define the challenges being faced and the expected benefits of the proposed project. An explanation of how results will be measured is sometimes included.
• What work will be performed? This is the core of the proposal. What activities or tasks will both you and the client perform to accomplish the desired outcomes?
• What are your responsibilities? Given the work that has been out lined, what tasks will you complete?
• What are the client’s responsibilities? What support is the client expected to offer? Will personnel be provided? What action is the client expected to initiate in association with the project?
• What is the timeline for the project? When will it start? How long will it take?
• What fees and costs will the client incur? What is the schedule of payment?
• What are your qualifications to perform the work? This question usually is addressed in a brief statement to indicate that the consultant has the experience and skills to make the project a success. The following issues are less frequently included in proposals but should be if the project is complex and lengthy:
• Confidentiality and/or anonymity statements. Including an anonymity statement is a way to assure the client that the sources of information will not be disclosed. A confidentiality statement assures the client
that the consultant will not disclose information about the company gathered as part of the consulting project.
• Statements about reporting procedures. Some proposals include a paragraph about the nature and number of reports the consultant is expected to produce and who will receive them. Similarly, is the consultant expected to provide progress briefings and, if so, how of ten and to whom?
• Contract termination. Why and how may one or both parties terminate the contract?
• Rights to materials. Who has the legal right to materials and instruments developed as part of the project?
• Detailed information about the consulting firm and/or the biographies of the key consultants who will be working on the project. This may be included in an appendix. This information is usually included to convince the client that the firm or group of consultants has the depth of experience to execute the project successfully.
• Other support materials. Some proposals require extensive support materials, such as the survey questionnaire to be used, training materials to be used, research findings, drawings, and planning diagrams. These materials usually are put in an appendix.
FEES
One of the questions consultants most frequently ask is how much they should charge for their services and on what basis these charges should be set. We touch on a couple of points on fees here. Most consultants charge an hourly or a daily rate. Daily fees vary considerably, making it difficult to suggest what an appropriate fee might be. Consultants who work with religious groups and churches may charge as little as $150 to $300 per day, whereas the rate in the private sector is typically between $800 and $3,200 per day. More established consultants charge daily rates of $1,500 to $5,000, and a few premier consultants charge considerably more. Direct expenses, such as travel, hotel accommodations, and materials (none of which are taxable) are often billed separately. These expenses are usually itemized, and the consultant may be required to submit the original receipts. Whether these direct expenses are reimbursed or are part of the daily rate should be clarified in the proposal. As an alternative to hourly or daily rates, some consultants prefer to charge fixed, or project fees. Many large consulting firms use this method. With the fixed-fee method, the consultant contracts to complete the entire project for an agreed-on amount. If the project is completed at or under what the consultant has budgeted for the project, the consultant could make a nice profit. However, if the time needed to complete the project, or the costs, have been miscalculated, the consultant can end up losing money. In general, consultants who use a fixed-fee approach earn higher incomes than those who charge by the day or hour to calculate a fixed fee one must first estimate how much time it will take to complete the project. This figure is then multiplied by the hourly or daily fee the consultant would like to receive. Finally, costs such as office overhead and insurance are added in. As noted earlier, some consultants include direct expenses, such as travel and lodging, in their fixed fees. Others prefer to bill for these expenses separately, because some direct costs, such as airfare, are difficult to predict overlong time periods. Regardless of how the calculations are done, the consultant has to be adept at estimating time and costs to come out ahead. Considerable thought should be given to establishing the time involved in a project. Establishing a timeline, working backward, and delineating each day’s activities are a helpful way to determine the expected hours needed to complete a project. Once the costs have been estimated, plus an estimate of the time the project will take multiplied by the consultant’s daily rate, the next step is to decide the amount of profit to add on to the project. When that amount has been determined, add this amount to the total, and the result is the (fixed) fee that you will charge the client to complete the work.
Several other approaches to billing are used, although less frequently than the methods just discussed. For example, if the consultant and client have a cost-plus-fixed fee contract, they both estimate (and agree to) the costs of the project and agree to add affixed fee for the consultant’s services. If the consultant is very good at controlling costs, such an arrangement can be profitable. Performance contracts are yet another option. With this arrangement, the consultant receives a percentage of whatever savings were realized by virtue of his or her work. Thus, if you saved the client $1 million in the first year of the project, you might receive 30% of the first-year savings, which would be $300,000. Although this may look like a very attractive payment system, the consultant makes nothing, not even the cost for expenses, if he or she has not saved the client any money.
WRITING THE PROPOSAL
Assuming you have asked, and received answers to, the questions we out lined in chapter 2; taken good notes; and paid close attention in discussions with the client, writing the proposal should be quite simple. Following a few fairly easy steps should ensure that it comes together quickly. Let’s assume that you have decided that the proposal should be in the form of a short letter of agreement consisting of nine sections. The next step is to write the title of each section on blank sheets of paper. Thus, for our example, we would use nine sheets. Next, for each section, jot down any applicable information. These are just rough notes and can include statistical data, cost estimates, specifications, timelines, and quotations. Most of this information will probably have been generated from your initial interviews with the client and will form the backbone of the proposal. Just before putting together the proposal, many consultants schedule a meeting with the client, either in person or by telephone, to make sure they are clear on what the client wants. They explain to the client that they are about to write he proposal and are just checking to make sure they have included all the important points. They then go through each section of the proposal, explaining to the client what they are thinking of putting into that section and check to be sure the information is correct. Figure 3.1is an outline of how to prepare for and participate in such a meeting. Meetings to review the contents of the proposal may be brief or lengthy, depending on how much the client wants to add. The advantage of having such a meeting is that you and the client reach agreement on what the proposal should include (and what needs to be accomplished during the project) before the proposal is written up. Prospective clients should feel that they have written the document with you, and, not surprisingly, consultants who use this technique claim it increases their chances of being awarded contracts. To illustrate how best to proceed with the writing, we use as an example a project for which the consulting group Logistics Inc. is p repairing a proposal. Logistics specializes in designing distribution systems for the retail industry. Its clients could be K-Mart, Best Buy, Home Depot, or similar large retail companies. For now, let’s assume that Logistics is preparing a letter of agreement for a fictitious corporation called Concart, which recently decentralized its distribution system. Concart is planning to move its distribution centers closer to its retail outlets, which will enable stock to before the meeting
• Review your notes on the company, particularly what the client has said About the project and how it is to be implemented.
• Outline the major points to be included in each section of the proposal.
• Develop an agenda. During the meeting
• Identify and clarify the nature of the project or problem.
• Identify and confirm what the prospective client thinks a successful project will entail and what it will accomplish.
• Identify the expected deliverables or outcomes and timeline expectations.
• Discuss and confirm the approach or methodology.
• Clarify your responsibilities and resource requirements.
• Clarify the client’s responsibilities and resource requirements.
• Discuss reporting requirements and the timeline for project updates.
• Discuss costs and fees, including all resource requirements such as of fice space, equipment, and/or people.
• For each of the preceding, confirm with the client that what you are including in the proposal meets with the client’s approval.
• Ask if there is anything else the client would like you to put in the proposal. After the meeting
• Submit the proposal.
FIG. 3.1. Checklist for proposal/contract meetings.
be replenished in the outlets within 1day. Concert’s marketing objective is to assure its customers that they will always find the products they need in stock at a Concart store. Unfortunately, the strategy looks better on paper than it does in the distribution centers, so Concart has asked Logistics Inc. to discover why decentralizing the distribution system has not led to higher sales volume.
As in our previous example, the proposal Logistics Inc. prepares for
Concart consists of nine sections:
1. Address, salutation, and introductory paragraph
2. Objectives and expected benefits
3. Background
4. Project plan
5. Timetable
6. Confidentiality
7. Project costs and terms
8. Qualifications
9. Ending and signatures
We have already prepared some notes for each of these sections, so it is time to start writing. We discuss each section separately and then show you the complete proposal in Fig. 3.2, Sample Proposal.
Section 1: Introductory y Paragraph A proposal between a consulting firm and a company usually begins with the date, the client’s name and address, and the salutation. Let’s imagine that the consultants at Logistics Inc. have had several lengthy discussions about the project with several people at Concart. It is important in writing the proposal to restate any verbal agreements Logistics Inc. and Concart have already reached. Having achieved a consensus before writing the proposal is ideal. The introductory paragraph usually indicates something to the effect that the consultant appreciates the opportunity to submit the proposal and is confident the methods described will resolve whatever problem the client is having. Thus, the introductory paragraph in Logistics’ proposal for
Concart might read like this:
This proposal is a summary of the points we agreed upon in our April 21 conference call to discuss the forthcoming project regarding Concert’s process of replenishing its inventory. Logistics Inc. thanks you for the opportunity to discuss the challenges facing the distribution system at Concart. We recognize the highly competitivenatureofyourindustryandthecriticalroleofthedistributioncenters to your future. We feel confident that the methods outlined in this proposal will uncover the root of the problems facing the centers and that together we will be able to redesign the system to meet your performance needs.
Section 2: Objectives and Expected Benefits The next section states the objectives of the project as well as the expected benefits of conducting the project. This section usually is fairly brief, although if the consultant thinks that there will be multiple benefits, they should all be listed. Occasionally this section is labeled Objectives and Measurement, in which case it includes a statement of the objective(s) as well as how progress, or the success of the project, is to be measured. In the Logistics case, the objective is clear: Concart wants to be able to ensure next-day delivery of its inventory. The consultants decide to label this section Project Objectives, to include a couple of sentences indicating that they understand the source of the inventory problem, and to end with a statement such as the following: To compete effectively in today’s business environment, Concart decentralized its distribution centers a year ago. However, the decentralization has been only partially successful, and several unresolved issues remain that are preventing Concert’s distribution centers from operating at their full effectiveness. Logistics Inc. understands that Concart’s main objective is to document the logistics problems currently being experienced in your distribution centers across the country and to redesign the inventory-replenishment process in order to achieve next-day delivery of inventory to the retail outlets with 99+% efficiency. Note that Logistics has not guaranteed that Concart will achieve 99% next-day delivery; instead, it has stated that this is the client’s objective.
Section 3: Background This section contains a brief summary of the conditions that led to the initiation of the project or the reasons the project is necessary. The aim here is to demonstrate an understanding of the problems or concerns that led the client to hire a consultant. The following is an example, demonstrating Logistics’ knowledge of relevant background information related to Concart’shistory: Concart has been a very successful retailing company that has been adding approximately 80 retail outlets per year nationally. To keep pace with this growth, and to become more competitive, Concart began a program last year to decentralize its distribution system. The objective is to move the centers closer to the retail outlets so as to provide next-day inventory replenishment. Implementation has been only partially successful. The new system seems to work better in the smaller centers than in the larger ones; however, all the facilities seem to be experiencing common problems. The electronic information system that moves information from outlet to supplier and distribution center appears to be working effectively. The major source of the problem seems to be one of logistics at the distribution centers—specifically involving the reception, selecting, repackaging, and delivery of goods to the outlets. It is this problem that Logistics Inc undertakes to resolve.
Section 4: Project Plan the next section, sometimes labeled Methodology or Work Plan, Is one of the most important in the proposal. It is the foundation of the contract between the client and the consultant: the outline of what the consultant will do and what the client will receive in return for paying the consultant. A hypothetical example of Logistics’ proposal might read like this: There are four critical players in the replenishment system at Concart: retail outlets; product suppliers; distribution centers; and the logistics center in Atlanta, which is responsible for designing and maintaining the distribution system. All four of these players will have to be involved in identifying and correcting the current problems in the system; however, the focus of our study will be on activities taking place in the distribution centers. We propose that the project be conducted in several steps. First, our consultants will spend approximately 3 days at the logistics center in Atlanta. The purpose of this visit will be to familiarize them with the way the system is currently designed, as well as the performance objectives for the system. Next, we will conduct site visits to a cross-section of the distribution centers; if a center is not visited, a telephone interview will be conducted with the manager of the center. In addition, we will conduct several telephone interviews with suppliers and with retail outlets. The purpose of these interviews/visits will be to understand the nature of the problems occurring in the system and to elicit suggestions on how the problems might be corrected. As part of the above step, we will develop several case study examples of centers that have encountered problems with the replenishment process. These cases will map the flow of information and of product, beginning with the stock-replenish-mentored and ending with delivery of the product to the retail outlet. This map- ping process will identify where, and why, the process is breaking down. Using data collected from the above studies, we will prepare a report analyzing and summarizing the problems and identifying the causes. This report will be presented at a 2-day design workshop conducted with a cross-section of the managers of Concart’s distribution centers, several key suppliers, and personnel from Concart’s logistics center. The purpose of this workshop will be to review the preparations for redesigning the logistics system so that the problems will be corrected and the system will be able to ensure a 99%rate of next-day replenishment of inventory. Our consultants will facilitate this meeting and will offer our recommendations for system improvement. Our consultants will also assume responsibility for writing the plan that emerges from this session. The proposed plan for correcting the replenishment system will be reviewed with key suppliers and a group of managers of the retail outlets. We will coordinate this effort. Any corrections will be incorporated into the plan. The revised plan, together with an estimate of the costs associated with it, will then be presented to Concart’s executive committee for approval. We will assist you in developing
this presentation. The decision about who will make the presentation will be decided after further discussion. This will end the phase of the project described in this proposal. Given approval by the executive committee, the next phase will involve implementation. We are ready to assist you in the implementation phase, and, as discussed, we will submit a proposal for the implementation phase as soon as the scope and details of this phase become clear.
Section 5: Timetable After the work to be performed has been described; the next section outlines the timeframe for getting that work accomplished. This section is usually labeled Time table, Time Schedule, or Work Schedule. Included in this section should be information such as when the consultant will begin
work on the project and when major activities will be completed. If the client has not provided enough information to project these dates, the consultant may simply indicate the amount of time needed to complete the project and when the consultant is able to start. In the following sample section, we note how Logistics might deal with this issue in its proposal to Concart: We are very aware of the urgency of this project and are able to begin work on it at the Atlanta logistics center on April 23. During that week, we will also arrange for the phone interviews and visits with suppliers, distribution centers, and retail outlets and should be able to begin that phase on April 30. The interviews and analysis will take approximately 3 weeks, and the 2-day design session described above will be scheduled for the last week in May. We are confident that available plan will emerge from that meeting that could be presented to the executive committee at their June 15 meeting. Given the committee’s approval, implementation could start immediately.
Section 6: Confidentiality
Confidentiality agreements are not always necessary in proposals or letters of agreement. One must be included in Logistics’ proposal to Concart because its new inventory-replenishment system will presumably provide Concart with a competitive advantage over other retailers. Providing the client with assurance that Logistics’ consultants will not disclose any information about Concart, Concart’s suppliers, or the system is extremely important. Including a short statement such as the following usually provides the assurance the client needs: Given the sensitivity of the information we will be working with, we assure Concart that we will not directly or indirectly disclose or use, either during or after the project, any information about the project or about Concart or its suppliers without prior written consent.
Section 7: Project Costs and Terms This section, sometimes labeled Terms and Conditions, Project Budget, Fees and Payments, or Project Costs and Terms, details the costs the client will incur in undertaking the project as well as the conditions of payment. As indicated earlier in this chapter, fees may be calculated in several ways. The two most frequently used methods are to charge by the day or to charge a set amount for the entire project. In either case, costs for travel, hotel accommodations, meals, and other such expenses are billed separately. It is customary to ask for payment of 33% to 50% of the total fee at the time the contract is signed and the rest in periodic installments or at the end of the project. Let’s assume for the moment that Logistics has estimated that it will take three consultants 19days, or a total of 57 days, to complete the project for Concart. Assuming that Logistics has a standard rate that it charges for work like it will be doing for Concart, Logistics would simply indicate its day rate, the number of consultants who will be working on the project, and the number of days Logistics anticipates it will need to complete the project. In calculating this rate, Logistics will have taken into account a number of costs, such as rent and other overhead expenses to operate its office, advertising, and so forth. Although these expenses should be considered in arriving at a day rate, they should not be itemized in the proposal. In fact, most independent consultants do not even bother to figure out their
Over head but bill at the going rate. In larger firms, overhead expenses are simply reflected in their higher daily fees. Having evaluated the pros and cons of using a day rate versus charging a project fee, Logistics has decided to bill on a project basis. This is determined by multiplying the total number of consultant days devoted to the project (57) by the amount the firm pays its consultants per day in salary. In calculating this figure, many firms add in overhead expenses as well as a 15% profit margin. Many also add a little cushion (several hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the size of
the project and the potential for miscellaneous expenses) to cover contingencies. For the sake of our example, let’s assume that the resulting project fee came to $140,000. Logistics included a statement to this effect in its proposal: Our professional fee to conduct the project as outlined above is $140,000. In addition, you will be billed for all direct expenses associated with the project. These include costs associated with travel (airfare, hotels, meals, and ground transportation), as well as for long-distance telephone calls, overnight express, photocopying, and other costs associated with the execution of the project. Normally such reimbursable charges are about 20% to 25% of the total professional fee. Upon your authorization to begin the project, 50% of the professional fees cited above will be billed. The remaining 50% ($70,000) will be invoiced monthly. Reimbursable expenses incurred during the course of the project will be invoiced monthly as well.
Section 8: Qualifications the section labeled Qualifications or Credentials is where you explain why you or the firm for which you work is the best qualified to do the job. If you have successfully completed projects similar to the one the client wants to do, this is the place to mention that, particularly if those
Projects were in the client’s industry. For example, if the project involves installing a quality-assurance system for a hospital, you would certainly want to mention if you have had great success installing similar systems in other hospitals. You might want to identify the hospitals, too (assuming you have permission from the hospital to do so). Most important, you need to demonstrate competency to handle the proposed work. Logistics specializes in designing distribution systems and has considerable experience in this area. Wisely, Logistics includes examples in its proposal for Concart: Logistics Inc. has more than 20 years of experience designing, upgrading, and maintaining distribution systems. Our primary field of consulting is logistics, and all our consultants are experts in this field. We have completed more than 300 projects, making us one of the premier logistics consulting firms in the country. We have worked for the top retail organizations in the United States, Canada, and Europe and have completed several other successful projects for Concart. If a firm uses a unique problem-solving technique, the section on credentials is the place to discuss it. Or, for example, if several of the firm’s consultants have worked in positions directly related to the project—such as, in this case, as distribution managers in the retail Industry—or have designed the distribution system for a large company, such as Wal-Mart, this is the section in which to mention it. What is most important is to outline the skills and background that make you or the consultants in your firm uniquely qualified to succeed with this project. Some consulting firms include an appendix containing biographies of the consultants who will be working on a project. Although some consultants question whether this practice is effective, excellent credentials are likely to impress, and the appendix is the best place for such information. Including them cannot hurt (unless the consultants are seriously under qualified for the job), and including them sometimes gives a firm an edge over a competitor. Given two proposals that are similar in content, clients often make the final decision based on a review of the consultants’ credentials.
Section 9: Ending In the final section of the proposal you usually express your eagerness to work with the company and your confidence that the client’s objectives will be met if you or the firm you represent is hired. As shown in the fool lowing excerpt, there is usually a statement to the effect that the prospective client should sign the proposal if the conditions are agreeable and return a copy to you or your firm: We look forward to working with Concart and are confident that by working together we can make a positive difference in your distribution system. If the terms and conditions of this proposal are acceptable to you, please return a signed copy and retain a copy for your files. Again, we look forward to working with you on this project. The client may accept the proposal as is or request revisions. If the client accepts the proposal, or accepts the proposal with revisions, the client should indicate this in writing, either on the proposal or on a contract or formal letter of agreement. Some consultants request formal letters of acceptance. Alternatively, the client or the consultant may draw up a formal contract, written in legal language that covers the same points as are covered in the proposal. Both parties sign this document. Some consultants enclose an invoice for their first payment along with the signed contract. Proposal to Increase the Effectiveness of Concart’s Distribution Centers by Logistics Inc. This proposal is summarizes the points we agreed upon in our April 21 conference call to discuss the forthcoming project regarding Concart’s procedure for replenishing its inventory. Logistics Inc. thanks you for the opportunity to discuss the challenges facing the distribution system at Concart. We recognize the highly competitive nature of your industry, and the critical role of the distribution centers to your future. We feel confident that the methods outlined in this proposal will uncover the root of the problems facing the centers and that together we will be able to redesign the system to meet your performance needs.
Objectives and Expected Benefits to compete effectively in today’s business environment, Concart decentralized its distribution centers a year ago. However, the decentralization has been only partially successful and several unresolved issues remain that are preventing Concart’s distribution centers from operating at their full effectiveness. Logistics, Inc. understands that Concart’s main objective is to document the logistics problems currently being experienced in your distribution centers across the country, and to redesign the inventory-replenishment process in order to achieve next-day delivery of inventory to the retail outlets with 99+% efficiency. Back ground Concart has been a very successful retailing company that has been adding approximately 80 retail outlets per year nationally. To keep pace with this growth, and to become more competitive, Concart began a program last year to decentralize its distribution system. The objective is to move the centers closer to the retail outlets so as to provide next-day inventory replenishment. Implementation has been only a partial success. The new system seems to work better in the smaller centers than in the larger ones; however, all the facilities seem to be experiencing common problems. The electronic information system that moves information from outlet to supplier and distribution center appears to be working effectively. The major source of the problem seems to be one of logistics at the distribution centers—specifically involving the reception, selecting, repackaging, and delivery of goods to the outlets. It is this problem that Logistics, Inc. undertakes to resolve. Project Plan There is four critical players in the replenishment system at Concart: retail outlets; product suppliers; distribution centers; and the logistics center in Atlanta, which is responsible for designing and maintaining the distribution system. All four of these players will have to be involved in identifying and correcting the current problems in the system; however, the focus of our study will be on activities taking place in the distribution centers. We propose that the project be conducted in several steps. First, our consultants will spend approximately 3 days at the logistics center in Atlanta. The purpose of this visit will be to familiarize them with the way the system is currently designed, as well as the performance objectives for the system. Next, we will conduct site visits to a cross-section of the distribution centers; if a center is not visited, a telephone interview will be conducted with the manager of the center. In addition, we will conduct several telephone interviews with suppliers and with retail outlets. The purpose of these interviews/visits will be to understand the nature of the problems occurring in the system and to elicit suggestions on how the problems might be corrected. As part of the above step, we will develop several case study examples of centers that have encountered problems with the replenishment process. These cases will map the flow of information and of product, beginning with the stock-replenishment order and ending with delivery of the product to the retail outlet. This mapping process will identify where, and why the process is breaking down. Using data collected from the above studies, we will prepare a report analyzing and summarizing the problems and identifying the causes. This report will be presented at a 2-day design workshop conducted with a cross-section of the managers of Concart’s distribution centers, several key (continued) suppliers, and personnel from Concart’s logistics center. The purpose of this workshop will be to review the preparations for redesigning the logistics system so that the problems will be corrected and the system will be able to ensure a 99% rate of next-day replenishment of inventory. Our consultants will facilitate this meeting and will offer our recommendations for system improvement. Our consultants will also assume responsibility for writing the plan that emerges from this session. The proposed plan for correcting the replenishment system will be reviewed with key suppliers and a group of managers of the retail outlets. We will coordinate this effort. Any corrections will be incorporated into the plan. The revised plan, together with an estimate of the costs associated with it, will then be presented to Concart’s executive committee for approval. We will assist you in developing this presentation. The decision about who will make the presentation will be decided after further discussion. This will end the phase of the project described in this proposal. Given approval by the executive committee, the next phase will involve implementation. We are ready to assist you in the implementation phase, and, as discussed, we will submit a proposal for the implementation phase as soon as the scope and details of this phase become clear. Timetable We are very aware of the urgency of this project and are able to begin work on it at the Atlanta logistics support center on April 23. During that week, we will also arrange for the phone interviews and visits with suppliers, distribution centers, and retail outlets and should be able to begin that phase on April 30.The interviews and analysis will take approximately 3 weeks, and the 2-day design session described above will be scheduled for the last week in May. We are confident that available plan will emerge from that meeting which could be presented to the executive committee at its June 15 meeting. Given the committee’s approval, implementation could start immediately. Confidentiality Given the sensitivity of the information we will be working with, we assure Concart that we will not directly or indirectly disclose or use, either during or after the project, any information about the project or about Concart or its suppliers without prior written consent. Project Costs and Terms Our professional fee to conduct the project as outlined above is $140,000. In addition, you will be billed for all direct expenses associated with the project. These include costs associated with travel (airfare, hotels, meals, and ground transportation), as well as for long-distance telephone calls, overnight express, photocopying, and other costs associated with the execution of the project. Normally such reimbursable charges are about 20% to 25% of the total professional fee. Upon your authorization to begin the project, 50% of the professional fees cited above will be billed. The remaining 50% ($70,000)will be invoiced monthly. Reimbursable expenses incurred during the course of the project will be invoiced monthly as well.
Qualifications
Logistics, Inc. has more than 20 years of experience designing, upgrading, and maintaining distribution systems. Our primary field of consulting is logistics, and all our consultants are experts in this field. We have completed more than 300 projects, making us one of the premier logistics consulting firms in the country. We have worked for the top retail organizations in the United States, Canada, and Europe and have completed several other successful projects for Concart.
Summary
We look forward to working with Concart and are confident that by working together we can make a positive difference in your distribution system. If the terms and conditions of this proposal are acceptable to you, please return a signed copy and retain a copy for your files. Again, we look forward to working with you on this project. Sincerely, Gary Brown Partner, Logistics, Inc. Please sign and date:
Ms. Mary Moran,
Director, Concart International, Inc.
Signature and date _____________________________________________
Gary Brown,
Partner, Logistics, Inc.
Signature and date _____________________________________________
FIG. 3.2. Full sample proposal.
INTERNAL AGREEMENTS
Internal proposals or contracts for work done by internal consultants for their employers are usually much less formal than those external consultants prepare. Since the work is being handled internally, there is usually less concern about liability, patent rights, confidentiality, fees, or payment schedules. Most internal proposals are in the form of informal memos that include a brief description of what the consultant(s) will do for the client, the schedule for doing it, and what type of support the client will provide.
This is not to suggest that the memo shouldn’t cover the basics. The objectives should certainly be clearly stated, project activities and a schedule for the completion of activities should be described in some detail, and the accountabilities of both the client and consultant should be outlined. Even with internal projects, it is important to put the details in writing so that both parties will have a record of the activities to be conducted and when and who has responsibility for what. See Fig. 3.3 for a sample internal agreement. As with more formal proposals, we recommend that both parties sign and date the agreement. This will ensure (or at least, better ensure) that both parties understand what the project will entail, how the work will be accomplished, and what each party’s responsibilities and obligations are, as well the time line for the project. Often managers just skim internal memos, assuming that they know the content. Having both parties sign the agreement helps ensure that both parties read the memo carefully. And this helps to eliminate misunderstandings once the project is under way.
FOLLOW-UP MEETINGS
After a proposal has been submitted, some consultants arrange to meet with clients in person or by phone to go over the proposal and to ensure that the client understands and agrees with the details and conditions. These meetings are usually brief and informal and are presented to the client as an opportunity to make sure everything is in order and to their specifications. You might want to note that ironing out details is more efficient face to face (or over the phone) than exchanging notes or e-mails. Also, if the client wants changes, they can be made immediately. Some consultants routinely hold meetings after they submit a proposal, but others think they are unnecessary and a waste of time. Their
argument is that if a consultant has done a good job of involving the client in the development of project strategy and has been sensitive to the client’s wants and needs up to this point, then the client has already agreed to the terms of the proposal and further discussion is unnecessary. We suspect that it comes down to how confident the consultant feels about the details of the proposal. If you feel confident that all the details have been worked out, then you are likely to think that an additional meeting is unnecessary. However, if points remain on which you and the client have not reached agreement, a meeting after you have sent the prospective client the proposal offers a chance to resolve any lingering issues. Alternatively, if several consultants are bidding on a project, then a meeting with the prospective client can be a useful opportunity to sell the proposal.
CONCART
INTERNATIONAL INC.
To: Mary Moran, Director of Operations, Logistics Center, Concart International, Inc.
From: Brayden Gregory, Internal Consulting Department, Concart
International, Inc.
Date: 7/8/06
Re: Proposal To Increase Effectiveness of Concart’s Distribution Centers This memo summarizes the points we agreed upon in our April 21 meeting, in which we discussed the forthcoming project regarding Concart’s process of replenishing its inventory. We feel confident that the methods outlined in this memo will uncover the root of the problems facing the centers and that together we will be able to redesign the system to meet our performance needs. We are eager to work with you to redesign the inventory-replenishment process, with the goal of achieving next-day delivery of inventory to the retail outlets with 99+% efficiency. As we discussed in our April 21 meeting, we propose that the project be conducted in several steps. First, our internal consultants will spend approximately 3 days at the logistics center in Atlanta. The purpose of this visit will be to familiarize our colleagues with the way the system is currently designed, as well as the performance objectives for the system. Next, we will conduct site visits to a cross-section of the distribution centers; if a center is not visited, we will make every effort to conduct a telephone interview with the manager of the center. In addition, we will conduct several telephone in terviews with suppliers and with our retail outlets. The purpose of these inter views/visits is to understand the nature of the problems occurring in the system and to elicit suggestions from each stakeholder as to how the problems might be corrected. Using data collected from the above studies, we will prepare a report analyzing and summarizing the problems and identifying the causes. The proposed plan for correcting the replenishment system will be reviewed with key suppliers and a group of managers of the retail outlets. We will coordinate this effort. Any corrections to our findings will be incorporated into the plan. The revised plan, together with an estimate of the costs associated with our recommendations, will then be presented to Concart’s executive committee for approval. We will be glad to assist you in developing this presentation but will assume that you will handle this. This will end the phase of the project described in this memo. Given approval by the executive committee, the next phase will involve implementation. We will gladly assist you in the implementation phase upon your request. Please let us know if our services are needed in this regard. We are very aware of the urgency of this project and are able to begin work on it at the Atlanta logistics support center on May 27. During that week, we will also arrange for the phone interviews and visits with suppliers,(continued) distribution centers, and retail outlets and should be able to begin that phase on May 30. We expect the study should be completed in time for presentation at our executive committee’s meeting on June 15. If you are in agreement with the project details outlined in this memo, please indicate your agreement and sign and date the memo and return it to me. I, in turn, will sign send you a copy. I look forward to working with you on this, Mary.
FIG. 3.3. Sample memo from an internal consultant.
REQUESTING CLIENT FEEDBACK
When an organization receives proposals from several consultants, it is obvious that all but one will probably not receive a contract. That is the reality of the consulting business. However, if your proposal was rejected, the disappointment can be turned into a learning opportunity by receiving feed-back from the client. Be sure to ask the contact person with in the organization some of the following questions: What did the client think were the strong points of your proposal? What were the weak points? What was it about the accepted proposal that sold the client on awarding the contract to that firm? Savvy consultants can learn a lot following the loss of a contract, assuming they use the rejection as an opportunity to critically examine their approach and presentation. The trick is to turn the experience into an opportunity to learn how to write better proposals. Some prospective clients will be quite willing to provide feedback; others will not (and may not even return phone calls). Regardless of how willing they are to talk to you, always send your contact at the company a note thanking the person for reviewing your proposal and requesting that people at the company keep you in mind for future projects.
REVISING PROPOSALS
In the best of all worlds, proposals are accepted as is, without requests for any changes. More frequently, a prospective client will ask for revisions. In this case, a meeting to discuss the person’s concerns is definitely in order. If you are amenable to the revisions, the proposal is then amended to meet the prospective client’s objections and resubmitted (quickly). If you are uncomfortable with the changes and think that agreeing to make them could jeopardize the project, discuss your concerns with the client. Discussing alternative methods to achieve the desired goals is a constructive way of approaching this situation. If the client insists on changes that you think would jeopardize the project, then you would be wise to end your relationship with the prospective client, at least with regard to this project. Not all proposals have to end in contracts, and sometimes a consultant has to admit that a project can not be successful given the prospective client’s conditions. Being committed in writing to goals one does not believe are possible to achieve is a good predictor of failure. An agreement that is not consummated is much better than an agreement that results in an unsuccessful project. Building and maintaining your reputation should always take precedence over embarking on a questionable client–consultant relationship.
SUMMARY
As should now be evident, the proposal/contract phase of a consulting project needs to be approached thoughtfully and carefully. It is during this phase that you and the client enter into a formal, legally binding agreement that specifies the services you will provide and the client’s responsibilities and obligations. We now offer a few key success factors that should help you ensure that your proposals result in contracts.
KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR FORMALIZING THE AGREEMENT
• Fully understand your client’s expectations—never lose sight of the fact that it is their goals you are seeking to fulfill, not your own.
• Check with the client as to the preferred format and length for the proposal, as well as any specific issues to be covered.
• Make sure that both your responsibilities and obligations and those of the prospective client are clearly spelled out (and understood) in the proposal and contract.
• Use the proposal format described in this chapter as a checklist to ensure that all the important points are covered.
• Recognize that your proposal is a reflection of you and your company. Devote care and attention to preparing it.
• Maintain the client’s confidentiality at all times, as in all phases of the project.
• Try to get feedback on proposals that are not accepted and learn from this feedback.
Developing a Project Strategy:
Diagnosis and Data Collection
Once your contract is secure, you can finally begin actual work on the project. Don’t go too fast, though. Although the proposal and contract outline in general how you should proceed, you still need a thorough action plan or strategy. This entails carefully diagnosing the problem you were brought in to deal with and determining what data need to be collected to ensure that the problem is thoroughly investigated. As discussed in the “From the Expert …” section in this chapter, data collection begins at the beginning of a project, the moment you talk with a client or prospective client about a potential project. One useful way to think of the diagnosis and data collection phase of a project is as five interrelated steps: (a) identifying the problem; (b) assessing the data that need to be collected to study the problem; (c) determining where to find these data; (d) deciding how to collect the data; and (e) Summarizing, evaluating, and drawing conclusions from the data (see Table 4.1). In this chapter we focus on steps 1 to 4. Step 5 is covered in detail in the next chapter. Let’s begin by examining a somewhat silly example. Suppose your mother just called and said that you’re favorite but very eccentric aunt has died. She lives 80 miles from Casper, Wyoming, in a gold-mining town. She has no children, and her husband died years ago in a mining accident. The story in the family is that she has amassed a lot of gold, money, and probably both. She always liked you, since you were named after her father, and you figure you might be in line for a big inheritance. You learned of her death on a Wednesday morning while at home in Dallas. In her typical quirky manner, your aunt has stipulated that, to be included in her will, you have to attend her funeral at 9:30 on Friday morning, after which the
DEVELOPING A PROJECT STRATEGY
TABLE 4.1
Five Steps of Diagnosis and Data Collection
1. Identify the problem. What is the question or problem the client wants solved? What is the “real” problem?
2. What data need to be collected to answer the client’s question or to solve the client’s problem?
3. Where is this information available? What has to be done to access it? Who has this information?
4. What is the most appropriate way to collect this information?
5. What conclusions can be reached from the information and data that have been collected? will shall be read. You are not sure you are mentioned in the will, but you are positive you won’t be if you don’t show up for the funeral. As with the problems consultants study, you wouldbe wise to ask your-
self the following five questions as you evaluate how to get to your aunt’s funeral:
1. What is the problem that needs to be solved? You assume it is that you need to get from Dallas to 80 miles from Casper by Friday morning and preferably by Thursday evening to give yourself a little lee way. Otherwise, you risk getting excluded from the will.
2. What information do you need to solve this problem? Plenty, it seems, if you’re going to get to your destination quickly. For example, you might check on plane schedules, or train schedules, or the availability of rental cars, or maybe how long it would take you to drive from home.
3. Where is this information available? Who has it? You could call your dentist, who you think visited Casper, but logic would suggest that you would be better to contact the commercial airlines, private charter companies, or car rental companies—in other words, people in the transportation industry.
4. How do you get the information you need? The Internet has a lot of sites that list airline schedules, or you could phone a few airlines or a travel agent. You might even consider phoning the Casper chamber
of commerce. This would enable you to learn all the transportation options to this part of the country.
5. What conclusions can you draw based on the options that are available? You should probably pick the means of transportation that is the most reliable, safest, and certain to get you to the funeral with time to spare. You might also want to choose the least expensive option, just in case your aunt left all her money to her cats.
We warned you that our example was pretty silly, but the point is that the diagnosis and data collection phase of a consulting project has a sequential logic not unlike most models used to solve simple problems. Granted, most consulting problems or assignments are much more complicated than figuring out how to get from Dallas to a funeral near Casper; however, a similar step-by-step logic is applied.
In addition to being more complicated than the problem used in our example, most of the problems consultants face are so varied and different from one another that it is difficult to recommend a technique or approach that applies to all, or even most, of them. That is also what makes consulting so interesting and challenging—and what can make a consultant so valuable to an organization. To illustrate the diversity of questions faced by consultants, as well as the diversity of methods they use to address these questions, consider the following examples:
• In the last chapter, we discussed a problem facing the managers at Concart, concerning the company’s new distribution process, which was not delivering the results management anticipated. What information would a consultant have needed to address this problem? Where was this information located? What data collection method could have been used?
• Later in this chapter we present a case involving a leading U.S. shoe manufacturer that is considering starting an online retail store. What information is needed in this situation? Who has it? What is the best way to collect it?
• Also in this chapter, you will learn about a consumer-products company whose top managers are concerned because many of the company’s most promising junior managers are turning down offers to work abroad. What information is needed to evaluate this problem? Who has this information? What is the best way to collect it?
• Finally, and also in this chapter, you will earn about a major hotel chain that introduced several features in an effort to target the business market. The question the client posed for the consultant was
whether business travelers liked the special services the hotel chain was offering. What additional services did business travelers want? What information is needed to answer these questions? Who has it? How should this information be collected?
DEVELOPING A PROJECT STRATEGY
As these examples illustrate, each consulting assignment has unique diagnostic challenges. In the preceding examples, the problems may appear to be fairly obvious and clear cut. In the real world, however, the problem often turns out to be more complicated that it appears. Occasionally, the
Presenting problem—that is, the problem as the client sees it—is merely a symptom of another problem that is far more difficult to discern. This is one reason it is so important to begin a project by diagnosing the problem thoroughly and carefully. Let’s look at each of the five steps of this process.
DEFINING THE PROBLEM
The first step in diagnosing a problem is one of the most important in a consulting project, yet it is also one that is often overlooked. This is because many people involved in a consulting project, including the client, of ten want to move to data collection and implementation as quickly as possible, on the mistaken assumption that that is when the “real” work gets done. In fact, defining the problem incorrectly can lead to resources being wasted, frequently at great expense, as well as frustration when the proposed solution to the problem has little or no positive effects. Many a consultant has come up with what they thought was a great solution only to discover that they were focusing on the wrong problem or had only partially defined the issue’s scope. Before you can begin data collection or implementation, you need to be able to answer each of the following questions. Only when you can answer each of them have you diagnosed the problem you will be working to solve.
• Is the problem the client has identified the real problem, or is this problem merely a symptom of the problem that really needs to be addressed?
• What information would help define the real problem more clearly?
• What is the real problem the organization is trying to solve, or the question that needs to be answered?
• What is the scope of the issue; that is, what are the questions that need to be addressed in order to solve the problem? What is the primary question?
• Are there aspects of the organization’s culture that will affect whether the project is a success?
• Who are the formal and informal decision makers in the organization who could influence the project’s success? Let’s go back to our slightly silly example of how you are going to get to your aunt’s funeral. The general question seems to be how you are going to get to 80 miles from Casper, preferably by tomorrow night. This is the primary problem, but a variety of related questions also need to be answered. For example, what airlines fly into Casper? When do they fly from Dallas to Casper? How about trains? Can you rent a car in Casper? How long would it take to drive there from Dallas? Note that the initial problem or initial question becomes more complicated as you start to think more
deeply about it. Now let’s look at a more serious example. Extra Comfort is a shoe manufacturer, well known for making very comfortable shoes (we also refer to this company in a later chapter of this book). The company has traditionally sold its shoes in several large department stores as well as in independent shoe stores. Recently, a number of shoe stores have begun selling online. One of the many brands some of them offer, albeit in a limited selection of styles and sizes, is Extra Comfort. The advent of retail sales on the Internet has raised the question within Extra Comfort of whether the company should set up its own online retail business to sell XtraComfort—and only XtraComfort—shoes. To help answer this question, the company contracted with a marketing consulting firm that specializes in online retail sales. At one level, the question posed to the consultants was fairly simple: Should XtraComfort set up an online retail store to sell XtraComfort shoes? However, the company is not merely interested is getting a simple yes-or-no answer. In fact, there are several questions that need to be answered, and they are fairly complex. For example, one question the company is concerned about is the cost to set up and maintain an online store. The company also wants to know how profitable such a store is likely to be and how quickly XtraComfort is likely to realize its return on investment. Other questions are of concern as well: Is opening an online store likely to result in an increase in sales of XtraComfort shoes overall, or will sales be flat as some customers began buying online instead of in department stores? How would the online store affect Extra Comfort’s relations with current distributors? XtraComfort has an agreement with a large department store chain, allowing it to distribute certain XtraComfort shoes in their stores exclusively. Will the chain accuse XtraComfort of undercutting the department store’s sales by selling online? You probably could think of several other questions that the managers at XtraComfort would want to explore before deciding whether to open a retail business on the Internet. The point is that there are usually no simple questions in the consulting business. Consultants often need to spend considerable time exploring what the client wants to find out and why finding this out is important. Much of this discussion should occur during the contract phase, as discussed in chapter3; however, this
Discussion needs to be continued to ensure that you are addressing the
DEVELOPING A PROJECT STRATEGY
Correct question and, further more, that it is being addressed at the depth that is necessary. Another advantage of having extended discussions with the primary contact at the client company, and perhaps with other members of the organization as well, is that there may be hidden problems that need to be
Uncovered if the consultant is to answer the question the client has posed. Our next example involves a problem confronting the Department of Children’s and Family Services, a large government agency. Among this agency’s responsibilities is placing children who are wards of the state in foster homes and, subsequently, monitoring their health and safety. Unfortunately, the agency has been under attack recently following the death of a child who was neglected while in foster care. Among the criticisms hurled at the agency was that it “lost” several children in its care. The director of the agency hired a team of consultants to offer recommendations on how to correct some of its problems. In particular, the director asked the consultants to focus on the training the caseworkers received and on their time-management skills. Among the apparent problems was that the workers received very little training for what appeared to be a very complex and frustrating job. The director believed that the lack of training
was the cause of the workers “losing” children in the system. As the first step in the data collection process, the consultants interviewed several caseworkers and supervisors. On the basis of these interviews, the consultants determined that the system for tracking and monitoring children in foster care seemed to be seriously flawed. So, following up on this initial diagnosis, the consultants broadened their inquiry to include the foster care system, as well as the selection process and training of caseworkers. After gathering the relevant data, the consultants concluded that the computer system used for tracking the children was flawed and was responsible for most of the problems of “losing” children. They proposed that a new system be developed to provide more effective tracking and monitoring of the children. Although it was true that the process for selecting and training the case-workers needed to be improved, the caseworkers could never have performed their jobs effectively, regardless of how well trained they were, because the tracking and monitoring system was so inadequate. If the consultants had focused on finding problems in the selection and training system, as the director suggested they should, then the consultants would have recommended a lot of so-called improvements, but the children would have remained at risk. In short, the consultants would have been
focusing on the wrong problem. As this example illustrates, serious effort has to go into defining and diagnosing an organizational problem. Even in our original silly example, you might have been focusing on the wrong problem. Perhaps the first problem you needed to address, before determining how to get to the funeral, was whether the information your mother gave you was accurate. Maybe your aunt really isn’t dead. Or may be the funeral isn’t in Caspe rbut Chicago. After all, your mother is sometimes as daffy as your aunt. A savvy consultant recognizes that what the client has identified as the problem may not be the problem at all but a symptom of another problem entirely. As should be obvious by now, like icebergs (see Fig. 4.1), 90% of which are not visible to the naked eye, problems in organizations are often neither visible nor understood by clients or others in the organizations. That which can be seen is much easier to manage and change: job descriptions, personnel policies, missions/goals, and so forth. That which cannot be seen is much more difficult to manage and change because, much like an iceberg, the problems remain under the surface. Thus, problems in the informal organization (e.g., group sentiments and norms, employees’ emotions, power relationships) are much more difficult to identify and change. Consequently, it is extremely important for consultants to obtain as much background information about what the client has said is the organization’s problem as well as the symptoms or behaviors the client has dandified. This process of uncovering the real problems in an organization is often known as conducting a situation analysis.
FIG. 4.1. The organizational “iceberg.”
DEVELOPING A PROJECT STRATEGY
Although one can never be totally certain of identifying the real problem, there are several things you can do to increase the probability of focusing on the real problem rather than on just one of possibly many symptoms. This moves us to the next step: determining the information needed to solve the problem.
DETERMINING WHAT INFORMATION IS NEEDED
Once you have defined the problem to your and your client’s satisfaction and are fairly certain what questions need to be answered, the next step is to decide what information is needed to answer those questions. In most cases, the information will be fairly obvious from the questions asked. In our example of needing to get from Dallas to Casper, and assuming that you have confirmed that the information your mother has given you is correct, your key questions should focus on your options in transportation. Which airlines fly into Casper? At what times? Can you rent a car there? Is your aunt’s town accessible by car, or do you need to rent a mule? These questions define what information is needed. A very efficient method for progressing is to make a list of the information you need, find out where you can get the information (the next step), and then collect the information (Step 4). Once you have devised a clear problem statement or research question, data collection should proceed efficiently. For this reason, we recommend forcing yourself to state the research question in writing, being as clear as possible about the problem. Next, prepare a list of questions that need to be answered and then decide what information is needed to answer those questions. Let’s assume for a minute that you have been retained to assess why a firm’s new advertising strategy has been ineffective in increasing sales. As stated here, this problem is too broad to investigate or to devise a data collection strategy. You might begin by interviewing a few people in the advertising unit—that is, conducting a situation analysis. This might lead to consideration of the advertising campaign itself, which you might conclude was unsuccessful. On the basis of information gleaned from the interviews, you might then conclude that you really need to answer the
following series of questions:
• Has anything happened internally or externally that might have adversely affected the advertising campaign (e.g., change in key personnel, change in economic climate for the company’s product)?
• Have sales really been lower? (Perhaps there has been a change in the accounting system that has affected how sales are recorded.)
• Has production kept up with demand for the product?
• Have customer complaints and returned product accounted for lost revenue? The point is that the advertising campaign may have been successful; but other parts of the organization may have been unable to support the campaign’s results. Developed carefully, research questions such as the ones just listed can be extremely useful in understanding a problem affecting an organization, what questions need to be answered, and what information needs to be obtained to answer these questions. With that focus, you can then begin developing a data collection strategy.
DETERMINING SOURCES OF THE INFORMATION
The next step is to determine who has the information you need to answer your and the client’s questions and how you can get the answers these questions. In the example of needing to get from Dallas to Casper, you might want to find out which airlines fly to Casper and their flight schedules. Where can you get that information? One option would be to call every airline you know. That sounds very time consuming, however. Maybe a better idea is to call a travel agent, who can access the information almost immediately and figure out how many stopovers or plane changes the trip would involve. The travel agent might even be able to recommend alternative routes, such as flying into Denver and renting a car and driving from there. You might also want to look at an Internet site that specializes in travel, such as Orbits or Travelocity. Determining where to access information can often be rather difficult. To illustrate our point here, let’s look again at the case of Extra Comfort Shoes. One of the questions the company wanted answered was whether an online retail store would be profitable and, if so, about how much profit Extra Comfort could expect it to make and how long it would take the company to realize a return on its investment (if ever). Extra Comfort also wanted to know how setting up an online store would affect the company’s relationships with its current distributors. These are very tough questions. Moreover, the client wants hard data to back up whatever conclusions the consultants reach. In this case, the data collection phase is made even more difficult when the consultant is trying to predict future events.
COLLECTING THE DATA
Once you have a good idea of the information you need to address the issue of interest to the client and know where it might be obtained, the next step (Step 4 in our model) is to decide how to collect the information. Before we begin describing some of the formal methods associated with collecting data, we want to remind you that every interaction you have in the organization is an opportunity to observe and collect data. As Stroh and Johnson noted in the “From the Experts” section for this chapter, data collection begins the moment you make any initial contact in the organization. Observing the person’s attitude about the organization for which he or she works, how the person speaks about and refers to employees, and whether“ what the organization says” matches “what it actually does” can sometimes provide more useful information than you can gather from sure- From the Experts … Data Collection Begins at the Beginning! by Linda Stroh and Homer Johnson, Professors, HRIR, Graduate School of Business, Loyola University Chicago Many consultants think that the data collection stage of a project begins after the proposal is written and the contract is agreed on. It has been our experience that data collection begins much sooner—the moment you meet or speak with a potential client. Observing the person’s attitude about the organization he or she works for, how the person speaks about and refers to employees, and whether “what the organization says” matches “what it actually does” can sometimes provide more useful information than you can gather from surveys and interviews. For example, one pharmaceutical company with which we worked was interested in shortening the time that it took between their idea to develop a new product and the actual launching of that product. Our major area of interest for this project was the research design team. The top-level managers claimed this research design group was the most important in the organization—according to these top managers, without the research design team, there was no organization. Yet, before we had even written our proposal to do the project, it became clear through casual observation that the company’s research development team was not the most respected or most highly rewarded group after all. The walls of the company’s hallways were filled with photographs of top salespeople and marketing and promotional materials; there were no visible signs that there even was a research and development team. Furthermore, in conversation, when we casually asked who were the most highly compensated executives in the company, members of research and development were never mentioned. And even before meeting with our contact person at the organization, we noticed by looking at the organizational chart— we’re sure you’ve already guessed it—that were no top level research people on the most senior team.
So, before we even began writing our proposal or formally collecting data, we had already collected some very useful information. Thus, it is our belief that collecting data begins at the very beginning of a project. Don’t wait for formal data collection phase to start observing the organization. If we had, we could have missed out on some very valuable data! Vets and interviews. We encourage you to use every opportunity and interaction to observe the behaviors in the organization and keep careful records of these observations. Next, this section provides a cursory review of four common ways to collect data: (a) conducting interviews, (b) performing surveys, (c) observing, and (d) reviewing existing records. About 90% of the time, consultants use one of these techniques. The purpose of this section is to give you some indication of how each of these techniques is used and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Probably the most important rule when it comes to data collection is that the collection technique shoul d produce the information you need to answer the question posed by the client. Thus, you always start by determining what information is needed, where the information is available or who has that information and, finally, which technique to use that will best uncover that information. Although some consultants specialize in one of these four techniques, the problem should dictate the technique you use,not whether you prefer one technique over another. Many consultants end up using a combination of techniques, often called data triangulation , which affords them an even broader perspective on the issue. Inter views: Individuals and Group Consultants usually find out quickly that interviews provide the foundation for their work. Here, we touch only briefly on a few of the basics of this extremely important data collection method. Chapter 5 is devoted exclusively to helping you develop your skills as an interviewer. It is essential that you learn the basics and practice interviewing as much as possible. Interviews are fairly time consuming and, because time is money, they can be somewhat costly. However, they are one of the best and most frequently used ways to gain information. Their great advantage is that they enable you to probe deeply and therefore gain a good understanding of an issue. Say, for example, that during an interview a customer expresses dissatisfaction with a particular product. The interviewer has the luxuryof following up and asks why the customer feels this way, something that is very difficult to do in a questionnaire. Let’s say the customer then says that the product is hard to handle. The interviewer might then ask “How is it hard to handle? In what way?” The customer might then respond“Because the grip is in an awkward position.” The interviewer might then ask the customer to demonstrate the problem. By the end of the interview, the consultant will have gained a pretty good understanding of the customer’s concerns and have some good ideas about how to redesign the product to address these concerns. The opportunity to probe deeply, to follow up on comments, and to discover causes are what make the interview such a valuable way to elicit information. Interviews are typically conducted in one of three formats: (a) face to face, (b) in a focus group, or (c) by telephone. Although they take time, interviews are critical when your goal is to help a group learn about itself and how effectively it is working. In chapter 5 we provide more information about interview techniques, but the following are just a few pieces of advice that are especially important when conducting interviews in work organizations:
• Try to maintain objectivity and consistency from one interview to the next.
• Consider using a prepared script and taking notes.
• Schedule your time carefully. Conducting interviews back to back can be tiring and confusing.
• Assure interviewees that their names will not be attached to the information; interviewees are often fearful about losing their job if they say something negative.
• Probe, ask why, and probe some more, to get at the und relying causes of a problem or issue. Surveys or Questionnaires Like interviews, a survey or questionnaire can be a very effective tool for learning about how the people in an organization feel about a variety of issues, from the way management treats employees; to whether employees receive adequate, valuable training; to whether decision making proceeds in a top-down or bottom-up manner. Surveys are also used extensively for conducting market research and for assessing customer and patient satisfaction. One of the attractions of conducting a survey is that the results can be easily converted into hard numbers (“87% of our customers indicated that they are generally or very satisfied with our service”) and comparisons made across time periods (“This is a 4% increase over the rate recorded last year at this time”). Questionnaires are especially useful if you need to obtain information from a large number of people or a group in which the people are widely dispersed. For example, suppose management at an automobile assembly plant wants to know the level of job satisfaction among the company’s 3,000 workers, as well as their reactions to some recent changes in work rules. One option would be to try to interview all 3,000 employees, or perhaps even a sample of 300; however, doing all those interviews (even 300) would entail considerable time and expense. A much quicker and less expensive approach would be to design a short questionnaire consisting of multiple-choice questions, which are easily scored by computer. The questionnaire could be administered to some or all employees in a day or two, and a data summary could be tabulated in another couple of days. Thus, data collection and analysis would be both quick and inexpensive. The advantage of conducting a survey can also be a disadvantage, however, in that multiple-choice questions often do not reveal the underlying reasons people responded as they did. For example, suppose the automobile supply company administered a job satisfaction questionnaire to all
3,000 employees. Some of the questions focused on the employees’ reactions to the recent changes in the work rules, in particular to how employees are assigned to work teams. One possible question could be “How satisfied are you with the new system of assigning employees to work teams?” The respondent would be then being asked to check one of four responses: “very satisfied,” “generally satisfied,” “generally dissatisfied, “or “very dissatisfied.” If most of the respondents checked “very satisfied “or “generally satisfied,” then interpreting the results would be fairly easy, or at least the company would know that the employees were not pushing for a change in that policy. But what if most of the respondents said they were dissatisfied with the new system? Then the question becomes: Why? What parts of the system do they not like? A good interviewer would have probed to answer this question; in a survey, this is rarely done. In other words, although the survey conducted for the automobile supply company provided a quick read on employee satisfaction, it raised an additional question that needs to be answered: Why is the level of dissatisfaction so high? Theoretically, the consultant could have added an open-ended question that said something to the effect of “If you responded that you are generally or very dissatisfied with the new system for assigning employees to work teams, please explain below why you are dissatisfied and what changes you would like the company to make.” However, then someone
would have had to read, interpret, and summarize all those responses. This too can be very time consuming and costly, particularly if a large number of employees are being surveyed and the questionnaire contains many open-ended questions. So this raises a dilemma: How much and what do
you include in a questionnaire? Regardless of the organization or issue being investigated, developing a questionnaire that provides accurate and consistent results is a well-honed skill. Most important, you need to be sure that the questions will yield the information being sought. All too often, survey questions are ambiguous or confusing. One way to avoid this problem is to pilot test a survey with several people before administering it to a large group. The following are a few other guidelines for developing surveys.
Choosing the Sample.
Obviously, the first concern in picking a sample of people to survey is that they must be able to provide the information you need to address the issue the client wants answered. It is always best to use a sample that is both large and representative of the organization or the customer base in terms of age, gender, department breakdown, and so on. Administering the Survey. Surveys can be administered on site, mailed to respondents, or given to respondents to take home and return or mail back. An increasing number of surveys are sent to respondents by e-mail, although confidentiality may not be guaranteed. As with other decisions, you and the client need to decide together whether it would be best to mail the questionnaires to employees at home, e-mail them to a work address, or distribute and administer them in so other way. Many surveys are now administered online. The respondent is directed to a Web site, provided an entry code for a questionnaire, asked to complete the survey, and
then send it back. The results are tabulated instantaneously. Regardless of how the survey is administered, the first page needs to explain why the survey is being conducted, that it is supported by the client organization, and that all replies will remain totally confidential. You will want to consider the following as you develop the items for the questionnaire:
• Do the questions lead to responses that address your research question?
• In what order should the questions be asked? (An answer to one question may influence how so me one responds to another question.)
• Are questions phrased as simply and straight forwardly as possible?
• Are questions objective? Respondents should not be led to answers.
• Are the questions as clear and concise as possible?
• Should a pretest be conducted on a small but representative sample? Direct Observation
Observing people while they work, or in other settings, such as while they are making purchase decisions, is another way that consultants gather data. The advantage of this technique is that people are observed (usually) in their natural setting, doing what they normally do. This is in contrast to the interview or survey, in which people report on how they feel or behave. We know that what people say they do is sometimes different from what they actually do. This does not mean they are lying (although they may be) but rather is a reminder that people often are not totally aware of the details of their behavior. Although direct observation has certain advantages, one possible drawback is that people sometimes react differently than they normally would when they are aware that they are being observed—in other words, the knowledge that they are being watched changes their behavior. For example, a consultant observing workers on an assembly line might think they are consistently cautious about safety and quality issues. What the consultant does not realize, however, is that when he or she is not around, the employees use a shortcut on the line that could put safety and quality at risk. This disadvantage of direct observation can usually be overcome by being as unobtrusive as possible and careful not to interfere in any way with the action taking place. The goal is not to affect or manipulate the situation in any way but simply to record what is happening, being careful to be as objective and consistent across observations as possible. Most of the time, people being observed will, over time, become comfortable and behave as they would if the consultant were not observing them. For example, a consultant who was asked to investigate the causes of conflict among members of a management team asked to sit in on their management meetings. At the beginning of the first meeting, the members
of the team were on their very best behavior and models of civility and cooperation. About an hour later, however, a couple of rather nasty conflicts ensued, which team members later told the consultant was typical of what occurs in their meetings. It took the team about an hour to become comfortable with the consultant being present, and after that they behaved as if she were not even there. One of the questions that need to be resolved before observing people in the workplace is when to observe. In the case described earlier, for example, an astute consultant might have wondered whether the employees in the automobile plant behaved differently when the line was moving quickly and pressure was high than they did when production was slow. It behooved the consultant to make sure he observed (i.e., sampled behavior) under both conditions. Several variations are possible regarding the use of the observation technique. For example, videotaping has become more common. The obvious advantage is that videotape provides a permanent record of behavior and can be replayed repeatedly for analysis by the consultant and perhaps even by the person or group being observed. Other consultants have people work in, or make decisions in, special rooms and observe their behavior there. Some consultants combine both observation techniques with personal interviews. For example, a consultant hired to improve a company sales techniques followed its top sales people, observed (and took notes on) their sales approach, and later interviewed them to find out what they were thinking as they worked, why they asked certain questions, and why they made certain comments.
Here are a few general guidelines to bear in mind if you do direct observations:
• Decide before the observation what you want to focus on. What specific behavior is of interest or concern? Employees’ actions and interactions? Spatial and temporal patterns? Social interactions?
• Design and use a checklist to remind you what you want to learn about the situation you are observing, but be flexible—and add new items as needed.
• Be as unobtrusive as possible. Do not interfere in any way with the event being observed.
• Make sure you observe at different times and under different conditions, particularly if you have reason to believe that subjects’ behavior may change under different conditions .
Reviewing Existing Records Most organizations collect volumes of internal information, which, given the availability of electronic data processing, is usually easily accessible. Under federal and state law, some of this information is required to be available to the public. For example, public corporations are required to make available vast amounts of financial data every quarter. Likewise, company safety and health records are available through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Company data on hiring and terminations, employee head counts, pay, gender, race, and so on, are also available, from the U.S. Department of Labor and other agencies. Finally, many businesses have extensive records on sales, returns, and customer complaints that they share with consultants. In addition to data that are available to the general public, other data are available for purchase from research groups. The problem for the consultant is not that there is not enough information but how to sift through the volumes that exist. We recommend that you begin by asking yourself the first three questions of the five-step model: What’s the problem? What information do I need? Who has it, or where is it?
Let’s look in a little more detail at some of the data collection possibilities in existing records: Internal Records. As noted earlier, most companies generate a wide variety of information, much of which you would have access to if you were consulting for the company. Gaining access to this information is much easier since the advent of enterprise wide software. Records of financial data, for example, are among the most complete, because it is critical that companies know how well they are doing financially and because publicly held companies are required to make financial information available to the general public. Sales information also is readily available; however, although a company may have good records on how much product it sells each month, it may take some digging to find out what individual customers purchased as well as the sales revenue for individual products. We will not attempt to describe all the information available from internal company records but offer you a bit of a warning: You cannot always assume that company records are accurate. Accidents, as just one example, are often underreported. Supervisors are sometimes reluctant to report injuries because they think it will reflect negatively on their performance and result in increases in the company’s insurance rates. Other information may be inaccurate as well, as highlighted in a recent scandal in which several newspapers were found to have inflated their circulation figures. In this case the higher (and false) circulation figures allowed the newspaper to charge their advertisers considerably more, because advertising rates are based on circulation rates. The point here is that you should not assume that information is necessarily accurate just because it is in “official” company records. The information could have been recorded inaccurately, or someone could have deliberately lied. Public Records. Much of the information organizations provide to federal and state government agencies is available to the public, although the record may or may identify companies by name. Certainly in the case of an annual report, you will, of course, know to which company the data pertain. Other publications, however, such as those produced by the U.S. Department of Labor, include averages—of annual salaries for various categories of workers, for example—based on information companies provide but do not identify what any one company pays its workers. Census data can also be invaluable to consultants. Suppose a major high-end retailer—for example, Nordstrom or Lord & Taylor—has contracted with you to help decide where to open several new stores. Where would you start with your research? One possibility would be to get in your car and drive around the United States, or maybe even in Europe. However, that would be a huge waste of time and, more important, would not give you the information you are looking for. One piece of information that would be helpful is that high-end retailers target customers with very specific demographics. The
Easiest way to gain access to this information is through the U.S. Bureau of the Census, which collects and distributes demographic information free to anyone interested in obtaining it. Information is available on population density and on the populations in different areas; on the average income of people living in these areas, on the number of children in the families in these areas, on the level of education of the people living there, and on their ages, gender, ethnicity, and numerous other aspects of their lives that would be extremely helpful in identifying choice sites for expansion. Moreover, this information is easily accessible at no cost. Reviewing census data would help you narrow the list of choice store sites considerably. But wait—more valuable, easy-to-access information is out there. If you are a good researcher, you will want to evaluate accessibility to transportation for each of the sites under consideration. One source to which you would want to referare area maps, available online, that indicates all the highways and other roads in an area. If you are interested in what other retailers are in the area, you can check out the online Yellow Pages. Taxes? The tax structure, local and state, should be posted online as well. Zoning restrictions? Again, state and local governments have all this. Cost of land? Same. We could go on, but the point is that existing public record s is a great resource for consultants. Most of the information is free, and it is all very easily accessible. Other Records. Many sources of private information are available to consultants. You may sometimes have to pay a fee. One source of private information is private research companies, many of which regularly collect information on specific industries or issues. For example, volumes of data are available on the automobile industry, ranging from sales per car model, defects per car model, and customer complaints per car model, which purchases what model, how many people will purchase a new car next year, and so on. Much of this information is available for purchase. An other good source of information is professional associations, which regularly conduct studies of interest to their members. Much of this information is available free of charge (or for a minimal fee)to the organizations’ members. As just one example, some of these associations collect salary and benefits information for major cities or regions of the United States. Information is also available on such matters as the average salaries for various categories of employees, benefits offered, and average salary increases. Some organizations also collect information on how many employees the companies in various areas intend to hire in the coming year. Obviously, this information is of great value in determining salaries to offer as well as salary increases companies should consider offering to reduce turnover and stay competitive.
PROS AND CONS OF EACH METHOD
As should be obvious from the preceding discussion, each data collection method has advantages and disadvantages. The first consideration in deciding which method to use is which one will yield the information you need to answer the question as simply as possible. Beyond that, you should be aware of the potential problems you encounter using each technique. A summary of the advantages and disadvantages of each method we have highlighted is provided in Table 4.2.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES
In the following section, we discuss consulting projects that have actually been undertaken. As you review each problem the consultant was asked to solve, ask yourself the following questions: What is the purpose of the proposed assessment/study? What is the problem? What information is needed to solve this problem? Finally, how would you collect the data that are needed? Decide for yourself which data collection methods would be most appropriate before reading what the consultant did in each case. TABLE 4.2
Advantages and Disadvantages of Major Data Collection Methods
Method Advantages Disadvantages
Interviewer bias
Interview Flexibility
Can elicit in-depth information
Socially acceptable replies
Can observe body language
Time consuming/expensive
Limited to questions as asked
Survey Easy to get data on large
Numbers of people
Respondent error
Easy to quantify
No follow-up
Cost effective
Difficult to assign meaning
Easy to compare and contrast
Direct
Hands-on experience
Observer bias
Observe actual behavior
Difficult to assign meaning
Observation
Immediate results
Participant awareness of
Flexible
Observation
Expensive
Records Provide relevant background
Time consuming
Information
May not have needed data
Little cost
Difficult to interpret
Minimal bias
The Case of the Business Travelers A major hotel chain wanted to more directly target business travelers, so it instituted several changes designed to attract these guests. For example, guests can now register by cell phone on the way to the hotel, and the bell captain will have the room key ready when the customer arrives. The hotel also provides free Internet service, free photocopy service, and a variety of other amenities. The hotel marketing department was eager to determine whether business travelers liked these services as well as what other services they wanted at the chain’s hotels. To gather this information, the hotel left a short questionnaire in each room. Unfortunately, very few questionnaires were ever returned. Next, the hotel offered a coupon for a free drink at the hotel bar for anyone who
turned in the questionnaire. Again, very few people responded. Reaching the point of desperation, the hotel hired a consultant to design a strategy to help get the information the hotel wanted. What data collection technique should the consultant use? Why didn’t the in-room questionnaires elicit much of a response? In this case, the consultant recommended two approaches. First, she suggested that the hotel conduct focus groups with business travelers to determine what services that wanted and, if they were familiar with the hotel in question, to evaluate the current services. Second, she suggested that the hotel conduct a very brief phone survey of business guests to learn their experiences at the hotel and how their stay could have been more enjoyable. The survey would be conducted on a regular basis, enabling the hotel to track its progress in improving its business guests’ satisfaction. In addition, the consultant monitored the number of business guests who stayed in the hotel chain each month and the number of nights they stayed. Why had the in-room questionnaire not provided the information the hotel needed? First and foremost, business travelers are usually rushed at checkout time, and filling out a questionnaire is one of the last things they want to think about. The offer of a free drink did not work as an incentive mainly because most guests didn’t see it as an incentive, as they were given their coupon for their drink on their way out of the hotel, often at 8:00 in the morning.
The Case of the Salary Policy Problem In a later chapter, you will read about an organization that recently went through a restructuring. Afterwards, the company asked some consultants to interview employees to determine what issues related to restructuring were still unresolved. Some employees reported dissatisfaction with how salaries were being determined for new employees. Some new employees were being paid more to perform the same or similar tasks as older employees. The board of directors asked the consultants to explore whether the complaints were valid. What information should a consultant seek out? What data-gathering method should he or she use? The consultant wanted to verify that there was in fact a discrepancy in what new hires and current employees in similar jobs were being paid, so she examined the company records on the new hires for the past 2 years, noting their job category, experience, education, and starting salaries. She also compared the salary policy that was in effect before the restructuring with the policy in effect since the restructuring. She concluded that the new salary policy was appropriate but that two units were still following the old policy. The board and the director corrected the discrepancies in those units. The Case of the Reluctant Managers A major multinational company was having problems finding enough talented managers to fill key positions in their international subsidiaries. Unlike the situation in previous years, employees were turning down
International career opportunities. Sending employees abroad has been an extremely effective way to incorporate new technologies in foreign operations, improve communication between the foreign subsidiaries and the home office, and provide developmental leadership opportunities for key managers. Given that these assignments were highly important to the strategic mission of the company, the company was eager to find out why managers were no longer accepting these assignments. For this project, a good way for a consultant to begin is by interviewing managers who have turned down international assignments in the past 2 years. The consultant could also interview managers who have returned from international assignments and compare the responses of each. You might also conduct
telephone or e-mail surveys of managers who are currently on assignments overseas.
The Case of the Lean Manufacturing Company An international manufacturing company with plants throughout the world embarked on an initiative to institute lean manufacturing and Six Sigma quality techniques in its facilities. In a train-the-trainer program, managers from each facility were trained and, in turn, they trained managers and employees in their facilities. One concern, however, was whether
the training was being conducted correctly. Some consultants were hired to explore this issue. What would you recommend they do? The consultants in this case traveled to each facility and directly observed training sessions. They also observed the Six Sigma groups in action. Each facility was asked to document its efforts concerning this initiative as well as the results obtained. Approximately 1 year after the training, a group of managers and consultants from corporate headquarters visited each facility and spent 3 days observing the Six Sigma groups in action as well as reviewing the progress in quality improvement in that facility.
A Case of Sexual Harassment A woman, who claims to represent several other women in her work unit,
has complained to the human resources manager that their (male) supervisor frequently tells offensive jokes, makes references to their breasts and bodies, and shows them photos of nude women from a magazine to which he subscribes. She claims that the women have told him that they find his behavior offensive; however, he just laughs and tells them that they need to “loosen up.” One of the company’s internal human resources consultants was assigned to review the case. How would he or she start? What data collection method would be most efficient? The consultant began by interviewing the women who were reportedly the targets of the offensive behavior and documented in some detail what happened, including the frequency of the incidents. Other employees in the unit were also interviewed to determine what they had observed. Finally, the supervisor was interviewed. He admitted to many of the behaviors that the women complained about. However, he claimed that he was just “joking around” and that the women were being overly sensitive. The Case of the Slow Fast-Ser vice Company
The competition between office supply distributors in a major metropolitan area had become very intense, particularly since the arrival of Office Max and other discount supply stores. One of the long-time distributors realized that it would have to change its marketing strategy to survive and
Developed a next-day delivery service. If a customer phones in a supply order by 2:00 p.m., the order is delivered the next morning. Although this strategy appeared to be sound, based on the number of customers who signed up for the service, execution was a problem. The company was plagued by orders being lost; orders being delivered incomplete; and orders taking 2 or more days, instead of overnight, to deliver. The company has hired some consultants to find out why so many problems have bee occurring. How would they begin with the process of data collection?
The consultants started by attempting to understand the next-day delivery system, beginning with the point when an order was phoned in and ending when the order was delivered. Having mapped the process, the consultants then traced several orders through the system to determine at which points the system was working well and where the problems were occurring. It appeared that the crux of the problem was at one point in the system, when the orders were being put together in the warehouse. Subsequently, the system was changed to correct this problem.
The Case of the Start-Up A new debt-reduction company in the San Francisco Bay area had undergone extensive growth. The company, started by two partners (Brad and Andrew), had opened its doors just 18 months ago. The partners had started out with a sincere interest in building a culture that would be so attractive that even they would want to work for the company. Today, the company has more than $5 million in revenues, 100 employees, and offices in five locations. Brad and Andrew want to maintain the employee-friendly environment, but they are afraid of losing touch with their employees as the company becomes larger. Specifically, the partners want a system in place so that they monitor whether the company is attracting and retaining talented employees. The consultant began by conducting a job satisfaction survey, which was developed with the help of the client’s top managers. The company also wanted a system in place to monitor overall job satisfaction once a year. The final questionnaire consisted of 20 questions that employees would be asked every year plus 10 that could be revised as necessary. A Web site was set up to administer the survey, and each employee was given a code number to enter the site. Employees were asked to complete the questionnaire within a 5-day period, and results were available within another week. Although collecting data is often a formal process, it is also important to remember that every interaction with someone in the client company is an opportunity to collect information. For example, you can learn a lot from observing how the organization treats employees. Also observe how conflicts are handled: Does the person in power control the decision-making process, or do others have a fair say in decision making? Is the culture inclusive, or are there subgroups that have little or no power? Observing how power and status are handled can be very useful in understanding an organization. Just remember to focus as much as possible on behavior related to your research question. By reading this chapter, we hope you have gained insight into the data collection process and, more specifically, into the first four steps of the diagnosis and data collection model. In chapter 5 we provide more information on the interview process. We will then turn to Step 5of the model as we focus on drawing conclusions based on the information you have collected.
SUMMARY
In this chapter we have provided a step-by-step process for developing a project strategy and action plan. We emphasized the importance to the success of a project of accurately diagnosing problems and collecting appropriate data. This process begins with defining the problem or issue, deciding what information you need to collect and where to find it, and determining the best method to use to collect that information. Also emphasized was the importance of identifying and solving the real problem, as
opposed to merely a symptom of the problem. The four most frequently used methods of data collection—interviews, surveys, direct observation and reviewing existing records—were each described, and cases that exemplify when to use each method were provided. The next section lists the key success factors that define this phase of developing a project strategy and collecting data successfully.
KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR DEVELOPING A PROJECT STRATEGY
• Define the problem thoroughly and deeply.
• Be sure you are solving the real problem, not just the problems stated by the client or identified in your proposal.
• Recognize that collecting data is both a formal and an informal process that encompasses not only interviews, surveys, and so forth, but also observing interactions in the organization.
• Clearly define what questions need to be answered and what information is needed to answer those questions.
• Determine who has the necessary information and where it can be obtained.
• Choose the most effective data collection technique that will enable you to access the information that is needed. If possible, use methods that are relatively quick and inexpensive.
• Recognize that every interaction you have within the organization is one in which you are collecting data.
Interviewing
One of the most basic and important data collection skills consultants should have in their tool kit knows how to be a good interviewer. Interviewing skills are used at all stages of a consulting project: from the first meeting with a prospective client, through diagnosis of the problem and action, to successful completion of the project. Good interviewing skills can yield valuable insights and information. Consultants need valid and useful information on which to base decisions and to assist clients in making decisions. Interviews are one way to gather this information, whether the focus is the client’s expectations for a project, problems the client or a unit of an organization is facing, or employees’ or customers’ perceptions of a specific issue. Interviews also offer opportunities to establish positive relationships based on openness and trust. For this reason, interviews can lay the foundation for establishing trusting, caring relationships between consultant and clients. Interviewing is a special skill that differs significantly from ordinary conversation. In most ordinary conversations involving two people, the focus is on neutral topics: the weather, your vacation trip, the new car you bought, or the cute thing your child said, to name just a few examples. Ordinary conversations tend to veer away from controversial issues, such as religion and politics, and stay at a surface level. In a consulting interview, the goal is just the opposite: to get below the surface, to get beyond what it is socially desirable to talk about, and delve into issues that are sometimes sensitive and often controversial. Unlike many ordinary conversations, an interview is serious and purposeful. Each interview should have a clear, specific goal, which you should usually clarify before the interview begins. You should also have a plan—based on the information that needs to be gathered. Keeping this information in mind, you can devise a set of questions to achieve the desired outcome. To conduct a successful interview takes considerable preparation and skill. This chapter covers some of the fundamentals of how to become an effective interviewer.
THE INTERVIEW SETTING
Choosing an appropriate setting in which to conduct an interview is important to its success. Too often, consultants conduct interviews in a company cafeteria, in a hallway, or on a noisy factory floor. These settings often lead to poor interviews, as both parties can be easily distracted, may have difficulty hearing each other, and may feel physically uncomfortable. To maximize the chances of success, interviews should ideally be conducted in settings that are:
•Quiet
• Free of distractions
• Private (no one will be able to hear or observe the interview as it is taking place)
• Furnished with comfortable seating In addition, there should be a table or chairs so that you can face the interviewee, establish eye contact, and observe the interviewee’s facial and body reactions.
The importance of choosing a comfortable, private place in which to conduct interviews cannot be overemphasized. In the recent U.S. presidential elections, many commentators, including Tim Russet of NBC News, were criticized for interviewing the candidates in uncomfortable, contrived-looking settings. For the Russet interview, the President and Russert were seated in uncomfortable seats facing in awkward positions, forcing contrived postures for both. Thus, to some, the whole interview appeared strained. Consultants frequently ask to have an empty office or room reserved exclusively for them to conduct interviews. If you are interviewing someone in his or her own office, ask the person to close the door and put the phone on hold so you can talk without being interrupted.
BODY LANGUAGE: A REFLECTION OF ATTITUDE
Another key component to consider when conducting interviews is your body language, which can say a lot about your attitude toward the person you are interviewing. Ideally, you want to let the interviewee feel that you are interested in the information and ideas expressed. If the interviewee thinks you are interested in what is being said, then he or she is far more likely to be cooperative and to volunteer information. If the interviewee thinks you are not interested, then he or she is likely to feel very little reason to cooperate. Your body language is one of the most obvious ways that you communicate interest—or lack of interest—in the person you are interviewing. The rules for communicating this interest are really quite simple and easy to follow:
• Face the interviewee so that both of you can observe each other’s reactions. Sitting at a slight angle (45 degrees), rather than directly in front of the person, may make him or her more comfortable.
• Make frequent eye contact, but don’t stare. Also avoid staring out the window, at the wall, or at notes. Occasional eye contact signals interest in what the interviewee is saying and is a way to pick upon the interviewee’s facial expressions as he or she is talking.
• Sit upright in your seat, and lean slightly forward, toward the interviewee.
• Signal you are paying attention by nodding in response to comments and/or by saying “I understand” or “I see” to indicate that the message is being received. Asking for clarification of a point or summarizing a point after the interviewee says something is another way to signal you are paying attention.
• Finally, taking notes indicates to the interviewee that his or her opinions are important. These notes will also be useful if you have to summarize data from a series of interviews in a report. Be careful, however, that note-taking does not become a distraction but rather is an integral part of the interview process.
GENERAL RULES
By following some other general rules of interviewing, you are likely to elicit valuable information from your interviewees while ensuring that they feel comfortable and at ease as you ask them questions. These rules are summarized in Table 5.1. Clarify the Purpose All interviews have a purpose, even those in which you are fishing for ideas. Make sure you are clears to the purpose of the interview. Why are
you conducting it? What outcomes are you hoping for? Once you are clear about the purpose, ask yourself: What do I need to accomplish for
General Rules for Interviewing
• Be clear about what information you want to elicit—that is, the purpose of the interview.
• Prepare questions in advance.
• Design the interview for the time available.
• Keep the interview focused.
• Stay flexible.
• Maintain a bias-free and politically neutral stance.
• Ask one question at time.
• Listen to the response.
• Ask questions in a relaxed and casual manner.
• Let the interviewee talk; don’t interrupt in the middle of an answer.
• Ask open-ended questions whenever possible.
• Ask follow-up questions when answers are unclear or eliciting additional
information would be valuable.
• Encourage the interviewee to provide details and examples.
• Ask tough questions.
• Take notes on key ideas or opinions.
This interview to be a success? What information do I need to obtain? You might even want to pretend that you have already conducted the interview and ask yourself what you have learned from the questions you would have asked. Were your questions adequate at eliciting the information you hoped to obtain? If not, how could the interview have been structured differently? Being aware of what needs to be accomplished will help you design questions to obtain the desired results. It will also help you explore unexpected issues that might arise. Prepare the Questions Occasionally, interviewers wing it. They prepare no questions in advance and instead make them up as they go along. This is an invitation to disaster. Few interviewers are capable of winging it. Research is conclusive on this. One researcher, for example, studied whether people who prepared for their interviews with candidates for a job were better at predicting these candidates’ future job performance than people who did not prepare for the interviews. What the researcher found was that when the interviewers did not prepare questions in advance, their accuracy in predicting job performance was very poor. Accuracy was quite good, however, when the interviewers prepared their questions. Their predictions were even more accurate when the prepared questions were tailored to a specific job. The bottom line: Conducting a good interview
requires preparation! To prepare good questions, you must understand exactly what information you are trying to obtain. Once that has been decided, the next step is to design your questions so that they yield the information you want. Finally, you have to organize the questions in a logical sequence. Following the three steps we describe in the next sections will add considerably to the effectiveness of your interviews.
Design the Interview Thoughtfully Interviews usually need to begin and end within a specific time frame.
Most last for 30 to 60 minutes. Sometimes, interviews last longer than 60 minutes, occasionally they last several hours, but few are shorter than 30 minutes; you really cannot obtain much information in less time. It is important to know how much time you have for the interview and to be sure you can ask all your questions in that time. This means that you will have to be very selective in what you ask and will have to cut some “good” questions. Some questions, though, are absolutely critical. Ensure that there is plenty of time to ask them. Maintain Focus Interviewees have a tendency to wander off the subject. They get caught up telling an interesting story, which may seem to go on forever. At other times, they may tell you specific information that isn’t germane to the issue you’re investigating. They may seem to be intentionally stalling, perhaps to avoid answering tough questions. It is up to you to control the interview. There is only so much time, and there is usually a lot of information to gather. Make sure that the interviewee is sticking to the key questions. If the interviewee starts to stray, try to refocus attention on the topic at hand. This can be done by saying something like this: “That’s a very interesting story; however, we are a little pressed for time and there are a couple of important issues I would like to get your opinion on.” Then ask the next question. Alternatively, you could say: “Could we hold that issue ’til the end? I want to make sure I have time to hear your
Opinions on some other issues. Perhaps we can get back to this one later.” Then go on to the next question. Stay Flexible although it is important to stay focused and stick with the questions during an interview, remaining flexible is also advisable. For example, not all interviewees can supply the same amount of information about any particular issue or are willing to share that information. Thus, some people may tell you a great deal in answer to a question, whereas others will have little or nothing to say. You will want to spend more time on the questions that are likely to yield the most valuable information and with the people who are most forthcoming in supplying this information. Flexibility is also useful in deciding when to end an interview and when to extend it. There is nothing that says that an interview that is scheduled for 1 hr has to run for exactly that long. If the interview isn’t yielding much information, end it early. If it is yielding a lot of information, allow extra time if possible. Don’t get too rigid about the sequencing of questions, either. If an interviewee gives you information relevant to a different question from the one you have just asked, consider focusing on that question and coming back to the original question later. The sequence in which you ask questions is not of paramount concern; it’s better to obtain valuable information. At other times, issues may arise that were not part of your agenda but that are critical to the project at hand. For example, a consultant was interviewing personnel from a health care unit of a major hospital about the restructuring of their unit. During one of the interviews, one of the staff members charged the chief medical officer with racism. The interviewer decided to explore the charge in this and subsequent interviews as it appeared to be interfering with the success of the restructuring. This was a judgment call on the part of the interviewer. You don’t want to get involved in side issues unrelated to the focus of the interview; however, you don’t want to overlook discussing issues that might seem tangential initially but that are actually extremely important. Remain Unbiased It is sometimes tempting to encourage an interviewee, albeit subtly, to answer a question a certain way or to let the client know you agree with the interviewee on some issue. However, the purpose of an interview is to gather unbiased information that accurately reflects the interviewee’s beliefs. We cannot emphasize enough how important it is for the interviewer to be aware of his or her biases and control any efforts to influence the respondent in that favored direction.
What do you think of the following questions, for example?
• Don’t you think that the first advertisement gets the message across
better than the second?
• Several people have said that the response time is much too slow. What do you think about the time it takes? These are fairly obvious examples of questions in which the interviewee is trying to elicit certain answers. Bias can take many forms, however. Your tone of voice, for example, can convey the response you are looking for. Asking the same question in slightly different ways several times can have this effect as well. In this case, the interviewee may think he or she has given a “wrong” answer or a response other than the one the interviewer wanted. On the third time the interviewer asks the question, the interviewee is likely to give a different answer. If the interviewer records only the last answer, the data become biased and consequently inaccurately represent the interviewee’s opinions. Stay Politically Neutral To be a good interviewer, one has to remain not only free of bias but also politically neutral. In other words, you must not try to gain favor with the interviewee by noting that you agree with some opinion he or she expressed; for example:
• I’m probably not supposed to say this, but I agree with your appraisal of the software package.
• You’re very insightful about this issue. The more I hear, the more I’m siding with labor on this question.
Note that there is a difference between agreeing with a response and acknowledging a response. In the two preceding examples, the interviewer is definitely expressing agreement. However, the interviewer might say, “I see,” or “I understand,” or nod, any of which would indicate that the interviewer has heard the interviewee’s response but neither agrees or disagrees with it.
Ask One Question
Good interviewers avoid asking several questions at once. When the interviewer asks multiple questions, the usual outcome is that the interviewee answers one question completely, one partially, and neglects to answer the others. Make sure you ask one question at a time, and give the interviewee
plenty of time to answer. Listen to the Response this sounds simple, but it can be difficult to do: Listen to your interviewee’s responses. Especially after doing many, many interviews, it can be tempting to daydream. Be assured, however, that if you’re not present in the interview, your interviewee will detect your lack of interest. Consequently, the interviewee loses trust in the process and is less likely to reveal
Information that could be useful as you analyze a company’s problem. Remaining attentive and interested in your interviewee helps build trusting relationships with your subjects and helps elicit more thorough and helpful responses. As Denny L. Brown, president of Linden Associates notes in the “From the Expert” section, being a good listener is not a passive sport! According to Brown, really listening to someone takes a lot of energy, but when you show interest in the person you are interviewing by being a good listener, he or she becomes more comfortable with you and the interview process, and you are more likely to get the needed information from your interviews. Remain Relaxed and Casual Interactions between you and the person you are interviewing should be relaxed and informal. Avoid cross-examination and the accusatory questioning style typical of attorneys in a courtroom. This is likely to lead to both defensiveness and resistance. Let the Interviewee Talk The purpose of an interview is to elicit information from someone, not to voice your own opinions. The person conducting the interview should talk only about 10% of the time; that is, the interviewee should be talking about 90%. Giving your opinions on an issue steers interviewees to give the answers they think you are looking for and thus yields invalid information. This doesn’t mean you should never give your opinion. During a discussion with a client about your contract, or a meeting in which the client wants to hear your approach to a problem, obviously you need to volunteer information. In interviews like these, you may be talking as much as 50% of the time. From the Experts … Listen Up! by Denny L. Brown, President, Linden Associates In my roles both as controller of Owens Illinois and as an independent consultant, I’ve learned the importance of being a good listener when conducting an interview. A good listener puts an interviewee at ease, builds trust, and typically elicits much-needed information. Whether you’re discussing a consulting project with a prospective client, interviewing an assembly-line worker while doing research, or talking to a high-level executive about an ongoing project, good listening skills pay large dividends. Listening isn’t a passive activity! If your objective is to collect information, it takes a lot of energy and intent listening. Over the years, the following tools have worked for me:
• Put the interviewee at ease. Don’t launch immediately into the most important points you want to cover. A little small talk to crack the ice goes a long way. You’ll elicit the best information if the person is relaxed and has considerable trust in you from the start.
• Do your homework. Have an interview plan and know which areas you want to pursue. Show interest in the interviewee and demonstrate value and appreciation for his or her opinions. Concentrate not only on what has been said but also what has not been said. Ask probing questions.
• Don’t rush. Give the interviewee time to answer completely. Don’t feel obligated to fill each momentary break with a new question—a little pause when no one is talking is not a bad thing.
• Be flexible in pursuing new topics that develop during the interview. Don’t follow the agenda so rigidly that there’s no chance to discuss a subject the interviewee initiates.
• Control the natural urge to talk. It’s very difficult to be a good listener while talking or planning what you’re going to say.
Again, being a good listener is not a passive activity. If you’re conducting an interview, you need to expend considerable energy preparing it, properly conducting it, and going with the flow as ideas develop. It’s like being the lineman whose role it is to make a hole for the running back who scores the touchdown. You, not me, can tell the 300-pound lineman that he has played a passive role! Similarly, it’s not what you have to say that’s important but what the interviewee has to say—most often, you have to actively “listen up” to get the message being sent.
Keep Questions Open Ended
Questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” or with a one word answer do not yield much information and should be avoided as much as possible when you are interviewing someone. Such questions are designed to discourage interviewees from talking and may yield invalid information. “Have you stopped drinking excessively?” is an example of a yes-or-no question that puts the interviewee in a no-win and rather difficult position regardless of how he or she answers it. A better strategy is to ask questions that allow interviewees an opportunity to express and explain their opinions. Consider this question about a recent change in work rules: “Are you happy with the recent change in work rules?”
The question is very limiting in that it asks for a simple “yes” or “no” response and therefore gives respondents little or no opportunity to express their opinions about the change. A better question might be “How do you feel about the recent change in work rules?” Or perhaps “What do you think about the recent change in work rules?” These questions give the person being interviewed much more room to express his or her feelings and, consequently, yield considerably more information about the issue being discussed. Try to begin questions with what, when, how, why or where .Questions that start this way are usually open ended. Clarify Open-ended questions give interviewees the chance to express their opinions. However, this doesn’t mean that their responses are always clear or helpful. In fact, frequently they are general and vague and therefore subject to interpretation. For example, people often say things like there are “communications problems,” “morale problems,” the new manager are “too pushy,” or that the return policy is “a disaster.” What do these terms mean? Coming up with a good answer to that question is often not easy, particularly if you are interviewing someone you’ve never met. When you are not clear what someone means, do not hesitate to follow up with another what, why, how, when, and where question. The following are some examples of questions designed to get an interviewee to explain a confusing response:
• What was said to give you the impression that …
• What do you mean when you say that …
• How could that have been handled to … if …
• Why did management reject the …
• Where in the process do you think …
• When did you realize that …
Going back to the example we cited earlier, on the change of work rules, suppose that the interviewee had said that he or she had many problems with the change in work rules. To clarify, you might ask: “What do you mean when you say that you had many problems with the new work rules?” Or, better yet: “What kinds of problems are you having with the change in work rules?” The interviewee might then respond “It has led to a lot of screw-ups,” to which the interviewer might respond “How so? What kind of screw upsare occurring?”
The interviewee might then respond “Well, we don’t have any communication across shifts, so we don’t know if the first shift had problems that we should know about.” The interviewer then asks “Can you give me a specific example of when a screw-up occurred across shifts that was related to the new work rules? What would be an example of that?” The interviewee responds: “I think it was last Monday that the first shift had difficulty controlling the color on one of the Heidelberg presses, the number 6 press. They had to keep adjusting it to keep the color from blurring. We didn’t know about it when we took over and made several runs before we discovered that the color was blurring.” The interviewer asks “How is that related to the new change in work rules?” and the interviewee responds “Under the old rules, we would have known about it because the first-shift operators would have briefed us. They would have explained the problem to us and told us how they were controlling it. Under the new rules, there is no briefing. They just stop and we start. Sometimes I don’t even see them. I think the company is trying to save money with the new rules, but I think they will lose money in the long run.” As this example illustrates, it may take several probing questions to get to the level of detail so that the interviewer understands the problem or issue. The interviewer should not attempt to interpret the vague responses of interviewees and assume that the interpretation is correct. You have to get to a level of detail where there is no question as to what the interviewee is saying. Ask for Detail and Examples
As noted earlier, it is important to get to a level of detail where there is full understanding of the problem. Developing an acceptable proposal, or a useful feedback report, or a set of recommendations, requires considerable understanding of the client’s expectations, the work situation, or both. Often the only way to get this information is through interviews, and often you get only one shot at gathering it.
An additional advantage of asking interviewees for details and examples is that you often are expected to supply details and examples in your proposals and reports. Managers and employees routinely ask consultants for more details or ask them to give examples to support their conclusions. Being able to cite examples increases your credibility considerably. Ask Tough Questions In everyday conversation, most of us are pretty careful to avoid controversial, potentially embarrassing, emotional, or personal topics. We have learned over the years that to get along with others it is best to keep questions on a rather surface level unless the other person volunteers information that is more personal. Unlike everyday conversation, interviews often focus on controversial topics. In fact, your credibility may depend on your ability to explore sensitive areas that are of concern to the interviewee but about which no one is willing to talk publicly. If tough issues are not discussed and made public in reports and/or feedback sessions, interviewees will see your activities as evidence that nothing has changed, that the real problems are not getting discussed, and that it’s business as usual. Word will quickly get around that you are not serious about dealing with the real issues and that your report to management is likely to say that everything is fine. Don’t avoid tough issues. Doing so could seriously jeopardize your credibility. You also need to be alert to interviewees who hint at tough issues but don’t raise them directly. For example, someone might give a fairly neutral answer to a question but add that “there are other problems” or “that’s not the real problem” or “that’s what management thinks.” The interviewee is opening the door to talking about the real problem, and the interviewer should take the opportunity to probe further. Take Notes Taking notes is essential in any interview. Much too much important information is being communicated for you to trust your memory. What, then, are the most efficient ways to do this, and what should you record? A common method is to put your (prepared) questions in an interview form, with enough space under each question to summarize each response. Use a separate form for each person you interview. Using this technique ensures that you cover all the key questions in the desired sequence and that each response gets recorded, If you are conducting a large number of interviews, or there are several interviewers, using the same form for all the interviews will ensure that
Every one is asked the same questions. In addition, using a form helps you organize the data if you are going to be summarizing the interviews in a report. Now, what to record. You cannot possibly record everything mentioned during an interview and, it’s not necessary. Record only the key words or phrases that relate to the questions being asked. (This is yet another reason it is so important to know the purpose of the interview before you write up your questions.) There are two times during consulting assignments when taking good notes is especially important: (a) when interviewing prospective clients
before writing proposals or contracts and (b) when conducting interviews for the purposes of gathering data and diagnosing problems. There is no need to record verbatim what was said in either of these situations; however, you should note key expectations and opinions. We are frequently asked whether interviews should be tape recorded. There are only a few situations in which we recommend this. One problem is that interviewees may be reluctant to give honest responses if they are being recorded. A more serious problem can occur when you begin to write the summary report. If the only record of what was said is on the tapes, you will probably have to listen to all of them (and take notes). This is extremely time consuming, particularly if you conducted many interviews. For this reason, tape recording makes sense only when you are concerned with quoting what one or more people said. For example, newspaper reporters frequently record interviews to ensure that interviewees are not misquoted. People writing books record interviews as well, so that they will be able to accurately summarize or quote something that was said a year or more later when they are writing the manuscript.
INTERVIEW FORMAT
Interviewers generally follow a format much like the one summarized in Table 5.2.
Beginning the Interview Begin the interview by greeting the interviewee in a friendly manner. Introduce yourself, and show the interviewee to a seat. You will probably want to ask a question or two to establish rapport and help the interviewee feel comfortable. This strategy helps the person relax and makes the interview seem more like a friendly conversation than an interrogation. The reared a couple of approaches you can use to ensure that he atmosphere is fairly relaxed. One is to start with making small talk—that is,
Standard Interview Format
• Greet the interviewee in a friendly manner and introduce yourself.
• Ask a question or two to establish rapport.
• Explain the purpose and length of the interview.
• Describe your expectations and assure confidentiality.
• Gather needed demographic information.
• Begin gathering general information about the topic, using open-ended questions.
• Move to more specific questions.
• Ask the interviewee to evaluate the problem/focus of the interview.
• Ask the interviewee for suggestions of ways to address the issue under discussion.
• Probe for clarity.
• Check to be certain you have covered all the important questions.
• Ask a final question that allows the interviewee to bring up any issues you may have overlooked.
• Thank the interviewee for his or her time and cooperation.
Chatting about something that isn’t work related. The weather, traffic, last night’s ball game, or some significant local event or news story are among many possible topics. Another approach is to talk informally about the company. For example, you might ask how long the interviewee has worked there, where he or she worked before, and how he or she came to work there. In contrast to starting with small talk, this approach sometimes yields information of value. Whichever approach you use, make sure you maintain an informal and friendly demeanor. Try to appear relaxed and, as a signal that the initial conversation is off the record, don’t take notes. You might also want to share some observations with the interviewee, being sure, of course, not to disclose information you’re holding in confidence or that could bias the rest of the interview. Explain the Purpose and Time frame It might be useful as you get down to the actual interview to remember the acronym
PA T: purpose, agenda, and time . For example, you might want to say something like this: John, as Intoed on the phone, I wanted to go over some of the details of the project with you to make sure that I have the correct information before I put together the project proposal. I wanted to make sure that the proposal covered key objectives that you want to see accomplished. This should take about 30 minutes.
For an interview on anew performance-appraisal process, you might want to start with something like the following: As I indicated before, I’m Celeste Billings of the human resource department. I am part of a team studying the current performance-appraisal system here. We will be interviewing about 100 employees like you to get their impressions about the system as well as their suggestions of ways to improve it. I have a series of questions I’d like to ask you about the performance-appraisal system. It will take us about 45 minutes to complete the interview. I’d like you to answer as honestly as you can. I will be taking notes on what you tell me. Your responses, as well as those of the other employees, will be summarized in a report. The content of what you tell me will be summarized, but neither you nor any other employee will be identified by name. Before we start, do you have any questions about the study?
In this introduction, Celeste very briefly introduces herself, describes the study, tells the interviewee the length of the interview, encourages honesty, and notes that the final report will not identify who said what. Finally, the interviewee is encouraged to ask questions. Encouraging a free exchange of questions is a good strategy; most interviewees probably won’t know why you are interviewing them and may have concerns about the study or the interview. Answer all such questions directly and honestly.
Gathering Demographic Data Next, many interviewers clarify what unit the interviewee works in, the
unit’s major responsibilities, how long the person has worked there, and the person’s job duties. Information of this type is often helpful in interpreting interviewees’ comments. You may find, for example, that the pattern of responses of a group of employees in one part of the company is
different from the pattern of a group in another part. Demographic questions are best asked directly. Thus, Celeste might say“Could you tell me what unit you are in and about your job duties?” Another common technique is to begin by asking for general information about the topic of the interview. Celeste might ask “How does the performance-appraisal process work in your unit? What are the usual steps in the process?” Such questions are particularly helpful if practices vary across units. By asking this question, Celeste can get an idea not only about how the process works in the respondent’s area but also about how this process differs from area to area within the company. Moving Into the “Meat” of the Interview Once you have established the purpose and time frame of the interview and asked the interviewee some demographic questions, it is time to get to the meat of the interview. It’s best to start with very general, open-ended, questions. Celeste’s might go something like this: “I’d like you to think for a moment about the current performance-appraisal process. How would you evaluate it? How effective has it been?” She might then ask a more specific question: “What are the parts of the process that you think are effective?” and then another specific question: “What are the parts that you think are not effective?” After she has asked several specific questions, Celeste might ask the interviewee to evaluate the part of the performance evaluation that employees fill out (What parts does the interviewee consider useful? What parts are not useful? What does the interviewee think of the appraisal interview?) Celeste would probably also like to hear the interviewees’ suggestions about the new performance-appraisal system. Again, she might start with a general, open-ended question: “As we are redesigning a new performance-appraisal system, what are some of the things you think we should
Include?” Once again, Celeste might want to ask about specific parts of the system, such as how the forms might be improved, how the interview might be more useful, and so on. Be sure to encourage the interviewee to offer details and examples. Finishing Up After you have finished asking all your questions, or just before you run out of time, you might want to briefly summarize the key points the inter-
viewees has provided and ask whether you have accurately recorded his or her opinions. In addition to giving the interviewee a chance to correct any errors, summarizing in this way signals that you have made every effort to listen attentively and record the person’s comments accurately. Just before ending the interview, it’s a good idea to ask a final question that encourages the interviewee to mention anything he or she might have forgotten or not had a chance to mention. You might say something like
this: “Before we close this interview, I wonder if there is anything that you’d like to add, or any points we missed, that you would like to comment on,”or perhaps: “Before we finish up, is there anything you’d like me to know about you or about the topic that we haven’t talked about so far?” Be sure to give the interviewee time to think about your question as well as to answer it. Finally, thank the person for his or her willingness to participate in your study and for his or her comments. You might want to add how the information collected from the interviews will be presented (in an oral presentation, written report, etc.) and/or the next step in the study.
CUSTOMIZING INTERVIEWS
The interview format we have just outlined may not apply in every situation. When interviewing prospective clients, for example, they are likely to want to know a lot about you, putting you more in the role of the interviewee than the interviewer. Such interviews involve a lot of sharing of information. By contrast, if you are conducting an interview designed to gather information about customers’ opinions on a new product, or a new information system, you should probably say very little. As noted earlier,
the most effective interviews are those in which the questions are prepared in advance and address the specific purpose of the interview. Thus, be sure you know the purpose of your interview and design the questions to meet that purpose.
SUMMARY
Interviews are used throughout a consulting project, from the initial conversation between the consultant and the prospective client to when a project is ending. As with other data collection techniques, collecting valid and reliable data is the key to conducting interviews that provide clients with valuable information. This chapter has described some of the basic techniques required for conducting effective interviews.
KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR CONDUCTING EFFECTIVE INTERVIEWS
• Prepare the questions and the agenda beforehand.
• Conduct the interview in a quiet, private setting free from distractions.
• Face the interviewee, make occasional eye contact, and acknowledge the interviewee’s responses.
• Ask open-ended questions and probe to clarify and to encourage the interviewee to provide details and examples.
• Ask one question at a time, in a relaxed and casual manner.
• Keep the interview focused on the topic.
• Let the interviewee do the majority of the talking. In most interviews, the person you are interviewing should talk about 90% of the time.
• Ask tough questions.
• Take notes on key ideas or themes.
Preparing the Feedback/Assessment
Report: Moving the Client to Action Completing the data collection phase is a major accomplishment in a consulting project, but, as any researcher knows, data have little value unless they are analyzed and summarized in a manner that is useful to the reader. This is especially true of data collected by a consultant, as the whole purpose of data collection is to provide the client with information that will support taking action. Thus, the data you collect must be not only valid and useful but also presented so that the client can understand their implications.
The end of the data collection phase signals the beginning of the feed-
back phase, or, as it is increasingly called, the assessment or analysis phase of a project. During the assessment phase, you will analyze the findings of the research you conducted for the client and, as the term suggests, “feed back” or present these data to the client for review and assessment.
Whether the document you present is called a feedback report or an assessment report has little or no bearing on its contents or format. However, you and the client should be in agreement on the terminology. Depending on the nature of the study, a feedback report can directly influence organization wide policy, staffing and layoffs, outsourcing, production, or a host of other matters. For the report to be effective—one that will be referred to in making decisions and that will help the client take appropriate action—you need to devote serious time and attention to preparing this document. Otherwise, as too often happens, the client will skim through the report and file it away, never to look at it again. In this chapter we discuss how to prepare assessment reports that clients will appreciate receiving and that they will find helpful in making decisions concerning action to take on a project or in response to a study you
PREPARING THE FEEDBACK/ASSESSMENT REPORT
and the client have been conducting. We recommend that assessment reports be fairly brief (fewer than 10 pages), that they cover three to seven major topics, and that the findings be presented both orally and in writing. Most important, if followed carefully, the report format discussed herein will ensure that the information is useful to the client and that the report is well organized and focused.
MEETING CLIENTS’ EXPECTATIONS
Feedback reports come in all sizes and formats. They range from brief one-page summaries of major findings to documents of several hundred pages that include tables, figures, and statistical analyses. And, every once in awhile, a client does not want a written report but merely wants to hear a presentation of the consultant’s conclusions. Some reports contain only data and analyses, some include the consultant’s recommendation for actions to be taken, and some include recommendations plus a proposal from the consultant as to how she or he would implement the suggested actions. The type of report to prepare is a function of your contract with the client. The report is one of the “deliverables” identified in your initial contract, and its form and content should be agreed on during these discussions. Regardless of what your contract says, however, always check with the client just before writing the report to make sure he or she still agrees with the format you will be using. You might also want to discuss whether the client wants both a written report and oral presentation. Now, as during other phases of the project, managing the client’s expectations is paramount. Checking periodically to ensure that you and the client are on the same page is a good way to eliminate misunderstandings and surprises. This chapter does not cover all report formats but instead focuses on the most common way consultants present their findings—that is, in a fairly brief written report, covering three to seven major topics. In chapter 7 we discuss the basics of making oral presentations based on this report.
WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD REPORT?
To be considered good, or effective, a report must meet four criteria. The report must:
1. Provide information that is practical and useful to the client.
2. Be easy for the client and other managers to read and understand.
3. Be concise.
4. Support conclusions, recommendations, and plans of action with solid data.
We now discuss each of these points one at a time.
Practical and Useful
Clients hire consultants for help in addressing issues that they are often burning to answer: whether to reorganize a department; revamp a policy; or, as we discussed in chapter 3, change the way a process, such as distribution, is handled. First and foremost, a feedback report needs to focus on the issue the client has said needs to be addressed. In other words, there needs to be a clear and direct link between the data, analysis, summary statements, and recommended actions and the issue the client has identified as requiring attention. Ideally, the report should focus on a limited number of points that are
Central to the concerns of the client. Too much data or too many recommendations are overwhelming. It is better to identify a limited number of major issues.
Easy to Read and Easy to understand to be useful, the report needs to speak the language of the managers who are responsible for making decisions related to the issue the report addresses. Writing a report is not the same as writing appear for a course in a university. A report for a client is not the place to show off knowledge of business theory or to muse about philosophy. It should be written in the
Client’s language and should be free of professional jargon. Concise the typical feedback report is between 2 and 10 pages in length. Clients do not have the time or the patience to wade through reams of paper, particularly if the findings are also being presented at a meeting. Clients want reports that are concise and to the point. There are exceptions to this guideline. If a report is going to be considerably more detailed and therefore longer than the average 2 to 10 pages, this should be decided when you and the client negotiate the contract. Both of you need to understand the parameters of the project. For example, a major medical center contracted with a consulting firm to do a 1-year in-depth analysis of its operations and market opportunities and to compare the results with those of other medical centers. The resulting document consisted of two large volumes plus a30-page executive summary. In this case, given the scope of the study and the level of detail required, no one was surprised by the size of the document. Supported by Solid Data One of the reasons clients hire consultants is that they need data to support their taking or not taking action. Thus, feedback reports should be based on facts, not personal opinions. The client will want to know how you arrived at your findings and conclusions. Thus, it is critical that any conclusions be well founded. Whenever possible, support your findings with hard data (means, standard deviations, and ranges). For example, “Ninety percent of the employees think the equipment is outdated and negatively affects their productivity” is a much more powerful, fact-based statement than saying that “Many employees think the equipment is outdated and negatively affects their productivity.” Consultants are often hired to address controversial issues. Be prepared for someone to challenge your conclusions. When your findings are based on solid data, however, it is much more difficult to dispute the validity of your conclusions. Solid data are your best defense when questions arise about your findings. Although it is important to base your report on solid data, Malou Roth, founder of People First, a consulting company, shows in the “From the Experts” section for this chapter how too much data can sometimes paralyze the data reporting process. Roth notes how too much data can be as much a problem as too little data and says that finding the right balance is a key to
successful report writing. She writes about the difficulty of managing the client who wants to continue to collect data instead of organizing the data in a meaningful way that allows one to make recommended changes.
OVERVIEW
Suppose for a minute that you have conducted 1-hr interviews with 30employees, including managers, in your client’s organization. In addition, your coworker has spent 12 days reviewing company documents and records. This effort has generated a large volume of data. Summarizing the findings sounds like a daunting task, but by following a few rules, it actually will be fairly easy. Find Major Themes Your task is to separate the “vital few”—themes—from the “trivial many” that have no direct impact on the question under consideration. Usually From the Experts …Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Input to Report? by Malou Roth, President, People First I was once hired by a small but up-and-coming high-tech firm with an unusually well-staffed human resources/organizational development (HR/OD) department. The firm wanted me to conduct some management and employee training. The stated objective was to improve the skills of managers to manage their people and to help employees strengthen their skills so as to help improve efficiency and productivity overall. Previously, the company had offered very little training in these areas. The director of OD and the vice president of HR decided
that they did not want “off-the-shelf” material yet resisted the idea of interviewing a cross-section of managers and employees to assess their needs. When I tried to discuss these decisions, they viewed my comments as disagreement, not as an attempt to help them discover how to provide some customized training. Instead of talking to managers and employees to determine what training was needed, they had done a number of online surveys using generic software they had moderately adapted. The survey feedback was all over the place, with managers and employees asking for a huge range of training that would have been nearly impossible to do. There didn’t seem to be any consensus on what was a priority. These results launched more surveys to try to identify more specifically what people wanted, and, of course, this generated more results. Why all these surveys? And how was I to interpret all the data and eventually write a report that would help them determine what training programs to design and teach? It turned out that, the year before, the director of OD had purchased and installed a fairly expensive online learning system containing a wide variety of training programs. After analyzing one of the early surveys, the director was very dismayed to learn that employees did not like the online solution. They wanted classroom training with a facilitator/instructor, colleagues, and donuts. In an effort to avoid another misstep, the director of OD and the vice president of HR were being overly cautious about how to determine what training to offer. The repeated surveys gleaned more information than they needed and prompted them to become virtually paralyzed about how to proceed. They seemed unable to decide where to start and resisted my suggestions to select some of the frequently heard needs from the survey results and just get started. Writing a report from the myriad of data was virtually impossible. The director sometimes seemed like a kid in a candy store; he had generated so much information, he couldn’t figure out what to select, and he seemed overly anxious about making a mistake and choosing the wrong workshop to start the training, so he just kept asking for everything, making summary data reports nearly impossible to achieve. I advised them to talk to some of the senior managers, from whom they needed support and money for any initiatives. I suggested they present an overview report of the survey results to show that employees and managers seemed open to a wide selection of topics for training. We would then ask the senior managers which competencies they felt were most in need of improvement. This process would make report writing and summary of the data much easier and many
times more useful. In addition, it would allow them to share the decision making with the senior management and also get their support for the training. The moral of this story is that, in order to determine what the needs and priorities are and write a good report, you have to have start with a data collection method that collects just the right data and nothing more! the vital few become obvious as you review the data. Employees may mention a concern or voice a complaint again and again in interviews or in responses on a questionnaire. Consultants frequently hear, for example, about the lack of integration of a company’s computer system, equipment that frequently fails, bosses who don’t communicate clearly, and product lines that have had dramatic downturns in sales. When there are consistent patterns of responses over many interviews or questionnaires, they become vital instead of trivial findings. The feedback report should focus on a few—probably no more than seven—issues. Taking action to address a few major concerns will move the organization ahead considerably faster and more easily than spending a lot of time dealing with numerous minor complaints. Identify Relevant Issues the issues or ideas outlined in the report should provide the answers, or guidelines for answering, the problem or executing the project the client has said needs addressing. You may uncover a variety of interesting issues and problems while collecting the data. However, the report should focus only on those issues that directly affect the concerns mentioned in your contract. Issues that do not influence the topic at hand can be handled in another document. Focus on “Action” Issues Given the opportunity to vent their concerns and frustrations about their work lives, interview subjects often talk about matters that are far removed from the issue the client needs addressing. Issues such as the economy or outsourcing may be of major concern to employees but of little or no relevance to the issue under consideration with the client. What’s more, the client may not be able to do much or any thing about the problem unrelated to the project. The client can change the performance management system, or
implement better quality control, or add a second shift. However, the client cannot change the national economy and, more important, the client did not hire you to address individuals’ personal problems.
Emphasize Issues That Can Be Handled Quickly Clients want to see results. They, their staff, and their superiors are likely to be willing to devote more energy and commitment to projects that will produce quick, visible outcomes. Results are energizing. Projects that go on forever without producing positive outcomes are doomed to die. Focus on Issues That People Agree Need Attention People are rarely motivated to work on projects about which they are not excited, or to solve problems or revamp processes they don’t think merit attention. If there is little energy to work on an issue, regardless of how important you perceive it to be, not much is likely to happen. It is always best to concentrate on issues that people are concerned about and agree need serious attention (as shown by your data).
SUMMARIZING THE DATA
Let’s go back to the example used earlier. You have interviewed 20 people for 1 hr each, which obviously could produce a lot of information. How do you convert this volume of data into a concise and usable summary? The first step is to begin identifying the major themes or issues. To begin, go through the notes you took during the interviews (and/or the notes other people took), one at a time, and record the major issues that were mentioned. Some people keep a tally, using separate sheets of paper for each issue. By the time you have finished reviewing the final interview, you will have a list of the major issues, the number of people who raised each issue, and notes on each person’s comments. Using these notes, you can easily write a report summarizing the major issues that need addressing, supported by anonymous quotes from the data. Some software programs allow data to be sorted on the basis of keywords. If the interviews were transcribed so they can be read on a computer, you will be able to do a quick sort of the data based on keywords/issues. As with the system described earlier, the comments so generated can then serve as a basic outline for the report. Writing the report is even easier if you conducted surveys, such as employee or customer satisfaction questionnaires. If respondents answered a multiple-choice survey, for example, a computer-generated scoring program can do much of the work of summarizing the data. Depending on the sophistication of your computer skills (and the time you or your staff have t do this), you may also enter the data and analyze it yourself. In addition to overall scores, you probably will want to analyze mean scores for each question as well as by unit, customer group, or other segments (e.g., functional area, gender, age, department, etc.). You may also want to analyze the range of responses and standard deviations for individual questions, which tells you how much dispersion (difference) there is among respondents. If the standard deviation is large, there was what is known as heterogeneity in respondents’ answers—that is, not a lot of agreement. If the standard deviation is small, then agreement was more widespread. Standard deviations can indicate widespread support for a change in an organization.
Some scoring programs can convert raw data directly into a narrative format. These are especially popular among consultants who specialize in survey research. Assuming that you are analyzing the data yourself, instead of relying on a computer program, the first step in analyzing survey data is to identify
which items generated the highest scores and which generated the lowest. For example, a survey conducted for a restaurant might indicate that customers were very satisfied with the quality of the food but very dissatisfied with the length of time it takes to get served. In this case, the feedback report
would focus on both the areas that the restaurant is handling well—namely, food quality—and those that need improvement—the time required to provide service. More detailed analysis, such as the mean scores for each question, or even for each customer, could be included in an appendix. We recommend following a similar procedure to summarize data generated from organization records. For example, a consultant who was hired to look at “significant problems” in a manufacturing facility found, after examining company records, that a high percentage of the company’s products were rejected at final inspection, that there were no company wide selection criteria used to choose new hires, that neither new hires nor supervisors received any training, and that the annual rate of turnover among line personnel was a dismal 65%. These issues appeared to be interrelated and to have a direct impact on the significant problems of concern to the client. The consultant documented these problems in a report and assisted the manufacturing group in discovering the causes of the problems and developing corrective actions. In another case, a medical supply company hired a marketing consultant to study its declining sales. The consultant began the analysis by examining the company’s sales records, particularly sales by market segment. Much to everyone’s surprise, the data revealed that sales to small hospitals had been increasing—at about 15% each year. However, sales to large facilities had been dropping—at an annual rate of about 5%. The consultant’s report documented the sales trends by market segmented, in the next phase of the project, helped management design another study, this time to focus on the causes of the decline in the large-systems market. In all of the examples just cited, the consultant analyzed and summarized the data and identified a few major issues that, if resolved, would move the company forward. These are also good examples of how consultants can contribute to the success of their clients’ companies.
CONTENT OF A REPORT
The common denominator among written reports is that they all include a data summary and analysis. As we mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, where they differ is in whether they contain recommendations and, if they do, whether they also include a plan for implementation. Reports Containing Data Summaries Only It is not uncommon for a consultant to be hired simply to conduct a study and write up the results. For example, consultants are frequently hired to administer employee job satisfaction surveys, in which case the deliverable may be simply a short report on the survey results, broken down by plant location and work unit. The hiring organization may well have extensive resources and capabilities and prefer to do the rest of the work from within, including analyzing the results, preparing a plan of action, and implementing changes.
For strategic reasons, some consultants prefer not to provide recommendations. Included in this group are consultants who subscribe to the action research model. A basic assumption of this model is that if clients are involved in analyzing data and determining actions to be taken, they will be more committed to carrying out those actions than if the consultant merely presents them with recommendations and action plans. Regardless of the reason that the client and consultant have contracted for a relatively bare-bones report, the assumption is that the client will assume responsibility for taking any and all action once the data have been collected. Reports Containing Recommendations Reports containing recommendations are far more common than those that do not contain them. Most clients view consultants as experts in particular areas and expect any consultant they hire to recommend actions based on this expertise. After all, they would argue, isn’t that what consultants are supposed to do? Why hire one if you’re not getting expert advice about what actions to take? Moreover, the client is never under any obligation to accept or to implement the consultant’s recommendations, and many organizations do not. One of the reasons for hiring a consultant is that they provide an objective, unbiased, and expert perspective on a problem. With this recommendations-included format, you offer such a perspective. Reports Containing Implementation Plans Many major consulting firms routinely prepare reports that contain not only data summaries and recommendations for action but also a proposal on how the consultant or consultant’s firm would implement the recommendations. These proposals usually include specific action steps, timelines, and the costs to implement the action.
Consultants are generally keen to prepare implementation plans for clients. For most large projects, the real money is in the implementing phase, not in conducting the research and doing assessments. In fact, some firms will do brief assessments for no charge in the hope that the firm will be awarded the contract for implementation. There are certain advantages to preparing this type of report; in particular, providing an implementation plan enables a project to move quickly from the assessment phase to action. If the client agrees with the analysis and recommendations, going ahead and taking action is then usually relatively easy. When clients ask for an implementation plan or a proposal, it usually means they are serious about acting on the consultant’s findings. Deciding what to include which of the three report formats to use should depend on what the client wants or expects you to include in the report, which is often discussed in the context of the contract, and what will best serve the client’s interests. If
the client has no expertise in the area in question; it is often a good idea to suggest that you include recommendations, and perhaps a plan for implementing them. In any case, you and the client need to reach an agreement on what to include in the report during the contract phase of the project. This will avoid any misunderstanding. For example, if the client expects recommendations but you don’t include them, the client is likely to think that you did not deliver on what you promised. Likewise, if the client asks you to add sections to the report that you didn’t expect to write, you are likely to feel that you have had to devote more time and attention to the report than you budgeted.
REPORT FORMATS
Although the format of the report will vary depending on your purpose, audience, and style, a widely used format has evolved. This is the structure we discuss here. You should feel free to adapt this structure to meet your project needs. Cover Page Feedback reports usually contain a cover page giving the title, the author, and the date. (See Appendix for an example.) Alternatively, the first page of text may be in memorandum format and give the name of the person to whom the report is directed (the client), who the report is from (the consultant), the date, and the subject.
Executive Summary
Every report should begin with an executive summary that highlights in bullet points the main findings of the study. Unfortunately, many clients never read past this page. Thus, you should treat this as a very important part of the report. Purpose of Study Many people who read your report won’t remember why you conducted the study or why you were hired; others may never have heard of the study. This is the place to state the reason the study was undertaken. You should also include a statement about the benefits the client can expect from addressing the issue. Method although a feedback report is not like a research article published in an academic journal, it still needs to include a brief description of how the study was conducted. For example, if the consultant conducted interviews, it is important to note the following: how long they lasted (number of minutes or hours), whether they were face-to-face interviews or done by telephone, how many people were in the sample, who was interviewed (categories of people, not names), how they were selected, the dates of the interviews, and a brief summary of the questions that were asked. In addition to these details, you should thank interviewees and company officials for their cooperation and willingness to share information. Treatment of Data This section provides a roadmap to the rest of the report. For example, are all the data presented, or just the major results? If the latter, on what basis were these results selected? How will the data be reported (e.g., means, standard deviations, ranges)? Presentation of Results this is the meat of the report. Most consultants use one of four formats to organize and present their results. Focus only on the problems you uncovered, with data to back them up. This format may be used to address specific issues, such as
what is wrong with a company’s system for quality control? Thus, the report would outline the six problems the consultant thinks are wrong with the process for quality control. Present positive findings first, followed by a section on areas needing improvement. This format is especially useful when a fair
amount of the findings reflect badly on a unit within the company. In particular, the consultant may be concerned about demoralizing the client and about giving the impression that nothing positive is occurring in the unit under study. Most units have elements that work well. Starting the results section by commenting on these elements may make it easier for management to take corrective action on the area needing improvement. This format is also useful for summarizing information obtained through an audit of a department or division, as opposed to a study of a few specific issues. Frame the discussion of findings around issues/questions the client has identified as needing to be addressed. This format is especially effective if the client wants specific questions answered. In a marketing study, for example, the client may want to learn about its competition. Findings may shed light on such specific issues as the advantages of competitors’ products, how the client’s products compare with those of its competitors, and so forth. In this case, the data would be organized around these key questions. Devise a list of categories relevant to the project (e.g., leadership, communication, interpersonal relationships, rewards) and summarize findings accordingly. This format is used most often when the client or consultant is looking at the various pieces that make up a system, as in a management or quality audit. For example, the consultant might audit the organization using the criteria to evaluate companies being considered for the National Quality (Balding) Award. For each item, the consultant would discuss the scores for the unit being studied. If the client has asked you to recommend an action plan, these recommendations should go in the next section. If you are not providing recommendations, then this is the final section of the assessment. Recommendations As discussed earlier, some reports contain a recommended plan of action, and some do not. The types of recommendations consultants make are practically limitless, from advising organizations to start a quality-improvement program to suggesting the company hire three more people in sales or marketing. Regardless of the recommendations, they should be as specific as possible and as closely as possible address the problem or issue the client has asked you to address. You may also want to include a plan for implementing the recommendations. For example, if a company were having a problem with high turnover among middle managers, you might suggest that you could help design and facilitate a 3-day retreat for the company’s senior-level executives to devise a strategy to address this problem. In addition, you might propose that you assist in the design of a follow-up program, to ensure that action is taken after the retreat is over. Included in the report would be a tentative timetable, a budget, and a summary of the benefits to be expected from these actions.
Summary
Lengthy reports often end with a summary, in which the consultant reviews the major findings of the study. Many consulting firms bind their reports. The firm’s logo is often on the cover, as well as on the first and last pages. Examples of complete reports are presented at the end of this chapter (see Appendix).
HANDLING PRICKLY SITUATIONS
On occasion, difficult situations arise during the data collection phase of a project. You should definitely give serious thought to whether to discuss these situations in the feedback report. Controversial Issues deciding how much to include in the report about a controversial situation, such as a conflict between subordinates and their superiors or between groups of employees, is not always easy. As a general rule of thumb, controversial issues and situations should be discussed only if they relate directly to the primary problem or issue at hand. In fact, you may have been brought in, at least in part, because you could provide a fresh perspective on this difficult situation. Avoiding touchy issues altogether will
seriously undermine your credibility. Irrelevant But Critical Issues At some time, you are likely to learn about an issue that may be of major consequence to the organization but irrelevant to your inquiry. If the over all issue is important, you should inform the appropriate persons via memo or by e-mail. Such information should not generally be included in the report. Naming Names During interviews, respondents often refer to individuals by name: “John always sends the requests to Purchasing, which causes another delay” or “Joan’s group has a lot of problems keeping up with the requests.” Most reports focus on system-level analysis—that is, on such matters as how to improve the system for processing new orders or for distributing product—not on specific individuals. In other words, the focus of the report should generally be on the structure or flow of a system, not on people. The obvious exception is when the actions of specific people or groups are the subject of the study or have a major impact on the issue at hand. In this case, naming names is not only appropriate but also necessary.
Name-Calling, Gossip, and Accusations Much as naming names often diverts attention from the real problems at hand, repeating gossip or accusing individuals of wrongdoing deflects attention from the issues that need to be addressed. Such behavior does not contribute to clarifying issues or solving problems, instead, it usually interferes with their resolution. In some cases, however, you may be able to
gain insight into a problem by analyzing how, and why, gossiping or similar behavior is occurring. In this chapter we have outlined a step-by-step process to help both the novice and seasoned consultant prepare feedback/assessment reports that help move clients to action. In chapter 7 we discuss how the information in a feedback/assessment report can be presented at a meeting.
KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR WRITING EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT REPORTS
• Before writing the report, check with the client to determine the appropriate format, as well as how the report should be presented.
• Keep feedback reports brief—fewer than 10 pages—and focus only on the 3 to 7 issues of most concern to the client.
• Begin with an executive summary—remember, many clients will read nothing else!
• Support conclusions and recommendations with solid data.
• Strive to make the report easy to read and to understand. Avoid professional or consultant jargon.
• Emphasize actions that can be implemented quickly and easily.
• Focuson system wide issues, never on pointing fingersat individuals.
Appendix
Sample Feedback Report
To:
Board of Directors and Staff Central Region Service Center
Date:
July 8, 2006
From:
Brayden Gregory, Founder, Do The Right Thing Consulting Co.
Subject:
SUMMARY OF INTERVIEW DATA
Executive Summary: Based on Interviews on the Operations of the Service Center
Service Center has notable strengths, including employee pride, a respected staff, a cooperative workforce, and excellent facilities.
Areas Needing Improvement
• Direction of center
• Decision making
• Communications
• Hiring process
•Compensation system
• Performance-appraisal system
Recommendations
• Develop a strategic planning process.
• Revitalize management council.
• Publish a monthly newsletter and have all-staff meetings every 3 months.
• Develop a hiring manual.
• Review job classifications.
• Develop guidelines for procedures for annual performance assessments.
Purpose of the Study
Over the past 2 years, the Central Region Service Center has experienced a series of changes, including expansion of its staff and service and reorganization of the service-delivery system. Now that the reorganization has been completed, the Board of Directors thought it was an opportune time to review the operations of the center, with particular reference to the general impression of the staff concerning the recent reorganization, and to identify any issues that have been left unresolved. With that goal in mind, the Board of Directors contracted the services of Do the Right Thing to interview the staff of the center and to report the findings on these interviews to the board and to the staff of the center. The report would then be used as a basis for instituting action designed at correcting any outstanding issues.
Method All full-time and part-time employees of the Central Region Service Center were interviewed individually (50 interviews). Although many questions were open-ended, we primarily conducted structured interviews, which enabled us to better compare and contrast responses. These interviews took place on May 5 and 6 at the administrative offices. Each interview was conducted face to face and lasted approximately 1 hr. Respondents were asked to respond to each question on a 1–5 scale, with 5
Being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree.
In addition to the questions to which responses were to be given on a 1–5 scale, each employee was asked a series of open-ended questions, including “What things are working well on your job? What things are causing problems on the job? What do you need to be more effective? What is your evaluation of the recent reorganization? What issues or problems have remained unresolved since the reorganization?” The employees were asked for their honest opinions and were told that their names would not be used in the report. They were also told that all data summaries would be in aggregate form and that any quotes would not be attributed to individuals. The executive director and the support staff were extremely cooperative in arranging the interviews. The staff, with few exceptions, was very open and helpful in sharing their observations with the interviewers. Treatment of the Inter view Data
Data obtained from the interviews were grouped and summarized on the basis of respondents’ comments on the reported strengths of the center and the areas they thought needed improvement. Patterns in responses were noted, based on means, standards, and ranges for each question. Given the
small sample size, we did not use standard deviations (general similarities or differences in responses).
The purpose of the study was to review the general operations of the center. Therefore, we have summarized only those strengths or problems that several staff members mentioned. We have not added our own comments, and, as the interviewees were promised, we do not identify anyone
who was interviewed by name? The reported strengths of the center are presented first, followed by the
Areas identified as needing improvement. Strengths of the Center the employees reported that the center had several notable strengths.
Summarized below are the strengths mentioned in our interviews.
1. Eighty-five percent of the respondents noted that the center is a valuable asset to the central region and performs a valuable service to its clients. Ninety-three percent are proud to be identified with the center. Eighty-seven percent also think that the people of the central region, both clients and others, have a high respect for the service the center provides.
2. Workers respect the center’s staff; 90% strongly agreed with this statement. Eighty-eight percent of the employees thought the staff was competent, well trained, and professional. Eighty-seven percent indicated that they would not hesitate to recommend that a client come to the center, because they thought the client would receive excellent service.
3. In general, the staff like working at the center. Eighty-nine percent reported that the center is a good place to work. Some specific comments were that they were proud to work at the center, staff members were allowed the freedom to practice their profession, there is a minimum of bureaucratic interference with the delivery of services, that one’s ability and skills are respected, and that there is a professional climate at the center.
4. There is good cooperation among the professional staff, among the support staff, and between the support staff and professional staff (85%, 86%, and 88% responded agree or strongly agree, respectively). There were many comments to the effect that “we work as a team here,” “people are really supportive of each other,” and “you always can turn to some one here for help if you have a problem.”
5. Ninety-one percent think the physical facilities are ample and allow staff to perform their jobs effectively. The staff is overwhelmingly pleased (90% agree) with the new administrative offices.
6. Staff view the growth of the center quite positively, since the center now provides many more services for the residents of the central region (88% agree). The staff was very complimentary of the leadership of the center for advocating and obtaining the increased services (86% agree).
7. The staff made generally positive comments about the recent restructuring of the center (88%). Although it was disruptive to certain units, and there was often inadequate communication about the changes, the staff generally thinks the restructuring was necessary because of the center’s increased service responsibilities. The staff perceives the new structure as accomplishing what it was designed to
do—that is, enable the center to deliver basic services more effectively (90% agree).
Areas Needing Improvement
Below is a summary of the issues the staff mentioned as needing improvement. The issues listed here were raised in one form or another by staff members, and among these respondents, the levels of dissatisfaction were consistently high. These areas clearly warrant further attention. The next step is to explore these problems further and, subsequently, to devise actions to correct these difficulties.
1. There was some confusion about the direction the center is taking. What services are going to be expanded? What services are going to be added? What services will be discontinued? Eighty-four percent of the staff noted the need fora strategic plan for the center so that staff can better understand the new direction the center is headed and everyone will know what is expected of them. One hundred percent of the respondents making this recommendation thought that the entire staff should have input into the plan as a way to heighten awareness of it and commitment.
2. Eighty-six percent of the employees felt that the general staff at the center have been losing decision-making power over the last year or so. Eighty-five percent noted that there was less “shared decision making” than before the reorganization. Ninety percent said that it is not clear who is making policy decisions and whether any staff input is elicited before making decisions. Related to the above point, 85% of the staff noted that the Management Council has had less of a role in the overall operations of the Center over the last year. In unstructured interviews, many staff members (50%) noted that the Management Council had seemed to work well in the past as a means for providing input from each of the programs as well as for communicating information to staff in the various programs.
3. Eighty-five percent of the staff suggested that better mechanisms of communication should be developed so that the staff can be kept current on changes in policies and responsibilities. In the unstructured interviews, several people (n= 25) cited the shifting of intake responsibilities that occurred in January, which was not announced to the general staff, causing considerable confusion. Data from the unstructured interviews indicate a failure to communicate to other programs about decisions, even when these decisions impact the other programs (30 people with unprompted comments).Each program seems to be focused inward, and sometimes people do not realize that changes in their program may affect others.
4. Ninety-two percent of the respondents reported that there has not been any consistency lately in the staff’s involvement and input into hiring. Sometimes staff is involved, and sometimes they are not. These 92% of the respondents thought that having staff involved in the hiring of employees would lead to better hiring decisions.
5. There was general and serious concern about compensation (89% of respondents). Most employees (89%) felt that, in general, the pay at the center was “fairly competitive” with that in other agencies. However, several employees (32%) noted, “Pay is a mystery around here.” Although salaries are not public, there is a general perception that there are inconsistencies in salaries and fringe benefits. For example, it is generally believed that all of the seven program directors are paid according to a different pay scale even though they have approximately the same workload and duties (40 volunteered this comment in an interview). Likewise, there is the perception that there are other salary discrepancies (35 comments in this regard).Some staff expressed concern that employees do not understand how salaries and raises are determined; there are inconsistencies in pay for similar jobs, no recognition for length of service or experience, no increase in pay for increases in job responsibilities, and no links between pay and performance. Some felt that salaries and raises are arbitrary and that some employees are underpaid.
6. Sixty-five percent of the employees noted that they understood that every employee was supposed to have an annual performance appraisal. However, this policy is not being applied consistently across units. Some staff has annual appraisals, while others claim not to have had one in 3 years. A related concern was what the appraisal is used for. Is it the basis for annual raises? If so, what happens if someone hasn’t received an appraisal? (The feedback report could end at this point. You would present the findings and then help the client explore these issues further, as well as assist the client in deciding what actions to take to correct the problems. Alternatively, you could make recommendations about how to correct the problems and focus the discussion in the feedback meeting on whether to accept the recommendations and, if so, how to implement them. If the client expects you to make recommendations, the report might continue as follows.)
Recommendations
As noted above, the staff has generally positive feelings about the center and its leadership and is pleased with the center’s services and contribution to the community. Most view the recent reorganization positively and consider it a success. The interviews also uncovered several issues of concern, however, many of which are issues that were not resolved during the reorganization. Although these issues are not of the magnitude as to be detrimental to the center in the short term, they need to be addressed as soon as possible. To address these concerns, the following actions are recommended. They are recommended in the order in which they are discussed above.
1. Develop a 5-year strategic plan. It is further recommended that all center staff be involved in developing this plan. One model that has been demonstrated to be effective is to hold a 2-day off-site retreat in which the directors and all staff participate. This would generate the key information for the plan. On the basis of this information, a committee would then draft the plan, which would be presented to the entire group for revision and approval. This approach would create the sense of there being a common direction fairly quickly. It would also maximize staff input and commitment to the plan’s goals and strategies.
2. Revitalize the Management Council and give it the authority to take an active role in decision making that affects the center. The managers on the council would be expected to seek input from their direct reports and to keep them informed about the council’s deliberations and decisions.
3. Make an effort to increase communication. If a decision affects all the staff, then memos should be sent to all employees. In addition, a monthly newsletter should be sent to all staff and interested parties that includes, among other information, news about changes in any of the programs. Finally, all-staff meetings should be held every 3 months to update the staff on changes and, more important, to provide a mechanism for answering staff questions.
4. The Management Council should develop a manual on the policies and procedures for hiring staff.
Included should be a process to ensure staff involvement and input.
5. A review should be conducted of the job classifications and salaries for all job positions in the center.
The goal of this review would be to establish a classification and compensation system that equates salary fairly with responsibility and that provides a basis for the job classification and compensation system that will be used throughout the center.
6. The Management Council should establish guidelines and procedures for annual performance appraisals. It is essential that these procedures be applied consistently throughout the center. Among the issues to be decided is whether there should be a merit pay system. In either event, appropriate forms need to be developed. (The report could end here. However, if you wish to be involved in implementing the recommendations, then a brief description of how you propose to help, as well as your fee for providing that service, could follow each of the recommendations. Alternatively, this information could be in a separate section following the recommendations. In either case, you and the client will need to sign a new contract to implement the recommendations.)
7 Presenting the Findings: Moving From Diagnosis to Commitment to Action Some consultants think that once the feedback report is completed, they have completed their work—that is, that the report contains the full spectrum of their insights and wisdom. The reality is that a feedback report has no value unless the client understands the implications of the findings and takes action based on the consultant’s research. We believe that although feedback reports are very important, the consultant’s job certainly should not stop there. The consultant has an obligation to ensure that the client not only understands what data were collected, what analyses were performed, and how these address the question the client wants answered but also whether and, equally important, what additional data or analyses are needed to address the client’s questions or problems. Among just a few of the issues the client might want to address further are the trends the data reveal concerning the organization’s financial status or how to reverse high employee turnover. The client may also ask the consultant to recommend actions the client organization should take in response to the study’s findings. Finally, the client may want the consultant to examine issues such as the costs and long-term effects of taking these actions. An effective consultant is one who not only summarizes findings but also assists clients in taking action. A report that sits on a shelf or in someone’s file cabinet is totally useless. In contrast, a report that prompts action adds value to the organization and is a cornerstone to building a better run, more efficient organization. One of the distinguishing characteristics between consultants whose reports sit in file cabinets and those who lead clients to implement
PRESENTING THE FINDINGS
Changes (and hire these consultants for the implementation stage of a project) is how these consultants deliver their research findings. Some simply mail in their reports to the client along with their bill—and, not surprisingly, many of these reports end up in file drawers gathering dust. A far more effective approach is to present the findings in a face-to-face presentation, either for just your contact at the organization or for others there as well. Larry Anders, from Anders & Associates, and Sherry Camden-Anders, from Alliant International University, discusses in the “From the Experts …” section for this chapter the importance of orally presenting study findings. For Camden and Camden-Anders, an oral presentation of study findings creates a collaborative environment that encourages a commitment to action. They claim that oral presentations provide yet another opportunity to get the client on board with implementing any recommended changes. In this chapter we discuss many of the issues to be considered in making such presentations. From the Experts …Presenting the Findings by Larry Anders, Anders & Associates, and Sherry Camden-Anders, Alliant International University As organization development (OD) consultants, we generally contract to use the action research process of (1) gathering data, (2) analyzing the data, and (3) providing a feedback presentation for those from whom the data were collected. When the client accepts this approach, it is understood that we will present our report orally. The purpose of presenting the data orally is that it provides a collaborative environment for the clients to self-diagnose and commit to action. Following this presentation, we revise the notes we took during the meeting and summarize the recommendations and findings in a written report. As OD practitioners, we use data as a means to uncover issues, and the report, while maintaining anonymity, is intended to energize clients around the data and purposefully engage them in developing recommendations and action plans. If during contract discussions the client indicates that we are expected to supply a written report, we write a brief and concise summary of our findings before we present them orally. However, we always review the report in a face-to-face meeting with the client and collaboratively decide the best method for delivering the results to the employees who contributed to the data gathering process. Whether oral or written, our reports are easy to understand and should encourage people in the organization to say “This is what we are saying about ourselves, we believe the data represent reality, and we want to do something to change or improve the current situation.”
OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENTATION
Whether the presentation is for a single person or a group of 200, the over all goals are pretty much the same. The members of the audience want to answer several questions:
• Why was the study conducted? What was the purpose of the assignment? What did the client want to find out? Why was it important to obtain this information?
• How were the data collected: Who was interviewed? Who was surveyed? What records were reviewed?
• How were the data analyzed?
• What were the major findings? Why are these findings important?
However, presentations offer an opportunity to do far more than just summarize the data. After all, most clients are perfectly capable of reading the report to get that information. Rather, an on-site presentation gives you an opportunity to ensure not only that the client understands the findings and is satisfied with the process that was used to gather the data but also that the client understands the benefits that will accrue to the company (or unit) if the recommended actions are implemented.
MAKING EFFECTIVE PRESENTATIONS
As with the other elements in a consulting project, making a successful presentation is not difficult so long as you follow a few time-honored recommendations. Table 7.1 divides the process in to six basic steps.
Six Steps for Making Effective Presentations
1. Ask the client or group whether the feedback report is clear.
2. Ask whether any data are missing.
3. Ask the client or group members to describe any trends they see emerging from the data. Discuss these trends in some detail.
4. Ask what actions the client or group members envision occurring in response to the data.
5. Discuss the logic and reasoning behind the actions you have recommended.
6. Promote the value of, and assist the client in, taking action.
Ask the client or group whether the feedback report is clear. It is always a good idea at the beginning of a consultant–client presentation to clarify whether the client and other people at the meeting understand the goal of the research you were brought in to do and the over all research findings. Sometimes this requires some fairly serious probing. You will want to avoid embarking on further discussion until everyone is on the same page about why you were hired and the questions, as you understood them that you addressed.
2. Ask whether any data are missing. Should other questions have been asked and answered? Should other sources of data been pursued? Should individuals have been interviewed who were overlooked? Alternatively, should data have been looked at from another perspective—for example, sales by market segment rather than by geographical region? What, if any, further analysis would clarify the issues under discussion?
3. Ask the client or group members if they see any trends emerging from the data. As people mention trends, be sure to discuss them in some detail. Discussion is often lively as the group begins to take ownership of the data and identify actions to be taken.
4. Ask what actions the client or group members envision occurring in response to the data. On the basis of the discussion thus far and, perhaps, conclusions the meeting participants reached from reading the feedback report, what actions should the organization take to address its problem/challenge? These recommendations should be listed and discussed.
5. Discuss the logic and reasoning behind the actions you recommended. Each recommendation should be fully discussed, including the value and the potential drawbacks of taking each action. Group members should be encouraged to suggest other ways to approach the issue under discussion.
6. Promote the value of, and assist the client in, taking action. Before wrapping up the meeting, ask the participants whether they feel comfortable accepting the recommendations (either yours or those generated by the group) and implementing the agreed-on actions. Sometimes clients suggest moving ahead with minor changes. At other times, the group accepts some of the recommendations and decides to hold decision on others pending further study. Finally, sometimes the group is not ready to accept any of the recommendations. In this case, you will probably want to explore why the group is so reluctant to follow through and how to overcome this resistance. If you follow the agenda outlined here, lively, valuable discussion and debate should ensue. Covering these six points as thoroughly as necessary
may even require several meetings and getting together with several groups from within the client organization. At the very least, by following
this agenda you can be assured that the client will develop a good grasp not only of the problem(s) facing the organization but also of possible solutions. Equally important, this process builds ownership and commitment to the actions that will take place. In the next section you will read a case study involving a shoe manufacturer that we introduced in chapter 4. All the events actually happened; all
that have been changed are the names of the manufacturer and the consulting company. After reading the case and the discussion, you should have a much better understanding of the dynamics of feedback meetings. Note in particular the strategy the consultant and the contact at the client organization used to present the research findings and, once the findings were accepted, to move the company to action.
CASE STUDY
Extra Income or Needless Work? In chapter4, we briefly discussed the case of Extra Comfort Shoes. Our focus in that chapter was in deciding how to collect the necessary information that would answer the client’s questions on whether to sell the company’s products on the Internet. In this chapter, we assume that the data have been collected and that the question now is how to present the data to the client in a way that will move the client to action. To refresh your memory, we begin with a review of the company and the consultant’s assignment.
Extra Comfort Shoes, as its name suggests, specializes in very comfortable footwear. Established in 1972, the company has a solid market of loyal customers. Extra Comfort’s major retail outlets have been major department stores in the United States and a declining number of independent shoe stores. The explosion in the use of the Internet as a forum for retailers to sell merchandise has led top management at Extra Comfort to consider opening a virtual shoe store. With the approval of the executive team, the vice president of marketing and sales has engaged the services of a consulting firm called Consulting Experts, which specializes in marketing and selling on the Web. Among the specific questions Extra Comfort wants answered are the following: What are the long-term prospects for companies selling on the Internet? What advantages would there be for Extra Comfort if it moved into this market? What costs would Extra Cost incur if it sold its shoes over the Internet? What would its 5-year sales and profit numbers look like? What does the consulting firm recommend Extra Comfort do concerning this issue?
Consulting Experts conducted a complete analysis of Extra Comfort’s current and potential customers, its competitors, the costs and structure needed to set up an Internet-based retail division, and sales projections if it were to do so. In preparing its diagnosis and analysis, Consulting Experts followed closely the principles presented in chapter 4. Also as recommended, many internal stakeholders were involved in conducting the research and analysis, bearing in mind that these folks would be significantly involved if the company moved to Web-based retail. Having answered Extra Comfort’s questions, Consulting Experts wrote a report using the format outlined in chapter 6. Given the scope of the project, the report consisted of two parts. The first part contained a summary of the consultants’ findings and recommendations. The second part (actually a separate document) contained a more detailed analysis of the data on which the conclusions were based. The question the consultants faced at this juncture was how to present the research findings most effectively. They rejected immediately the possibility of simply mailing the client the report. They also rejectedthe idea of dropping off the report at Extra Comfort’s office. Both options were clearly poor consulting practices. Either method would not have accomplished the consultants’ primary objectives—that is, assisting the client in understanding the data, answering the client’s questions or concerns, finding out whether further data collection or analyses would be helpful, and assisting the client in taking action. So, what did the consultants do instead? First, they realized that if Extra Comfort were going to implement Consulting Experts’ recommendations,
Several levels of review would be needed. Working with their primary client—the vice president of sales and marketing—the consultants decided to present their data in a series of meetings at Extra Comfort’s headquarters. At the first meeting, the consultants presented the report, clearly labeled “draft,” to the vice president of sales and marketing and two of her key associates. This meeting took almost a full day. The goal was to systematically go through what the consulting firm had done, what data had been collected, why they were collected, and how they were presented in the report. Throughout the meeting, the firm received feedback on the client’s reaction to the work, including additional information that needed to be collected, issues or problems the client saw as highlighted in the data, and how the conclusions could be presented more effectively. The consultants did not present their recommendations at this meeting; they had decided in advance that the focus at this point would be on ensuring that the consultants had collected all the information the client thought was necessary to decide whether to open a virtual store. After the first meeting, the consultants followed up on the client’s suggestion and collected additional information. After revising their written report, they then presented their major findings to about 20 members of the marketing and sales staff in a half-day session. The agenda for this meeting followed the agenda suggested at the beginning of this chapter.
First, the consultants described the purpose of their study. Second, they talked about how the data were collected. Third, they reviewed the major findings. Fourth and finally, they recommended that Extra Comfort open an Internet store and the reasons they had reached that decision. Throughout this meeting, the consultants solicited questions and suggestions from the 20 members of the group.
A few days later, several key people in the marketing and sales department met to review the consultants’ report again. This time, the consultants were not present. Those in attendance voted to endorse the decision to set up an Internet retail store, taking into account some of the changes that the consultants had recommended. Next, a list of the recommendations of the marketing and sales group,
together with the consultants’ report, was distributed to officers and units in the company that would potentially be affected by the creation of an online store. Two of these units expressed concerns and discussed these in meetings with the marketing people. The consultants were present at these
meetings to answer questions. Finally, the recommendations were presented to Extra Comfort’s executive team. The company’s marketing and salespeople did most of the talking, while the consultants served more as resources when questions arose. The executive team supported the recommendations with minor changes. The CEO then presented the recommendations to the board of directors, which approved the plan as outlined. The recommendations were implemented, and Extra Comfort now has a very successful online store Implications although this case study provides only a brief snapshot of the process by which the consultants presented their findings to Extra Comfort, it illustrates the importance of having a well-designed strategy for making presentations. Had the consultants just handed the report to the vice president, who knows what would have happened? Probably not much, at least initially, while the client tried to figure out what to do next. By working with the client to ensure that the key players at Extra Comfort had the information and analyses they needed, the consultants ensured that the client was both well informed and able to make an intelligent decision. Had the evidence indicated that an Internet store was not a prudent decision, Extra Comfort’s sales and marketing team could have made an equally informed decision not to pursue Internet selling. Equally important, even with this scenario, the consultants would have provided value for the money by preventing the company from embarking on a losing strategy, thereby enabling Extra Comfort to focus on more promising marketing initiatives.
PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS
Most consultants work on extremely varied projects, so that no single presentation strategy fits all situations. However, you can certainly increase the probability of a successful outcome simply by following some helpful principles, which are outlined in Table 7.2. Remember the Objective Sometimes consultants get sidetracked with irrelevant issues, such as trying to impress a client with their expertise. It is critical to keep the goal of the consulting assignment in mind, whether you are writing a feedback report or presenting research findings—that is, to assist the client in taking action. The purpose of the presentation is to move the client or the organization closer to achieving this goal. The focus, therefore, should always be on moving the client in this direction. Use the Report as a Basis for Action The client knows the culture and politics of the organization and how to get things done. Before preparing the report in final form, and before making a presentation, you and the client should map out a strategy for presenting the report and then getting the organization to act on its recommendations.
Tips for Making Effective Research Presentations
• Always remember the overall objective.
• Use the feedback report as a basis for action.
• Be sure every meeting has a purpose and an agenda.
• Make sure key people are at the meeting(s).
• Allow plenty of time.
• Facilitate, don’t pontificate.
• Engage the client in both conducting research and taking action.
• Don’t get defensive! See challenges to the report as an opportunity to understand the clients’ issues and concerns.
• Move to action!
• Always know the next step.
Be Sure Meetings Have a Purpose and Agenda Meetings with only vague goals and no agendas are usually disasters. Every meeting should be carefully planned. What is the purpose of the meeting? What outcomes are desired? How should the meeting be structured to deliver that outcome? The client and the consultant need to agree on the answers to these questions, which mean they need to plan each meeting together. Also important to the success of a meeting, and ultimately to the success of a consulting project, is ensuring that the individuals in attendance understand the purpose of the meeting and know the agenda. It is difficult to be an active participant at a meeting if you don’t have a clear idea of the reason you are there or what’s on the agenda or, worse, if the purpose and agenda are kept secret. Be Sure Key People Attend As in the case of the purpose and agenda, you and the client must agree on who in the organization has power and authority. You may want to ask the client such questions as “Who needs to know the information in the report?”, “Who can take action on the recommendations?”, “Whose approval is needed to take action?”, and “Who would be affected if the
recommendations were acted on?” The people whose names are mentioned must be at the meeting when you present your research findings. Otherwise, you are likely to waste time talking to people who have little or no authority. Equally problematic, if the key players in the organization are not at the meeting, the participants may not be motivated to actively contribute or have the knowledge to critique the findings in the report as rigorously as is needed to make the meeting, and, ultimately, the project, a success. Allow Plenty of Time One occasionally hears of a consultant who “allowed 10 minutes” at a management was meeting to report the results of a 9-month study and analysis. When we hear of this, alarm bells ring for several reasons. Most obviously, if management thinks the study is worthy of only 10 minutes of management’s time, then one has to wonder whether the study was worth undertaking to begin with. Assuming the study was worth the effort, 10 minutes is simply not enough time to do justice to a report on the findings. As we have said, to commit the client to action, the client, and typically several key people in the client organization, must thoroughly understand the data collection method, the research findings, and the implications and recommendations discussed in the report. Not only are 10 minutes nowhere near enough time to discuss this amount of material, but also two or more meetings of several hours each may be necessary. In the case discussed earlier, for example, the consultants presented their findings over several meetings. Furthermore, the consultant may need to
meet separately with various groups. The point to remember is that you and the client need to devise a strategy for conducting the meeting and have sufficient time to present and discuss the findings.
Facilitate, Don’t Pontificate Your role at the presentation is to serve more as a facilitator than as an ex-
pert presenter. Granted, much of the meeting may be focused on presenting the results of the report, but the meeting should be more than (in consultants’ language) a “data dump.” Moving the client to action often requires considerable skill as a facilitator.
Engage the Client By addressing several questions touched on earlier in this chapter, you should be able to encourage the client, as well as the others at the presentation, to begin to take ownership of the project:
• Are the data presented clearly?
• Are additional data needed? If so, what additional data?
• How do those at the meeting interpret the data?
• Does anyone have reservations about the progress of the work so far?
• What trends do they see emerging from the data? What strikes them as most important?
By the end of the presentation, you should have moved the client and the others at the meeting to action. One way to facilitate this is by asking what actions they think need to be taken. Many consultants find it useful to brainstorm possibilities and have the group identify the actions they think would be most effective.
Don’t Get Defensive!
Clients often raise questions about feedback reports. Managers have also been known to challenge the study itself, to the point of asking why the organization wasted its money on conducting the research. They may not understand why a particular group was surveyed, or why some other group was not. They may question specific analyses or challenge the validity of conclusions and recommendations. Consultants come across as far more professional and effective if they strive to clarify the client’s issues
and concerns rather than react defensively. The best approach under such stressful circumstances is to try not to take the criticism personally and to answer the questions the best way possible. Inevitably, someone wants more detail, while someone else is perfectly satisfied with less. In other words, it rarely is possible to satisfy everybody. Remember, the people who challenge a study the most loudly often have little or no knowledge of why or how the study was conducted. If the research, data collection, and analysis were well designed and approved by the client, you should be able to respond effectively to most challenges. Bear in mind, however, that there is no such thing as a perfect study or a perfect report. At times you may have to acknowledge that you could have collected additional data or performed additional analyses but That, given the constraints of time or money, you had to make difficult choices.
Move to Action!
We cannot emphasize enough that the purpose of a consulting assignment is to assist the client organization in becoming more effective. Sometimes the best action is inaction; in the case of Extra Comfort, for example, management might have concluded, based on the consultants’ findings, that
setting up an Internet store was a poor business decision. The point is that an effective consultant is one who provides all the information and advice the client needs to make a deliberate, well-thought-out decision that will enhance the organization’s strength and viability overall.
What’s the Next Step?
You and the client should end every meeting with a plan concerning the next step. Thus, every meeting should end with a decision about who will do what, by when, in response to each of the major points discussed at the meeting. Specifically, an action plan should be generated in writing that details what will happen next and who will take various actions.
PRESENTATION STRATEGIES
Although the 10principles for effective presentation of a report will lead to more successful consulting, it is important to remember that there is no one way of making an effective presentation. The client’s needs and expectations always have to be taken into account. Consider, for example, the techniques used in each of the following three cases. Case 1: XYZ and the Job Satisfaction Survey The vice president of human resources at XYZ In , a company with approximately 7,000 employees, contracted with a survey research firm to conduct XYZ’s biannual job satisfaction survey. The consultants assisted XYZ in designing the survey, administering it, tabulating the results, and presenting the results in a report. The only presentation the consultants made was for the purpose of demonstrating that the research firm had complied with XYZ’s survey specifications. The members of the human resources unit at XYZ interpreted the results themselves, made recommendations, and gave presentations to the key managers in the company.
Case 2: The Central Region Service Center
As you may recall, in chapter 6 we discussed a regional service center that had recently gone through restructuring. The board of directors asked a consulting firm to interview employees about how well the restructuring had gone as well as what, if any, issues were still unresolved. After interviewing a representative group of employees, the consultants summarized their findings in the report shown at the end of chapter 6.
The consultants first presented the findings in the report at an informal meeting with the center director and a couple of the key staff from the center. These staff was aware of most of the issues the employees had raised and had already been thinking of ways to rectify the problems. Together, the consultants and the staff members reached a consensus regarding which recommendations to undertake. The consultants then presented the report and the agreed-on recommendations at a meeting of the board of directors. Each board member was given a copy of the report, which contained summaries of each point discussed in the meeting as well as the consultants’ recommendations. Few questions were raised about the report’s content. On a couple of occasions, the president of the board asked the center director if he thought the report was accurate. The director said that he thought it was and that the center planned to implement the recommendations fairly quickly. The board voted to accept the report and its recommendations and ordered the center director to begin making the changes the consultants recommended. In this case, what moved the client quickly to action was that the consultants and the staff of the center collaborated well in developing the recommended actions. Furthermore, the client (the board) seemed to accept the consultants’ analysis and recommendations at face value; the board expressed no interest in becoming involved in discussion of the issues or the recommendations. From presentation of the recommendations to approval probably took no more than 20 minutes.
Case 3: The Medical Center Management Committee
Because of considerable tension among the members of the management committee of a large medical center, the CEO hired a consultant to help the committee resolve several disagreements. The consultant interviewed the members of the committee and identified seven issues that seemed to be major points of conflict. For example, one issue, which had been discussed for more than a year, was whether to purchase a medical helicopter. After the interviews were conducted, the consultant and the committee
had a day-long meeting offsite. The consultant did not present a written report; instead, she wrote each of the seven issues she had identified on a flip chart, briefly described each one, and asked for confirmation from the group that her descriptions were accurate. She did not draw any conclusions (other than that she had identified the seven issues), and she did not make any recommendations about actions or changes the committee should make. However, each issue was discussed at length during the
meeting. Perhaps not surprisingly, an underlying issue (as discussed in chap. 4) emerged that related to all seven issues under discussion. Specifically, several members of the committee thought that the CEO of the medical center was too indecisive and was causing many of the problems the members of the committee had identified. As an example, they pointed to his indecision surrounding the helicopter. The CEO countered that he did not have a medical degree and looked to the medical staff for guidance on decisions requiring medical knowledge. Because the medical staff could not agree on whether to purchase the helicopter, the issue had languished. Members of the committee countered that medical staffs typically consist of rather strong-willed individuals who rarely are in complete agreement about
anything; in the face of conflicting viewpoints, it was the CEO’s obligation to make a decision. The CEO said he better understood what was expected of him and would fulfill his responsibilities. (The medical center purchased the helicopter the following week.) Without belaboring an obvious point, these examples illustrate how the consultant’s presentation strategy needs to vary depending on the client’s
expectations and requirements. In the first case, the client did not want a presentation. Once the consultants had prepared the survey, the client simply wanted data on the job satisfaction levels of the company’s employees and to know that the survey had been conducted according to the specifications the company requested. In the second case, the consultant presented the results to key staff and, together with the consultant, developed (achievable) recommendations. Subsequently, the board of directors was presented with the consultant’s report, which also contained the recommendations for action. These recommendations were accepted without question, and the board ordered the director to implement them at once. Finally, in the third case, the consultant did not even prepare a written report. The seven issues she identified were listed on a flip chart, and she facilitated a discussion of each. To the consultant’s credit, she picked up on a broad underlying issue that was raised at the meeting. Ultimately, this issue was resolved together with the seven issues related to it.
OTHER DETAILS TO BEAR IN MIND
A variety of additional questions often arise with regard to making client presentations. For example, should the consultant use PowerPoint slides, overheads, or flipcharts? Who should receive copies of the report? Should the consultant allow the client to see the report before the official presentation? Should the consultant allow the client to change parts of the report, such as conclusions or recommendations, prior to its official release? Probably the best advice is that consultants and clients should decide together how best to present their findings. As for the last question— whether the consultant should allow the client to change parts of the report—the answer is only if the change enhances the validity of the findings or the overall clarity. To alter findings is a violation of consulting ethics.
SUMMARY
Presentation of your research findings and recommendations is another critical part of the consulting process. Following the success factors listed next will greatly increase the likelihood that you will achieve your ultimate objective: motivating the client to implement your recommendations.
KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR PRESENTING STUDY FINDINGS
• Remember that the objective of the consulting assignment is to assist the client in taking action and that the longer term goal is to increase the effectiveness of the client organization. The presentation strategy should reflect both these objectives.
• Work with the client in developing the presentation strategy. The client knows the culture and politics of the organization better than an outsider, and knows how to get things done.
• Plan meetings carefully. Every meeting should have a purpose and an agenda.
• Allow plenty of time, and make sure the key people are at the meetings.
• Function as facilitator in the meetings rather than just summarizing the report.
• Engage the client. Foster ownership of the issues and data under discussion.
• Encourage participants at the meeting(s) to offer their insights and opinions. Help them move to action.
• Don’t get defensive. See challenges to the report as opportunities to understand issues affecting the client organization.
• Keep moving the client to action. The design of the presentation strategy should ensure that every step assists the client in moving forward.
• Always include “next steps.” Every meeting should end with a decision about follow-up, including who does what, when.
Initiating Action
Once the data collection phase of a consulting project is over and the client has decided to initiate some type of change, the part that many consultants consider the most rewarding—the implementation or execution stage— can begin. This is when real change occurs. In some cases, this change is evident only in a unit or department. In other cases, it is organization wide. Regardless, the implementation stage is when the talking ceases and concrete action or intervention starts in earnest. Even when the results of the consultant’s study are extremely convincing, executing action in response to the findings is rarely easy, whether the unit involved is a small division or an entire company. In this chapter we discuss strategies for implementing action or change effectively. As in every phase of the project, questions need to be answered, and steps taken, before action can be initiated. We therefore begin by discuss-
ing the planning that needs to take place before implementation can begin. Throughout the chapter, a case study is used to illustrate key points.
PLANNING THE ACTION
Defining Your Role Throughout this book, we have emphasized the need, at each stage of a project, for the consultant, the contact at the client organization, and other key players in the company to agree on the consultant’s role. Are you going to be an active participant in the project or more of an outside expert/adviser? Addressing this question is as important during the implementation phase as at any other stage of a project. There is a tendency among some consultants, for example, to become surrogate managers. They want to take over and make all the decisions. They act as if they know what is
best for the organization (after all, didn’t they collect the data?) and there- fore should be totally in charge of whatever action or change takes place. Other consultants take the opposite approach. They recede into the background, suggesting that now that the data collection and diagnosis phase is over, so is their involvement in the project. Neither of these approaches is effective. Maintaining a balance of power and sharing control are as critical now as at other stages of the project. Ideally, you and the client should both be actively involved as implementation of change occurs. In some cases, this means that you may be more actively involved than at any other phase of the project. In other cases, you may have to relinquish some ownership of the recommendations for action.
Forming a Planning Team
Let’s assume for a moment that you have been brought in to the Willis Auto Supply Company to help improve the time it takes to ship products to customers. On the basis of research you have conducted, including interviews, questionnaires, and observation, you and the client have zeroed in on the division that manufactures hubcaps as one in which production delays are common. Delays are far less common in other divisions in the company, and when delays do happen, the effects are much less serious. In the long term, Willis would like to fully automate its production lines, and the Willis executives see the hubcaps division as a good place to start. You and the client discuss how to proceed and decide that you will form a planning team, which Willis refers to as a task force , consisting of several managers and employees who are very knowledgeable about the production process and who have good planning skills. The task force’s charge is to plan in some detail all the changes that will occur throughout Willis so
that any changes are implemented will proceed as smoothly as possible. In general, such a planning team should include all the key players or representatives of the departments affected by the recommended changes. Among the people invited at Willis Auto Supply are people from several units, including purchasing, training, and accounts payable, as well as the head of the hubcaps division and other people in manufacturing. Inviting well-respected people of influence and authority is important. The changes being proposed may directly affect their work areas as well as the company as a whole. In general, a planning team should have between 5 and15 people. Eliciting adversity of ideas is valuable and often not possible if the group is too small. At the same time, the team should not be so big as to make in-depth discussion difficult or make it likely that a few members of the team will dominate. Sometimes it is useful to invite a larger group to the first meeting and split into two or small subcommittees later on.
Initial Meeting
To get back to our case study, a memo is circulated at Willis alerting the members of the task force that an initial meeting will be held. In addition to the people mentioned earlier, you and the client invite top management, although the assumption is that not all of them will remain on the team or attend future meetings. Three general objectives are set forth for the initial meeting:
1. Determine the purpose of the implementation phase of the project. What should be accomplished?
2. Clarify the task force’s charge or directive. What is expected of the team members? What is the team expected to accomplish? What is the timeline?
3. Decide on the tasks that need to be accomplished as well as who will be responsible for each task.
You and the client agree that you will facilitate the meeting, but the client will actively participate. To Train or No to Train ? It is not uncommon after a planning committee or task force is formed for the consultant and client to decide that the members need training before they can work together successfully. The focus of the training, which in some cases can take several days or more, is typically on the development of team-building and/or project management skills.
As part of the training, some planning committees develop an operating agreement or code of conduct. This agreement specifies how the team will conduct its business as well as how the members of the team will interact with each other. This becomes the list of rules the team will live by. These rules are of ten written on a large sheet of paper that each member of the team must sign. Table 8.1 shows a working agreement that the members of the task force at Willis Auto Supply might have been asked to sign.
Creating a Vision
Reaching agreement on the goals everyone hopes to achieve is critical to success at the implementation phase of a project. During the initial meeting at Willis Auto Supply, for example, the members of the task force reviewed the recommendations you discussed in detail in the research report, about how the company should address the delays in the hubcaps division. In the report, you noted that the equipment used in hubcaps was older than other equipment in the company and operated more slowly, so that it was more likely to break down and need to be repaired. Your conclusion, stated in your report, was that, in combination, these problems had set in motion a cycle of delays and frustration
Rules for Working Together
• All team members will attend all task force meetings, on time.
• All members will freely share their opinions and ideas. We are working as a collaborative team—“bosses” are not allowed.
• We will respect everyone’s ideas and suggestions.
• All members will be kept informed of all actions being taken. Communication will be open.
• The content of all our discussions will remain confidential—what is said by task force members stays with task force members. Communication with people who are not on this task force should be through official channels.
• No “bitching” is allowed—we will spend our energy figuring how to get things done, not complaining about why they have not gotten done in the past.
With assistance from Willis engineers and managers, you recommended that the production process in the hubcaps division needed to be made fully automated, the production process redesigned to accommodate the new procedures, and the employees retrained in how to operate the new equipment. In addition to recommending these changes, you suggested a possible design for the new automated system as well as a vendor who could provide the new equipment. According to your estimates, acceptance of these recommendations would allow Willis to increase production by more than 700% per hour and cut the cost per unit produced by 30%. Subsequently, Willis’s management endorsed your recommendations and committed financial resources to the project. Thus, the overall vision of the task force is to implement a fully automated production process in the hubcaps division, as well as all necessary support services, such as just-in-time inventory. Willis’s engineers and managers have projected that the fully automated process could be operational within 6 months.
The participants at the initial meeting of the task force decide that more planning is necessary before implementation of the changes can begin. Specifically, they need to know the cost of the equipment that you are recommending; when the equipment could be delivered; the services the equipment vendor provides to its customers; and the time and training required to get some or all of the members of the hubcaps division up to speed on using the equipment, including the software. Someone suggests
that perhaps a benchmarking study should be conducted with an eye toward seeing how companies using similar systems have fared. A subcommittee is formed to analyze how best to obtain all the data the company needs. Just before wrapping up the meeting, you and the client reinforce that significant, perhaps unanticipated, changes could occur as a result of the actions being proposed for the hubcaps division. Consequently, you both emphasize that although everyone is eager to see results, careful consideration needs to be given to the implications of the changes. Finally, every one agrees on a date by which the sub committee will report back, and the meeting is adjourned.
Conducting a Stakeholder Analysis
As part of the process of assessing the pros and cons of taking recommended actions, a planning committee will sometimes undertake what is called a stakeholder analysis. A stakeholder analysis usually has two parts. The first part involves identifying all the parties who will be affected by the proposed change. It identifies exactly who will have to do things differently as well as what type of changes they will experience. In the case discussed here, one such group would be the very people on whom implementation is focused: the members of the hubcaps division. Any time new equipment is introduced; work routines change, along with expectations about productivity, skills, and so forth. Furthermore, introducing automation often means that some employees will have to be reassigned or let go. The second part of the stakeholder analysis focuses on ensuring that all of the key stakeholders are on board with the changes being proposed. It is the planning committee’s responsibility to explain the importance of the changes to the stakeholders, to understand and address their concerns, and to elicit their support. Receiving the full support of the organization’s key players that the changes being recommended are necessary and in the organization’s best interests is a major step toward implementing a successful project. Realistically, it is often impossible to get the full support of all stake-holders, especially if their own jobs are on the line. This is not uncommon, for example, when several departments are merged. Similarly, the introduction of new technology often means that some workers may not be needed or that workers who have difficulty learning the new technology may have to be replaced. Under these circumstances, some groups are obviously not going to be supportive of the changes taking place around them. The stakeholder analysis can still be helpful in a couple of ways, however. For example, it identifies the needs of various groups, such as which employees are going to need training and which are going to need outplacement assistance. The company may not have even accounted for the fact that such needs must be met. Creating the Project Plan One of the most important tasks of the planning committee or task force is the development of the project plan. This plan details what changes will occur in the organization, the sequence in which they will occur, when they will occur, and what resources are needed to accomplish them. In short, the plan provides a step-by-step map of the change effort. In Willis’s case, the plan took several weeks to complete. Most project plans focus on a couple of key pieces. For Willis, this was the new equipment. The equipment had to be customized to meet Willis’s specifications, and delivery dates had to be established. Setting up training was another key piece in the undertaking. Several employees and supervisors at Willis received some initial training at a non competitor’s facility, but most of the training was conducted after the equipment was in place. Once the plan for change has been written, it has to be collated and put into a usable form. Many consultants present all the data in notebooks (with a good table of contents so that the information can easily be found). Willis’s final project plan was put on a computer file and consisted of
process flow charts, Gantt charts, responsibility matrices, organizational charts, and diagrams. The computer file was made easily accessible to each team member. This enabled everyone not only to view the plan, as well as the new production line, but also to raise questions to which anyone could respond. There is no such thing as a perfect plan. At some point, everyone has to agree to forge ahead. As much as possible, however, the emphasis should be on developing detailed plans while ensuring flexibility and allowing for contingencies. Also, although it is important that deadlines be outlined and milestones identified, it also is important to have a backup plan ready should unforeseen events occur—for example, in the case of Willis, if the equipment does not arrive on the promised date.
Presenting the Plan
Because enlisting upper management’s support for a change is so critical, after the stakeholder analysis and other studies have been conducted, the consultant and client will frequently invite top management to a meeting at which all the data are presented. The focus should be on presenting a clear, quantitative summary of the data. The overall goal of this meeting is to convince top management of the value of proceeding. Several key points that need to be covered at this meeting are noted in Table 8.2. Receiving Approval and Resources the final step in the planning stage is when top management gives the go-ahead to proceed. At this point, top management should be willing to allocate the resources necessary for the projected change(s), including money, personnel, and equipment. Receiving approval is critical; without
the tangible resources, the implementation phase can never be successful. Likewise, key people in the organization need to support not only the need for action but also the specific actions to be taken. Turning Resistance Into Acceptance Returning to our case study, let’s assume that the company has decided to go ahead and order the new equipment for the hubcaps division and arrange to train several people in how to use it. At a subsequent meeting, which you attend along with the client and key members of the company,
Key Points to Address With Top Management
• What is the specific problem that needs to be addressed?
• Why is it a problem?
• What is the strategy for improvement?
• What will be the benefits of effecting change?
• What are the execution costs?
• How will action be executed (who will be involved, when, what is the start and completion dates, etc.)?
• Include any questions that would be of particular importance to the company. For example, in Willis’s case, top management was concerned about losing production time.
Thus, the transition from the old system to the new had to be made very quickly. several people express concern that there is likely to be some serious resistance to the changes planned for hubcaps. Among the challenges are convincing several rank-and-file workers that adapting to the changes in the division is in the best interests of the workers. In Willis’s case, the resistance was from the workers. It is not uncommon, however, for consultants to encounter resistance from upper as well as middle and lower management. The long-term benefits to the organization of implementing a change in procedure, restructuring a division—or, as in this case, investing money for equipment and training—may not be
readily apparent. As in our example, giving up traditions and ways of doing things can be extremely difficult, whether the changes affect a group of blue collar workers or managers at the highest levels. Regardless of where the resistance is encountered, breaking through it is critical to the successful implementation of changes. One of the first steps in managing resistance is to understand its cause. One frequent cause is a fear of job loss or status. That could well have been a concern among the people in the hubcaps unit. They may also have had doubts whether the new way of doing things would work or work better. The manager of hubcaps may have feared losing control of or authority over his department or that he was being personally blamed for the delays in his department. He may also have become concerned that he would no longer have the skills or ability to manage once the changes were implemented. By following some basic guidelines, you can play an important role in helping managers and other personnel overcome resistance. Some key points to be a remind when trying to counter this common reaction to changes are listed in Table 8.3.
Educating everyone affected about whatever changes are taking place is critical to breaking down resistance and, ultimately, to implementing actions effectively. People must understand why changes are taking place to embrace them. They also need to understand that the company is going to make every effort to place the current employees in either the new production line or in comparable jobs.
Countering Resistance to Change
• Treat the resistance seriously. Try to understand the underlying causes of the resistance and to address it head on.
• Encourage the client or a key contact person in the organization to provide several opportunities throughout the implementation process for individuals who are resistant to the changes to explore their concerns.
• Communicate openly and honestly about the changes taking place. No one wants to be left in the dark about what is happening.
• Encourage those affected by the changes to provide suggestions of ways to implement the changes in the least disruptive way possible. Ideally, this should break down resistance while advancing project goals.
• Don’t take resistance personally.
EXECUTING ACTION
Forming the Implementation Team
At the beginning of the action stage, another team should be formed to focus on implementation. Ideally, this team should consist of the same people who were on the planning committee, although it may be advisable to replace some team members and substitute others. At Willis Auto Supply, rank-and-file members of the hubcaps division might be added to the team, especially if they promote the value of the action and are well respected by their peers. Including such people as team members provides a
direct link to the workers most affected and therefore to learning workers’ reactions to the changes. In addition, workers directly affected by the changes can be valuable in helping others in the division or department recognize the value of the action taking place. As with the planning team, the implementation team may need training. Even if the members of the team have had training in the skills they’ll need, they are likely to benefit from a short course either to review some of the basics or on a more advanced topic, such as conflict management. Likewise, the team members may be weak in project management. There are many software programs for help in this area; however, be sure the system is not so complex as to confuse the team members. Selling the Project One of the important duties of the implementation team is to sell the project. By the time the planning team has finished its work, there will be plenty of rumors floating around about the change effort, and typically people will be more focused on the potential negative impact of the changes than on positive outcomes. To counteract the rumors and keep people informed, the implementation team will need to work hard to “sell” the project. Team members will need to emphasize the positive benefits of the project while not denying that the change may disrupt some current routines. There are a variety of strategies available to accomplish this goal. Some project teams hold one-on-one meetings with key managers to make sure they are on board. In unionized settings, they may also hold several meetings with union officials to inform them about the purpose and details of the project.
Another strategy teams use is to have a project kickoff ceremony to which all employees are invited. At Willis Auto Supply, for example, top executives might have spoken at such a ceremony about the importance of the changes to Willis’s future, including how they would allow the company to remain competitive with other auto suppliers and ensure that Willis’s doors would remain open. The executives would also want to assure employees that their jobs weren’t in jeopardy. Finally, the project team would want to be sure to outline the details of the project and answer questions. The manner in which the project is “sold,” and who is responsible for communicating the details about it, varies for each project and organization. What is important is that you should never assume that the benefits of change will be immediately apparent to managers or employees. Many managers and employees have not been part of the discovery and decision process and have to be convinced of the positive aspects of the changes that
will occur. Communicate, Communicate, And Communicate! As noted earlier, changes often arouse great anxiety, confusion, and rumors (some of which are false or bizarre). Constant communication throughout the project is the key to dispelling the rumors and confusion. It is not possible to over communicate during a change effort. In this chapter’s “From the Expert …” section, Richard Bailey discusses the importance to the success of a project of communicating and sharing information. As Bailey reminds us, everyone should be informed of the reasons for a change project and understand the project plan, including what will be happening and when. He also claims that everyone needs to understand the procedures in place if retraining is necessary, as well as arrangements that are being made for employees who are being terminated. For Bailey, communicating change is a key factor to a successful change initiative.
At Willis, many of the plans were discussed at the kickoff ceremony. Plans were also posted on a special bulletin board, and periodic briefings were held for management-level employees as well as for union officers. A special Web site was set up that included the plans, progress reports, and a hotline through which employees could ask questions; questions and answers were posted for all to see. Willis’s communication strategy was to use multiple channels of communication. Most change efforts involve such a strategy. In some cases, employees rely on the information provided by their supervisors. In other cases, they don’t trust the supervisor and want communication to be in writing, and in still other cases, they rely on the word of their union steward only. From the Experts … A Few Simple Steps to Implement Change by Richard E. Bailey
Bailey Consulting
I have worked in operations for more than 35 years and have had my share of successes when implementing change in organizations. Implementing change isn’t easy; in fact, it’s very, very hard. But by following a few simple steps, you can increase the probability of success in any organization. The key to a successful change effort is the change team. The team members must believe in the change in order to sell the change to others. You must also establish targets that demonstrate the positive outcomes that will result. You must then inform everyone about the change in a meaningful way and establish incentives that motivate employees to embrace the change whole heartedly. Finally, you must have a systematic follow-up plan that provides useful feedback and continues to encourage employees to follow through with the change effort. When implementing change, it’s often easy to slip back into old and bad habits. This all boils down to five principles that I always use to guide me when change is critical:
1. Select your team carefully. Team members must be leaders who believe in what you believe in.
2. Establish new targets that demonstrate “if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten.” Results from the past are not good enough; targets need to be an extreme stretch.
3. Communicate, communicate, and communicate. From the top person down, people need to market why change is critical.
4. Establish incentives that allow all to share in the organization’s success. Financial rewards as well as small token “attaboys” are all critical.
5. Follow-up and visibility are critical. Track results and give feedback to everyone in the organization on a regular basis. During the implementation stage, sharing data and information is essential to success.
MONITORING PROGRESS
You, the client, and the implementation team should meet regularly to monitor progress during implementation. This is a good idea for several reasons. First, problems can be identified and corrective action taken. Second, assuming that tasks have been accomplished, these meetings give everyone, from management on down, an opportunity to celebrate achievements. Third, and finally, the review process serves as a reminder of what still needs to be done and who needs to do it. If top managers do not attend these meetings, you and the planning team should probably meet regularly with some or all of these managers. It is important to keep everyone informed about accomplishments as well as delays and problems. Yet another reason to monitor progress is that it provides a chance to fine-tune processes. Especially on larger projects, the execution stage may involve several steps, some of them elaborate. Having the option to revise not just schedules but procedures is important. The Willis team met every Monday morning, and top management sometimes sat in on the meetings. The agenda included reviewing the project plan to assess progress and making plans for the coming week to en-
sure target goals were met. These meetings were very helpful in keeping the team focused.
NEED FOR FLEXIBILITY
The best of plans often are difficult to implement smoothly. Problems and changes are an inevitable part of the life of even the most successful projects. At Willis Auto Supply, several adjustments were necessary. For example, the new equipment was delivered 2 weeks earlier than scheduled. (This was highly unusual; new equipment is typically delivered from 2weeks to 6 months late.) Because the trucks had to be unloaded and Willis had no storage facilities, the task force had to scramble to get the new equipment set up and the old equipment dismantled. Although this moved the schedule forward, negotiations with the union regarding job reclassifications—a result of the changes in production—as well as the need to outplace some workers, caused a 3-week delay in getting the new system up and running. All change projects require adjustments. The important point is to respond effectively and forge ahead. Consultants also need to remember that, as in the agreement signed by the members of the task force, “No bitching is allowed.” This may be one of the task force’s most important rules.
CONGRATULATE, REWARD, AND CELEBRATE
Change efforts are often long-term projects and, as such, have their ups and downs. Studies have shown that initially there usually are a lot of energy and enthusiasm for a change effort but that energy begins to wane as problems and delays start mounting, usually a couple of months into a project. Finally, as the end is in sight, energy and enthusiasm increase to their highest level. A great way to keep people involved and committed throughout a project is by celebrating and rewarding accomplishments. For example, in Willis’s case, the company held an initial plant wide kickoff celebration. There were also celebrations as each major milestone was reached—when the new equipment was installed, for example. Another milestone was when the employees on the new line completed their training. A formal graduation ceremony was held to which families were invited and diplomas passed out, and each graduate received a small cash gift. As each major milestone was reached, the implementation team had a brief celebration, usually a pizza lunch at a local bowling alley, but the big celebration was at the end of the project, when Willis held an open house to show off the new equipment and production line. A lot of awards were given out. In fact, the implementation team received the Willis Pioneer Award to signify that the team had taken a leadership role in Willis’s efforts to automate the entire company.
SUMMARY
The action stage of a project can be the most exciting but also the most challenging. This is when you finally see the fruits of your labor: the proposal you wrote to conduct the research, the research itself, and the planning that preceded implementation. The key success factors noted next should help ensure that implementation goes smoothly or at least at smoothly as you can hope for. Remember that making changes—whether you are the one being asked to change or you are the facilitator—is rarely easy.
KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR INITIATING ACTION
• Plan the change carefully. Anticipate problems and decide in advance how to handle them.
• Make sure all the key players are on board with the change.
• Make sure that the organization has allocated all the necessary resources.
• Sell the project. Make sure everyone understands the benefits of the change.
• Monitor progress and adjust in response to problems, but keep moving forward.
• Keep communication flowing. Keeping people informed about what’s going to happen, who is going to be involved, and when things are going to happen is critical to success throughout a consulting project but especially during the implementation phase, when people’s ways of doing things and sense of security are often threatened.
• Understand that resistance to change is natural but that it doesn’t have to stand in the way of progress; it can be overcome and lead to undergoing worthwhile transitions.
• Congratulate and reward people for small as well as large accomplishments. Thank them too for jobs well done.
Ending the Project
The old adage that endings are as important as beginnings applies to consulting projects as much as to other human end eavors. It is particularly true if you hope to create a long-term relationship with the client organization. Unfortunately, many consulting projects end too abruptly. The client and the consultant mutually decide that next Tuesday or Wednesday will be the final day of the project, or at least the last day that the consultant will be involved. The consultant then finishes up whatever can be completed by the agreed-on date, says goodbye to the client, and sends a final invoice. Ending a project in this way is not conducive to developing a lasting relationship. In this chapter we address an alternative approach in which the emphasis is on ensuring the growth of your relationships with clients in a way that is beneficial to both parties.
PLANNING THE FINAL PHASE
Ideally, the final stage of a project involves a series of activities that will en- sure that the project is deemed a success and that link the current project to future assignments. These activities should also contribute to your and the client’s thinking of ways you could work continue to work together. Specifically, the goals of the final phase of the project should be to:
• Plan for the transition to the next phase of the project, if applicable, when you will not be involved.
• Celebrate the completion of the project.
• Explore how you and the client can work together even more effectively in the future by addressing such issues as your project management skills and overall working relationship.
• Explore further opportunities for collaboration.
• Secure recommendations (and referrals).
• Ensure ways to maintain a relationship.
If you achieve these goals, then successful completion of the project is likely. Moreover, the probability that you will be rehired to work on future projects is high.
KNOWING WHEN TO END
Like every other part of a consulting project, you and the client should agree on the ending date or final activities before the project even gets under way. In this chapter’s “From the Experts …” section, Elaine Patterson, a senior human resources consultant with the Unocal Corporation, reminds us why it is necessary to agree as early as possible when a project will end. For Patterson, it is important at the onset of an assignment to ask what will happen when you walk out the door. Will activities that have been started continue? Will new activities begin? Patterson claims that you and the client should discuss these questions from as early in the project as possible. When writing up contracts, many consultants are careful to specify several activities that need to be completed at the beginning, middle, and end of the project. In addition to providing critical benchmarks to evaluate progress, using this strategy minimizes confusion about when your work is done.
PLANNING THE TRANSITION
Very often, consultants are hired to work on one or maybe a few phases of multiphase projects. One consultant might be hired to assist during installation of new software, another to design and conduct training. Or a marketing consultant might be hired to assist in identifying new markets for a company’s services, and, on the basis of a study done by that consultant, another hired to help design a system to deliver those services more efficiently. Consequently, you may end up cutting your ties before a project
is fully completed, leaving members of the unit or the organization to finish some of the tasks. Such a situation could have easily happened at Willis Auto Supply, discussed in chapter 8. To refresh your memory, in that case we asked you to imagine that you were brought in to address a delivery problem, which, after several studies, was determined to involve the hubcaps division. When should or could your involvement in that project have ceased? When top From the Experts … Life with Consultants: First, Prepare for the End by Elaine Patterson, Senior Human Resources Consultant, Unocal Corporation how will these changes work after Consultant X leaves? Too often, someone raises that question one week before a consultant’s contract is due to end, often at the final debriefing session. By then, it’s too late to cram all the learning in, and the question leads to complaints about the thousands of dollars walking out
the door. We at Unocal Corporation are trying to do a better job of asking “What will happen when the consultant leaves?” beginning with the first meeting with the consultant, even before requests for proposals. Through this process, we are gaining insight into the consultants’ view of how they want to work with us (vs. what they want to do for us). This is helping both parties think about moving from a consulting relationship to a partner relationship. Thinking about the end of a project at the beginning has affected the outcomes on several projects. As just one example, when we engaged a global consulting firm to implement a job evaluation methodology, it was critical to identify the internal staff who would be responsible for learning the methodology and maintaining its credibility after the consultant’s involvement was over. This allowed us to take greater ownership of the results (don’t blame the consultant!) and not depend on external resources indefinitely. When we contracted for a change-management consultant to work with a business unit, we explained to everyone involved that the human resources (HR) manager would be partnered with that consultant to perform all aspects of the work. This allowed us to systematically transfer change-management and internal consulting skills to the HR manager during the course of the project. There was no mad dash to transfer knowledge at the end. The results were a better business strategy for the unit (the overt outcome of the engagement) and an extraordinary development opportunity for the HR manager. By discussing “What happens when the consultant leaves?” at the beginning of a project, the conversation shifts from “How much do we have to spend to have this work done?” to “How much do we need to invest to learn to do this work better and improve our own capability?” management approved the plan for the redesign of the production process? When the workers in the hubcaps division began their training on the new equipment? When the workers completed their training? When the new production process was fully operational? When it was evident that output in the hubcaps division had increased appreciably and that the change in the production system had led to the desired results? As you can see, determining when your involvement should end is not always easy. Frequently, clients seek the consultant’s involvement in those parts of a project in which the client organization does not have expertise. However, the client may want internal staff to handle those parts of the project in which expertise is available. Deciding just where and when you can add the most value is some-times a difficult decision, and sometimes this decision will change as
Your involvement in the project increases. On the one hand, you don’t want to bail out of a project before all the work is completed. On the other hand, you don’t want to remain involved if you are no longer performing work covered under your contract. It is not uncommon for a client to suggest amending a contract to cover additional work. At Willis, for example, the initial contract may have specified that your work was finished once the employees were trained in how to use the new equipment. However, what if some unexpected problems arose? In that case, you and the client might have agreed that you should stay on for an indefinite period to ensure that the unit was operating efficiently and that all questions and concerns had been addressed. Regardless of when your contractual obligations are over, you need to ensure that there is a smooth transition after you leave. You should
work directly with the people in the organization who will be responsible for completing any work that remains after your departure. Most probably, the responsibility for completing the project will rest with the project coordinator or project manager at the client organization. If there is no one who fulfills that role, someone should be appointed. This person will be responsible for making sure that all the remaining tasks are completed. You, the project manager, and perhaps the client should then develop a
Brief project plan that answers the following questions:
• What are the tasks or activities that remain to be done?
• Who will be responsible for completing each task?
• What are the start and completion dates for each task?
• What resources andinformation are neededto complete these tasks?
Addressing these questions is especially critical for large projects. A major disconnect can cause a project that was going along smoothly to collapse; even a minor disconnect after you leave can cause major problems. The key is to identify when your work ends and another person’s begins. The same principles apply whether the other person is an external consultant or an internal employee. Again, the more planning that can be done early on, the better defined everyone’s roles will be, resulting in fewer conflicts and misunderstandings between you and the client.
FINAL REPORTS
Some consultants regularly submit final reports that summarize the work they have done as well as the outcomes the project has produced. Other consultants make a practice of never delivering final reports unless clients absolutely insist on receiving them. You should discuss with the client whether you will be expected to write a final report in your initial contract discussions with the client. Clarifying expectations surrounding this question, as in every area, will result in fewer unpleasant surprises. Many clients want no more than a short memo indicating that the project has been completed. This provides them with a written record attesting to this fact. Other clients want longer, more formal documents that outline what you were contracted to do, the activities that have been completed, and the outcomes that have been obtained. Regardless of the format, the specifications for this report should be agreed on, including length and content, during contract discussions. You also will need to be sure to estimate the time required to write the report when estimating your fees and make sure that you are receiving payment for time spent preparing the document. Most clients think that final reports are necessary and valuable. Organizations routinely spend considerable money, often millions, on consulting projects. Superiors within the organization want proof that serious work has been done and, more important, that the work produced the outcomes that were promised. Final reports provide justification that a project was worth the time and cost that went in to it. Although some consultants may view writing a final report as an unwanted, unpleasant task, a better way to approach it is as a good marketing opportunity. In preparing a final report, you have a chance to document the work you have accomplished. You may also want to highlight the quality of the work, that it was completed on time and under budget (assuming it was), as well as some of the unexpected benefits for the client. Moreover, the report provides you with an opportunity to suggest future projects in which you might play a major role. Although this is clearly a means of soliciting further business, clients are usually appreciative of the expert advice and ideas on how you might help in furthering improve the company. Even if the client does not expect a final report, it’s good practice to include something in writing with your final invoice. It doesn’t have to be more than a short note describing the project and indicating that the work, as stipulated in the contract, has been completed. This will remind the client what services are covered under the final invoice. It is also a good idea to add a few words about how much you appreciated working with the client and that you would welcome the chance to work with the client again. The format and length of final reports vary considerably, but they usually include the following elements:
• Salutation/title page: Who the report is for, who the report is from, the date, and a title that clearly represents the contents.
• Purpose: A brief description of what topics are covered.
• Overview of the project: Why was the project initiated? Who was the principal sponsor? What outcomes were expected? What units and managers were involved? What was the timeline? What methods were used?
• Outline of major activities: What were the major activities, and what were the start and completion dates?
• General results: What results did the project produce, and how are these results linked to the outcomes that were expected? Whenever possible, results should be quantifiable, such as cost savings and in- creased sales.
• Discussion: What were the successes and limitations of the project?
• Next steps: Suggestions for additional projects that would build on the current project; in a multi plant company, for instance, the consultant might suggest expanding the project to other plants. The consultant may also want to suggest new projects aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the organization. Included should be some indication of the consultant’s willingness and competency to take on these projects. In addition to these components, longer reports often include an executive summary, right after the salutation/title page.
CLIENT–CONSULTANT DEBRIEFING
Many consultants like to arrange a final debriefing with the client. The purpose of this meeting is to review what went on during the project and to discuss ways the process could be improved in the future. Because some clients may not be familiar with such meetings and may have some reservations about participating, you should be sure to explain the goals and the overall agenda to the client beforehand.
The debriefing enables the client to provide you with feedback on the project, including such matters as how you conducted yourself. In addition, it signals that you want to improve the effectiveness of the projects you conduct and that you care about strengthening the client–consultant
Relationship.
The agenda of the meeting might look something like the following:
• Review of the purpose of the meeting, the agenda, and the amount of time set aside for each item.
• Brief review of the purpose, goals, major events, and outcomes of the project.
• The client’s evaluation of the project. Did the project meet the client’s expectations? What worked well, and what didn’t, and why? How might a similar project be handled more effectively in the future?
• The consultant’s evaluation of the project. This presentation should be prepared in advance and should demonstrate that you have spent considerable time thinking about the project. The focus should be on both those parts of the project that went well and those that were less effective. The presentation should end with a description of what you learned from working on the project and ways to be more effective when working on future projects for this client.
• The client’s evaluation of the consultant’s role (or of the role of the consulting firm).
In what ways were you or the firm effective, and how could you have been more effective? Sometimes consultants also discuss their perception of the client’s role in the project, including areas in which the client was particularly helpful or effective and are as in which the client could be more helpful in the future. The goal here should be to assist the client in becoming more effective in what ever role he or she plays. Some clients ask for such feedback. Others may be unaccustomed to having consultants comment on their personal effectiveness and not want any feedback at all. Thus, comment on the client’s effectiveness only if you think the client would welcome and accept it. However, under no circumstances should you appear to be blaming the client for things that did not work well. One fairly nonthreatening way to introduce your feedback is to ask the client: “What did you personally learn from the project that could be applied to future projects? What could you have done that would have improved the project or helped it run more smoothly?” Questions of this type are likely to encourage the client to reflect on his or her involvement in the project and to become more receptive to the idea of receiving feedback as well as giving it. If appropriate, before the debriefing is over, ask the client about the next steps in the project or about other projects the client sees in the future. If the client mentions a project in which you might want to get involved, make your interest clear and ask whether you and the client might be able to set up a meeting to discuss that project in more detail. Even if the client does not mention a specific project in which you or your firm might become involved, make it clear that you are interested in working with the company again in the future. Finally, some consultants use debriefing meetings as opportunities to explore ways the client might be able to assist the consultant in soliciting business. Several options are possible here. Some consultants ask the client if they may use them as a reference. Some consultants also ask clients for the names of business contacts, such as other managers in their organization, who might be interested in their services. As a further step, some consultants ask the client for a letter of introduction or a recommendation to give to potential clients. Although many consultants feel uncomfortable asking clients for referrals or recommendations, one research study found that the marketing strategy that most differentiated successful consultants from less successful consultants was that the former made considerably more use of referrals clients had given them. So, whether you are uncomfortable doing it or not, asking for referrals is very effective in generating future business. The debriefing should end with your thanking the client for allowing you to work together. You should also mention, briefly but sincerely, that you hope you and the client can work together again. We strongly recommend that you also send a follow-up letter thanking the client for participating in a profitable meeting, thanking the client again for choosing you to assist on the project, and reiterating your desire to work with the clientagain in the future.
CELEBRATE!
The successful completion of a project is worthy of a celebration. If the project has been a success, a lot of people have worked hard and contributed extensive effort. Often, the project team will meet for lunch or dinner. There may be (usually humorous) speeches, and sometimes there are humorous awards. The event is designed to be fun and to thank everyone for a job well done.
A more reserved way to say thank you and celebrate is for you and the client to go out to dinner alone or with your spouses/partners. These events are usually more personal and formal than a lunch or dinner with the whole team. Whether you have an informal lunch, a formal dinner, or some other celebration, the idea is to end the project on a positive, up beat note. People appreciate and remember celebrations, and they reinforce the perception that the project has been a success.
KEEPING IN CONTACT
We strongly encourage you to see the ending of a project as setting the stage for working on another project for the same client. Most consultants make their livings from repeat business. However, repeat business does not happen automatically. You’ll want to be sure to take special care to ensure that the client remains aware that you are both able and willing to work on other projects. As a general rule, organizations do not want to search for a new vendor every time they need a consultant’s services. They would much prefer to establish long-term relationships with a few consultants, particularly those whom the client perceives are capable and trust worthy and who offer useful services at a reasonable price. In other words, the probability of obtaining repeat business is good, but you have to work to earn it. Keeping in touch with current and former clients is critical if you are hoping for repeat business. Some large consulting firms publish monthly or bimonthly magazines that focus on issues of particular interest to organizations likely to use their services. Other firms distribute newsletters that contain shorter articles, perhaps a review of a new business book, as well as information on the projects in which the firm is currently involved. Another low-cost way to keep in touch is to send clients reprints of articles that relate to a problem or topic in which they are likely to be interested, maybe something from the
Harvard Business Review or the Wall Street Journal or a trade magazine in the client’s area. Ideally, these articles should offer ideas of ways clients can improve their businesses. Many consultants occasionally phone or e-mail clients to find out how they’re doing as well as to find out about projects they might be considering. Some consultants also visit former clients or invite them out for lunch periodically. One consultant sends his clients cards on their birthdays. Many send cards at the beginning of the year, perhaps with a small gift, such as a date book with the consultant’s business name on it, or a subscription to a business magazine. Regardless of the method you use to keep in touch, it should be grounded in a well-defined marketing strategy. Finding new or repeat business should be not a random event but based on a well-thought-out approach that has been demonstrated to produce repeat business. For example, one consultant regularly calls six former clients each week just to touch base. He claims that he produces sufficient business to keep him busy. Another consultant exerts most of her marketing energy at conventions and conferences attended by former and potential clients. She has found that the contacts she makes at these conventions generate her best business. Obtaining repeat business is hard work; however, the work is likely to pay much higher dividends If your marketing plan is a solid one.
SUMMARY
This chapter has focused on the importance of ending a project strategically and formally. We have provided you with many ideas for ending projects effectively. As with the other chapters in the book, we have listed next several success factors for ending projects effectively and on a positive note. We hope that learning these and the other success factors in this book
will help you to become a truly effective consultant.
KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR ENDING A PROJECT
• Agree at the beginning of the project what activities will be conducted in the final stage (e.g., debriefing, writing a final report, quantifiable activities).
• Make sure that whatever transitions need to take place occur smoothly.
• Celebrate the completion of the project.
• Hold a final debriefing with the client with the goal of making the next project even more successful.
• Take advantage of the final stage of the project to establish a long-term relationship with the client.
• Seek further business from the client, or ask the client’s assistance in finding future business.
• Keep in touch with the client; the chance of being rehired will be much higher.
Some Final Thoughts: The Basic
Principles of Effective Consulting Are there basic principles of effective consulting, a philosophy by which
effective consultants live? In the process of collecting data to write this book, we asked 100 successful consultants to think back over their careers and tell us the four or five most effective consulting principles that contributed to their success. We weren’t interested in specific skills or techniques as previously outlined in this book; instead, we wanted to hear their general philosophy (or guidelines) about being an effective consultant. As you might expect, the question elicited a variety of responses.
However, as often happens in such questioning, everyone agreed on five important points.
REMEMBER THE BASICS
The first principle that all the consultants mentioned is best introduced with an analogous story. Imagine for a moment that you’re watching a tennis tournament. Brayden, a nationally ranked player, is quickly losing his big lead. He isn’t serving as well as he usually does, and his returns aren’t as strong as in the past. He’s making a lot of errors and can’t understand why. He begins to think he needs a new tennis racquet, a new strategy, or maybe he should change his grip. Before long, he has nearly lost the match. Just in time, he’s reminded of his coach’s mantra—“If you ever get in to trouble, go back to the basics; more often than not, it’s just the basics that will pull you out of trouble.” Brayden did just that and wins the tournament! When Brayden goes to the first meeting with his coach after the match, his coach offers some solid advice: “For awhile, Brayden, you forgot the
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
basics. Remember, you need to keep your eye on the ball, to follow through, and to keep your feet moving. Unless you’ve laid that groundwork, and stick with it, nothing you do beyond that will be effective.” “I know,” Brayden says. “I almost lost it. I just couldn’t quit making errors. I was feeling overwhelmed by the competition and lost my focus. I started to think that I needed anew request, or to change my grip, or to learn a new technique. I just kept thinking there’s got to be something major that’s wrong with my game. But then, I remembered your mantra: ‘When you’re in trouble, keep it simple and just remember the basics!’” Later, Brayden and his coach watch a video of the match and, just as they predicted, Brayden did take his eye off the ball, he didn’t follow through on his strokes, and he was a bit flat-footed. He nearly lost an important match because he lost sight of the basics. The same is true of consulting—and, for that matter, just about everything in life. This is exactly what we heard from the successful consultants we interviewed: “Never lose sight of the basics.” They noted that often
when they faltered in a consulting project it was because they did just that—lost sight of the basics. They didn’t clarify the client’s expectations, or they put together the contract too hurriedly, or they didn’t have everybody on board with their project strategy before they started implementing action. Perhaps they were thinking too much about what would benefit them, instead of their client. They didn’t take time to build the client’s trust and confidence. And, in many cases, the result of this failure to stick to the basics was a consulting project that went poorly. This book is all about the basics of consulting. Every chapter is devoted to one or more of the steps in executing a project. Throughout, we have pointed out what consultants need to do to successfully accomplish each step. Among the basics we have emphasized is the need to clarify expectations, to write a strong initial proposal, to prepare thoroughly for every meeting, to diagnose the problem comprehensively, and to commit the client to action. Remembering these basics will keep you on target and help make you a successful consultant.
ESTABLISH SOLID RELATIONSHIPS
Of the consultants we interviewed, all of them mentioned that another principle to success is to build solid, trusted relationships. One consultant said “It’s all about relationships.” As should be clear from the cases and examples in this book, for a project to succeed, there must be trust between the consultant and the client, just as there must in any successful relationship. Not surprisingly, before a client will want you to work on any of the pieces of a project, there will have to be a great deal of trust between you and the client. Without trust, the relationship—and, therefore, your work as a consultant—cannot go forward. After all, the client is putting an organization’s future in your hands. The client can do this only if there is a great deal of trust in both your abilities and your motives. In our “From the Experts …” section in this last chapter, Raj Tatta, a partner at Price water house Coopers, effectively explains the importance of developing strong relationships with clients. Tatta claims that consultants cannot be truly
successful without caring for their clients and building strong and lasting relationships. Consistent with our next principle for success, Tatta also notes there is nothing more important than serving your client.
FOCUS ON HELPING THE CLIENT
As one successful consultant reminded us, “Never, ever, forget that you are here to serve the client and to help the client move the organization to a higher level of effectiveness.” This summarizes the next success guideline. Consulting is a service or helping profession. The client’s interests must always come first. It is not about completing a contract or selling the client a product but rather it is about moving the organization to a higher level of effectiveness. Some people have likened the relationship between consultant and client to that of a medical doctor and patient. The patient goes to the doctor hoping to become healthier, either by correcting a problem or improving his or her lifestyle. The doctor diagnoses the problem and recommends a treatment strategy until the patient achieves his or her objectives and is
Heal their. In the process, re diagnosis may be necessary, to clarify that the doctor has the diagnosis right or to identify a different diagnosis. The doctor may also need to make adjustments in treatment, even after it’s begun. Regardless, throughout the process, the doctor is expected to remain committed to the patient and to improving the patient’s health. Several of the consultants we interviewed mentioned that a similar relationship exists between consultants and their clients. There should be no
question that you are 100% in the client’s corner. Your commitment is to help the organization improve. And if the tasks agreed on in the contract aren’t delivering the expected outcomes, then you need to think things through from the client’s perspective and redesign the intervention (and the contract). The client’s interests must always come before your own. In the long term, this approach will also best serve your interests, because commitment and trust are also the keys to repeat business.
ALWAYS PLAY IT STRAIGHT
Another key principle identified by the successful consultants we interviewed was related to ethical behavior. “Play it straight,” “Keep above From the Experts … Building Strong Consultant–Client Relationships at PricewaterhouseCoopers by Raj Tatta, Partner, Price water house Coopers An important truism in business is that people only buy from people they like and trust. This is the case whether they’re buying products or services. This is particularly true if the product or service does not have a significant differentiator, in either quality or price. In other words, in any service profession, such as consulting, relationship skills are critical to success. Most important, your clients need to like you and trust you. This takes time and concerted effort. Customers cannot like you if they don’t have a chance to get to know you. Therefore, you have to constantly look for ways to let your clients get to know you better. They have to see you in action—as a human being and as a professional. They have to conclude that you (and your organization) are the kind they want to do business with. You need to find out their interests and hobbies, the organizations they belong to, and so on, and show interest in them as human beings. The second aspect of the adage above is trust. Developing trust is even more difficult than getting clients to like you. It has been my experience that, for a relationship with a client to be successful, the client has to first trust you as a human being—your values, your integrity, and so forth. They also have to trust you as a professional. But, while fully recognizing that you’re a business person intent on making money, the relationship with the client has to come before reaping immediate financial gains. This means that you must deliver on time as promised and act in your clients’ interests each and every time. Instead of a supplier or a vendor, you have to become a trusted business adviser.
Nothing is more important than serving your client. At Price water house Coopers; we call it obsession with client service. The fact is that the vast majority of services you offer can’t be distinguished from those of your competitors’. You can, however, achieve differentiation by adding value. Make sure that your client understands and appreciates the value you have added. This reaffirms the client’s selection of you both in his or here yes and in the eyes of the entire client organization. Finally, try to have close personal relationships with your client. Without personal relationships, your clients won’t discuss their business plans or their problems/issues, thereby denying you the opportunity to be of service. Good relationships with clients often lead to friendships. We all know that we go the extra mile for friends, and our friends do the same for us. As important, we have more fun working with our friends. Therefore, when relationships with clients are based on friendship and engender a spirit of partnership, the resulting synergy creates the greatest value to both the buying and the selling organizations. board,” and “Always take the high road” were common themes. We’re reminded of the devastating experience of Arthur Anderson, who got “sucked into” a client scheme and ultimately undertook illegal behaviors
that nearly brought down the whole organization. The consultants we spoke with (fortunately) noted they rarely faced unethical situations. Their caution to students or new consultants was that if something smells fishy in the entry stage of the project, put up your guard, and never be afraid to turn down a consulting project that doesn’t feel right from the beginning—most times, the situation doesn’t get better over time but only gets worse. These consultants noted that it is not worth the risk to you or your reputation to undertake unethical behaviors. It will not help the client in the long run, and it will not help your career. Probably the best help you can be to the client in questionable situations is to assist them in taking the high road and avoiding anything that smacks of unethical behavior. If the client
Insists on going ahead, and you are uncomfortable with the decisions, then it is time to leave the project. There are several professional consulting associations that have established codes of conduct that apply to the consulting profession (e.g., the Institute of Management Consulting). If you ever have questions regarding the ethics of either your behavior or the client’s behavior, these codes provide a valuable resource to help answer your questions.
ENJOY THE WORK!
“Have fun!” “Enjoy your work!” “Don’t take yourself too seriously!” We heard this advice frequently from the consultants we interviewed. Successful consultants enjoy what they do, and their enjoyment affects the people with whom they work. Everyone feels more energetic and eager to get things done when the people involved in a project are upbeat and positive. Maintaining a positive, cheerful demeanor will reap rewards in the long run, too. Wouldn’t you rather work with someone again with whom you had fun?
The consultants we spoke to also were quick to point out the personal rewards of consulting. As an effective consultant, you have the potential to positively affect the culture of a work unit or division by helping the people you’re working with recognize the benefits they’ll gain by making changes. You also have the opportunity to help them succeed as they implement changes. Helping others in this way can be a lot of fun—and a cause for celebrating and feeling a great sense of pride. You have truly affected the course of other people’s work lives, as well, perhaps, of an organization’s earnings. And, as all our consultants hastened to add, you can get paid handsomely for providing this service.
Consulting is a great profession. You’re likely to meet great people, some of whom may become lifelong friends. You’ll get to work on a variety of projects and studies. No two consulting projects are alike. Each project provides new challenges and approaches and enables you to use your creativity. The variety of the work and the people you’ll meet makes the consulting business exciting and fun. We sincerely hope you have gained a lot of practical advice from reading this book. Equally important, however, we hope you have come to recognize the impact you can have as a consultant on individuals and organizations. Consultants can significantly enhance the work lives of departments, divisions, and entire organizations. When this happens, not only is a product or service improved but so too are the lives of individual workers. What can be more rewarding than that! Good luck! We wish you the best of success and enjoyment in this exciting profession.
FIVE KEY BASIC SUCCESS PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE CONSULTING
1. Remember the basics.
2. Establish solid relationships.
3. Focus on helping the client.
4. Always play it straight.
5. Enjoy the work.
DATE: 03-04-2010
MOBILE POLICY
Introduction
The objective of this policy is to facilitate the Employees in their jobs by increasing communication within the organization and especially with the customers and to prevent them from the hassle of purchasing Sim Cards / Hand Sets.
Objective
This policy has been introduced to:
define clearly who is entitled to a cell phone and how the costs of purchasing the asset plus ancillary equipment, and the rental and call costs will be met.
streamline statement administration and payment, and the reimbursement of the costs of business calls.
Applicability
Employees at the level of executive of special duties and Managers.
Employees who by virtue of their function have a constant need to be in contact with other employees and to attend external customers or office work through mobile phone.
When Sim + mobile allotted to employee
Reimbursement rules
• Company is entitled to pay monthly rental charges + taxes + call charges up to a limit as per the grades & perks.
• Bill amount exceeding other than official calls should be recovered by the employees.
• Expenses in excess of approve limits can be reimbursed only on approval from their immediate reporting authority.
• At top management levels reimbursement can be direct and full.
Mode of Reimbursement
• Direct payment by the company to the service provider.
• Monthly reimbursement to employee on presentation of detailed bills.
• Excess amount of bills other than official calls can be charged by employee in cash/ cheque of debited to their salary.
• Prepaid card of some limits defined as per grades can be given + lifetime free incoming calls.
Safety rules
• Handset should be insured.
• In case of handset damaged / lost (non - insured) cost should be recovered from the employees.
Operative Guidelines
• Where providing of such facility is warranted, formal approval will be sought.
• Asset purchased form duly signed by HR head.
• Cell Phone authorization letter needs to be filled.
• Cost of mobile should be within entitlement.
• Replacement of handset by existing employees can be done after expiry of…………..period.
• Employees are liable for safety of the phone.
• In case of employee separation from company, sim + set to be surrendered to the company by employee.
• Full and final settlement of employee will be put on hold until the sim & set is not surrendered.
Advantages
• Easy accessibility to all employees.
• Employee benefit – reducing effort of buying sim +set.
• Company can save the cost by purchasing the same corporate plan and set for all employees.
• Employees will get a connection at low cost.
• Free group calling.
When only sim is allotted
• Set cost is saved.
• Selling of used phone and purchasing of new phones transactions are not needed.
Sim + some % of cost of mobile in cash as per the entitlement
• Reduction in purchasing formalities.
Disadvantages
• Increase in paper formality.
• Support documentation leads to increase in cost (in terms of labour, stationary and efforts).
• Employees refusal in case of used phone.
When only sim is allotted
• Employees may not take interest in purchasing a mobile set.
Sim + some % of cost of mobile in cash as per the entitlement
• Increase in feeling in inequality in employees
No Sim, No mobile from Company
• Company can contact to the service provider for employees facility.
• Company can pay first time installation charges.
• Service provider will intimate officially to the company about the number being allotted to an employee.
• All the formalities related to support document will be done by the company only.
• Employees will contact directly or company can act as initial link between the service provider and the employees (like in case of salary account)
Reimbursement rules
• Reimbursement can be done upto a limit as per the entitlement after presentation of detailed bills.
• For top management, bills can be reimbursed fully.
Advantages
• All the documentation will be done through service provider leads to reducing the cost and saving of time, which can be used in some other important work of the company.
• Reduce filing and recording work.
• Saving of sim and set cost.
• No need to employees to surrender the no. or set on parting from the services.
• Employees will get low rate of calling.
• Company will get benefits in terms of free calling between the group.
• Handset insurance formalities will also not require, leading to saving of cost.
The total expenses on mobile phone claim can not exceed the limits as given below:
1. Top management: upto Rs. ………/- per month (full reimbursement).
2. Sr. Mgr and Mangers : upto Rs ……………/-Per Month.
3. Executives upto Rs…………./-Per Month.
Cost / Value of Mobile at different levels:
Category 1
Top management : - Actual Payment.
- Fixed amount range between (Rs. X - Y).
Category 2
Senior Manager to Manager : Between Rs. X – Y.
Category 3
Senior Executives to Executives : Between Rs. X – Y.
Mobile / Blackberry / Data card Request Form
Name _________________________________ Emp. Code: _____________________
Designation ________________________Location ____________________________
Department: _______________________Date: _______________________________
I have read the policy on Mobile Connection for Employees and I shall abide myself to policy. Please issue me an activated SIM with following requirements.
STD REQUIRED: YES / NO
ISD REQUIRED: YES / NO
ROAMING REQUIRED: YES / NO
HARDWARE REQUEST YES / NO
Justification:
Employee’s Signature: _____________________
APPROVAL
Approved by HOD Approved by HR & Admin
Remarks:
(Approval for General Manager and above would not be required)
OFFICE USE
Handset Model & cost: Serial No.
Data Card No. Date of Issuance:
Handset No. Mobile Connection Number
Signature of Admin Incharge
EMPLOYEE DECLARATION
I have received the Mobile Connection No._______________ and Handset bearing no. (if applicable)___________. I hereby declare that I will be responsible and accountable for the safety of the Mobile handset alongwith activated connection, and in the case of loss/theft/damage, I will report immediately to Administration and shall pay the due amount to the Company. I also declare that this Mobile connection issued to me will be used by me only.
Employee’s signature: _______________________ Date: ______________________
Copies of this form to be forwarded by Administration Incharge to:
1) Finance & Accounts,
2) Purchase,
3) HR (Personal file)
LEAVE POLICY
Purpose
The objective of this policy is to explain the leave entitlement and procedure for availing leave. You are eligible to the following leave benefits.
Annual / Earned Leave
Our annual vacation plan is designed to provide you with the opportunity to rest and get away from the everyday routine. You are entitled to annual leave of up to 15 working days in a calendar year. The EL will be accrued only after the completion of each year. You shall be entitled to earned leave only on confirmation of services.
Un availed earned leaves if any for the year can be carried over to the next year. However you can carry over a maximum of 10 ELs only. An employee, once entitled for Earned leave, is advised to avail at least minimum of 5 days leave per annum. In order to satisfy your preference and to meet the staffing needs of your department, you are advised to discuss your vacation plans at least two weeks in advance with your reporting manager.
Leave Encashment
Earned leave can be accumulated from year to year, up to a maximum of 60 working days at any given time. Any leaves over and above 15 can be claimed for encashment. Earned leave payment would be calculated as per the current Basic salary.
Casual / Sick Leave
You are entitled to casual/Sick leave of up to 12 working days in a calendar year. This leave is for an employee to attend to his/her personal tasks, etc. The leave has to be applied and approved at least 2 days in advance.
Not more than 2 consecutive days of leave will be approved in the case of CL. This leave has to be consumed in the same year, else is lapsed on 31st December every year.
Maternity Leave
Female employees who have been working with the company for not less than 90 days will be eligible for 90 days of paid maternity leave, up to two confinements. To facilitate arrangements for cover of duties, application for maternity leave will have to be made not less than two months prior to the date of commencement of leave.
Absence from work due to miscarriage or any other illness arising out of pregnancy will not be considered as maternity leave, but as normal medical leave. Employees covered under ESI, shall govern as per the ESI guidelines.
Paternity Leave
Male Employees will be granted paternity leave for 2 working days. The leave should be availed within three weeks time of the birth of the child. This will be applicable up to a maximum of two confinements.
Special Leave
As an employee friendly organization, an employee can avail one day leave over and above the other leaves above mentioned for one special occasion. This can be either his/her birthday or wedding anniversary only.
Compensatory Offs
An employee who has worked on a holiday is eligible for a compensatory off. However, this has to be approved by the Reporting Manager with appropriate justification for such extra work and efforts.
Holidays
Holidays commemorating events of national, social and religious significance are offered to employees. Apart from scheduled weekend/ earned & casual leaves there are 10days declared as paid holidays every year.
Holidays list will be put up every year in January and accordingly applicable.
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
These are the few questions I could find for Performance Appraisal
Name of the employee:
Designation :
Department :
Date of joining :
The answers for all these questions are rated on 1-5 scale.
1. Can you briefly explain the role of your current job
2. Were you given the job specifications of your job
3. What are the competencies do you think is required to perform the job
4. Do you think you match the competencies and skills required to the current job
If yes, How do rate yourself to be fit for this job.
5. Do you feel that any training is required to improve your skills?
6. What are the key result areas ( KRA’s)
7. You perform your job with No supervision/ minimum supervision/ always need help from the supervisor/ seeks guidance from supervisors only when the issues are critical
8. How do you rate youself in these aspects : Attendence / Descipline / Punctuality/ sincerity / Commitment to work
9. Given an opportunity to you, which areas would you like to suggest the management to improve in the current job.
10. Are you able to meet the deadlines every time. If not, how many times you extended the period. If possible, can you specify the reason for doing so.
11. Did you ever help your colleagues to perform their job .
12. How do you ratete your overall performance
Based on the facts, the supervisor should appraise.
Difference between HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
&
Traditional PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
Definition
Personnel Management - Personnel Management is thus basically an administrative record-keeping function, at the operational level. Personnel Management attempts to maintain fair terms and conditions of employment, while at the same time, efficiently managing personnel activities for individual departments etc. It is assumed that the outcomes from providing justice and achieving efficiency in the management of personnel activities will result ultimately in achieving organizational success.
Human Resource Development - Human resource management is concerned with the development and implementation of people strategies, which are integrated with corporate strategies, and ensures that the culture, values and structure of the organization, and the quality, motivation and commitment of its members contribute fully to the achievement of its goals.
HRM is concerned with carrying out the SAME functional activities traditionally performed by the personnel function, such as HR planning, job analysis, recruitment and selection, employee relations, performance management, employee appraisals, compensation management, training and development etc. But, the HRM approach performs these functions in a qualitatively DISTICNT way, when compared with Personnel Management.
Main Differences between Personnel Management and HRM
• Personnel management is workforce centered, directed mainly at the organization’s employees; such as finding and training them, arranging for them to be paid, explaining management’s expectations, justifying management’s actions etc. While on the other hand, HRM is resource –centered, directed mainly at management, in terms of devolving the responsibility of HRM to line management, management development etc.
• Although indisputably a management function, personnel management has never totally identified with management interests, as it becomes ineffective when not able to understand and articulate the aspirations and views of the workforce, just as sales representatives have to understand and articulate the aspirations of the customers.
• Personnel Management is basically an operational function, concerned primarily with carrying out the day-to day people management activities. While on the other hand, HRM is strategic in nature, that is, being concerned with directly assisting an organization to gain sustained competitive advantage.
HRM is more proactive than Personnel Management. Whereas personnel management is about the maintenance of personnel and administrative systems, HRM is about the forecasting of organizational needs, the continual monitoring and adjustment of personnel systems to meet current and future requirements, and the management of change.
27 Points of Difference between Personnel Management & HRD
S. No.
Dimension Personnel Management Human Resource Development
Beliefs & Assumptions
1. Contract Careful delineation of written contracts Aim to go ‘beyond contracts’
2. Rules Importance of devising clear rules/mutuality ‘Can-do’ outlook; impatience with ‘rule’
3. Guide to management Action Procedures ‘Business – need’
4. Behaviour Referent Norms/custom & practice Values/Mission
5. Managerial Task vis-à-vis Labour Monitoring Nurturing
6. Nature of Relations Pluralist Unitarist
7. Conflict Institutionalized De-emphasized
STRATEGIC ASPECTS
8. Key Relations Labour Management Customer
9. Initiatives Piecemeal Integrated
10. Corporate Plan Marginal to Central to
11. Speed of Decision Slow Fast
LINE MANAGEMENT
12. Management Role Transactional Transformational leadership
13. Key Managers Personnel/IR Specialists General/business/line managers
14. Communication Indirect Direct
15. Standardisation High (e.g. ‘parity’ an issue) Low (e.g. ‘parity’ not seen as relevant)
16. Prized management skills Negotiation Facilitation
KEY LEVERS
17. Selection Separate, marginal task Integrated, key task
18. Pay Job Evaluation (fixed grades) Performance – related
19. Conditions Separately negotiated Harmonization
20. Labour Management Collective bargaining contracts Towards individual contracts
21. Thrust of relations Regularized through facilities & training Marginalized (with exception of some bargaining for change models)
22. Job categories & grades Many Few
23. Communication Restricted flow Increased flow
24. Job Design Division of Labour Teamwork
25. Conflict Handling Reach temporary truces Manage climate & culture
26. Training & Development Controlled access to courses Learning companies
27. Foci of attention of interventions Personnel procedures Wide ranging cultural, structural & personnel strategies
DATE:03-04-2010
INTERVIEW TIPS FOR EVERY ONE?
Tell me more about you ?
A crucial and one of the most common question in the interview is, 'What can you tell me about you?'. I don't think there is any interview that does not have this question thrown at the candidate, and I doubt there is one candidate who really is happy with this question. You are totally unbalanced when asked this question in the beginning of the interview. This is because you would wonder what would make the greatest impact on the interviewer when I talk about myself? And here is the most common mistake. You think the focus is on you and you will talk with the focus on you. However, in an interview the focus is never on you. It is on your fit with the company. If you keep this in mind the answer to this question will actually pave your way to the company employment rolls.
When asked to say something about yourself, you need to highlight in about 10-15 sentences your greatest skills that would benefit this company. However, you do not enumerate them, but showcase them to the interviewer by summarizing your best achievements in the recent past. Do allude to the company's products, needs, future plans amply indicating that you have researched the company before the interview, you are interested in its future and growth and you are convinced that you can contribute to its growth using your skills and experience.
Interview Question: Why do you want to work here?
You are facing the interview and things are going great. Just when you think it is about to finish, the interviewer asks, 'what are the reasons you want to work here?' If you are not prepared for this question ' it could be devastating. This is why it is imperative that you be prepared for this. How? By researching in the company, in its past, in its present, in its plans for future.
Though the answer is seemingly simple, i.e. you want to work there because it is a good place to work in and you can do a good job there, it actually is not so simple to put it across in such a way that it should boost your chances to land the job.
When you answer this question you should keep in mind that the aim of this interview is to find the best fit candidate for the job. Remember that everything that you say should centre on that aspect. Hence, when you answer this question you need to describe how your past experience, skills and expertise made you think that you could be an effective and efficient member of the company's team.
For example, if you are a good marketing strategist, you could mention how your past marketing techniques and negotiating skills have brought you success in your field, and how you think that such skills would be sharpened by the advanced know-how of the future organization where you could get better results.
Always use your answer to show that you know about the company, its products and requirements and you are ready to do what it takes to promote that goal. For this purpose you need to research well the company, goals, mission, vision its past five years financial performance and future plans. A person who is well informed about the company is very much interested in the company. This is the message that goes to the interviewer and this is the message that he/she should get.
Employers of big company's not only love to hear the company's praises, they expect it. Be sure that you include a bit of subtle flattery in your answer; however the flattery should be subtle as otherwise it will look cheap and backfire.
You can always say that the company has always been your dream company but did not apply till you thought that you have achieved a certain amount of skill set and experience so you could contribute to the growth and future of the company. You could say that till that time, though you searched for opportunity, you never got a job that would exactly fit to your skills set as well as the present job… and so on.
Keep in mind that whatever you say should focus on your fit with the company and not vice-versa. The interviewer should be left with the impression that you have done your homework and are convinced that you can be a useful part of the team. Project yourself as a willing and deserving candidate who can promote the aim and goals of the company. And that should be your answer, i.e. a person who want to be part of the company because they believe they can be part of its growth.
Answering the interview question: Why were you Fired?
If you were fired from you last job, for any reason whatsoever, you will definitely dread the 'why were you fired' questioned during an interview. However, as with all the questions that are asked in an interview, this too is a good chance to score high with the interviewer. When you answer the 'why were you fired' question keep in mind that the interviewer is trying to identify your problem areas. Hence, while giving the reason of being fired keep it as objective as possible and make it sound like you have learnt from the experience.
Do not badmouth the previous employer: However bad you previous boss was, if you say it, you are a whiner. Employees are supposed to toe in the line, and if you say anything wrong about your ex-boss it will be seen as your adjustment, authority and team working problems. Do not blame it on office politics: People who say that the they were fired because of dirty politics in the office, are prone to be misunderstood as escapists who are unable to handle conflict positively. A good worker is supposed to get around the office politics through high quality work.
Do not hide the real reasons: While trying to give a pleasant-to-hear answer do not hide the real reasons, i.e. if the company was going through financial problems, or if they were downsizing and found your position expendable, do not feel ashamed to say so. Emphasize how much you learnt from the past experience in the job and how much you look forward to move on. This will establish you as a mature person.
Do not blame incompatibility between you and your boss or your team members: A good worker will find ways to get along in the most difficult situations. Saying that you and your boss were incompatible may sound sophisticated, but in reality it reflects immaturity and an escapist attitude.
Do not tell lies: It is very important that you do not tell lies or make up any stories regarding the reason for firing. Firstly, because many times the employer checks out with your last work place. Secondly, for covering one lie you will find yourself telling a number of other lies to cover it. Even so, the truth has an uncanny way of popping up at the worst possible moments, and more often than not you will be embarrassed or even fired for misleading/inaccurate information.
The question, 'why were you fired' is a very delicate question which if handled well will make you look like a mature and responsible person, and if handled wrong will drastically reduce your chances to disqualify for the job.
The best way to answer this question in the right way is to be prepared for it. For this you need to practice and rehearse saying the reason in front of your friends, or anyone responsible who can give you accurate feedback on how you sound.
If you do not have an appropriate audience, then speak into a tape and listen to your voice tone and choice of words. You should not come across as bitter, whining, challenging or quarrelsome. Watch out for the tone and language when you describe the circumstances. You need to emphasize that you accept some responsibility of what happened, you gained from the experience and you are ready to use that to your advantage on the future jobs.
What Are Your Strengths and Weaknesses?
The question, 'what are your strengths and weaknesses' will come up in all interviews. And many times the answer to this question will give the interviewer the first real impression of your fit to the job. It is imperative to make a good impression during the interview and there is no better chance than when you have a direct invitation to state your strengths. However, when you do so, you should keep in mind what is the interviewer looking for and what qualities would the job require of you. In your answer you need to identify those exact strengths that best compliment the job for which you are appearing.
In order to do so effortlessly, you need to prepare well before the interview and be aware of what are the company goals overall and what the proposed job entails specifically. Strengths are classified in three main categories:
Technical skills: This include your education, and any knowledge-based skills that you have acquired, such computer skills, other languages known, additional and special training undertaken, technical qualifications, etc)
Soft skills: These include those traits you acquire from your past experience in different jobs, such as people management skills, conflict managing skills, analytical skills, planning and organizational skills, etc)
Personal skills: These are your inbuilt talent and skills, such as friendliness, dependability, good team worker, deadline oriented, etc)
Each job would need a good mix of the above strengths and based on your research on the company and job, and your actual strengths, you should give the closet package possible. To add to the impact, you should be ready to back your answer with specific examples.
In the question, 'what are your strengths and weaknesses' the second part is about weaknesses. This is one of the more difficult questions you will face as no one really wants to own up on their weak points. However, weaknesses too can be strengths if put correctly. The key to the best answer here is to stay fixed on the positive aspect, while minimizing the trait. For example, you could say 'I am sometimes too much concerned with details but I have learnt that delegation solves this aspect and I am using it often'. Your weakness should come out as a problem which is almost solved not a critical and hopeless trait that cannot be helped.
In order to answer well to the question, 'what are your strengths and weaknesses' you need to practice well before the interview so that you will come across as a person who is aware of his/her plus and minus points and their application in the proposed job. At the same time the answer should not come out as too rehearsed. This is why you should be ready to back up both your strengths and weaknesses statements with real-life specific examples.
When you finish, it should leave the impression that you are a person who is overall a good fit for the job, in spite of some small shortcomings.
How to explain your CV with out-of-work gaps
First of all, understand that having out-of-work gaps is not a big deal by itself. People are not comfortable with it because it looks that they were not productive for sometime, and that implies some sort of failure. Nothing could be further from truth - but the custom remains to hide or 'close' the gaps in the CV to have a continuous work-line. What can you do if you have gaps in your work line that you cannot really explain in lucrative terms. Easy - get them to lucrative terms:
You may like to say that you have been self-employed for some time, trying to set up a business for a friend, brother, father, etc - be prepared to answer some nitty-gritty's of the business you were self-employed at. Be careful to have a plausible explanation as to why you are seeking employment again. A good reply here would be that the business is now successfully handled by the friend, partner, father (or someone who could take over) and you are looking forward to pursue your main career goals
Another idea is to say you had volunteered to raising funds for some cause such as an orphan home, local community clean up, get a library fund, and so on. Here too be prepared for a lot of questions - so it will be good if you have some data and people to back you up on this.
You may also say that you are/ were in-between jobs and did some odd jobs to keep yourself afloat financially, till the right job came along. In this case, you will need to have the list of the odd jobs you worked at during the in-between period.
It is also possible and legitimate (as well as acceptable) to adjust against your spouse demanding career in order to support your children. Hence, you could always say that you had decided to stay with the children who were young, so your spouse could pursue his/her career. Now that the children are big, you are again looking to fulfil you career goals.
As a last resort - and not one that I would personally advise anyone to do - you could just fib saying that 'from the year so-and-so to present I was working in the following capacities' and enumerate you jobs without giving the years. It is possible that the employer assumes that your work is uninterrupted. However, such deceptions (however mild it may seem) can create a deep sense of mistrust when found out - hence it is advisable to always use the truth in your answers.
Look for normal, legitimate ways to bridge the gap. However, you should not worry too much if you cannot really carry it off. In that it is better to tell the truth directly (such as you could not get the right job) and highlight the fact the you would be a valuable asset to the company (do not be over eager when you say this - just act confident and sure of yourself
How do you explain a change in the career move?
When you want to have a career change, it is of course, your prerogative. However, you will still have to satisfy the curiosity of the would-employer as he/she would be measuring you in terms of your performance, stay with the company and other capabilities. Hence, you will owe an explanation to him/her as to what prompted you to want to change careers. While speaking it is easy - with the right preparation, to say it objectively why a career change took place - however, in writing it is a bit difficult to explain so it comes out clearly.
What you need to do to make your point clear enough so that you would be called for an interview:
write as concisely as possible about your educational qualifications and skills set; most people will concentrate on highlighting their skills sets as the best reason for switching careers; however your qualifications also could be a good direction pointer at times (for example you are an excellent office secretary/ personal assistant with a Master's degree in English and are good at PR work and communication training - you could make a good teacher for undergraduate students based on your high qualifications and excellent skills set) highlight your career objectives so the career move would look obvious (for example, in the above example if you have a career objective as 'to be a good trainer and/or educator in communication' then a teaching profession would fall in line - and not really look a too far away jump
highlight certain experiences in the past (during or outside the last job ) when you had experienced extreme satisfaction taking up different responsibilities, which actually had opened your eyes to your new talents - and these experiences motivated you to seek out jobs as the present one.
Ensure that you assure that you are confident that you will perform well in the new line of work and that a change in career based on the chosen reasons will actually help you grow professionally and personally, which in turn will make you a valuable addition to the company.
The above can be highlighted in the cover letter better than in the actual CV, while you carefully draw the attention of your prospective employer to the best attitudinal and technical skills set. The cover letter can also help you prepare the would-be employer to the difference in the experience and work history. Briefly explain in the cover letter why you think that a change in career would be good for you and why such a change would make you a valuable asset to the company.
Lastly, remember to highlight only those skills that will make you look as a good match for the present job. Do not dilute the fit, by adding all the irrelevant (to the present job) responsibilities and duties carried at the previous job, as this would actually show as a misfit. Highlight only what you need to make your candidature look as closely matched with the job applied for as possible.
DATE: 02-04-2010
Difference between Gross and CTC?
CTC (Cost to Company) means every single penny spent by the company on the employee i.e if you even have a coffee in your office the cost of it will be added in your remuneration, likewise transportation, gratuity and other benefits where as Gross salary include net salary + PF.
DATE: 02-03-2010
Ten Techniques to Motivate Employees
Motivation in the work environment has changed. Change has become the norm. Also the motivation level of employees has changed. This can lead to increased dissatisfaction and decreased productivity.
Here are ten techniques for motivating your employees to succeed during chaos:
1. Take Care of the Little Things to Motivate Others
Doing the little things well will show that you respect your employees. Making sure you are on time for meetings, saying “good morning” and “thank-you,” and returning phone calls and e-mails in a timely manner goes a long way to showing your employees that you care during chaotic times.
2. Be an Active Listener to Motivate Others
Recent research stated that the average supervisor or manager only invests two hours per year applying “pure listening” skills. Pure listening is when you are listening to your employee you are not:
• Multitasking
• Ordering your lunch
• Watching people walk by your office.
• Answering telephone calls
• setting up appointments
To be a pure listener you must be an active listener. Good managers do more than pay attention. They genuinely care about people and never talk down to them. They ask their employees about their goals and dreams, their past achievement, their concerns and challenges during this chaotic time. They listen with their hearts and minds. They respect the employee’s thoughts and opinions. They realize that the employees sometimes have the best answer for achieving more through chaos.
3. Walk Your Talk to Motivate Others
If you expect your employees to arrive early, then you arrive early. If you expect your employees to keep their promises, you keep your promises. If you want your employees to keep to high standards, you keep to high standards.
Your employees are watching you even when you don’t think they are watching you. So set the tone. Once you walk through the doors of your organization make sure you are positive and upbeat if you expect your employees to be positive and upbeat.
4. Let People Know They Make a Difference to Motivate Others
At the top of many lists of what motivates employees, more than money, is knowing that they make a difference at work. One of the most powerful methods of letting your employees know they make is difference is…praise (Go to article Appreciate to Motivate to learn how). The praise should relate to how the employee helps achieve the overall mission of the organization.
5. Communicate Clearly to Motivate Others
Communicate so that others understand what you want to achieve. Adapt your communication to the audience you are speaking. Constantly communicate your vision and goals so that there are no misunderstandings. The clearer the vision, the clearer the communication, the clearer the opportunity for success.
6. Help Employees Succeed to Motivate Others
People go to work to succeed, not fail. It is your job to understand your employee’s strengths and weaknesses so that you can put them in the best position to succeed. If, for example, you find out that an employee is lacking in a certain skill set to succeed during a change then provide the coaching and training to make them and your organization successful. The best managers minimize or eliminate their employees weaknesses and while building on their strengths. Remove any and all barriers to success.
7. Focus Your Team on the Goal to Motivate Others
Focus your employees on the end result, the overall team goal. Once you successful communicate this your team will band together to defeat any obstacles that get in the way.
8. Create High Standards to Motivate Others
High-performance organizations set high standards for their people. Employees want to know what is expected of them, how their performance is measured, and what rewards they can expect when they exceed the standard. Make sure the standards are consistently applied to each employee. Make sure each employee understands how the standards are measured so that they know how to reach it. As each plateau is reached, set new goals.
9. Help Your Employees Compete and Win to Motivate Others
Develop goals that help all your employees excel. Make your goals inclusive not exclusive. This means that everybody is working together and wins together. Have your employees complete against the goal, not each other.
10. Reward Outstanding Achievement to Motivate Others
Find ways to recognize your achievers in a public way. The more you reward employees for excellent achievement, the more you receive more of the same behavior. Make sure you are consistent with the way you contribute rewards to your employees. Very important, make use you communicate exactly why the employee is being rewarded. And last, reward as soon as possible to the action.
Some of the ways you can show recognition are:
• Idea board
• Initiative Board
• Star Spotlight
• Certificates
• Gift cards
• Say thank-you
• Lunch
Apply these motivation techniques and you will motivate the employees to achieve your goals during the most challenging of times.
Getting Ready for the Appraisal
It is that time again. Everyone from the foot soldier to the top guy, is getting ready to receive their report card. You have done all that you could ( or even more) in last 11 months, and now you will come to know the result of those efforts in terms of the benefits and rewards that you have earned.
But before that,
- have you ensured that your Boss knows what you have done ?
- Does He/She have the full measure as to how well you have justified your role ?
- Do they have all the details of your hard work and contribution ?
- Have they clearly interpreted the results as well as efforts ?
And Most Importantly
- Do you have the full account of what you want them to know ?
- have you done enough to convince them and to form the right perception ?
If you have taken care of these questions and have the appropriate stuff to highlight your achievements, you are done. If you have not however, it may still not be too late to make that last-minute effort. Here’s how you can do it
Step 1: Write down all the Goals/Result Areas that you were supposed to deliver on
Step 2: Make a list of all your achievements/Contribution- however big or small; (ensure all the numbers that you mention are checked and reconciled)
Step 3: Map these achievements to the Goals /Achievements in step 1 and what ever is unmapped is what you have done beyond what you were expected of;
Step 4: Write a note about what new you learnt during the year and how it has helped you in delivering your Goals. Do not forget to mention the contribution of your Appraiser in your Learning ( no, I am not asking you to be a sycophant, mention genuine points)
Step 5: Mention specific instances where you demonstrated qualities which are essential for that coveted next level
Step 6: Mention how you have contributed to development of your team members and those in other teams too
Step 7: Once you have this small document (if you have really justified yourselves, this should be about 3-4 pages long), Ask for a personal meeting with your supervisor and take him through this note. Also send a soft copy (preferably pdf). Remember, This document has to be Objective & Factual and should be in plain simple english, no flowery language here.
Step 8: Keep the focus in the meeting on the self ( no comparison with anyone else) and keep the discussion towards how you can do more & better next year.
Step 9: Ask for specific feedback and DO NOT BE DEFENSIVE while listening to the feedback
Remember, Appraisal process is a opportunity to showcase yourselves. It is also a process of negotiation with your Appraiser. If you do your homework well and have all the facts ready with you, you will have a smooth sail and a tension-free appraisal.
DATE:27-02-2010
Revise Income-tax Rates in Union Budget 2010-2011
In a relief to individual tax payers, the government on Friday changed the slabs cutting the rate to 10 percent for income up to Rs 5 lakh, while leaving the threshold limit for tax-free income unchanged at Rs 1.6 lakh.
In the revised tax slab there will be no tax till Rs 1.6 Lakh.
For Income between Rs 1.6 Lakh to Rs 5 Lakh it will attract 10 percent tax limit.
For income between Rs 5 lakh and 8 lakh, 20 perecnt tax rate will be applicable.
For Income above Rs 8 Lakh a rate of 30 percent will be levied.
The tax concessions would put more money in the hands of Consumers.
In a fillip to savings, deduction of additional amount of Rs 20,000 in long term infrastructure bonds over existing limit of one Lakh will also be allowed.
Income Tax Surcharge has been reduced to 7.5 percent on domestic companies.
However the Minimum Alternative Tax MAT has been increased to 18 percent.
In a relief to small businessmen and professionals audit limits have been increased.
While for businessmen it has been hiked to Rs 60 lakh for professionals it has been hiked to Rs 15 lakh.
Presumptive taxation limit for small businessmen has also been hiked to Rs 60 Lakh.
A Simple two page SARAL –II form for individual salaried tax payers for the coming assessment year will be introduced.
Excise / Custom Front
Union Finance Minister also announced implementation of single goods and Services Tax GST rollout by April 2011.
On the excise front Pranab Mukherjee announced a partial rollback of fiscal stimulus package.
He proposed enhancement of central excise tax to 10 percent on non petroleum products.
Excise duty of One rupee per litre has been levied on petrol and diesel.
Basic duty of five percent has been levied on crude oil while 7.5 percent rate will be applicable on diesel and petrol.
Other refined products will attract 10 percent custom duty While Ad valorem component of excise duty on large cars, MUVs and SUVs has been increased by 2 percent to 22 percent, for toy ballons excise duty has been exempted.
Structural changes with some increase in excise rates on cigarettes and cigars has been proposed.
Excise duty on all non smoking tobacco will also be enhanced.
Project import status will be granted to Monorails projects for urban transport at an concessional custom duty of 5 percent.
Duty Exemptions for domestic production of mobiles and accessories has been extended to parts of battery chargers and hands free headphones.
In a simplification of duties levied on medical instruments and appliances , Finance Minister has proposed a concessional and simplified 5 percent duty on such equipments.
Concessional custom duty of 5 percent duty has been proposed for Digital Head End equipments for fillip to digital cable distribution.
While Customs duty on gold , silver and platinum has been hiked.
For Rhodium, microwave components it has been reduced.
Customs limit for personal baggage has been hiked to Rs 3 Lakh.
Service Tax To maintain growth momentum and bring about a convergence in the rates of tax on goods and services, Pranab Mukherjee retained the 10 percent service tax rate.
Accredited News Agencies who meet certain criteria have been exempted from service tax net.
Agriculture & power Taxation
Series of excise, Customs and Service Tax concessions have been proposed to boost agriculture storage, production and food processing.
Project import status with concessional 5 percent duty has been given for setting up mechanized handling systems in warehouses, cold storages, processing units.
Full service tax exemption for installation and commissioning of such equipments has also been provided.
Full exemption from customs duty to refrigeration units for manufacturing of refrigerated vans and trucks has been provided.
Concessional 5 percent customs duty for specified agricultural machinery and excise exemption for preservation, storage & processing of agriculture has been proposed.
Transporation of cereals and pulses have been exempted from the ambit of service tax.
To give boost to clean and renewable energy sources, budget proposes to levy a clean energy cess on coal produced in India at a rate of 50 Rupees per tonne.
Concessional 5 percent customs duty during initial setting up of photovoltaic and solar generating units machinery has been proposed.
Wind energy rotor blades have been exempted from excise.
LED lights to attract minimal 4 percent excise.
Environmental friendly rickshaw named Soleckshaw to be under concessional 4 percent excise duty.
Total expenditure in 2010-11 pegged at Rs 11, 08,749 crore, Net revenue gained from Direct and Indirect tax has been put at Rs 20,500 crore.
Fiscal deficit is projected at 5.5 percent while revenue deficit has beenput at 4 percent.
DATE:24-02-2010
under the ESI Scheme in its 149th meeting held on Friday under the chairmanship of Union Minister of Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge.
http://www.powerbuzz.in/View_News_details.asp?auth_id=5628
Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Harish Rawat and the vice-chairman, ESIC, were also present in the meeting.
Keeping in view the increase in cost of living index and recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour, the corporation increased the wage ceiling limit for coverage of the employees under the ESI Scheme.
This will help the corporation to provide social security net to more and more employees of the organized sector.
ESI Corporation approves Enhancement of Wage Ceiling Limit from Rs.10,000/- to Rs. 15,000/-
QUERY From an Corporate Employee(Please comment on this ,bottom on this page)
Every one says that it very nice steps. May i know that How it is good and useful to all. if you calculate the amount on 14500 pm - Employee Contribution 1.75% = Rs. 254 and Employers @4.75% = Rs. 689 total amount will pay =254+689= Rs. 943 very month it means =943*12=Rs. 11316 per annum.
If you see point view on facility ESIC not provide good service for the same. for example if you go for any treatment. you will wait for 1 hours to 2 hours after they forward you to another Dr. or another Department then you will go for Dispensary to take your medicane it will take 1 to 2 hours in q.
One question to all of you How many employee take benefits from ESIC?
As per my view only 25 %. I was covered ESIC around 2 years but i have not go for any treatment in between the period.
if you invest such amount at Mediclaim you can get more and good facility comparison to ESIC. you will invest only around 3000 per annum.
I am not a client of Medical Claim company but i am employee of PVT Ltd. co. as HR- Executive.
As per my view it is not good for us. What is your views please reply to us.
DATE: 22-02-2010
16 STEPS TO
FORMULATE AND IMPLEMENT
AN EFFECTIVE TRAINING PLAN
If life in your training department is not running as smoothly as you’d like, first you need to conduct a needs analysis to find out how your department handles organization, communication, and scheduling. Once you have determined what problems need to be fixed, the next step is designing a plan of action. This article will discuss how to formulate and implement an effective plan.
I. Communication Within The Department
The communications portion of the repair plan concerns all aspects of communication in your training group between individual trainers, training managers, and other departments in your company. Poor communication is the root of many problems, so solving these problems will go a long way toward improving your working conditions.
II. Talk Among Trainers
Sharing ideas with colleagues is one of the best ways for trainers to improve their skills. Trainers should get together for an informal session at least twice a month to discuss problems, ideas, new classes, future training needs, etc. These sessions, which should be scheduled at a consistent time, can be face-to-face meetings, group meetings in someone’s office, or a meeting online using a chat room or Internet meeting software such as IE Net Meeting.
III. Meetings With The Manager
The sooner you address problems in your department, the better. Trainers who have regular meetings with their manager are more likely to bring up problems that can be quickly addressed. These meetings can also promote a more cohesive department by keeping a manager in touch with trainers and their concerns about what is going on in the classroom.
IV. Within the department
The key point here is consistency: pick a method of communication and use it regularly. Options include communication by computer using a folder in your department’s directory on the network, a bulletin board in common areas, or an e-mail sent to all trainers.
V. Soliciting feedback
Establish a written policy for ideas, complaints, and suggestions about the department. This keeps the flow of ideas going and promotes improvements in both training and the department in general. Post a suggestion box, an idea box, and a problem box somewhere in the department, and let the trainers know they are free to use the boxes with no repercussions. Then, at the weekly staff meetings, pull out the suggestions, ideas, and complaints, and address the issues.
How do you find out what trainers are thinking about their job, their classes, and their manager? Do you let people submit anonymous criticisms? How do you address these comments? Tell us how you handle feedback from your staff.
VI. Student surveys
A good survey is an all-around effective tool. They can be useful in determining a trainer’s effectiveness and, if kept in a database, can be queried over time to track trends.
VII. Organization of materials and classroom
If you look around your department and can’t find handouts or schedules quickly, you may need to reorganize. This plan should include training materials and work schedules.
VIII. Materials
All training materials should be kept in an easy-to-access, organized area. There should be a table or shelf nearby so materials can be organized on the spot. There should be enough materials (handouts, surveys, tests, etc.) available for a minimum of two weeks of training, and everything should be clearly labeled.
IX. Designing materials
Following a set format for training materials results in a consistent, professional look. It also makes it easy for trainers to produce new handouts or manuals. The training manager should create a style guide stating the guidelines to follow when selecting fonts, using graphics, and deciding on other design elements.
X. Transporting equipment
Not every training department has its own classroom. Many departments have to transport their materials, including hubs, laptops, cables, etc, from one class location to another. If you fit this description, buy a cart to make this task easier. There are now carts available that lock and can hold all your equipment, cables, and handouts in a neat and organized fashion. Another option is to store equipment in a shared training room in a cabinet that you can lock.
XI. Organizing the equipment
One person should be assigned to keep materials in order, or a rotating schedule should be created to spread the responsibility among the trainers. This person should check once a week to ensure that there is a two-week supply of materials, and refresh the supply as needed. A good practice is to check materials after lunch on Friday, so materials can be replenished that afternoon and be ready for the next week’s classes.
If your training materials are in electronic format, it’s a good idea to make one person responsible for updating the files and creating new ones.
XII. Organizing the classroom
If you decide to standardize your classroom setup, make a diagram of the room that is easy to follow and keep it with your training materials.
XIII. Scheduling trainers and classes
Communication and organization are key to any organization, but managing classes and trainers is what you really have to get right. If this part of your department is in good order, your trainers will be happy and your classes will be productive.
XIV. Instructor schedule
Nothing can create chaos more quickly than not having enough trainers to provide coverage for scheduled classes. Trainers should be rotated through all classes so that everyone receives cross training and can fill in as needed.
“Off time,” when trainers do not have a scheduled class to teach, is an important part of the schedule too. Trainers can spend this time developing new training plans, sitting in on other classes, or learning new technology. Finally, there should be a minimum of one trainer scheduled for "off time" on any week so that your department is always prepared with a trainer able to fill in during emergencies.
XV. Class schedule
Someone, usually the training manager or departmental support staff, should be responsible for maintaining and posting the department’s training schedule. A hard copy of the month's schedule should be posted in a common area, and an electronic copy should be posted in a training public folder on the network.
XVI. Get started!
Now that your plan is in place, assign someone to complete each task, and set a deadline. Have regular meetings to monitor progress and to address any problems that come up. Put the plan into action, and watch for needed changes. Make notes, and keep track of what's going on. Congratulations, your nightmare training department is one step closer to becoming a dream.
50 COMMON INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Review these typical interview questions and think about how you would answer them. Read the questions listed; you will also find some strategy suggestions with it.
1. Tell me about yourself:
The most often asked question in interviews. You need to have a short statement prepared in your mind. Be careful that it does not sound rehearsed. Limit it to work-related items unless instructed otherwise. Talk about things you have done and jobs you have held that relate to the position you are interviewing for. Start with the item farthest back and work up to the present.
2. Why did you leave your last job?
Stay positive regardless of the circumstances. Never refer to a major problem with management and never speak ill of supervisors, co-workers or the organization. If you do, you will be the one looking bad. Keep smiling and talk about leaving for a positive reason such as an opportunity, a chance to do something special or other forward-looking reasons.
3. What experience do you have in this field?
Speak about specifics that relate to the position you are applying for. If you do not have specific experience, get as close as you can.
4. Do you consider yourself successful?
You should always answer yes and briefly explain why. A good explanation is that you have set goals, and you have met some and are on track to achieve the others.
5. What do co-workers say about you?
Be prepared with a quote or two from co-workers. Either a specific statement or a paraphrase will work. Jill Clark, a co-worker at Smith Company, always said I was the hardest workers she had ever known. It is as powerful as Jill having said it at the interview herself.
6. What do you know about this organization?
This question is one reason to do some research on the organization before the interview. Find out where they have been and where they are going. What are the current issues and who are the major players?
7. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
Try to include improvement activities that relate to the job. A wide variety of activities can be mentioned as positive self-improvement. Have some good ones handy to mention.
8. Are you applying for other jobs?
Be honest but do not spend a lot of time in this area. Keep the focus on this job and what you can do for this organization. Anything else is a distraction.
9. Why do you want to work for this organization?
This may take some thought and certainly, should be based on the research you have done on the organization. Sincerity is extremely important here and will easily be sensed. Relate it to your long-term career goals.
10. Do you know anyone who works for us?
Be aware of the policy on relatives working for the organization. This can affect your answer even though they asked about friends not relatives. Be careful to mention a friend only if they are well thought of.
11. What kind of salary do you need?
A loaded question. A nasty little game that you will probably lose if you answer first. So, do not answer it. Instead, say something like, That's a tough question. Can you tell me the range for this position? In most cases, the interviewer, taken off guard, will tell you. If not, say that it can depend on the details of the job. Then give a wide range.
12. Are you a team player?
You are, of course, a team player. Be sure to have examples ready. Specifics that show you often perform for the good of the team rather than for yourself are good evidence of your team attitude. Do not brag, just say it in a matter-of-fact tone. This is a key point.
13. How long would you expect to work for us if hired?
Specifics here are not good. Something like this should work: I'd like it to be a long time. Or As long as we both feel I'm doing a good job.
14. Have you ever had to fire anyone? How did you feel about that?
This is serious. Do not make light of it or in any way seem like you like to fire people. At the same time, you will do it when it is the right thing to do. When it comes to the organization versus the individual who has created a harmful situation, you will protect the organization. Remember firing is not the same as layoff or reduction in force.
15. What is your philosophy towards work?
The interviewer is not looking for a long or flowery dissertation here. Do you have strong feelings that the job gets done? Yes. That's the type of answer that works best here. Short and positive, showing a benefit to the organization.
16. If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?
Answer yes if you would. But since you need to work, this is the type of work you prefer. Do not say yes if you do not mean it.
17. Have you ever been asked to leave a position?
If you have not, say no. If you have, be honest, brief and avoid saying negative things about the people or organization involved.
18. Explain how you would be an asset to this organization
You should be anxious for this question. It gives you a chance to highlight your best points as they relate to the position being discussed. Give a little advance thought to this relationship.
19. Why should we hire you?
Point out how your assets meet what the organization needs. Do not mention any other candidates to make a comparison.
20. Tell me about a suggestion you have made
Have a good one ready. Be sure and use a suggestion that was accepted and was then considered successful. One related to the type of work applied for is a real plus.
21. What irritates you about co-workers?
This is a trap question. Think real hard but fail to come up with anything that irritates you. A short statement that you seem to get along with folks is great.
22. What is your greatest strength?
Numerous answers are good, just stay positive. A few good examples:
Your ability to prioritize, Your problem-solving skills, Your ability to work under pressure, Your ability to focus on projects, Your professional expertise, Your leadership skills, Your positive attitude
23. Tell me about your dream job.
Stay away from a specific job. You cannot win. If you say the job you are contending for is it, you strain credibility. If you say another job is it, you plant the suspicion that you will be dissatisfied with this position if hired. The best is to stay genetic and say something like: A job where I love the work, like the people, can contribute and can't wait to get to work.
24. Why do you think you would do well at this job?
Give several reasons and include skills, experience and interest.
25. What are you looking for in a job?
See answer # 23
26. What kind of person would you refuse to work with?
Do not be trivial. It would take disloyalty to the organization, violence or lawbreaking to get you to object. Minor objections will label you as a whiner.
27. What is more important to you: the money or the work?
Money is always important, but the work is the most important. There is no better answer.
28. What would your previous supervisor say your strongest point is?
There are numerous good possibilities:
Loyalty, Energy, Positive attitude, Leadership, Team player, Expertise, Initiative, Patience, Hard work, Creativity, Problem solver
29. Tell me about a problem you had with a supervisor
Biggest trap of all. This is a test to see if you will speak ill of your boss. If you fall for it and tell about a problem with a former boss, you may well below the interview right there. Stay positive and develop a poor memory about any trouble with a supervisor.
30. What has disappointed you about a job?
Don't get trivial or negative. Safe areas are few but can include:
Not enough of a challenge. You were laid off in a reduction Company, did not win a contract, which would have given you more responsibility.
31. Tell me about your ability to work under pressure.
You may say that you thrive under certain types of pressure. Give an example that relates to the type of position applied for.
32. Do your skills match this job or another job more closely?
Probably this one. Do not give fuel to the suspicion that you may want another job more than this one.
33. What motivates you to do your best on the job?
This is a personal trait that only you can say, but good examples are:
Challenge, Achievement, Recognition
34. Are you willing to work overtime? Nights? Weekends?
This is up to you. Be totally honest.
35. How would you know you were successful on this job?
Several ways are good measures:
You set high standards for yourself and meet them. Your outcomes are a success. Your boss tell you that you are successful
36. Would you be willing to relocate if required?
You should be clear on this with your family prior to the interview if you think there is a chance it may come up. Do not say yes just to get the job if the real answer is no. This can create a lot of problems later on in your career. Be honest at this point and save yourself future grief.
37. Are you willing to put the interests of the organization ahead of your own?
This is a straight loyalty and dedication question. Do not worry about the deep ethical and philosophical implications. Just say yes.
38. Describe your management style.
Try to avoid labels. Some of the more common labels, like progressive, salesman or consensus, can have several meanings or descriptions depending on which management expert you listen to. The situational style is safe, because it says you will manage according to the situation, instead of one size fits all.
39. What have you learned from mistakes on the job?
Here you have to come up with something or you strain credibility. Make it small, well intentioned mistake with a positive lesson learned. An example would be working too far ahead of colleagues on a project and thus throwing coordination off.
40. Do you have any blind spots?
Trick question. If you know about blind spots, they are no longer blind spots. Do not reveal any personal areas of concern here. Let them do their own discovery on your bad points. Do not hand it to them.
41. If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?
Be careful to mention traits that are needed and that you have.
42. Do you think you are overqualified for this position?
Regardless of your qualifications, state that you are very well qualified for the position.
43. How do you propose to compensate for your lack of experience?
First, if you have experience that the interviewer does not know about, bring that up: Then, point out (if true) that you are a hard working quick learner.
44. What qualities do you look for in a boss?
Be generic and positive. Safe qualities are knowledgeable, a sense of humor, fair, loyal to subordinates and holder of high standards. All bosses think they have these traits.
45. Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute between others.
Pick a specific incident. Concentrate on your problem solving technique and not the dispute you settled.
46. What position do you prefer on a team working on a project?
Be honest. If you are comfortable in different roles, point that out.
47. Describe your work ethic.
Emphasize benefits to the organization. Things like, determination to get the job done and work hard but enjoy your work are good.
48. What has been your biggest professional disappointment?
Be sure that you refer to something that was beyond your control. Show acceptance and no negative feelings.
49. Tell me about the most fun you have had on the job.
Talk about having fun by accomplishing something for the organization.
50. Do you have any questions for me?
Always have some questions prepared. Questions prepared where you will be an asset to the organization are good. How soon will I be able to be productive? and What type of projects will I be able to assist on? are examples.
CHECKLIST for selection of New Office/Project Site
Introduction
We know from experience that the use of a checklist can, at the least, save embarrassment, and, sometimes, save lives.
Industrial processes and procedures are similarly amenable to use of pre-start checklists. Of these, none is more important than the final check before undertaking a large new project which will have a major impact on the company's future economic health, on the lives of those who work in the facility and on the careers of those who plan it.
It is true, of course, that, for a given project, many of the factors covered here may not be significant. Hence, this checklist is designed to permit the user to develop a checklist customized for each project.
No two projects can logically employ precisely the same checklist. Checklists vary according to type of project -- office, warehouse, manufacturing plant, or other -- size, location, and ever-changing corporate policies and strategies.
Maximum planning effectiveness can only be achieved by preparing a special checklist for each new facility.
The checklist is intended to provide a systematic approach to Location decisions. It flows from development of broad concepts (corporate profit goals and venture analysis) to analysis of specific factors (facility feasibility).
The checklist portrays a logical sequence of events, taking the expansion planner from determination of need for a facility through establishment of criteria for the specific plant required, to selection of a site, construction of the plant and, finally, to disposition of the plant as surplus property after it has served its purpose. Though the checklist touches on all aspects of a facility's life cycle, it is most useful in indicating factors one should consider in site decision-making, rather than the broader venture decision-making.
Although new factors appear periodically to alter the relative importance of the various factors, the methodology for organizing for expansion planning and selecting the site remains essentially the same. Following are some established principles to guide your company in its expansion plans:
• There's an old saw in the facility planning field to the effect that selecting a plant site is somewhat akin to selecting a wife. While it is possible to change later on, the change may be both expensive and unpleasant.
• Be sure your firm approaches expansion planning with the proper attitude. Recognize the importance of doing a thorough, professional job and be sure management realizes that the proper location can mean success or failure in a highly competitive field. Impress upon top management that a site study merits substantial investment of the company's time and money, both while the new plant is being planned and later when it should be managed as a corporate asset.
• Get organized. The optimum organization structure must depend on the size of your firm. You may want to utilize a standing committee, a special project team or a one-man facility planning department. In any event, be sure someone has the planning function as a clear-cut responsibility and that there are suitable channels of communication with all company personnel involved.
• Make a literature search. Learn from the mistakes of others by studying the fast-growing literature in the facility planning field.
• Set goals your facility should meet. Define the facility's function, but avoid hampering your study with arbitrarily determined needs. Give careful thought to your needs now and in the future before you attempt to assemble proposals covering specific areas or sites. In other words, don't plunge into a specific site survey until you know what you're looking for.
• Set up specifications for the facility. Under the heading "Facility Criteria" in the checklist you'll find scores of factors to consider.
• Compile area data. Without attempting to pin-point location, gather data on the entire area in which you might locate the proposed plant. If, for example, you're planning a new regional branch plant, you might logically consider six or more states and 25 to 30 communities within that area.
• If you have not already done so, you will need to decide now if you want your site search to remain confidential. There are advantages and disadvantages to secrecy. If you choose to keep your project under wraps you can avoid –
o tipping off your competitors as to your product manufacturing and marketing plans;
o unnecessary pressure from those promoting sites which may not meet your requirements;
o land speculation and the subsequent increase in prices;
o erroneous rumors concerning the size and scope of your plant.
• On the other hand, if you have chosen to make your expansion plans known to the public from the outset, you may gain --
o much free advertising for your company;
o a head start on employee recruitment;
o an advance determination of a community's reaction to your new plant;
o improved stockholder relations by keeping them fully informed of your new manufacturing and marketing efforts.
• Assemble site proposals. Having narrowed your focus to certain areas or communities, your next move is to compare specific sites. At this point you need to establish contact with development organizations which are intimately familiar with local conditions. There are several area development agencies which can provide the site seeker not only with quantifiable facts on population, resources and wage rates, but also knowledge of such unquantifiable factors as the local attitude toward new industry. This resource should not be ignored in the site selection process.
• Use the checklist to investigate every site proposal. While this may be laborious, the checking process will prove worthwhile if you find only one item that can save your company an expensive mistake.
• Compare proposals and make a final decision. In making a critical analysis of all proposals, you may elect to use a system of weighting of the various factors.
You will find it particularly worthwhile to compare your approach with that of other executives who plan new facilities for major industrial firms.
CORPORATE REQUIREMENT
I. CORPORATE STRATEGY
A. Statement of Corporate Strategic Plan and Goals.................... []
1. Business Plan................................................... []
2. Technological Plan.............................................. []
3. Human Resources Plan............................................ []
4. Facilities Plan................................................. []
B. Gross recommendations for Facilities to Meet Corporate Goals....... []
1. Objectives...................................................... []
2. Requirements.................................................... []
--Products/services (drawn from business and technological plan) []
--Personnel (drawn from human resources plan)................... []
--Building space................................................ []
--Utilities/services (domestic and process power requirements).. []
3. General location................................................ []
4. Schedule: impact on budget, cash flow, economic return.......... []
5. Preliminary costs/budgets....................................... []
--Refurbishing and relocation costs for existing machinery,
equipment, furniture.......................................... []
--Procurement costs for new machinery, equipment, furniture..... []
--Relocation costs for key personnel............................ []
--Recruiting, hiring and training costs for new personnel....... []
--Inventory build-up costs to cover transition period........... []
--Land costs.................................................... []
--Design/engineering fees....................................... []
--Site development costs........................................ []
--Construction costs............................................ []
--Financing costs............................................... []
C. Review of Facility Alternatives.................................... []
1. Modernize or expand existing unit............................... []
2. Expand locally in a different facility.......................... []
3. Expand out of region............................................ []
4. Expand off-shore................................................ []
5. Relocate total company operations to new area................... []
D. Justification for Specific Facilities.............................. []
1. Introduction of new product..................................... []
2. Cost reduction.................................................. []
3. Expansion of market area........................................ []
4. Replacement of obsolete unit.................................... []
5. Safety or employee benefit...................................... []
6. Other........................................................... []
E. Review of Financing Alternatives................................... []
1. Requirements.................................................... []
a. New building or expansion of existing structure.............. []
b. Lease or purchase............................................ []
c. Sale/lease-back.............................................. []
d. Land leaseback............................................... []
2. Effect of alternate proposals on working capital................ []
3. Effect of proposals on tax liability............................ []
4. Payout time..................................................... []
5. Source of funds................................................. []
a. Retained earnings............................................ []
b. Sale of stock, debentures, other securities.................. []
c. Short-term bank loan......................................... []
d. Long-term loan or mortgage................................... []
e. Institutional funds.......................................... []
f. Merger, acquisition.......................................... []
g. Loan from affiliated firm.................................... []
h. Loan from supplier........................................... []
i. Mutual funds................................................. []
j. Factoring organization....................................... []
k. Tax-exempt financing......................................... []
l. Local, regional development corporation...................... []
m. State development corporation (privately financed)........... []
n. State development authority (publicly financed).............. []
o. Small Business Administration................................ []
p. Loan guarantees by government entity......................... []
q. Enterprise zone financing.................................... []
r. Joint venture................................................ []
6. Credit factors................................................. []
a. Reputation of firm........................................... []
b. Type of business............................................. []
c. Length of time in business................................... []
d. Quality and continuity of management......................... []
e. Training of young executives................................. []
f. Earnings history............................................. []
g. Cash position................................................ []
h. Net worth.................................................... []
i. Other short and long term commitments........................ []
j. Size and type of facility -- adaptability for other uses..... []
7. Factors Affecting Long Term Loans............................... []
a. General business conditions.................................. []
b. Length of loan............................................... []
c. Interest rate................................................ []
d. Importance of industry to community.......................... []
8. Special inducements (See also Government Programs).............. []
a. Free land, plant............................................. []
b. Nominal rent................................................. []
c. Low interest rate............................................ []
d. Tax incentives............................................... []
F. Leasing strategies................................................. []
1. Use of lease as financing vehicle............................... []
2. Sale/leaseback as a financing method............................ []
3. Tax treatment of advance rental payments........................ []
4. Improvements on leased premises................................. []
5. Amortization, depreciation of leasehold and improvements........ []
6. Tax consequences of rental options.............................. []
7. Distinction between ordinary repairs and capital expenditures... []
8. Tax treatment of options to purchase............................ []
9. Tax treatment of net leases..................................... []
10. Use of percentage lease provisions to cope with inflation...... []
11. Tax treatment of payment by lessee to secure or cancel lease... []
12. Tax consequences of subletting premises or assigning lease..... []
II. COMPANY ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
A. Evaluation of Company Organizational Structure in Terms of Marketing,
Research, Operations, Finance, Acquisitions and Planning.......... []
B. Delegation of Responsibility for Site Selection, Facility Planning. []
1. Existing staff unit within firm................................ []
2. Special task group............................................. []
3. Real estate profit center...................................... []
4. Lines of authority............................................. []
--for expenditures............................................. []
--for negotiations............................................. []
--for signing contracts........................................ []
C. Company Units to Be Consulted or Informed......................... []
1. Long-range corporate planning department....................... []
2. Project feasibility analysis unit.............................. []
3. Facilities planning department................................. []
4. Site selection department or team.............................. []
5. Real estate management department.............................. []
6. Legal department............................................... []
7. Engineering department......................................... []
8. Finance department............................................. []
9. Tax department................................................. []
10. Insurance, risk management department.......................... []
11. Purchasing department.......................................... []
12. Corporate Treasurer............................................ []
13. Public relations............................................... []
14. Security....................................................... []
D. Outside Professional Support Required............................. []
1. Architect...................................................... []
2. Engineer....................................................... []
3. Site consultant................................................ []
4. Appraiser...................................................... []
5. Broker......................................................... []
6. Other.......................................................... []
E. Reporting Procedures.............................................. []
1. Internally..................................................... []
2. From outside professionals..................................... []
III. CRITERIA FOR SITE AND FACILITY
A. Project Overview................................................. []
1. General purpose of facility................................... []
2. Operating unit(s) that will occupy facility................... []
3. Desired dates for:
a. Initial operations......................................... []
b. Peak production............................................ []
B. Company Location Criteria........................................ []
1. Market to be served........................................... []
2. Approximate location of market center......................... []
3. Description and volume of product to be manufactured.......... []
4. Modes of shipment of product.................................. []
5. Raw materials and supplies required........................... []
6. Approximate location of supplier center....................... []
7. Modes of shipment of raw materials............................ []
8. Staffing of the facility (percent living in area, percent to be
transferred from other company plants, percent to be recruited
from outside the area)........................................ []
a. Executive.................................................. []
b. Professional............................................... []
c. Technical.................................................. []
d. Other...................................................... []
9. Projected total employment.................................... []
a. Executive.................................................. []
b. Professional............................................... []
c. Technical.................................................. []
d. Other (skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled)................... []
e. Percent union.............................................. []
f. Percent non-union.......................................... []
g. Percent male............................................... []
h. Percent female............................................. []
10. Wage rates to be paid for..................................... []
a. Executive.................................................. []
b. Professional............................................... []
c. Technical.................................................. []
d. Other (skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled)................... []
11. Number of shifts and days per week facility will operate...... []
12. Desired population of area.................................... []
13. Maximum impact of your facility's work force on total community
work force.................................................... []
14. Type of location desired...................................... []
a. Within Central Business District........................... []
b. Within Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area.............. []
c. Small town or rural area................................... []
15. Need to minimize security risks............................... []
a. Key personnel.............................................. []
b. Records.................................................... []
c. EDP systems................................................ []
d. Emergency relocation plan.................................. []
C. Site and Building Criteria....................................... []
1. Building area required(initial and foreseeable expansion needs).[]
a. Production................................................. []
b. Storage.................................................... []
c. Shipping, receiving, warehousing........................... []
d. Office..................................................... []
e. Research and engineering................................... []
f. Data processing............................................ []
g. Employee services.......................................... []
h. Building services.......................................... []
i. Other...................................................... []
2. Building type................................................. []
a. Special purpose............................................ []
b. Multi-purpose.............................................. []
3. Description................................................... []
a. Number of floors........................................... []
b. Clear height............................................... []
c. Bay space.................................................. []
d. Floor load requirements.................................... []
e. Freight elevators.......................................... []
f. Conveyors.................................................. []
g. Other (cranes, clean rooms, etc.).......................... []
4. Specific architectural requirements........................... []
a. Doors, openings............................................ []
b. Lighting level (interior, exterior)........................ []
c. HVAC....................................................... []
d. Floor padding.............................................. []
e. Floor drains............................................... []
f. Interior design............................................ []
5. Other land requirements....................................... []
a. Access and interior roads.................................. []
b. Parking.................................................... []
c. Rail siding................................................ []
d. Outdoor storage............................................ []
6. Transportation facilities..................................... []
a. Rail siding car capacity................................... []
b. Number of truck docks required............................. []
c. Waterfront docks, wharves.................................. []
d. Special requirements (container facilities, etc.).......... []
7. Electric power requirements (start and peak) for prime components
of operation (lighting, machine operation, air conditioning,
welding, furnaces)............................................ []
a. KW demand.................................................. []
b. Kwh monthly consumption.................................... []
c. Power factor (%)........................................... []
d. Load factor (%)............................................ []
e. Special load characteristics............................... []
f. Primary service voltage and phases......................... []
g. Company-owned or utility-owned transformers................ []
8. Natural gas requirements (start and peak)..................... []
a. mcf/year................................................... []
b. mcf/hour................................................... []
9. Alternate fuel requirements................................... []
10. Water requirements (start and peak)........................... []
a. Sanitary gpd............................................... []
b. Process water gpd.......................................... []
c. Air conditioning gpd....................................... []
d. Cooling water gpd.......................................... []
e. Percent to be recirculated................................. []
f. Special characteristics (purity, temperature, pressure, chemical
content, salinity, hardness, etc.)......................... []
g. Type of fire protection required........................... []
h. Sinks, drinking fountains required......................... []
11. Sewage and waste treatment (start and peak)................... []
a. Sanitary gpd............................................... []
b. Process gpd................................................ []
c. Special waste treatment required........................... []
d. Solid wastes............................................... []
12. Provisions for unusual or special operations.................. []
a. Fire, explosion or health hazards associated with materials used
in process................................................. []
b. Conditions resulting from operation (dust, odors, fumes, smoke,
noise, vibration, etc.).................................... []
c. Special treatment required (smoke abatement, dust extraction,
etc.)...................................................... []
d. Security risks to which operation may be exposed........... []
e. Computer room.............................................. []
13. Safety equipment.............................................. []
a. Safety shower.............................................. []
b. Eye wash................................................... []
c. Sprinklers................................................. []
d. Fire hose.................................................. []
e. Extinguishers.............................................. []
f. Fire water storage......................................... []
14. Communications requirements................................... []
a. Special site requirements for antennae, satellite reception,
microwave, radio, etc...................................... []
b. Services available at site................................. []
c. Requirements within facility............................... []
-- Telephones (voice, voice/data).......................... []
-- Time clocks............................................. []
-- Other clocks............................................ []
-- Paging systems.......................................... []
-- Music................................................... []
15. Security/disaster preparedness requirements................... []
a. Access to site, building................................... []
b. Self-contained services.................................... []
-- Power................................................... []
-- Water................................................... []
-- Fuel storage............................................ []
c. Perimeter protection....................................... []
d. Screening of site, building................................ []
e. Protection against natural, man-made disasters............. []
16. Total land area required...................................... []
a. Number of acres for plant, roads, rail, parking, storage,
utilities, easements....................................... []
b. Special configurations or characteristics (shape of tract,
orientation, elevation, soil bearing, etc.)................ []
c. Recreation................................................. []
d. Landscaping................................................ []
e. Acres to be fenced, paved.................................. []
LOCATION AND SITE ANALYSIS
I. MARKET AND DEMOGRAPHIC DATA
A. Population Trends.................................................. []
1. Growth trends.................................................. []
2. Age composition (especially age groups 15-19,20-44, 45-64)..... []
3. Sex composition................................................ []
4. Ethnic and racial composition.................................. []
5. Urban, suburban, rural non-farm, rural......................... []
6. Institutional population, if any............................... []
7. Population density (per square mile)........................... []
B. Income Trends
1. Total, per capita and per family income........................ []
2. Disposable and discretionary income............................ []
3. Size of various income groups.................................. []
4. Significant income pattern change (over the past three years).. []
C. Consumer Characteristics........................................... []
1. Average family size............................................ []
2. Occupation..................................................... []
3. Home ownership................................................. []
4. Automobile registration........................................ []
5. TV, major appliance ownership.................................. []
D. Retail Sales Trends................................................ []
1. Division of sales by retail categories (department stores, drug
stores, etc.).................................................. []
2. Seasonal variations in trade................................... []
3. Items in unusual local demand ( water sports equipment, air
conditioners, water softeners, etc.)........................... []
E. Industrial Markets................................................. []
1. Major economic activities, by SIC number....................... []
2. Major industrial purchases and output (input-output study of area
if available).................................................. []
3. Trend of industries moving into and out of area- reasons for
move........................................................... []
4. Growth industries- including announced plants not yet built.... []
5. Branches of nationally known firms............................. []
F. Competition........................................................ []
1. Past sales in area by company, as compared with competitors.... []
2. Location of competitors........................................ []
3. Possible new location of competitors in region as reaction to
your new location.............................................. []
4. Possible new competition from within area...................... []
5. Future market share of likely competition...................... []
G. Tourism in Area.................................................... []
1. Annual volume of visitors...................................... []
2. Source of visitors............................................. []
3. Length of stay................................................. []
4. Income level of visitors....................................... []
5. Average number in party........................................ []
6. Destination.................................................... []
7. Purpose of visit (business, personal).......................... []
8. Estimated amount spent......................................... []
a. Per day.................................................... []
b. Per trip................................................... []
9. Facilities, services, attractions available.................... []
10. Method of travel ( sea, land, air)............................. []
II. WORK FORCE, WAGES AND PRODUCTIVITY
The "fit" between your company and existing industry as to attitude,
wage scales and economic climate.
A. Area Labor Force Inventory......................................... []
1. Total labor force within feasible commuting radius............. []
2. Number and percent unemployed during last five years........... []
3. Seasonal variations in employment.............................. []
4. Categories of employment....................................... []
a. Agricultural............................................... []
b. Manufacturing ( by type)................................... []
c. Government................................................. []
d. Other non-agricultural ( by type).......................... []
e. Non-available work force (institutional, military, student)..[]
5. Analysis of potential employables by skills (professional,
technical, manual, clerical)................................... []
6. Skills notably abundant in area, or in short supply............ []
7. Analysis by age, sex, educational level........................ []
a. Percent of adults with high school education............... []
8. Management potential........................................... []
a. Your requirement for five years............................ []
b. Number of college graduates................................ []
c. Undergraduate and graduate programs of college............. []
d. Executive development programs in college for non-students. []
e. Executive development programs of various associations and
organizations.............................................. []
B. Wages and Hours.................................................... []
1. Local wage rate, by occupation................................. []
2. Average work week.............................................. []
3. Domination of wage structure by single company or industry..... []
4. Competition for labor force from other companies............... []
5. Cost of living index........................................... []
6. Significant changes in wage rates (past three years)........... []
C. Benefits Usual in Area............................................. []
1. Pensions....................................................... []
2. Life insurance................................................. []
3. Medical insurance.............................................. []
4. Holidays....................................................... []
5. Vacations...................................................... []
6. Sick leave..................................................... []
7. Coffee breaks, rest periods.................................... []
D. Productivity....................................................... []
1. Other employers' experience as compared with their plants in other
areas.......................................................... []
2. Absenteeism.................................................... []
3. Turnover in various industries................................. []
4. Accident rates................................................. []
E. Unions............................................................. []
1. History of unions in area...................................... []
2. History of organization attempts and success rate.............. []
3. Time lost due to strikes in last five years.................... []
a. History of slowdowns....................................... []
4. External or local control of unions............................ []
5. Caliber of union leadership.................................... []
6. Union of political activity.................................... []
7. Restrictive practices, secondary boycotts...................... []
8. Attitude toward automation, other technological change......... []
a. Evidence of labor/management cooperation................... []
9. Degree of white collar unionism in area........................ []
F. Personnel Policies in Area......................................... []
1. Trial periods.................................................. []
2. Seniority rules................................................ []
3. Promotion procedure............................................ []
4. Transfer procedure............................................. []
5. Overtime compensation.......................................... []
6. Willingness to work various shifts............................. []
7. Shift premium.................................................. []
G. Vocational Training................................................ []
1. Facilities and programs available.............................. []
2. Plans for new programs, facilities............................. []
H. Legislation (see also local, state, or federal government)......... []
1. Workmen's compensation rate.................................... []
2. Unemployment compensation rate................................. []
3. Equal employment requirements.................................. []
I. Sources of Evaluating the Availability of Labor.................... []
1. Government labor office........................................ []
2. Other employers in the area.................................... []
3. Development organizations...................................... []
4. Advertising, sampling.......................................... []
5. Registration program........................................... []
6. College and trade school placement services.................... []
7. Employment agencies............................................ []
J. Commuting Patterns................................................. []
1. Normal radius for plant in area................................ []
2. Variations in commuting rate due to sex, age group and rural
residence...................................................... []
3. Radius for higher paying plants................................ []
K. Relocation......................................................... []
1. Public and union relations at time of announcement of relocation.[]
2. Cost of termination............................................ []
3. Information about new community for transfer employees......... []
4. Employee moving expenses....................................... []
5. Financial allowance for employees who move..................... []
III. TRANSPORTATION
Distribution pattern of products to be shipped from new location and
distribution pattern of raw materials to be received.
A. Rail Transportation................................................ []
1. Lines serving city............................................. []
2. Classification territory....................................... []
3. Daily freight and passenger service............................ []
4. Shipping time to particular cities............................. []
5. Adequacy of car supply......................................... []
6. Commodity rates................................................ []
7. Carload rate- minimum size of carload.......................... []
8. Less than carload rates........................................ []
9. Piggy-back and other interchange services...................... []
10. Demurrage...................................................... []
11. Railroad offices in area....................................... []
12. Financial strength of rail system serving area................. []
13. Possibility of branch line abandonment......................... []
14. Effect of deregulation on area rail service.................... []
B. Rail Service at Site............................................... []
1. Relation of siding to main system.............................. []
2. Trailer on flat car ramps...................................... []
3. Switching frequency............................................ []
4. Switching limits............................................... []
5. Probable cost of erecting siding, if none at site.............. []
6. Apportionment of cost between plant and railroad............... []
7. Effect of siding on plant design............................... []
8. Complications: sidings jointly used, public road crossings, etc. []
C. Highway Transportation............................................. []
1. Distance to nearest interchanges on Interstate Highway system-
existing or proposed routes.................................... []
2. Access to other highways and feeder roads...................... []
3. Condition, length and width of roads and streets............... []
4. Weight, height and length limitations.......................... []
5. Capacity vs. current usage and projected demand................ []
6. Bond issues for new roads...................................... []
7. Toll roads- amount of toll..................................... []
8. Seasonal restrictions on road use.............................. []
D. Trucking Service................................................... []
1. Companies serving area- local, intrastate, interstate.......... []
2. Terminals and facilities....................................... []
3. Overnight service radius....................................... []
4. Schedules- trips per day....................................... []
5. Rate structure................................................. []
6. Specialized equipment (liquid or dry bulk, heavy hauling, etc.) []
7. Express and transfer service................................... []
8. Freight consolidating and forwarding service, export service... []
9. Location of commercial zone.................................... []
E. Other Motor Transportation......................................... []
1. Local rapid transit- facilities, schedules, proposed extensions. []
2. Nearest service to plant site.................................. []
3. Inter-city bus service- terminals, schedules................... []
4. Taxi-service- rates, adequacy of service, radio equipment...... []
5. Car rental..................................................... []
F. Commercial Air Service............................................. []
1. Airlines, air taxis and commuter service serving area- passenger
and freight schedules.......................................... []
2. International service.......................................... []
3. Air cargo forwarders........................................... []
4. Distance and travel time from plant site to airport............ []
5. Taxi, limousine, car rental.................................... []
G. Other Air Service.................................................. []
1. Airfields used by executive aircraft........................... []
2. Hangar and office facilities................................... []
3. Taxiway access to plant sites.................................. []
4. Air charter and rental......................................... []
5. Airport facilities............................................. []
a. Terminal................................................... []
b. Runway- length, surfacing, lighting........................ []
c. Radio and radar............................................ []
d. Instrument approaches...................................... []
e. Availability of gas, jet fuel.............................. []
f. Repair services............................................ []
g. Airport 24-hour security................................... []
h. Taxi, car rental........................................... []
H. Water transportation............................................... []
1. Channel width and depth........................................ []
2. Depth alongside, if on waterway................................ []
3. Distance to channel, if not adjacent........................... []
4. Distance to nearest overseas dock.............................. []
5. Lines serving fares- schedules, rates, commodities handled..... []
6. Port facilities- warehousing, transit shed, storage areas, steve-
doring, container handling capability.......................... []
7. Port authority, if any......................................... []
8. Interchange facilities......................................... []
9. Seasonal limitations........................................... []
10. Icebreakers.................................................... []
11. Insurance rates................................................ []
I. Pipelines.......................................................... []
1. Possibility of service......................................... []
2. Commodities- natural gas, oil, refined products................ []
IV. ENERGY AND UTILITIES: ELECTRIC, GAS, COMMUNICATIONS
A. Power Source....................................................... []
1. Thermal- coal, natural gas, propane, fuel oil, lignite......... []
2. Hydroelectric.................................................. []
3. Other- nuclear, geothermal, solar.............................. []
4. Tax credit available for use of specific equipment or fuel
to generate power.............................................. []
B. Electric Power Supply.............................................. []
1. Company or public agency serving area.......................... []
2. Interconnection with other systems............................. []
3. Capacity- present and planned.................................. []
4. Recent record of shortages or interruptions.................... []
5. Vulnerability to natural disasters............................. []
6. Location of nearest electric substations and whether interlocking[]
7. Voltage, phase and cycle available............................. []
8. Size of connection at proposed site............................ []
9. Two-way feed................................................... []
10. Rates based on your demand for services........................ []
a. Lighting................................................... []
b. Machine operation.......................................... []
c. Air conditioning........................................... []
d. Welding.................................................... []
e. Furnaces................................................... []
11. Cost of extending service...................................... []
12. Typical residential rates...................................... []
13. Off-peak possibilities......................................... []
14. Fuel adjustment provisions..................................... []
15. Rate of return on capital investment........................... []
16. Current fuel generation mix.................................... []
17. Ongoing power plant construction............................... []
18. Planned power plant construction............................... []
19. Fuel generation mix when the new capacity is on line........... []
20. Present and projected reserve margins.......................... []
21. Past and projected consumption growth.......................... []
22. Record of service reliability to local manufacturers........... []
23. Rate relief granted in last few years.......................... []
24. Amount of the next rate hike request........................... []
25. Composition of the state public utility commission............. []
26. Net bonded indebtedness........................................ []
27. Bond rating.................................................... []
28. Whether the company is a net exporter or importer of power..... []
29. If a substantial portion of power is bought from other companies,
the nature of the contracts.................................... []
C. Gas Service........................................................ []
1. Suppliers...................................................... []
2. Capacity, present and planned, as compared with peak requirements[]
3. Allocation for industrial use.................................. []
4. Type (natural, mixed, manufactured) and Btu value.............. []
5. Storage facilities............................................. []
6. Recent record of shortages and interruptions................... []
7. Size of connection at proposed site............................ []
8. Two-way feed................................................... []
9. Industrial and residential rates, including interruptible rate. []
D. Coal, Oil.......................................................... []
1. Suppliers...................................................... []
2. Cost of coal delivered, per million Btu's...................... []
3. Cost of oil delivered, per million Btu's....................... []
E. Potential for On-Site Independent Energy Source.................... []
1. Gas Well....................................................... []
2. Coal mine...................................................... []
3. Nuclear reactor................................................ []
4. Other.......................................................... []
5. Ecological permits required.................................... []
6. Available infrastructure of skilled workers.................... []
F. Potential for Location In an Energy Park Complex (which includes waste
recovery plant, generating station, etc.).......................... []
1. Specific design factors required for location.................. []
G. Other Special Energy Plans......................................... []
1. Alternate fuel plan............................................ []
a. Price of alternate fuels................................... []
2. Cogeneration................................................... []
3. Back-up system................................................. []
H. Motor Fuel......................................................... []
1. History of shortages in area................................... []
2. Cost of fuel................................................... []
I. Communications..................................................... []
1. Local Telephone company........................................ []
a. Number of instruments in use vs. capacity.................. []
b. Capability of handling large installations................. []
c. Teletype service........................................... []
d. Private wire system........................................ []
e. Range of toll free area.................................... []
2. Need for new communications system............................. []
a. Digital transmission service............................... []
b. Microwave and satellite transmission service............... []
c. Telecommunications......................................... []
3. Postal service................................................. []
a. Nearest post office........................................ []
b. Frequency of deliveries.................................... []
c. Proximity of a Bulk Mail center............................ []
V. MATERIALS, SUPPLIES, SERVICES
A. Each Raw Material.................................................. []
1. Location of suppliers, distributors............................ []
2. Quantity and quality produced.................................. []
3. Amount produced available to new customers..................... []
4. Delivery time, interruptibility................................ []
5. Long-term production outlook................................... []
6. Alternate supplies............................................. []
7. Competition for materials from other companies................. []
B. Each Semi-finished Material........................................ []
1. Location of suppliers, distributors............................ []
2. Quantity and quality produced.................................. []
3. Amount produced available to new customers..................... []
4. Delivery time, interruptibility................................ []
5. Long-term production outlook................................... []
6. Alternate supplies............................................. []
7. Competition for materials from other companies................. []
C. Storage Facilities................................................. []
1. Public warehouses.............................................. []
2. Bulk storage terminals......................................... []
D. Routine Supplies................................................... []
1. Mill supplies.................................................. []
2. Building materials............................................. []
3. Maintenance supplies........................................... []
4. Office supplies and equipment.................................. []
5. Distance to warehouse and distributors of above, if not local.. []
E. General Services................................................... []
1. Subcontractors................................................. []
2. Machine shops.................................................. []
3. Attorneys...................................................... []
4. C.P.A.'s....................................................... []
5. Job printers................................................... []
6. Advertising agencies........................................... []
7. Credit bureau.................................................. []
8. Catering, food vending......................................... []
9. Janitorial services............................................ []
10. Plant projection services...................................... []
11. Telephone answering services................................... []
12. Employment offices............................................. []
F. Technical Services................................................. []
1. Laboratories- product research, testing, chemical analysis,
instrumentation................................................ []
2. Computer service bureaus....................................... []
3. Consultants- management, engineering........................... []
4. Blue print service............................................. []
5. Industrial photography and X-ray............................... []
6. Instrument, machinery repair................................... []
VI. GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS: NATIONAL
A. Nearby Government Installations.................................... []
1. Location within regional government contract area.............. []
B. Central Aid to Schools In Impacted Areas........................... []
C. Incentives Offered in Depressed Areas.............................. []
D. Special Consideration Offered In Contract Awards in Depressed Areas..[]
E. Representation in Parliament....................................... []
1. Voting patterns of Member of Parliament on issues of key
interest to business........................................... []
2. Committee positions held by area representatives............... []
F. Economic Development Administration Assistance..................... []
G. Environmental Protection Agency (See "Ecological Factors")......... []
H. Occupational Safety and Health Administration...................... []
I. Housing and Community Development Act Programs..................... []
J. Coastal Zone Management Act........................................ []
VII. GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS: STATE
A. Structure of State Government, Financial Condition and Attitudes
1. Structure of State Government.................................. []
a. Elected and appointed officials -
responsibilities, terms of office.......................... []
b. Background of incumbents................................... []
c. State political structure - relation to national parties... []
d. Record of state government -
honesty, efficiency, major policies........................ []
2. Financial Condition............................................ []
a. Annual budget.............................................. []
b. Sources of revenue......................................... []
c. Debt per capita............................................ []
d. Salaries of state officials................................ []
e. Bond rating of state....................................... []
3. Attitudes...................................................... []
a. Attitudes of state officials toward industry............... []
b. Attitudes of state officials toward bordering jurisdictions..[]
c. Problem areas.............................................. []
1. New revenue sources.................................... []
2. Public improvements.................................... []
3. Redevelopment of private property...................... []
4. Urban plans to rehabilitate "busti" areas.............. []
5. Annexations............................................ []
B. State Regulations and Legislation.................................. []
1. Private use of natural resources............................... []
2. Laws affecting incorporation of businesses..................... []
3. Laws affecting out-of-state corporations....................... []
C. State Taxes........................................................ []
1. Personal income tax............................................ []
a. Rate, exceptions and deductions............................ []
b. Method of collection....................................... []
2. Corporate income, franchise, excise taxes...................... []
3. Corporate organization fees.................................... []
4. Occupancy tax.................................................. []
5. Foreign corporation tax........................................ []
6. Sales, use or payroll taxes.................................... []
7. Unemployment compensation rates, administration................ []
8. Worker's compensation rate..................................... []
9. Inventory, machinery and equipment taxes....................... []
10. Franchise and incorporation taxes.............................. []
11. Gasoline, liquor and tobacco taxes............................. []
12. Vehicle and other license fees................................. []
D. Comparison of Total State and Local Tax Load with Services Rendered..[]
1. Expenditure growth versus revenue growth....................... []
2. Welfare expenditures........................................... []
E. Future Tax Prospects In the Area, In View of Needs for Major Capital
improvements....................................................... []
F. Special Tax Incentives............................................. []
1. Corporate income tax exemption................................. []
2. Personal income tax exemption.................................. []
3. Excise tax exemption........................................... []
4. Tax exemption or moratorium on land, capital improvements...... []
5. Tax exemption or moratorium on equipment, machinery............ []
6. Tax exemption on manufacturer's inventory...................... []
7. Sales/use tax exemption on new equipment....................... []
8. Tax exemption on raw materials used in manufacturing........... []
9. Tax credits for use of specified products...................... []
10. Tax stabilization agreements for specified industries.......... []
11. Tax exemption to encourage research and development............ []
12. Accelerated depreciation of industrial equipment............... []
13. Special incentives for locating in economically depressed areas..[]
G. State Industrial Financing Programs................................ []
1. State Sponsored Industrial Development Authority............... []
2. Privately Sponsored Development Credit Corporation............. []
3. State Authority or Agency Revenue Bond Financing............... []
4. State Authority or Agency General Obligation Bond Financing.... []
5. State Loans for Building Construction.......................... []
6. State Loans for Equipment, Machinery........................... []
7. State Loan Guarantees for Building Construction................ []
8. State Loan Guarantees for Equipment, Machinery................. []
9. State Financing Aid for Existing Plant Expansion............... []
10. State Matching Funds for City and/ or County Industrial
Financing Programs............................................. []
11. State incentive for Establishing Industrial Plants in Areas of
High Unemployment/under development............................ []
12. Tax-increment financing........................................ []
13. Pollution control financing programs........................... []
H. Labor Legislation.................................................. []
1. State "right-to-work" law...................................... []
2. Laws pertaining to shift work and permissible total hours per
week........................................................... []
3. Minimum wage law............................................... []
4. Laws regulating union activity................................. []
5. Fair employment practices law.................................. []
6. Laws concerning collective bargaining.......................... []
7. Laws dealing with secondary boycotts and injunctions........... []
8. State occupational safety and health laws...................... []
9. State incentives for training or retaining industrial employees..[]
10. State incentives for locating facilities in areas of high
unemployment................................................... []
I. Special State Services for Industry................................ []
1. State financed speculative building............................ []
2. State provides free land for industry.......................... []
3. State-owned industrial park sites.............................. []
4. State funds for city and/or county development-related public
works projects................................................. []
5. State funds for city and/or county master plans................ []
6. State funds for city and/or county recreational projects....... []
7. State program to promote research and development.............. []
8. State program to increase export of products................... []
9. State conducts feasible studies to attract or assist new industry[]
10. State help in bidding on federal procurement contract.......... []
11. State science and/ or technological advisory council........... []
12. State programs for training or retraining industrial employees. []
VIII. GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS: LOCAL
A. Structure of Municipal Government
1. Elected and appointed officials-responsibilities, terms of office[]
2. Background of incumbents....................................... []
3. Local political structure-relation to state and national parties.[]
4. Record of local government- honesty, efficiency, major policies..[]
B. Financial Condition................................................ []
1. Annual budget.................................................. []
2. Sources of revenue............................................. []
3. Debt per capita................................................ []
4. Salaries of local officials.................................... []
5. Bond rating of municipality.................................... []
6. Expenditure growth versus revenue growth....................... []
C. Civic Attitudes.................................................... []
1. Attitudes of city officials toward industry................... []
2. Attitudes of city officials toward bordering jurisdictions
other municipalities........................................... []
3. Problem areas.................................................. []
a. New revenue sources........................................ []
b. Public improvements........................................ []
c. Redevelopment of private property.......................... []
d. Urban plans to rehabilitate "ghetto" areas................. []
e. Annexations................................................ []
D. Civil Disorders.................................................... []
1. History of riots............................................... []
2. Civic action to solve social problems.......................... []
E. Local Taxes........................................................ []
1. Property taxes- real and personal.............................. []
a. Tax rates for the last five years.......................... []
b. Method of tax assessment and equalization.................. []
c. Balance between tax loads on industrial, commercial and
residential property....................................... []
d. Amount of tax-free property in area........................ []
e. Local tax revenue per capita............................... []
2. Schools taxes, if separate..................................... []
3. Fire district taxes, if separate............................... []
4. Rates for services (water, trash collection, etc.)............. []
5. Local sales or use tax......................................... []
6. Local license taxes............................................ []
7. Local permits, fees (water, sewer hookup, impact fee).......... []
8. Comparison of local tax load with services rendered............ []
F. Special Tax Incentives (See also State Government)................. []
G. Industrial Financing Programs...................................... []
1. City and/or Country Revenue Bond Financing..................... []
2. City and/or Country General Obligation Bond Financing.......... []
3. City and/or Country Loans for Building Construction............ []
4. City and/or Country Loans for Equipment, Machinery............. []
5. City and/or Country Loan Guarantees for Building Construction.. []
6. City and/or Country Loan Guarantees for Equipment, Machinery... []
7. City and/or Country Incentives for Establishing Industrial Plants
in Areas of High Unemployment.................................. []
8. Enterprise Zones............................................... []
H. Planning Commission................................................ []
1. History and Makeup............................................. []
2. Status of "master" or "comprehensive" plan..................... []
3. Use of professionals in preparing master plan and in
administering plan.............................................. []
4. Coordination of plan with those of adjoining areas............. []
5. History of over-all economic planning.......................... []
6. Attitude of planning commission toward industrial growth in
community...................................................... []
7. Relationship with governing body............................... []
I. Industrial Zoning.................................................. []
1. Definition of industrial and research areas.................... []
2. Protection against residential or commercial encroachment...... []
3. Policies on zoning changes and variances....................... []
4. Overall growth management restrictions......................... []
5. Special Economic Zone.......................................... []
J. Building Codes..................................................... []
1. Date written, recent revisions................................. []
2. Unusual requirements........................................... []
K. Traffic and Parking................................................ []
1. Professional supervision of traffic planning................... []
2. Routing of through traffic..................................... []
3. Adequacy and plans for downtown and industrial area parking.... []
L. Streets............................................................ []
1. General condition of surfaces.................................. []
2. Percentage unpaved, particularly in industrial areas........... []
3. Street cleaning facilities..................................... []
4. Snow removal facilities........................................ [
IX. WATER AND WASTE
A. Regional Water Situation........................................... []
1. Trend of consumption as compared with developed supplies, planned
developments................................................... []
2. Watershed development proposals for export of water to or import
from other watersheds.......................................... []
B. Local Water Supply................................................. []
1. Agency and source of supply.................................... []
2. Pumping and storage supply..................................... []
3. Average and maximum use as compared with present or proposed
supply......................................................... []
4. Supply vs. projected demand.................................... []
5. Pressure at site............................................... []
6. State health department rating of supply....................... []
7. Method and extent of treatment, including fluoridation......... []
8. Industrial and residential rates............................... []
9. Chemical analysis.............................................. []
a. Hardness................................................... []
b. Alkalinity-acidity......................................... []
c. Solids..................................................... []
d. Oxides, chlorides, nitrates, sulfates...................... []
10. Cost of extending service...................................... []
11. Likelihood of restricted use................................... []
C. Surface Water- Streams and Lakes................................... []
1. Daily, seasonal and long-term flow variations.................. []
2. Upstream use................................................... []
3. Temperature.................................................... []
4. Chemical analysis ( same as above )............................ []
5. Distance to site............................................... []
6. Feasibility of dam or pumping station.......................... []
D. Ground Water- Wells................................................ []
1. Recent trend of water table elavation.......................... []
2. Recharge rate.................................................. []
3. Regulations on use............................................. []
4. Pumping cost................................................... []
5. Temperature, chemical analysis................................. []
E. Sea water......................................................... []
1. Cost of desalination........................................... []
2. Potential corrosion problems................................... []
F. Waste Water, Sewage Disposal...................................... []
1. Direct waste water discharge................................... []
a) Proximity of stream......................................... []
b) Size of stream.............................................. []
c) Stream classification....................................... []
d) Existing discharges......................................... []
e) Total cost of disposal via this method...................... []
2. Land application, spray irrigation............................. []
a) Soil characteristics........................................ []
b) Elevation of water table.................................... []
c) Precipitation pattern....................................... []
d) Area on site for lagoon, lines.............................. []
e) Septic tank regulations..................................... []
f) Total cost of disposal via this method...................... []
3. Municipal treatment system..................................... []
a) Proximity to sewer line..................................... []
b) Size of line................................................ []
c) Excess capacity of existing treatment plant................. []
d) Moratorium on new users?.................................... []
e) Separate sanitary and storm sewers.......................... []
f) Secondary treatment......................................... []
g) Total cost of treatment via this method..................... []
G. Solid Waste Disposal Via Public Agency............................. []
1. Agency and nature of collection system-incineration, landfill or
dump, transfer stations, resource recovery..................... []
2. Methods and frequency of collection............................ []
3. Capacity compared with present and projected load.............. []
4. Total cost of disposal via this method......................... []
H. Solid Waste Disposal On Site....................................... []
1. Regulations which must be complied with........................ []
2. Public relations aspects....................................... []
3. Staff requirements for special personnel....................... []
4. Total costs via this method.................................... []
I. Solid Waste Disposal Off Site...................................... []
1. Availability of private service................................ []
2. Legal liabilities ............................................. []
3. Limitations on materials handled............................... []
4. Total cost via this method..................................... []
J. Solid Waste Disposal Via Recycling ................................ []
1. Economic feasibility........................................... []
2. Regulations which must be complied with........................ []
3. Staff requirements............................................. []
4. Total cost via this method..................................... []
X. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT, ECOLOGICAL FACTORS
A. Central Regulations................................................ []
1. Impact of Clean Air Act programs on facility................... []
a. Air quality maintenance plans.............................. []
b. Indirect source controls................................... []
c. Transportation controls.................................... []
d. Parking management regulations............................. []
e. Significant deterioration regulations...................... []
2. Impact on Federal Water Pollution Control Act programs on
facility....................................................... []
a. National Pollution Discharge Elimination System............ []
b. Water Quality Management programs.......................... []
c. Nonpoint source control.................................... []
d. Dredge and fill permits.................................... []
e. Waste water treatment facilities planning.................. []
B. State and Local Regulations........................................ []
1. Names and jurisdiction of regulatory bodies.................... []
2. Scope of regulatory power...................................... []
a. Water pollution............................................ []
b. Air pollution.............................................. []
c. Noise...................................................... []
d. Solid wastes............................................... []
e. Visual or aesthetic pollution.............................. []
f. Land use regulation........................................ []
g. Power plant site........................................... []
h. Coastal resources protection............................... []
i. Radiation.................................................. []
j. Hazardous wastes........................................... []
k. Other...................................................... []
3. Criteria/standards for measuring pollution..................... []
4. Additional regulations anticipated for future.................. []
5. Extent of regulation........................................... []
a. Planning approval.......................................... []
b. Licensing or construction/operating permit................. []
c. Police power, law enforcement.............................. []
d. Penalty for non-compliance with pollution control regulations[]
6. Imposition of sewer moratoria.................................. []
7. Financing program or tax incentives for pollution control...... []
a. Real property tax exemption................................ []
b. Personal property tax exemption............................ []
c. Sales/use tax exemption on pollution control facilities.... []
d. Sales/use tax exemption applicable to lease of pollution
control facilities......................................... []
e. Credit against corporate income tax........................ []
f. Maximum dollar limit of credit............................. []
g. Accelerated depreciation of pollution control equipment.... []
h. Exclusion of pollution control investment from corporate
income tax................................................. []
i. Exemption applicable to cost of operating pollution control
facility................................................... []
j. State financing program for purchase and installation of
pollution control facilities............................... []
C. Attitude of General Public In Area Toward New Development.......... []
1. Action groups with history of opposition to development........ []
2. Major projects stalled by opposition........................... []
3. News media treatment of such issues............................ []
4. Posture of political leaders................................... []
D. Geographic Factors Affecting Pollution............................. []
1. Record of smog or smoke........................................ []
2. Local waste treatment systems.................................. []
3. Effect of local topography on air circulation; frequency of
temperature inversions......................................... []
4. Waste assimilation capacity of streams and rivers.............. []
E. Community Progress in Reducing Pollution........................... []
F. Special Legislation................................................ []
1. Enabling legislation for state-wide or country-wide zoning..... []
2. Scenic easements............................................... []
3. Others......................................................... []
G. Impact Statements for Developments of Regional Impact (new towns,
airports, attractions and recreation facilities, electric generating
facilities and transmission lines, hospitals, industrial plants and
industrial parks, mining operations, office parks, petroleum storage
facilities, residential developments, shopping centers)
1. Basic requirements:............................................ []
a. Describe present condition................................. []
b. Describe proposed action................................... []
c. Describe probable impact................................... []
d. Describe unavoidable adverse impact........................ []
e. Describe alternatives...................................... []
f. Short-term vs. long-term impacts........................... []
g. Irretrievable and irreversible commitment of resources..... []
2. General requirements: Detailed description of proposed project;
definition of objectives-satisfaction of present and future needs;
magnitude and significance of product or service; social and
economic benefits; assessment of existing environmental character-
istics and their balance; discussion of probable impact on environ-
ment; unavoidable adverse effects of project on environment; pos-
sible alternatives to avoid adverse environmental effects; ir-
reversible or irretrievable commitment of resources; assessment of
the cumulative, long-term effects of proposed project; economic
cost/benefit ratio; significant local benefit
a. Solid wastes............................................... []
b. Socio-economic............................................. []
c. Aesthetic.................................................. []
d. Impact on plant and animal life- see the official list of en-
dangered native fish and wildlife, available from the Dept. of
the Interior and the National Wildlife Federation.......... []
e. Increased demand for resources (water, energy)............. []
f. Safety hazards, including list of cargoes of particular hazard:
acetaldehyde; acetone cyanohydrin; acrolein; acrylonitrile;
allyl chloride; ammonia, anhydrous; butadiene; butane; butene;
butylene oxide; carbon disulfide; chlorine; chlorosulfonic
acid; dimethylamine; epichlorohydrin; ethane; ethylene;
ethylene oxide; ethylenimine; ethyl ether; hydrofluoric acid,
aquenous (70 percent) hydrogen chloride, anhydrous; hydrogen
fluoride, anhydrous; methane; methyl acetylene, propadiene
mixture, stabilized; methyl bromide; methyl chloride; motor
fuel anti-knock compounds containing lead alkyls; oleum; phos-
phorous, elemental; propane; propylene; propylene oxide;
sulfur dioxide; toluene diisocyanate; vinyl chloride....... []
3. Indirect impacts on Operations of Facility..................... []
a. Effect on contiguous land use.............................. []
agriculture................................................ []
shopping centers and office buildings...................... []
marine structures such as piers and marinas................ []
fishing and mining......................................... []
manufacturing.............................................. []
transportation............................................. []
commercial operations such as tourism...................... []
distinctive scenic features................................ []
unique historical/cultural landmarks....................... []
b. Effect on regional development patterns.................... []
c. Effect on demand for housing and public facilities......... []
d. Effect on use of nearby environmental amenities (parks, wood-
lands, recreational areas.................................. []
e. Effect of additional and/or improved transportation into con-
gested areas............................................... []
f. Effect of differential usefulness of the facility for
different economic and ethic groups (and resulting problems
and solutions)............................................. []
g. Effect of increased mobility on lifestyles................. []
h. Effect of improved facility in transportation and related
technological development (and consequent impacts)......... []
H. Trade-Off Situations............................................... []
1. Contribution of other industries in area to pollution levels... []
2. Potential for reduction in existing pollution levels........... []
I. Analysis of Site from Ecological Viewpoint......................... []
1. Description of land form....................................... []
2. Bedrock/foundation............................................. []
a. Support quality............................................ []
b. Type of material........................................... []
c. Depth of material.......................................... []
3. Soil analysis.................................................. []
a. Agricultural quality....................................... []
b. Structure support quality.................................. []
c. Depth...................................................... []
d. Erosion characteristics.................................... []
e. Soil types................................................. []
f. Drainage................................................... []
4. Existing vegetation............................................ []
a. Vegetation types........................................... []
b. Timber quality............................................. []
c. Food value................................................. []
d. Landscape design potential................................. []
5. Climate analysis (See Climate )................................ []
6. On-site construction materials................................. []
a. List of materials.......................................... []
b. Availability............................................... []
c. Quantity................................................... []
7. Wildlife habitats.............................................. []
a. Existing wildlife.......................................... []
b. Range...................................................... []
c. Sensitivity................................................ []
d. Effect of development...................................... []
8. Description of watershed or drainage basin..................... []
9. Ground water/ hydrology........................................ []
10. Reef/ offshore analysis........................................ []
a. Condition of reef.......................................... []
b. Configuration of ocean floor............................... []
c. Bottom condition (rock, sand, coral, etc.)................. []
d. Aquatic life............................................... []
11. Tidal area analysis............................................ []
a. Condition of river mouth or estuary........................ []
b. Salt water/ fresh water mix zone........................... []
c. Effect of development...................................... []
12. Analysis of hazards............................................ []
13. Shoreline analysis............................................. []
a. Length of beach............................................ []
b. Quality of beach material.................................. []
c. Configuration of shoreline/beach........................... []
d. Rocky shoreline............................................ []
e. Swamp...................................................... []
14. Harbor analysis................................................ []
a. Depth...................................................... []
b. Bottom conditions/ anchorage............................... []
15. Surface water.................................................. []
a. Lakes/ponds/pools (size, quality, accessibility)........... []
b. Rivers/ streams............................................ []
c. Navigation characteristics................................. []
d. Use of domestic water...................................... []
e. Pollution problems......................................... []
16. Existing pollution............................................. []
a. Source..................................................... []
b. Areas affected............................................. []
c. Alternative................................................ []
d. Cost of alternative........................................ []
XI. QUALITY OF LIFE FACTORS
A. General Appearance of Community.................................... []
1. Natural environment............................................ []
2. Appearance of central business district and commercial,
industrial areas............................................... []
a. Level of activity.......................................... []
b. New construction underway.................................. []
c. Empty buildings............................................ []
B. Community Features................................................. []
1. Housing........................................................ []
a. Location of in-town, suburban residential areas............ []
b. Areas served by all utilities.............................. []
c. Slum areas................................................. []
d. Urban renewal- public and private.......................... []
Progress................................................... []
Methods of financing....................................... []
Effect on other areas of the city.......................... []
e. Undeveloped acreage in city................................ []
f. Photographs of the typical areas and homes................. []
g. Housing available in various price ranges.................. []
h. Housing built in last five years........................... []
i. Typical construction- basements, garages, frame, brick, air
conditioning, setbacks, sidewalks.......................... []
j. Lot size and costs......................................... []
k. Building cost per square foot for various types of houses.. []
l. Rental units- size range, rentals, lease requirements, terms
of leases.................................................. []
m. Apartments- type, rentals, terms of lease.................. []
n. Percent of total housing stock in rental units............. []
2. Travel and meeting facilities.................................. []
a. Hotels and motels.......................................... []
Number of rooms............................................ []
Maximum and minimum rates.................................. []
Recognition by national hotel and motel associations....... []
Convention and meeting facilities.......................... []
Major convention accommodated-attendance and schedule...... []
b. Auditorium, arena, exhibit hall............................ []
Capacities................................................. []
Special facilities......................................... []
c. Restaurants................................................ []
Number and capacity........................................ []
Inspection by local health authorities..................... []
Banquet and meeting facilities............................. []
Noted specialties.......................................... []
3. Shopping facilities............................................ []
a. Major department stores, including parking provisions...... []
b. Specialty stores........................................... []
c. Branches of metropolitan stores............................ []
d. Shopping centers........................................... []
4. Adequate construction facilities and services available, such as
architects, engineers, prime contractors, mechanical, electrical,
piping, carpenters, labor, masons, plasterers, painters, land-
scape artist and paving contractors............................ []
5. Banks.......................................................... []
a. Number..................................................... []
b. Proximity.................................................. []
c. Total deposits............................................. []
6. Legal firms.................................................... []
a. Type....................................................... []
b. Number..................................................... []
c. Proximity.................................................. []
7. Communications media........................................... []
a. Newspapers- local and major out-of-town.................... []
Number and time of editions................................ []
Circulation................................................ []
Editorial Philosophy....................................... []
Percent of population subscribing to daily newspapers...... []
b. Television................................................. []
Channels, affiliations..................................... []
Quality of reception....................................... []
Local interest programs of special quality................. []
Educational TV............................................. []
CATV....................................................... []
c. Radio...................................................... []
Call letters and reception................................. []
Quality of programs........................................ []
d. Other media................................................ []
Trade publications......................................... []
Farm journals.............................................. []
8. Mail and express service....................................... []
a. Number, location and hours of local post offices........... []
b. Frequency of delivery- business areas, residential......... []
c. Express service- area served, average shipment time to major
cities..................................................... []
d. Messenger service.......................................... []
e. Location of bulk mail facilities........................... []
9. Organizations.................................................. []
a. Civic, fraternal and social groups......................... []
b. Economic development organizations......................... []
c. Outstanding programs and expenditures per capita........... []
d. Extent of active participation............................. []
e. United Fund................................................ []
Results of last three drives............................... []
Per capita giving.......................................... []
Agencies included and those conducting separate drives..... []
Participation by local industry- employee contributions by
payroll withholding........................................ []
f. Professional societies..................................... []
Membership................................................. []
Frequency of meetings...................................... []
Programs conducted......................................... []
10. Political and social attitudes................................. []
a. Majority of local civic, business and religious leaders with
progressive attitude toward business and industry.......... []
b. Proportion of population registered to vote and voting in
national and local elections............................... []
c. Business leader participation.............................. []
Election to local office................................... []
Service on planning boards, school boards, tax councils.... []
Local businessmen prominent in local affairs............... []
d. Economic education programs................................ []
e. Ethnic, racial and religious groups prominent in local
affairs.................................................... []
f. Reception accorded new residents........................... []
g. Restrictions on sale of alcoholic beverages................ []
h. Unusual "blue laws"........................................ []
11. Amenities and intangibles...................................... []
a. Points of unusual, historic or scenic interest............. []
b. Prestige factors........................................... []
C. Health and Welfare................................................. []
1. Hospitals and clinics.......................................... []
a. Number of hospital beds per 1,000 population................ []
b. Semi-private room rate..................................... []
c. Special equipment.......................................... []
d. Rating..................................................... []
e. Accreditation status....................................... []
2. Medical personnel.............................................. []
a. General practitioners...................................... []
b. Surgeons................................................... []
c. Specialists................................................ []
d. Number of physicians, dentists, nurses per 1,000 population..[]
3. Dentists....................................................... []
4. Ambulance services............................................. []
5. Public health regulations...................................... []
6. Social services................................................ []
a. Groups assisted............................................ []
b. Number of social workers per 1,000 population.............. []
c. Source of funds............................................ []
d. Expenditures for social services as percent of total city/
county budget.............................................. []
e. Percent of total population on welfare..................... []
f. Adequacy of services for existing population............... []
7. General health of population................................... []
a. Infant mortality rate...................................... []
b. Death rates from heart disease, cancer..................... []
c. Tuberculosis rate.......................................... []
8. Average per capita government expenditure on public welfare.... []
D. Police and Fire Protection......................................... []
1. Law enforcement................................................ []
a. Personnel per 1,000 population............................. []
b. Annual expenditures for police force....................... []
c. Equipment.................................................. []
d. Surveillance of industrial areas........................... []
e. Cooperation with county and state police................... []
f. Crime and juvenile delinquency rates, major categories (rape,
murder, aggravated assault, burglary)...................... []
g. Performance during strikes and labor disputes.............. []
h. Injunctions against illegal strikes or picketing........... []
i. Traffic regulation during shift changes at plant........... []
j. Municipal courts........................................... []
k. Personnel attrition........................................ []
l. Training programs.......................................... []
2. Civil defense.................................................. []
a. Shelters in downtown area.................................. []
b. Trained disaster squads and civil defense units............ []
3. Fire protection................................................ []
a. Personnel per 1,000 population............................. []
b. Fire insurance classification.............................. []
c. Extent of protected area................................... []
d. Stations-location and time to outer limits of protected area.[]
e. Equipment, including that for chemical fires............... []
f. Water pressure for fire fighting........................... []
g. Fire inspection of local industry.......................... []
h. Sprinkler system requirements.............................. []
i. Personnel attrition........................................ []
j. Training programs.......................................... []
4. Plant security................................................. []
a. Availability of private security agent protection, if needed.[]
b. Other...................................................... []
E. Education.......................................................... []
1. Number, enrollment, teachers, accreditation.................... []
a. Public schools- elementary, junior high, senior high....... []
b. Parochial schools- elementary and high..................... []
c. Private schools............................................ []
d. Pupil-teacher ratios....................................... []
2. Cost of education per pupil.................................... []
3. Investment per pupil and public school debt per capita:
Responsibility for funding; school property tax trends......... []
4. Teacher requirements and salary scales......................... []
5. School building expansion program and need for split shifts.... []
6. History of voter rejection of school bond issues............... []
7. Capacity vs. existing demand vs. projected demand.............. []
8. Condition and appearance of school buildings and grounds....... []
9. Special facilities-libraries, laboratory facilities............ []
10. Special programs for exceptional students...................... []
11. Average class 10 / 12 scores................................... []
12. Percent of high school graduates who go to college............. []
13. Percent of high school drop-outs............................... []
14. Trade and business courses in regular high schools............. []
15. Adult evening classes- vocational and avocational.............. []
16. Kindergartens and nursery schools.............................. []
17. School buses- areas served..................................... []
18. Status of desegregation........................................ []
19. History of racial conflict in schools.......................... []
20. Programs to deal with drug abuse, alcoholism................... []
21. Colleges and universities in 50-mile radius.................... []
a. Enrollment, faculty, accreditation......................... []
b. Degrees granted, graduate programs......................... []
c. Evening courses offered.................................... []
d. Extension programs......................................... []
e. Special facilities for research............................ []
f. Research undertaken for industry in last five years........ []
g. Expansion programs......................................... []
22. Vocational schools............................................. []
a. Courses offered............................................ []
b. Curricula flexibility...................................... []
c. Federal, state or local training programs tailored to specific
industry requirements...................................... []
d. Training cost reimbursement programs for industry.......... []
e. Median school years completed by those 25 and older........ []
f. Percent of those applying for military service who fail mental
test....................................................... []
g. Vocational education for adults............................ []
F. Cultural Aspects................................................... []
1. Libraries (including university)............................... []
a. Number of volumes.......................................... []
b. Branches, bookmobiles...................................... []
c. Circulation................................................ []
d. Budget..................................................... []
2. Legitimate theatre............................................. []
a. Traveling shows last five years............................ []
b. Local repertory groups..................................... []
3. Musical groups................................................. []
a. Symphony orchestra......................................... []
b. Choral and chamber music groups............................ []
4. Lecture and concert series..................................... []
5. Museums and art galleries...................................... []
6. Discussion groups- forums...................................... []
G. Recreational Facilities............................................ []
1. Parks- acres per 1,000 population.............................. []
2. Playgrounds.................................................... []
3. Golf courses................................................... []
a. Ownership.................................................. []
b. Fees and membership dues................................... []
4. Tennis courts.................................................. []
5. Water sports facilities........................................ []
6. Winter sports facilities....................................... []
7. Bowling alleys- number of lanes................................ []
8. Professional sports............................................ []
a. Stadium capacity........................................... []
b. Baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, boxing..... []
9. Race tracks- racing days per year.............................. []
10. Team sports facilities......................................... []
a. Little league football and baseball........................ []
b. Softball leagues........................................... []
11. Theatres, including drive-ins.................................. []
12. Hunting areas nearby- types of game............................ []
13. Summer camps................................................... []
H. Temples / Mosques / Churches / Gurdwaras etc....................... []
1. Denomination represented, number of places of worship.......... []
2. Percentage..................................................... []
3. Leading faiths in area......................................... []
4. Interfaith groups.............................................. []
5. Community activities........................................... []
6. Attitudes of religious leaders toward business and industry.... []
I. Living Costs....................................................... []
1. Food........................................................... []
2. Housing, including costs for mortgage, real estate, taxes and
hazard insurance............................................... []
3. Clothing....................................................... []
4. Medical........................................................ []
5. Education...................................................... []
6. Transportation................................................. []
7. Utilities...................................................... []
8. Entertainment/recreation....................................... []
J. Employee Relocation Policies and Factors.......................... []
1. Costs for home at former location............................... []
a) Reimburse sales costs........................................ []
b) Home purchase plan........................................... []
c) Equity advance............................................... []
d) Loss incurred................................................ []
e) Property management.......................................... []
f) Duplicate mortgages.......................................... []
2. Costs at new home location...................................... []
a) Closing, legal............................................... []
b) New loan discount............................................ []
c) Mortgage interest difference................................. []
d) Housing supplement........................................... []
e) Personal loan................................................ []
3. Other costs..................................................... []
a) Higher salary for certain areas.............................. []
b) Cost-of-living adjustment.................................... []
c) Temporary housing............................................ []
d) Spouse employment............................................ []
e) Travel, site visits.......................................... []
XII. CLIMATE
A. For each month of year provide following data from nearest weather
service reporting station
1. Monthly average temperature.................................... []
2. Average maximum temp........................................... []
3. Average minimum temp........................................... []
4. Maximum temp. ever recorded.................................... []
5. Minimum temp. ever recorded.................................... []
6. Heating degree days............................................ []
7. Cooling degree days............................................ []
8. Number of days over 90......................................... []
9. Number of days under 32........................................ []
10. Average precipitation, inches.................................. []
11. Average relative humidity...................................... []
12. Average wind velocity.......................................... []
13. Prevailing wind direction...................................... []
14. Number of clear, partly cloudy, cloudy days.................... []
15. Percent of time instrument flight rules prevail................ []
16. Maximum rainfall in 24 hour period............................. []
17. Maximum snowfall in 24 hour period............................. []
B. Other climatic data................................................ []
1. Summer period between killing frosts, days..................... []
2. Temperature inversion pattern.................................. []
3. Air Pollution Index............................................ []
C. History of natural disasters, special weather hazards.............. []
1. Hurricanes..................................................... []
2. Tornados....................................................... []
3. Earthquakes.................................................... []
4. Volcanic eruptions............................................. []
5. Tidal waves.................................................... []
6. Floods......................................................... []
7. Mud slides..................................................... []
8. Forest fires................................................... []
9. Drought, dust storms........................................... []
10. Thunderstorms, lightning, hail................................. []
11. Blizzards...................................................... []
D. Climatic Effects on Costs.......................................... []
1. On building design, construction and maintenance............... []
2. On cost of heating and air conditioning........................ []
3. On transportation to and from plant............................ []
4. On operations within plant, including technical processes...... []
5. On employee recruiting......................................... []
XIII. SPECIFIC SITES- PLANNING FACTORS
A. Type of Site....................................................... []
1. Raw land, previously undeveloped............................... []
2. Zoned office/industrial but not in planned park................ []
3. Planned office or industrial park.............................. []
4. Urban, suburban, rural......................................... []
5. Waterfront or airport frontage................................. []
6. Redevelopment area............................................. []
7. Drained or reclaimed land...................................... []
8. Cleared, graded land........................................... []
9. Site in large-scale PUD or new town............................ []
10. Previous land use, toxic waste risk............................ []
11. Adjacent land use.............................................. []
B. Topographic Consideration.......................................... []
1. Slope and grade................................................ []
2. Potential aesthetic problems................................... []
3. Legislation restricting construction due to topography......... []
4. Height above sea level......................................... []
5. "Look window" for satellite antenna....
C. Geologic Consideration............................................. []
1. Depth of solid rock and character or intervening soil strata... []
2. Bearing loads as compared with requirements.................... []
3. Soil analysis.................................................. []
4. Variation in ground water level................................ []
5. Flood risk and flood plains of surface bodies of water......... []
6. Drainage pattern after plant construction...................... []
7. Earthquake risk................................................ []
D. Transportation Service on Site (See also "Transportation")......... []
1. Airport at site................................................ []
2. Taxiway access to plant sites.................................. []
3. Rail siding.................................................... []
4. Truck dock..................................................... []
5. Deepwater dock................................................. []
6. Barge dock..................................................... []
7. Rapid transit stop............................................. []
8. Streets........................................................ []
E. Transportation Service in Area..................................... []
1. Approximate miles to closest Interstate highway access......... []
2. Approximate miles to closest air carrier airport............... []
3. Approximate miles to closest general aviation airport.......... []
4. Approximate miles to closest deepwater port.................... []
5. Approximate distance to main rail-line......................... []
F. Potential for Intermodal Transfer of Containers.................... []
1. Rail-truck..................................................... []
2. Air-truck...................................................... []
3. Ship-truck..................................................... []
4. Rail-ship...................................................... []
5. Rail-air....................................................... []
6. Ship-air....................................................... []
7. Barge-rail..................................................... []
8. Barge-truck.................................................... []
9. Barge-air...................................................... []
G. Utilities (See "Power and Fuel," "Water and Waste Disposal")....... []
H. Site development costs............................................. []
1. Cost of water line, who pays................................... []
2. Cost of sewer line, who pays................................... []
3. Cost of electric line, who pays................................ []
4. Cost of rail line, who pays.................................... []
5. Cost of access road, who pays.................................. []
6. Clearing and grading cost...................................... []
I. Intangible Considerations.......................................... []
1. Natural surroundings........................................... []
2. Advertising value of site...................................... []
3. View of building from distance and view from within building... []
4. Neighbors...................................................... []
5. Security....................................................... []
J. Legal Check-Points................................................. []
1. Title.......................................................... []
2. Easements...................................................... []
3. Protective covenants, deed restrictions........................ []
4. Abandoned cemeteries........................................... []
5. Mineral rights................................................. []
6. If site is in multiple ownership............................... []
a) Get accurate list of present owners........................ []
b) Develop profile on each owner.............................. []
c) Determine reasons for present use.......................... []
d) Obtain expert opinion on current market value.............. []
e) Be prepared to risk option money........................... []
K. Cost of Land....................................................... []
1. Initial cost, assuming options obtained without publicity...... []
2. Cost if project is publicized.................................. []
3. Broker fees.................................................... []
4. Probable appreciation of land value............................ []
L. Zoning Requirements................................................ []
1. Uses permitted................................................. []
2. Off-street parking............................................. []
3. Set-backs...................................................... []
4. Percent of site that may be utilized........................... []
5. Control of nuisances (smoke, dust, noise, etc.)................ []
6. Sign control................................................... []
7. Height restrictions............................................ []
8. Usage convertibility........................................... []
M. Consideration of Special Strategies................................ []
1. Purchase of site large enough for more than one plant, setting up
a "land bank" for future use................................... []
2. Use of surplus corporate property, including available land and
buildings...................................................... []
3. Developing own industrial park or complex and locating plant in it,
thus capturing some of own economic impact..................... []
4. Swapping company property elsewhere for site to avoid tax con-
sequences...................................................... []
5. Leasehold on public land, such as an airport or urban renewal
area........................................................... []
6. Site on closed military base, to use existing facilities, employ
skilled workers, etc........................................... []
7. Establish a plant under the twin plant concept (unit outside the
U.S. furnishing assemblies to unit in the U.S.)................ []
N. Deed Covenants .................................................... []
i. Introductory Section........................................... []
1. Purpose.................................................... []
2. Ownership.................................................. []
3. Definitions................................................ []
ii. Land-Use Criteria.............................................. []
1. Allowable land-use......................................... []
2. Prohibited land-use........................................ []
3. Special uses............................................... []
iii. Performance Standards (except local, state, central environmental
regulations)................................................... []
1. Noise...................................................... []
2. Fire and explosives........................................ []
3. Vibration or shock......................................... []
4. Smoke or heat.............................................. []
5. Illumination or glare...................................... []
6. Particulate matter, dust and dirt.......................... []
7. Electrical disturbances.................................... []
8. Odors, toxic and noxious matter............................ []
9. Drainage................................................... []
10. Excavations................................................ []
11. Radiation.................................................. []
iv. Space Allocations and Dimensional Standards.................... []
1. Building-to-land ratio..................................... []
Minimum building size...................................... []
Minimum lot size........................................... []
2. Set-backs- front yard...................................... []
3. Set-backs- side yard....................................... []
4. Set-backs- rear yard....................................... []
5. Exceptions to side yard and rear yard limits............... []
6. Rail siding................................................ []
7. Height limitations......................................... []
Allowable variations....................................... []
8. Off-street parking areas................................... []
9. Off-street loading areas................................... []
10. Easements and rights-of-way................................ []
11. Streets and driveways...................................... []
12. Sidewalks and curbing...................................... []
v. Architectural and Aesthetic Standards.......................... []
1. Landscaping and limitations on cutting natural growth...... []
2. Exterior construction, permitted materials, prohibited
materials, approved construction methods................... []
3. Signs...................................................... []
4. Outdoor storage............................................ []
5. Maintenance requirements, refuse collection and prohibition of
junk storage............................................... []
6. Utilities placement and design............................. []
vi. Implementation of Plans and Construction....................... []
1. Architectural review and approval of building plans-
procedure.................................................. []
2. Extension to include additional property................... []
3. Developers right to alter or change covenants.............. []
4. Enforcement................................................ []
5. Fees....................................................... []
6. Property owners association................................ []
7. Repurchase rights.......................................... []
8. Separatability............................................. []
9. Termination and modifications.............................. []
10. Constructive notice and acceptance......................... []
11. Completion of construction, temporary structures........... []
12. Miscellaneous.............................................. []
vii. Special Provisions Peculiar to Project or Site................. []
XIV. BUILDINGS: OFFICE, WAREHOUSE, INDUSTRIAL
A. Available Buildings................................................ []
1. Location....................................................... []
2. Year built..................................................... []
3. Owner.......................................................... []
4. Total number of square feet, usable square feet................ []
5. Condition of building.......................................... []
6. Current zoning, transferability................................ []
7. Date of availability........................................... []
8. Neighborhood environment, appearance of surroundings........... []
9. Photographs and floor plans.................................... []
10. Suitability of building for warehousing, manufacturing......... []
11. Type of construction (steel, masonry, other)................... []
12. Floor type..................................................... []
13. Floor loadings................................................. []
14. Number of stories.............................................. []
15. Ceiling height................................................. []
a. Ceiling clearance and column spacing....................... []
16. Suitability for special equipment.............................. []
17. Heating system................................................. []
a. Type....................................................... []
b. Btu........................................................ []
18. Air conditioning system........................................ []
a. Type....................................................... []
b. Size....................................................... []
c. Capacity................................................... []
19. Humidity control............................................... []
20. Building insulation............................................ []
21. Sprinkler system............................................... []
a. Type of system............................................. []
b. Size of tank............................................... []
c. Pressure................................................... []
d. Number of fire extinguishers............................... []
e. Fire detection system...................................... []
f. Fire water storage......................................... []
22. Distance to nearest fire station............................... []
23. Distance to nearest fire plug.................................. []
24. Hydrants on site............................................... []
25. Insurance rating............................................... []
26. Existing special facilities (such as computer room)............ []
27. Oil storage.................................................... []
28. Propane storage................................................ []
29. Availability of rail siding................................... []
30. Number of parking spaces available............................. []
31. Truck docks available.......................................... []
32. Existing tax assessment........................................ []
33. Sale price and terms, or leasing costs......................... []
34. Size of site................................................... []
B. Leasing Data....................................................... []
1. Nature and duration of lease................................... []
2. Description of premises, including appurtenances............... []
3. Renewal and purchase options and options for additional space.. []
4. Right of first refusal on additional space..................... []
5. Right to lease adjacent or substitute space.................... []
6. Availability of month-to-month tenancy when holding over....... []
7. Rent........................................................... []
a. Amount..................................................... []
b. When and how payable....................................... []
8. Grace period................................................... []
9. Escalations.................................................... []
a. In real estate taxes....................................... []
b. In building operating expenses............................. []
c. Basis for escalation (CPI, etc.)........................... []
10. Penalty for early termination.................................. []
11. Right of possession............................................ []
12. Measure of damages............................................. []
13. Subletting and assignment...................................... []
14. Responsibility for taxes, other expenses....................... []
15. Building services, utilities furnished by landlord............. []
a. Heating (hours supplied)................................... []
b. Air conditioning (hours supplied).......................... []
c. Janitorial................................................. []
d. Window cleaning............................................ []
e. Building maintenance....................................... []
f. Security................................................... []
g. Parking.................................................... []
h. Exterminating service...................................... []
i. Water...................................................... []
j. Exterior grounds maintenance and snow removal.............. []
16. Leasehold improvements allowance............................... []
17. Number of parking spaces included in lease..................... []
18. Right to erect signs, other advertising matter................. []
19. Responsibility for repairs and conformity with building codes,
laws........................................................... []
20. Title, zoning and other restrictions on use of land............ []
21. Liability, insurance coverage and subrogation.................. []
22. Destruction or condemnation of premises........................ []
23. Building and construction of new leased facilities (Specify
location, date of construction completion, type of construction,
etc.).......................................................... []
24. Permissible uses............................................... []
25. Right to install satellite antenna on roof..................... []
C. Points to Cover in Leases on Public Property (Such as an Airport).. []
1. Term adequate for financing: 50 years or shorter term with
option to extend............................................... []
2. Realistic subordination provision to permit financing.......... []
3. Lessee to have right to substitute a joint venture or subsidiary,
sublease or assign............................................. []
4. Lessor to provide survey of property........................... []
5. Reversion clause to be modified (if necessary) to provide that
parcel leased not be recaptured if improper use made of other
sites on airport by other lessees.............................. []
6. Height restrictions and building restriction lines affecting site
not to be changed during lease term............................ []
7. Taxiway access guarantee....................................... []
D. Points to cover in an appraisal.................................... []
1. Letter of transmittal.......................................... []
2. Purpose of appraisal........................................... []
3. Date........................................................... []
4. Rights to be appraised......................................... []
5. Legal description of property.................................. []
6. Highest and best use........................................... []
7. Zoning......................................................... []
8. Tax history.................................................... []
9. Area description............................................... []
10. Site description............................................... []
11. Building description........................................... []
12. Value of land, with comparables................................ []
13. Value determined from cost..................................... []
14. Value determined from income................................... []
15. Photos, maps, plats............................................ []
16. Certification of the appraiser................................. []
E. Office-of-the-future concept special requirements.................. []
1. Wire management, cabling....................................... []
a) Raised floor................................................ []
b) Ceiling trays............................................... []
c) Vertical chases............................................. []
d) Conduit in ceiling, building code........................... []
e) Teflon cable, cost.......................................... []
2. Power supply................................................... []
a) Central motor-generator set ................................ []
b) Emergency generator......................................... []
c) Battery back-up units....................................... []
3. HVAC requirements.............................................. []
a) More air supply and exhaust capacity, work areas............ []
b) Removal of gaseous pollutants from electronics.............. []
c) More moisture to prevent dry air in winter.................. []
d) Dust and particulate control................................ []
e) More capacity for heat removal.............................. []
f) More capacity for humidity control.......................... []
4. Lighting....................................................... []
a) Glare prevention for CRT work areas......................... []
b) Special lighting electronic service areas................... []
5. Energy management.............................................. []
a) Dual thickness insulating windows........................... []
b) Insulated roof, U:0.08 or better............................ []
c) Insulated exterior walls U:0.1 or better.................... []
d) Low pressure air system..................................... []
6. Telecommunications facilities.................................. []
a) Videoconference room........................................ []
b) Satellite antenna........................................... []
c) Microwave antenna........................................... []
7. Shared services (intelligent buildings)........................ []
a) Lease or sale of telephone equipment........................ []
b) Lease or sale of data processing equipment and
services.................................................... []
c) Automatic billing, analysis, and cost reporting of
phone service, teleconferencing, data transfer.............. []
d) Packet-switching network interface.......................... []
e) Auto log-on for on-line data services ...................... []
f) Phone answering and message services........................ []
g) Electronic fire, security, surveillance systems............. []
h) LAN permitting multi-user printers, peripherals............. []
i) Track record of shared-service provider..................... []
j) Back-up provisions if system goes down...................... []
k) Are technical support people on site?....................... []
l) Is system compatible with company's other systems?.......... []
m) Will company's data be secure?.............................. []
8. Space requirements............................................. []
a) More space for work stations with peripherals............... []
b) Increased floor/floor height................................ []
c) Electronic printing area.................................... []
d) Electronic mail center...................................... []
F. Furniture, fixtures, miscellaneous assets.......................... []
1. Mail room equipment............................................ []
2. Kitchen equipment.............................................. []
3. Dishes, cutlery, utensils...................................... []
4. Art, framed pictures, sculpture................................ []
5. Vending machines............................................... []
6. Graphics, signage.............................................. []
7. Carpets........................................................ []
8. Conference room, A/V equipment................................. []
9. Plants, planters............................................... []
10. Security systems, devices...................................... []
11. Flagpole, flags................................................ []
12. Mailbox........................................................ []
13. Fire extinguishers............................................. []
14. Recreational, exercise equipment............................... []
15. Vehicles....................................................... []
16. Tools, maintenance equipment................................... []
17. Exhibits, models............................................... []
18. System furniture............................................... []
19. Other furniture................................................ []
G. Facilities for R&D, science activities............................. []
1. Animal care rooms.............................................. []
2. Clean rooms.................................................... []
3. Cold rooms..................................................... []
4. Hazardous reaction rooms....................................... []
a) High pressure cells, vents.................................. []
b) Barricades.................................................. []
c) Showers..................................................... []
d) Explosion management........................................ []
5. Radiation labs................................................. []
6. Toxic waste disposal........................................... []
7. High energy labs............................................... []
8. Special HVAC, fume hoods....................................... []
9. Special fire protection........................................ []
10. First aid facility............................................. []
XV. INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
A. Corporate Rationale for Location Outside Country
1. Materials availability, minerals source........................ []
2. Market opportunity, common market access....................... []
3. Labor cost saving.............................................. []
4. Capital availability........................................... []
5. Other.......................................................... []
B. Who Will Do Location Analysis and Site Selection
1. Same staff which handles domestic projects..................... []
2. Company's international department with assistance from domestic
facility planning staff........................................ []
3. Outside service or consultant.................................. []
C. Govt. Policies on Capital Investment in Foreign Ventures
1. Limit on export of technology.................................. []
2. Loan programs available........................................ []
3. Procedures required............................................ []
D. Political Risk Evaluation for Foreign Areas........................ []
1. International bloc orientation................................. []
2. Stability of regime............................................ []
3. Attitude of leading political parties toward foreign capital... []
4. Protection against expropriation of foreign companies.......... []
5. Special treatment for host nation industries................... []
6. Treaties or pacts between U.S. and foreign country............. []
a) Investment Guarantee Treaty................................ []
b) Convention to avoid double taxation........................ []
c) Most-favored nation treatment.............................. []
d) Customs union.............................................. []
e) GATT....................................................... []
f) International Monetary Fund................................ []
g) World Bank................................................. []
7. Record of terrorism, protection of human rights................ []
8. Sanctity of contract with foreign government................... []
9. Military alliances of foreign government....................... []
E. Foreign Government Regulations and Policies........................ []
1. Fairness of administrative procedures.......................... []
2. Prevalence of bureaucratic red tape............................ []
3. Clarity of corporate investment laws........................... []
4. Record of courts in regard to foreign companies................ []
5. Regulations on joint ventures or mergers with local firms...... []
6. Requirements for setting up local corporations................. []
7. Percentage of capital that may be foreign...................... []
8. Percentage of foreign employees and supervisors................ []
9. Regulations concerning patents................................. []
10. Price controls................................................. []
11. Regulations on transfer of funds out of the country............ []
a) Profits..................................................... []
b) Royalties................................................... []
c) Technical service fees...................................... []
d) Repatriation of capital..................................... []
12. Restrictions on exploitation of natural resources.............. []
13. Taxation of foreign-owned companies............................ []
14. Value added tax................................................ []
15. Taxation of export income and income from operations abroad.... []
F. Tariffs and Customs Regulations.................................... []
1. Present and foreseen participation in regional tariff agreements.[]
2. Other tariff protection, export subsidies...................... []
3. Tariff rates on raw materials and components................... []
4. Export taxes on finished product............................... []
5. Duty or tax penalties when imported goods are exported......... []
6. Regulations regarding free trade zones......................... []
7. Availability of bonded warehouses.............................. []
G. Economic Factors................................................... []
1. Export-import records and trends............................... []
2. Standard of living, per capita income.......................... []
3. Trends in Gross National Product............................... []
4. Stability of economy, cyclic trends............................ []
5. Fiscal policies and practices.................................. []
6. Record of payment of foreign debts............................. []
7. Strength of currency against U.S. dollar....................... []
8. Balance of payments status and trends.......................... []
9. Major components of economy and trends (agricultural, industry,
commerce)...................................................... []
10. Trends in U.S. and other foreign investment.................... []
11. Trends in prices and inflation rate............................ []
H. Financing.......................................................... []
1. Special incentives............................................. []
2. Policies of international capital sources on loans in the foreign
country........................................................ []
3. Availability of a development bank............................. []
4. Quality of local banking system, savings and loan associations. []
5. Government credit aids to new companies........................ []
6. Availability of local investment capital....................... []
7. Local interest rates and terms................................. []
8. Availability of convertible currencies......................... []
9. Availability of export financing and insurance................. []
10. Debt/equity requirements....................................... []
I. General Business Factors........................................... []
1. Official language for conduct of business, if any.............. []
2. Availability of investment guaranty, coverage war, expropriation
and convertibility risks....................................... []
3. Overall reputation of the business community................... []
4. National and local marketing and distribution systems.......... []
5. Units of measurement used...................................... []
6. Corporate law heritage (British, Latin, Dutch, etc.)........... []
7. Availability and quality of Telex, telephone systems, satellite
communications, packet network nodes........................... []
8. Availability of spare parts.................................... []
9. Availability of an international airport....................... []
10. Capacity and quality of industrial gases....................... []
11. Literacy rate.................................................. []
12. Ethnic tensions................................................ []
13. Quality of local workmanship................................... []
14. Skilled labor matrix........................................... []
15. Availability of local supplies, services....................... []
16. Training subsidies............................................. []
17. Percent of crude oil imported.................................. []
18. Local electrical power systems- cycles, voltage, phase......... []
19. Railroad gauge................................................. []
20. Normal freight car capacity.................................... []
J. Selecting foreign architect, engineer, other professionals......... []
1. Geographic area covered ....................................... []
2. Degree of automation........................................... []
3. Size of firm................................................... []
4. Facilities..................................................... []
5. Client track record............................................ []
6. Current priority projects...................................... []
7. Individual who would head up project........................... []
a) Languages spoken, including English......................... []
b) Has he done any similar jobs................................ []
c) How many jobs has he completed.............................. []
d) Is he cost-conscious........................................ []
K. Other Factors...................................................... []
1. Major differences in culture and management styles............. []
2. Employee fringe benefits practices, compulsory, voluntary...... []
3. Time difference from New York, London, Tokyo................... []
4. Local taboos or unusual product preferences.................... []
DECISION-MAKING
I. FACILITY FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS
A. Final Tally of Annual Costs........................................ []
1. Wages and salaries............................................. []
a) Professional................................................ []
b) Craft....................................................... []
c) Labor....................................................... []
2. Materials...................................................... []
3. Transportation................................................. []
a) Incoming materials.......................................... []
b) Outgoing products........................................... []
c) Other....................................................... []
4. Utilities and fuel............................................. []
a) Fuel........................................................ []
b) Electric power.............................................. []
c) Water....................................................... []
d) Waste treatment............................................. []
5. Amortization of facility....................................... []
a) Land and building........................................... []
b) Pollution control........................................... []
c) Equipment, machinery........................................ []
d) Financing................................................... []
6. Taxes.......................................................... []
a) State....................................................... []
b) Local....................................................... []
7. Other costs.................................................... []
8. Comparison of costs with similar data for alternate sites...... []
a) Sites near major source of raw materials.................... []
b) Sites near major market..................................... []
c) Sites in intermediate mode.................................. []
B. Return on Investment Analysis...................................... []
1. Returns........................................................ []
a) Net sales from facility..................................... []
b) Cost of products sold....................................... []
c) Gross profit from facility.................................. []
d) Operating expenses, other expenses.......................... []
e) Earning before taxes........................................ []
f) Income tax.................................................. []
g) Investment tax credit....................................... []
h) Depreciation, tax saving from accelerated depreciation,.......
salvage value............................................... []
i) Total cash inflow from facility............................. []
2. Investment..................................................... []
a) Land improvements........................................... []
b) Building/leasehold improvements ............................ []
c) Machinery and equipment..................................... []
d) Furniture and fixtures...................................... []
e) Working capital ( accounts receivable, inventory, ............
accounts payable)........................................... []
f) Total cash outflow.......................................... []
g) Net cash flow............................................... []
C. Tax, Accounting, Considerations.................................... []
II. FINANCING
A. Requirements....................................................... []
1. New building or existing structure............................. []
2. Lease or purchase.............................................. []
3. Purchase lease-back............................................ []
4. Effect of alternate proposals on working capital............... []
5. Effect on tax liability........................................ []
6. Payout time.................................................... []
B. Source of Funds.................................................... []
1. Retained earnings.............................................. []
2. Sale of stock, debentures or other securities.................. []
3. Short-term bank loan........................................... []
4. Private long-term loan or mortgage............................. []
5. Pooling of institutional funds................................. []
6. Merger......................................................... []
7. Loan from affiliated firm...................................... []
8. Loan from supplier............................................. []
9. Insurance company.............................................. []
10. Mutual funds................................................... []
11. Commercial financing........................................... []
12. Factoring organization......................................... []
13. Municipal or state industrial bonds............................ []
14. Local development corporation.................................. []
15. Regional development corporation............................... []
16. State development corporation (privately financed)............. []
17. State development authority (publicly financed)................ []
18. Small Business Administration.................................. []
19. Loan guarantees by a government entity......................... []
20. Economic Development Administration (in depressed areas)....... []
C. Credit Factors..................................................... []
1. Reputation of firm............................................. []
2. Type of business............................................... []
3. Length of time in business..................................... []
4. Quality and continuity of management........................... []
5. Training of young executives................................... []
6. Earning history................................................ []
7. Cash position.................................................. []
8. Other short- and long-term commitments......................... []
9. Size and type of plant - adaptability for other uses........... []
D. Factors Affecting Loan Terms....................................... []
1. General business conditions.................................... []
2. Length of loan................................................. []
3. Interest rate.................................................. []
4. Importance of industry to community............................ []
E. Special Inducements (See also Government Programs: ..................
National, State, Local Taxes and Permits).......................... []
1. Free land, plant............................................... []
2. Nominal rent................................................... []
3. Low interest rates............................................. []
4. Tax incentives................................................. []
III. LEASE V. BUY
A. Leasing Strategies................................................. []
1. Use of a lease as a financing vehicle.......................... []
2. Sale-leaseback as a financing method........................... []
3. Tax treatment of advance rental payments....................... []
4. Improvements on leased premises................................ []
5. Amortization or depreciation of leasehold and improvements..... []
6. Tax consequences of rental options............................. []
7. Distinction between ordinary repairs and capital expenditures.. []
8. Tax treatment of options to purchase........................... []
9. Tax treatment of net leases.................................... []
10. Use of percentage lease provisions to cope with inflation...... []
11. Tax treatments of payment by lessee to secure or cancel lease.. []
12. Tax consequences of subletting premises or assigning lease..... []
13. Risk avoidance................................................. []
14. Short-term situation........................................... []
15. Administrative convenience..................................... []
CONSTRUCTION, START-UP, PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
I. CONSTRUCTION AND IMPLEMENTATION
A. Company Contracting Policy......................................... []
1. All construction in-house with company personnel............... []
2. Total job to general contractor "turn-key"..................... []
3. Combination of above........................................... []
B. Contract Stipulations.............................................. []
C. Scheduling (by use of such project networks as PERT, CPM).......... []
D. Status Reporting................................................... []
1. Periodic inspections, testing.................................. []
2. Amounts approved, committed to date, paid to date and
variances for:
a) Construction................................................ []
b) Equipment................................................... []
c) Landscaping................................................. []
d) Furnishings................................................. []
E. Start-Up........................................................... []
1. Release of contractors......................................... []
2. Transfer of facility to operating unit......................... []
3. State and local permit......................................... []
a) Certificate of occupancy.................................... []
b) Smoking permit.............................................. []
c) State fire insurance permit................................. []
d) Approval of exhaust systems................................. []
e) Building permit and state-approved drawings................. []
f) Environmental control permits............................... []
4. Other records to be transferred................................. []
a) Equipment testing and operating instructions, records....... []
b) Waiver of liens............................................. []
c) Tracings of working drawings, including as-built .............
revisions...................................................... []
d) Specifications ............................................. []
e) Guarantees, warranties insurance documents.................. []
f) Keys........................................................ []
II. PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
A. Determination of Highest and Best Land Use for Corporate Properties. []
B. Record Keeping...................................................... []
1. Site data...................................................... []
a) Plans, acreage.............................................. []
b) Deeds....................................................... []
c) Agreements.................................................. []
d) Easements, right-of-ways.................................... []
e) Covenants................................................... []
f) Plot plans.................................................. []
g) Topo maps................................................... []
h) Title records............................................... []
i) Zoning information.......................................... []
j) Sales contracts............................................. []
k) Leases...................................................... []
l) Record of improvements...................................... []
m) Services on site............................................ []
n) Utilities................................................... []
o) Condemnations............................................... []
p) Options..................................................... []
2. Building data.................................................. []
a) Architectural drawings...................................... []
b) Construction drawings....................................... []
c) Construction contracts...................................... []
d) Progress charts (PERT, CPM)................................. []
e) "As-built" drawings......................................... []
f) Alterations................................................. []
g) Leases...................................................... []
h) Sub-leases.................................................. []
i) Options..................................................... []
3. Other data..................................................... []
a) Acquisition costs........................................... []
b) Taxes....................................................... []
c) Depreciation schedules...................................... []
d) Maintenance costs........................................... []
e) ROI or RONA................................................. []
f) Insurance................................................... []
C. Property Inventory................................................. []
1. Owned property................................................. []
a) Location.................................................... []
b) Description of land, buildings.............................. []
c) Acreage and square footage under roof....................... []
d) Mortgage balance............................................ []
e) Original costs (land, improvements)......................... []
f) Date and costs of additions................................. []
g) Net book value.............................................. []
h) Appraised value............................................. []
i) Assessed value.............................................. []
j) Replacement value........................................... []
k) Carrying charges (taxes, insurance, misc.).................. []
2. Leased Property................................................ []
a) Location.................................................... []
b) Description of leased facility.............................. []
c) Commencement date of lease.................................. []
d) Termination date............................................ []
e) Monthly rental.............................................. []
f) Termination notice conditions............................... []
g) Renewal privileges.......................................... []
h) Subleases and assignment privileges......................... []
i) Purchase privileges......................................... []
j) Insurance privileges........................................ []
k) Utility charges............................................. []
l) Tax liabilities............................................. []
m) Leasehold values............................................ []
n) Escalations................................................. []
o) Options..................................................... []
D. Property Inspections............................................... []
1. Condition of building interior................................. []
a) Floor....................................................... []
b) Walls....................................................... []
c) Lights...................................................... []
d) HVAC........................................................ []
e) Ceiling..................................................... []
f) Doors....................................................... []
g) Windows..................................................... []
h) Rest rooms.................................................. []
i) Plumbing.................................................... []
j) Sprinkler system............................................ []
k) Exhaust system.............................................. []
2. Condition of building exteriors................................ []
a) Walls....................................................... []
b) Roof........................................................ []
c) Drains...................................................... []
d) Trim........................................................ []
e) Stairs...................................................... []
f) Gutters and leaders......................................... []
g) Flashings................................................... []
3. Yard........................................................... []
a) Fences...................................................... []
b) Signs....................................................... []
c) Paving...................................................... []
d) Walks....................................................... []
e) Dolly strip................................................. []
f) Lighting.................................................... []
4. Dock........................................................... []
a) Doors....................................................... []
b) Lighting.................................................... []
c) Floors...................................................... []
d) Bumpers..................................................... []
e) Overhead doors.............................................. []
f) Door lights ................................................ []
E. Condemnations...................................................... []
F. Replacement and Retirement of Equipment............................ []
G. Vacating Property.................................................. []
H. Employee Relocation................................................ []
I. Surplus Property Disposal........................................... []
1. Property information required.................................. []
a) Deed........................................................ []
b) Title policy................................................ []
c) Records of right-of-ways, easements, other encumbrances..... []
d) Terms of acquisitions....................................... []
e) Improvement costs........................................... []
f) Book Value.................................................. []
g) Site survey................................................. []
h) Site plan................................................... []
i) Complete building plans..................................... []
j) Photo of property........................................... []
k) Appraisal................................................... []
l) Map of community showing location of site .................. []
m) Tax map showing lot and plot number......................... []
n) Zoning map showing zoning of property and surrounding
areas....................................................... []
o) Occupants of surrounding property........................... []
p) Assessed valuation and five-year history of assessments
and taxes................................................... []
q) Insurance costs............................................. []
r) Cost of repairs............................................. []
s) Cost of utilities........................................... []
t) List of equipment........................................... []
2. Community information required................................. []
a) List of local development organizations..................... []
b) Corporate personnel involved in facility and area........... []
c) List of local real estate brokers........................... []
d) List of other landowners, developers in area................ []
e) Community data on population, labor force, economic
climate, etc................................................ []
f) Community zoning map showing location of all properties
zoned for use similar to subject property................... []
g) Major industries in area.................................... []
h) General real estate climate of community.................... []
3. Property inspection............................................ []
a) Confirmation that facility is substantially same as shown
in records.................................................. []
b) Confirmation of operating costs............................. []
c) Repairs needed that would affect disposition of property.... []
4. Marketing plan................................................. []
a) Summary of appraised value of property...................... []
b) Summary of general real estate marketing conditions in
the area.................................................... []
c) Determination of whether property should be marketed
through a real estate agent................................. []
d) Recommendations for sales leads............................. []
e) Proposed terms of offering.................................. []
Sale or lease price......................................... []
Terms of sale (cash or mortgage) and/or lease details....... []
Time needed to market property in orderly manner............ []
Budget for expenses involved ............................... []
Recommendations for disposition of leasehold equipment,
furnishings, etc............................................ []
________________________________________
NOTES:
Employer Coverage
• Establishments employing 20 or more persons and engaged in any of the 180 industries / Classes of Businesses specified.
• Co-operative Societies, employing 50 or more persons & working without the aid of power.
• Establishments not coverable statutorily can come under the coverage of the Act statutorily.
• An establishment continues to be covered under the Act, irrespective of the fall in the employment strength.
• Since the Act applies on its own force to the establishments, the employers are required to file the particulars in the specified format for registration and allotment of business number.
Financial Obligations:
Contributions:
• Statutory rate of contribution is 12% of emoluments (basic wages, dearness allowance, cash value of food concession and retaining allowances if any,) in the case of 175 establishments.
• Rate of contribution shall be 10% in the case of the following:
Brick, beedi, jute, guar gum factories, coir industry other than spinning sector.
• Establishments declared as sick undertakings by BIFR.
• A matching contribution is to be collected from the emoluments of the employees.
Out of 12% (or 10% as the case may be) of the employer’s share of contribution, 8.33% is to be remitted towards pension fund.
• Employer is also required to pay a contribution of 0.5% of the emoluments towards EDLIS’1976.
Administrative Charges:
• An employer is required to pay administrative charges at 1.10% of emoluments towards provident fund charges and 0.01% towards EDLI Scheme 1976.
• No separate administrative charges for pension scheme
Inspection Charges:
• In respect of exempted establishment under P.F. Scheme employer is liable to pay only inspection charges at the rate of 0.18% of emoluments.
• In the case of establishment exempted from EDLI Scheme, the employer is required to pay only inspection charges at the rate of 0.005% of emoluments.
Interest Liability:
• For belated remittances of contributions, administrative / inspection charges interest at the rate of 12% on such remittances for the period of delay is to be remitted.
Damages:-
• For all the belated remittances of contribution and administration/inspection charges damages are also payable as penalty ranging from 17% to 37% p.a. depending upon delay.
Duties of Employer
• Enrol all categories of employees including the employees engaged by or through contractors and also piece rated, hourly rated employees.
• Remit the contributions and administrative charges before the 15th of the following month.
• File the initial returns of Form 9, Form 3(P.S.), form 5A.
• File the monthly returns in Form 12A, Form 5, Form 10 and Challans for remitting the dues.
• Maintain the contribution card in respect of each employee in Form 3A and submit the annual returns in Form 3A and 6A after reconciliation with Challans and form 12A.
• The employer has to ensure that statutory dues in respect of contractors employees are remitted and returns filed.
• Employer should attest the form No.2 and the claims forms submitted by the member/ legal heirs/ nominees.
• Make available all relevant records for inspection of visiting officials with due authorisation.
Exemptions under the Schemes
Provident Fund
• An individual member getting Provident Fund benefits on par with or better than statutory provisions can apply for exemption in Form 1 under para 27.
• Employers can apply for exemption in respect of a class of employees getting similar or better benefits than the statutory P.F. Scheme under P. 27A subject to the conditons governing grant of exemption.
• The employer can seek exemption from P.F. Scheme for the entire establishment if the majority of the employees also consent for exemption, subject to certain conditions governing grant of exemption and certain formalities.
Pension Scheme
• Employer can avail exemption for the establishment as a whole, with the consent of majority of employees, if an alternative pension scheme is formulated by the establishment with benefits either on par with or superior to the EPS ’95 and subject to certification of the viability and long sustenance of the scheme by an independent qualified actuary and satisfying the other conditions prescribed governing the grant of exemptions.
• There is no provision for exemption of individuals or for class of employees.
EDLI Scheme
• The establishment can get exemption from the EDLI Scheme, if the employees therein are entitled for a benefit in the nature of insurance whether linked to their P.F. deposit or not and without paying any contributions.
Calculating Annualized Turnover(Attrition)
While turnover is a fact of life in any organization, turnover rates differ greatly from one organization to the next. For example, some call centers operate with annual rates of less than 5%, while others see rates of well over 50% percent. (According to ICMI research, many call centers are in the 15% to 30% range.) An important first step in managing turnover is to calculate your annualized turnover accurately, so that you have a consistent basis for comparison and trending.
There are two figures you'll need in order to calculate annualized turnover - the number of agents exiting during each month, and the average number of staff during those months. (The average number of agents on staff during the month is often calculated by taking an average of the counts at the end of each week of the month; alternatively, you can take an average of the trained staff count at the beginning and end of the month.)
The formula ICMI recommends for calculating turnover is as follows:
Turnover = (number of agents exiting the job average number of agents during the period) x (12 number of months in the period)
For example, let's say your data is as in the following chart:
Using the formula, your annualized turnover rate comes out to just under 29%:
(20 104) x (12 = 28.8%
While knowing your overall turnover rate is valuable, we recommend breaking it down further, into internal/external and voluntary/involuntary categories. Internal turnover refers to employees that leave the call center but stay within the organization; external turnover refers to employees that leave the organization entirely. Voluntary turnover is when employees decide to leave, while involuntary separation occurs when management makes the decision to end employment (e.g., through layoffs or firing).
In the example we just used, the 29% annualized turnover rate might be categorized as follows:
TURNOVER COSTS AND BENEFITS
Turnover can bring both costs and benefits to the call center. Costs are often broadly categorized as follows:
* Recruiting and hiring costs, which may include the cost of advertising for new positions, the cost and time involved in interviews and background checks, any costs associated with search firms or placement agencies, and, potentially, relocation costs.
* Training and orientation costs, which include the direct cost of training, the cost of overall lower productivity from newer employees, and the cost of overtime if current employees must help cover hours.
* In commercial organizations the most severe costs can be those associated with poor customer service - lost sales, reduced loyalty and outright defections to competitors.
Turnover can also yield benefits. For example, if employees leave for other positions within the organization, the call center gains experienced advocates in other departments. Turnover may also reduce structural costs (assuming new employees are brought in at lower pay scales) and create the means for the call center to bring in new employees with needed skills and fresh insights.
The causes and costs/benefits will vary by type of turnover. For example, voluntary external turnover is more of a detriment to the organization than planned internal turnover. Do enough analysis to be able to estimate the relative impact of each type of turnover.
IDENTIFYING THE CAUSES OF TURNOVER
To manage turnover, you must understand what causes it. Common ways to identify causes include:
* Conduct a job and salary analysis vis--vis market conditions.
* Conduct group meetings with agents to discuss environmental factors, such as stress, management style, workload, etc.
* Review the orientation program to ensure jobs are being accurately represented to new employees
* Analyze exit interviews.
* Conduct regular employee satisfaction surveys.
Specific causes can vary widely (see the sidebar below), and identifying the top five to seven things driving turnover will be a huge step towards creating an appropriate prevention strategy.
RETENTION STRATEGIES
While there is no single formula for agent retention that is appropriate for all call centers, there are plenty of tried and true strategies that will greatly enhance the chances of retaining your agents and ensuring they perform at their best. Some of the most common areas of focus include:
Improve hiring and job fit. Hiring candidates based on the right job qualifications and behavioral competencies will improve your chances for a better job fit. If turnover rates are high, revisiting the hiring process should be the first step in improving retention.
Improve competitive pay and benefits. Ensure that jobs in the call center are internally and externally equitable. Even if you're budgets are tight, don't count this strategy out - it might be more practical and less expensive than meets the eye if you've really analyzed and identified the true costs of turnover.
Ensure that agents receive timely coaching and feedback. Encouraging the positive aspects of the agent's performance, modeling desired actions/behaviors and working with them to create feasible action plans that will enable them to achieve objectives are essential steps.
Provide opportunities for ongoing skill and career development. Agents who see their position as dynamic and evolving are more likely to remain committed to the call center. Create a skills-based pay program and, if possible, a compelling career path in the call center to encourage agents to continually expand their knowledge and capabilities.
Provide as much flexibility in work schedules as possible. Call center scheduling takes creativity and communication since both workload requirements and agent requirements must be accommodated as much as possible.
Improve supervisor training. It's often said that agents don't leave companies - they leave their supervisors. Taking steps to ensure that your supervisors have the skills and knowledge necessary to be the best managers possible can improve retention dramatically.
Provide recognition. According to much of the research on turnover, just saying thanks for a job well done goes a long way towards job satisfaction. This can be formal, e.g., through newsletters and announcements, and informal through everyday conversations.
These suggestions represent the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Other strategies can range from implementing a telecommuting program, to establishing a mentoring program, designing better incentive plans and improving facilities design.
FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE
A certain amount of turnover is inevitable and acceptable - your challenge is to determine just what that acceptable level is. To do so, it's important to understand the full cost of turnover and compare it to the costs associated with staff retention programs. The key is to find the right balance: you don't want to spend more money retaining staff than it costs to replace them, but you also don't want to spend more money replacing staff than it costs to keep them.
Among the practical criteria to consider when seeking the right balance are:
* The maximum amount the company is willing to pay for these positions.
* Availability of a skilled labor pool to fill agent vacancies.
* The cost (money and time) of effectively training new-hires.
* The relative costs of lower quality and productivity when turnover increases.
* Organizational values and culture. In sum, there is much that can be done to address turnover and improve retention. Don't leave it to chance.
Total Number of Resigns per month (Whether voluntary or forced) divided by (Total Number of employees at the beginning of the month plus total number of new joinees minus total number of resignations) multiplied by 100.
Calculating Attrition
If calculating in monetary terms, it includes the following:
Costs Due to a Person Leaving
1. Calculate the cost of the person(s) who fills in while the position is vacant. Calculate the cost of lost productivity at a minimum of 50% of the person's compensation and benefits cost for each week the position is vacant, even if there are people performing the work. Calculate the lost productivity at 100% if the position is completely vacant for any period of time.
2. Calculate the cost of conducting an exit interview to include the time of the person conducting the interview, the time of the person leaving, the administrative costs of stopping payroll, benefit deductions, benefit enrollments.
3. Calculate the cost of the manager who has to understand what work remains, and how to cover that work until a replacement is found.
4. Calculate the cost of training your company has invested in this employee who is leaving.
5. Calculate the impact on departmental productivity because the person is leaving. Who will pick up the work, whose work will suffer, what departmental deadlines will not be met or delivered late.
6. Calculate the cost of lost knowledge, skills and contacts that the person who is leaving is taking with them out of your door. Use a formula of 50% of the person's annual salary for one year of service, increasing each year of service by 10%.
7. Subtract the cost of the person who is leaving for the amount of time the position is vacant.
Recruitment Costs
1. The cost of advertisements; agency costs; employee referral costs; internet posting costs.
2. The cost of the internal recruiter's time to understand the position requirements, develop and implement a sourcing strategy, review candidates backgrounds, prepare for interviews, conduct interviews, prepare candidate assessments, conduct reference checks, make the employment offer and notify unsuccessful candidates. This can range from a minimum of 30 hours to over 100 hours per position.
3. Calculate the cost of the various candidate pre-employment tests to help assess a candidates' skills, abilities, aptitude, attitude, values and behaviors.
Training Costs
1. Calculate the cost of orientation in terms of the new person's salary and the cost of the person who conducts the orientation. Also include the cost of orientation materials.
2. Calculate the cost of departmental training as the actual development and delivery cost plus the cost of the salary of the new employee. Note that the cost will be significantly higher for some positions such as sales representatives and call center agents who require 4 - 6 weeks or more of classroom training.
3. Calculate the cost of the person(s) who conduct the training.
4. Calculate the cost of various training materials needed including company or product manuals, computer or other technology equipment used in the delivery of training.
Lost Productivity Costs
As the new employee is learning the new job, the company policies and practices, etc. they are not fully productive. Use the following guidelines to calculate the cost of this lost productivity:
1. Upon completion of whatever training is provided, the employee is contributing at a 25% productivity level for the first 2 - 4 weeks. The cost therefore is 75% of the new employees full salary during that timeperiod.
2. During weeks 5 - 12, the employee is contributing at a 50% productivity level. The cost is therefore 50% of full salary during that timeperiod.
3. During weeks 13 - 20, the employee is contributing at a 75% productivity level. The cost is therefore 25% of full salary during that timeperiod.
4. Calculate the cost of mistakes the new employee makes during this elongated indoctrination period.
New Hire Costs
1. Calculate the cost of bring the new person on board including the cost to put the person on the payroll, establish computer and security passwords and identification cards, telephone hookups, cost of establishing email accounts, or leasing other equipment such as cell phones, automobiles.
2. Calculate the cost of a manager's time spent developing trust and building confidence in the new employee's work.
Lost Sales Costs
1. Calculate the revenue per employee by dividing total company revenue by the average number of employees in a given year. Whether an employee contributes directly or indirectly to the generation of revenue, their purpose is to provide some defined set of responsibilities that are necessary to the generation of revenue. Calculate the lost revenue by multiplying the number of weeks the position is vacant by the average weekly revenue per employee.
Conclusion: It is clear that there are massive costs associated with attrition or turnover and, while some of these are not visible to the management reporting or budget system, they are none the less real. The 'rule of thumb' appears to be very inaccurate indeed and, while it depends upon the category of staff, it is probably better to estimate around 80% of salary as a truer rule of thumb - and this will be on the conservative side.
What does this mean? Well it means that if a company has 100 people doing a certain job paid 25,000 and that turnover or attrition is running at 10%, the cost of attrition is:
(Total staff x attrition rate %) x (annual salary x 80%)
* 100 staff at 10% attrition means 10 people leave and are replaced each year.
* A replacement cost of 80% of a salary of 25,000 means the cost of each replacement is 20,000.
* The cost of turnover is therefore 10 x 20,000 or 200,000 a year.
* The oncost to the overall salary bill is 8%.
(Saving 8% of salary costs would make the average HR manager a hero.)
BAD RECRUITMENT
We say bad recruitment occurs in three situations
Cannot do: The person lacks the skills required
Will not do: The person lacks the attitude
Does Not Know what to do: The person lacks the Knowledge
# Cost of Bad Recruitment
• Direct Recruitment Costs
- Advertising
- Travel and stay
- Time costs of people concerned
• Induction Costs
- Administrative costs
- Relocation costs
• Stabilization costs
- Learning time
- Mentoring and Team time
• De-motivation Costs
- Unproductive time
- Other People leaving
- Team Loss
• Client Related
- Internal / External Client loss
- Future business loss
• Leaving Costs
- Other people leaving
- Redundancy costs
- Handover costs
A guide to strategic Human Resource Planning
1. Introduction
A comprehensive Human Resource Strategy plays a vital role in the achievement of an organization’s overall strategic objectives and visibly illustrates that the human resources function fully understands and supports the direction in which the organization is moving. A comprehensive HR Strategy will also support other specific strategic objectives undertaken by the marketing, financial, operational and technology departments.
In essence, an HR strategy should aim to capture "the people element" of what an organization is hoping to achieve in the medium to long term, ensuring that: -
• It has the right people in place
• It has the right mix of skills
• Employees display the right attitudes and behaviors, and
• Employees are developed in the right way.
If, as is sometimes the case, organization strategies and plans have been developed without any human resource input, the justification for the HR strategy may be more about teasing out the implicit people factors which are inherent in the plans, rather than simply summarizing their explicit "people" content.
An HR strategy will add value to the organization if it:
• Articulates more clearly some of the common themes which lie behind the achievement of other plans and strategies, which have not been fully identified before; and
• Identifies fundamental underlying issues, which must be addressed by any organization or business if its people are to be motivated, committed and operate effectively.
The first of these areas will entail a careful consideration of existing or developing plans and strategies to identify and draw attention to common themes and implications, which have not been made explicit previously.
The second area should be about identifying which of these plans and strategies are so fundamental that there must be clear plans to address them before the organization can achieve on any of its goals. These are likely to include:
• Workforce planning issues
• Succession planning
• Workforce skills plans
• Employment equity plans
• Black economic empowerment initiatives
• Motivation and fair treatment issues
• Pay levels designed to recruit, retain and motivate people
• The co-ordination of approaches to pay and grading across the organization to create alignment and potential unequal pay claims
• A grading and remuneration system which is seen as fair and giving proper reward for contributions made
• Wider employment issues which impact on staff recruitment, retention, motivation etc.
• A consistent performance management framework which is designed to meet the needs of all sectors of the organization including its people
• Career development frameworks which look at development within the organization at equipping employees with "employability" so that they can cope with increasingly frequent changes in employer and employment patterns
• Policies and frameworks to ensure that people development issues are addressed systematically: competence frameworks, self-managed learning etc.
The HR strategy will need to show that careful planning of the people issues will make it substantially easier for the organization to achieve its wider strategic and operational goals.
In addition, the HR strategy can add value is by ensuring that, in all its other plans, the organization takes account of and plans for changes in the wider environment, which are likely to have a major impact on the organization, such as:
• Changes in the overall employment market - demographic or remuneration levels
• Cultural changes which will impact on future employment patterns
• Changes in the employee relations climate
• Changes in the legal framework surrounding employment
• HR and employment practice being developed in other organizations, such as new flexible work practices.
Finding the right opportunity to present a case for developing an HR Strategy is critical to ensuring that there will be support for the initiative, and that its initial value will be recognized by the organization.
Giving a strong practical slant to the proposed strategy may help gain acceptance for the idea, such as focusing on good management practice. It is also important to build "early or quick wins" into any new strategy.
Other opportunities may present the ideal moment to encourage the development of an HR Strategy: -
• A major new internal initiative could present the right opportunity to push for an accompanying HR strategy, such as a restructuring exercise, a corporate acquisition, joint venture or merger exercise.
• A new externally generated initiative could similarly generate the right climate for a new HR strategy - e.g. Black economic empowerment initiatives.
• In some instances, even negative news may provide the "right moment", for example, recent industrial action or employee dissatisfaction expressed through a climate survey.
2. Making the HR Strategy integral to the organization
The human resources practitioner should ensure that the HR Strategy is integrated with broader organizational objectives. Above all, it should ensure that the rest of the organization accepts the Strategy. To achieve this objective, practitioners should: -
• Consult all stakeholders on the nature of the strategy;
• Cultivate and develop allies and supporters of the strategy through the consultation process;
• Focus on the benefits which are being derived from the strategy through talking to and persuading others, and by marketing the benefits of the strategy with concrete examples of how it has helped;
• Check that there is real commitment to the strategy at all levels of the organization;
• Give regular feedback on the implementation of the plan through employee newsletters, exhibitions etc;
• Where possible, build into the strategy quantifiable outcomes which can be easily monitored and evaluated, so that it is possible to show the effect;
• Make the strategy part of the induction process - especially for senior managers.
3. A strategic human resource-planning model
There is no single approach to developing a Human Resources Strategy. The specific approach will vary from one organization to another. Even so, an excellent approach towards an HR Strategic Management System is evident in the model presented below. This approach identifies six specific steps in developing an HR Strategy: -
1. Setting the strategic direction
2. Designing the Human Resource Management System
3. Planning the total workforce
4. Generating the required human resources
5. Investing in human resource development and performance
6. Assessing and sustaining organizational competence and performance
Source: A Strategic Human Resource Management System for the 21st Century. Naval Personnel Task Force, September 2000
The six broad interconnected components of this system consist of three planning steps and three execution steps.
The top three components represent the need for planning. Organizations must determine their strategic direction and the outcomes they seek. This is usually accomplished with some form of strategic planning. Classic strategic planning is a formal, top-down, staff-driven process. When done well, it is workable at a time when external change occurs at a more measured pace.
However as the pace and magnitude of change increases, the approach to strategic planning changes substantially:
• First, the planning process is more agile; changes in plans are much more frequent and are often driven by events rather than made on a predetermined time schedule.
• Second, the planning process is more proactive. Successful organizations no longer simply respond to changes in their environment, they proactively shape their environment to maximize their own effectiveness.
• Third, the planning process is no longer exclusively top-down; input into the process comes from many different organizational levels and segments. This creates more employee ownership of the plan and capitalizes on the fact that often the most valuable business intelligence can come from employees who are at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy.
• Lastly, the strategic planning process less reactive and more driven by line leadership.
Once strategic planning is under way, a process must be undertaken by the organization to design and align its HRM policies and practices to provide for organizational success. The remaining step in planning is to determine the quality and quantity of human resources the organization needs for its total force.
The rest of the HR strategic system exists for and is guided by these plans, policies, and practices. These execution components contain mechanisms that generate the correct skill sets, invest in staff development and performance, and productively employ them in the organization. The last component provides a means to assess and sustain the competence and performance of the organization and the people in it with regard to outcomes that the organization seeks.
4. Analysis
Using the process model discussed earlier, the specific components of the HR Strategic Plan are discussed in greater detail below.
4.1 Setting the strategic direction
This process focuses on aligning human resource policies to support the accomplishment of the Company's mission, vision, goals and strategies. The business' goals sit at the heart of any HR strategy and in order to align business and HR you need to answer one key question, "Can your organization’s internal capability deliver the organization’s business goals?"
Many organizations cite their people as their primary source of competitive advantage. Successful companies continuously identify and adopt innovative human resource management policies and practices to sustain that advantage. More importantly, they structure work and design training, performance management, pay, and reward policies to help members of the organization succeed in achieving desired organizational outcomes. In other words, they integrate and align HRM policies and practices to reinforce employee behaviors that can best realize the leaders' strategic intent. In the most successful companies, the set of policies and practices that collectively make up a company's HRM system is the critical management tool for communicating and reinforcing the leaders' strategic intent.
Recommended actions: -
• Conduct an external environmental scan and evaluate its impact on the organization
• Identify the organization’s vision, mission and guiding principles
• Identify the mission's outcomes and strategic goals
• Consult all relevant stakeholders
• Evaluate the impact of legislation on the organization
4.2 Designing the Human Resource Management System
This stage focuses on the selection, design and alignment of HRM plans, policies and practices. Various options may be open to the organization such as drawing on industry best practices.
Emerging HRM policies and practices range from outsourcing certain non-core functions, adopting flexible work practices (telework, work from home) and the increased use of information technology. Not every industry trend may be appropriate for a specific organization. In addition, it is essential that a cost-benefit analysis of implementing new HRM policies and practices be undertaken. For example, the costs (monetary and in allocation of resources) of implementing a new job grading system may outweigh the benefit of such an undertaking. There may be more cost-effective alternatives available to the organization at this point in time.
Particular HRM policies and practices may be necessary to support strategic organizational objectives, such as improving the retention of women in the organization or promoting diversity, especially the representation of designated groups amongst senior management.
A good approach in selecting the appropriate HRM policies, procedures and practices is to identify the appropriate HRM practices which support the organization’s strategic intent as it relates to recruitment, training, career planning and reward management.
Recommended actions: -
• Identify appropriate human resource plans, policies and practices needed to support organizational objectives
• Identify relevant human resource best practices
• Conduct an employment systems review
4.3 Planning the total workforce
Determining future business requirements, especially those relating to manpower requirements, represents one of the most challenging tasks facing human resource practitioners.
The development of a workforce plan is a critical component of any human resource strategy and one of the expected outcomes of human resource practitioner’s activities. Despite this, manpower or workforce planning, as well as succession planning, has only recently enjoyed resurgence in popularity. To some extent this has been prompted by the need to develop employment equity and workplace skills plans and set numerical employment equity targets. The failure of many organizations to develop and implement workforce planning is rather indicative of the lack of strategic planning itself.
Workforce planning is a systematic process of identifying the workforce competencies required to meet the company's strategic goals and for developing the strategies to meet these requirements. It is a methodical process that provides managers with a framework for making human resource decisions based on the organization’s mission, strategic plan, budgetary resources, and a set of desired workforce competencies. Workforce planning is a systematic process that is integrated, methodical, and ongoing. It identifies the human capital required to meet organizational goals, which consists of determining the number and skills of the workers required and where and when they will be needed. Finally workforce planning entails developing the strategies to meet these requirements, which involves identifying actions that must be taken to attract (and retain) the number and types of workers the organization needs.
A workforce plan can be as simple or as complex as the organizational requires. Workforce planning can be conducted for a department, division or for the organization as a whole. Whatever the level or approach being adopted, it must nevertheless be integrated with broad-based management strategies.
In addition to workforce planning, ensure that organizational structure and jobs ensure the efficient delivery of services and effective management of the organization as a whole.
Recommended actions: -
• Determine the appropriate organizational structure to support the strategic objectives
• Structure jobs (competencies, tasks and activities) around key activities
• Develop a workforce plan designed to support the organizations strategic objectives
• Compile workforce profiles, identifying designated groups, an inventory of current workforce competencies, competencies required in the future and identified gaps in competencies
4.4 Generating the required human resources
This process focuses on recruiting, hiring, classifying, training and assigning employees based on the strategic imperatives of the organization’s workforce plan.
A comprehensive workplace skills plan will identify appropriate training priorities based on the organizations workforce needs now and in the future. New recruitment practices may need to be adopted to increase the representation of designated groups, or securing essential skills in the organization. A comprehensive "learner ship strategy" may assist in developing future workforce needs, identified either in terms of the organizations workforce plan or required in terms of industry black economic empowerment charters.
Recommended actions: -
• Evaluate recruitment and selection practices in light of the organization’s strategic objectives
• Develop and implement a comprehensive workplace skills plan (with a thorough training needs analysis)
• Implement a learner ship strategy
• Adopt or clarify occupational levels and category classifications
4.5 Investing in human resource development and performance
Traditional approaches to career planning, performance appraisals, reward management and employee development must be re-appraised in light of the vision, characteristics and mission outcomes as reflected in the HRM plans, policies, and practices.
Development responses will aim to increase business skills, the application of business skills (sometimes called competencies) and the behavioral elements - all of which contribute to an organization’s effective performance. In many ways, the Skills Development legislation has required organizations to re-engineer their developmental methods and practices. New concepts such as lifelong learning and recognizing prior learning should form an integral component of the process of investing in employees.
Clearly, where a workforce planning exercise reveals that there is little projected growth in the workforce or that promotional or career development opportunities are limited, strategies aimed at employee retention will be very different from organizations which are experiencing considerable growth and expansion.
Investment initiatives for the individual, team and organization are all geared to achieve high levels of organizational performance. It is important that at an individual level, particularly for senior staff, that they feel their development needs are agreed and that they are provided with the skills to do their jobs. At a team level, it defines the individuals' ability to work flexibly with others and align individual and team skills and activities to business goals - all of which ensures that the organization is equipped to achieve its goals.
Reward strategies aim to align the performance of the organization with the way it rewards its people, providing the necessary incentives and motivation to staff. Its components can be a combination of base pay, bonuses, profit sharing, share options, and a range of appropriate benefits, usually based on market or competitor norms and the organization’s ability to pay.
Recommended actions: -
Identify appropriate policies, procedures and practices in respect of
• Career pathing
• Performance appraisals
• Employee development and learning
• Reward Management (compensation and benefits)
• Promotions and job assignments
• Separation
4.6 Assessing and sustaining organizational competence and performance
Finally, few organizations effectively measure how well their different inputs affect performance. In particular, no measures may be in place for quantifying the contribution people make to organizational outcomes or, more important, for estimating how changes in policies and practices, systems, or processes will affect that contribution. Implementing clear quantifiable measures, identifying milestones in the achievement of specific organizational goals, and using concepts such as a "balanced scorecard" will articulate the results of the HR Strategic Plan in measurable terms. Regular evaluation of the plan will also assist in fine-tuning the HR strategic plan itself.
Recommended actions: -
• Evaluate organization culture and climate
• Implement succession planning
• Evaluate HR strategy using quantifiable measures, e.g. balanced scorecard
• Revise and adapt HR strategy
5. Conclusion
While HR strategies must be developed to support the achievement of the organization’s objectives, it is a two-way process. HR strategies can themselves be critical inputs in determining the strategic initiatives for the organization. A fatal error, however, is to develop and implement HR strategies without having regard for the goals and objectives which the organization has explicitly or implicitly identified. A common mistake is the development of workplace skills plans which are not linked to any strategic goals or objectives or which have no affirmative action components.
Similarly, the isolated identification of affirmative action numerical targets without first conducting a workforce and succession planning exercise is in most instances, simply meaningless.
References:
The approach adopted in this article is substantially based on the SHRM Model developed by the Naval Personnel Task Force, US Department of Navy. The material presented here is in the public domain.
A Strategic Human Resource Management System for the 21st Century. Naval Personnel Task Force, US Department of Navy, September 2000
Developing a Human Resources Strategy a good practice guide. South East Employers, June 1999
The Human Resources Standards Generating Body has developed a specific Unit Standard addressing the development of a Strategic Human Resource Plan, entitled "Contribute input into the human resources management strategic plan".
Resume Tips for HR professionals
You're around resumes all day and might have reviewed hundreds or even thousands of them in search for ideal job candidates. You know what you look for in a resume and have pet peeves that determine which ones will surely land in the bin. So when it comes time to develop your own resume, you know it has to be perfect.
Is your resume a winner?
Effective HR resumes show that the candidate has a solid understanding of how HR policies impact the overall business mission and goals. Most HR resumes in circulation do a nice job of highlighting job responsibilities (e.g. administer benefits plans, maintain employee relations, ensure legal compliance, etc.). To make your resume stand out, go beyond listing your job functions and show how your services made a real difference to the organisation.
Examples:
• Launched Flexible Work Pilot Program, which allows staff to telecommute and has served as a model for the company.
• Won approval and secured funding for the development of an enhanced HRIS system to support payroll, employee tracking and cost analysis functions. The new system provided interactive online time/project data entry and personnel records updating.
• Led implementation of intranet and Internet development. Created secure sites for confidential information and introduced virtual office concept.
• Exceeded 1999 plan targets for HR, including record-breaking improvement in employee turnover score. In one region, turnover improved by 92% in one year. Increased overall employee satisfaction scores by 15% in 1999.
Questions to ask yourself
Did you initiate or develop any new HR policies or procedures that had a positive outcome?
Was there a notable improvement in employee retention or satisfaction?
Did you help improve employee morale?
Have you improved the benefits program or launched new employee benefits?
Did you implement effective strategies for screening and recruitment?
Did you introduce HR systems that enhanced efficiency?
If you train/orient new or existing staff, how many people have you trained?
Have you revamped compensation packages or employee job responsibilities to attract and retain qualified employees?
Were you involved in any organisational development initiatives, such as integrating two organisations after a merger, downsizing or expanding?
If you deal with union staff, did you participate in negotiations that led to a favourable outcome for staff and the company?
Did you serve on any teams or committees? Complete any special projects?
If you have budgetary responsibilities, how have you performed in meeting your budget? Did you implement cost-saving measures that had a direct impact on the bottom line?
Did you participate in any leadership initiatives that resulted in positive organisational change?
Keywords
Titles: human resources generalist, HR, human resources manager, HR benefits analyst, HR assistant, recruiter, executive recruiter, benefits coordinator, compensation analyst, staffing manager, HR director, human resources coordinator, personnel representative, personnel supervisor, HRIS analyst, payroll supervisor, human resource specialist, director of recruiting, VP of human resources.
Duties and themes: training and development, organisational development, process reengineering, payroll and benefits administration, wage and salary administration, variable compensation, employee orientation, recruitment and selection, employee relations, legal compliance, HR policies and procedures, human resources administration, HRIS, employment law, labour relations, performance evaluation and review, personnel administration, disciplinary and grievance procedures, industrial safety programs, labour laws, career development, job description design.
Positive Attitude
1. "Always hold your head up, but keep your nose at a friendly level." – Anonymous
When to Use: This quotation speaks about the importance of being humble & grounded while maintaining one’s self-respect. This quotation reminds people to be courteous when you are in a position of responsibility or power. This quotation can be used effectively in an Assertiveness program; Leadership program; Managerial Development program, especially while talking about People Orientation Vs Task Orientation.
2. "Peace of mind is not the absence of conflict from life, but the ability to cope with it." – Anonymous
When to Use: This quotation points out the attitude towards managing conflict rather than avoiding it. The trainer can share this quotation to emphasize that conflict is unavoidable and how facing the conflict and taking an appropriate action can be helpful. This quotation can be effectively used in a Conflict Management program or in a session where the trainer is speaking about Staying Positive in adverse situations.
3. “You can’t turn back the clock, but you can wind it up again.”
When to Use: On certain occasions in our lives we wish if we could only go back in time and change some of the events. However, the important thing is to learn from the past and move on. This quotation can be effectively used in a Self-Management Program or Change Management program. Especially, when participants have regrets from the past and are unable to overcome their personal or professional setbacks.
4. “When it is darkest, men see the stars.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
When to Use: Here ‘men’ is symbolic for a mature, confident, and positive spirited human being. This quotation is similar to the thought that ‘there is light at the end of the tunnel’. Even in the darkest hours people who have sensed opportunities, have been able to rise up to the challenge and emerge as winners. This quotation can be powerfully used in trainings done in the backdrop of business challenges; failures and more recently ‘Recessionary effects’.
5. "Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." - Lou Holtz
When to Use: This quotation can be effectively used to demonstrate the power of ‘Attitude’. It is just not enough to possess the right set of skills, it is equally important to have the right attitude. As they say, “Hire for Attitude and Train for skill”. One can use this quotation in programs like Creative Problem Solving; Excellence in Execution; Team Synergy.
6. "Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open." Thomas Dewar
When to Use: This is a beautiful quotation to emphasize the importance of keeping an Open mind and Attitude. Many people miss out on great opportunities because they fail to appreciate a new possibility or a new idea. This quotation can be very effectively used in a Creative Problem Solving; Customer Service; Consulting Approach.
7. "A man without a smiling face must not open a shop."Chinese Proverb
When to Use: A powerful quotation to emphasize the importance of having a cheerful disposition towards life. This quotation can be very effectively used in a Customer Service; Client Interfacing and Consulting Skill program. This message is equally applicable to all of us; for once if we all decide to smile; the world would be a better place to live in.
8. “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” - Winston Churchill
When to Use: Winston Churchill was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. In this quotation he brings out the significance of attitude that can be the difference between winning & losing. We can use this quotation effectively in a Change Management; Conflict Management; Motivation; Stress Management Program
9. "A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes." - Hugh Downs
When to Use: This quotation is very useful while speaking on how we can use our intrinsic motivation and positivity to be happy and successful in all kinds of situations. As Stephen Covey says that we have choice to operate either from a ‘Circle of Concern’ or a ‘Circle of Influence’. People who are in control of their lives are seen to be usually operating from their ‘Circle of Influence’. This quotation can be powerfully used in programs on Self Management; Change Management; Motivation; Stress Management.
10. "The only disability in life is a bad attitude." Scott Hamilton
When to Use: This quotation wonderfully summarizes the gist of life that no situation or physical challenge could make us disable in life except a bad attitude. All of us know the example of Dr. Stephen Hawking who is known for his research on ‘Black Holes’ and ‘Big bang theory’. He has a disease that has severely affected his body functions and is paralyzed since 2009. However, he continues to travel widely and gives lecture at many institutions across the world. His attitude is so remarkable that he continues to live despite all the physical and mental disabilities faced by him. This example and the quotation can be used in programs on Change Management; Stress Management; and Motivation.
11. "It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome." - William James
When to Use: A very powerful quotation to bring out the importance of our attitude while initiating a task. How do we feel about the task will determine how well we plan; our approach to any problems; reasoning with people and many other factors which are responsible for its successful outcome. Our conviction in the task also inspires others to wholeheartedly participate in the task. We can use this quotation effectively in the programs like Planning & Prioritization; Time Management; Goal Setting; Stress Management.
12. “You can disagree without being disagreeable” - Zig Ziglar
When to Use: People at times ‘cling’ to their point of view and are unable to see logic and reasoning in other’s perspective. This adversely affects their reaction and participation. This is a powerful quotation that highlights the power of reasoning & logic without letting personal emotions get in the way. The key message to share is ‘be open’ to others’ point of view as well. This quotation can be effectively used in a Conflict Management; Stress Management; Assertiveness; Leadership and Self Management Programs.
13. “The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.” – Unknown
When to Use: This is a very profound quotation on making the most of what one gets. Majority of us lament on what we don’t have while very few of us make the most of what they have and feel happy about it. This message of living a simple and uncomplicated life can be used effectively in programs on Stress Management; Self Management; Goal-Setting; Motivation.
14. “Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.” - Maurice Seitter
When to Use: A number of times we miss out on some great opportunities in life because we are expecting something spectacular. This ‘spectacular thing’ may not come our way while we are waiting for it. However, there could be many other things that we might ignore in this process. J K Rowling the world renowned author of the famous ‘Harry Potter series’ gave an inspiring speech to the graduates of Harvard University on ‘Fringe benefits of Failure’. In this speech she talks about her painstaking journey from being an unknown author working for Amnesty International to the popularity she enjoys today. The thing to note here is that she always took a positive lesson from whatever opportunity she got and continued with her quest of getting her imaginative writing published. One can use this example and the quotation in a program on Self Management; Motivation; Career Counseling; Stress Management.
DATE: 09-02-10
HOW TO SUBMIT SIX MONTHLY RETURN OF ESI
ESI half yearly return submit to Branch office / ES Regional Comissioner
Two contributuion period in Every Year.
Contribution Period 1 April to 30 Sept. and 1st Oct to 31 March.
ESI Half yearly Return Submit to two above both periods to Branch office / ESI Regional Comissioner on form no.6 in triplicate along with Esi Challan.
Last date of Submission ESI Half yearly return 11th May and 11th Nov.
Employer has to furnish detail of employee's share & employer's share of contribution including detail of challans on six monthly basis in Form No. 5 (Previously it was numbered as Form No. 6). Form No.5 is attached for your reference. Last date of submission is 12th May (for contribution period of 1st Oct to 31st March) & 11th Nov (for the contribution period of 1st April to 30 Sept).
We have to submit it in triplicate- one is for ESIC Local Office, second one is for ESIC Regional Office and third one is for ESIC Dispensary.
PF & ESI PROCESS
1. ESIC challans
2. P.F.Challans
3. Nomination and Declaration (Form 2)
4. P.F. (Form 5,10 & 12A)
5. PF annual returns ( form 6A and 3A)
6. Payment of wages act (Form IV)
7. Maternity benefit Act (Form K,L,M, & N)
8. Halfyearly returns of ESIC (Form 6)
9. ESIC forms for newly joining covered under ESIC (Form 3)
10. PF (Form 13 for transfer of PF account)
Monthly
Date and Month Act Name of statutory Return
Before 21 st ESIC ESIC Challan
Before 15 th P.F. P.F. Challan
Before 25 th P.F. Form 5,10, & 12A
Before 15 th Factory act 1948 Form 21 (Annula Return)
Before 21 st Maernity Benifit Act Form K,L,M, and N
Before 15 th Payment of Wages Act Form IV
Monthly statutory Register should be maintained.
ESIC Half yearly returns in the month of May
Annual Returns
P.F. Annual Returns Form 6A and 3A
ESI to be payable by 20th of Every month and PF to be payable by 15th of every month.
For ESIC-
FORMALITIES :
Triplicate copy FORM 3 separately for Male & Female employees- SUBMIT WITH IN 7 DAYS OF JOINING along with Declarations Forms
FORM – 15 ACCIDENT BOOK
FORM – 16 IN CASE OF DEATH REPORT TO BRANCH MANAGER ESIC LOCAL OFFICE WITHIN 48 HOURS
HALF YEARLY RETURNS
FORM - 6
• 1st APRIL TO 30th SEPTEMBER
SUBMIT ON OR BEFORE 11th NOVEMBER
• 1st OCTOBER TO 31st MARCH
SUBMIT ON OR BEFORE 12th MAY
Provident Fund-
PAYMENT OF CONTRIBUTION
A/c – 1 EPF EMPLOYERS 12% + EMPLOYEES 3.67% = 15.67 %
A/c – 2 EPF ADMIN CHARGES 1.10%
A/c – 10 EPS EMPLOYEES 8.33 %
A/c – 21 EDLI 0.50 %
A/c – 22 EDLI ADMIN CHARGES 0.01%
TOTAL = 25.61%
MONTHLY RETURN
1.COMBINED CHALLAN A/C – 1,2,10,21 & 22
2.12 A (Employees Strength and paid)
3.Form 5 - New Joining (Name, Father’s Name, DOJ, DOB, Gender.
4.Form 10 – Left Employees (Name, Father’s Name, DOJ, DOL, Reason.
Note : Above all contribution count on Employees Basic Earnings.
Nomination : Form – 2 (Revised)
Nominee Change : Form – 8
For Withdrawal : Form 19 (Green) & 10 c (White)
ANNUAL RETURN
3 A : Employees individual detail month wise (Period 1st April to 31st March)
6 A : All Employees combined detail month wise.
1.P.F.Return : The employer has to submit FORM 3A & 6A - Annual Return for the Accounting year starts from March to Febraury of your employees on or before 31st of May for every year to the respective EPFO office of your area concerned to receive contributory slips to employees to know thier balance in their account.
About pension Scheme has been brought U/S 6A of the act. Employer part of contribution i.e.8.33 % to be diverted in pension fund under the head of account no.10 in the common challan along with Form 12 a - monthly return. The eligibility is to receive pension to the emplyee who has contributed to the scheme for more than 10 years service subjected to a maximum of Rs.541/-. 10 years service is not required when the employee expired in service either natural or accidental or contaminated by any occupational disease or Permant Total Disablement, he can contribute at least one month contribution to the scheme to receive minimm pension of Rs.450/- proportinately distributed to the dependants in the case of death or RS.500/- per month under permanent total disablement.
Scheme certificate : A Certificate issued by the department to transfer his amount in the Pension Fund to his present Account. It contains the employees particulars of service rendered in the previous organisation etc.,details. When ever an employee changes in a new organisation he can withdrawl the amount of employee part i.e.15.67 % by submission of Form 19 and also submit Form 10c to opt scheme certificate to transfer the past service and amount to his present account by submission of Form 13 (R) along with scheme certificate issued by the depatment.
ESI Returns : The employer has to submit Half yearly Returns in Form 5 & 5 A along with quadruplicate copy of challansfor the period Apil to September and October to March. Due date of Submission of Half yearly returns for April to september is Nov 12th and October to March is May 12 th. Without submission of returns of employees by the employer, the employees didn't get any benifits from ESIC.
Profession Tax : Profession Tax is State law. If your organisation is chennai, Kindly approach the Muncipal Authorities for registration and remittance of Tax procedure.In Tamil Nadu Tax is colleted Half yealy by Muncipal Corporation on Half Yearly income of the employees as per Slab rates of Tamil Nadu Profession, Trade , Callings and employment act.
Renewal of Licences : If your organiation is a manufactring organisation you have to register/renewal of licences under Factories Act,Indian Boilers Act, Licences under Explosives Act, Compentency certificate for lifting tackles,Pressure vessles, chain block pulleyes, etc., consents under Pollution control act, contact labour regulation and abolotion act rules.
Renewal of Contracts : Job works alloted to different contractors under the provisions of CONTRACT labour Regulation & Abolition Act - 1972 Rules. While taking in to the contract of various jobs you will take in to contract of aprooved contractor labour agency which has fulfilled all statutory liabilities and maintennce of registers and record under various labour enactments while enter in to contract.
ESIC Code:
Have only numeric (and not alpha-numeric) Employee Code. Its convenient in the long run when you automate your system.
You can have a 6 digit Employee Code, where he first two digits signify the department, office, branch, unit, location etc.
Competencies HR Professional must be exposed to - Part 1
It is imperative that HR professionals are exposed to various competencies which shall help them become a change catalyst and provide them an edge to play a critical role in partnering with business leaders to build organization capability. To succeed as an HR Leader, one must start building competencies to build a strong foundation for future growth!
Domain Expertise - This is the special knowledge or skill in particular area (For us in HR, this particular skill relates to our expertize in all strands of HR Value chain as outlined in my previous post).
Change Management – It is a structured approach to change in individuals, teams, organizations and societies that enables the transition from a current state to a desired future state. Our ability of change management help us challenge the status quo and drive cultural reinvention while taking all stakeholders along.
Interpersonal Skills – One should consider and respond appropriately to the needs, feelings & capabilities of different people in different situations; should be tactful, compassionate and sensitive, and treats others with respect.
Communication Skills – This is not about your ability around English language. One should be able to express himself / herself clearly and adequately in a variety of communication settings and styles; can get the message across that will have desired effect. I have seen people very strong in language skills, however, unable to deliver when it matters the most.
Problem Solving Capabilities – A systematic approach utilizing multiple perspectives to uncover the issues related to a particular problem, design an intervention plan and evaluate the outcome.
Decision Making Skills – One can choose between alternative courses of action using cognitive processes - memory, thinking, evaluation etc. I will touch upon during my next few post on "adaptive conscious" which plays a crucial role in decision making.
Coaching & Mentoring - Provides challenging & stretching tasks and assignments; holds frequent development discussions; is aware of every subordinate career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; brings out the best in people.
Conflict Resolution - It is the process of resolving a dispute or a conflict, by providing each side's needs, and adequately addressing their interests so that they are satisfied with the outcome. Conflict resolution aims to end conflicts before they start or lead to unpleasant situations.
Commercial Savviness - Finance is the language of business and most of us in HR are not good at it. If we aspire to take a seat in the board room, it is imperative that we get used to financial angle of business and understands the P&L outlook.
Frustration Resistance - In a dynamic environment and today's fast pace life, stress is common and sometime result in people loosing their temper. It is imperative that we build strong competencies around frustration resistance. This could be achieved by building knowledge about organization behaviour ; how to get things done through formal and the informal network; when you can not walk through the problem, your ability to walk around it and get your job done. Patience, perseverance and sensitivity plays a key role.
HARD AND SOFT - HRM
Areas within HRM like Manpower planning, Job analysis, Selection and Recruitment, Compensation and Benefits, Performance evaluations, Contract negotiations and Labor legislations are parts of hard HRM - whereas functions like Organizational development, conflict management, human resource education, leadership development, organizational culture, and relationship building are components of soft HRM. The hard HRM can be catogorized as the basic functions and soft HRM as advanced functions. In today's knowledge economy, where human capital determines the growth and success of an organization, both hard and soft HRM are sig HRM is an essential
hard HRM:- *a very instrumental, practical approach *people seen as a passive resources to be used,deployed and if necessary diposed of *hr planning is seen as a factor of production *incompatiable with trade uions-may necessitate confrontation to implement concepts
soft HRM:- *sometimes known as development humanism *stresses human side *entails trust,collabration, skill development *place for unions in this model where unions are marginalised and by passed on many issues or alternative forms of employee repersentation are initiated *above all, about commitment and partnership
There are Two Sets of Theory
Theory X is the classical managerial distrust approach. People are lazy by nature and only pursuing self-interests. That means that there are two different and opposite sets of interests: those of the company and those of its workers. It’s management’s task to induce the appropriate behaviour in workers so as that they actions pursue the accomplishment of the company’s goals, not their own. If there ever was a carrot and a stick, that’s the stick. Thus there’s a case for the existence of “correctives” and “coercion”.
It may be argued that this view doesn’t exactly reflect human nature but the organisations’ nature: they were born long ago, and one of the first theories that were developed (they have become the classic perspective) regarding on how to manage the workforce was scientific management. Those theories regarded people as resources in the same way that machinery was also a resource. People had to be assigned fixed, repetitive (I could add unfulfilling and alienating) tasks. That was only one hundred of years ago and there’s still a lot of Taylorism in us.
By the way that matches with many of our current economic theories when we say that people as economic agents are always looking to maximise their perceived utility. That’s what we mostly assume that consumers will do. But then there are still economic realities that cannot be explained from that point of view.
Regarding HRM many authors classify this approach as a classic approach, hard HRM or the Michigan model. Ever seen a manager that style? I bet you have, many of them.
working Theory Y style
Theory Y is the opposite approach. Instead of thinking of people as lazy machines deals with their emotions, feelings and motivations. People may actually want personal realisation and work can be one the ways to attain it. People like things well done, making a difference. Managers, thus, must enable them to do so and keep their motivation high. People don’t hate working, are not lazy and can be self-responsible. That way coercions are no longer needed.
Following this theory, compensation is still important, but not exclusively attained through money but also many implicit compensations are of utmost importance. Under the right circumstances, people will seek higher responsibilities, not reject them. The individuals can be creative and proactive, values that the organisation must nurture to ensure their commitment.
This approach is called the Harvard model, or soft HRM.
Fortunately it works. Unfortunately it does not always work. Theory Y integrates the personal objectives with those of the corporation, but that cannot always be done. Here comes the dilemma between the two models. In fact neither of them completely represents reality, because people can behave in very different ways. And I’m not referring to different people but everyone of us.
That means that we must use both models to describe reality. And that’s what many managers use. Sometimes a hard approach, sometimes a soft approach.
But that mixed approach holds a contradiction in itself, although if we don’t go deep into the theory we may not notice. Both models are holding two basic and irreconcilable fundamental ideas: self-interest versus self-direction, distrust and trust, negative and positive. How can both be mixed at a higher deductive level?
In the meanwhile, it has never been proved that committed workers are more productive than closely controlled ones. And, after all workers know that HRM considerations are always in a lower precedence than business strategy considerations, so the company, whatever it might say, has a clear precedence for hard shareholder goals over people goals. Some recent models have been developed to try to link employee satisfaction to results through the value chain. The same way as Balanced Scorecards try to enforce soft issues that have been marginal to date in front of long established hard issues. But still, if you think of your company… which are the most relevant business goals? Do you really think that people is among them?
List of various Central Labour Acts
Laws related to Industrial Relations
The Trade Unions Act, 1926
The Trade Unions (Amendments) Act, 2001
The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946
The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Rules, 1946
The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
Laws related to Wages
The Payment of Wages Act, 1936
The Payment of Wages Rules, 1937
The Payment of Wages (AMENDMENT) Act, 2005
The Minimum Wages Act, 1948
The Minimum Wages (Central) Rules, 1950
The Working Journalist (Fixation of Rates of Wages) Act, 1958
Working Journalist (Conditions of service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Rules, 1957
The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965
The Payment of Bonus Rules, 1975
Laws related to Working Hours, Conditions of Services and Employment
The Factories Act, 1948
The Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1948
The Plantation Labour Act, 1951
The Mines Act, 1952
The Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees’ (Conditions of Service and Misc. Provisions) Act, 1955
The Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees’ (Conditions of Service and Misc. Provisions) Rules, 1957
The Merchant Shipping Act, 1958
The Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961
The Beedi & Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966
The Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970
The Contract Labour Regulation Rules
The Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976
The Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1976
The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979
The Shops and Establishments Act
The Cinema Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1981
The Cinema Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers (Regulation of Employment) Rules, 1984
The Cine Workers’ Welfare Fund Act, 1981.
The Dock Workers (Safety, Health & Welfare) Act, 1986
The Building & Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment & Conditions of Service) Act, 1996
The Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) (inapplicability to Major Ports) Act, 1997
Laws related to Equality and Empowerment of Women
The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961
The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976
Laws related to Deprived and Disadvantaged Sections of the Society
The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976
The Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986
The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933
Laws related to Social Security
The Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923
The Workmen's Compensation (Amendments) Act, 2000
The Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948
The Employees’ Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952
The Employees’ Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Act, 1996
The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972
The Payment of Gratuity Rules
Laws related to Labour Welfare
The Mica Mines Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1946
The Limestone & Dolomite Mines Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1972
The Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1976
The Beedi Workers Welfare Cess Act, 1976
The Beedi Worker's Welfare Cess Act Rules, 1977
The Iron Ore Mines, Manganese Ore Mines & Chrome Ore Mines Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1976
The Iron Ore Mines, Manganese Ore Mines & Chrome Ore Mines Labour Welfare Cess Act, 1976
The Cine Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1981
The Cine Workers Welfare Cess Act, 1981
The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry latrines Prohibition Act, 1993
Laws related to Employment & Training
The Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959
The Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Rules, 1959
The Apprentices Act, 1961
Others
The Fatal Accidents Act, 1855
The War Injuries Ordinance Act, 1943
The Weekly Holiday Act, 1942
The National and Festival Holidays Act
The War Injuries (Compensation Insurance) Act, 1943
The Personal Injuries (Emergency) Provisions Act, 1962
The Personal Injuries (Compensation Insurance) Act, 1963
The Coal Mines (Conservation and Development) Act, 1974
The Emigration Act, 1983
The Emigration Rules, 1983
The Labour Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Register by Certain Establishments) Act, 1988
The Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991
Date: 08th February,2010
HR Interview FAQ’s Mahendra- HR Executive
Very Important Please Don't Miss it.
Review these typical interview questions and think about how you would answer them. Read the questions listed; you will also find some strategy suggestions with it.
1. Tell me about yourself?
Ans : The most often asked question in interviews. You need to have a short statement prepared in your mind. Be careful that it does not sound rehearsed. Limit it to work-related items unless instructed otherwise. Talk about things you have done and jobs you have held that relate to the position you are interviewing for. Start with the item farthest back and work up to the present.
2. Why did you leave your last job?
Ans: Stay positive regardless of the circumstances. Never refer to a major problem with management and never speak ill of supervisors, co-workers or the organization. If you do, you will be the one looking bad. Keep smiling and talk about leaving for a positive reason such as an opportunity, a chance to do something special or other forward-looking reasons.
3. What experience do you have in this field?
Ans: Speak about specifics that relate to the position you are applying for. If you do not have specific experience, get as close as you can.
4. Do you consider yourself successful?
Ans:You should always answer yes and briefly explain why. A good explanation is that you have set goals, and you have met some and are on track to achieve the others.
5. What do co-workers say about you?
Ans: Be prepared with a quote or two from co-workers. Either a specific statement or a paraphrase will work. Jill Clark, a co-worker at Smith Company, always said I was the hardest workers she had ever known. It is as powerful as Jill having said it at the interview herself.
6. What do you know about this organization?
This question is one reason to do some research on the organization before the interview. Find out where they have been and where they are going. What are the current issues and who are the major players?
7.. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
Try to include improvement activities that relate to the job. A wide variety of activities can be mentioned as positive self-improvement. Have some good ones handy to mention.
8. Are you applying for other jobs?
Be honest but do not spend a lot of time in this area. Keep the focus on this job and what you can do for this organization. Anything else is a distraction.
9. Why do you want to work for this organization?
This may take some thought and certainly, should be based on the research you have done on the organization. Sincerity is extremely important here and will easily be sensed... Relate it to your long-term career goals.
10. Do you know anyone who works for us?
Be aware of the policy on relatives working for the organization. This can affect your answer even though they asked about friends not relatives. Be careful to mention a friend only if they are well thought of.
11. What is your Expected Salary?
A loaded question. A nasty little game that you will probably lose if you answer first. So, do not answer it. Instead, say something like, That's a tough question. Can you tell me the range for this position? In most cases, the interviewer, taken off guard, will tell you. If not, say that it can depend on the details of the job. Then give a wide range.
12. Are you a team player?
You are, of course, a team player. Be sure to have examples ready. Specifics that show you often perform for the good of the team rather than for yourself are good evidence of your team attitude. Do not brag, just say it in a matter-of-fact tone. This is a key point..
13. How long would you expect to work for us if hired?
Specifics here are not good. Something like this should work: I'd like it to be a long time. Or As long as we both feel I'm doing a good job.
14. Have you ever had to fire anyone?
How did you feel about that? This is serious. Do not make light of it or in any way seem like you like to fire people. At the same time, you will do it when it is the right thing to do. When it comes to the organization versus the individual who has created a harmful situation, you will protect the organization. Remember firing is not the same as layoff or reduction in force.
15. What is your philosophy towards work?
The interviewer is not looking for a long or flowery dissertation here. Do you have strong feelings that the job gets done? Yes. That's the type of answer that works best here. Short and positive, showing a benefit to the organization.
16. If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?
Answer yes if you would. But since you need to work, this is the type of work you prefer. Do not say yes if you do not mean it.
17. Have you ever been asked to leave a position?
If you have not, say no. If you have, be honest, brief and avoid saying negative things about the people or organization involved.
18. Explain how you would be an asset to this organization ?
You should be anxious for this question. It gives you a chance to highlight your best points as they relate to the position being discussed. Give a little advance thought to this relationship. .
19. Why should we hire you?
Point out how your assets meet what the organization needs. Do not mention any other candidates to make a comparison..
20. Tell me about a suggestion you have made ?
Have a good one ready. Be sure and use a suggestion that was accepted and was then considered successful. One related to the type of work applied for is a real plus.
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21. What irritates you about co-workers?
This is a trap question. Think real hard but fail to come up with anything that irritates you. A short statement that you seem to get along with folks is great.
22. What is your greatest strength?
Numerous answers are good, just stay positive. A few good examples: Your ability to prioritize, Your problem-solving skills, Your ability to work under pressure, Your ability to focus on projects, Your professional expertise, Your leadership skills, Your positive attitude
23. Tell me about your dream job ?
Stay away from a specific job. You cannot win. If you say the job you are contending for is it, you strain credibility. If you say another job is it, you plant the suspicion that you will be dissatisfied with this position if hired. The best is to stay genetic and say something like: A job where I love the work, like the people, can contribute andcan't wait to get to work.
24. Why do you think you would do well at this job?
Give several reasons and include skills, experience and interest.
25. What are you looking for in a job?
See answer # 23
26. What kind of person would you refuse to work with?
Do not be trivial. It would take disloyalty to the organization, violence or lawbreaking to get you to object. Minor objections will label you as a whiner.
27. What is more important to you: the money or the work?
Money is always important, but the work is the most important. There is no better answer.
28. What would your previous supervisor say your strongest point is?
There are numerous good possibilities: Loyalty, Energy, Positive attitude, Leadership, Team player, Expertise,Initiativ e, Patience, Hard work, Creativity, Problem solver
29. Tell me about a problem you had with a supervisor?
Biggest trap of all. This is a test to see if you will speak ill of your boss. If you fall for it and tell about a problem with a former boss, you may well below the interview right there. Stay positive and develop a poor memory about any trouble with a supervisor.
30. What has disappointed you about a job?
Don't get trivial or negative. Safe areas are few but can include: Not enough of a challenge. You were laid off in a reduction Company did not win a contract, which would have given you more responsibility.
31. Tell me about your ability to work under pressure.
You may say that you thrive under certain types of pressure. Give an example that relates to the type of position applied for.
32. Do your skills match this job or another job more closely?
Probably this one. Do not give fuel to the suspicion that you may want another job more than this one.
33. What motivates you to do your best on the job?
This is a personal trait that only you can say, but good examples are: Challenge, Achievement, Recognition
34. Are you willing to work overtime? Nights? Weekends?
This is up to you. Be totally honest.
35. How would you know you were successful on this job?
Several ways are good measures: You set high standards for yourself and meet them. Your outcomes are a success. Your boss tell you that you are successful
36. Would you be willing to relocate if required?
You should be clear on this with your family prior to the interview if you think there is a chance it may come up. Do not say yes just to get the job if the real answer is no. This can create a lot of problems later on in your career. Be honest at this point and save yourself future grief.
37. Are you willing to put the interests of the organization ahead of your own?
This is a straight loyalty and dedication question. Do not worry about the deep ethical and philosophical implications. Just say yes.
38. Describe your management style ?
Try to avoid labels. Some of the more common labels, like progressive, salesman or consensus, can have several meanings or descriptions depending on which management expert you listen to. The situational style is safe, because it says you will manage according to the situation, instead of one size fits all.
39. What have you learned from mistakes on the job?
Here you have to come up with something or you strain credibility. Make it small, well intentioned mistake with a positive lesson learned. An example would be working too far ahead of colleagues on a project and thus throwing coordination off.
40. Do you have any blind spots?
Trick question. If you know about blind spots, they are no longer blind spots. Do not reveal any personal areas of concern here. Let them do their own discovery on your bad points. Do not hand it to them.
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41. If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?
Be careful to mention traits that are needed and that you have.
42. Do you think you are overqualified for this position?
Regardless of your qualifications, state that you are very well qualified for the position.
43. How do you propose to compensate for your lack of experience?
First, if you have experience that the interviewer does not know about, bring that up: Then, point out (if true) that you are a hard working quick learner.
44. What qualities do you look for in a boss?
Be generic and positive. Safe qualities are knowledgeable, a sense of humor, fair, loyal to subordinates and holder of high standards. All bosses think they have these traits.
45. Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute ?
between others. Pick a specific incident. Concentrate on your problem solving technique and not the dispute you settled.
46. What position do you prefer on a team working on a project?
Be honest. If you are comfortable in different roles, point that out.
47. Describe your work ethic ?
Emphasize benefits to the organization. Things like, determination to get the job done and work hard but enjoy your work are good.
48. What has been your biggest professional disappointment?
Be sure that you refer to something that was beyond your control. Show acceptance and no negative feelings.
49. Tell me about the most fun you have had on the job.
Talk about having fun by accomplishing something for the organization.
50. Do you have any questions for me?
Always have some questions prepared. Questions prepared where you will be an asset to the organization are good. How soon will I be able to be productive? and What type of projects will I be able to assist on? are examples.
And Finally Best of Luck Hope you will be successful in the interview you are going to face in coming days.
"Never take some one for granted,Hold every person Close to your Heart because you might wake up one day and realise that you have lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones." Remember this always in life.
Job Evaluation:
Methods: Classification
Classification Jobs are classified into an existing grade/category structure or hierarchy. Each level in the grade/category structure has a description and associated job titles. Each job is assigned to the grade/category providing the closest match to the job. The classification of a position is decided by comparing the whole job with the appropriate job grading standard. To ensure equity in job grading and wage rates, a common set of job grading standards and instructions are used. Because of differences in duties, skills and knowledge, and other aspects of trades and labor jobs, job grading standards are developed mainly along occupational lines.
The standards do not attempt to describe every work assignment of each position in the occupation covered. The standards identify and describe those key characteristics of occupations which are significant for distinguishing different levels of work. They define these key characteristics in such a way as to provide a basis for assigning the appropriate grade level to all positions in the occupation to which the standards apply.
Advantages
Simple.
The grade/category structure exists independent of the jobs. Therefore, new jobs can be classified more easily than the Ranking Method.
Disadvantages
Classification judgments are subjective.
The standard used for comparison (the grade/category structure) may have built in biases that would affect certain groups of employees (females or minorities).
Some jobs may appear to fit within more than one grade/category.
Tips
Use Well Defined Grades/Categories Attempt to define the grades/categories so that they do not overlap one another. Overlaps in the descriptions and factors used to identify the grade would lead to problems when assigning jobs to the grades where there is overlap between them.
Biases Examine the Grades/Categories for inherent biases against females and minorities
Define a Job Structure
In iHRIS Manage, a job is defined as a general set of qualifications, duties and responsibilities that one person performs in the organization. Each job has a title, code and description.
A job may be categorized by any of the following:
• Cadre: a category of health professionals who work for the organization
• Job classification: a standard job category and code that may or may not include health professionals
• Salary grade: a grade of pay for a job
All of these categorizations are optional. They are intended to organize jobs and track and report on data in ways that are meaningful for your organization.
There may be multiple instances of the same job. Each instance, which is filled by a single employee performing that job function, is called a position. The position may have the same title as the job, or it may have an additional position title.
Positions may be:
• Open: No employee currently holds the position, and the organization is actively accepting applications or seeking to hire into the position.
• Closed: An employee currently holds the position.
• Discontinued: No employee currently holds the position, and the organization is not seeking to hire into the position, but the position may be reopened at some later date
Each position has one spot on the organizational chart and one supervisor. Each position is located at a particular office or facility. Each position may optionally be assigned a code, department and position type (such as permanent, temporary or part-time).
The following chart illustrates how job data are related in the system:
This is an example of a specific job:
Complete the following exercises to define all cadres, job classifications and salary bands in use in your organization. Then identify each job in the organization and link it to the appropriate cadre, job classification and salary band. This section should be completed by an HR Manager.
Cadres
List all cadres in use in the organization. Cadres refer only to health professionals and should conform to international standards as much as possible. Cadres are optional.
Action: Add all cadres to the system (see Add cadres).
Job classifications
List all job classifications in use in the organization, including a description and a code for each job classification. A job classification is a category used to group similar jobs. Job classifications may be the same as cadres but will also include non-health professionals. Job classifications are optional.
Action: Add all job classifications and corresponding information to the system (see Add job classifications).
Salary grades
List all salary grades in use in the organization. Include the currency, starting salary, midpoint (or market rate) and ending salary for each salary grade. A salary grade defines the pay range for one or more jobs. Salary grades are optional.
Action: Add all salary grades and corresponding information to the system (see Add salary grades).
Currencies also need to be entered into the system (see Add a currency).
Salary sources
List all salary sources. A salary source is any distinguishable source of an employee's salary or a special payment or benefit paid to an employee that needs to be tracked. Tracking salary sources is optional.
Action: Enter all salary sources in the system (see Add salary sources).
Position types
List all position types (such as permanent, temporary, consultant, part-time, etc.) to track in the system. Tracking position types is optional.
Action: Enter all position types in the system (see Add position types).
Jobs
List all jobs that currently exist in the organization with their cadre, job classification, salary band, job code and job description. Remember that a job is not the same as a position. Several positions may exist for one job. Once the jobs are entered in the system, at least one position may be created for each job, which may then be linked to an employee.
Action: Enter each job and its corresponding information into the system (see Add jobs).
Andhra Pradesh Gazetted Amendement in Wagws with effect from Aug,04,2009.
RULES SUPPLEMENT TO PART – II
EXTRAORDINARY OF THE ANDHRA PRADESH GAZETTE
PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY HYDERABAD, TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2009
NOTIFICATION BY HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS, Etc.
COMMISSIONER OF LABOUR
REVISION OF WAGES FOR CONTRACT LABOUR (REGULATION AND ABOLITION) ACT, 1970 AND THE A.P. RULES, 1971 – FINAL NOTIFICATION.
Ref :- Draft Notification No.1, dated 03-06-2009 of the Commissioner of Labour, A.P., Hyderabad.
No.S2/3622/09.-
In the reference read above, a draft notification has been issued vide Procgs.No.S2/3622/09, dated 09.04.2009 which was published in Part-II, Extraordinary Gazette No.3, dated 03.06.2009 calling for objections and suggestions from the affected parties on the proposed wage rates t the contract labour.
By taking into consideration the objections suggestions offered by the representatives of Managements and the Unions on the above draft notification and an exercise of the powers conferred under clause (b) of sub-rule V of Rule 25 of A.P. Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Rules, 1971, and in terms of the service condition No.12, I, the Commissioner of Labour, A.P., Hyderabad hereby order the following amendments to condition No.12 which is specified in Proceedings No.D1/8385/1979; dated: 15.09.1979 under clause (b) of sub-rule V of Rule 25 of the A.P. Contract Labour (R&A) Rules, 1971, which will have effect from the date of publication in the A.P. Gazette.
AMENDMENT
For the service condition No.12 specified under clause (b) of sub-rule V of Rule 25 of the A.P. Contract Labour (R&A) Rules, 1971, following shall be substituted namely.
WAGE RATES:
(i) Where no rate of wages have been regulated by way of agreement / settlement / award or no wages have statutorily been prescribed under Minimum Wages Act, 1948 for such employment where applicable for any category or class of workmen, the contractor shall pay wages:
Rs.4030 p.m for unskilled worker – Rs.155/- per day
Rs.5070 p.m. for Semi-skilled worker – Rs.195/- per day
Rs.6110 p.m. for skilled worker – Rs.235/- per day
(ii) To arrive at daily wages the monthly wages shall be divided by 26, which is inclusive of holiday wages.
(iii) If statutory wages or wages regulated as per award / settlement / agreement which are in force are more beneficial to the workmen, the workers shall be entitled to such rates of wages notwithstanding the rates of wages fixed under his / her service conditions.
(iv) Where any category of worker is actually in receipt of higher rates of wages than the wages specified under this service condition he / she shall continued to be paid such higher wages.
(v) Where piece rate workers are employed in operation of the establishment, the wags paid to such worker for a normal working day of 8 hours shall not be less than the wages fixed for a general worker in that operation doing similar work.
(vi) The rates of wages payable to the workmen by the contractor shall not be less than the rates prescribed under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (11 of 1948) for such employment where applicable and where the rates have been fixed by agreement, settlement or award not less than the rates so fixed as per Rule 25 (iv).
(vii) In case where the workmen employed by the contractor perform the same or similar kind of work as the workmen directly employed by the principal employer of the establishment, the wages rates, holidays, hours of work and other conditions of service of the workmen of the contractor shall be the same as applicable to the workmen directly employed by the principal employer of the establishment on the same or similar kind of work.
Provided that in the case of any disagreement with regard to the type of work, the same shall be decided by the Commissioner of Labour, Andhra Pradesh, whose decision shall be final. (As per Rule 25 (v) (a).
DEFINITIION OF CATEGORIES WILL BE AS FOLLOWS:
a) Skilled : Skilled work is that which includes skill acquired through experience on the job or through training as apprentice in technical or vocational institution and the performance of which calls for initiation, accuracy and judgment.
b) Semi – skilled : Semi – skilled work is that which involves some degree of skill acquired through experience on the job and which is capable of being performed under supervision and guidance of a skilled employee.
c) Unskilled : Unskilled work is that which involves simple operations requiring little or no skill or experience on the job.
Hyderabad, D.SREENIVASULU,
04.08.2009 Commissioner of Labour
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ( H R M )
Definition 1 – Integration
“HRM is a series of integrated decisions that form the employment relationships; their quality contributes to the ability of the organizations and the employees to achieve their objectives.”
Definition 2 – Influencing
“HRM is concerned with the people dimensions in management. Since every organization is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to higher levels of performance and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the organization are essential to achieving organizational objectives. This is true, regardless of the type of the organization – government, business, education, health, recreational, or social action.”
Definition 3 – Applicability
“HRM planning, organizing, directing and controlling of the procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organizational and social objectives are accomplished.”
MEANING OF HRM: -
HRM is management function that helps managers to recruit, select, train and develop members for an organization. Obviously HRM is concerned with the people’s dimensions in organizations. HRM refers to set of programs, functions, and activities designed and carried out
Core elements of HRM
• People: Organizations mean people. It is the people who staff and manage organizations.
• Management: HRM involves application of management functions and principles for acquisitioning, developing, maintaining and remunerating employees in organizations.
• Integration & Consistency: Decisions regarding people must be integrated and consistent.
• Influence: Decisions must influence the effectiveness of organization resulting into betterment of services to customers in the form of high quality products supplied at reasonable cost.
• Applicability: HRM principles are applicable to business as well as non-business organizations too, such as education, health, recreation and the like.
OBJECTIVES OF HRM: -
1. Societal Objectives: To be ethically and socially responsible to the needs and challenges of the society while minimizing the negative impact of such demands upon the organization.
2. Organizational Objectives: To recognize the role of HRM in bringing about organizational effectiveness. HRM is only means to achieve to assist the organization with its primary objectives.
3. Functional Objectives: To maintain department’s contribution and level of services at a level appropriate to the organization’s needs.
4. Personal Objectives: To assist employees in achieving their personal goals, at least in so far as these goals enhance the individual’s contribution to the organization. This is necessary to maintain employee performance and satisfaction for the purpose of maintaining, retaining and motivating the employees in the organization.
SCOPE OF HRM: -
From Entry to the Exit of an employee in the organization
Scope of HRM can be described based on the following activities of HRM. Based on these activities we can summarize the scope of HRM into 7 different categories as mentioned below after the activities. Lets check out both of them.
HRM Activities –
1. HR Planning
2. Job Analysis
3. Job Design
4. Recruitment & Selection
5. Orientation & Placement
6. Training & Development
7. Performance Appraisals
8. Job Evaluation
9. Employee and Executive Remuneration
10. Motivation
11. Communication
12. Welfare
13. Safety & Health
14. Industrial Relations
7 Categories of Scope of HRM
1. Introduction to HRM
2. Employee Hiring
3. Employee and Executive Remuneration
4. Employee Motivation
5. Employee Maintenance
6. Industrial Relations
7. Prospects of HRM
ROLE OF HRM
1. Advisory Role: HRM advises management on the solutions to any problems affecting people, personnel policies and procedures.
a. Personnel Policies: Organization Structure, Social Responsibility, Employment Terms & Conditions, Compensation, Career & Promotion, Training & Development and Industrial Relations.
b. Personnel Procedures: Relating to manpower planning procedures, recruitment and selection procedures, and employment procedures, training procedures, management development procedures, performance appraisal procedures, compensation procedures, industrial relations procedures and health and safety procedures.
2. Functional Role: The personnel function interprets and helps to communicate personnel policies. It provides guidance to managers, which will ensure that agreed policies are implemented.
3. Service Role: Personnel function provides services that need to be carried out by full time specialists. These services constitute the main activities carried out by personnel departments and involve the implementation of the policies and procedures described above.
Role of HR Managers (Today)
1. Humanitarian Role: Reminding moral and ethical obligations to employees
2. Counselor: Consultations to employees about marital, health, mental, physical and career problems.
3. Mediator: Playing the role of a peacemaker during disputes, conflicts between individuals and groups and management.
4. Spokesman: To represent of the company because he has better overall picture of his company’s operations.
5. Problem Solver: Solving problems of overall human resource management and long-term organizational planning.
6. Change Agent: Introducing and implementing institutional changes and installing organizational development programs
7. Management of Manpower Resources: Broadly concerned with leadership both in the group and individual relationships and labor-management relations.
Role of HR Managers (Future)
1. Protection and enhancement of human and non-human resources
2. Finding the best way of using people to accomplish organizational goals
3. Improve organizational performance
4. Integration of techniques of information technology with the human resources
5. Utilizing behavioral scientists in the best way for his people
6. Meeting challenges of increasing organizational effectiveness
7. Managing diverse workforce
FUNCTIONS OF HRM ALONG WITH OBJECTIVES
HRM Objectives Supporting HRM Functions
Social Objectives (3) Legal Compliance
Benefits
Union Management Relations
Organizational Objectives (7) Human Resource Planning
Employee Relations
Recruitment & Selection
Training & Development
Performance Appraisals
Placement & Orientation
Employee Assessment
Functional Objectives (3) Performance Appraisals
Placement & Orientation
Employee Assessment
Personal Objectives (5) Training & Development
Performance Appraisals
Placement & Orientation
Compensation
Employee Assessment
Managerial Functions of HRM
1. Planning: Plan and research about wage trends, labor market conditions, union demands and other personnel benefits. Forecasting manpower needs etc.
2. Organizing: Organizing manpower and material resources by creating authorities and responsibilities for the achievement of organizational goals and objectives.
3. Staffing: Recruitment & Selection
4. Directing: Issuance of orders and instructions, providing guidance and motivation of employees to follow the path laid-down.
5. Controlling: Regulating personnel activities and policies according to plans. Observations and comparisons of deviations
Operational Functions of HRM
1. Procurement: Planning, Recruitment and Selection, Induction and Placement
2. Development: Training, Development, Career planning and counseling.
3. Compensation: Wage and Salary determination and administration
4. Integration: Integration of human resources with organization.
5. Maintenance: Sustaining and improving working conditions, retentions, employee communication
6. Separations: Managing separations caused by resignations, terminations, lay offs, death, medical sickness etc.
CHALLENGES OF HRM IN INDIAN ECONOMY or CHALLENGES OF MODERN MANAGEMENT
1. Globalization: - Growing internationalization of business has its impact on HRM in terms of problems of unfamiliar laws, languages, practices, competitions, attitudes, management styles, work ethics and more. HR managers have a challenge to deal with more functions, more heterogeneous functions and more involvement in employee’s personal life.
2. Corporate Re-organizations: - Reorganization relates to mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, take over, internal restructuring of organizations. In these situations, it is difficult to imagine circumstances that pose a greater challenge for HRM than reorganizations itself. It is a challenge to manage employees’ anxiety, uncertainties, insecurities and fears during these dynamic trends.
3. New Organizational forms: - The basic challenge to HRM comes from the changing character of competitions. The competition is not between individual firms but between constellations of firm. Major companies are operating through a complex web of strategic alliances, forgings with local suppliers, etc. These relationships give birth to completely new forms of organizational structure, which highly depend upon a regular exchange of people and information. The challenge for HRM is to cope with the implications of these newly networked relations more and more, in place of more comfortable hierarchical relationships that existed within the organizations for ages in the past.
4. Changing Demographics of Workforce: - Changes in workforce are largely reflected by dual career couples, large chunk of young blood between age old superannuating employees, working mothers, more educated and aware workers etc. These dynamic workforces have their own implications for HR managers and from HRM point of view is a true challenge to handle.
5. Changed employee expectations: - With the changes in workforce demographics, employee expectations and attitudes have also transformed. Traditional allurements like job security, house, and remunerations are not much attractive today, rather employees are demanding empowerment and equality with management. Hence it is a challenge for HRM to redesign the profile of workers, and discover new methods of hiring, training, remunerating and motivating employees.
6. New Industrial Relations Approach: - In today’s dynamic world, even unions have understood that strikes and militancy have lost their relevance and unions are greatly affected by it. The trade union membership has fallen drastically worldwide and the future of labor movement is in danger. The challenge before HRM is to adopt a proactive industrial relations approach which should enable HR specialist to look into challenges unfolding in the future and to be prepared to convert them into opportunities.
7. Renewed People Focus: - The need of today’s world and business is the people’s approach. The structure, strategy, systems approach which worked in post war era is no more relevant in today’s economic environment which is characterized by over capacities and intense competition. The challenge of HR manager is to focus on people and make them justifiable and sustainable.
8. Managing the Managers: - Managers are unique tribe in any society, they believe they are class apart. They demand decision-making, bossism, and operational freedom. However in the post liberalization era, freedom given to managers is grossly misused to get rid of talented and hard working juniors. The challenge of HRM is how to manage this tribe? How to make them realize that the freedom given to them is to enable them make quick decisions in the interest of the organization and not to resort to witch-hunting.
9. Weaker Society interests: - Another challenge for HRM is to protect the interest of weaker sections of society. The dramatic increase of women workers, minorities and other backward communities in the workforce has resulted in the need for organizations to reexamine their policies, practices and values. In the name of global competition, productivity and quality the interests of the society around should not be sacrificed. It is a challenge of today’s HR managers to see that these weaker sections are neither denied their rightful jobs nor are discriminated against while in service.
10. Contribution to the success of organizations: - The biggest challenge to an HR manager is to make all employees contribute to the success of the organization in an ethical and socially responsible way. Because society’s well being to a large extent depends on its organizations.
STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: -
Strategy:
“Strategy is a way of doing something. It includes the formulation of goals and set of action plans for accomplishment of that goal.”
Strategic Management:
“A Process of formulating, implementing and evaluating business strategies to achieve organizational objectives is called Strategic Management”
Definition of Strategic Management: -
“Strategic Management is that set of managerial decisions and actions that determine the long-term performance of a corporation. It includes environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and evaluation and control.”
The study of strategic management therefore emphasizes monitoring and evaluating environmental opportunities and threats in the light of a corporation’s strengths and weaknesses.
Steps in Strategic Management:
1. Environmental Scanning: Analyze the Opportunities and Threats in External Environment
2. Strategy Formulation: Formulate Strategies to match Strengths and Weaknesses. It can be done at Corporate level, Business Unit Level and Functional Level.
3. Strategy Implementation: Implement the Strategies
4. Evaluation & Control: Ensure the organizational objectives are met.
IMPORTANCE & BENEFITS OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
• Allows identification, prioritization and exploration of opportunities.
• Provides an objective view of management problems.
• Represents framework for improved co-ordination and control
• Minimizes the effects of adverse conditions and changes
• Allows major decisions to better support established objectives
• Allows more effective allocation of time and resources
• Allows fewer resources and lesser time devoted to correcting ad hoc decisions
• Creates framework for internal communication
• Helps to integrate the individual behaviors
• Provides basis for the clarification of responsibilities
• Encourages forward thinking
• Encourages favorable attitude towards change.
ROLE OF HRM IN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Role in Strategy Formulation: HRM is in a unique position to supply competitive intelligence that may be useful in strategy formulation. Details regarding advanced incentive plans used by competitors, opinion survey data from employees, elicit information about customer complaints, information about pending legislation etc. can be provided by HRM. Unique HR capabilities serve as a driving force in strategy formulation.
Role in Strategy Implementation: HRM supplies the company with a competent and willing workforce for executing strategies. It is important to remember that linking strategy and HRM effectively requires more than selection from a series of practice choices. The challenge is to develop a configuration of HR practice choices that help implement the organization’s strategy and enhance its competitiveness.
HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Definition 1: Organizing and enhancing capacities to produce.
HRD is a process of organizing and enhancing the physical, mental and emotional capacities of individuals for productive work.
Definition 2: Bring possibility of performance and growth
HRD means to bring about the possibility of performance improvement and individual growth.
Human resource development is a process to help people to acquire competencies and to increase their knowledge, skills and capabilities for better performance and higher productivity.
Proactive HRD Strategies for long term planning and growth
In today’s fast changing, challenging and competitive environment HRD has to take a proactive approach that is to seek preventive care in human relations. Using HRD strategies maximizations of efficiency and productivity could be achieved through qualitative growth of people with capabilities and potentialities to grow and develop. HRD is always a function of proper utilization of creative opportunities and available environment through acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for productive efforts.
Long-term growth can also be planned by creating highly inspired groups of employees with high aspirations to diversify around core competencies and to build new organizational responses for coping with change.
A proactive HRD strategy can implement activities that are geared up and directed at improving personal competence and productive potentialities of human resources.
Following strategic choices can be considered which would help today’s organizations to survive and grow.
Change Management: Manage change properly and become an effective change agent rather than being a victim of change itself.
Values: Adopt proactive HRD measures, which encourage values of openness, trust, autonomy, proactivity and experimentation.
Maximize productivity and efficiency: Through qualitative growth of people with capabilities and potentialities to grow and develop thrive to maximize productivity and efficiency of the organization.
Activities directed to competence building: HRD activities need to be geared up and directed at improving personal competence and productive potentialities of manpower resources.
TEAM EFFECTIVENESS
What is the definition of a team? A team is defined as a reasonably small group of people, who bring to the table a set of complementary and appropriate skills, and who hold themselves mutually accountable for achieving a clear and identifiable set of goals.
Teams can be very effective. In many situations teams can achieve more than individuals working on their own. Teams can bring to bear a wider range of skills and experience to solve a problem. Teams also produce better quality decisions. When a team has been working on a problem, and they have a sense of commitment to the common solution
What do we mean by team effectiveness?
• A team can be considered to be effective if their output is judged to meet or exceed the expectations of the people who receive the output. Producing a quality output is not enough to judge the effectiveness of the team.
• The second criteria, is that the team should still be able function effectively after they have completed their task. It should not be torn apart by dissension.
• Finally, effectiveness is judged by whether the team feels satisfied with its efforts. If the team members are pleased with their efforts, if the experience has been a good one, if time spent away from their normal work has been worth the effort, the team has likely been effective.
What then are the factors that contribute towards an effective team?
There are three areas of group behavior that must be addressed for teams to be effective. The team must work hard. The effort that the team puts in to get the job done is dependent on whether the nature of the task motivates the members of the team and whether the goals are challenging.The team must have the right mix of skills to bring to the table. These skills include technical, problem solving and interpersonal skills. The team must be able to develop appropriate approaches to problem solving. This depends on developing a plan of attack and using appropriate techniques for analysis.
The following factors contribute to hard work, skill development and effective problem solving strategies:
The task itself should be motivating.
• The task itself should be seen as being worthwhile. It needs to be a whole piece of work with a clear and visible outcome so that people can feel a sense of ownership.
• The outcome of the task should be perceived as being important to other people's lives. It should affect others in the organization or impact on the external customer.
• The job should provide the team with an opportunity for self-regulation. They should decide how the work is to be done. Meaningful feedback should be provided on the how well the team is performing.
The team needs challenging goals, which are clearly defined.
• When challenging goals are set the team will mobilize its efforts to find innovative ways to achieve feats that may have been considered impossible. Providing a challenging job is the most important motivator to sustain group effort.
• Goals provide a sense of direction to the team so that when conflict occurs it is possible to channel the conflict more constructively by returning to the goals for direction.
• The team needs to buy in to the goals. They must have the opportunity to buy in and commit to achieving the goals. Goals need to be challenging, but not impossible to achieve. They also need to be measurable so that progress towards achieving them can be monitored and results confirmed.
Rewards are important.
• The rewards need to suit the personal characteristics of the people on the team.
• Whatever form the reward takes, it is important that group effort be recognized. One should avoid the destructive effect of trying to single out individuals from the group, when there has been a group effort.
• Rewards merely reinforce these conditions for fostering group effort.
The team should have the right mix of skills.
• The right mix of skills should be brought to the task at hand. It is also a question of carefully reviewing the job to determine what relevant skills is required and selecting staff so that the team has the right balance. Providing relevant training then makes up any shortfall in skills.
• Technical skills are required. For teams who are trying to improve a process that cuts across department boundaries, each function should be represented. One should achieve a balance of skills. This means avoiding having a preponderance of skills and experience in one specialized area. Sheer numbers may weigh the solution towards the dominant group.
• In the case of permanent work teams it is likely that team members will not have all the task relevant skills at the onset. When the group is new, it is likely that members will bring narrow skills learned in their old roles. They will need to develop broader skills for the new job. To ensure that this is done, training and coaching should be provided.
• The members of the team need to have problem solving and decision-making skills as well as technical skills. When a business is making its first venture into team based work, it is likely that people will not have a good grasp of the techniques related to problem analysis and solution.
• These relevant skills must be acquired, so it will be necessary to provide training. Over a period of time staff will become experienced in problem solving techniques and the organization will develop a repertoire of skills among the staff so this training will not always be necessary.
• Interpersonal skills are also important. This is not as obvious as it may sound. Most people do not listen well. Listening is much more than being quiet when some else is talking. Active listening is required. Many people do not speak to the point but ramble on or go off at a tangent. Most people do not take criticism well and tend to be defensive about their own opinions.
Agree on a code of conduct.
• At the beginning of the team project it is important to develop a code of conduct for meetings. The team needs to agree on a set of rules to ensure that their efforts are purposeful and that all members contribute to the work.
• The most critical rules pertain to attendance, open discussion, using an analytical approach, not pulling rank over other members, planning the work and sharing work assignments. This will ensure that the work is done well and done on time.
The team must develop effective problem solving strategies.
• For the team to be able to develop an appropriate strategy, it must have a clear definition of the problem, know what resources it has available and the limits, and understand the expectations. It must then develop a problem-solving plan, based on the approach suggested in the section on continuous improvement.
• When this does not happen, people are passive. Their skills and knowledge are not utilized and they waste their time.
Special teams have special issues. From the perspective of organisational improvement we are interested in three types of teams. One is the problem solving team, another is the work team and then there is the senior management team.Problem solving teams are set up with a clearly defined task to investigate a problem and recommend a solution. Sometimes the same team will go on to implement the solution. When their task is completed the team is disbanded and members go back to their normal organisational duties.
• There are two important issues facing these teams. One is getting started and the other is handing over the recommendations for implementation. The key to getting started is to ensure that the team is committed to achieving an agreed set of goals. Goals serve to focus the team's effort.
• Implementation is important. It will not just happen; it must be planned. The implementers must be brought into the solution stage so that they develop a sense of ownership towards the solution and buy into it. The best way to do this is to have the problem solving team do the implementation.
• Another approach is to phase the implementers into the team so that the membership changes prior to the implementation. Whatever approach is used one should remember that the idea is to implement a solution and not to produce a report.
• Work teams are different in that they are a fixed part of the organization. They have an ongoing function, which is to control a set of activities that make up a discrete operation in the overall business process. They need to focus on the critical factors in their process and to control these factors to ensure a quality product.
HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING ( H R P )
Definition 1: - Need, Availability, Supply=Demand
“HRP includes estimation of how many qualified people are necessary to carry out the assigned activities, how many people will be available, and what, if anything, must be done to ensure personnel supply equals personnel demand at the appropriate point in the future.”
Definition 2: - Right numbers, Capability, Organization Objectives
“HRP is a Process, by which an organization ensures that it has the right number and kind of people at the right place, at the right time, capable of effectively and efficiently completing those tasks that will help the organization achieve its overall objectives.”
Definition 3: - Translation of objectives into HR numbers“HRP is a process of translating organizational objectives and plans into the number of workers needed to meet those objectives.”
MEANING / PURPOSE OF HRP
• In simple words HRP is understood as the process of forecasting an organization’s future demand for and supply of the right type of people in the right numbers.
• It is only after HRP is done, that the company can initiate and plan the recruitment and selection process.
• HRP is a sub-system in the total organizational planning.
• HRP facilitates the realization of the company’s objectives by providing right type and right number of personnel.
• HRP is important because without a clear-cut manpower planning, estimation of a organization’s human resource need is reduced to mere guesswork.
NEED & IMPORTANCE OF HRP
Forecast future personnel needs: To avoid the situations of surplus or deficiency of manpower in future, it is important to plan your manpower in advance. For this purpose a proper forecasting of futures business needs helps you to ascertain our future manpower needs. From this angle, HRP plays an important role to predict the right size of manpower in the organization.
Cope with change: HRP enables an enterprise to cope with changes in competitive forces, markets, technology, products and government regulations. Such changes generate changes in job content, skills demands and number of human resources required.
Creating highly talented personnel: Since jobs are becoming highly intellectual and incumbents getting vastly professionalized, HRP helps prevent shortages of labor caused by attritions. Further technology changes would further upgrade or degrade jobs and create manpower shortages. In these situations only accurate human resource planning can help to meet the resource requirements. Further HRP is also an answer to the problems of succession planning.
Protection of weaker sections: A well-conceived personnel planning would also help to protect the interests of the SC/ST, physically handicapped, children of socially oppressed and backward classes who enjoy a certain percentage of employments notwithstanding the constitutional provisions of equal opportunity for all.
International strategies: International expansion strategies largely depend upon effective HRP. With growing trends towards global operations, the need for HRP further becomes more important as the need to integrate HRP more closely into the organization keeps growing. This is also because the process of meeting staffing needs from foreign countries grows in a complex manner. Foundation of personnel functions: HRP provides essential information for designing and implementing personnel functions such as recruitment, selection, personnel development, training and development etc.
Increasing investments in HR: Another importance is the investment that an organization makes in human capital. It is important that employees are used effectively throughout their careers. Because human assets can increase the organization value tremendously as opposed to physical assets
Resistance to change & move: The growing resistance towards change and move, self evaluation, loyalty and dedication making it more difficult to assume that organization can move its employees everywhere. Here HRP becomes very important and needs the resources to be planned carefully.
Other benefits: Following are the other benefits of HRP.
1. Upper management has a better view of HR dimensions of business
2. Management can anticipate imbalances before they become unmanageable and expensive.
3. More time is provided to locate talent
4. Better opportunities exists to include women and minorities in future growth plans
5. Better planning of assignments to develop managers
6. Major and successful demands on local labor markets can be made.
HRP SYSTEM
HRP System as such includes following elements or sets for planning
Overall Organization Objectives
Business Environment
Forecasting Manpower Needs
Assessing Manpower Supply
Matching Manpower Demand-Supply factors
Based on these elements we can draw “HRP System Architecture” as under.
HRP PROCESS
Organizational Objectives & Policies: -
The objectives of HR plan must be derived from organizational objectives like specific requirements of numbers and characteristics of employees etc. HRP needs to sub-serve the overall objectives by ensuring availability and utilization of human resources. Specific policies need to be formulated to address the following decisions.
• Internal Hiring or External Hiring?
• Training & Development plans
• Union Constraints
• Job enrichment issues
• Rightsizing organization
• Automation needs
• Continuous availability of adaptive and flexible workforce
Manpower Demand Forecasting: -
It is the process of estimating the future quantity and quality of people required.
The basis should be annual budget and long term corporate plans
Demand forecasting should be based on following factors.
Internal Factors: -
• Budget constraints
• Production levels
• New products and services
• Organizational structure
• Employee separation
External Factors: -
• Competition environment
• Economic climate
• Laws and regulatory bodies
• Technology changes
• Social Factors
Reasons for Manpower Demand Forecasting: -
• To quantify jobs
• To determine the Staff-mix
• To assess staffing levels and avoid unnecessary costs
• Prevent shortages of people
• Monitor compliances of legal requirements with regards to reservations
Manpower Forecasting Techniques: -
Management Judgment: In this techniques managers across all the levels decide the forecast on their own judgment. This can be bottom-up or top-down approach and judgments can be reviewed across departments, divisions and top management can conclude on final numbers of manpower required.
Ration-Trend Analysis: This technique involves studying past ratios, and forecasting future ratios making some allowance for changes in the organization or its methods.
Work Study Techniques: It is possible when work measurement to calculate the length of operations and the amount of manpower required. The starting point can be production budget, followed by standard hours, output per hour; man-hours required etc could be computed.
Delphi Techniques: This technique solicits estimates from a group of experts, and HRP experts normally act as intermediaries, summarizes various responses and report the findings back to experts.
Flow Models: This technique involves the flow of following components. Determine the time required, Establish categories, Count annual movements, Estimate probable transitions. Here demand is a function of replacing those who make a transition.
Manpower Supply Forecasting: -
This process measures the number of people likely to be available from within and outside the organization after making allowance for absenteeism, internal movements and promotions, wastages, changes in hours and other conditions of work.
Reasons for Manpower Supply Forecasting:
• Clarify Staff-mixes exist in the future
• Assess existing staff levels
• Prevent shortages
• Monitor expected future compliance of legal requirements of job reservations
Supply Analysis covers:
Existing Human Resources: HR Audits facilitate analysis of existing employees with skills and abilities. The existing employees can be categorized as skills inventories (non-managers) and managerial inventories (managers)
Skill inventory would include the following;
• Personal data
• Skills
• Special Qualifications
• Salary
• Job History
• Company data
• Capabilities
• Special preferences
Management inventories would include the following
• Work History
• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Promotion Potential
• Career Goals
• Personal Data
• Number and Types of Subordinates
• Total Budget Managed
• Previous Management Duties
Internal Supply: -
Internal supply techniques help to assess the following
• Inflows and outflows (transfers, promotions, separations, resignations, retirements etc.)
• Turnover rate (No. Of separations p.a. / Average employees p.a. X 100)
• Conditions of work (working hours, overtime, etc.)
• Absenteeism (leaves, absences)
• Productivity level
• Job movements (Job rotations or cross functional utilizations)
External Supply: -
External sources are required for following reasons
• New blood,
• New experiences
• Replenish lost personnel
• Organizational growth
• Diversification
External sources can be colleges and universities, consultants, competitors and unsolicited applications.
HR Plan Implementation: -
A series of action programs are initiated as a part of HR plan implementation as under.
Recruitment & Selection:
Employees are hired against the job vacancies. Based on the manpower demand and supply forecasts made, hiring of employees is initiated based on supply forecasts. For this internal and external sources of manpower are utilized. A formal selection board is established to interview and select the best of the candidates for the required vacancies. Finally the selected employees also need to be placed on proper jobs. Here some companies recruit employees for specific jobs while others recruit fresh trainees in large number and train them for future manpower needs.
Training and Development: The training and development program is charted out to cover the number of trainees, existing staff etc. The programs also cover the identification of resource personnel for conducting development program, frequency of training and development programs and budget allocation.
Retraining and Redeployment; New skills are to be imparted to existing staff when technology changes or product line discontinued. Employees need to be redeployed to other departments where they could be gainfully employed.
Retention Plan: Retention plans cover actions, which would reduce avoidable separations of employees. Using compensation plans, performance appraisals, avoiding conflicts, providing green pastures etc, can do this.
Downsizing plans: Where there is surplus workforce trimming of labor force will be necessary. For these identifying and managing redundancies is very essential.
Managerial Succession Planning; Methods of managerial succession plans may vary. Most successful programs seem to include top managements involvement and commitment, high-level review of succession plans, formal performance assessment and potential assessment and written development plans for individuals. A typical succession planning involves following activities.
• Analysis of demand for managers and professionals
• Audit of existing executives
• Projection of future likely supply from internal and external sources
• Individual career path planning
• Career counseling
• Accelerated promotions
• Performance related training and development
• Strategic recruitment
Control & Evaluation of HRP: -
HR Plan must also clarify responsibilities for control and establish reporting procedures, which will enable achievements to be monitored against the plan. The HR Plan should include budgets, targets and standards. These plans may simply be reports on the numbers employed, recruited against targets etc.
SUCCESSION PLANNING
Meaning of Succession Planning
Succession planning is the process or activities connected with the succession of persons to fill key positions in the organization hierarchy as vacancies arise. The focus of attention is towards ‘which’ person the succession planning is needed. The focus is not more on career development but it is more towards what kind of person is required to fill the future vacancy. Succession planning focuses on identification of vacancies and locating the probable successor. For example in succession planning the key concern can be who will be next CEO or what will happen if the Marketing Manager retires in coming March.
Importance of Succession Planning
• Succession planning helps when there is a sudden need arises due to reason or retirement of a key employee.
• Individual employee comes to know in advance the level to which he can rise if he has the ability and aptitude for it.
• Individual employee or successor feels happy when he feels that organization is taking care of his talents and aspirations.
• Succession planning helps create loyalty towards the organization and improved motivation and morale of individual employees.
• Organization gains stable workforce and low employee turnover.
• Ultimately organization becomes successful in accomplishing its goals effectively.
CAREER PLANNING
Career planning is the process or activities offered by the organization to individuals to identify strengths, weaknesses, specific goals and jobs they would like to occupy.
Career as a concept means a lifelong sequences of professional, educational and developmental experiences that projects an individual through the world of work. It is a sequence of positions occupied by a person during his life. Career may also be defined as amalgamation of changes in values, attitudes and motivation that occurs as a person grows older.
In career planning, organization is concerned with strategic questions of career development. Further the organization is concerned about if it should employ more graduates, more engineers, more scientists or more accountants etc. Career planning provides picture of succession plan for employees as per organizational needs. It focuses on the basis of performance, experience, could be placed where, when and how.
Career planning is a process of integrating the employees’ needs and aspirations with organizational requirements.
Objectives of Career Planning
1. Build commitment in the individual
2. Develop long-range perspective
3. Reduce personal turnover expenses
4. Lessen employee obsolescence
5. Ensure organizational effectiveness
6. Allow individual to achieve personal and work related goals.
Importance of Career Planning
Career planning is important because it helps the individual to explore, choose and strive to derive satisfaction with his own career objectives.
JOB ANALYSIS
JOB:
“Job is a ‘group of tasks to be performed everyday.”
JOB ANALYSIS
Definition 1: (Process of Collecting Information)
“Job Analysis is a process of studying and collecting information relating to operations and responsibilities of a specific job. The immediate products of this analysis are ‘Job Description’ and ‘Job Specifications’.”
Definition 2: (Systematic Exploration of Activities)
“Job Analysis is a systematic exploration of activities within a job. It is a basic technical procedure that is used to define duties and responsibilities and accountabilities of the job.”
Definition 3: (Identifying Job Requirements)
“Job is a collection of tasks that can be performed by a single employee to contribute to the production of some product or service, provided by the organization. Each job has certain ability requirements (as well as certain rewards) associated with it. Job Analysis is a process used to identify these requirements.”
MEANING OF JOB ANALYSIS
Job Analysis is a process of collecting information about a job. The process of job analysis results into two sets of data.
• Job Description
• Job Specification
As a result Job analysis involves the following steps in a logical order.
Steps of Job Analysis
1. Collecting and recording job information
2. Checking the job information for accuracy
3. Writing job description based on information collected to determine the skills, knowledge, abilities and activities required
4. Updating and upgrading this information
PURPOSE OF JOB ANALYSIS: -
• Human Resource Planning (HRP): - The numbers and types of personnel are determined by the jobs, which need to be staffed. Job related information in the form of Job Analysis serves this purpose or use.
• Recruitment & Selection: - Recruitment precedes job analysis. It helps HR to locate places to obtain employees. It also helps in better continuity and planning in staffing in the organization. Also selecting a good candidate also requires detailed job information. Because the objective of hiring is to match the right candidate for right job
• Training & Development: Training and development programs can be designed depending upon job requirement and analysis. Selection of trainees is also facilitated by job analysis.
• Job Evaluation: Job evaluation means determination of relative worth of each job for the purpose of establishing wage and salary credentials. This is possible with the help of job description and specifications; i.e. Job Analysis.
• Remuneration: Job analysis also helps in determining wage and salary for all jobs.
• Performance Appraisal: Performance appraisal, assessments, rewards, promotions, is facilitated by job analysis by way of fixing standards of job performance.
• Personnel Information: Job analysis is vital for building personnel information systems and processes for improving administrative efficiency and providing decision support.
• Safety & Health: Job Analysis helps to uncover hazardous conditions and unhealthy environmental factors so that corrective measures can be taken to minimize and avoid possibility of human injury.
PROCESS OF JOB ANALYSIS
Process 1: Strategic Choices
Process 2: Collecting Information
Process 3: Processing Information
Process 4: Job Description
Process 5: Job Specification
Strategic Choices: -
Extent of involvement of employees: Extent of employee involvement is a debatable point. Too much involvement may result in bias in favor of a job in terms of inflating duties and responsibilities. Too less involvement leads to suspicion about the motives behind the job. Besides it may also lead to inaccurate information. Hence extent of involvement depends on the needs of the organization and employee.
Level of details of job analysis: The nature of jobs being analyzed determines the level of details in job analysis. If the purpose were for training programs or assessing the worth of job, levels of details required would be great. If the purpose is just clarification the details required would be less.
Timing and frequency of Job Analysis: When do you do Job Analysis?
• Initial stage, for new organization
• New Job is created
• Changes in Job, Technology and Processes
• Deficiencies and Disparities in Job
• New compensation plan is introduced
• Updating and upgrading is required.
Past-oriented and future-oriented Job Analysis: For rapidly changing organization more future oriented approach would be desired. For traditional organizations past oriented analysis would be required. However more future oriented analysis may be derived based on past data.
Sources of Job Data: For job analysis number of human and non-human sources is available besides jobholder himself. Following can be sources of data available for job analysis.
Non-Human Sources Human Sources
Existing job descriptions and specifications
Equipment maintenance records
Equipment design blueprints
Architectural blueprints of work area
Films of employee working
Training manuals and materials
Magazines, newspapers, literatures Job Analysis
Job Incumbents
Supervisors
Job Experts
Collecting Information: -
Information collection is done on the basis of following 3 parameters
Types of Data for Job Analysis:
• Work Activities (Tasks details)
• Interface with other jobs and equipments (Procedures, Behaviors, Movements)
• Machines, Tools, Equipments and Work Aids (List, Materials, Products, Services)
• Job Context (Physical, Social, Organizational, Work schedule)
• Personal Requirement (Skills, Education, Training, Experience)
Methods of Data Collection:
• Observation
• Interview
• Questionnaires
• Checklists
• Technical Conference
• Diary Methods
Who to Collect Data?
• Trained Job Analysts
• Supervisors
• Job Incumbents
Processing Information: -
Once the job information is collected it needs to be processed, so that it would be useful in various personnel functions. Specifically job related data would be useful to prepare job description and specifications, which form the next two processes of job analysis.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION:
Observation: Job Analyst carefully observes the jobholder and records the information in terms of what, how the job is done and how much time is taken. It is a simple and accurate method, but is also time consuming and inapplicable to jobs involving mental activities and unobservable job cycles. The analysts must be fully trained observers.
Interview: In this analyst interviews the jobholders, his supervisors to elicit information. It can be Structured or Unstructured Interview. Again this is also a time consuming method in case of large organizations. Plus there is also a problem of bias.
Questionnaires: A standard questionnaire is given to jobholder about his job, which can be filled and given back to supervisors or job analysts. The questionnaire may contain job title, jobholder’s name, managers name, reporting staff, description of job, list of main duties and responsibilities etc. It is useful in large number of staffs and less time consuming. However the accuracy of information leaves much to be desired.
Checklists: It is more similar to questionnaire but the response sheet contains fewer subjective judgments and tends to be either yes or no variety. Preparation of checklist is a challenging job itself.
Technical Conference: Here a conference of supervisors is used. The analysts initiate the discussions providing job details. However this method lacks accuracy.
Diary Methods: In this method jobholder is required to note down their activities day by day in their diary. If done faithfully this technique is accurate and eliminates errors caused by memory lapses etc.
Quantitative Methods of Job Data Collection: -
Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ): -
PAQ is a highly specialized instrument for analyzing any job in terms of employee activities. The PAQ contains 194 job elements on which job is created depending on the degree to which an element is present. These elements are grouped together into 6 categories.
1. U – Usability / Use of Job
2. I – Importance of Job
3. T – Time
4. P – Possibility of Occurrence of Job
5. A – Applicability of Job
6. S – Specialty Tasks of Job
The primary advantage of PAQ is that it can be used to analyze almost every job. This analysis provides a comparison of a specific job with other job classifications, particularly for selection and remuneration purposes. However PAQ needs to be completed by trained job analysts only rather than incumbents.
Management Position Description Questionnaire (MPDQ): -
Highly structured questionnaire, containing 208 elements relating to managerial responsibilities, demand, restrictions and other position characteristics These 208 elements are grouped under 13 categories.
PAQ and MPDQ yield standardized information about the worker and the job.
Functional Job Analysis: -
It is a worker oriented job analytical approach, which attempts to describe the whole person on the job.
BARRIERS OF JOB ANALYSIS
• Support from Top Management
• Single means and source, reliance on single method rather than combination
• No Training or Motivation to Jobholders
• Activities and Data may be Distorted
JOB DESCRIPTION
“Job Description implies objective listing of the job title, tasks, and responsibilities involved in a job.”
Job description is a word picture in writing of the duties, responsibilities and organizational relationships that constitutes a given job or position. It defines continuing work assignment and a scope of responsibility that are sufficiently different from those of the other jobs to warrant a specific title. Job description is a broad statement of purpose, scope, duties and responsibilities of a particular job.
Contents of Job Description
1. Job Identification
2. Job Summary
3. Job Duties and Responsibilities
4. Supervision specification
5. Machines, tools and materials
6. Work conditions
7. Work hazards
8. Definition of unusual terms
Format of Job Description
• Job Title
• Region/Location
• Department
• Reporting to (Operational and Managerial)
• Objective
• Principal duties and responsibilities
Features of Good Job Description
1. Up to date
2. Proper Job Title
3. Comprehensive Job Summary
4. Clear duties and responsibilities
5. Easily understandable
6. State job requirements
7. Specify reporting relationships
8. Showcase degrees of difficulties
9. Indicates opportunities for career development
10. Offer bird’s-eye-view of primary responsibilities
JOB SPECIFICATIONS
“Job Specification involves listing of employee qualifications, skills and abilities required to meet the job description. These specifications are needed to do job satisfactorily.”
In other words it is a statement of minimum and acceptable human qualities necessary to perform job properly. Job specifications seeks to indicate what kind of persons may be expected to most closely approximate the role requirements and thus it is basically concerned with matters of selection, screening and placement and is intended to serve as a guide in hiring.
Contents of Job Specifications
1. Physical Characteristics
2. Psychological characteristics
3. Personal characteristics
4. Responsibilities
5. Demographic features
Further the job specifications can be divided into three broad categories
Essential Attributes
Desirable Attributes
Contra-Indicators – indicators hampering the success of job
JOB EVALUATION
Job Evaluation involves determination of relative worth of each job for the purpose of establishing wage and salary differentials. Relative worth is determined mainly on the basis of job description and job specification only. Job Evaluation helps to determine wages and salary grades for all jobs. Employees need to be compensated depending on the grades of jobs which they occupy. Remuneration also involves fringe benefits, bonus and other benefits. Clearly remuneration must be based on the relative worth of each job. Ignoring this basic principle results in inequitable compensation. A perception of inequity is a sure way of de-motivating an employee.
Job evaluation is a process of analyzing and assessing the various jobs systematically to ascertain their relative worth in an organization.
Jobs are evaluated on the basis of content, placed in order of importance. This establishes Job Hierarchies, which is a purpose of fixation of satisfactory wage differentials among various jobs.
Jobs are ranked (not jobholders)
Scope of Job Evaluation
The job evaluation is done for the purpose of wage and salary differentials, demand for and supply of labor, ability to pay, industrial parity, collective bargaining and the like.
Process of Job Evaluation:
1. Defining objectives of job evaluation
a. Identify jobs to be evaluated (Benchmark jobs or all jobs)
b. Who should evaluate job?
c. What training do the evaluators need?
d. How much time involved?
e. What are the criteria for evaluation?
f. Methods of evaluation to be used
2. Wage Survey
3. Employee Classification
4. Establishing wage and salary differentials.
Methods of Job Evaluation
Analytical Methods
• Point Ranking Methods: Different factors are selected for different jobs with accompanying differences in degrees and points. Factor Comparison Method: The important factors are selected which can be assumed to be common to all jobs. Each of these factors are then ranked with other jobs. The worth of the job is then taken by adding together all the point values.
Non-Analytical Methods
• Ranking Method: Jobs are ranked on the basis of its title or contents. Job is not broken down into factors etc.
• Job Grading Method: It is based on the job as a whole and the differentiation is made on the basis of job classes and grades. In this method it is important to form a grade description to cover discernible differences in skills, responsibilities and other characteristics.
Pitfalls of Job Evaluation:
• Encourages employees on how to advance in position when there may be limited opportunities for enhancement as a result of downsizing.
• It promotes internal focus instead of customer orientation
• Not suitable for forward looking organizations, which has trimmed multiple job titles into two or three broad jobs.
JOB DESIGN
The Logical Sequence to Job Analysis is Job Design.
Definition 1: Integration of work, rewards and qualification
“Job Design integrates work content (tasks, functions, relationships), the rewards and qualifications required including skills, knowledge and abilities for each job in a way that meets the needs of employees and the organization.”
Steps in Job Design: -
1. Specification of Individual Tasks
2. Specification of Methods of Tasks Performance
3. Combination of Tasks into Specific Jobs to be assigned to individuals
Factors affecting Job Design: -
Organizational factors:
• Characteristics of Tasks (Planning, Execution and Controlling of Task)
• Work Flow (Process Sequences)
• Ergonomics (Time & Motion Study)
• Work Practices (Set of ways of performing tasks)
Environmental Factors:
• Employee Abilities and Availability
• Social and Cultural Expectations
Behavioral Elements:
• Feedback
• Autonomy
• Use of Abilities
• Variety
TECHNIQUES OF JOB DESIGN: -
Work Simplification: Job is simplified or specialized. The job is broken down into small parts and each part is assigned to an individual. To be more specific, work simplification is mechanical pacing of work, repetitive work processes, working only on one part of a product, predetermining tools and techniques, restricting interaction amongst employees, few skills requirement. Work simplification is used when jobs are not specialized.
Job Rotation: When incumbents become bore of routine jobs, job rotation is an answer to it. Here jobs remain unchanged, but the incumbents shift from one job to another. On the positive side, it increases the intrinsic reward potential of a job because of different skills and abilities needed to perform it. Workers become more competent in several jobs, know variety of jobs and improve the self-image, personal growth. Further the worker becomes more valuable to the organization. Periodic job changes can improve interdepartmental cooperation. On the negative side, it may not be much enthusiastic or efficiency may not be more. Besides jobs may not improve the relationships between task, while activities and objectives remain unchanged. Further training costs also rise and it can also de-motivate intelligent and ambitious trainees who seek specific responsibilities in their chosen specialties.
Job Enlargement: It means expanding the number of tasks, or duties assigned to a given job. Job enlargement is naturally opposite to work simplification. Adding more tasks or duties to a job does not mean that new skills and abilities are needed. There is only horizontal expansion. It is with same skills taking additional responsibilities like extending working hours etc. Job enlargement may involve breaking up of the existing work system and redesigning a new work system. For this employees also need to be trained to adjust to the new system. Job enlargement is said to contribute to employee motivation but the claim is not validated in practice.
Benefits of Job Enlargement:
1. Task Variety
2. Meaningful Work Modules
3. Full Ability Utilization
4. Worker Paced Control
5. Meaningful Performance Feedback
Disadvantages of Job Enlargement
1. High Training Costs
2. Redesigning existing work system required
3. Productivity may not increase necessarily
4. Workload increases
5. Unions demand pay–hike
6. Jobs may still remain boring and routine
Job Enrichment: Job enrichment is improvisation of both tasks efficiency and human satisfaction by building into people’s jobs, quite specifically, greater scope for personal achievement and recognition, more challenging and responsible work and more opportunity for individual advancement and growth. An enriched job will have more responsibility, more autonomy (vertical enrichment), more variety of tasks (horizontal enrichment) and more growth opportunities. The employee does more planning and controlling with less supervision but more self-evaluation. In other words, transferring some of the supervisor’s tasks to the employee and making his job enriched.
Benefits of Job enrichment
1. It benefits employee and organization in terms of increased motivation, performance, satisfaction, job involvement and reduced absenteeism.
2. Additional features in job meet certain psychological needs of jobholders due to skill variety, identity, significance of job etc.
3. It also adds to employee self-esteem and self-control.
4. Job enrichment gives status to jobholder and acts as a strong satisfier in one’s life.
5. Job enrichment stimulates improvements in other areas of organization.
6. Empowerment is a by-product of job enrichment. It means passing on more authority and responsibility.
Demerits of Job Enrichment
1. Lazy employees may not be able to take additional responsibilities and power. It won’t fetch the desired results for an employee who is not attentive towards his job.
2. Unions resistance, increased cost of design and implementation and limited research on long term effect of job enrichment are some of the other demerits.
3. Job enrichment itself might not be a great motivator since it is job-intrinsic factor. As per the two-factor motivation theory, job enrichment is not enough. It should be preceded by hygienic factors etc.
4. Job enrichment assumes that workers want more responsibilities and those workers who are motivated by less responsibility, job enrichment surely de-motivates them
5. Workers participation may affect the enrichment process itself.
6. Change is difficult to implement and is always resisted as job enrichment brings in a changes the responsibility.
Autonomous of Self-Directed Teams: Empowerment results in self-directed work teams. A self –directed team is an intact group of employees responsible for whole work segment, they work together, handle day-to-day problems, plan and control, and are highly effective teams.
High Performance Work Design: Improving performance in an environment where positive and demanding goals are set leads to high performance work design. It starts from the principle of autonomous groups working and developing an approach, which enables group to work effectively together in situations where the rate of innovation is very high. Operational flexibility is important and there is the need for employees to gain and apply new skills quickly with minimum supervision. However due to bureaucracy high performance work design does not work.
DESIGNING JOBS – MOTIVATING JOBS
The concept of motivating jobs relates to Job design. Job design affects employee productivity, motivation and satisfaction. Job design is a conscious effort to organize tasks, duties and responsibilities into a unit of work to achieve certain objectives.
How a job design creates a motivating job can be seen with the help of certain components of job design, namely, job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment, work simplification etc.
Work simplification simplifies the job by breaking down the job into small parts. Simplified jobs are easy to perform hence employees find it easy to do. Training requirements are reduced and it benefits the organizations in terms of cost.
Job rotation means movement of employees of job to job across the organization. It improves the intrinsic reward potential of a job because of different skills and abilities are needed to perform a job. Workers become more competent in several jobs rather than only one. It also improves workers self image, provides personal growth and makes workers more valuable to the organization. Periodic job change can improve inter-departmental cooperation. Employees become more understanding to each other’s problems. Consequently it provides a high level of motivation to employees because jobs itself become motivators. Hence job rotation helps the job become more motivating.
Job enlargement involves expanding number of tasks or duties assigned to a given job.
Job enrichment involves improving task efficiency and human satisfaction. Job enrichment provides greater scope for personal achievement and recognition, more challenging and responsible work and more opportunity for individual advancement and growth. An enriched job gives vertical enrichment in the form of more responsibility and autonomy and a horizontal enrichment in the form of variety of tasks and more growth opportunities. The employee does more planning and controlling with less supervision but more self-evaluation. All these factors lead to increased level of motivation and hence make the jobs more motivated.
Considering above examples, we can say that designing jobs is actually using the relevant and right techniques of job design, like rotation, enrichment, simplifications and make the jobs more motivating to perform.
So we can say that Designing Jobs is actually creating Motivated Jobs.
JOB SATISFACTION
Job satisfaction is the result of various attitudes possessed by an employee towards his job, related factors and life in general. The attitudes related to job may be wages, supervision, steadiness, working conditions, advancement opportunities, recognitions, fair evaluation of work, social relations on job, prompt settlement of grievances etc.
In short job satisfaction is a general attitude, which is the result of many specific attitudes in three areas namely, job factors, individual characteristics and group relationships outside the job.
Components of Job Satisfaction
Personal factors: Sex, Dependents, Age, Timings, Intelligence, Education and Personality.
Job inherent factors: Type of work, Skills, Occupational status, Geography, Size of plant
Management controlled factors: Security, Payment, Fringe benefits, Advancement opportunities and Working conditions, Co-workers, Responsibilities, Supervision
Job Satisfaction & Behavior relationship is described through following examples.
Satisfaction & Turnover
Satisfaction & Absenteeism
Satisfaction & Accidents
Satisfaction & Job Performance
WORK SAMPLING
Definition 1: Measuring and quantifying activities"A measurement technique for the quantitative analysis of non-repetitive or irregularly occurring activity."
Meaning of Work Sampling Work sampling is based on the theory that the percentage of the number of observations on a particular activity is a reliable measure of the percentage of the total actual time spent on that activity.Work sampling operates by an observer taking a series of random observations on a particular "thing" of interest (machine, operating room, dock, etc.) to observe its "state" (working, idle, sleeping, empty, etc.). When enough samples are taken, an analysis of the observations yields a statistically valid indication of the states for each thing analyzed. Assume, for example, that you wish to determine the proportion of time a factory operator is working or idle. Also assume that 200 random observations were made of the operator and during 24 of these he or she was observed to be idle. Therefore, you find that the individual is working 176/200 = 88% of the time.
Advantages of Work SamplingIt is relatively inexpensive to use and extremely helpful in providing a deeper understanding of all types of operations. When properly used, it can help pinpoint those areas, which should be analyzed in, further detail and can serve as a measure of the progress being made in improving operations
.Questions of work sampling study
• What is our equipment/asset utilization?
• When we are not adding value to the product, how are we spending our time?
• How are our inter-dependent systems performing?
• Where should we focus our continuous improvement activities?
Distinction between Work sampling and "Time Studies"
• Work sampling is lower cost because it uses random samples instead of continuous observations.
• Many operators or machines can be studied by a single observer
• Work sampling can span several days or weeks, thus minimizing the effects of day to day load or equipment variations
• Work Sampling tends to minimize operator behavior modification during observation.
• Work Sampling, in general, does not require a trained time-study analyst to take the observations. Also, stopwatches or other timing devices are not required. Many studies make use of off-shift technicians or operators to take the observations. Work sampling Methodology
An analyst RANDOMLY observes an activity (equipment, operating room, production line) and notes the particular states of the activity at each observation.
The ratio of the number of observations of a given state of the activity to the total number of observations taken will approximate the percentage of time that the activity is in that given state.
Note that random observations are very critical for a work sampling study. A brief example might be that 77 of 100 observations showed a machine to be running. We might then conclude, within certain statistical limits, that the equipment is operational 77% of the time.
RECRUITMENT & SELECTION
RECRUITMENT
Definition Of Recruitment: Finding and Attracting Applications
“Recruitment is the Process of finding and attracting capable applicants for employment. The Process begins when new recruits are sought and ends when their applications are submitted. The result is a pool of application from which new employees are selected.”
MEANING OF RECRUITMENT:
Recruitment is understood as the process of searching for and obtaining applicants for jobs, from among them the right people can be selected. Though theoretically recruitment process is said to end with the receipt of applications, in practice the activity extends to the screening of applications so as to eliminate those who are not qualified for the job.
PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE OF RECRUITMENT: -
1. Determine the present and future requirements in conjunction with personnel planning and job analysis activities
2. Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost
3. Help increase success rate of selection process by reducing number of under-qualified or over-qualified applications.
4. Reduce the probability that job applicants once selected would leave shortly
5. Meet legal and social obligations
6. Identify and prepare potential job applicants
7. Evaluate effectiveness of various recruitment techniques and sources for job applicants.
FACTORS GOVERNING RECRUITMENT
External Factors:
• Demand and Supply (Specific Skills)
• Unemployment Rate (Area-wise)
• Labor Market Conditions
• Political and Legal Environment (Reservations, Labor laws)
• Image
Internal Factors
• Recruitment Policy (Internal Hiring or External Hiring?)
• Human Resource Planning (Planning of resources required)
• Size of the Organization (Bigger the size lesser the recruitment problems)
• Cost
• Growth and Expansion Plans
RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Recruitment Planning
• Number of contacts
• Types of contacts
Recruitment Strategy Development
• Make or Buy Employees
• Technological Sophistication
• Where to look
• How to look
Internal Recruitment (Source 1)
• Present employees
• Employee referrals
• Transfers & Promotions
• Former Employees
• Previous Applicants
• Evaluation of Internal Recruitment
External Recruitment (Source 2)
• Professionals or Trade Associations
• Advertisements
• Employment Exchanges
• Campus Recruitment
• Walk-ins Interviews
• Consultants
• Contractors
• Displaced Persons
• Radio & Television
• Acquisitions & Mergers
• Competitors
• Evaluation of External Recruitment
Searching
• Source activation
• Selling
• Screening of Applications
Evaluation and Cost Control
• Salary Cost
• Management & Professional Time spent
• Advertisement Cost
• Producing Supporting literature
• Recruitment Overheads and Expenses
• Cost of Overtime and Outsourcing
• Consultant’s fees
Evaluation of Recruitment Process
• Return rate of applications sent out
• Suitable Candidates for selection
• Retention and Performance of selected candidates
• Recruitment Cost
• Time lapsed data
• Image projection
INTERNAL RECRUITMENT
Advantages Disadvantages
1. Less Costly
2. Candidates already oriented towards organization
3. Organizations have better knowledge about internal candidates
4. Employee morale and motivation is enhanced 1. Old concept of doing things
2. It abets raiding
3. Candidates current work may be affected
4. Politics play greater roles
5. Morale problem for those not promoted.
EXTERNAL RECRUITMENT
Advantages Disadvantages
1. Benefits of new skills and talents
2. Benefits of new experiences
3. Compliance with reservation policy becomes easy
4. Scope for resentment, jealousies, and heartburn are avoided. 1. Better morale and motivation associated with internal recruiting is denied
2. It is costly method
3. Chances of creeping in false positive and false negative errors
4. Adjustment of new employees takes longer time.
SELECTION: -
MEANING OF SELECTION:
Selection is the process of picking up individuals (out of the pool of job applicants) with requisite qualifications and competence to fill jobs in the organization. A formal definition of Selection is as under
Definition of Selection: Process of differentiating
“Selection is the process of differentiating between applicants in order to identify and hire those with a greater likelihood of success in a job.”
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION:
Recruitment Selection
1. Recruitment refers to the process of identifying and encouraging prospective employees to apply for jobs.
2. Recruitment is said to be positive in its approach as it seeks to attract as many candidates as possible. 1. Selection is concerned with picking up the right candidates from a pool of applicants.
2. Selection on the other hand is negative in its application in as much as it seeks to eliminate as many unqualified applicants as possible in order to identify the right candidates.
PROCESS / STEPS IN SELECTION
1. Preliminary Interview: The purpose of preliminary interviews is basically to eliminate unqualified applications based on information supplied in application forms. The basic objective is to reject misfits. On the other hands preliminary interviews is often called a courtesy interview and is a good public relations exercise.
2. Selection Tests: Jobseekers who past the preliminary interviews are called for tests. There are various types of tests conducted depending upon the jobs and the company. These tests can be Aptitude Tests, Personality Tests, and Ability Tests and are conducted to judge how well an individual can perform tasks related to the job. Besides this there are some other tests also like Interest Tests (activity preferences), Graphology Test (Handwriting), Medical Tests, Psychometric Tests etc.
3. Employment Interview: The next step in selection is employment interview. Here interview is a formal and in-depth conversation between applicant’s acceptability. It is considered to be an excellent selection device. Interviews can be One-to-One, Panel Interview, or Sequential Interviews. Besides there can be Structured and Unstructured interviews, Behavioral Interviews, Stress Interviews.
4. Reference & Background Checks: Reference checks and background checks are conducted to verify the information provided by the candidates. Reference checks can be through formal letters, telephone conversations. However it is merely a formality and selections decisions are seldom affected by it.
5. Selection Decision: After obtaining all the information, the most critical step is the selection decision is to be made. The final decision has to be made out of applicants who have passed preliminary interviews, tests, final interviews and reference checks. The views of line managers are considered generally because it is the line manager who is responsible for the performance of the new employee.
6. Physical Examination: After the selection decision is made, the candidate is required to undergo a physical fitness test. A job offer is often contingent upon the candidate passing the physical examination.
7. Job Offer: The next step in selection process is job offer to those applicants who have crossed all the previous hurdles. It is made by way of letter of appointment.
8. Contract of Employment: After the job offer is made and candidates accept the offer, certain documents need to be executed by the employer and the candidate. Here is a need to prepare a formal contract of employment, containing written contractual terms of employment etc.
ESSENTIALS OF A GOOD SELECTION PRACTICE
1. Detailed job descriptions and job specifications prepared in advance and endorsed by personnel and line management
2. Trained the selectors
3. Determine aids to be used for selection process
4. Check competence of recruitment consultants before retention
5. Involve line managers at all stages
6. Attempt to validate the procedure
7. Help the appointed candidate to succeed by training and management development
BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE SELECTION: -
1. Perception: We all perceive the world differently. Our limited perceptual ability is obviously a stumbling block to the objective and rational selection of people.
2. Fairness: Barriers of fairness includes discrimination against religion, region, race or gender etc.
3. Validity: A test that has been validated can differentiate between the employees who can perform well and those who will not. However it does not predict the job success accurately.
4. Reliability: A reliable test may fail to predict job performance with precision.
5. Pressure: Pressure brought on selectors by politicians, bureaucrats, relatives, friends and peers to select particular candidate are also barriers to selection.
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
Definition of Training & Development: Improve performance
“Training & Development is any attempt to improve current or future employee performance by increasing an employee’s ability to perform through learning, usually by changing the employee’s attitude or increasing his or her skills and knowledge.”
MEANING OF TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT: -
The need for Training and Development is determined by the employee’s performance deficiency, computed as follows.
Training & Development Need = Standard Performance – Actual Performance
We can make a distinction among Training, Development and Education.
Distinction between Training and Education
Training Education
Application oriented
Job experience
Specific Task in mind
Narrow Perspective
Training is Job Specific Theoretical Orientation
Classroom learning
Covers general concepts
Has Broad Perspective
Education is no bar
Training: Training refers to the process of imparting specific skills. An employee undergoing training is presumed to have had some formal education. No training program is complete without an element of education. Hence we can say that Training is offered to operatives.
Education: It is a theoretical learning in classrooms. The purpose of education is to teach theoretical concepts and develop a sense of reasoning and judgment. That any training and development program must contain an element of education is well understood by HR Specialists. Any such program has university professors as resource persons to enlighten participants about theoretical knowledge of the topics proposed to discuss. In fact organizations depute or encourage employees to do courses on part time basis. CEOs are known to attend refresher courses conducted by business schools. The education is more important for managers and executives rather than low cadre workers. Anyways education is common to all employees, their grades notwithstanding.
Development: Development means those learning opportunities designed to help employees to grow. Development is not primarily skills oriented. Instead it provides the general knowledge and attitudes, which will be helpful to employers in higher positions. Efforts towards development often depend on personal drive and ambition. Development activities such as those supplied by management development programs are generally voluntary in nature. Development provides knowledge about business environment, management principles and techniques, human relations, specific industry analysis and the like is useful for better management of a company.
Objectives of (MDP) Management Development Programs OR
Advantages of Development
1. Making them
• Self-starters
• Committed
• Motivated
• Result oriented
• Sensitive to environment
• Understand use of power
2. Creating self awareness
3. Develop inspiring leadership styles
4. Instill zest for excellence
5. Teach them about effective communication
6. To subordinate their functional loyalties to the interests of the organization
Difference between Training and Development
Training Development
Training is skills focused Development is creating learning abilities
Training is presumed to have a formal education Development is not education dependent
Training needs depend upon lack or deficiency in skills Development depends on personal drive and ambition
Trainings are generally need based Development is voluntary
Training is a narrower concept focused on job related skills Development is a broader concept focused on personality development
Training may not include development Development includes training wherever necessary
Training is aimed at improving job related efficiency and performance Development aims at overall personal effectiveness including job efficiencies
What are the Training Inputs?
• Skills
• Education
• Development
• Ethics
• Problem Solving Skills
• Decision Making
• Attitudinal Changes
Importance of Training & Development
• Helps remove performance deficiencies in employees
• Greater stability, flexibility and capacity for growth in an organization
• Accidents, scraps and damages to machinery can be avoided
• Serves as effective source of recruitment
• It is an investment in HR with a promise of better returns in future
• Reduces dissatisfaction, absenteeism, complaints and turnover of employees
Need of Training
Individual level
• Diagnosis of present problems and future challenges
• Improve individual performance or fix up performance deficiency
• Improve skills or knowledge or any other problem
• To anticipate future skill-needs and prepare employee to handle more challenging tasks
• To prepare for possible job transfers
Group level
• To face any change in organization strategy at group levels
• When new products and services are launched
• To avoid scraps and accident rates
Identification of Training Needs (Methods)
Individual Training Needs Identification
1. Performance Appraisals
2. Interviews
3. Questionnaires
4. Attitude Surveys
5. Training Progress Feedback
6. Work Sampling
7. Rating Scales
Group Level Training Needs Identification
1. Organizational Goals and Objectives
2. Personnel / Skills Inventories
3. Organizational Climate Indices
4. Efficiency Indices
5. Exit Interviews
6. MBO / Work Planning Systems
7. Quality Circles
8. Customer Satisfaction Survey
9. Analysis of Current and Anticipated Changes
Benefits of Training Needs Identification
1. Trainers can be informed about the broader needs in advance
2. Trainers Perception Gaps can be reduced between employees and their supervisorsTrainers can design course inputs closer to the specific needs of the participants
3. Diagnosis of causes of performance deficiencies can be done
Methods of Training
On the Job Trainings: These methods are generally applied on the workplace while employees is actually working. Following are the on-the-job methods.
Advantages of On-the-Job Training:
It is directly in the context of job
It is often informal
It is most effective because it is learning by experience
It is least expensive
Trainees are highly motivated
It is free from artificial classroom situations
Disadvantages of On-the-Job Training:
Trainer may not be experienced enough to train
It is not systematically organized
Poorly conducted programs may create safety hazards
On the Job Training Methods
1. Job Rotation: In this method, usually employees are put on different jobs turn by turn where they learn all sorts of jobs of various departments. The objective is to give a comprehensive awareness about the jobs of different departments. Advantage – employee gets to know how his own and other departments also function. Interdepartmental coordination can be improved, instills team spirit. Disadvantage – It may become too much for an employee to learn. It is not focused on employees own job responsibilities. Employees basic talents may remain under utilized.
2. Job Coaching: An experienced employee can give a verbal presentation to explain the nitty-gritty’s of the job.
3. Job Instruction: It may consist an instruction or directions to perform a particular task or a function. It may be in the form of orders or steps to perform a task.
4. Apprenticeships: Generally fresh graduates are put under the experienced employee to learn the functions of job.
5. Internships and Assistantships: An intern or an assistants are recruited to perform a specific time-bound jobs or projects during their education. It may consist a part of their educational courses.
Off the Job Trainings: These are used away from work places while employees are not working like classroom trainings, seminars etc. Following are the off-the-job methods;
Advantages of Off-the-Job Training:
Trainers are usually experienced enough to train
It is systematically organized
Efficiently created programs may add lot of value
Disadvantages of Off-the-Job Training:
It is not directly in the context of job
It is often formal
It is not based on experience
It is least expensive
Trainees may not be highly motivated
It is more artificial in nature
Off the Job Training Methods
1. Classroom Lectures: It is a verbal lecture presentation by an instructor to a large audience. Advantage – It can be used for large groups. Cost per trainee is low. Disadvantages – Low popularity. It is not learning by practice. It is One-way communication. No authentic feedback mechanism. Likely to boredom.
2. Audio-Visual: It can be done using Films, Televisions, Video, and Presentations etc. Advantages – Wide range of realistic examples, quality control possible,. Disadvantages – One-way communication, No feedback mechanism. No flexibility for different audience.
3. Simulation: creating a real life situation for decision-making and understanding the actual job conditions give it. Following are some of the simulation methods of trainings
a. Case Studies: It is a written description of an actual situation and trainer is supposed to analyze and give his conclusions in writing. The cases are generally based on actual organizational situations. It is an ideal method to promote decision-making abilities within the constraints of limited data. Role Plays: Here trainees assume the part of the specific personalities in a case study and enact it in front of the audience. It is more emotional orientation and improves interpersonal relationships. Attitudinal change is another result. These are generally used in MDP.
b. Sensitivity Trainings: This is more from the point of view of behavioral assessment, under different circumstances how an individual will behave himself and towards others. There is no preplanned agenda and it is instant. Advantages – increased ability to empathize, listening skills, openness, tolerance, and conflict resolution skills. Disadvantage – Participants may resort to their old habits after the training.
4. Programmed Instructions: Provided in the form of blocks either in book or a teaching machine using questions and Feedbacks without the intervention of trainer. Advantages – Self paced, trainees can progress at their own speed, strong motivation for repeat learning, material is structured and self-contained. Disadvantages – Scope for learning is less; cost of books, manuals or machinery is expensive.
5. Computer Aided Instructions: It is extension of PI method, by using computers. Advantages – Provides accountabilities, modifiable to technological innovations, flexible to time. Disadvantages – High cost.
6. Laboratory Training
Barriers to Effective Training:
1. Lack of Management commitment
2. Inadequate Training budget
3. Education degrees lack skills
4. Large scale poaching of trained staff
5. Non-coordination from workers due to downsizing trends
6. Employers and B Schools operating distantly
7. Unions influence
How To Make Training Effective?
1. Management Commitment
2. Training & Business Strategies Integration
3. Comprehensive and Systematic Approach
4. Continuous and Ongoing approach
5. Promoting Learning as Fundamental Value
6. Creations of effective training evaluation system
INDUCTION & ORIENATION
Definition 1: Planned Introduction
“It is a Planned Introduction of employees to their jobs, their co-workers and the organization per se.”
Orientation conveys 4 types of information:
1. Daily Work Routine
2. Organization Profile
3. Importance of Jobs to the organization
4. Detailed Orientation PresentationsPurpose of Orientation
1. To make new employees feel at home in new environment
2. To remove their anxiety about new workplace
3. To remove their inadequacies about new peers
4. To remove worries about their job performance
5. To provide them job information, environment
Types of Orientation Programs
1. Formal or Informal
2. Individual or Group
3. Serial or Disjunctive
Prerequisites of Effective Orientation Program
1. Prepare for receiving new employee
2. Determine information new employee wants to know
3. Determine how to present information
4. Completion of Paperwork
Problems of Orientations
1. Busy or Untrained supervisor
2. Too much information
3. Overloaded with paperwork
4. Given menial tasks and discourage interests
5. Demanding tasks where failure chances are high
6. Employee thrown into action soon
7. Wrong perceptions of employees
What is the difference between induction and orientation?
Induction referred to formal training programs that an employee had to complete before they could start work
Orientation was the informal information giving that made the recruit aware of the comfort issues - where the facilities are, what time lunch is and so forth.How long should the induction process take?
It starts when the job ad is written, continues through the selection process and is not complete until the new team member is comfortable as a full contributor to the organization's goals.
The first hour on day one is a critical component - signing on, issuing keys and passwords, explaining no go zones, emergency procedures, meeting the people that you will interact with all have to be done immediately. Until they are done the newcomer is on the payroll, but is not employed.
After that it is a matter of just in time training - expanding the content as new duties are undertaken.
We only employ new people one at a time - how can we induct them?
There are some issues, which cannot wait - they vary according to your situation. Perhaps a buddy system on the job may be the best way to deal with these. Other subjects may be incorporated with refresher training for current staff, or handled as participant in an outside program. Perhaps some can wait until there are groups of people who have started in the last few months.
This may take some creative thinking, but the answer is quite simple - until the new people are integrated then they are less useful. The math is often amazingly simple - not taking the time to train consumes more time than the training would.
What levels of staff need induction?
Everybody. The CEO needs to know different things to the temporary concierge, but everyone needs a planned program of induction and orientation.
PLACEMENT
Placement is allocation of people to jobs. It is assignment or reassignment of an employee to a new or different job.
MULTI SKILLING
Multi Skilling is The Integrated Skills Program that has been developed to build on the existing skills of the current work force to reduce redundancies and avoid downsizing situations. The objective of this program is to gain total integration of skills.
The program is based around ‘on-the-job’ & ‘off-the-job’ competence. That is the ability to do the job on the shop floor (training to gain work experience) and ‘off-the-job’ (training in the classroom) to gain underpinning knowledge.
The program requires the individual to demonstrate competence in a number of different skills and this competence is measured and assessed on the job.Multi-skilling of course works best with more advanced skilled workers because their individual skills levels are developed enough where they can fluidly transition from one skill to the next without degradation of a skills performance. If you are multi-skilling and a great percentage of your workers are having problems executing one of the skills effectively it is probably a good signal you need to go back to basics with that skill and pull it out of the multi-skilling sequences. Another advantage of multi-skilling is the positive effect of what is called "contextual learning". Contextual learning involves discovery and improvement from two skills, which don't, on the surface, appear to have a direct relationship.The disadvantages of multi-skilling include the obvious danger of moving on to quickly toward advanced skills and combinations without sufficiently drilling basic skills. While there is a great desire to learn quickly I think this is one of the reason we are seeing better skilled from some of the best workers. The consequence is that we become "partially skilled". The greater the number of partial skills we develop, the less chance we ever have of reaching our full potential.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Change vis-à-vis
Recruitment
Performance Appraisals
Meaning of Change:
Alterations in –People, Structure and Technology
External Forces of Change:
Marketplace
Labor markets
Economic Changes
Technology
Laws and Regulations
Internal Forces of Change
Corporate Strategies
Workplace
Technology and Equipments
Employee Attitudes
Change Agents: (Who can bring about change?)
Managers
External Consultants
Staff Specialists
Process of Change (Lewins steps)
Unfreezing
Changing
Refreezing
White water rapids metaphor
Lack of Stability
Lack of Predictability
Virtual Chaos
Constant Change
Resistance to Change
Uncertainty and Ambiguity
Personal Loss Concerns
Disbelief in Change benefits
Techniques of Reducing Resistance to Change
Education and Communication
Negotiation
Manipulation and Co-optation
Participation
Facilitation
Coercion
Change Management
Structural Changes Technological Changes People Changes
Authority
Coordination
Centralization Processes
Methods
Equipments Attitudes
Expectations
Behaviors
Organizational Development Techniques
Survey Feedback
Sensitivity Training
Process Consultation
Team Building
Inter-group Development
Conditions Facilitating Change
Dramatic Crisis
Leadership Change
Weak Culture
Young and Small Organization (ageing)
The Road to Change in Culture
Analyze the culture
Need for change
New leadership
Reorganize
Restructure
New stories and rituals
Change the job systems
TQM V/s. Reengineering
TQM (Total Quality Management) Re engineering
Continuous Change
Fixing and Improving
Mostly focused on ‘As-Is’
Systems indispensable
Bottom to Top Radical and One time Change
Redesigning
Mostly focused on ‘what can be?’
Top to Bottom
Managing Downsized Workforce
Open and honest communication
Assistance to them
Help for survivors of the downsized
Stress in Workplace
Opportunities stress
Demands stress
Constraints stress
How to reduce workplace stress
Employee selection
Organizational communication
Performance Planning
Job redesign especially when processes change, jobs merged, and relocation happens
Employee counseling
Time management programs
What is creativity?
Combining new ideas in unique ways or associating ideas in unusual ways
What is innovation?
Turning creative ideas into useful products, services or methods of operations
3 Sets of variable simulate innovation
Structural Changes
Cultural Changes
Human Resources Changes
Change Defined
"Change is the window through which the future enters your life." It's all around you, in many types and shapes. You can bring it about yourself or it can come in ways
Why Change Management?
You can bring the change about yourself or it can come in ways that give you little choice about its what, when, and how. Fighting against change can slow it down or divert it, but it won't stop it however. If you wish to succeed in this rapidly changing new world "you must learn to look on change as a friend - one who presents you with an opportunity for growth and improvement."9
The rate of change in today's world is constantly increasing. Everything that exists is getting old, wearing out and should be replaced. "Revolutionary technologies, consolidation, well-funded new competition, unpredictable customers, and a quickening in the pace of change hurled unfamiliar conditions at management."7
True success and long-term prosperity in the new world depends on your ability to adapt to different and constantly changing conditions. The strategic selection of the best strategic positioning in the playing field, or the Business Space, your firm must take is complicated by the fact that the characteristics of the Business Space change over time. Today, the world is a different place than it was yesterday. "At certain points, the difference becomes material. Successful firms recognize change. Very successful ones anticipate it."8Evolutionary (Planned) Change versus Revolutionary Action
How you change a business unit to adapt to shifting economy and markets is a matter of management style. Evolutionary change, that involves setting direction, allocating responsibilities, and establishing reasonable timelines for achieving objectives, is relatively painless. However, it is rarely fast enough or comprehensive enough to move ahead of the curve in an evolving world where stakes are high, and the response time is short. When faced with market-driven urgency, abrupt and sometimes disruptive change, such as dramatic downsizing or reengineering, may be required to keep the company competitive. In situations when timing is critical to success, and companies must get more efficient and productive rapidly, revolutionary change is demanded.
When choosing between evolutionary change and revolutionary action, a leader must pursue a balanced and pragmatic approach. Swinging too far to revolutionary extreme may create "an organizational culture that is so impatient, and so focused on change, that it fails to give new initiatives and new personnel time to take root, stabilize, and grow. What's more, it creates a high-tension environment that intimidates rather than nurtures people, leaving them with little or no emotional investment in the company."4
Resistance to Change
Most people don't like change because they don't like being changed. "If you want to make enemies, try to change something", advised Woodrow Wilson. When seeking to change an organization, it's strategy or processes, leaders run into Newton's law that a body at rest tends to stay at rest. Advocates for change are greeted with suspicion, anger, resistance, and even sabotage.4 "Not invented here" syndrome also keeps many sound ideas from gaining the objective assessment they deserve...More
Today's World Realities
The magnitude of today's environmental, competitive, and global market change is unprecedented. It's a very interesting and exciting world, but it's also volatile and chaotic:
• Volatility describes the economy's rate of change: extremely fast, with explosive upsurges and sudden downturns.
• Chaos describes the direction of the economy's changes: we're not sure exactly where we're headed, but we are swinging between the various alternatives at a very high speed.6
To cope with an unpredictable world you must build an enormous amount of flexibility into your organization. While you cannot predict the future, you can get a handle on trends, which is a way to take advantage of change and convert risks into opportunities.
Creating Change for Improvement and Competitive Advantage
Change creates opportunities, but only for those who recognize and seize it. "Seeing is the first step, seizing the second, and continuously innovating is the third."5 Innovation redefines growth opportunities. As current products are becoming obsolete faster than ever, in order to survive and prosper, organizations continually need to improve, innovate and modify their products and services. The Silicon Valley slogan "Eat lunch and you are lunch" is more than a reflection of increasingly intense work ethic. Riding the wave of change is becoming the most important part of the business. While the economy is shifting and innovation is rampant, "doing it the same way" is a recipe for corporate extinction.1
Successful change efforts are those where the choices both are internally consistent and fit key external and situational variables. "You have to find subtle ways to introduce change, new concepts, and give feedback to people so that they can accept and grow with it."4
Anticipating Change
There is big difference between anticipating and guessing. Anticipation means expecting, being aware of something in advance, to regard it as possible. The ability to anticipate is one of the key ingredients of efficient speed and change management. "Being able to anticipate that which is likely to occur in the next few months and the next few years is enough to give you an edge over 99% of the population who simply go along with whatever happens."7
How can you see the future? Actually, anticipation is natural - everyone does it every day. Unfortunately, most people limit exercising their anticipatory skills to daily routine matters. All you really need to start applying these skills for your business is a small head start...More
Starting with Yourself
The best place to start change is with yourself. If whatever you do doesn't work, you must be flexible - you must change your action plan if the current one does not produce the required results. If you want other people to change, you must be prepared to make the first step yourself. If you cannot change your environment, you should change your attitude. To achieve effective personal change, consider practicing the NLP Technology of Achievement that was specially developed to discover how people can excel, and most particularly when managing change - how to create the 'difference that makes the difference'...More
Leading ChangeThe old ways of management no longer work and will never work again. Successful change requires leadership. When change fails to occur as planned, the cause if often to be found at a deeper level, rooted in the inappropriate behavior, beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions of would-be leaders.6 Leadership is all about the process of change: how to stay ahead of it, master it, benefit from the opportunities it brings. The best leaders strike first by taking the offensive against economic cycles, market trends, and competitors. They discover the most effective ways for achieving significant change - "a change that identifies the realities of the business environment and reorders them so that a new force is able to leverage, rather than resist, those realities in order to achieve a competitive advantage."4
The following system will help you to unleash the power of your organization and reshape it into a more competitive enterprise:
• Develop a vision. To create a seamless bridge from the vision to action, start with your top management team - they should understand and embrace your vision.
• Align all your people against the endgame. Invite their opinion regarding critical issues such as the direction you should be headed, the changes you have to make, and the resources you have to acquire.
• Using the employee feedback, develop a strategic plan. Stay laser-focused on the methods that will drive your business unit towards its stated objectives.
• Build a diverse leadership group representing all the key constituencies of your organization. They will share responsibility for plan management.
• Share detail information about the company and the change progress - people have to understand where you are and where you are going in order to contribute effectively to your mission.Managing Organizational Change
Success in business doesn't come from feeling comfortable. In today's technology-driven world, business life cycles have accelerated exponentially. The challenge is to keep a step ahead of changing market conditions, new technologies and human resources issues.
The wheel of business evolution is a framework and set of tools, which enables you to manage the complex process of organizational change and transformation more effectively. The sequence of the eight segments - business environment, business ecosystem, business design, leadership style, organizational values, management process, knowledge management systems, and performance measures - reflects the learning cycle that occurs when outside-in or bottom-up learning takes place.Behavioral Change
The challenge and the shape of an organization's behavioral change program depend on the corporate culture and the targeted behaviors that need to be changed. Your change program needs to be explicitly built around these challenges. "Very often, these programs involve the creation of incentives which elegantly reinforce the desired behavior (and therein reinforce the change loop in the learning dynamic)."8...Motivating Employees to Embrace Change
You have a choice of instruments to motivate your people to embrace change. Performance-incentive levers are especially useful in driving those who lack direction or initiative. You may also encourage employee feedback on where and how the company can take corrective action and reward employees for their contribution. In any case, "once you open the gates and encourage employees to serve as agents of change, you must demonstrate that their input will have a real-world impact on the way your company does business."4
On the other side, you have to be rather aggressive when dealing with people who view change as a threat and create roadblocks that stall progress. Anyone who thinks that it's harmless to make exceptions for a few people and shift resources to accommodate poor performers is missing an important point. "It's not a few people who are at stake, it's the corporate culture", says Miles Greer, of Savannah Electric. "By permitting those who resist or retaliate against change to remain in the company, you broadcast a message that suggests supporting the company's mission statement is optional. Even worse, you permit the least-committed employees to taint and influence the attitude and performance of their peers."
Moving with Speed
In the new economy where everything is moving faster and it's only going to get faster, the new mantra is, "Do it more with less and do it faster."1 To be able to move with speed, companies need to establish a change-friendly environment and develop four major competencies: fast thinking, fast decision making, fast acting, and sustaining speed.
Making Quick Decisions through Establishing Guiding Principles
Fast companies that have demonstrated the ability to sustain surge and velocity all have established sets of guiding principles to help them make quick decisions. Abandoning theoretical and politically correct 'values' and bureaucratic procedures in favor of a practical, down-to-earth list of guiding principles will help your company make the decision-making process much faster. Only one question will need to be asked of any proposed course of action: Does it fit our guiding principles?
PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS
Definition 1: Systematic Evaluation
“It is a systematic evaluation of an individual with respect to performance on the job and individual’s potential for development.”
Definition 2: Formal System, Reasons and Measures of future performance
“It is formal, structured system of measuring, evaluating job related behaviors and outcomes to discover reasons of performance and how to perform effectively in future so that employee, organization and society all benefits.”
Meaning of Performance Appraisals
Performance Appraisals is the assessment of individual’s performance in a systematic way. It is a developmental tool used for all round development of the employee and the organization. The performance is measured against such factors as job knowledge, quality and quantity of output, initiative, leadership abilities, supervision, dependability, co-operation, judgment, versatility and health. Assessment should be confined to past as well as potential performance also. The second definition is more focused on behaviors as a part of assessment because behaviors do affect job results.
Performance Appraisals and Job Analysis Relationship
Job Analysis Performance Standards Performance Appraisals
Describe the work and personnel requirement of a particular job. Translate job requirements into levels of acceptable or unacceptable performance Describe the job relevant strengths and weaknesses of each individual.
Objectives of Performance Appraisals
Use of Performance Appraisals
1. Promotions
2. Confirmations
3. Training and Development
4. Compensation reviews
5. Competency building
6. Improve communication
7. Evaluation of HR Programs
8. Feedback & Grievances
4 Goals of Performance Appraisals
General Goals Specific Goals
Developmental Use Individual needs
Performance feedback
Transfers and Placements
Strengths and Development needs
Administrative Decisions / Uses Salary
Promotion
Retention / Termination
Recognition
Lay offs
Poor Performers identification
Organizational Maintenance HR Planning
Training Needs
Organizational Goal achievements
Goal Identification
HR Systems Evaluation
Reinforcement of organizational needs
Documentation Validation Research
For HR Decisions
Legal Requirements
Performance Appraisal Process
1. Objectives definition of appraisal
2. Job expectations establishment
3. Design an appraisal program
4. Appraise the performance
5. Performance Interviews
6. Use data for appropriate purposes
7. Identify opportunities variables
8. Using social processes, physical processes, human and computer assistance
Difference between Traditional and Modern (Systems) approach to Appraisals
Categories Traditional Appraisals Modern, Systems Appraisals
Guiding Values Individualistic, Control oriented, Documentary Systematic, Developmental, Problem solving
Leadership Styles Directional, Evaluative Facilitative, Coaching
Frequency Occasional Frequent
Formalities High Low
Rewards Individualistic Grouped, Organizational
TECHNIQUES / METHODS OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS
Numerous methods have been devised to measure the quantity and quality of performance appraisals. Each of the methods is effective for some purposes for some organizations only. None should be dismissed or accepted as appropriate except as they relate to the particular needs of the organization or an employee.
Broadly all methods of appraisals can be divided into two different categories.
• Past Oriented Methods
• Future Oriented Methods
Past Oriented Methods
1. Rating Scales: Rating scales consists of several numerical scales representing job related performance criterions such as dependability, initiative, output, attendance, attitude etc. Each scales ranges from excellent to poor. The total numerical scores are computed and final conclusions are derived. Advantages – Adaptability, easy to use, low cost, every type of job can be evaluated, large number of employees covered, no formal training required. Disadvantages – Rater’s biases
2. Checklist: Under this method, checklist of statements of traits of employee in the form of Yes or No based questions is prepared. Here the rater only does the reporting or checking and HR department does the actual evaluation. Advantages – economy, ease of administration, limited training required, standardization. Disadvantages – Raters biases, use of improper weighs by HR, does not allow rater to give relative ratings
3. Forced Choice Method: The series of statements arranged in the blocks of two or more are given and the rater indicates which statement is true or false. The rater is forced to make a choice. HR department does actual assessment. Advantages – Absence of personal biases because of forced choice. Disadvantages – Statements may be wrongly framed.
4. Forced Distribution Method: here employees are clustered around a high point on a rating scale. Rater is compelled to distribute the employees on all points on the scale. It is assumed that the performance is conformed to normal distribution. Advantages – Eliminates Disadvantages – Assumption of normal distribution, unrealistic, errors of central tendency.
5. Critical Incidents Method: The approach is focused on certain critical behaviors of employee that makes all the difference in the performance. Supervisors as and when they occur record such incidents. Advantages – Evaluations are based on actual job behaviors, ratings are supported by descriptions, feedback is easy, reduces recency biases, chances of subordinate improvement are high. Disadvantages – Negative incidents can be prioritized, forgetting incidents, overly close supervision; feedback may be too much and may appear to be punishment.
6. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales: statements of effective and ineffective behaviors determine the points. They are said to be behaviorally anchored. The rater is supposed to say, which behavior describes the employee performance. Advantages – helps overcome rating errors. Disadvantages – Suffers from distortions inherent in most rating techniques.
7. Field Review Method: This is an appraisal done by someone outside employees’ own department usually from corporate or HR department. Advantages – Useful for managerial level promotions, when comparable information is needed, Disadvantages – Outsider is generally not familiar with employees work environment, Observation of actual behaviors not possible.
8. Performance Tests & Observations: This is based on the test of knowledge or skills. The tests may be written or an actual presentation of skills. Tests must be reliable and validated to be useful. Advantage – Tests may be apt to measure potential more than actual performance. Disadvantages – Tests may suffer if costs of test development or administration are high.
9. Confidential Records: Mostly used by government departments, however its application in industry is not ruled out. Here the report is given in the form of Annual Confidentiality Report (ACR) and may record ratings with respect to following items; attendance, self expression, team work, leadership, initiative, technical ability, reasoning ability, originality and resourcefulness etc. The system is highly secretive and confidential. Feedback to the assessee is given only in case of an adverse entry. Disadvantage is that it is highly subjective and ratings can be manipulated because the evaluations are linked to HR actions like promotions etc.
10. Essay Method: In this method the rater writes down the employee description in detail within a number of broad categories like, overall impression of performance, promoteability of employee, existing capabilities and qualifications of performing jobs, strengths and weaknesses and training needs of the employee. Advantage – It is extremely useful in filing information gaps about the employees that often occur in a better-structured checklist. Disadvantages – It its highly dependent upon the writing skills of rater and most of them are not good writers. They may get confused success depends on the memory power of raters.
11. Cost Accounting Method: Here performance is evaluated from the monetary returns yields to his or her organization. Cost to keep employee, and benefit the organization derives is ascertained. Hence it is more dependent upon cost and benefit analysis.
12. Comparative Evaluation Method (Ranking & Paired Comparisons): These are collection of different methods that compare performance with that of other co-workers. The usual techniques used may be ranking methods and paired comparison method.
• Ranking Methods: Superior ranks his worker based on merit, from best to worst. However how best and why best are not elaborated in this method. It is easy to administer and explanation.
• Paired Comparison Methods: In this method each employee is rated with another employee in the form of pairs. The number of comparisons may be calculated with the help of a formula as under.
N x (N-1) / 2
Future Oriented Methods
1. Management By Objectives: It means management by objectives and the performance is rated against the achievement of objectives stated by the management. MBO process goes as under.
• Establish goals and desired outcomes for each subordinate
• Setting performance standards
• Comparison of actual goals with goals attained by the employee
• Establish new goals and new strategies for goals not achieved in previous year.
Advantage – It is more useful for managerial positions.
Disadvantages – Not applicable to all jobs, allocation of merit pay may result in setting short-term goals rather than important and long-term goals etc.
2. Psychological Appraisals: These appraisals are more directed to assess employees potential for future performance rather than the past one. It is done in the form of in-depth interviews, psychological tests, and discussion with supervisors and review of other evaluations. It is more focused on employees emotional, intellectual, and motivational and other personal characteristics affecting his performance. This approach is slow and costly and may be useful for bright young members who may have considerable potential. However quality of these appraisals largely depend upon the skills of psychologists who perform the evaluation.
3. Assessment Centers: This technique was first developed in USA and UK in 1943. An assessment center is a central location where managers may come together to have their participation in job related exercises evaluated by trained observers. It is more focused on observation of behaviors across a series of select exercises or work samples. Assessees are requested to participate in in-basket exercises, work groups, computer simulations, role playing and other similar activities which require same attributes for successful performance in actual job. The characteristics assessed in assessment center can be assertiveness, persuasive ability, communicating ability, planning and organizational ability, self confidence, resistance to stress, energy level, decision making, sensitivity to feelings, administrative ability, creativity and mental alertness etc. Disadvantages – Costs of employees traveling and lodging, psychologists, ratings strongly influenced by assessee’s inter-personal skills. Solid performers may feel suffocated in simulated situations. Those who are not selected for this also may get affected.
Advantages – well-conducted assessment center can achieve better forecasts of future performance and progress than other methods of appraisals. Also reliability, content validity and predictive ability are said to be high in assessment centers. The tests also make sure that the wrong people are not hired or promoted. Finally it clearly defines the criteria for selection and promotion.
4. 360-Degree Feedback: It is a technique which is systematic collection of performance data on an individual group, derived from a number of stakeholders like immediate supervisors, team members, customers, peers and self. In fact anyone who has useful information on how an employee does a job may be one of the appraisers. This technique is highly useful in terms of broader perspective, greater self-development and multi-source feedback is useful. 360-degree appraisals are useful to measure inter-personal skills, customer satisfaction and team building skills. However on the negative side, receiving feedback from multiple sources can be intimidating, threatening etc. Multiple raters may be less adept at providing balanced and objective feedback.
Ethics of Performance Appraisals / Legally defensible Performance Appraisals
Ethics of Procedures
1. Formal Standardized Performance Appraisal Systems
2. Uniform to all employees, no illegal differentiations based on cast, religion etc.
3. Standards formally communicated to all employees
4. Freedom to review performance appraisal results
5. Formal appeal process about ratings and judgments
6. Written instructions and training to raters
7. All personal decision makers should be aware of anti-discrimination laws.
Ethics of Contents
1. Content based on job analysis
2. Traits based appraisals should be avoided
3. Objectively verifiable data should be used
4. Constraints on performance beyond control should be prevented
5. Specific job related dimensions to be used rather than single or global dimensions.
6. Dimensions must be assigned weight to reflect relative importance in performance score
Ethics of Documentation of Results
1. A thoroughly written record of evidence leading to termination should be maintained
2. Written documentation of extreme ratings should be maintained
3. Documentation should be consistent among the raters.
Ethics of Raters
1. The raters should be trained in how to use an appraisal system
2. The rater must have opportunity to observe ratees first hand and review important ratee performance products.
3. Use of more than one rater is desirable to reduce biases.
Organizational Support Factors for Performance Appraisal Systems
Performance appraisal serves many organizational objectives and goals. Besides encouraging high level of performance, the evaluation system is useful in identifying employees with potential, rewarding them equitably, and determining employee needs for development. All these activities are instrumental in achieving corporate plans and long-term growth, typical appraisal system in most organizations have been focused on short-term goals only.
From the strategic management point of views, organizations can be grouped under 3 different categories as defenders, prospectors and analyzers.
Defenders: They have narrow and stable product market domain. They don’t need to make any adjustment in technology, structure or methods of operations etc. They devote entire attention on improving existing operations. Because of emphasis on skill building successful defenders use appraisals as means for identifying training needs. It is more behavior oriented.
Prospectors: They continuously search for new products and opportunities. They experiment regularly to new and emerging trends. They more focus on skills identification and acquisition of human resources from external sources prospectors often use appraisals for identifying staffing needs. The focus is on results.
Analyzers: They operate in two type of product domain markets. One is stable and other is changing. They watch their competitors closely and rapidly adopt the ideas that are promising. They use cost effective technologies for stable products and matrix technologies for new products. Analyzers tend to emphasize on skills building and skills acquisitions and employ extensive training programs. Hence they use appraisal more for training and staffing purposes.
However performance appraisal systems has strategic importance in three different ways.
Feedback Mechanism: Performance evaluation is the central mechanism that not only provides feedback to individuals but also aids in the assessment of the progress of organization as a whole. Without appraisals managers of any firm can only guess as to whether or not employees are working towards realization of the organization goals.
Consistency between strategy and job behavior: Performance appraisal not only is a means of knowing if the employee behavior is consistent with the overall strategies focus but also a way of bringing to the fore any negative consequence of the strategy – behavior fit. Thus the performance appraisal system is an important mechanism to elicit feedback on the consistency of the strategy – behavior link.
Consistency between Values and Job Behavior link: Performance evaluation is a mechanism to reinforce values and culture of the organization. Another importance is to align appraisal with organizational culture.
Thus the purpose of performance evaluation is to make sure that employee’s goals, employees behavior and feedback of information about performance are all linked to the corporate strategy.
Essentials of a Good Performance Appraisal System:
1. Standardized Performance Appraisal System
2. Uniformity of appraisals
3. Defined performance standards
4. Trained Raters
5. Use of relevant rating tools or methods
6. Should be based on job analysis
7. Use of objectively verifiable data
8. Avoid rating problems like halo effect, central tendency, leniency, severity etc.
9. Consistent Documentations maintained
10. No room for discrimination based on cast, creed, race, religion, region etc.
Problems of Rating:
1. Leniency & Severity
2. Central Tendency
3. Halo Error
4. Rater Effect
5. Primacy & Recency Effect
6. Perceptual Sets
7. Performance Dimensions Order
8. Spillover Effects
9. Status Effect
INCENTIVES BASED COMPENSATION
Incentives are monetary benefits paid to workmen in recognition of their outstanding performance. They are defined as variable rewards granted according to variations in the achievement of specific results.
Advantages of Incentive based compensations
1. Incentives are important for inducement and motivation of workers for higher efficiency and greater output.
2. Employee earnings go up
3. Enhanced standard of livings of employees
4. Reduction in total unit cost of production,
5. Productivity increases.
6. Production capacity is also likely to increase
7. Reduced supervision
Disadvantages of Incentive based compensation
1. Tendency of quality of products deteriorated due to increased output and low cost
2. Employees may oppose introduction of new machines
3. Workers demand for minimum wage limit may go up due to high incentive earnings
4. Sometimes employees may disregard security regulations due to payment by results approach adopted for higher incentive figures
5. Overworking may affect employee health
6. Employee jealousies with respect to high and low performers
HUMAN RESOURCE AUDIT
Nature of HR Audit
HR Audit is a tool for evaluating the personnel activities of an organization. The audit may include one division or entire company. It gives feedback about HR functions to operating managers and HR specialists. It also shows how well managers are meeting HR duties.
In short HR audit is an overall control check on HR activities in a division or a company and evaluation of how these activities support organization’s strategy.
Basis of HR Audit
(Personnel Research)
1. Wage Surveys
2. Recruitment Sources effectiveness
3. Training efforts effectiveness
4. Supervisor’s effectiveness
5. Industrial settlements
6. Job Analysis
7. Job Satisfaction Survey
8. Employee needs survey
9. Attitude Surveys
10. High accident frequency surveys
Benefits of HR Audit
1. Identification of contributions of HR department
2. Improvement of professional image of HR department
3. Encouragement of greater responsibility and professionalism among HR members
4. Clarification of HR duties and responsibilities
5. Stimulation of uniformity of HR policies and practices
6. Finding critical personnel problems
7. Ensuring timely compliance with legal requirements
8. Reduction of HR costs through more effective personnel procedures
9. Creation of increased acceptance of changes in HR department
10. A thorough review of HR information systems
Scope and Types of HR Audit
HR Audit must cover the activities of the department and extend beyond because the people problems are not confined to HR department alone. Based on this HR audit can be spread across following four different categories.
• Human Resource Function Audit
• Managerial Compliance Audit
• Human Resource Climate Audit
Employee Turnover
Absenteeism
Accidents
Attitude Surveys
• HR - Corporate Strategy Audit
Approaches to HR Audit
1. Comparative Approach (Benchmarking with another company)
2. Outside Authority Approach (Outside consultants’ standards)
3. Statistical Approach (Statistical measures and tools)
4. Compliance Approach (Legal and company policies)
5. Management By Objectives Approach (Goals & Objectives based)
MOTIVATION THEORIES
Performance is a function of ability and motivation. P = f (A x M)
Definition 1: Choices among voluntary activities
A process governing choices made by persons or lower organisms among alternative forms of voluntary activity
Definition 2: Arouse enthusiasm to pursue
A result of internal and external processes to the individual that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action
Definition 3: Need that activates behavior
A process that starts with a physiological deficiency or need that activates behavior or a drive that is aimed at a goal or an incentive.
Meaning of Motivation
Motivation is a set of forces that cause people to behave in certain ways.
Motivation Process (6 Steps)
1. Individual Needs
2. Search for ways to satisfy needs
3. Goal & Objectives directed
4. Increased performance
5. Receiving rewards or punishment
6. Reassessment of needs
Criticality of Motivation to Managers
Importance of Motivation
• Motivation helps employees find new ways of doing a job
• Motivation makes employees quality conscious
• Motivation increases productivity very high
• Motivation stimulates both participation and production at work
• Motivation comprehends jobs related behaviors
• Motivation increases attention towards human resources along with physical resources
Challenges of Motivation
• Diverse and changing workforce
• Rightsizing, Downsizing, Hire-n-Fire, Pay-for-Performance strategies
• Motives can only be inferred, not seen
• Dynamic nature of human needs
Objectives of Motivation
High productivity
Increase quality consciousness
Stimulate participation at work
Theories of Motivation
Early Theories
Scientific Management: Motivation by scientific management is associated with F.W. Taylor’s techniques of scientific management. Taylor said that people are primarily motivated by economic rewards and will take direction if offered an opportunity to improve their economic positions. Based on this Taylor described following arguments
• Physical work could be scientifically studied to determine optimal method of performance of a job
• Workers could be more efficient by telling them how they were to do a job
• Workers would accept the above prescription if paid on differentiated piecework basis
• Disadvantages – Dehumanized workers, treated them as mere factors of production, only stressed on monetary needs, ignored human needs
Human Relations Model: Elton Mayo’s human relations model stressed on social contacts as motivational factor. Greater importance was given to informal groups. However too much reliance on social contacts to improve productivity was a major drawback.
Contemporary Theories
Content Theories (Maslow’s Need Hierarchy, Herzberg’s 2-factors, Alderfer’s ERG, Achievement Motivation Theory)
Process Theories (Vroom’s expectancy, Adam’s Equity, Porter’s Performance and Satisfaction Model)
Reinforcement categories
ERG Theory (Alderfer): Existence – Relatedness – Growth
ERG theory emphasizes more on three broad needs that is existence, relatedness and growth. Its hypothesis is that there may be more than one need operating at the same time. ERG theory further states that when a higher level need is frustrating, the individual’s desire to increase lower level needs takes place. Thus ERG theory contains frustration-regression dimension. Frustration at higher level need may lead to regression at lower level need.
Advantages – More consistent with our knowledge of differences among people, it is less restrictive and limiting, it is a valid version of need hierarchy.
Disadvantages – No clear-cut guideline of individual behavior patterns, too early to pass a judgment on the overall validity of the theory.
Two-Factor Theory (Herzberg)
Fredrick Herzberg states that the motivation concept is generally driven by two factors of motivators of job satisfactions and hygiene factors about job dissatisfaction. Motivators are generally achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth, which are related to job satisfaction. Hygiene factors deal with external factors like company policy, supervision, administration and working conditions, salary, status, security and interpersonal relations. These factors are known as hygiene factors or job dissatisfiers, job context factors.
Advantages – tremendous impact on stimulating thought on motivation at work, increased understanding of role of motivation, specific attention to improve motivational levels, job design technique of job enrichment is contribution of herzberg, double dimensions of two factors are easy to interpret and understand.
Disadvantages – Limited by its methodology, reliability questioned, it focuses more on job satisfaction not on motivation, no overall measure of satisfaction utilized, inconsistent with previous research, productivity factor ignored.
MORALE
Definition 1: Mental condition, attitude, willingness
Morale is a mental condition or attitude of individual and groups, which determines their willingness to co-operate.
Definition 2: Attitudes, voluntary cooperation
Morale is attitudes of individuals and groups towards their work environment and towards voluntary cooperation to the full extent of their ability in the best possible interest of the organization.
Distinction between Morale and Motivation: -
Morale Motivation
1. Composite of feelings, attitudes and sentiments that contribute towards general satisfaction at workplace.
2. A Function of freedom or restraint towards some goal.
3. It mobilizes sentiments.
4. Morale reflects Motivation. 1. Motivation moves person to action.
2. A Process of stimulating individuals into action to accomplish desired goals.
3. A Function of drives and needs.
4. It mobilizes energy.
5. Motivation is a potential to develop morale.
Importance of Morale as a Responsibility of Management
• Organization Climate: Morale is an important part of organization climate.
• Attitudes & Sentiments: Morale reflects attitudes and sentiments towards organization goals and objectives.
• Productivity: Morale highly affects productivity and satisfaction of individuals.
• Total Satisfaction: Morale is total satisfaction derived from employees job, boss and his organization.
• Labor Problems Solved: High morale assists managers to overcome several labor problems like labor turnover, absenteeism, indiscipline, grievances, disharmony etc.
• Cooperation: Morale helps to seek cooperation from the workers in getting higher production at minimum possible cost by reducing wastages of time, man, machines and materials.
• Production & Productivity: Production and productivity are directly affected by high morale in a positive manner.
PERSONNEL POLICIES
Meaning of Personnel Policy
A Policy is a Plan of Action. It is a statement of intentions committing the management to a general course of action. A Policy may contain philosophy and principles as well. However a policy statement is more specific and commits the management to a definite course of action.
Hence Personnel policy is a plan of action to be implemented by HR department towards the organization and employees. A personnel policy spells out basic needs of the employees. Through personnel policy the personnel department ensure a consistent treatment to all personnel by minimizing favoritism and discrimination. Personnel policy serves as a standard of performance for all employees. Sound personnel policies help build employee motivation and loyalty. And this happens when personnel policies reflect fair play and justice and help people grow within the organization. Personnel policies are also plans of action to resolve intra-personal, inter-personal and inter-group conflicts.
Importance of Personnel Policy
Personnel policy is very important for an organization since it gives several benefits for managing your human resources effectively. In the light of these benefits listed below we would be able to understand the relative importance of Personnel policy.
• Basic Needs: Personnel policy helps the management to think deeply about basic needs of organization and the employees.
• Consistent Treatment: Personnel policies ensure consistent treatment of all personnel throughout the organization.
• Minimize Favoritism: Personnel policies help minimize favoritism and discrimination
• Continuous action: Personnel policies ensure continuous action even if top management is changed. These policies promote stability.
• Standard of Performance: Personnel policies serve as a standard of performance.
• Motivation & Loyalty: Personnel policies help build employee motivation and loyalty.
• Fair Play & Justice: Personnel policies reflect established principles of fair play and justice.
• Growth: Personnel policies help people grow within the organization.
WORKERS’ PARTICIPATION IN MANAGEMENT
Broadly, worker’s participation in management means associating representatives of workers at every stage of decision-making. Participative management is considered as a process by which the worker’s share in decision-making extends beyond the decisions that are implicit in the specific content of the jobs they do. This amounts to the workers having a share in the reaching of final managerial decisions in an enterprise.
Definition 1: Association of Workers in decision-making process
Workers’ participation may be taken to cover all terms of association of workers and their representatives with the decision-making process, ranging from exchange of information, consultations, decisions and negotiations to more institutionalized forms such as the presence of the workers’ members on management or supervisory boards or even management by workers themselves.
Scope of workers’ participation
Scope of workers participation ranges over three managerial decision-making stages.
Social Decisions: Hours of work, welfare measures, work rules, safety, health, sanitation and noise control.
Personnel Decisions: Recruitment and selection, promotions and transfers, grievance settlements, work distribution
Economic Decisions: Methods of manufacturing, automation, lay offs, shut-downs, mergers and acquisitions and other financial aspects.
Methods of Workers’ Participation in Management
1. Board Level
2. Ownership
3. Complete Control
4. Staff Councils
5. Joint Councils
6. Collective Bargaining
7. Job Enlargement and Enrichment
8. Suggestion Schemes
9. Quality Circles
10. Empowered Teams
11. Total Quality Management
12. Financial Participation
Prerequisites of Successful Participation
1. Clearly defined and complementary Objectives
2. Free flow of information and communication
3. Representatives of workers from workers themselves
4. Outside trade union participation should be avoided
5. Workers’ education and training
6. No threat by participation
7. Association at all levels of decision-making
Benefits of Participation
1. Gives identity to an employee
2. Motivates employee
3. Self-esteem, job satisfaction and cooperation improves
4. Reduced conflicts and stress
5. More commitment to goals
6. Less resistance to change
7. Less labor problems
8. Better quality suggestions expected
UNIONS
Employee associations are popularly known as unions. However these unions are not confined to only strikes and negotiations. Their role is much wider than this. Unions make their presence felt in recruitment and selection, promotions, training, termination or lay off. Many programs, which contribute to the Quality of Work Life (QWL) and productivity, are undertaken by management in consultation with and with the cooperation of the unions. Unions also participate in deciding wage and salary structure and negotiate revisions once in 3 or 5 years.
Trade unions are voluntary organizations of workers or employers formed to promote their interests through collective action. Trade unions Act 1926 defines a trade union as a combination, whether temporary or permanent formed primarily for the purpose of regulating the relation between
1) Workmen and Employers
2) Workmen and Workmen
3) Employers and Employers
For imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business and includes any federation of two or more trade unions
Why do employees join Trade Unions?
To protect themselves against exploitation by management
By force
Dissatisfaction
Lack of Power
Union Instrumentality
ROLE OF CONSTRUCTIVE AND POSITIVE UNION
Unions have a crucial role to play in Industrial Relations. Unions have following broad role or objectives as mentioned below.
• To redress the bargaining advantage of the individual worker vis-à-vis the individual employer, by substituting joint or collective action for individual action.
• To secure improved terms and conditions of employment for its members and the maximum degree of security to enjoy these terms and conditions.
• To obtain improved status for the worker in his work or her work
• To increase the extent to which unions can exercise democratic control over decisions, which affect their interests by power sharing at the national, corporate and plant levels.
The union power is exerted primarily at two levels. Industry level to establish joint regulation on basic wages and hours with an employer’s association. Plant level, where the shop stewards organizations exercise joint control over some aspects of the organization of work and localized terms and conditions of employment.
Unions are party to national, local and plant level agreements, which govern their actions to a greater or lesser extent, depending on their power and on local circumstances.
UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES
Industrial Disputes Act 1947 specifies the following as unfair labor practices
• To interfere, restrain, coerce workmen in the exercise of their right to organize, form, join or assist a trade union.
• Threatening workmen with discharge or dismissal
• Threatening of lockout or closure
• Granting wage increases to undermine trade union efforts
• To dominate, interfere with or support financially or socially by taking active interest in forming own trade union, and
• Showing partiality or granting favor to one of several trade unions to a non-recognized trade union
• To establish employer sponsored trade unions
• To encourage or discourage memberships in any trade union by discriminating workman by punishing or discharging, changing seniority ratings, refuse promotions, giving unmerited promotions, discharging union office bearers
• To discharge or dismiss workmen by victimizing, not in good faith, implicating in criminal case, for patently false reasons
• To abolish work of a regular nature
• To transfer workmen
• To show favoritism or partiality
• To replace workers
• To recruit workmen during legal strikes
• To indulge in acts of violence or force
• To refuse collective bargaining
• Proposing and continuing lockouts
ORGANIZATIONAL DOWNSIZING
Downsizing necessarily means reducing work force to an optimal level depending upon the business conditions and organizational needs. It is said that an organization should be rightly staffed ie. It should not be overstaffed and or understaffed. There are broadly following method used to downsize the workforce as mentioned below.
Retrenchment:
It means termination of service. It is a termination for reasons other than disciplinary actions, retirement or superannuating, expiry and termination of contract or prolonged illness. Retrenchment compensation and notice for retrenchment are only pre-conditions for retrenchment and not a right, which a retrenched worker can claim. If notice and compensation are not given, the worker will not be called as retrenched. Compensation is payable for 15 days wages for every completed year of service besides one month’s notice or pay in lieu of notice. But employee should have completed at least one year of complete service in order to receive compensation.
Lay Offs
Lay of is inability of the employer to provide employment to workers due to circumstances beyond his control such as shortage of power, coal, breakdown of machinery, natural calamity etc. It is not a termination of service. Lay off compensation can be claimed as a statutory right by the worker if he has completed one year of continuous service or has worked for 240 days on the surface or 190 days underground in 12 calendar months. Compensation payable is half of the wages.
Voluntary Retirement Schemes
VRS are announced when there is a huge pool of old aged manpower occupying senior positions amounting to surplus. Many organizations are providing liberal incentives to leave before age of superannuating. VRS in other words is a retirement before the age of retirement.
MEANING OF ORGANIZATION STRUCTUREOrganizational structure is the formal decision-making framework by which job tasks are divided, grouped, and coordinated. Formalization is an important aspect of structure. It is the extent to which the units of the organization are explicitly defined and its policies, procedures, and goals are clearly stated. It is the official organizational structure conceived and built by top management. The formal organization can be seen and represented in chart form. An organization chart displays the organizational structure and shows job titles, lines of authority, and relationships between departments.
Organisation Charts:
The organization charts are the sample and an understandable way showing the formal organization structure-It gives a clear overview of the shape and structure of an organization.
It is an order and the design of an organization captured in a visual form.
It is a blue print or a basis for proper conceptualization, further thinking, a discussion board for further modifications without affecting the actual changes.
The organization chart well drawn, can give an insight in to the organization, its hierarchical structure line and staff authority, authority and responsibility levels, chain of command, line of delegated authority, decentralization or otherwise in an organization, span of control etc.
It also helps and guides the management in evolving changes with the changes in the environment and for faster realization of goals.
It is a good guide for the new recruits in their initiation in the organization and in understanding the authority responsibility levels including his own.
Formal Organisation
The intentional structure of roles in a formally organised enterprise is a formal organisation
It should have an attribute of flexibility, room for discretion and the recognition of individual talents and the capacities. In a group functioning the individual effort will have to be chanelize through the group leader and has to be for the organization’s good.
Informal Structure
The informal organization is the network, unrelated to the firm's formal authority structure, of social interactions among its employees. It is the personal and social relationships that arise spontaneously as people associate with one another in the work environment. The supervisor must realize that the informal organization affects the formal organization. The informal organization can pressure group members to conform to the expectations of the informal group that conflict with those of the formal organization. This can result in the generation of false information or rumors and resistance to change desired by management. The supervisor should recognize the existence of information groups, identify the roles member play within these groups, and use knowledge of the groups to work effectively with them. The informal organization can make the formal organization more effective by providing support to management, stability to the environment, and useful communication channels. Matrix StructureIn a matrix organization, teams are formed and team members report to two or more managers. Matrix structures utilize functional and divisional chains of command simultaneously in the same part of the organization, commonly for one-of-a-kind projects. It is used to develop a new product, to ensure the continuing success of a product to which several departments directly contribute, and to solve a difficult problem. By superimposing a project structure upon the functional structure, a matrix organization is formed that allows the organization to take advantage of new opportunities. This structure assigns specialists from different functional departments to work on one or more projects being led by project managers. The matrix concept facilitates working on concurrent projects by creating a dual chain of command, the project (program, systems, or product) manager and the functional manager. Project managers have authority over activities geared toward achieving organizational goals while functional managers have authority over promotion decisions and performance reviews. An example is an aerospace firm with a contract from NASA.
Divisional Structure
In a divisional organization, corporate divisions operate as relatively autonomous businesses under the larger corporate umbrella. In a conglomerate organization, divisions may be unrelated. Divisional structures are made up of self-contained strategic business units that each produces a single product. For example, General Motors' divisions include Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Cadillac. A central headquarters, focusing or results, coordinates and controls the activities, and provides support services between divisions. Functional departments accomplish division goals. A weakness however, is the tendency to duplicate activities among divisions. Organic StructureOn the other hand, the organic structure is more flexible, more adaptable to a participative form of management, and less concerned with a clearly defined structure. The organic organization is open to the environment in order to capitalize upon new opportunities. Organic organizations have a flat structure with only one or two levels of management. Flat organizations emphasize a decentralized approach to management that encourage high employee involvement in decisions. The purpose of this structure is to create independent small businesses or enterprises that can rapidly respond to customers' needs or changes in the business environment. The supervisor tends to have a more personal relationship with his or her employees. Functional StructureFunctions or divisions arrange traditional organizations. In a functional organization, authority is determined by the relationships between group functions and activities. Functional structures group similar or related occupational specialties or processes together under the familiar headings of finance, manufacturing, marketing, accounts receivable, research, surgery, and photo finishing. Economy is achieved through specialization. However, the organization risks losing sight of its overall interests as different departments pursue their own goals.
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