StaffingClass 12 Business Studies Part 1 NCERT Solutions
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Q1Long Answer Type
'Human resource management includes many specialized activities and duties.' Explain.
Solution
The statement is correct. As organisations grow, managing the human component becomes a specialised area requiring the expertise of many people, leading to the formation of a Human Resource Department. Human Resource Management (HRM) is a broad function that includes many specialised activities and duties performed by HR personnel. These are:
- Recruitment: This involves searching for qualified people to fill job vacancies and stimulating them to apply.
- Analysing Jobs: This includes collecting information about jobs to prepare detailed job descriptions and specifications, which outline the duties, responsibilities, skills, and qualifications required for a particular job.
- Developing Compensation and Incentive Plans: HRM is responsible for establishing fair wage and salary plans. This includes determining the worth of each job and creating incentive plans like bonuses and commissions to reward performance.
- Training and Development of Employees: This duty involves designing and implementing programs to enhance employees' skills for efficient performance and to facilitate their career growth. It ensures the workforce remains updated and competent.
- Maintaining Labour and Union-Management Relations: HRM plays a crucial role in fostering a harmonious relationship between management and labour unions, handling negotiations, and resolving disputes.
- Handling Grievances and Complaints: A systematic procedure for handling employee grievances and complaints is established and managed by the HR department to maintain morale and a positive work environment.
- Providing for Social Security and Welfare of Employees: HRM manages employee benefits such as insurance, medical aid, provident funds, and other welfare activities to ensure their well-being.
- Defending the Company in Lawsuits: The HR department is responsible for ensuring compliance with various labour laws and defending the company against legal complications or lawsuits filed by employees.
Q2Long Answer Type
Explain the procedure for selection of employees.
Solution
Selection is the process of identifying and choosing the best person out of a number of prospective candidates for a job. It is a multi-stage process where candidates are eliminated at each step. The important steps in the procedure for selection are as follows:
- Preliminary Screening: This is the first step where unqualified or unfit job seekers are eliminated based on the information supplied in their application forms. A preliminary interview may also be conducted to reject misfits for reasons not apparent in the application.
- Selection Tests: Candidates who clear the screening are required to take employment tests that measure various characteristics. Important tests include:
- Intelligence Tests: To measure the intelligence quotient (IQ) and a person's learning ability.
- Aptitude Tests: To measure an individual's potential for learning new skills.
- Personality Tests: To provide clues about a person's emotions, reactions, maturity, and value system.
- Trade Tests: To measure the existing skills, knowledge, and proficiency of the individual.
- Interest Tests: To know the pattern of interests or involvement of a person.
- Employment Interview: This is a formal, in-depth conversation conducted to evaluate the applicant's suitability for the job. It allows the interviewer to seek more information and assess the candidate's personality and communication skills.
- Reference and Background Checks: Employers request references (like previous employers or teachers) to verify the information provided by the applicant and gain additional insights into their character and past performance.
- Selection Decision: The final decision is made from among the candidates who have passed the tests, interviews, and reference checks. The views of the concerned manager are generally considered in the final selection.
- Medical Examination: Before a job offer is made, the candidate is required to undergo a medical fitness test to ensure they are physically capable of performing the job.
- Job Offer: A job offer is made through a letter of appointment to the candidate who has passed all the previous hurdles. This letter contains the terms and conditions of employment and the date of joining.
- Contract of Employment: After the candidate accepts the job offer, a formal contract of employment is prepared. It includes details such as job title, duties, responsibilities, pay, leave rules, and termination procedures.
Q3Long Answer Type
What are the advantages of training to the individual and to the organisation?
Solution
Training and development are crucial for both the organisation and its employees. The advantages are as follows:
Benefits to the Organisation:
- Systematic Learning: Training is a systematic learning process, which is always better than hit-and-trial methods that lead to wastage of effort and money.
- Enhanced Productivity: It enhances employee productivity in terms of both quantity and quality, which directly leads to higher profits for the organisation.
- Prepares Future Managers: Training equips employees with the necessary skills to take over in case of an emergency and prepares them for future managerial roles, ensuring succession planning.
- Boosts Morale and Reduces Turnover: Training increases employee morale and job satisfaction. This, in turn, reduces absenteeism and employee turnover, saving the company costs associated with recruitment and selection.
- Adaptability to Change: It helps the organisation obtain an effective response to a fast-changing environment, whether technological or economic, by keeping employees' skills updated.
Benefits to the Employee (the Individual):
- Better Career Prospects: Improved skills and knowledge acquired through training lead to better career opportunities and growth for the individual.
- Increased Earnings: Increased performance by the individual as a result of training helps them to earn more through promotions, bonuses, and other incentives.
- Increased Safety: Training makes the employee more efficient in handling machines and equipment, thus making them less prone to accidents in the workplace.
- Higher Morale and Satisfaction: Training increases the job satisfaction and morale of employees, as they feel valued by the organisation and more confident in their abilities.
Q4Long Answer Type
Kaul Consultants have launched www.naukaripao.com exclusively for senior management professionals. The portal lists out senior level jobs and ensures that the job is genuine through rigorous screening process. a. State the source of recruitment highlighted in the case above. b. State four benefits of the above identified source of recruitment.
Solution
a. The source of recruitment highlighted in the case is an External Source. Specifically, it can be identified as:
- Web Publishing: The use of an internet website (portal) is a form of web publishing for recruitment.
- Placement Agencies and Management Consultants: Kaul Consultants is acting as a management consultancy firm that helps organisations recruit professional and managerial personnel. They maintain a data bank of candidates and advertise jobs on behalf of their clients.
b. Four benefits of using external sources of recruitment are:
- Qualified Personnel: By using external sources, the management can attract qualified and trained people to apply for vacant jobs in the organisation, as they are reaching a larger talent pool.
- Wider Choice: When vacancies are advertised widely through portals like this, a large number of applicants from outside the organisation apply. This gives the management a wider choice while selecting the people for employment.
- Fresh Talent: External recruitment brings new blood, new ideas, and fresh perspectives into the organisation, which can be beneficial for growth and innovation. This prevents the danger of 'inbreeding' that can occur with complete reliance on internal sources.
- Competitive Spirit: When a company taps external sources, the existing staff will have to compete with the outsiders. This can motivate them to work harder and show better performance to secure promotions and prove their worth.
Q5Long Answer Type
A company, Xylo limited, is setting up a new plant in India for manufacturing auto components. India is a highly competitive and cost effective production base in this sector. Many reputed car manufacturers source their auto components from here. Xylo limited is planning to capture about 40% of the market share in India and also export to the tune of at least ₹ 50 crores in about 2 years of its planned operations. To achieve these targets it requires a highly trained and motivated work force. You have been retained by the company to advise it in this matter. While giving answers keep in mind the sector the company is operating. Questions: a. Outline the process of staffing the company should follow. b. Which sources of recruitment the company should rely upon. Give reasons for your recommendation. c. Outline the process of selection the company should follow with reasons.
Solution
a. As a new plant, Xylo Limited should follow a comprehensive staffing process:
- Estimating Manpower Requirements: Conduct a workload analysis to determine the number and types of employees needed (engineers, technicians, supervisors, operators, etc.) and a workforce analysis to see what is available in the market.
- Recruitment: Search for prospective candidates and stimulate them to apply for jobs.
- Selection: Choose the most suitable candidates from the pool of applicants through a rigorous process.
- Placement and Orientation: Place the selected employees in their respective jobs and introduce them to the organisation's rules, policies, and culture.
- Training and Development: Since it is a new plant with specific technical requirements, provide intensive training to bring employees up to the required skill level.
- Performance Appraisal: Establish a system to evaluate employee performance against pre-set standards.
- Promotion and Career Planning: Design clear career paths to keep the workforce motivated.
- Compensation: Develop a competitive wage and salary structure to attract and retain talent in the competitive auto sector.
b. The company should rely upon External Sources of Recruitment. As a new enterprise, it cannot use internal sources. The recommended external sources are:
- Campus Recruitment: To hire fresh engineers and management trainees from reputed engineering colleges and management institutes. This provides fresh talent with modern technical knowledge.
- Placement Agencies and Management Consultants: To recruit experienced technical, professional, and managerial personnel. These agencies specialize in finding talent for specific sectors like auto components.
- Advertisement: To reach a wide range of candidates for various positions, from shop floor workers to middle management, through trade journals and newspapers.
- Labour Contractors: To quickly source a large number of unskilled and semi-skilled workers required for plant operations.
Reason: External sources are necessary to bring in the required skills, fresh talent, and a wider choice of candidates, which is essential for a new company aiming for high growth and market share in a competitive sector.
c. The process of selection should be rigorous to ensure a high-quality workforce:
- Preliminary Screening: To shortlist applicants based on qualifications mentioned in their application forms.
- Selection Tests: This is crucial for the auto component sector.
- Trade Test: To measure the existing skills of technicians and machine operators. This is essential to check their proficiency with specific machinery.
- Aptitude Test: To measure the potential of fresh candidates to learn new skills required in the manufacturing process.
- Intelligence Test: To assess the decision-making and judgment abilities of supervisory and managerial staff.
- Employment Interview: To assess the candidate's technical knowledge, problem-solving skills, and suitability for the company culture.
- Reference and Background Checks: To verify the credentials and past performance of experienced candidates.
- Selection Decision: By a panel including the HR manager and the concerned departmental head.
- Medical Examination: To ensure candidates are physically fit for manufacturing jobs.
- Job Offer and Contract of Employment: To formally appoint the selected candidates.
Reason: A thorough selection process ensures that the company gets the best talent available, enhances the prestige of those selected, and reduces future costs associated with high turnover and poor performance.
Q6Long Answer Type
A major insurance company handled all recruiting, screening and training processes for data entry/customer service representatives. Their competitor was attracting most of the qualified, potential employees in their market. Recruiting was made even more difficult by the strong economy and the 'jobseeker's market.' This resulted in the client having to choose from candidates who had the 'soft' skills needed for the job, but lacked the proper 'hard' skills and training. Questions a. As an HR manager what problems do you see in the company? b. How do you think it can be resolved and what would be its impact on the company?
Solution
a. As an HR manager, I see the following problems in the company:
- Ineffective Recruitment Process: The company's recruitment strategies are failing to attract qualified candidates. Their competitor is more successful, indicating a weakness in the company's employer branding, compensation, or recruitment channels.
- Poor Candidate Pool: The company is left with a small and unqualified pool of applicants. This forces them to compromise on essential 'hard' skills (like typing speed, computer proficiency) for the data entry/customer service roles.
- Flawed Selection Criteria: The company is hiring candidates based on 'soft' skills (like communication) while overlooking the lack of necessary 'hard' skills. This leads to a skills gap in the workforce.
- High Training Costs: Hiring employees who lack the required hard skills will necessitate extensive and costly training programs to bring them up to the required performance level. This also means a longer time before the new hire becomes fully productive.
- Competitive Disadvantage: The inability to attract and hire the right talent puts the company at a significant disadvantage compared to its competitor, potentially affecting service quality and efficiency.
b. The problems can be resolved through the following measures:
- Revamp Recruitment Strategy: The company should explore more effective external sources of recruitment. This could include using placement agencies, web publishing on popular job portals, and conducting campus recruitment drives in vocational institutes. They also need to improve their company image as an employer.
- Strengthen the Selection Process: The company must incorporate specific tests to evaluate hard skills. For a data entry/customer service role, this would include:
- Trade Tests: To measure typing speed and accuracy, and proficiency in relevant software.
- Aptitude Tests: To assess a candidate's potential to learn new processes and skills quickly.
- Offer Competitive Compensation: In a 'jobseeker's market', the company must ensure its salary and benefits packages are competitive enough to attract qualified candidates away from competitors.
Impact on the Company:
Implementing these resolutions will have a significant positive impact. The company will be able to attract a larger pool of qualified candidates, leading to better hiring decisions. By selecting candidates with the right mix of hard and soft skills, the company will reduce its training costs and the time it takes for new employees to become productive. This will improve the quality of customer service, increase operational efficiency, and ultimately help the company compete more effectively in the market.
Q7Long Answer Type
Ms. Jayshree recently completed her Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management. A few months from now a large steel manufacturing company appointed her as its human resource manager. As of now, the company employs 800 persons and has an expansion plan in hand which may require another 200 persons for various types of additional requirements. Ms. Jayshree has been given complete charge of the company's Human Resource Department. Questions a. Point out, what functions is she supposed to perform? b. What problems do you foresee in her job? c. What steps is she going to take to perform her job efficiently? d. How significant is her role in the organisation?
Solution
a. As the Human Resource Manager with complete charge of the department, Ms. Jayshree is supposed to perform the entire range of staffing and HRM functions. These include:
- Manpower Planning: Estimating the manpower requirements for the expansion plan, which involves hiring 200 additional persons.
- Recruitment: Searching for and attracting qualified candidates for various roles.
- Selection: Choosing the best candidates through a systematic process of tests and interviews.
- Placement and Orientation: Onboarding the new employees and familiarizing them with the company.
- Training and Development: Designing training programs for both new and existing employees.
- Performance Appraisal: Establishing a system to evaluate the performance of all 1000 employees.
- Compensation and Benefits Management: Developing and managing wage, salary, and incentive plans.
- Employee Relations: Handling grievances, maintaining discipline, and fostering positive labour-management relations.
b. The problems I foresee in her job are:
- Scale of Recruitment: Managing the recruitment and selection of 200 people for various roles is a large and complex task.
- Integration of New Employees: Integrating a large number of new employees (a 25% increase in workforce) into the existing organisational culture can be challenging.
- Skill Gap: Finding candidates with the specific skills required in a steel manufacturing company might be difficult.
- Managing Existing Workforce: She also needs to manage the HR needs of the existing 800 employees, who may have concerns about the expansion and their own career progression.
- Establishing HR Systems: As a new manager, she may need to establish or formalize many HR policies and procedures.
b. To perform her job efficiently, Ms. Jayshree should take the following steps:
- Conduct a Thorough Analysis: Start with a detailed workload and workforce analysis to clearly define the job roles and the qualifications needed for the new 200 positions.
- Develop a Strategic Staffing Plan: Create a comprehensive plan outlining the sources of recruitment (internal/external), selection methods, and timelines.
- Utilise a Mix of Recruitment Sources: Use external sources like advertisements, placement agencies for technical roles, and campus recruitment for fresh talent. Also, consider internal sources like promotions for filling some senior positions to motivate existing staff.
- Implement a Robust Selection Process: Design a selection process with appropriate trade tests for technical roles and interviews to ensure the right people are hired.
- Create an Orientation Program: Develop a structured orientation program to help new employees socialize and adapt to the company culture quickly.
c. Ms. Jayshree's role is highly significant for the organisation. The success of the company's expansion plan is directly dependent on her ability to staff the organisation with a highly trained and motivated workforce. Her effectiveness in managing the human resources will determine the company's ability to achieve its operational targets, maintain quality, and grow successfully. She is responsible for managing the company's most critical asset—its people.
Q1Short Answer Type
What is meant by recruitment? How is it different from selection?
Solution
Recruitment refers to the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in an organisation. It is a positive process as its objective is to create a pool of candidates to enable the selection of the best candidate for the organisation.
Difference from Selection:
Selection, on the other hand, is the process of choosing the best person from among the pool of prospective job candidates developed at the stage of recruitment. It is considered a negative process because it involves rejecting a large number of candidates to identify the most suitable one. Thus, recruitment precedes selection and aims to attract applicants, while selection aims to choose the right applicant.
Q2Short Answer Type
An organisation provides security services. It requires such candidates who are reliable and don't leak out the secrets of their clients. What steps should be incorporated in selection process?
Solution
For an organisation providing security services, reliability and integrity are paramount. The following steps should be especially incorporated and emphasized in the selection process:
- Preliminary Screening: Scrutinize application forms for any inconsistencies or gaps in employment that might indicate a problem.
- Personality Tests: Use personality tests to assess a candidate's emotional stability, maturity, and value system. This can provide clues to their reliability and integrity.
- Reference and Background Checks: This is the most crucial step. The organisation must conduct thorough background checks by contacting previous employers, known persons, and references provided by the applicant to verify information and gain additional insights into the candidate's character, reliability, and past conduct.
Q3Short Answer Type
A company is manufacturing paper plates and bowls. It produces 1,00,000 plates and bowls each day. Due to local festival, it got an urgent order of extra 50,000 plates and bowls. Explain the method of recruitment that the company should adopt in the given circumstances to meet the order.
Solution
In the given circumstances, the company needs to hire workers for a short period to meet a temporary rush of work. The most suitable method of recruitment would be Direct Recruitment.
Under this method, a notice is placed on the notice board of the enterprise specifying the details of the jobs available. Jobseekers assemble outside the premises on a specified date, and selection is done on the spot. This method is ideal for filling casual vacancies of unskilled or semi-skilled jobs quickly and inexpensively, without involving any cost of advertising. The workers hired are known as casual or 'badli' workers and are paid on a daily wage basis, which is perfect for meeting the urgent, short-term order.
Q4Short Answer Type
Distinguish between training and development.
Solution
The distinction between training and development is as follows:
| Basis | Training | Development |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | It is a process of increasing knowledge and skills. | It is a process of learning and growth. |
| Purpose | It aims to enable the employee to do the current job better. | It aims to enable the overall growth of the employee. |
| Orientation | It is a job-oriented process, focused on improving performance in a specific role. | It is a career-oriented process, focused on the individual's long-term progress. |
| Scope | Training has a narrower scope and focuses on imparting technical skills. | Development has a broader scope, covering not only job performance but also the growth of the personality and potential of an individual. |
Q5Short Answer Type
Why are internal sources of recruitment considered to be more economical?
Solution
Internal sources of recruitment are considered to be more economical for the following reasons:
- No Advertising Cost: Filling jobs internally is cheaper as it does not involve expenses on advertising vacancies in newspapers, online portals, or through agencies.
- Simplified Selection Process: The selection and placement process is simplified. Candidates are already known to the organisation, so their evaluation is more accurate and less time-consuming, saving costs associated with extensive tests and interviews.
- No Induction Training: People recruited from within the organisation are already familiar with its policies, procedures, and culture. Therefore, they do not require expensive and time-consuming induction or orientation training.
Q6Short Answer Type
'No organisation can be successful unless it fills and keeps the various positions filled with the right kind of people for the right job.' Elucidate
Solution
This statement highlights the critical importance of the staffing function in management. Human resources are the foundation and the most valuable asset of any business. The success and growth of an organisation are directly dependent on the quality and competence of its people.
Elucidation of the statement:
- Higher Performance: Staffing ensures higher performance by putting the right person on the right job. A competent person in a suitable role will perform efficiently and effectively, contributing to organisational goals.
- Optimum Utilisation of Resources: Proper staffing helps in the optimum utilisation of human resources. It prevents both overmanning, which leads to high labour costs, and under-staffing, which disrupts work.
- Organisational Growth: It ensures the continuous survival and growth of the enterprise through succession planning for managers and by discovering and obtaining competent personnel for various jobs.
- Competitive Advantage: In a knowledge-intensive economy, the collective expertise, innovation, and skills of employees are what give a company its competitive edge. The wrong people can break a business, while the right people can take it to the top.
Therefore, filling and keeping positions filled with the right people is not just an administrative task but a fundamental driver of organisational performance and success.
Q1Very Short Answer Type
What is meant by staffing?
Solution
Staffing is the managerial function of filling and keeping filled the positions in the organisation structure. It involves identifying the requirement of the workforce, followed by recruitment, selection, placement, promotion, appraisal, and development of personnel to fill the roles designed into the organisation structure.
Q2Very Short Answer Type
State the two important sources of recruitment.
Solution
The two important sources of recruitment are:
- Internal Sources: Filling vacancies from within the organisation, such as through transfers and promotions.
- External Sources: Tapping sources outside the organisation to fill vacancies, such as through advertisements, employment exchanges, and campus recruitment.
Q3Very Short Answer Type
The workers of a factory are unable to work on new machines and always demand for help of supervisor. The Supervisor is overburdened with their frequent calls. Suggest the remedy.
Solution
The remedy for this problem is to provide proper training to the workers. Training will improve their skills and knowledge, making them more efficient in handling the new machines independently. This will reduce their dependence on the supervisor and alleviate the supervisor's overburdened state.
Q4Very Short Answer Type
The quality of production is not as per standards. On investigation it was observed that most of the workers were not fully aware of the proper operation of the machinery. What could be the way to improve the quality of production to meet the standards?
Solution
The way to improve the quality of production is to provide adequate training to the workers. Proper training will ensure that they are fully aware of the correct operation of the machinery, leading to minimum wastage, higher productivity, and better quality of products that meet the required standards.
Q5Very Short Answer Type
The workers of a factory remain idle because of lack of knowledge of hi-tech machines. Frequent visit of engineer is made which causes high overhead charges. How can this problem be removed.
Solution
This problem can be removed by providing vestibule training. In this method, an actual work environment is created in a classroom, and employees learn their jobs on the same sophisticated machinery they will be using. This allows them to gain the necessary skills without disrupting the actual work floor and reduces the need for frequent engineer visits, thereby lowering overhead charges.