Field force integration with Airtel

We have often heard that how important is the integration of the customer touch points with the supply chain, so as to effectively transmit information on inventory movement so that channel flow costs(Physical possession) costs can be reduced and thus more effective prediction on demand can be made. The use of RFID chips in supermarkets which will enable the information to be transmitted back to the manufacturer is an example of this. Airtel has come up with a technology with which it can enable the company personnel to use their organizations intranet and databases while they travel. This is will effectively help the companies to do a better field force integration. Salespeople can update the data while and when they are traveling and this will help the organization to better understand consumer behaviour and buying patterns.

May be bullwhip effect might become a thing of the past in some years to come.

Will the new CEO be good enough?

We had seen in a previous article about succession planning that, it is really vital for the smooth transition of a firm. We also saw a situation in which a CFO becomes the CEO and really screws up the situation. Now with the fact that Mr Mohandas Pai is all set to become the new anchor of Brand Infosys, will the same question arise years down the line? Was the selection of the anchor rite? Did Infosys have a good succession planning in place? Did Infosys expect the sudden separation of Mr Nandan Nilekani who was a visionary and the man with the golden touch? Time would tell us the answers. Of course, Mr Pai is a shrewd and brilliant man, but his ability to handle business delivery is not tested yet. But with him being the new anchor, it can either be a make or break for Infosys. The shares of Infosys havent fluctuated much over the last one week.

Retention bonus

Lehman brothers gave a 130% retention bonus when the firm when bankrupt. AIG staff got $165m retention bonus, of late. Most of the candidates who wanted to switch to a different company, during a difficult phase, preferred to stay back with Nomura (the firm which acquired Lehman), once the retention bonus was announced.

The above situation just gives an idea on the wonders; retention bonus can deliver to an organization. The retention bonus scheme varies from company to company. Some offers a percentage of the salary as the retention bonus. The percentage would vary from company to company. Some of them would even offer a flat fixed package. Some companies pay out the bonus in lump sum while others space it out over a period of time.

Retention bonus can be a part of the pay structure as well. To know more about pay structure visit

http://www.salary.com/personal/layoutscripts/psnl_articles.asp?tab=psn&cat=cat225&ser=ser034&part=par409

Job evaluation

To design a pay structure and also to know the competencies required for one role, one needs to know size of one job relative to other. Job evaluation is the process of comparing one job role to another and determining the relative importance and competencies required for a particular job profile.

Job evaluation is the building block for formulating a reward strategy. This also helps in formulating the career path of an employee. The real test, however would, whether it is acceptable among all the participants. If one evaluates a job in a wrong manner, the reward strategy would be designed accordingly and this can result in employee dissatisfaction and hence increased turnover. But it is very important to note that, the evaluation is done for the job and not for the employee.

In the ranking method of job evaluation, the jobs are rated on the basis of the salaries prevalent in the market. But then it is noted that jobs need not be exactly similar to the market and the rating within the organization might be different from that present in the market. Hence this method has less focus on internal equity.

In the whole job slotting method, jobs are compared one on one and hence it is pretty much subjective. So it becomes a cause for criticism of HR. So HR needs to be really cautious about this.

In the point factor approach, various factors of a job are assigned points. Each factor is given a weightage and a tally of points is made. Then the relative worth of each job is found out.

Ultimately, similar jobs are categorized into similar job grades.There are other methods like simple classification, factor systems, market pricing etc.

But certain points to keep in mind are that, the methods needs revision depending upon changing market conditions and external and internal environments.

Job Pricing

The final result of a job matching exercise would be a list of roles in the industry which has a certain level of matching with the roles in the organization. Now an exercise called job pricing is done. In this exercise, the total remuneration for a certain role is found out by benchmarking it with comparator roles which has been obtained as a result of job matching. For this a survey is done in the industry for the comparator roles and then an analysis is done. The analysis is done in such a way that it gives a detailed split of the remuneration.

The statistical analysis would cover the various measures like mean, median, mode, P25, P75, min, max etc. Other parameters like range spread etc are found out. Now this is done for each component of the compensation like base pay, variable pay, benefits, etc in detail. From this benchmark results, the organization fixes a certain remuneration framework for the role.

A deeper analysis of the process of job pricing would show that, it includes the analysis of the detailed split of various components of the compensation. It also analyses the percentage split of various components of compensation in the market. For e.g.

Fixed Pay – 10%
VP – 20%
Benefits -20%
Allowances – 40%
Other – 10%

The whole process ultimately also throws light on the total cost to company.

Job matching

Quite evident from the name, job matching is a process in which a company tries to match a particular job vacancy in the organization with a suitable resource in the market. In this process a lot of factors are considered like skills, qualification, experience etc. The whole process of developing a framework for job matching is mostly done by consulting companies. Organizations approach consulting companies to develop a framework for them, so that a job match can be done efficiently.

What is the need for job matching?

Different organizations have different job positions. No two jobs would be exactly the same in different organizations. The responsibilities handled, the domain of expertise, the skill sets etc will have a difference. So when an organization has a vacancy, it looks out for a resource to fulfill the vacancy. Now on this lookout, it would dig into the external job market as well. In such a situation, a big question will arise in the minds of the HR personnel in charge of recruitment. What are the factors which I should look in a candidate? Obviously it would be pretty much difficult to get a candidate who had the same kind of exposure as the employee who has left the job. So now the HR personnel should draft a process by which he can elicit out the key parameters present in this job from many factors. This could also include some aspects of the employee who left the job. Now a framework has to be developed which would look into certain aspects of the candidate. Now a job match process will compare the aspects of the candidate and the parameters of the job and will give a verdict whether the candidate is a light match, or a medium match or a heavy match for the job.

Certain factors which are used are objective of the job, supervisory responsibilities, responsibilities of the job etc. Other factors like compensation, qualification, skills etc are also considered.

Now this process is very important while benchmarking. For example, suppose an organization is doing a benchmarking of compensation. Now in this process, how does the organization compare the compensation for a certain role across the industry? It needs to find out a comparable role in another organization as well. So for this a job matching process is very important.

When we start formulating a job matching framework, we first divide the organizational roles under different heads and chart out the career paths for each of these divisions. Now within each division, the different levels are also drafted. For each level, the basic qualifications and responsibilities are also formulated.

Now for each job family, the different levels are charted out with probable job titles, and their responsibilities and education requirements and experience requirements as well as the reporting matrix.

Please search for more information on job matching processes. Inputs are always welcome

Internal job postings: Beating the recession with lesser HR spends

The global economy has seen a plummet, and organizations are trying to put their thinking hats on, to find ways to ride out the storm. When cost cutting has been seen in every department, and the employment opportunities looking bleak, many companies have even frozen recruitment. But then still there are potential openings in organizations and HR departments try to fulfill these vacancies with minimal recruitment spend, so that they can counter the recession as well as align their recruitment strategy on lines with the organizational strategy.

One of the recent approaches to filling such vacant job openings has been the process of internal job postings. This is an interesting concept as this can allow many companies to refrain from the least preferred approach of lay offs. In this approach, companies advertise within the company using intranet, mailers, newsletters etc that there are certain vacancies within the organization and the skill sets required for the particular job. On seeing the announcement, employees can apply for that vacancy, if they have the required skill set and would be finally selected by various procedures. This method can help to reduce the recruitment cost by around 70% which will benefit the company in countering the downturn.

There are some more inherent advantages to this approach. There would be many employees within the organization who feel that their current job is not motivating enough and would require a change. There would be some talented employees who are currently placed with a wrong job. So this approach can help such kind of employees to find a better job within the organization and thereby pursue a better career for themselves. This is a big morale booster and can motivate the employees a lot, thereby increasing the productivity of the company.

However, there are some concerns, like the fairness in the selection process. Some employees can use their contacts to politically influence the process, thereby spoiling the whole purpose of this exercise. This concept, though, is slowly catching up in India, especially in IT firms, which have seen a round of retrenchment processes in the recent past.

This approach can also put a big break to employee turnover, thereby helping the organization to retent its key employees. But at times some managers would not prefer some good employees under them to be transferred to a different department. So there can be a pressure from line managers to prevent such a transfer. So the internal transfer policy should be documented in such a way as to prevent such hassles.

One way to prevent such a problem is to alert the manager when an employee under them has applied for a vacancy. This can help them in planning against a potential threat. But this can act disastrous as well. The managers can be dissatisfied at this move of an employee, and probably think that the employee is not satisfied and thus can adversely try to affect the appraisal of the employee. This is a potential threat in many organizations which coerces the employee to plan his career move secretly. If such problems are solved, this policy can act as a blessing in a downturn.