BUILDING EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT

INTRODUCTION

•      An effective productivity management process is simply not possible without the commitment and involvement of employees at all levels.

•      Those organizations that recognize the role of human resources in productivity movement and appreciate the power of committed and involved workforce typically devote substantial resources and management energies toward the development of an environment to which employees can and will contribute to performance improvement to the maximum of their capabilities.

•      These efforts are typically characterized as employee involvement (EI) strategies. Commitment is the binding of the individual to behavioral acts

•      In prospective view, commitment is conceived as an individual’s psychological bond to the organization or social system as reflected in his involvement with loyalty for and belief in the values of the organization.

•      Involvement describes congruence between personal and organizational goals, i.e., “the degree to which members of a work organization are able to satisfy important personal needs through their experiences with the organization”.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EI ENVIRONMENT

•      i. Employee input to decisions

•      ii. Employee participation in problem-solving

•      iii. Information sharing

•      iv. Constructive feedback

•      v. Teamwork and collaboration

•      vi. Meaningful and challenging work

•      vii. Employment security

EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT APPROACHES

Human Relations Approach: The human relations approach is based on the belief that more satisfied employees are more productive employees.

•      Organizations operating under the human relations framework use involvement techniques such as suggestion schemes, survey feedback and quality circles, but do not seek to redesign jobs, change the organization structure or transform the organization’s culture to promote maximum employee involvement in decision making.BUILDING EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT

ii. Human Resources Approach: The key assumption here is that people are a valuable resource, capable of making significant contributions to organizational performance. They should be developed to increase their capabilities and, when people have input to decisions, better decisions result.

•      iii. High Involvement Approach: High involvement systems operate under the assumption that employees are capable of making important decisions about their work and that maximum organizational performance results when people exercise considerable control over their work activities. High involvement organizations typically use profoundly different approaches to job design such as autonomous work teams.

•      They are very flat organizations, as employees make most of the routine, day-to-day decisions that are made by supervisors in traditionally managed organizations. All of the organization’s systems, such as the reward system and the goal-setting system, are designed to reinforce maximum employee involvement in decision-making. High involvement systems represent a radical departure from traditional management assumptions and thus require a great deal of management commitment to change.

KEY TO SUCCESS OF EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT

•      Success in the employee involvement arena requires, first and foremost, a recognition by top management that participative management means cultural change which, requires management commitment and a long-term perspective.

•      i. Management Commitment: People resist change, as it requires behaviors and responses that are not familiar. Management commitment to change must be apparent and unambiguous, if this resistance is to be overcome.

•      Management must be willing to support change through the provision of resources, modification of the organizational systems and personal involvement in the change process.

•      ii. Long-term View: Management must also adopt a long-term view for the change to succeed. Attitudes and behaviors do not change overnight, and managements demand for quick success will heighten resistance and undermine the process.

•      iii. Supervisory Support: Being the buffer between the top management and non management employees, it is upon the front-line supervisor that the greatest pressures in EI effort fall. He is called upon to transform his familiar and comfortable style, yet he lacks the knowledge and skills to do so. If his needs are not attended to, there is a strong likelihood that he will resist.

•      Since supervisory support is such an essential ingredient to this process, they must be educated about EI; they must understand what it is, why it is needed, their new roles and how they will be supported. The resistance of supervisors can be further reduced by involving them in planning and managing the EI process. Their input in the plan and its ongoing execution will provide them with a sense of ownership and control and a better plan will probably result.

•      iv. Union Support: If the Union, as an institution, is not involved in the employee involvement initiative, they may well resist the effort.

•      Awareness programs should also be conducted for them covering the business scenario, status of the organization, need of EI, management plans etc, so that they also understand, appreciate and extend necessary support for the success of the EI program.  APBS

•      v. Training and Development: Awareness training must be conducted at all levels in the organization. Managers and supervisors must appreciate that participative management represents a major change from the traditional styles of management.

•      For them to embrace this change, they must understand the nature, rationale and implications of participative management. Training in problem solving must also be provided to equip the employees and supervisors / managers with the skills to analyze problems and to develop solutions.

•      vi. Strategy: Employee involvement requires a well-developed strategy to achieve long-term success. EI challenges long-held beliefs and impacts broad areas of organizational functioning.

•      Changing management style is probably the most difficult and frustrating task facing the chief executive who desires to institutionalize the EI process for performance improvement in the organization. An intelligent, long term strategy is, therefore, a vital ingredient for success.

SOURCES, DEVELOPING AND USING APPLICATION
FORMS

•      Many organizations prefer to fill vacancies through promotions or transfers from within wherever possible. Promotion involves movement of an employee from a lower level position to a higher level position accompanied by (usually) changes in duties, responsibilities, status and value. Most multinationals (e.g. Amouri’s Lister program tracking star performers at an early stage and offering stimulating opportunities to grow vertically) have fast-track promotion systems in place. The credo now is reward performance, but promote competency.

•      In the recent past, an american group has placed over 200 people through the fast-tracker system (promoting star performers quickly). A transfer, on the other hand, involves lateral movement within the same grade, from one job to another.

•       It may lead to changes in duties and responsibilities, working conditions, etc., but not necessarily salary. Internal promotions and transfers certainly allow people greater scope to experiment with their careers, kindling ambitions and motivating them to take a shot at something they might otherwise never have considered. The system, of course, works best for young executives who are willing to take risks.

1 /Job Posting

•      Job posting is another way of hiring people from within. In this method, the organization publicizes job openings on bulletin boards, electronic media and similar outlets. Hindustan Lever introduced its version of open job postings in early 2002 and over 40 positions have since been filled through the process.

•      HLL even allows its employees to undertake career shifts, for example from technical positions to non-technical jobs such as marketing, market research etc., through the open job posting system. The AV Birla group allows its employees an opportunity to apply not just for jobs within their own companies, but for jobs in any company in the Birla group both in India and abroad.

2/ Sources

•      External sources lie outside an organization. Here the organization can have the services of: (a) Employees working in other organizations; (b) Job aspirants registered with employment exchanges; (c) Students from reputed educational institutions; (d) Candidates referred by unions, friends, relatives and existing employees; (e) Candidates forwarded by search firms and contractors; (f) Candidates responding to the advertisements, issued by the organization; and (g) Unsolicited applications/walk-ins.

3/ Developing and Using Application Forms

•      Application blank or form is one of the most common methods used to collect information on various aspects of the applicants’ academic, social, demographic, work-related background and references. It is a brief history sheet of an employee’s background, usually containing the following things:

•      i. Personal data (address, sex, identification marks)

•      ii. Marital data (single or married, children, dependents)

•      iii. Physical data (height, weight, health condition)

•      iv. Educational data (levels of formal education, marks, distinctions)

•      v. Employment data (past experience, promotions, nature of duties, reasons for leaving previous jobs, salary drawn, etc.)

•      vi. Extra-curricular activities data (sports/games, prizes won, leisure-time activities)

•      vii. References (names of two or more people who certify the suitability of an applicant to the advertised position) Even when applicants come armed with elaborate resumes, it is important to ask the applicants to translate specific resume material into a standardized application form.

4/ Weighted Application Blanks (WABs)

•      To make the application form more job-related, some organizations assign numeric values or weights to responses provided by applicants. Generally, the items that have a strong relationship to job performance are given high scores. For example, for a medical representative’s position, items such as previous selling experience, marital status, age, commission earned on sales previously, etc., may be given high scores when compared to other items such as religion, sex, language, place of birth, etc.

•      The total score of each applicant is obtained by summing the weights of the individual item responses. The resulting scores are then used in the selection decision. The WAB is best suited for jobs where there are many workers, especially for sales and technical jobs and it is particularly useful in reducing turnover. There are, however, several problems associated with WABs.

•      To make the application form more job-related, some organizations assign numeric values or weights to responses provided by applicants. Generally, the items that have a strong relationship to job performance are given high scores. For example, for a medical representative’s position, items such as previous selling experience, marital status, age, commission earned on sales previously, etc., may be given high scores when compared to other items such as religion, sex, language, place of birth, etc.

•      The total score of each applicant is obtained by summing the weights of the individual item responses. The resulting scores are then used in the selection decision. The WAB is best suited for jobs where there are many workers, especially for sales and technical jobs and it is particularly useful in reducing turnover. There are, however, several problems associated with WABs.

5/ Usefulness

•      Application blank is a highly useful selection tool, in that it serves three important purposes:

•      1. It introduces the candidate to the company in a formal way.

•      2. It helps the company to have a cross-comparison of applicants; the company can screen and reject candidates if they fail to meet the eligibility criteria at this stage itself.

•      3. It can serve as a basis for initiating a dialogue at the interview

6 /IT AND RECRUITING ON THE INTERNET

•      In recent years most companies have found it useful to develop their own website and list job openings on it. The website offers a fast, convenient and cost effective means for job applicants to submit their resume through the Internet. Infosys Technologies Ltd., for example, gets over 1000 resumes a day from prospective candidates through the Net.

•      The resumes are then converted into a standard format using the software that the company has developed for short listing candidates according to a set criteria such as alma mater, qualifications, experience etc. The HR manager has to key in his or her requirement and 'profiles' of candidates from the company's database get generated.

TO SUM UP

•      An effective productivity management process is simply not possible without the commitment and involvement of employees at all levels. Commitment is the binding of the individual to behavioral acts.

•      In prospective view, commitment is conceived as an individuals psychological bond to the organization or social system as reflected in his involvement with loyalty for and belief in the values of the organization.

•      Success in the employee involvement arena requires, first and foremost, a recognition by top management that participative management means cultural change which, requires management commitment and a long-term perspective.

•      Many organizations prefer to fill vacancies through promotions or transfers from within wherever possible. Promotion involves movement of an employee from a lower level position to a higher level position accompanied by (usually) changes in duties, responsibilities, status and value. Job posting is another way of hiring people from within.

•      In recent years most companies have found it useful to develop their own website and list job openings on it. The website offers a fast, convenient and cost effective means for job applicants to submit their resume through the Internet. There are a variety of websites available.