Case Study: Performance Management System for Educational Institutions
November 5th, 2009 Gireesh Sharma
As the need for talented workforce is growing worldwide, so is the need for faculty & staff with requisite skills in the educational institutions to produce the base for generating such a work force. Businesses are continuously demanding fresh talent which can meet challenges of twenty-first century through innovative and out-of-the box thinking. Business leaders are counting on educational institutions: schools, colleges, universities and other training establishments for infusing well-qualified fresh talent into industry.
In turn, educational institutions are continually striving for improving their output both in terms of numbers and the quality of talent offered for varying jobs in different types of organizations. The excellence of output from an educational institution depends on the quality of their faculty, support services and infrastructure. To achieve higher levels of excellence, institutions need to set high performance goals for their academic and non-academic staff. These goals should be effectively measured at frequent intervals to bridge performance gaps, if any. Institutions which can effectively manage the performance of their faculty and other employees can leave their mark on industry.
Thus, having the best of class performance management software is not only a need of the hour but an enabler of excellence in an educational institution.
EmpXtrack team has published a case study on Performance Management System for Educational Institutions.
Downlaod Case Study: Fill this form to download the case study:
Posted in Case Study/ White Papers, Employee Appraisals, Goal Setting, HR Technology, Human Resources | No Comments »
Difference between the SaaS and Perpetual License Structure
October 7th, 2009 Talent Junction
HR Managers and CTOs often ask us the benefits of SaaS over Perpetual license of EmpXtrack.
Here is a comparison chart:
|
|
SAAS (Hosted) Licensing Structure | Perpetual Licensing Structure |
| Cost of Software | Lower Cost | Can go as high as 4 times the SAAS license cost |
| Payment Frequency | Annually | One time |
| Annual Maintenance Cost | Nil | To be incurred by the Client (can vary between 30% -50% of the cost of the software) |
| Hardware Costs | Nil | To be incurred by the client |
| Implementation Cost | Nil | To be incurred by the client (Can be 15% upwards of the total cost of the software) |
| Data Back Up | Data backup managed by us | To be managed by the client |
| Personnel Cost & requirement | We would maintain it for you. | To be managed by the client |
| Security | Our responsibility | Client has to manage data security, access etc. |
| Upgrades | Upgrades to servers, software, databases, application managed by us and provided automatically | Client has to manage all upgrades |
| Infrastructure | We manage the servers,networks, provide scalability and access, performance tuning and application management | Client has to manage the infrastructure, servers, networks, performance tuning etc. |
| Access | Clients can access the application on-demand from anywhere. Note this can be managed based on specific needs. | Typically access is limited to client intranet. |
Posted in Human Resources | No Comments »
Employee termination or firing - HR’s role is critical!
September 22nd, 2009 Gireesh Sharma
Termination or firing employees at work is a not-so-liked but mandatory process at business. All businesses big or small at time terminate or fire employee because of business compulsions. However, the recent downturn has accelerated the employee termination largely due to financial and performance problems.
Decision to fire an employee is never welcomed, however, there are some acceptable reasons for terminating an employee:
- For poor performance at work or low productivity.
- Being indisciplined or showing unethical behavior at work.
- Not conforming to the company policy.
Above reasons are well accepted by other employees, business community and also by the legal framework of the country and states for growth of business.
Unfortunately, we also witness incidents of “unethical and unacceptable” terminations. These are neither acceptable by the communities nor by the legal framework. It is needless to mention that law has reprimanded such actions of the employers severely, whether they were intentional or unintentional.
It is unethical and legally unacceptable to terminate an employee -
- On basis of sex, race, color, ethnicity;
- On basis of medical disability;
- On basis of religious faith;
- On basis of pregnancy;
- On base of age, etc.
The law says says that it is “illegal to discriminate in any aspect of employment, including hiring and firing”. Read more information on Unethical Discriminatory Practices.
Firing employees also exposes the organization to potential risks ranging from motivational to legal. Here are some of the common risks:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HR Best Practices, Human Resources, Performance Management | 3 Comments »
Web-based HRIS helps in FMLA Compliance
September 1st, 2009 Gireesh Sharma
Introduction: This blog post mentions the benefits of using an HR Software (also called recordkeeping software) in maintaining compliance with FMLA, a law in United States about family and medical leaves. It is important for HR, CEO and CFO to know about FMLA law as employers in US have lost millions of dollars in FMLA violations.
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is an act in United States that provides certain employees of an organization with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year. It also requires that employers maintain the group health benefits to the employees during the leave period. FMLA is designed to help employees balance their work and family responsibilities by allowing them to take reasonable unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons.
More information on the act can be found at Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) but broadly the act requires that covered employers must grant an eligible employee up to a total of 12 work-weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for one or more of the following reasons:
- for the birth and care of the newborn child of the employee;
- for placement with the employee of a son or daughter for adoption or foster care;
- to care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition;
- or to take medical leave when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition.
Additionally the final rule extends the coverage for eligible specified family members,
- Up to 12 weeks of leave for certain qualifying exigencies arising out of a covered military member’s active duty status, or notification of an impending call or order to active duty status, in support of a contingency operation, and
- Up to 26 weeks of leave in a single 12-month period to care for a covered service member recovering from a serious injury or illness incurred in the line of duty on active duty. Eligible employees are entitled to a combined total of up to 26 weeks of all types of FMLA leave during the single 12-month period.
The other general conditions that makes an employee eligible for FMLA are:
- If they have worked for their employer for at least 12 months, and have worked for at least 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months,
- and work at a location where at least 50 employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles.
There are several requirements to be fulfilled by the employee / employer for FMLA. For more information visit US Department of Labor website http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/.
The biggest cause of worry for employers is that FMLA has long been a source of litigations.
Employers have lost millions of dollars in FMLA violations. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FMLA, HR Technology, HRMS (HRIS), Human Resources | 8 Comments »
Importance of HR Data for a CEO
August 9th, 2009 Gireesh Sharma
I used to believe that HR Data was useful for HR Departments only since the department was responsible for employee development & management activities. Alternately, the CFO and CEO were only interested in metrics such as cost of hire, total compensation, cost for training etc which were more oriented towards financial goals and treated employee costs as a “cost-center”. My perception changed in a recent customer interaction.
It was during an EmpXtrack training session for one of our clients in India, when their HR Director asked that we provide extensive HR dashboards to their CEO. While these reports were available for the HR Managers, I wasn’t sure if it could benefit the CEO in any way and hence I resisted.
Since the HR Director seemed to be a nice & patient gentleman, I thought of arguing a little and also better understand why he believed that the CEO would want to look at all this data. There were over 25 crucial dashboards already available for the CEO and what could be the benefits of having access to 100s of additional reports. Many questions came in my mind like –
- Will the CEO have time to go through the reports,
- What will be the implication of training him in using these?
- What if one of the reports doesn’t work correctly? (It does happen!!!)
- Was the CEO from an HR background or believed in Jack Welch’s theory of HR Management etc. etc.
The HR Director was obliging and I got some deep insights into how CEOs think and work. This also helped me better understand the needs of an effective HR department – especially for a company that has global ambitions and aggressive growth plans.
The HR Director said that they are into a Knowledge Intensive Business Services and their core strength lies in the quality of their people. While meeting potential investors and even large customers, our CEO is often asked following questions:
1. What is it about your management team / people that makes them uniquely capable of executing on this business plan?
AND/OR
2. Do you have the Right Leadership?
AND/OR
3. Does the team have passion for the business? Have they done it before: experience; market experience; intimate contact with potential customers, partners, and suppliers; etc. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Employee Appraisals, HR Best Practices, HR Technology, Human Resources, Motivation, Performance Management | No Comments »
Strategic Benefits of Online Leave Management System
July 23rd, 2009 Gireesh Sharma
Leave Management is one of the most important HR processes, that consumes a small but significant portion of managerial time. While managers are usually overloaded with projects & hunger for resources, approving subordinates leaves is a tight rope walk. On one hand HR has to ensure compliance with leave policy & ensure availability of sufficient resources for business continuance; while on the other hand it has to improve employee satisfaction. Most of us have witnessed bitter manager-employee relation on issues of leaves. Thus, leave management becomes an important strategic task for the organization.
Strategic Value of Leave
While many companies may take the leave management “not so seriously”, research shows that poor leave management has had bad impact on business performance. It can impact project deliveries and employee morale negatively. Here are some of the critical business issues, that are directly related to leave management.
- Meeting Project Delivery Deadlines: Availability of manpower directly impacts the project
delivery schedules. While committing Project Delivery dates managers need to keep in mind the general availability of sufficient resources. They need to know what are the peak leave months/ weeks and should commit the delivery dates accordingly. Also, while crucial projects are nearing dead lines, they should approve leaves prudently. - Legal Issues with Leave: Each country has legal rules for employee leaves. Like FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) in United States - with its broad definition of medical conditions and generous leave provisions -it can scare employers, especially smaller companies who rely on a handful of key employees. Failing to comply with the complicated requirements of this law can result in serious liability for both companies and individuals. Similarly, in India THE FACTORIES ACT CHAPTER VIII, Annual Leave with Wages, lay clear guidelines for leaves. If organizations do not comply with these rules, they risk being sued by the employees and penalized by the Government Authorities.
- Emotional Factors related to Leave: Getting leaves in time is a major employee satisfaction factor. Employees have several personal needs which requires their absence from work. Read our another post denying leaves can cause emotional stress, where we studied a case of mismanaged leave request.
- Financial Implications of Leave: Accrued leaves are financial liabilities on organizations, especially Paid Time Offs and Privileged leaves which are to be reimbursed at the time of separation (or as and when required by employee ) according to the leave policy. If employees do not take enough leaves, the financial liability of organization increases and the HR should report this to management at regular intervals.
- Performance Vs Leaves: Work Life Balance have a direct impact on an employee’s performance. Employees who do not take enough leaves (and suffer from stress) or the employee who takes too much leave (and is careless towards job), both have negative impact on their performance. Both type of employees need to be monitored carefully and coached on maintaining a productive work life balance.
Important Leave Metrics/ Dashboards that HR should keep an eye on:
Organizations need to capture and know several leave metrics at frequent intervals for a better understanding of its human resources. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HR Best Practices, HR Technology, HRMS (HRIS), Human Resources | 6 Comments »
Web 2.0 and SaaS for Human Resource Managers
July 6th, 2009 Gireesh Sharma
Recently we were asked by “People and Management” a popular HR magazine in India to explain Web 2.0 and SaaS to their readers who are mainly senior HR Folks, CEOs and other management profiles. Our thoughts were published in the magazine as an article titled “Web 2.0 and The SaaS Factor for HR“. Here is the summary of this article. (Full version PDF available at request.)
If you visit Internet often, you will have, most certainly, come across the two buzz-words, Web 2.0 and SaaS. Let us discuss what these two actually are, how these are redefining the workplace and why as HR experts, should we be interested in these technology issues. It has to be borne in mind, however, that Web 2.0 and SaaS concepts apply to several domains. Here follows its application in HR Management.
The Web 2.0
This Web 2.0 is a specific type of design of a web site that allows “communication, and information sharing” amongst the owner of the website and visitors. Unlike previous forms of websites which only allowed one-Way Communication (apart from filling a contact us form), Web 2.0 websites allow visitors to communicate with the owners about the content and also enables them to communicate with each other.
The Free Factor
The most significant thing about Web 2.0 is that it is free. Unlike yesteryears, when you needed to pay to create a web site, Web 2.0 works on the concept of free utilization of this powerful resource. Now anyone who has access to Internet can create a blog or website or open an account for free. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HR Best Practices, HR Technology, Human Resources | 10 Comments »
Free Human Resources (HR) Software Download Facts
April 22nd, 2009 Gireesh Sharma
Free HR Software
Many visitors on EmpXtrack’s website come to look for Free HR software. Because there are many softwares in different domains that come for FREE, they expect that there can be a Free Human Resources Software too. This post will discuss “Is there any free lunch (software) at all?” for Human Resources Management. I will also try to bust the myths about the softwares that are available for Free.
Why HR Software is NOT free?
Let me begin with why there can’t be free software in HR Domain.
My first argument is that it takes lots of efforts to develop an HR Software, because an HR Software is not merely a plain database of employees information fields (like in an Excel Sheet or MS Access) but a large collection of various types of information which are linked to each other in a logical way so that an output can provide a Common Sense View about the employees.
If I need to define HR Software I will say “HR Software is a process for the collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation of employee’s data. It can provide tools for prediction and forecasting based on data. Thus it can be used for a wide variety of management decisions, financial decisions about manpower, performance of people, succession planning and removal of non-performers.” Such an important software, which provides a total MIS on human resources has to be created with great care. How can you get it for Free. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Employee Appraisals, Goal Setting, HR Technology, HRMS (HRIS), Human Resources, Performance Management | 13 Comments »
Writing SMART Goals (also called KRAs) from Job Descriptions
April 14th, 2009 Gireesh Sharma
Many Managers (Including HR managers responsible for writing others Goals) often ask to help them on
creating Goals (Key Responsibility Areas) for different designations, which they can use for setting Goals and/or conducting performance appraisals. While most of these managers are completely aware of their job profile, they find it difficult to shape it in a written form.
Knowing your Goals and writing them effectively is an all-together different game. To describe your Goals (KRAs) you need to have effective writing skills and sound knowledge of terminology. Unfortunately, some executives/ managers may not have a flair for writing and thus unable to write their Goals (KRAs). This is true for HR also. So here are some tips that will help Talent Junction users to write Goals (KRAs) from the Job Descriptions.
SMART: A Smart Goal (KRA) is one which is:
- Specific : Clearly stated what to do and how to do?
- Measurable: States how the performance for this goal will be measured.
- Achievable: It can be achieved by employees if they work really hard (You can draw this conclusion by talking to employee, manager or someone who has done this job successfully).
- Relevant: The KRA (Goal) is relevant to the job and the performance on this goal will improve productivity of the employee.
- Time Frame: States a time frame to achieve the goals.
How to WRITE SMART Goals (KRAs)?
Here are the steps how anyone can write Goals (KRAs) from Job Descriptions: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Goal Setting, HR Best Practices, HR Technology, Human Resources, Performance Management | 20 Comments »
