Staffing and Coordination

Introduction

Human resource is a broad term that combines traditionally administrative personnel activities with the acquisition and application of skills, knowledge, and experience, employee interactions, and resource planning at various levels of an organisation or other human system.

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the purposeful and cohesive approach to managing an organization’s most valuable assets – the people who work there and contribute individually and collectively to fulfil the business’s objectives. On the other hand, human resource management aims to maximise the return on investment from an organization’s human capital while minimising financial risk. In a corporate setting, human resource managers must carry out these operations in a way that is effective, lawful, fair, and consistent.

Different people get together in an organisation to work toward a common goal. Because these people come from diverse backgrounds, their attitudes, values, ethics, talents, behavioural patterns, and so on are bound to differ. As a result, a manager’s most challenging problem and obligation is managing such a diverse set of people. Even if we consider them all human resources, the concept of “human” remains.

Distinct members in the same team have different ways of thinking and working. The disparity becomes much more pronounced when it comes to other departments and their chiefs. The difficulty multiplies when interaction is required between members of different teams. This is where cooperation comes in.

Coordination brings together different individuals or objects to achieve a common aim or result. A manager must be skilled at coordinating.

Human Resource Management

Human resource management is a set of tasks related to human resource planning, recruiting, selection, orientation, training, appraisal, motivation, remuneration, etc. HRM seeks to improve individuals via their work.

By practitioners in the area, HRM is viewed as a more innovative approach to workplace management than the traditional technique of people management. Its tactics compel enterprise managers to explain their goals in detail so that they can be understood and implemented by the workforce and offer the resources required to complete their responsibilities successfully. As a result, when used correctly, HRM methodologies convey the enterprise’s overall aims and operating processes. Many people believe that human resource management is vital to organisational risk reduction.

Human resource management policies are critical for organisations that want to resolve personnel difficulties and create human resource solutions. It has the following features:

1. Organizational leadership
2. Administration of personnel
3. Human resource management
4. Industrial administration

Current HRM Trends

Several significant employment relationship trends impact how organisations must manage their personnel. Some of these trends are related to changes in the organization’s external environment, while others are related to how organisations respond to such changes. The word “business environment” refers to the collection of conditions, events, and forces surrounding and affecting it. The current developments have drastically altered the way HRM operates. Recent HRM developments can be classified as technical influence, economic challenges, and workforce diversity.

E-Human Resource Management

E-HRM is the use of information technology to manage human resources. While performing HR functions, information technology assists workers in networking. E-HRM can be considered the delegation of HR functions to management and staff. They often gain access to these functions through intranet or other web-technology channels.

E-HRM functions on three levels: operational, relational, and transformational. Operational E-HRM handles administrative operations such as payroll and employee personal data. Relational E-HRM assists company processes through training, recruitment, and performance management, among other things. Transformational E-HRM focuses on strategic HR activities.

Technology in HRM

In today’s competitive environment, technological advances can significantly impact a company’s service markets, suppliers, distributors, competitors, consumers, manufacturing processes, marketing methods, and competitive position. Technological advancements can create new markets, increase the number of new and improved products, alter an industry’s relative cost position, and render present products and services obsolete.

New skills required: As new technologies are developed and applied, existing staff skills and knowledge must be updated. It necessitates constant modernization, the upgrading of staff skill sets, and the employment of employees with the necessary abilities and certifications.

Downsizing: With frustrating regularity, new technologies have eliminated many lower-wage occupations. Increased automation has resulted in fewer employees everywhere. The pressure to be cost-effective has also compelled many businesses to go lean, trimming excess fat at every executive level.

Collaborative work: Technological advancement has blurred hierarchical divisions, resulting in increased collaborative teamwork in which managers, technologists, and analysts collaborate on projects. Team-based incentive systems have also made it vital for all classes of employees to collaborate closely with one another.

Telecommuting: Rapid technological advancements have resulted in work migration from the office to the home. Telecommuting has become the norm, with employees working from home, typically with computers, and using phones and the Internet to send letters, data, and completed work to the home office.

Internet and Intranet Revolution: In recent years, internets and intranets have been employed in HR to handle training, benefits administration, performance management, and outplacement functions. The cumulative impact of new technologies is so dramatic that organisations are changing their HRM practices broadly.

Economic Challenges

Nowadays, the planet is decreasing in every significant way. People, goods, capital, and information are flowing faster than ever. Companies are attempting to become global players to survive, let alone thrive. In this regard, Coca-Cola, a market leader, receives nearly 80% of its income from international sales. IBM, Mobil, Citicorp, Motorola, and Gillette generate over half of their revenue from operations outside the United States. International borders have been ruthlessly ignored or entirely discarded when servicing economic interests. Today’s Managers at large corporations are comfortable conducting business in different languages and cultures. In the modern global marketplace, HR managers must take on tough duties while creating a competitive advantage for the company. Competitive advantage refers to an organization’s capacity to develop strategies to capitalise on economic possibilities, maximising its return on investment. To that purpose, global corporations are constantly reorganising their operations and directing their energy on their critical areas of expertise.

Workforce Diversity

Today, managing workforce diversity is a big issue for HRM. In the realm of human resource management, diversity is described as the scenario that emerges when employees differ from one another in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, education, and so on. Workforce diversity indicates that organisations are growing more diverse in age, gender, race, ethnicity, etc.

Composition: The composition of the workforce in India is shifting. Employees who are young, skilled, and knowledgeable are in key positions. At the same time, as the private sector has expanded, employees are less interested in the secure, lower-paying, regular, and standardised positions offered by the public sector and other government-owned and controlled organisations. Age discrimination is no longer permitted in organisations. They must listen to their experienced staff to rely on their expertise and launch programmes that address these demands.

Change in Employee Roles and Values: The shifting worker structure has introduced new values into organisations.

Among these are movements toward

(a) emphasising quality of life over quantity;

(b) valuing equity and justice for employees over economic efficiency;

(c) pluralism and diversity over uniformity and centralism;

(d) participation over authority;

(e) personal convictions over dogma and

(f) the individual over the organisation. Other variables influencing the changing values and duties of the human force include employee alienation, increased counterproductive behaviour, rising expectations, and changing ideals.

Managing a Global Workforce: Human resources must address more functional areas while managing employees in multinational contexts. It necessitates a greater level of participation in the employee’s personal life. The company should set up separate human resource management systems for each geographical region. It must closely monitor the actions of external constituencies such as foreign governments, political parties, and religious organisations. Various additional issues must be closely managed, such as employee compensation, health, safety, and welfare. Employees on overseas assignments are precious assets that must be managed systematically and strategically to readily adapt, survive, and thrive in varied cultures and situations.

Recruitment

Organizations must hire people with the necessary skills, qualifications, and experience to survive and thrive in a competitive marketplace. They must also be alert to economic, social, political, and legal concerns within a country while doing so. To be effective, they must utilise all available supply sources, both internal and external. Internal promotions and transfers increase the morale of long-time employees. External sources must also be examined regularly to attract skilled people with many ideas to a company.

Meaning of Recruitment

The process of discovering and encouraging potential applicants to apply for current or anticipated employment openings is known as recruitment. It is a connecting role, bringing together people who have jobs to fill and others who are looking for work. Recruitment, logically, tries (i) to attract a large number of eligible people who are eager to accept the job if it is offered, and (ii) provide enough information for unqualified individuals to self-select themselves (for example, the recruitment ad of a foreign bank may invite applications from chartered accountants who have cleared the CA examination in the first attempt only).

Sources of Recruitment

Internal sources and external sources are the two primary categories of recruitment sources. Let us examine each one individually.

The ‘internal sources’ are people who already work in an organisation. Internal sources may also include retrenched employees, retired employees, and dependents of dead employees. When a position becomes available, someone inside the organisation is upgraded, transferred, promoted, or even demoted.

External sources refer to people not affiliated with the organisation before recruiting.

Internet Recruiting

In recent years, most businesses have found creating their website and posting job openings beneficial. The website allows job seekers to submit their resumes via the Internet quickly, conveniently, and cost-effectively. For example, Infosys Technologies Ltd. receives around 1000 resumes daily from prospective candidates online. The resumes are then translated into a uniform format using the organisation’s software for shortlisting candidates based on criteria such as alma mater, qualifications, experience, and so on. The HR manager enters his or her specifications, and ‘profiles’ of candidates from the company’s database are generated. In addition to a company’s website, there are several websites where applicants can upload their resumes, and potential employers can search for qualified individuals. (For example,www.jobsahead.com, www.headhunters.com, www.naukri.com, www.monsterindia.com, www.timesjobs.com, and so on. As previously said, internet recruiting delivers quick, cost-effective, and timely responses from job applicants worldwide. And herein lays the issue: the website may be inundated with resumes from unqualified job seekers. Applications may also originate from geographical places that are far distant.

Selection

The selection technique concerns obtaining pertinent information from applicants and picking the most qualified based on an assessment of how effective the employee would be in the job if he were placed in the open position.

The selection process has two primary goals:

1. Predicting which applicant would be the most successful if hired and
2. Selling the organisation and the job to the correct individual.

The Selection Procedure

The selection process is based on the organization’s objectives, job specifications, and recruitment policies. Among the numerous selection processes are initial screening, application forms, selection tests, group discussions, interviews, and reference checks.

The selection methods should meet many generic characteristics of reliability, validity, utility, and legality to permit a near-accurate prediction of an applicant’s job success. The application form is a formal record of an individual’s job application. It is commonly utilised in the first screening of job seekers.

The completed application forms contain essential information about the individual and are used in the job interview and reference checks to establish the applicant’s suitability for employment. The clinical approach and the weighted method are used to evaluate these forms. Intelligence tests, aptitude tests, achievement tests, situational tests, interest tests, and personality assessments are some of the most commonly utilised selection tests.

Interviews assist managers in filling in the gaps in the information gathered through application forms and exams. In addition to measuring job-related conduct and attitude, interviews allow management to influence the job applicant’s perception of the organisation. Based on their timing and purpose, interviews can be characterised as preliminary, selection, or decision-making.

The interviewing process includes preparing for the interview, establishing a setting, conducting, closing, and reviewing. The selection procedure also includes background checks or reference checks to ensure the accuracy of the applicant’s information. Finally, once an applicant has been chosen, an offer is presented to him, and upon acceptance, the placement procedure begins.

In most organisations, selection is usually made through several processes. Each one must be completed satisfactorily before going on to the next. Of course, the time and attention spent on each phase will differ from one organisation to the next and even from job to job within the same organisation. The order of procedures may also differ from job to job and organisation to organisation. The following are the general steps in the recruitment and selection process:

1. Reception: A company is known by the people who work for it. To attract employees with talent, abilities, and experience, a company must make a favourable impression on applicants right from the start. Whoever first meets the candidate should be tactful and able to offer assistance nicely and respectfully. Employment opportunities must be given truthfully and accurately. If no employment is available, the candidate may be asked to contact the HR department after a reasonable amount of time.
2. Screening Interview: Large organisations typically organize a preliminary interview to reduce selection costs by enabling only qualified candidates to proceed to the next round of selection. This courtesy interview, as commonly referred to, assists the department in weeding out obvious misfits. If the department deems the candidate eligible, the applicants are given a predefined application form to fill out and submit.
3. Application Blank: An application blank, often known as a form, is one of the most frequent techniques for gathering information on an applicant’s academic, social, demographic, and work-related background and references. It is a brief history of an employee’s background that usually includes the following information:
   1. Personal information (address, sex, identification marks)
   2. Marital information (single or married, children, dependents)
   3. Physical information (height, weight, and health status) (d) Educational information (levels of formal education, marks, distinctions)
   4. Statistics on employment (experience, promotions, nature of duties, reasons for leaving previous jobs, salary drawn, etc.)
   5. Information on extracurricular activities (sports/games, NSS, NCC, prizes received, leisure-time activities)
   6. Bibliography (names of two or more people who certify the suitability of an applicant to the advertised position)

Weighted Applications Blanks (WABs)

Some organisations apply quantitative values or weights to candidate responses to make the application form more job-related. In general, items strongly associated with job performance receive high marks.

For example, for the position of medical representative, items such as previous selling experience, married status, age, previous commission earned on sales, and so on may be given high points when compared to other items such as religion, sex, language, place of birth, and so on.

Each applicant’s overall score is calculated by adding the weights of the various item replies. The final scores are utilised in the selection decision. The WAB is most suited for jobs with a high turnover rate, such as sales and technical jobs, and it is notably beneficial in minimising turnover.

Selection Testing: Another critical issue in the selection process concerns candidate testing and the kind of exams to be used. A test is an objective, standardised measure of a person’s behaviour, performance, or attitude.

Selection Interview: An interview is an oral assessment of potential employees. This is the most important step in the selection procedure. In this step, the interviewer gathers and synthesises information about the interviewee’s abilities and job requirements.

Medical Examination: Certain vocations demand physical characteristics such as clear vision, acute hearing, extraordinarily high stamina, tolerance of tough working conditions, and a clear tone of voice. A medical examination determines whether or not an applicant possesses these characteristics.

Reference Check: The personnel department will check references after the candidate’s interview and medical examination. Candidates must provide the names of two or three references in their application forms. When used honestly, a good reference check will yield relevant and dependable information to the organisation.

Hiring Decision: After gathering the necessary facts, the Line Manager must make the final decision on whether to hire or reject a candidate. Because selection decisions have economic, behavioural, and social repercussions, the line manager must exercise caution in making the ultimate decision.

Concept of Coordination

“Coordination is the ordered structuring of group efforts to produce unity of action in pursuing a single aim,” write Mooney and Reiley.

“To coordinate,” writes Henry Fayol, “is to unify and link all actions.”

“Coordination is the process by which an executive builds an organised pattern of group efforts among his subordinates and secures unity of action in pursuing a single aim,” writes McFarland.

Based on the definitions provided above, we may identify the following as fundamental parts of coordination:

1. Coordination denotes deliberate attempts to achieve an objective.
2. Coordination refers to the synchronised arrangement of a group’s productivity, not to a single individual.
3. Coordination is only required when a group is involved in an activity. It would not be necessary if an individual worked alone.
4. Coordination is a continual endeavour that begins with the initial step, the firm’s foundation, and continues until its closing.
5. All managerial responsibilities require coordination. Managers must ensure that no activity goes unassigned when organising tasks. Managers must ensure the availability of qualified employees to handle given jobs while staffing. Managers must synchronise the efforts of subordinates and motivate them through appropriate rewards when directing organisational activities. Managers must ensure that organisational operations are on the correct track, accomplishing the right things at the right time and in the right way. As a result, coordination extends beyond all administrative functions.

• The Need for Coordination

Coordination is required since all organisations are a complex aggregation of varied systems that must cooperate or be operated in concert to accomplish desired outcomes. Many workers process work at various levels in a large organisation. If their efforts and activities are not effectively coordinated, they may operate against each other. An organisation can be divided into management, staff, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders to simplify matters.

The components engage in interdependent activities to achieve specific goals. The actors require various inputs or resources to carry out these operations. Face-to-face communication of policies, orders, and administrative actions may be difficult. Personal interaction is nearly impossible; hence, formal cooperation mechanisms are required.

Typically, labour in an organisation is separated along functional lines, with specialists handling production, finance, personnel, and marketing functions. Over time, these specialists’ ability to look beyond their own narrow specialisation becomes limited, and they grow more concerned about establishing their own departments. Coordination amongst such personnel is required for them to interact with others in diverse departments.

• The Importance of Coordination

Coordination is critical to the success of any business. It benefits a company in the following ways:

Coordination connects all functions and activities. It avoids waste motions, overlapping and duplicating efforts, and resource misuse. Coordination enables an organisation to make the best use of its resources. Resources circulate through productive channels, paving the path for the desired output quality and quantity. As a result, efficiency improves.

Coordination brings action and direction together. Members begin to work in an orderly fashion, respecting the efforts of others. They comprehend and adjust to one another by fostering mutual trust, cooperation, and understanding. They get closer together. In a nutshell, it enhances interpersonal relations.

When activities are well-coordinated, each department, according to Fayol, works in harmony with the others. Production has a goal in mind; maintenance keeps equipment and tools in good working order; finance obtains necessary cash; security ensures the safety of commodities and service workers; and these operations are carried out smoothly and methodically. Thus, coordination produces a harmonious balance among departments, people, and facilities. As a result, goals can be met more efficiently and effectively.

Coordination is important since it is the key to other management responsibilities, such as planning, organising, staffing, leading, and managing. The numerous plan elements, organisational aspects, and phases of a controlling operation must all be synchronised. Coordination improves the purposefulness of planning, the cohesiveness of organisations, and the regulative and practical nature of control.

Principles of Coordination

Mary Parker Follet has proposed numerous coordinating principles in the following manner:

1. Principle of Direct contact: According to Mary Parker Follet’s first principle, coordination can be done by direct communication between the responsible parties. She believes that direct interpersonal ties and personal communications can achieve coordination.
2. Early stage: Coordination should begin at the start of the planning phase. Coordination from organisational participants might be sought during policy formation and goal setting. When members participate in goal-setting, the coordination problem is 90% solved.
3. Reciprocal relationship: Mary Follet states as the third principle that all components in a situation are reciprocally related. In other words, every part influences and is influenced by every other part.
4. Principle of continuity: Follet’s fourth principle is that coordination is a continuous and never-ending process. It is something that must occur at all times in the organisation. Furthermore, cooperation is required in all managerial functions.
5. Principle of Self-coordination: In addition to the four principles outlined by Follet above, Brown has highlighted the principle of self-coordination. This theory states that when one department affects another function or department, it is, in turn, affected by the other department or function. This department may not have authority over the other departments.

Coordination Process

Coordination cannot be achieved or imposed by force or authority. Coordination by executive orders is a fruitless endeavour. It is possible to achieve efficient coordination through person-to-person, side-by-side partnerships. It takes time to achieve efficient coordination. It is only feasible if the following requirements are met.

1. Clearly defined and understood objectives: Every employee and department must understand what the organisation expects of them. Top management must clearly state the enterprise’s overall goals. Terry pointed out that “there must be a common goal to unite efforts.” The enterprise’s many plans must be interconnected and made to fit together.
2. Proper work division: The overall work must be properly divided and allotted to individuals. In this context, the idea of’ a place for everything and everything in its place’ is worth mentioning.
3. Goal organisation structure: The various departments within the organisation must be organized so that work flows easily from one phase to the next. Too much specialism may make coordinating work more difficult.
4. Clear lines of authority: Authority must be delegated. The individual must understand what his superior expects of him (s). After accepting leadership, the subordinate must be held accountable for results in his work area. There should be no overlapping of authority or waste of effort (s).
5. Regular and timely communication: Personal contact is the most effective technique for developing coordination. Other forms of communication, such as records and reports, may be utilised to provide timely and accurate information to diverse groups within an organisation. As far as feasible, common terminology should be utilised so that people may speak the “same language.”
6. Sound leadership: McFarland says only effective leadership can accomplish true coordination. To that aim, top management must be able to create (i) a suitable work atmosphere, (ii) proper job allocation, (iii) rewards for good performance, and so on. It must encourage subordinates to share common interests and perspectives.

Different Types of Coordination

Based on its scope and flow, coordination in an organisation can be internal or external, vertical or horizontal.

1. Internal and External Coordination: Internal coordination coordinates an organization’s many units. It entails synchronising the actions and efforts of individuals across an organization’s departments, plants, and offices. External coordination refers to the coordination between an organisation and its external environment, including the government, customers, investors, suppliers, competitors, etc. No organisation operates in a vacuum. To survive and succeed, it must first put its home in order and then pleasantly interact with outside forces.
2. Vertical and horizontal coordination: ‘Vertical coordination’ refers to coordination between different levels of an organisation. It is accomplished through delegation of authority by top management. Horizontal coordination occurs when cooperation is brought between diverse roles at the same level of the organisation (for example, between production, sales, finance, people, and so on). Mutual consultations and cooperation are used to achieve horizontal coordination.

Issues and Systems Approach to  Coordination

The systems approach divides an organisation into actors, goals, and resources. The actors include management, employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders, who engage in interdependent activities to achieve specific goals.

If the expected desired outcomes are to be achieved, multiple actors and interactions, resources, and goals must be coordinated. Coordination goes hand in hand with the concept of systems thinking when seen from the necessity to maintain perspective and solve difficulties that may occur as a result of these multiplicities. Organizational actors face coordination challenges. Coordination issues arise as a result of organisational dependencies that limit the efficiency of task performance.

Organizations are systems of pieces that interact to produce a specific behaviour or outcome. Changes to a system’s constituent parts may impair the efficient operation of other parts of the same system or alter required input or output specifications.

According to coordination theory, the solution to coordination problems lies in the actors performing additional activities known as coordination mechanisms. According to the idea, dependencies and counter-mechanisms are common in that they appear in some form or another in practically every organisation.

A simplified typology of the types of dependencies that necessitate coordination in an organisation is as follows:

1. Task-task: Tasks may have overlapped, conflicting, or similar outputs; standard inputs for tasks may be shareable, reusable, or non-reusable; and the output of one task may be the input of other tasks or a prerequisite for performing subsequent tasks. Specifications may conflict and require coordination.
2. Task resources are resources that are required by a task.
3. Resource-resource dependency occurs when one resource is dependent on another. An effective coordination mechanism is required to manage each of these dependencies.

Finally, solving organizational problems, implementing change, or forming a new organization all require managing numerous dependencies among tasks, resources, and goals.

Techniques of Coordination

The following are some of the most essential coordination mechanisms utilised by modern management:

1. Coordination for a common purpose: The supervisor is the oldest and most important tool for achieving coordination. A supervisor’s primary responsibility is to ensure that his subordinates work efficiently. He directs, commands, and manages their efforts. According to Webber, managers and supervisors can coordinate the efforts of their instructions by commanding, and they can coordinate their efforts through direction and motivation. If the management span is limited, this technique will be far more effective than others. “A manager, in managing, must co-ordinate the work for which he is accountable by balancing, scheduling, and integrating it,” writes L.A. Allen.
2. Coordination through Managerial functions: Some aspects of managerial functions, such as communication, leadership, and authority delegation, uniquely contribute to coordination. Effective communication is essential for effective coordination. Information communication is required to make changes to plans and plan future programmes.
   1. Planning is required to ensure the proper use of human and non-human resources. It brings about cooperation in the organisation as a result of this goal.
   2. Organizing is identifying and allocating human and non-human resources to the organisational structure. Coordination is required for this.
   3. Staffing entails managing the organizational structure through proper and effective human selection, assessment, and development to fill the functions defined in the structure. Effective staffing also entails properly coordinating various sub-functions.
   4. Direction is the inert-personnel aspect of management that is directly concerned with influencing, guiding, supervising, and motivating subordinates to achieve organisational goals, including coordination.
   5. Controlling is measuring and correcting subordinates’ performance activities to ensure that the enterprise’s objectives and plans to achieve them are met. Controlling effectively paves the stage for efficient coordination.

3. Coordination by simplified organisation: Organization is a critical tool for achieving coordination. Over-specialisation is prevalent in today’s large-scale organisations. It results in bureaucracy and division among departments. As a result, some specialisation benefits should be compromised, and an organisational structure should be designed in which the authority and tasks of several departments are clearly defined but interact. Department reorganisation may also be considered to achieve more harmony among the various wings of the organisation.
4. Harmonized programmes and policies: The planning phase provides excellent opportunities for coordination. Plans developed by various individuals and departments should be reviewed for uniformity. Management must guarantee that all plans contribute to the overall programme.
5. Coordination by Group meetings: Group meetings are very beneficial for achieving high levels of coordination. Such gatherings bring together officials and create possibilities for coordination.
6. Coordination through liaison men: Liaison officers are a highly essential and popular device for external coordination nowadays. They are typically employed by large organisations to maintain relationships with government and other agencies.
7. Voluntary Coordination: Brown and Sinon proposed self-coordination as a method of voluntary coordination. Coordination should not be forced from on high. The best coordination is voluntary coordination. This can be accomplished by instilling dominating aims in people, fostering widely recognised customs, encouraging informal meetings, facilitating inter-personal and inter-departmental relationships, and utilising committees for the informal interchange of ideas and perspectives.