Organisations exist for people. They are made of people and by the people and their effectiveness depend on the behavior and performance of the people constituting them. Interestingly, people are considered as a resource and as asset rather than a liability.
Social obligations, legal aspects and trade union pressures are actively shaping the environment. The environmental trends in terms of five principal environmental aspects viz. economic, demographic, socio-cultural, politico-legal and technological are important variables for shaping the present personnel environment.
Today, there is a growing awareness of the importance of the human side of organisations as a vital factor in overall progress.
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There is no doubt that people, not science and technology, will determine the future. It is to be noted that preparing for personnel management has been considered more a process of osmosis.
Education, training facilities and practices has been highly fragmented. The growth of unionism, state intervention through a spate of legislation and code of practices, the stress on statutory welfare, and need for broader and consistent policies in large and complex organisations made it easy for personnel specialists to expand their role and enhance their status.
Importantly, with advances in the information technology, the personnel specialists are now increasingly using computers for information system management and resource planning.
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It is rightly remarked by Michael Riley that every industry thinks it is unique and, in a very real sense, each industry is right.
Interestingly, managerial task running a hotel, restaurant or institutional establishment can be seen as a set of systems and processes common to managing anything.
Interestingly, all managers have direct responsibility for the human assets in an organisation and are responsible for activities and decisions concerning personnel. Still most organisations have a separate personnel department whose main job is to coordinate all personnel activities.
There is need for a close interaction between the personnel department which has the responsibility for the administration of personnel and line managers who have responsibility for optimizing the use of their resources, viz., physical, financial and human.
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The personnel department is then required to maintain personnel information systems and comply with government’s legal regulatory framework and union management agreements. Moreover, top management expects personnel specialists to devise ways and means for better utilization of human resources.
It expects them to develop cost effective means to help maintain rightly motivated satisfied and productive human resources. Personnel policy is a statement of what the organisation wishes to do with regard to its employees in order to meet its objectives.
It is a general guide to decision-making. The decisions may concern recruitment, promotions, transfers, appraisal, training, pay, benefits, leave and several other aspects.
There is need for consistency and uniformity in all these matters in the interest of both the individual employee and the organisation.
The policy should clearly state the purpose, and a procedure for implementation. The procedure should indicate:
1. Who has the authority to implement policy?
2. Whether and who has the discretion;
3. The flow of paper work in connection with action; and
4. Records to be maintained for monitoring and control.