All posts by Fawaz

HR manual

By | Published February 17, 2012

by jscreationzs

What could you include in an HR manual? If you were involved in writing one before, I am sure that you thought of that question for many times! Perhaps asked yourself if you have included all of what you need or not. Given that there is no generic HR manual that fits all organizations, the answer to that question becomes even harder. Nevertheless, there are many sections of an HR manual that could be common. Knowing what is common helps building the index and serves as the roadmap.

In this post, I would like to share with you the most common sections of an HR manual. However, if you believe it should include more, please share it here!

  • Hiring
  • Pay systems
  • Payroll administration
  • Performance system
  • Health benefits
  • Compensation
  • Development
  • Safety & security
  • Leaves
  • Retirement
  • Termination
  • Rules & conducts
  • Nondiscrimination
  • Record-keeping
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Integration of reward and talent management programs

By | Published December 10, 2011

“Only 36% of organizations with a competency model have linked it to their reward programs.”

According to the 2011/2012 Talent Management and Rewards Study, North America, by Total Rewards Association, and Towers Watson. Only 36 percent of those organizations that have competency model are actually linked to their reward programs. Somehow, this percentage is expected. In fact, it could be an optimistic view, and probably could not be used to estimate the population. It is known that only few organizations that actually have “competency model” in place, how about linking that model to its reward programs. Few here do not mean a few organizations in term of numbers. It means that a small percentage of the overall number of organizations out there. The human resources functions is not an isolated operation groups. All functions are dependent of each other. The output of one function is the input of another. In other words, the human resources framework must grant an orchestrated flow of the processes of all human resources functions. This is an essential success factor for a transformed human resources group or a “strategic partner”.

Having a framework that support a smooth stream of all business processes, is what gives the human resources group the ability to carry out its goals. A competency model is very important for many reasons. First, it helps the organization to define the set of competencies that are required for each position, therefore, the right hiring decisions. Second, it helps the organization to manage its performance management system objectively and understand what is needed to improve the overall organization performance. Third, it is important for building an effective training strategy, and measure the value of the investments. Last and not least, it helps the organization pay its employees fairly based on performance. These are few examples of what a competency model could help organizations achieve. However, those are not the only benefits of having a competency model in place, and having it linked to the other human resources centers. It is a single part of a complete sustainable human resources model.

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The triangle of talent

By | Published July 1, 2011

Building on talent, talent management, and many other titles came-up and will continue to do so. What do we mean by “talent”? When we search and read about this topic, we find that it is all revolving around three things. Aptitude, Competencies, and Capabilities, which at the end create talent. I would call it here the triangle effects or the triangle of talent. Almost, all researches came to one conclusion about talent. It is not inherited! Hence, you are not created to be a sales person, nor a financial manager. In fact, you might have some innate abilities that help in the process or boost it, but definitely, you are not what you think you are. In other words, if you are not good at something it does not necessarily indicate that you are not good at it for good. They problem could lay in your approach to the task or previous experience that affects your aptitude.

To discuss this in details let us go back to the triangle of talent and think of it for some time. If we were to make a circle arrow on the triangle, where would you consider the start and the end of it? Is it going to turn on like a clockwise or the opposite? As I have mentioned before you might be not as good as you want to be at something because of a previous experience or the way you are approaching it makes you feel it is difficult for you. If you think of this, you will find that it is all falls in the first triangle to the top “Aptitude”. Yes, it is about how you act towards the situation. Bad previous experience or some difficulties might case a change in your aptitude towards a task. On the other hand, good experience or ease in accomplishing a task will affect your aptitude positively and will make you do it again with more confidence each time. As a result, your capabilities in this specific task will increase rapidly as well as your competencies. This will result to an increase in your satisfaction level and of course a positive attitude towards this task and the circle will continue enhancing and sharpening your talent.

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Workforce planning

By | Published May 9, 2011

Workforce planning is the process of defining the number of resources required to meet the organizations’ goals. In other words, a workforce-planning manager is required to analyze the needs of an organization in term of human capital. Where s/he evaluates the current situation and forecasts the future requirements bearing in mind all business variables. This is considerably very important aspect of HR, as hiring manager should act according to the preset plan to allocate the skill set and schedule the start time for the hiring process. Otherwise, it will be difficult to bring the right resources at the right time to deliver the organizations’ goals. In order for this process to work efficiently it has to include four main elements.

Organization goals !

The organization goals must come at the TOP of all. It is very important for almost any workforce plane to succeed. Each organization will set goals for every year at the beginning of the year. These goals are like the roadmap ! It is what the senior managers drive their departments to reach. If you don’t know where to go, How you will know what do you need for the journey?

Understand the current situation

Evaluate what you have and what you don’t. There is no need to bring more than what you need and face the consequences of the inflation. You might have the numbers, but the skills! Work closely with the development experts to check what you can change.

Get engaged with the business

Be more of a business partner. Ask why, when, and what. Is there any new issues, expansions, or just regular requirements. Remember you are not an absolute service provider. You are a partner on the same ship! more load will make it sink and less load will make you arrive late or never.

Analyze the past

It is true you are planning for the future, but the past is important. Usually, the business lines will not plan very well to see who is going to be here tomorrow and who is not. Of course it is a shared responsibility, but the HR team is the sponsor. Analyzing old data will show turnover, retirements trends, and much more.

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HR Outsourcing (HRO)

By | Published April 16, 2011

These days a big number of HR professionals talk about HR outsourcing particularly in the Middle East. Discussing the facts whether it is a helpful practice or not! Is it a step toward HR transformation? Many might think of this solution to help them cut the HR administrative costs and focus more on the strategic value of HR. According to the market (shrm.org; kennedyinfo.com; Dataquest Inc.), there is a strong increase in HR outsourcing spending in the United States and Europe. This will gradually affect the market in the Middle East. In fact, there are a good number of corporations in that area performing HR Business Process Outsourcing (HR-BPO). Hay-Group for an example is a major leader in the area designing HR frameworks and supplying benchmarking data. However, this is not what intended in this article. We are here discussing the outsourcing of some or all the HR functions (tasks) and not the business processes.

To begin with, let us view the possible areas where outsourcing most likely will take place. According to a survey (Esen, 2004) respondent (168 HR professionals) reported the following functions/tasks are outsourced completely:

Background checks 49%
Employee counseling 47%
Account administration 43%
Health care administration 24%
Temporary staffing 21%

The list expands more but the percentages decrease. For this reason, let us think of the above as an example and consider the high percentages reported. If we ask ourselves, do we already outsource these tasks/functions in the Middle East? Yes, sure we do.

 

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Posted in Human Capital, Outsourcing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

If s/he can do it then I can!

By | Published March 13, 2011

There are many reasons for workplace stress that could be categorized based on its nature. One major cause of workplace stress is the capabilities or competencies. Basically, the skills, knowledge, and experience an incumbent have. These factors are the basic needs for a person to carry out a certain job. With lack of some of these factors or its components, or the level required for the job. There will be a big potential for the workplace stress to increase above the normal limits. Once this type of stress increases, the job incumbent will start losing interest in the job, or it will be very difficult to meet the required deliverables. But, with the right skills, knowledge, and experience the employee will be more productive and creative.

If s/he can do it then I can do it! Although, this could be defined as enthusiasm, it could be a very risky situation. It is true that we can learn what we want to learn, but there are things that take time. In other words, the time employee x take to build a learning curve vary from the time employee y take to do the same. Therefore, when either you misplace yourself more or less, in terms of what you can do or not you will expose yourself to a vulnerable situation. Hence, you will experience workplace stress.

Thus, instead of saying “if s/he can do it then I can do it!” We should say something like “what do I need to do it?”.

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Why do we need job descriptions?

By | Published February 27, 2011

Any HR group must have some basic documents to work properly. These documents could include the strategy, policies & procedures, performance system framework, and job descriptions. While these are the most important documents to have, it is not necessarily always. It may differ from one organization to another depending on many factors. Here I am going to talk about the job descriptions (JDs) and its importance to the organization. There are many benefits of having JDs in place. These benefits could yield on the employers and the employee at the same time.

On the employee level, a JD is considered as a good way to converge expectations. It is important to baseline a mutual understanding of the job between the employee and his/her supervisor. Without such road map, it could be difficult to join point of views on how the deliverables would look like. Yet, a JD should not be too descriptive in a way that limits the imagination of the employee nor condensed in a way that makes it vague.

On the other hand, a JD is very important for the employers for many reasons. Out of these reasons are finding the right candidates, minimizing overlaps between different jobs, and weighing each job. Once an employer efficiently weigh the job this yields to cutting pay inflation, help keep employees, and draw an effective organization structure.

Finally, many may ask what is the different between the formats that are scattered on the web. Which one my organization should use? If your organization is not looking beyond the JD itself, then it would not really matter. However, if your organization is looking after the JD which is the most cases. The document used must reflect the evaluation method that they are intending to apply. It could be clear enough for any HR practitioner that the JDs are the foundation of any HR framework. The foundation have to come first and then the rest although, it is not always the cases. I have seen it comes later on, but always remember that late arrival better than no-show.

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The complete training program

By | Published October 11, 2010

A friend of mine asked me about how to design a good training program. I thought it is useful to write about it, as I might have other point of views on this topic. I think it is not right to say that there is a standard format for a training program. In the world of training (all size fits all) may not work all times or most of the times. But if we consider the training program as a document to be filled or template to be completed I can say that in my view a good training program is a program that cover the following:

  • Explanation of the training needs analysis approach going to be used.
  • The identified gaps, putting it in understanding.
  • The objectives and goals of the program (long/short).
  • Job profiles covered in the program.
  • Participants groups.
  • An outline of training.
  • level requirements.
  • Training delivery.
  • Standards used.
  • Roles & Responsibilities.
  • Reporting methodology, which covers the evaluation methodology also.
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TNA evaluation matrix

By | Published August 13, 2010

In a previous post Competency based TNA (the top-down approach) I have mentioned that to make use of Competency based TNA you should have three documents:

  1. Competency Dictionary.
  2. Competency Level Matrix.
  3. Competency Evaluation Matrix.

The evaluation matrix helps evaluating the employee level of a certain competency. This helps assessing the gap which you will design your program to close.

This file (Competency Based TNA Show case) explains more in this regards.

Posted in Competency | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Competency based TNA (the top-down approach)

By | Published June 3, 2010

Competency based Training Needs Assessment (TNA) or I might call it the top-down approach for efficient training implementation. Is something might be known long time ago, but I was trying to carry out this approach and I couldn’t find an exact implementation methodology until recently I have figured out that I should start designing this framework if I may call it “framework”, starting from the top to down. I have developed the Competency Dictionary, Competency Level Matrix and the Competency Evaluation Matrix. The Competency Dictionary will work as the base for this framework, where all required leadership/technical competencies that we wants to have in this dept. are there!. The Competency Level Matrix is a simple matrix that shows the required level of knowledge for each competency for each job. The last one is the Evaluation Matrix which is there to be used on an annual basis to rate and measure the real level of the competency that the job incumbent indicates.

By doing this all parts of the puzzle is brought together to be a tool for efficient training. How training! as I said the top-down approach! now we know exactly what kind of competencies we would like to have, also the level of competency for each job and how much of it each employee shows. The next step is to close the gaps using the competency mapping method and raise the current level provided by employees using the right training program.

Posted in Competency | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

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