Human Resource Management International Digest

Srikanth, P.B.

2015 Human Resource Management International Digest

doi: 10.1108/HRMID-12-2014-0153

Purpose – Advances the view that employee potential needs to be assessed based on capability to handle the breadth and complexity of a given role, for which past performance may not serve as a good indicator. Design/methodology/approach – Proposes a role-based perspective for evaluating performance and identifying employee potential. Findings – Details practical ways of implementing a role-based approach and identifies how to overcome obstacles. Practical implications – Explains why promotion needs to be based on a person’s adaptability and potential to deal with complexity rather than his or her ability to do more of the same. Social implications – Reveals how organizations can be made more effective by promoting the right people. Originality/value – Concentrates on the importance of employee potential in selecting the right people for promotion.

2015 Human Resource Management International Digest

doi: 10.1108/HRMID-12-2014-0154

Purpose – Describes how Stonegate Pub Company has introduced a career-development pathway with scientist Albert Einstein as its figurehead. Design/methodology/approach – Examines the reasons for the pathway and its associated training, the form it takes and the results it has achieved. Findings – Explains that the program has been successful in reducing employee turnover, increasing the number of vacancies filled from within the firm and improving customer service. Practical implications – Reveals that Stonegate Pub Company, which recently opened a dedicated training center in Birmingham, UK, won the Innovation in Training award at the Scottish Training Federation’s 2014 awards, in recognition for its successful Albert’s Apprenticeships. Social implications – Demonstrates that the design is fun, quirky, engaging and irreverent, with a desire to appeal to the disengaged learner, the gamer and the personalities who make up a large percentage of the company’s teams. Originality/value – Shows how initial research followed by continuous improvement has resulted in an exceptional employee training and development program that has outstripped the company’s expectations of it.

2015 Human Resource Management International Digest

doi: 10.1108/HRMID-12-2014-0156

Purpose – Describes the over-16 traineeships and graduate-management program at Edwardian Group London, an hotel and hospitality company. Design/methodology/approach – Examines the reasons for the programs, the form they take and the results they achieve. Findings – Explains that both courses provide participants with wide experience of the different departments in the group. Practical implications – Reveals that successful participants have a high chance of being employed by the group. Social implications – Describes two programs that offer through training in the hotel and hospitality industry and a strong chance of employment on completion. Originality/value – Contains detailed interviews with participants of the programs.

Little, Bob

2015 Human Resource Management International Digest

doi: 10.1108/HRMID-12-2014-0157

Purpose – Observes how the introduction of a new learning-management system has made training easier, cheaper and more effective at international freight-forwarder JAS. Design/methodology/approach – Examines the reasons for the new system, the form it takes and the advantages it has brought. Findings – Explains that using the system makes things easier for the end-users who have one place to go for their learning materials. It has allowed the company to evaluate end-users’ knowledge of products and services. Practical implications – Reveals that the cost of delivering each individual piece of learning to any and every user is less than 20 USA cents. Social implications – Highlights the benefits of a learning-management system for organizations with large numbers of geographically dispersed employees. Originality/value – Describes a system that has helped JAS to standardize its approach to training globally, allowing consistent, controlled messaging and has created a method and process by which JAS can assess and evaluate its employees’ skills, knowledge base and areas for improvement.

2015 Human Resource Management International Digest

doi: 10.1108/HRMID-12-2014-0155

Purpose – Describe how KPMG in the UK has expanded its school-leaver and apprenticeship schemes to give more young people the chance to experience working life in the areas of auditing, taxation and business advice. Design/methodology/approach – Explains the reasons for the programs, the form they take and the successes they are achieving. Findings – Rreveals that KPMG welcomed 71 school-leavers on to its 12-month paid work-experience program last year, increasing the intake from 25 candidates the year before. The company also welcomed 32 new apprentices to its business-support academy scheme, following a successful pilot involving seven apprentices the previous year. Practical implications – Describes how the Star program offers talented school-leavers who have just completed their A-levels or equivalent the opportunity to gain 12 months of paid work experience, while the apprenticeship program offers 16- to 24-year-old apprentices the opportunity to spend 13 months working in various functions across the firm. Apprentices obtain first-hand work experience and exposure to the business while completing a National Vocational Qualification (advanced tier 3) in business and administration through the firm’s training partner, BPP Training. Social implications – Explains that the drive to recruit trainees into KPMG is part of its long-term recruitment strategy to attract talented people from every walk of life. Originality/value – Points out how KPM’s programs are helping young people to fulfill their potential and succeed in a company that they would not necessarily have had the opportunity to join through conventional means.

Rana, Geeta ; Goel, Alok Kumar

2015 Human Resource Management International Digest

doi: 10.1108/HRMID-12-2014-0158

Purpose – Consider the various employee-development initiatives at Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL), India. Design/methodology/approach – Underlines the key role of employee development at the firm, and explains in particular how it develops its future managers. Findings – Reveals how employee competencies are mapped and how training is designed around these and the skill needs of the company. Practical implications – Details the benefits of this approach for both individual employees and the company. Social implications – Advances the view that BPSL’s managers are more rounded and knowledgeable than those in comparable Indian companies. Originality/value – Highlights the importance of taking into account the skill needs of the individual as well as the organization as a whole.

Bagga, Teena

2015 Human Resource Management International Digest

doi: 10.1108/HRMID-12-2014-0159

Purpose – Details some of the advantages and pitfalls of human resource (HR) outsourcing. Design/methodology/approach – Refers in particular to Jaypee Infratech’s outsourcing the employment of toll staff on its Yamuna express-way to HR-services company TeamLease. Findings – Explains that the main advantage of the arrangement is that it gives employees of the Jaypee HR department more time to concentrate on such strategic work such as organizational performance. Practical implications – Reveals that Jaypee keeps a strict check on the working hours, payroll, benefits and performance appraisal of the toll employees and endeavors to ensure that they are not treated unfairly. Social implications – Considers, briefly, some of the social and legal implications of HR outsourcing. Originality/value – Illustrates how some of the potential pitfalls of HR outsourcing can be overcome – or at least some of the risks alleviated.

Longenecker, Clinton ; Fink, Laurence S.

2015 Human Resource Management International Digest

doi: 10.1108/HRMID-12-2014-0160

Purpose – Considers the four foundations of exceptional human resource (HR) leadership – strong business acumen, trustworthy leadership, great HR expertise and cultural stewardship – that must be in place to meet current and future human resource challenges. Design/methodology/approach – Considers the four foundations of exceptional HR leadership – strong business acumen, trustworthy leadership, great HR expertise and cultural stewardship – that must be in place to meet current and future human-resource challenges. Findings – Advances the view that if one of the cornerstones is weak or ineffective, the ability of the HR leader and his or her team to be exceptional is greatly impaired. Practical implications – Reveals how to take HR to the next level. Social implications – Demonstrates how HR leaders can add value and improve the competitiveness of their enterprises. Originality/value – Explains how HR can best overcome the challenges it faces in respect of talent gaps, process failures, compensation and benefits repositioning, workforce realignment, dealing with budget cuts and fiscal constraints, lack of front-line management buy-in, compliance, increased time constraints and the need to help with technological implementation, strategy execution and improving profitability.

White, Paul

2015 Human Resource Management International Digest

doi: 10.1108/HRMID-12-2014-0161

Purpose – Emphasizes the importance of keeping staff happy and feeling appreciated and reveals how best to do this. Design/methodology/approach – Shows what happens when employees do not feel valued and explains how best to correct this. Findings – Claims that when employees do not feel valued, staff dissatisfaction, tension in the office, more errors, poor customer service and higher staff turnover may follow. Practical implications – Describes how team members feel appreciated when appreciation is: communicated regularly; in the language and actions important to the recipient; delivered individually and is about him or her personally; and when the appreciation is viewed as being authentic. Social implications – Reveals that almost 80 per cent of people who quit their jobs cite not feeling valued as a key reason. Originality/value – Shows how communicating appreciation effectively can help to transform the workplace.

Turner, Paul ; Kalman, Danny

2015 Human Resource Management International Digest

doi: 10.1108/HRMID-12-2014-0162

Purpose – Considers the challenges facing people developing talent strategy in global organizations and ways of overcoming them. Design/methodology/approach – Describes how to maximize the potential of a multi-generational, multi-cultural, cross-organizational, inclusive-talent workforce. Findings – Examines the importance of: highlighting the value of people to organizational success; making the business case; ensuring that the whole organization buys into the concept; having an inclusive/selective talent strategy with equal emphasis on each area; making the chief executive the chief talent officer; joining up talent-management activity with business activity and other people-management strategies; delivering talent management well; and making sure there is involvement from all of the organization’s stakeholders. Practical implications – Considers that people management works best when the interests of the organization coincide with the interests of individual employees. For the organization this, means achieving its stakeholder objectives. For the employee, it means satisfaction at work, a balanced life and visible career prospects. Social implications – Advances the view that the focus on talent has rarely been sharper and so the concept of “make your people before you make your products” is important. Originality/value – Emphasizes that the attraction, development, management and retention of talented people is critical to the success of all organizations.

Sreejith, S.S.

2015 Human Resource Management International Digest

doi: 10.1108/HRMID-12-2014-0167

Purpose – Explains why performance evaluation designed for manufacturers is inappropriate for information technology organizations. Design/methodology/approach – Underlines the distinctiveness of the information technology workforce and provides the basis for an effective performance- evaluation system designed for these workers. Findings – Highlights the roles of consensus and transparency in setting and modifying evaluation criteria. Practical implications – Urges the need for a fair and open rewards and recognition system to run in parallel with reformed performance evaluation. Social implications – Provides a way of updating performance evaluation systems to take account of the move from manufacturing to information technology-based jobs in many developed and developing societies. Originality/value – Reveals how best to recognize, reward and assess the performance of information technology workers.

Rao, M.S.

2015 Human Resource Management International Digest

doi: 10.1108/HRMID-12-2014-0163

Purpose – Equips leaders with tools and techniques to lead change effectively. Design/methodology/approach – Explains various aspects of change leadership, including the characteristics of change leaders, and outlines a blueprint to effect change successfully. Findings – Argues that change requires a new mind-set, tool-set and skill-set. Lists some of the reasons for resistance to change. Practical implications – Highlights the differences between change and growth and considers the implications of these. Social implications – Seeks to justify the need to change in the current global business environment. Originality/value – Concludes that change is imperative for an organization to succeed in the modern business environment.