Hawthorne Effect

Hawthorne effect is a concept that came from the Hawthorne Works Factory near Chicago, Illinois, USA. A study was conducted in this factory which focused on finding the changes in the workers’ productivity in higher or lower levels of light. This as a result helped in concluding that the behavior of the subjects changes if they are aware that they are being observed. This is merely considered to be a response to the subject’s knowledge of being observed and not related to any external influence.

HR Audit

HR Audit is an assessment of the HR functions within an organization in order to find out the effectiveness of these functions and processes. This helps in finding out the drawbacks and the plus points for having the HR department within the organization.

An HR audit can be carried out by the internal officials or some external agency can also be hired for the purpose.

Halo Effect

Halo effect is being under the impression that if a candidate who has applied for a position possesses one of the traits needed for the position, then the interviewers assume that he/she might be possessing the other required traits as well. This is mostly seen to happen during recruitment and selection stage.

Also, at times during performance appraisal, the supervisor might consider this trait to be superior to the others and can tend to be biased to one employee over the possession of a particular trait. This sometimes acts in favor and sometimes against the person as the person may be good or bad at the trait and this might affect the ratings.

Group Thinking

Group thinking is a decision making or reasoning process in which a group is involved and the opinion of each of the group members is considered. This group thinking is an uncritical acceptance or agreement to a certain thought process or a particular point. The group members express their opinions over a certain topic and provide critical inputs which are then analysed and evaluated by the whole group. This leads to a justified decision in most of the cases.

Group Dynamics

Group dynamics is the way in which a group of people interact or communicate with the whole group. This is slightly different as compared to the one to one interaction and not everyone is capable of doing this effectively. This is also a branch of social psychology that deals with studying the problems that people tend to face while in group and also the group structure.

Gross Misconduct

Gross Misconduct is a wrongful, improper, or unlawful act committed by an employee. This is a serious offense and may result in loss of job.Examples may be: stealing, workplace violence. Many countries do not provide unemployment benefits for the people who lost job by gross misconduct.

Grievance

Grievances are the complaints that are brought to the notice of the HR or the management by the employee regarding any misconduct by someone or some action taken against the employee as against the rules and regulations as defined in the employment contract. This can also be vice versa.

Good Faith Bargaining

Good faith bargaining is the negotiation that takes place between two parties where in the two parties meet and argue with each other with the positive intention of coming to an agreement over the scope of their representation. This is done with open mind from both the parties and the intention is to arrive at an agreement.

Goal Setting

Goal setting is the process of setting up the goals for all the employees in the organization and assigning them to the individual employees or teams depending on their skills and abilities. This can be a single or a set of several goals and decides how the organization fared in its performance in a particular time period decided at the time of goal setting.

Expatriate Package

The expatriate package is the salary and benefits that are provided to an employee who is working on an assignment in a foreign nation. This may include the cost-of-living allowance, hardship allowance, relocation allowance, education allowance, foreign service premium along with the base salary that the employee was getting at the home nation. The salary of the employee is adjusted in such a manner that the standard of living stays at par with the home nation and the foreign nation.

Exit Interview

Exit interview is the last meeting that is held between the employee who is about to exit the organization and the human resource department or any superior of the employee. The purpose of this meeting is to find out the reasons behind the employee’s decision to leave the organization, to get a feedback about the work environment and the organization as a whole. The intention is to bring in improvements in the organization if any are desired and to make things better for the present and the future employees.

This should not be done by the immediate superior of the employee as this can lead to biased judgement from both the parties and may fail the entire purpose behind the interview.

Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is a coaching provided to some high potential employees in the organization in order to elevate their levels of performance. In this a team of the employee and another person who acts as a coach is formed. This helps in addressing the work related issues of the employee that can range from work-life balance, workplace related issues and also issues that employee might face in his professional and personal life. This helps in bringing out the most in the employee on the professional level.

Equity Theory

Equity theory is a concept according to which all the employees in an organization want a fair treatment and try to compare their efforts to those of others in the organization in terms of the rewards they receive. This helps them in judging if they are getting a fair treatment as compared to the others or not.

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)

This is the process by which the activities of the organization are planned, organized, lead and controlled so as to bring down the risks on the several aspects of the organization that includes the financial, operational and strategic aspects. This helps in forecasting the risks and saving the organization from the unpredicted problems.

Empowerment

Empowerment is the process of strengthening an individual’s ability to accomplish a task or activity by providing them with the authorization for taking decisions, controlling the work, or taking actions on an individual level. This is done in order to uplift the conditions of a particular group that didn’t get the advantage in the past and needs special favors. This can be done on an organizational level or society or a particular group level. Giving reservation to a group is one way of empowerment.

Employer Branding

Employer branding is another term used for creating a better image of the employer in the eyes of the present as well as the future employees the organization plans to attract. This is also used to attract the present stakeholders who can be the clients as well. The concept like “great place to work” is in direct agreement to this strategy.

This helps in building a positive image of the employer in the society, which has many good results for the organization in the future and helps in attracting the best out of the rest.

Employee Value Proposition (EVP)

This is the value that an employee gets from his/her employer in return to the performance exhibited on the job. This is one of the key concepts included in employer branding process. This is seen as another way through which the employers attract their employees and retain as well as engage them at work by rewarding them sufficiently as per the performance.

Employee Retention

Employee retention is a systematic and special effort put in by the employer in order to encourage the employees to stay in the organization for a longer time period and to stop them from leaving the jobs due to several reasons. This is mostly done by providing them better work conditions, more perks, addressing the needs of the employees including work related as well as emotional needs sometimes. Some organizations provide special counseling to their employees to find out if they are happy in their work place and try to implement the suggestions if any. Since the employees are biggest asset to an organization, this strategy seems to be just right for the organization.

Employee Relations

Employee relations is a term used to refer to the employee-management relationship which involves all the activities that can help in improving, developing and maintaining these relationships. This is done by motivating communication between the employees and management and also by addressing the disputes/ grievances that may arise during the course of the employment between the two parties.

Employee Advocacy

Employee advocacy is a responsibility of the HR department to define and ensure that the management is giving a fair treatment to the employees. In addition if they find out that there is something unfair going on with the employee then the HR should represent the employees’ interests as per the mechanisms defined in the organization’s rulebook. This also provides the employees with the proper mechanisms to contest the unfair practices of the management.

Extrinsic Rewards

Extrinsic rewards are the rewards that an employee receives as a token of appreciation by the employer for exceptional performance at work. These are work related awards and can be either in monetary or financial terms. The purpose of these rewards is to motivate the employees for continuous better performance and also to instill a feeling a competition among the other employees.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the mental ability of an individual that makes him/her capable of understanding the emotions and activities of others in addition to the capability of being able to understand and manage their own actions and impulses and their causes. From an HR point of view this is the ability of the person that makes him/her different from others. This precisely means the ability to perceive the emotions and to access them and generate results by that understanding which helps in promoting the intellectual as well as emotional growth of the individual.

Due Diligence

Due diligence is practiced when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. This method is used for determining the state or worth of some specific investment or a purchase or it can also be a potential partner. This involves an investigation of all the aspects of a business viz., legal, tax, labour, financial, IT, commercial, environmental etc. This summarises to all the assets and liabilities associated with a business.

Dual Labour Markets

The Dual labour markets theory is the division of the economy into two parts. These are the primary sector and the secondary sector. The division is based on the skills, expertise, wages, etc. Those belonging to the primary sector are the workers who have high wages, are skilled, have employment security and even get more benefits in their jobs as compared to the ones in the secondary sector. The workers in the secondary sector are less provided in all the aspects starting from the wages to the job security or benefits. These are the unskilled workers who don’t have many chances of promotion. The secondary sector workers don’t even have an organized union like the primary sector workers. The term of employment in the secondary sector is mostly short term.

Downsizing

Downsizing is the process by which an organization tries to bring down the number of employees working for it by layoffs, terminations, spinoffs or voluntary retirements. This is mostly done as a result of the organization failing to perform certain activity or achieve certain target which may lead to budgetary constraints.

Distributive Bargaining (also Competitive Bargaining)

Distributive bargaining is an approach of negotiation or bargaining which is used when there is a distribution of certain asset or liability taking place among two parties. It is unlike the integrative bargaining which is just an effort of making out the most of a deal that has already been done regarding the distribution of something.

Dismissal

Dismissal refers to the official discharge of the services of an employee from the employment by the employer. This can also be termed as an involuntary termination of services. The reasons for termination can vary. It can be a result of unsatisfactory performance or indecent behavior or attendance problems by the employee or simply a result of layoff strategy or merger and acquisition.

Discrimination

Discrimination is the act of distinguishing among two people based on their inclination towards a certain group, nationality, class, religion, gender, category or sexual preferences etc. This does not include the distinction made on the basis of the merit or performance of the individuals which is absolutely lawful and is well justified, but in case there is any sort of distinction made between employees on the basis of their caste, creed, race, language, religion or sex that is illegal and is a punishable crime in many countries.

Discretionary Bonus

Discretionary bonus is a special privilege given to a certain employee after completion of a certain period of employment. In this the management decides how much bonus shall be given to the certain employee and it may differ from what the others in the same position might be getting. The decision to provide this bonus lies in the hands of the management and there is no such provision that this is a compulsory bonus that should be provided to all the employees. The grounds that may serve as the basis of providing this bonus can be exceptional performance shown by the employee.

Disciplinary Procedure

Disciplinary procedure is the action taken against an employee in the event of the employee acting in a manner contrary to what has been defined by the management and as mentioned in the rule books, which has been agreed upon by the employee and the employer in the beginning of the employment . This may vary from a small written warning given to the employee to the dismissal or suspension from the employment.

Distance Learning

Distance learning is a method of providing and receiving education, training or instructions to the students present at a different geographical location. Distance learning is a way by which the students can have an access to the best teachers and best education that they may not be able to get in their vicinity. This is done by using internet through videos, audios, or sometimes one-to-one contact sessions or also offline through ready to watch videos or audios or self help books even.

Deregulation

Deregulation is the process for lightening the burden of making policies on the HR Department and also delegating the responsibilities and authority related to HR to the line managers. This is generally useful for the organizations where the employees have more interaction with their line managers as compared to the HR department. This provides a more personal touch and also it reduces the cost and complexity of the HR functions in an organization. For larger organizations this is slightly practical as this helps the HR department from increasing the workforce for interacting with the employees. It also helps in direct interaction and gives HR authority to the line managers.
While deregulating, the HR department should ensure that the line managers are properly trained for its implementation and are aware of the laws and policies that are necessary for such processes. If this is not the case then it may only result in a huge HR failure.

Decision Tree Model

Decision tree model is a tool to make decisions using the decision tree i.e. a graphic tree like diagram that is a depiction of all the possible outcomes from an action. These outcomes include everything the resource costs, outcomes, utility etc. that will be the basis of the future strategy of an organization. This is one of the four contingency models. This model is useful for decision making when a group of people are involved in the process.

The decision tree constitutes of the decision nodes, chance nodes and end nodes. These can be added and removed depending on the requirement, which makes this very flexible.

Although its good for making the decisions that do not have many options, but when it comes to the situations where many possible outcomes are there, this can become very complex and difficult to interpret.

Core Competencies

Core competencies is a set of the skills, or knowledge or the abilities which is the combination of theoretical and technical skills that create value to the customers.

Core Competencies are the set of the most strategically significant and value-creating skills in a job, within a discipline or field, or in an organization. These are the skills, knowledge and abilities, which employees must possess in order to successfully perform job functions. Core competencies are strategic business capabilities that provide a company with a marketplace advantage by distinguishing superior performance and it should help company to expand into new end markets as well as provide significant benefit to the existing customers .

Contract of Service

Contract of Service also known as Employment agreement or Employment contract. This agreement is made between an employer and an employee at the time when the employee is hired for a job in an organization.

The contract of service will include the employment clauses such as the commencement of the employment, job title and roles given to the employee, hours of work, remuneration and the probation period if it applicable. It also includes other information such as employment benefits, terminations clause and notice period, code of conduct at the workplace.The employer cannot change these terms and conditions of employment in future unless the employee agrees to it.

Contingency Models

Contingency models are leadership style models in organisational theory. The leadership styles can not be explained only on the basis of behavioural models as it is necessary to consider the external and internal situation in which the group operates and this determines the adopted style of leadership.

There are several models, which attempt to understand the relationship between style and situation, they are,

• Fiedler’s Contingency Model.
• Hersey-Blanchard Situational Theory.
• Path-Goal Theory.

Vroom-Yetton Leadership Model

Contract for Services

This is an agreement with the independent contractors wherein the contractors agree to perform certain services in accordance to the terms and conditions as mentioned in the contract. This is not similar to the employment contract or the contract of service.

In case a contract does not constitute of a proper control or there is improper mention of the requirements for the personal services, or there is a lack of mutual obligations between the employee and the employer regarding the future responsibilities, then the contract can not be considered to be a contract of employment.

Cost-of-living Allowance

Cost-of-living allowance is the extra money given to an expatriate, who is living away from home, to cover the additional expenses. This helps in balancing the differences in the standard of living for the expatriate between the host and the home country of the expatriate.

This is not applicable to the employees who get relocated permanently to a different country. But their salary is adjusted in accordance to the base pay that was being given in the home country.

Corporate Mission

Corporate mission is the aim or statement of purpose of an organization. This is formulated as the mission statement of an organization. This guides the actions and strategies of the organization or the direction in which the company will be expanding its course of actions. Anything that relates to the future plans of the organization is the corporate mission.

Core Labour Force

Core labour force is a group of employees that is vital for an organization in sync with its strategy for the achievement of its vision and mission. These workers benefit directly from the advancements of the organizations’ policies. While this part of employees enjoy a secure employment, higher salaries and better working conditions, the increase in the numbers of the workforce depends on the wages of this core group. Men are more likely to be included in this core labour force as compared to women.

Contingent Workers

Contingent workers or Provisional workers are the workers who are not permanent employees of a firm. The employers hire them as and when they need an extra hand or an additional service. They are not committed to the job or the organization for a long term. They work for the employers on a temporary or a part-time basis. The employment is based on a contract for a fixed time period or till the completion of a specific task. Freelancers, part-time workers, independent contractors, consultants etc. fall into this category.

Cost Leadership

This concept was developed by Michael Porter and it refers to a way of achieving competitive advantage in an industry. This can be achieved by acquiring the lowest cost of operation in an industry. This is driven by the organization’s cost efficiency, scale, size, experience, and scope. By making a strategy to ensure that these are utilized efficiently an organization can achieve cost leadership.

Constructive dismissal

Constructive dismissal is the kind of employee dismissal that occurs when an employee feels that they have been forced to quit from their jobs because of the unfair behavior of the employer. The behavior that puts the employee in an untenable position and amounts to the breach of the employment contract by making significant changes to the job responsibilities or the worker’s arrangements like making them work for longer hours than decided, or reduction in the salary without notification or worker’s consent, or demotion etc.

Proving that such kind of a behavior took place is not easy as most of the employees leave the job right when they realize that the work environment is negative, before some breach has actually taken place. This gives the tribunal a reason to think that no heavy personal loss occurred due to the employer’s inappropriate behavior.

Consent

Consent is the agreement or the permission to do something or for something to happen. In HR context, this is a formal permission that an employer gives to the employees to get a job done or in agreement to a proposal. This also includes the permission to access of some or the other information by the employee or the employer to the other party. This could be either in the form of performance records or personal information.

Confidentiality Agreement

This is a legal agreement between an employer and an employee made at the time the employment is finalized. This includes all the terms and conditions that bind an employee to maintain the confidentiality involved in a job. This stops a person from disclosing the important information that is crucial for a job or the whole business. This is also known as the Secrecy Agreement or the Confidential Disclosure Agreement or non-disclosure agreement.

The benefits to the employer from this agreement is in the form of security from the disclosure of their important information, trade secrets, strategic plans, business knowledge etc. from falling into the hands of the competitors.

Competitive Advantage

Competitive advantage is the advantage gained by a person over the others by acquiring certain skills or knowledge in a job. These are the skills, knowledge, strategies, competencies etc. that differentiate one person from their competitors. This is a result of matching the core competencies to the opportunities that a person faces.

Competency

Competency means the ability or the attitude needed to do a job. This is acquired using the knowledge and skills earned by an individual through continuous effort and practice. The competency of a person does not depend on the age or time spend on a job. It is an underlying characteristic and helps in improving on the job performance of an individual. This enables one person to become better than another one in a job.

Cyclical Unemployment

Cyclical unemployment is a kind of unemployment out of the 5 types described in total. This has its origin in the times of recession when many organizations are forced to lay off their employees. This generally relates to the cyclic trends in a business cycle viz. growth and decline of the business’ production or sales.

Most affected from this kind of employment are the businesses that are seasonal in their production patterns or get affected by the recession.

This is the only kind of unemployment that doesn’t occur at any other times especially at the peak of a business.

Bullying

Bullying is also known as peer abuse is an act of causing harm directly or indirectly to the other employees in an organization through verbal abuse, physical assault, insulting behaviour, unfair actions or other methods of like manipulation or social exclusion. The bullied employee  feel threatened, abused, humiliated or vulnerable.

Broadbanding

Broadbanding is a process in which  a pay structure that consolidates a large number of narrower pay grades into fewer broad bands with wider salary range. Broadbanding evolves as organizations began to flatten their hierarchies. Broadbanding helps move decision-making closer to the point where competence and knowledge exists in organizations. In flattened organizations, the broadbanding structure allows more manoeuvrability for pay increases and career growth without actual promotion.

Brand Management

Brand management is using marketing in order to increase the product’s perceived value to the customer and increase brand equity. A good and Effective brand management helps to rise the price of products and the number loyal customers through positive brand associations and images or a strong awareness of the brand. A good understanding of the brand, brand values, target market and company’s vision is essential in order to develop the strategic plan to maintain brand equity or gain brand value.

Branding

Branding is the process of promoting a product, services or process by identifying and marketing its unique differentiator characteristics from its competitors, this involves giving unique name, logo, phrase or other distinguishing ways in order to create image in the consumer’s mind. Branding is very essential in order to differentiate from competitors and to create bonding with customers.

Bonus Pay

A bonus is extra compensation which is over the amount of pay specified as a base salary or hourly rate of pay. The amount of the bonus can be specified by employee job contract. A bonus can be distributed randomly as the company can afford to pay a bonus because of the good financial performance, or the amount of the bonus can be specified by contract.

Bonus

Bonus is a extra compensation which is over and above the amount of base salary. Bonus is based on the performance of an individual or group in an organization or to all the employees in an company. The bonus payment can be made in the form of cash, shares, or other form of compensations. Bonus can also be planned or pre-defined amount of money that can be earned for achieving a specified performance goal, this kind of bonus payment is expressed as percentage of base salary. Bonus is also paid to the employees on completion of certain projects or tasks in an organization, the amount is usually defined based on the nature and complexity of the task or project.

Bereavement Policy

A bereavement policy is the company’s practice that establishes uniform guidelines for providing paid leave for the employee when a family member, relative, or partner dies so that he can making arrangements, settling family affairs, bereavement, attending the funeral or memorial service. In general there will be different Bereavement leave policy for immediate family member and non family member.

Bereavement leave

Bereavement leave is in the category of paid leave. Employee can take Bereavement leave during the death of spouse, parent, family member or a relative so that he can attend or arrange the funeral proceedings. Bereavement leave in case of the death of immediate family member its three days and one day in case of the event of death outside the immediate family.

Behavioural Competency

The characteristics or attributes possessed by an individual  is referred to as Behavioural competency. This include motives, attitude, values, communication skills etc. This is the attribute that employers look for in their employees. Behavioural competency contribute to individual success in the organization. This gives a clear understanding to the employees about what is expected of them and also gives a very good understanding and clarity of their team and individual roles. The Behavioural competency is used in many of HR related functions likes Performance Management, Training and Development, Recruitment, Workforce planning etc.

Competence

Competence is defined as the ability or capacity to perform a task or an activity efficiently or successfully. This is a state of being capable or qualified to do a certain task. This is a collection of suitable skills and knowledge necessary to do a certain job. Different people have different levels of competencies for performing the same job. This is a trait that gets better with more practice i.e. the more time a person spends in a certain field can also determine the competence. But, sometimes it doesn’t depend totally on the time spend on the job. It can occur to a person at any stage of life.

Competency-Based Pay

This is a compensation system that aims at paying the employees on the basis of the skills and knowledge they possess and not on the basis of their designation in the organization. This provides recognition to the breadth, depth and the type of skill that an employee possesses.

This is also termed as a system of appraisal of the employee as against the core competencies that are necessary to get a particular job done. This is somewhat similar to the skills-based pay but used in a wider context.

Compensation

Compensation is the amount of monetary or non-monetary benefits provided to an employee by the employer in return to the work done by the employee in a particular period of time. This is aimed at motivating better performance by the employees, retaining them in the organization, rewarding them for their efforts etc.

Compensation may include profit sharing, benefits, bonuses, overtime pay, rewards, commissions in the form of money or non-monetary benefits can also be given in the form of gift cards, stock options, company accommodation or vehicle, or other such things that are not in the form of money but can be taxable.

Compensable factors

Compensable factors are the job attributes that are described in a plan for job evaluation that is used to provide the basis for job evaluation. This is basically used to evaluate the worth of a particular job for the organization. These compensable factors can be effort, skill, working conditions and job responsibilities.

Functional Job Analysis

This method of job analysis was developed by the Employment and Training Administration of the US Department of Labor. This method is used to produce standardized information specific to the job and the employee’s performance.

This is a quantitative approach of working and it assumes that any job is a combination of three worker functions: people, data and things.

The latest functional job analysis uses a seven scale version to identify what an employee does in a job:

1. People
2. Data
3. Things
4. Worker Instructions
5. Math
6. Reasoning
7. Language

Freedom of Association

This has a reference to a person’s choice to be associated or not with any group and the group’s choice to take any action in the favor of the member’s. In the context of an organization this refers to the unions.

An employee can choose which association she/he wants to join or leave. It is their right to associate with others having a common interest and stand up for a common cause. Freedom of religion is also a form of freedom of association which gives a person the liberty to follow any religion that she/he wants.

Fixed Term Employment

An employment that has a fixed end-date agreed upon at the time of commencement of the contract is a fixed term employment. This can be based on a time period agreed upon at the beginning of the employment or on the completion of the job that has to be done or also in the case of a particular event taking place during the course of employment. The conditions of this kind of an employment are decided right in the beginning with the agreement of both, the employee and the employer.

Comparable Worth

This concept refers to the idea that women and men, who are doing a job that involves delegation of equal or comparable skills and responsibilities, should receive an equal or comparable pay. This also has its reference to the discrimination in salaries or wages based on the caste, race, religion etc.

Collective Bargaining

Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between the employer and the labor unions for deciding the wages, salaries, contracts, rules and working conditions that will be experienced by the employees while the work in the organization’s premises. In some cases in a few countries, this collective bargaining can be done by the employers’ organizations instead of just one employer facing the heat of the labor unions.

Collective Agreement

A collective agreement is a labor contract about the terms and conditions applicable to the employees with respect to their employment. This is decided by the labor unions in agreement with the employers. An agreement can be made about the salaries, wages, working hours, working conditions, rights and responsibilities of the trade unions and the grievance handling procedures.

Coaching

"A method of directing, instructing and training a person or group of people, with the aim to achieve some goal or develop specific skills. There are many ways to coach, types of coaching and methods to coaching. Direction may include motivational speaking and training may include seminars, workshops, and supervised practice." (wikipedia)

Change Management

Change management is a systematic approach of handling change both at an individual level and an organization level. This can also be concerned with teams or societal changes. A prospective approach to change management involves dealing with these three steps effectively: adapting to change, controlling the change and effecting the change. In other words change management deals with effectively introducing the change in the organization, implementing the change among the individuals or the teams, and then dealing with the consequences effectively. The extent to which you are successful in dealing with these changes decides how successful you will be in future. This can refer to the introduction of a new technology, a new process or a new environment for the employees.

Behavioural Based Interview

This technique of interview is also known as Behavioral Descriptive Interview (BDI) or Behavioral Event Interview (BEI). This is a technique generally used in interviews. This has its focus on the past experiences, knowledge, behaviors, skills and abilities of the candidates. Questions related to the exhibition of certain skill or reactions by the candidates in specific situations are mainly the basis of these interviews. The questions are mainly based on these reactions.

The past performance in similar situations is considered to be the best measure and predictor of the candidate’s suitability for the job.

Benefits

Benefits are a form of compensation paid to employees by employers over the amount of base salary. Benefits is a portion of total remuneration package for employees.

Some of the common set of benefits could include many components such as career development, support for work-life balance, personal security, pension schemes, health insurance, life insurance, PTO or paid time off.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a process used in strategic management, Benchmarking is a process in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes and performance metrics in relation to best industrial practice. This is helpful to organizations to evaluate their processes and also to develop plans for improving or adapting the changes to their processes based on the best practices. This is continuous process as it always help organizations to improve their processes.

Benchmarking is also known as “Best Practice Benchmarking” or “Process benchmarking”.

Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS)

BARs is a rating scale developed by Smith and Kendall in the year 1963. This rating scale uses critical events or incidents placed against a scale as anchor statements. This is also a combination of the critical incident method of rating with the graphic rating scale.

Most of the employees are rated against 6-7 performance dimensions which are placed against 5-6 critical incident anchors. The person who is evaluating the employee is asked to pick the most important job behaviors that will be used to anchor the scale for a particular job. These job behaviors should be the best fits for a specific job dimension to be used during a rating period. The scale that is used can either be narrative or a 3 or 5 point scale.

Bumping

Bumping is a method of giving second life to the employees who are being laid off due to several reasons. In this an employee at a senior level, working for the organizations for a long time, is given an option to accept the position of another employee who is considerably junior and is not being laid off. One of the very common reasons for bumping can be the elimination of the position being occupied by the senior official.

The rights for bumping are mostly defined in the Collective Bargaining Agreements.

Base Salary

Base salary is the pay given to an employee by an employer in return to the work done by the employee for a day or week or any work period. This is the amount fixed by the employer in return of the work done.

The base salary does not include the perks given apart from the amount agreed at the time of the joining. This excludes the bonuses, reward money, benefits or overtime money or any other compensation benefit that is apart from the amount the employer agreed to pay at the time of employment.

This base salary is also used as the basis for calculation of the perks and bonuses and allowances.

Base Payroll

Base payroll is the sum of annual wages or salaries paid by a business at the opening of the business on the first day of the coming year or the last day of the past year before there is any increase.

Balanced Scorecard

It is a performance metric used for strategic management and measurement systems to improve and identify various internal functions and their expected outcomes. It was devised by David Norton and Robert Kaplan in the year 1992. It is meant to enable an organization to link its actions to the vision and strategy devised in the beginning.

It basically helps the organizations to measure and get feedback in terms of their performance in four main areas viz: financial performance, internal business processes, customer knowledge and learning and growth.

Data collection is an important part of this method as this helps in taking better decisions for the future growth and development of the organization.

Autocratic Leadership

It is a form of corporate leadership in which one leader determines what to do and what not to do in an organization. This leader is the central authority in all the decision making and policy making inside the organization. If there is any issue or a big problem that needs to be solved, then that is done through the interference of this leader. All the information is provided to this person and then the decisions are made.

Attrition

Attrition is an phenomenon of decrease in the workforce of a company through natural means such as retirement or resignation. This kind of workforce reduction is natural in any industry or organizations and this will also help an organization for decreasing the labor costs. 

Attrition is better in comparison with other methods of workforce reductions, such as mass layoffs. Very High attrition rate is not good for a company as this might result in lack of resources for the company and this will have its effects on performance of the company.

Appraisal

Performance appraisal is a process of evaluating an employee’s past performance and setting up the standards for the future. It involves setting up the new objectives for performance of the employees and how it will be evaluated in the future. These appraisals can either be done once in a year or half yearly or quarterly. The new HRs however emphasize on the continuous appraisals. It is also called as performance planning.

The different types of appraisals can be 180 degree, 360 degree appraisals. It can be simply done with the involvement of the boss and the employee or it can also be done by involving the peers, customers apart from the employee and the superior.

This is used for deciding the future of the employee which can be in the form of promotions in the position or for the increase in the compensations. This is also done for deciding the future career path of the employees.

Affirmative Action

This is a policy or program in organizations that aims to address the problem of discrimination based on person’s race, color, caste, sex or nationality. The motive behind this policy is to uplift the status of the suppressed groups and bring a uniform treatment for all. It helps in providing equal opportunities for everyone.

It came in prominence in the United States in 1960s. This was to uplift the status of those who were suppressed because of their colors or races. The same was brought into practice in South Africa as well. In India it has been used to improve the situation of those who face discrimination based on castes.

Absolute Ratings

This is a method used for evaluating the employee performance based on his/her behavior or job performance. In this the rater uses a fixed value scale to measure the performance and assigns a fixed value on the scale to the employee based on his observations about the employee’s performance and work behavior.

In this rating system there is no comparison between the performance of the employee with the other individuals.

Absenteeism

The absence of an employee from work due to any reason. It can be either be deliberate or habitual or it can also be due to legitimate reasons like sickness, or any unavoidable family issues or personal problems. Another reason of absenteeism can also be bad work atmosphere and low or no motivation to work or no commitment towards ones' job. 

To make sure that the employees do not miss the work due to petty reasons, the management in collaboration with the Human Resources department should ensure that the employees are properly engaged in their jobs. Also, there should be regular discussions with employees to find out if they are facing any issues at their work place, that may help in addressing the issues of regular absence of employees form the work place. 

Absenteeism in an organization can also be measured by using the following formula:

Absenteeism = Total number of Absent days in one month / (Average headcount of employees * Working days in a month)