What is Competency Mapping?

Employees are always considered to be an organization's most valued assets. Competency mapping is a technique that is used by the human resource team in order to determine the qualities of an employee that can be put to use for the betterment of the employee's career as well as the company's projection.

 

The term competency is quite generic, and related to human behavior and psychology. Competency is often defined as a quality of being adequately qualified, intellectually able, and emotionally stable. The concept of competency is basically used to define the capability of being able. It can be mapped or measured by a psychological test, that helps the human resource management department to test the competence or competency of an employee or a potential employee. It must be noted that competency is measured in the employee's quality(es) and not quantity (measurement of performance). For instance, while mapping a person's competency, the question 'when and where' comes into the picture, and not 'how much'. Thus, an employee's ability to perform in a particular field is measured instead of measuring 'how much will he perform'. Most companies use simple multiple choice question tests for this purpose.

Arya Chanakya, a well-known royal adviser and prime minister from Vedic India, penned a famous book known as the Arthashastra, which is probably the first book that contains models for mapping competency, the thesis and theories of human aptitude, intelligence quotient, emotional quotient, and in general, everything that is related to human behavior regarding work, logic, and emotions. This book is an excellent leadership and management book, and is more than 3,000 years old.

It is a process with the help of which the employer, or the human resource team, decides where a particular person would work best as per his aptitude and temperament. There are several factors that are considered during a mapping process. There are also some simple processes that have been made by experts in the field of clinical psychology.

Constitution: Everyone's personality is based upon a definite constitution. Some aspects about work such as a person's ability to work as a team member or a team leader, or even his temperament to work individually are affected by this constitution.
Traits: Traits can be physical and also behavioral. Traits are usually related to the constitution. Knowing the traits of a person is absolutely important, as the management's behavior with every person differs.
Self Concept: Every person has an interpretation about himself and some self ideals. The management bears in mind these simple ideals, even during day-to-day work, due to the fact that, when these ideals are respected the employee tends to remain happy and productive.
Skill and Knowledge: Every employee has different skills and knowledge. Mapping helps the company know more about the person's skills and knowledge. It must be noted that even a simple virtue of being patient is treated as a skill by recruiters.

Several companies have started using mapping tools in order to know more about their prospective employees, or even current employees. On an average, a competency test on an employee would depict skills and knowledge of the person, his ability to work with other people, his constitution, his dedication, and finally, his willingness to work.

The total process of competency management ultimately helps the company in better personnel management and good workplace communication. It is thus considered to be an indispensable management tool.

Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/competency-mapping.html

Difference Between Human Resource Management and Personnel Management

Many of us assume that Human Resource Management (HRM) and personnel management are similar terms and can be interchanged. But, the fact is, even though both these terms share some common grounds, they have some diverse aspects.

The term personnel management originated before the term Human Resource Management (HRM). Human Resource Development (HRD) is another term used in management studies and it covers a wider view of HRM. They have more similarities than differences. One of the obvious similarities between them is that, they both share the same field of activity and have the same objective of 'managing the employees'.

What is Human Resource Management?

The all-importance and requisiteness of HRM is stated by Henry Ford (a pioneer in the field of management) as ~ "take out my building, take out my machines, and all capital but leave my men with me, I will become Henry Ford again." These lines say a lot about the importance of human resources for any organization. The human resources refer to the qualities possessed by the workforce or employees in an organization. These qualities include knowledge, values, skills, abilities, cognition, beliefs, commitment, etc., possessed by the employees, without which any organization cannot grow or achieve their objectives. In short, the efficiency and success of any administrative system depends upon the cooperation of the human resources. HRM directly deals with the human resources in a system. Human Resource Management is defined by Gray Dessler as ~ "The policies and practices involved in carrying out the 'people' or human resources aspects of a management position, including recruiting, screening, training and appraising".

Functions of HRM

Managing the workforce as assets, that are required to develop the organization.
Aligning and developing the HR policies, according to the corporate strategies and other business management policies.
Developing the skills of the employees through adequate training and by providing the necessary resources required to develop their knowledge pertaining to their job.
Creating an efficient Organization Development (OD) system.

What is Personnel Management?

"Personnel Management is that phase of management which deals with the effective control and use of manpower as distinguished from other sources of power. The methods, tools, and techniques designed and utilized to secure the enthusiastic participation of labor represent the subject matter for study in personnel administration." ~ Dale Yoder.

It is the sub-system of the whole management system in an organization. The production and distribution of goods and services is managed by the Personnel department. This department evaluates the efficiency of the workers and also provides them incentives which can be either monetary or non-monetary. They also assign the departments such as sales and marketing, production, maintenance, etc., where the employee has to work, depending on the skills and knowledge possessed by the employee.

Functions of Personnel Management

Developing the organizational structure and planning.
Managing the wage and salary of the employees and provide appraisals.
Providing employee benefits and services such as insurance plans, pension plans, fringe benefits, Provident Funds (PF), etc.
Negotiating on labor union activities like collective bargaining, trade union issues, contract agreements, grievance handling, etc.,
Auditing the employee policies and practices, to ensure the efficiency of those policies.

Both of them are important management sectors that work together for the growth of the organization, by managing and serving their employees. It was found that, nowadays, HRM has a broader scope than personnel management.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/difference-between-human-resource-management-and-personnel-management.html

 

Benefits of Human Resource Management

Good human resource management (HRM) strategies make a lot of difference in the output of the employees. In this article, some of its benefits have been explained.

 

Human resource management involves managing people in an organization. The last few decades have seen some drastic changes in the strategies employed by various companies for this purpose. Earlier, it had limited functions which was mainly confined to paperwork related to hiring and payment of the staff in the company. However, now, it is understood that the most valuable resources of any establishment are its employees, as they play a crucial role in accomplishment of the aims and objectives of a business. Therefore, the focus of HRM is to deal with the manpower and all the decisions related to it that can have an impact on the productivity.

Importance of HRM

An organization cannot build a good team of working professionals without it. The key functions of the HRM team include recruiting people, training them, performance appraisals, motivating employees as well as workplace communication, workplace safety, and much more. The beneficial effects of these functions are discussed here:

Recruitment and Training
This is one of the major responsibilities of the human resource team. The HR managers come up with plans and strategies for hiring the right kind of people. They design the criteria which is best suited for a specific job description. Their other tasks related to recruitment include formulating the obligations of an employee and the scope of tasks assigned to him or her. Based on these two factors, the contract of an employee with the company is prepared. When needed, they also provide training to the employees according to the requirements of the organization. Thus, the staff members get the opportunity to sharpen their existing skills or develop specialized skills which in turn, will help them to take up some new roles.

Performance Appraisals
HRM encourages the people working in an organization, to work according to their potential and gives them suggestions that can help them to bring about improvement in it. The team communicates with the staff individually from time to time and provide all the necessary information regarding their performances and also defines their respective roles. This is beneficial as it enables them to form an outline of their anticipated goals in much clearer terms and thereby, helps them execute the goals with best possible efforts. Performance appraisals, when taken on a regular basis, motivate the employees.

Maintaining Work Atmosphere
This is a vital aspect of HRM because the performance of an individual in an organization is largely driven by the work atmosphere or work culture that prevails at the workplace. A good working condition is one of the benefits that the employees can expect from an efficient human resource team. A safe, clean and healthy environment can bring out the best in an employee. A congenial atmosphere gives the staff members job satisfaction as well.

Managing Disputes
In an organization, there are several issues on which disputes may arise between the employees and the employers. You can say conflicts are almost inevitable. In such a scenario, it is the human resource department which acts as a consultant and mediator to sort out those issues in an effective manner. They first hear the grievances of the employees. Then they come up with suitable solutions to sort them out. In other words, they take timely action and prevent things from going out of hands.

Developing Public Relations
The responsibility of establishing good public relations lies with the HRM to a great extent. They organize business meetings, seminars and various official gatherings on behalf of the company in order to build up relationships with other business sectors. Sometimes, the HR department plays an active role in preparing the business and marketing plans for the organization too.

Any organization, without a proper setup for HRM is bound to suffer from serious problems while managing its regular activities. For this reason, today, companies give a lot of stress for setting up of a strong and effective HRM.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/benefits-of-human-resource-management.html

Human resource management involves managing people in an organization. The last few decades have seen some drastic changes in the strategies employed by various companies for this purpose. Earlier, it had limited functions which was mainly confined to paperwork related to hiring and payment of the staff in the company. However, now, it is understood that the most valuable resources of any establishment are its employees, as they play a crucial role in accomplishment of the aims and objectives of a business. Therefore, the focus of HRM is to deal with the manpower and all the decisions related to it that can have an impact on the productivity.

Importance of HRM

An organization cannot build a good team of working professionals without it. The key functions of the HRM team include recruiting people, training them, performance appraisals, motivating employees as well as workplace communication, workplace safety, and much more. The beneficial effects of these functions are discussed here:

Recruitment and Training
This is one of the major responsibilities of the human resource team. The HR managers come up with plans and strategies for hiring the right kind of people. They design the criteria which is best suited for a specific job description. Their other tasks related to recruitment include formulating the obligations of an employee and the scope of tasks assigned to him or her. Based on these two factors, the contract of an employee with the company is prepared. When needed, they also provide training to the employees according to the requirements of the organization. Thus, the staff members get the opportunity to sharpen their existing skills or develop specialized skills which in turn, will help them to take up some new roles.

Performance Appraisals
HRM encourages the people working in an organization, to work according to their potential and gives them suggestions that can help them to bring about improvement in it. The team communicates with the staff individually from time to time and provide all the necessary information regarding their performances and also defines their respective roles. This is beneficial as it enables them to form an outline of their anticipated goals in much clearer terms and thereby, helps them execute the goals with best possible efforts. Performance appraisals, when taken on a regular basis, motivate the employees.

Maintaining Work Atmosphere
This is a vital aspect of HRM because the performance of an individual in an organization is largely driven by the work atmosphere or work culture that prevails at the workplace. A good working condition is one of the benefits that the employees can expect from an efficient human resource team. A safe, clean and healthy environment can bring out the best in an employee. A congenial atmosphere gives the staff members job satisfaction as well.

Managing Disputes
In an organization, there are several issues on which disputes may arise between the employees and the employers. You can say conflicts are almost inevitable. In such a scenario, it is the human resource department which acts as a consultant and mediator to sort out those issues in an effective manner. They first hear the grievances of the employees. Then they come up with suitable solutions to sort them out. In other words, they take timely action and prevent things from going out of hands.

Developing Public Relations
The responsibility of establishing good public relations lies with the HRM to a great extent. They organize business meetings, seminars and various official gatherings on behalf of the company in order to build up relationships with other business sectors. Sometimes, the HR department plays an active role in preparing the business and marketing plans for the organization too.

Any organization, without a proper setup for HRM is bound to suffer from serious problems while managing its regular activities. For this reason, today, companies give a lot of stress for setting up of a strong and effective HRM.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/benefits-of-human-resource-management.html

What is the Bradford Factor ?

What is the Bradford Factor ?
The Bradford Factor is a systems used to calculate a score for each employee's absence is a year. The higher the score, the more disruption the employees absence is causing your company.


Bradford scores are a way of identifying individuals with serious absence and patterns of absence worthy of further investigation. It helps highlight causes for concern and often is one of the starting points in an attendance procedure.
Using the Bradford Factor helps to discourage excess absenteeism and allows managers to compare employee attendance between different departments, as well as across the company as a whole.
How it works ?
S x S x D = Bradford points score

S = the number of occasions of absence in the last 52 weeks

D = the total number of days’ absence in the last 52 week

Examples
Employee A
Has 9 sickdays in a year, 4 are single day absences and 5 are in a block.

S = 1(1) + 1(1) + 1(1) + 1(1) + 1(5) = 5

D = 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 5 = 9

score = 5 x 5 x 9 = 225

Employee B
Has 15 sickdays in a year, 3 blocks of five days.

S = 1(5) + 1(5) + 1(5) = 3

D = 5 + 5 + 5 = 15

score = 3 x 3 x 15 = 135

The examples show that B has more sickdays than A, yet B's Bradford Score is lower than A's.
This is because multiple single day absences are considered more disruptive to a company, than fewer longer periods of absence.

97% of Trade Experts Believe That Dubai's Logistics is Capable of Making It a Market Leader in e-Commerce

If logistics companies in Dubai were able to fully utilize the logistics capabilities and infrastructure available in the region, then nothing would stop Dubai from becoming a market leader in e-Commerce. This is not the result of a speculation or intent driven estimation. The claim is being made by over 97% of attendees Jafza Associates Forum 2013, where they affirmed that Dubai is already equipped with such infrastructure that can make the city an e-commerce hub of the Middle east

Key Challenges

You must be wondering that if Dubai is so capable of becoming an e-commerce hub, then why it hasn't already achieved this status. The problem lies in regulations, standards and Internet penetration. All of this needs to be improved from their current levels for making an impact. Now, the improvements not only need to be reflected in Dubai itself, but across the GCC. Without a widespread improvement and strategic implementation, there is limited scope of the city becoming a leader in e-commerce logistics services.
Banks and other financial institutions are also important components of the entire framework where they need to improve upon turnaround times, process quality, and cost effective solutions. These factors are crucial for attracting businesses to set up merchant accounts that are required for maintaining an e-commerce network. Without a merchant account, a retail business does not qualify for selling its wares online. In order to enhance the e-commerce capabilities, it is important for banks to improve the quality of their services for increasing the number of businesses opening merchant accounts in their facility.

Current Modes of Payment

Cash and cheque are the most commonly used modes of payment in Dubai, even though more than 47% of the population is in possession of payment cards. Of all the consumers who use online shopping services, around 80% of them prefer cash on delivery. The reason behind using cash on delivery is the lack of faith in online payment options. People are not convinced about the security of the transactions conducted using online payment gateways. This is also the reason behind businesses not opting for merchant accounts as the majority of their sales revenue comes from cash on delivery payment mode.

The Road to Success

Success can only truly be achieved if the appropriate corrective measures were applied in time and in the right manner. For example, if banks improved their service quality and encouraged businesses to create merchant accounts, then they also need to communicate the safety of the transactions in order to make customers use online payment services along with cash on delivery mode. Dubai already has the infrastructure and the internet framework to allow the establishment of a highly effective e-commerce network. Minor improvements to the regulations, standards and financial institutions would bring about a lot of difference in the potential of Dubai's ecommerce logistics capabilities.

 

Where to look for australian jobs online?

If you are sick and tired of looking for a job online, because there are too muany services and the jobs they offer are not interesting enough for you, let''s check the list below. There are jobs in Australia selected by location so that you will be able to choose the place where you wish t work or live in.

Ryde

Rhodes

Bibra Lake

Kings Park

Mackay

Parramatta

South Brisbane

Townsville

Armidale

Bendigo

Lyneham

Maroochydore

Murray Bridge

Penrith

Know All About Online Data Entry Jobs in India

The Internet is filled with various work from home job opportunities. One of the most common type of online jobs is the data entry jobs. More and more working professionals are drifting towards the idea of adopting one or the other type of online jobs, the sheer reason behind is to maintain a better work-life balance.
The online jobs are not a viable option for employees only, in fact, companies too are adopting flexible policies to accommodate the online workforce, therefore, creating a plenty of opportunities for individuals from all walks of life. Some of the common jobs available in India include-data entry, forum moderator, tweet and earn, form filling jobs, ad posting jobs, copy paste jobs, content writing and so on.
Online Data Entry Jobs
The unprecedented growth of IT sector has undoubtedly created a plenty of job opportunities in various verticals and domains. With hordes of multinationals tapping the IT market of India and most importantly, the rising BPO industry in varied regions of India, skilled and non skilled personnel have an ample number of job opportunities to unlock.
The online employers seek for a person who has good typing skills, decent computer knowledge specifically Microsoft Word. Besides, if you have the ability to finish tasks with a high level of accuracy in a timeless manner, then you are the perfect match for such jobs. At the most basic level, data entry employees might be required to transcribe handwritten documents into digital formats (excel or word or spreadsheet data entry), electronic data processing, clerical jobs, etc. In simplistic terms, the job profile requires you to operate an equipment that inputs data into the company's system.
How to find jobs in India?
If you scroll through the various job portals/websites or job consulting sites, you will come to know there is no dearth of data entry jobs. Even if you want to work as a freelancer, you will find a large volume of projects floating on the freelancer sites, requiring data entry personnels. Having said that, it is worth noting that before engaging yourself with any of these jobs, you should do some background check. There are many illegitimate jobs floating on the Internet, which you should avoid indulging in it.
For instance, companies asking for the membership fees before you actually start your work is probably a hoax, so you better keep such jobs at bay. Legitimate companies provide a proper job description most of the time and outline all the requisites in terms of skills and remuneration.
How much will you earn?
Generally, online data entry workers are paid on an hourly basis. In fact, the salary structure varies from company to company, you may earn through per word basis or as per the company's terms and conditions.

About the Author

The author is an expert writer and has published various articles on elite sites. In this article, the author sheds a light on different aspects of online data entry jobs.You can visit the site of CareerBuilder, to find out various online jobs in India as per your interest and suitability.


Data entry jobs in Australia include:

Data Analyst

Data Analyst New Zealand

Data Analytics Consultant 

Data Analytics Engineer

Data Architect

Data Engineer

Data Entry

Data entry clerk

Data Entry New Zealand

Data Miner

Data Modeler

Data operations director

Data processing manager

Data Quality Manager

Data Quality Manager New Zealand

Data Scientist

Data Services Specialist

Database

Database administration manager

Database Administrator