1.

Describe the major objectives and functions of Human resource

management
According to Roosvelt Thomas Managers must find ways to get the highest level
of contribution from their workers. And they will not be able to do that unless
they are aware of the many ways that their under-standing of diversity relates to
how well, or how poorly, people contribute. But Human resource management
concern is to attract, develop and maintain a talented and energetic workforce to
support organisational mission, objectives and strategies. So to achieve those
tasks there are goals and objectives in the platform of human Resource
management.
But there is no hard and fast rule that designate the objectives of Human
resource management. It is different from one company to another. But after
analyzing many firms the research has developed some common elements. The
below discussed the common elements of HRM. Initially there are many
objectives in HRM. But all of them can are to achieved three major goals. They
are,
Reduce absenteeism
Selective retention of employees
High performance
So to achieve the above goals the below are the main objectives of HRM. While
addressing the achievement of goals the objectives of HRM act as driving forces
to reduce the gap between the present and the future. It means all objectives are
to optimize the use of existing human resources and at the same time to forecast
the future requirement of HRM. So it is responsible task. So basically the
objectives of HR can classified into main four categories. They are,
Societal Objectives Socially and ethically responsible for the needs &
challenges provided by the society
Organizational Objectives To bring about organizational effectiveness.
HRD exists to serve the rest of the organization.
Functional Objectives To meet /suit organizational needs and
demands.
Personal Objectives To assist employees in achieving their personal
goals. To align individual contribution to the organization they work. Meet
the objectives by maintaining retaining and motivating
Under that category there are many objectives.
Ensure human resources are employed cost-effectively
It is an obvious factor human resource is the accelerating factor in any
organization. But if the company does not think ways and means to serve the
working force in a decent way the existence of the company in a threat.
Company should pay the rates at a competitive way. But it does not mean
that it should over the limit. So it is one of the HRM is to balance this task. It

is to keep workforce happy about the company while serving the company to
reach its commercial tasks too.
And many companies follow trainings. And orientation is high time valuation
in any organization. But in such activities have to concern what are the
outputs of the training. Weather it is successful or not. Because orientation
programmes are considered as some kind of investments of an organization.
Make effective use of workforce potential
It is a common topic that many of the companies try to adapt the best
recruitment and selection process. Because to maximize the efficiency of the
workers with less absenteeism. Workers should meet their qualification with
performing task, if not psychologically their motivation to work decline day by
day. So there are techniques and tools to analyze the jobs with the talents of
the workers. HRM in a company always responsible to identify the right skill of
the worker align with the right target. So make best use of the human
resources is one of the dominant objective in HRM.
Match the workforce to the business needs (Right sizing)
Workforce planning to ensure business has the right number of staff in the
right locations with the right skills. Here effective recruitment to match
workforce needs. And application of training programmes to cover skills gaps
or respond to changes in technology, processes and market. And at the same
time consider outsourcing activities that can be done better and more costeffectively by external suppliers. So by trying the maximum effort to get the
right number and mix of staff at each location where the business operates in
multiple sites and countries can ease the efficiency in the entire production
process in a company. Thats the reason behind this objective achieving.
Maintain good employer / employee relations
This is one of the major objectives that many of the companies disable to
achieve. But HR manager is the person that who handle this risky task to
accelerate the existence of the company. Strikes and other causes happen
with the mal function of the HRM. So it is the responsibility of the HR manager
to avoid unnecessary and costly industrial disputes and timely and honest
communication with employees and their representatives. Then by being
sensitively handling the potential problems with employees (e.g. dismissal,
redundancy, major changes in the business) can avoid the matters in the
company. And legally each and every company should comply with all
relevant employment legislations. So the objective is to achieve the company
goals align with relative laws and demand of the workers.
Functions of HRM
Functions of HR mean to achieve the goals and objectives that mentioned
above. Initially there are two main sets of functions in HRM. They are;

Managerial and operative functions. For the convenience they can summarize
as below.
Functions of HRM
Managerial Function

Operative functions

Procurement
Development
Compensation
Maintenance and
motivation
Integration
Those managerial functions are performed by many of the specialized managers
Industrial relation
irrespective to the task. But operative functions are more or less performed by
the HR Managers.

Planning
Organizing
Staffing
Directing
Controlling

Planning is an effective tool to deal with the future of the company. It

predetermie the personnel programmes that enhance the possibility of attaining
the organizational goals. In this context, accurate forecasting is increase the
probability of the success of any plan. Planning is such a crucial function in an
organization especially to the HR Managers too. Without identifying future needs
and wants preparing the workforce of company let the entire future of the
company two or three steps back and it decrease the growth rates of the
company. The steps involved in planning are
Types of skills that future demand of the company seeks.
What are the adhering training programmes to achieve future demands
etc
Organizing is need once the plans are formulated, the next step is to organize
the men and material in order to accomplish those plans. Organizing is a process
through which the firm establishes its structure and determines the authority,
responsibility and accountability of each member in relation to the job. Thus,
organizing involves
Provide each member a specific tasks suits to the skills
Segregation of department and divisions to increase the concern on each
sector performance
Delegating responsibilities among the members and feel them the value of
the each responsibility
Establishing efficient channels of authority and communication
Creating coordinate systems to the works of each member
Staffing deals with the creation and maintenance of human resources via the
areas of employment, benefits, and compensation, training and development,
and industrial relations measures. It aims to fix the HR policies to deal with wage
fixation, working level and the condition, and promotional opportunities align

with the position and the qualification for prospective employees. The key steps
involved in staff function are as below;
Determining the skill category to be hired
Recruiting prospective employees and selecting the best ones from
them by job analysis
Compensating the employees where it is required
Enhance the training and developing the employees
Setting performance standards and evaluating the employees
performance
Provide counseling the employees
So functions are the driving forces to achieve the objectives of HR. it is essential
to have a considerable idea about the validity of such functions and the practical
aspect.

2. Define job analysis and explain the objectives of job analysis

The initial step in the selection process is to develop job analysis. Because Job
analysis helps to find the specific skills required for the job. And at the same time
it also finds out the qualified workers align with the job tasks. After the
identification of the abilities it is the task of the human resource manager to find
methods to identify these characteristics from the workers. If the skill
requirements are more complex and the job is more demanding, have to adapt
to a more complex selection methods.
Initially job may be interpreted as a collection or aggregation of tasks, duties
and responsibilities which as a whole, are regarded as a regular assignment to
individual employees. When the total work to be done is divided and grouped
into subsets, we call it as a Job. Each job has a separate title based on
standardized trade specifications within a job, where the working tasks may be
graded according to skill, the difficulty in doing them, or the quality of
workmanship. Perhaps, a job may include many positions, for a position is a job
performed by, a particular employee.
It is a systematic analysis of each job for the purpose of collecting information as
to what the job holder does, under what circumstances it is performed and what
qualifications are required for doing the job. So job analysis is to increase the
working efficiency within the means of the job performance.
There are many definitions introduced by many scholars to the Job analysis.
According to Edwin Flippo Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting
information relating to the operations and responsibility of a specific job. And

Richard Henderson defines Job analysis as the methodical compilation and study
of work data in order to define and characterise each occupation in such a
manner as to distinguish it from all others.
There are many qualitative and quantitative tools used by the companies to do
job analysis. But however it is the responsibility of job analysis to address the
below questions irrespective to the technique it used. They are;

What physical and mental tasks does the worker accomplish?

When does the job have to be completed?
Where is the job to be accomplished?
How does the worker do the job?
Why is the job done?
What qualifications are needed to perform the job?

The techniques used to job analysis can categorize into two categories. They are
Qualitative ( Questionnaire, Observation method, Interview, Record,
Critical incidents, Job performance )
Quantitative (Position analysis questionnaire , Management position
description questionnaire, Functional job analysis )

Those are the steps followed to job analysis.

Organising and planning for the programme
Obtaining current job design information
Conducting needs research
Establishing priorities in the jobs to be analyzed
Collecting job data
Redesigning the job

Initially there are major three components in job analyzing. They are

Components of
Job Analysis

Job Description

Job
Specification

Job Description
Job description is an important folder which is initially interpret in detail the
nature and contains a statement of job analysis. It serves to identify a job for
consideration by other job analysts. It tells what should be done, and why it
should be done, and where it should be performed. The preparation of job
description is necessary before a vacancy is advertised. In other words, it
emphasizes the job requirements.
According to Edwin Flippo Job Description is an organized factual statement of
the duties and responsibilities of a specific job. It should tell what is to be done,
how it is done and why.
The job description should indicate the scope and nature of the work including all
important relationships. The job description should be clear regarding the work of
the position; duties etc. below are some of the factors that should be there to
complete the job description. For instance;

The
The
The
The
The
The

kind of work
degree of complexity
degree of skills required
extent to which problems are standardized
extent of the workers responsibility for each phase of the work
degree and type of accountability

But job description document initially even ready to complete below facts also.
Unless it does not complete the exact task pleased from a job description.

Job title
Organizational location of the job
Supervision given and received
Materials, tools, machinery and equipment worked with
Designation of the immediate superiors and subordinates
Salary levels: Pay, DA, other allowances, bonus, incentive wage, method of
payment, hours of work, shift, break etc.
Complete list of duties to be performed separated according to daily,
weekly, monthly and casual, estimated time to be spent on each duty
Definition of unusual terms
Conditions of work: Location, time, speed of work, accuracy, health
hazards, accident hazards
Training and development facilities
Promotional chances and channels

Job Specification

Job specification is built on job description. It is a written statement including the

qualifications, traits, physical and mental characteristics that an individual must
possess to perform the job duties and discharge responsibilities effectively.
According to Edwin Flippo Job Specification is a statement of minimum
acceptable human qualities necessary to perform a job properly.
There are some emphasizing areas of job specifications. They are;

Physical specifications
Mental specifications
Emotional and social specifications
Behavioral specifications

As same as the job description job specification is also have a distinct task to
cover. Those areas contain.

Educational and professional qualifications

Skills
Practical experience
Physical fitness
Special qualities required for performing the job
Intelligence, judgement and initiative required for performing the
job

Finally via all these routes job analysis drive its way to enhance the scientific
recruitment and selection. The following diagram enhance the convenience.

Job analysis

Job description

Job specification

Scientific recruitment and selection

So as the figure shows that the job analysis convert the recruitment process
more scientific. So the main objectives of this analysis are;
Work simplification:
A job may be analyzed to simplify the process and
methods involved to it. The purpose is to redesigning the job. Work
simplification helps to improve productivity of personnel.

 Establishment of standards of performance:

In order to hire the
personnel on a scientific basis, it is very necessary to determine in
advance a standard of performance with which applicant can be
compared.
Support to other personnel activities:
Job analysis provides support to
other personnel activities such as recruitment ,selection, training,
development, performance appraisal, job evaluation
There are many benefits that can get from job analysis. Some of them are
described below.
Organizational design- it add an additional value to the working hierarchy. It
eases to manage the organizational design.
Manpower planning- by offering the right task to the right person the efficiency
of the man power and motivate them in psychologically too.
Recruitment and selection obviously it convert the entire recruitment process
to a scientific direction.
Placement and orientation- it guide the orientation programme what are the
areas that it should concern more. Jon analysis make the entire process
meaningful.
Apart from the above for training and development, job evaluation, performance
appraisal, job designing, safety and health, discipline, employee counseling and
in labour relations job analyzing accelerate the entire process. But there are both
pros and cons. Some of the constraints are listed as below.

Lack of support from top management

Single method
Lack of training or motivation
Distortion of activities

So the main purpose of job analysis is thus to collect the data and then to
analyses the data relating to a partculer job. A job can be analysed only after
it has been designed and someone is already performing it. The most
important thing is job description and job specification are two products of job
analysis plays a major role.
The below diagram in detail show the benefits of job analysis absorb to the
entire recruitment process. Thus the entire area of job analysis can sum up as
below.

II

III

IV

Benefits of Job Ana

Collection of Background Information

Selection of Representative Jobs
Collection of Job Analysis Drafting of Job Analysis

Organizational Charts
Class of Jobs
Existing Job Descriptions

Job Description

Organization & Human Resource P

Selection, Induction & Training
Performance Appraisal
Job Evaluation
Job Specifications Employee Specification
Wages & Salary Administration
Internal Mobility
Preventing Dissatisfaction
Discipline
Health Safety
Industrial Relations

3. Describe five methods of employee recruitment

The main purpose of the recruitment is the development and maintenance of
adequate manpower resources. It involves the activity in creation a pool of
available labor upon whom the organization can draw when it needs additional
employees. It is an obvious factor that every organization needs to recruit people
to carry out the organization goals or activities. So on that sense recruitment
means generating applicants for specific positions.Once a determination of
human resource requirement has been made, the recruitment and hiring process
begins to proceed. There are many definitions that interpret the term
recruitment. Among many Mathis and Jackson defines recruitment as the
process of generating a pool of qualified applicants for organization jobs
The main two sources of recruitment are;
Internal sources
External sources
Internal recruitment
The Best Employees can be found within the organization itself .Internal Sources
refer to the present working force of a company. It is not only cost efficient, they
also support employee satisfaction and moral. Before looking outside of the
company for talent employees, it is valuable to take time to look at the current
employees with in the working premises..
There are many internal recruitment methods. Some of them are;

Internal Advertisements ( emails, newsletters, forms )

Word of Mouth
Promotions
Internal Employee Referrals
Retired Employees for temporary or contract positions.
Present temporary/contract employees to permanent positions
Former employees for part time/freelancer/work at home.

Promotions and transfers

Nothing causes more dissatisfaction than having someone new take the position
that an employee has been working to get promoted to. Promoting within
requires less training and transition. So to fill a position within the office
promotion is one of the best way. Because rather than recruiting a new person it
is better to promote a person with the same job hierarchy. And transfer is the
permanent lateral movement of an employee from one position to another
position in the same or another job class assigned to usually same salary range.
Job postings
Post open positions for employees within the company to apply for before
external hires are considered. This is also one way to recruit the experienced
workers not from the outside but within the same company. It helps the qualified

employees working in the organization to scale new heights, instead of looking

for better perspectives outside. It also helps organization to retain its
experienced and promising employees.
Maintaining a Skills inventory
It is the responsibility of the HR manager to keep a record of employee skills.
Review the inventory to identify any employees that might qualify for the job.
Invite them to apply.
External sources
This involves recruiting a candidate through references, networks, job portals or
they may approach recruitment agencies. In order to compete with other
companies & increase their standard, employers hunt for best talents working for
other top companies. There are many methods in external recruitment. Some of
them are,

Job Portals
Internal and External Employee Referrals
Job ads on Newspapers/Websites
Campus Recruitment
Job centres
Job advertisements
Recruitment agency

Job centres
This is one of the common features famous among the job seekers. These are
paid for by the government and are responsible for helping the unemployed find
jobs or get training. They also provide a service for businesses needing to
advertise a vacancy and are generally free to use. So the agencies that want to
recruit inform them. Then the so called agency support the client in recruitment
process by providing suitable worker.
Job advertisements
Although deeply it is considered as that advertising as an indirect external
recruitment method it is the most common form of the external recruitment in
the present world. They can be found in many places such as local, national
newspapers, notice boards, recruitment fairs and should include some important
information relating to the job such as job title, pay package, location, job
description, how to apply-either by CV or application form etc. Where a business
chooses to advertise will depend on the cost of advertising and the coverage
needed. For instance how far away people will consider applying for the job by
going through the particular mode.
Recruitment agency
Provides employers with details of suitable candidates for a vacancy and can
sometimes be referred to as head-hunters. They work for a fee and often

specialise in particular employment areas example : nursing, financial services,

teacher recruitment
Personal recommendation
Often referred to as word of mouth and can be a recommendation from a
colleague at work. A full assessment of the candidate is still needed however but
potentially it saves on advertising cost.

4. Explain the process of employee selection citing appropriate

examples
Selection is the process of choosing the most suitable persons out of all
applicants. It is the process of matching the qualifications of applicants
with the job requirement and weeding out unsuitable candidates and
finally identifies the most suitable candidate.
According to Davins and Robbins Managerial decision-making process as
to predict which job applicant will be successful if hired. Among many
managerial positions HR manager bears a considerable responsibility upon
this task.
How well the person fit into a job is also a money saving factor in the
organization. Because an efficient worker is an obvious resource to any
organization.
There are factors to select the right person for the right job. There are
scientific methods and procedures to be considered;
a. Physical characteristics Sound, body, weight, height, sight
etc.
b. Personal Characteristics Age, Gender , Marital status ,
Family Background etc.
c. Proficiency or Skill and ability Qualifications and previous
experience.
d. Competency- It points out capacity to acquire knowledge and
skills for success on the job.
e. Temperament and character Emotional ,Moral and social
Qualities ,honesty and Loyalty etc.
f. Interest- Without Interest work is colorless and meaningless .
So the interest of the candidate must be judged before
selecting him.

So most of the companies consider the below criterion to select the best
person to the position. But the selection procedure varies from
organization to organization and may be from department to department
even within the same organization. However the main steps and the
stages in the selection procedure are;
Preliminary Interview

Interview

Receiving Applications

Reference Checking

Screening Applications

Medical examination

Employment test

Final Selection

S
E
L
E
C
T
I
O
N

So most of the companies modify the above hierarchy and made them suit
to the goals and objectives of the company. So to understand the process
the below example will considered;
Selection process followed by many companies

Example :

The selection process followed

in Uniliver

Unilever was created in 1930 by the merger of

the
operations of British soap maker Lever Brothers. Unilever is an AngloDutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer
product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care
products.
Over the last four decades, Unilever in Sri Lanka has been constantly
bringing new and world-class products for the Sri Lanka people to remove
the daily drudgery of life. Over 90% of the countrys households use one
or more of our products.
The task is to recruit a candidate to as a Human resource manager.
Unilevers people are our most important asset. In Human Resources (HR), it
support to develop those people under the aspect of the major goals of the
company. , enabling the clients to deliver outstanding business performance.

The above are the major steps of the selection process in Uniliver. After the initial
screening interview a multifaced job analysis is carried out. And next under the
selection test they test the employee through Selection testing such as ;

Ability tests
Aptitude tests
Work sample
Assessment center
Psychological and Ability test and at the sametime the Selecting interview
(may be Structured Interview, Nondirective Interview, Stress Interview)

And after assigning work assigning sample testing Uniliver company always
concern on the ability to work as group. And then the person who won the above
hierarchy only proceed to the final hiring decision.
As a multi faced company Uniliver followed a complex selection process. What
delivers the best output from the most best fit method.
Reference

 R.L. Yann, Concepts and compnenets in HRM, 2008

Cynthia Irin, Recruitment and selection, Northern University Bangladesh,
2009
Fatmech Hashimi, Selecting employees to fit the job, 2010
Employee recruiting and selection process Uniliver
Dr. Rajan Welukar ,Employee selection principles and techniques, IDOL,
University Of Mumbai, 2012
Types of recruitment, A headhunting company, 2006
Sumaya Sharmin, Recruitment, selection, process, methods and steps,
role of recruitment consultant, advertisment and induction, 2013
www.slideshare.com
M.Bharathi, Job analysis, Latrobe University, Australia,2008