HUMAN RESURCE MANAGEMENT

Question bank

1. Define the term ‘Human Resource Management’

• It is a managerial function that tries to match an organization‘s needs to the
skills and abilities of its employees.
• It is the process of acquiring, training, appraising and compensating
employees, and of attending to their labour relations, health and safety and
fairness concerns
2. State the role of H R as a strategic partner in Management
• Turning strategy into results by building organizations that create value
• Strategic partners contribute to the development of the organization,
realization of business plans and achievement of objectives.
• Strategy is a plan to utilize the resources optimally to attain the organization
goals
3. Write any four objectives of HRM
The primary objective of HRM is to ensure the availability of competent and willing
workforce to an organization. The specific objectives include the following:
• Human capital: assisting the organization in obtaining the right number and types of
• employees to fulfill its strategic and operational goals.
• Developing organizational climate
• Helping to maintain performance standards and increase productivity through
effective job design.
• Helping to establish and maintain a harmonious employer/employee relationship
• To provide organization with well-trained and well-motivated employees
• To increase the employees satisfaction and self-actualization
• To communicate HR policies to all employees.
• To help maintain ethical polices and behaviour.
4. Enumerate the operative functions of HRM
• Recruitment
• Training and Development
• Professional Development
• Compensation and Benefits
• Performance Appraisal
• Ensuring Legal Compliance

5. What are the functions of HRM?

• Recruitment
• Training and Development
• Professional Development
• Compensation and Benefits
• Performance Appraisal
• Ensuring Legal Compliance
• Planning, organizing, directing, controlling
• Top Management Advice
• Departmental Head advice
6. What is strategic HRM?
• Formulating HR policies and practices that Produce the employee
skills and performance required to achieve the companies goals.
7. Enumerate the process of strategic management

human resource
required to achieve
management the employee skills
companies strategic
policies and and performance
goals
practices

8. State the skills needed for the HR professionals

• HR Skills
• Decision Making Skills
• Technical Skills
• Leadership Skills
9. Why and how does job rotation take place?
Job rotation involves an employee changing positions within the same organization and eventually
returning to the original position. It can refer to different types of rotations.
• Reduced exposure to focused physical demands of one job.
• Reduced physiological stress, strain, and fatigue to muscle group used for one job.
• Increased innovation and improved work process efficiency.
• Improves employee skill base and increases job assignment flexibility over time.
• Reduced boredom and complacency.
• Increased productivity & quality.
• Reduced absenteeism & turnover.

10. State the need for HR planning in an organisation

• Forecast future personnel needs
• Striking a Balance (between supply and demand of the labours
• Integrating the Plan
• Protection of weaker sections
• To determine levels of recruitment and training
• The measurement and estimation of cost and human resource
• How to reduce the absentees and also reduce the extra labor turn over
11. How job evaluation is different from job description?
A job evaluation is a systematic way of determining the value/worth of a job in relation
to other jobs in an organization. It tries to make a systematic comparison between jobs
to assess their relative worth for the purpose of establishing a rational pay structure.
For job description q.no.44
12. What are the objectives of Job analysis?
The procedure for determining the duties and skill requirements of a job and the kind
of person who should be hired for it.
• Setting up the standards for a particular job
• Work simplification
• Support to other personal activities
 13. Enlist the essential functions of management.
14. State the advantage of having a job specification.

15. What is Personnel Management?

Administrative discipline of hiring and developing employees so that they become more
valuable to the organization. It includes (1) conducting job analyses, (2) planning
personnel needs, and recruitment, (3) selecting the right people for the job, (4) orienting
and training, (5) determining and managing wages and salaries, (6) providing benefits
and incentives, (7) appraising performance, (8) resolving disputes, (9) communicating
with all employees at all levels.

16. What are the approaches of job design?

• Engineering approach
• Human approach
• Job characteristic approach(skill variety, task significance, task identity,
feedback, autonomy)
• Job enlargement
• Job enrichment
17. What is the difference between Personnel Management and HRM?
Personnel management is essentially ”work force centred” whereas HRM is
“resource centred”.
18. State the challenges of recruitment

19. How do you understand the Harvard model of HRM?

It is very comprehensive
Based on :
• Stakeholders interests
• Situational factors
• Hrm policies
• Hrm outcomes
• Long term consequences
Deeply rooted on hr relations tradition
Mutual respect commitment and responsibility

20. Enumerate the sources of recruitment.

21. What are the four steps of HR Planning?
The first phase involves the gathering and analysis of data through manpower
inventories and forecasts,
The second phase consists of establishing manpower objectives and policies and
gaining top management approval of these.
The third phase involves designing and implementing plans and promotions to
enable the organization to achieve its manpower objectives.
The fourth phase is concerned with control and evaluation of manpower plans to
facilitate progress in order to benefit both the organization and the individual. The
long run view means that gains may be sacrificed in the short run for the future
grounds. The planning process enables the organization to identify what its
manpower needs is and what potential manpower problems required current action.
This leads to more effective and efficient performance.

22. The internal selection is preferred over the other, Why?

• Saves time and money
• Reduces training time
• Improves productivity
• Improves morale
• Facilates succession planning
23. “The Company is known by the people and its employees.” Comment
24. State the use of career planning
• Structured exercise undertaken to identify ones objectives, marketable skills,
strengths and weakness etc as a part of ones career management
• It creates an self awareness and make us realize whom we really are.
• It helps in decision making and planning
• It creates an opportunity awareness and implementing plans
25. What is Talent retention?
An effort by a business to maintain a working environment which supports current
staff in remaining with the company. Many employee retention policies are aimed at
addressing the various needs of employees to enhance their job satisfaction and
reduce the substantial costs involved in hiring and training new staff.
26. Write the difference between recruitment and selection

27. What is your career development plan for the next 5 years?

28. What are the popular ways of recruiting?

• Internal
• External
• Third party sourcing
• Interviewing
29. Why should there be a performance appraisal?
A performance appraisal is a regular review of an employee's job performance and
overall contribution to a company. Also known as an "annual review," "performance
review or evaluation," or "employee appraisal," a performance appraisal evaluates
an employee’s skills, achievements and growth, or lack thereof. Companies use
performance appraisals to give employees big-picture feedback on their work and to
justify pay increases and bonuses, as well as termination decisions. They can be
conducted at any given time but tend to be annual, semi-annual or quarterly
30. What are the methods of training and development?
• on the job training
• informal learning
• job instruction training
• lectures
• programmed learning
• behaviour learning
• audio visual based training
• electronic performance support systems
• video conferencing
• computer based training
• simulated learning
• team training
31. Is pay for performance practicable?
32. How do you examine internal management system? Write five P’s model of SHRM?
• Philosophy
 • Policy
• Programs
• Practices
• Process

33. What is assessment centre?

Assisting the employees through private assessment org or teams for the appraisal
It is a modern approach
34. Differentiate between hard and soft models of HRM.
Hard:
Treats employees simply as a resource of a business
Focuses on business outcome
Autocratic style
Soft:
Treats employees as the most important asset
Focuses on individual
Democratic style
35. Differentiate incentive from wages
Wages:
Is the variable amount of compensation which is paid on the basis of hours spent in
finishing a certain amount of work
Paid to semi skilled or unskilled workers(on basis of hours)
Eg: carpenter, welder
Incentives:
It is a system of payment emphasizing the point of motivation that is the imparting of
incentives to workers for higher production and productivity.
Is to influence behaviour to reach the objective

36. “Performance appraisal is impartial, systematic evaluation of performance of

employee”, Comment.
37. State the types of wages being in vogue
38. What do you understand by manpower planning? Explain the steps in manpower
planning?
39. What is the significance of Human Resource Management?
40. Discuss the objectives of Human Resource Management in detail.
41. Discuss various types of Human Resource policies in detail.

42. What is job description? Discuss the contents of job description in detail.
Job description is a broad, general, and written statement of a specific job, based on the
findings of a job analysisIt is one of the product of job analysis.
Contents
Job identification, job summary, responsibilities and duties, authority of incumbent,
standards of performance, working conditions, job specification

43. What do you mean by the term recruitment?

 Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating
them to apply for a job in an organisation
44. Discuss the steps involved in selection process in detail.
• Preliminary interview
• Selection test
• Employment interview
• Reference and background decisions
45. Discuss the need and importance of training in modern business environment.
46. Explain the various methods of Wage payment in detail.
• Time Rate System
• Piece Rate System
• Combination of Time and Piece Rate System

47. Define and differentiate between minimum wage, fair wage and living wage.
Minimum Wage:A minimum wage is a compensation to be paid by an
employer to his workers irrespective of his ability to pay
Living Wage: A living wage is one which should enable the earner to provide for himself and
his family not only the bare essentials of food, clothing and shelter but a measure of frugal
comfort including education for his children, protection against ill-health, requirement of
essential social’ needs and a measure of insurance against the more important misfortunes,
including old-age.
Fair Wage: Fair wage, according to the committee on Fair Wage, is the wage which is above
the minimum wage but below the living wage.The concept of fair wage is essentially linked
with the capacity of the industry to pay.

48. What is HR audit?

An analysis by which an organization measures where it currently stands and
determines what it has to accomplish to improve its HR functions.