The Dynamics of Performance Management

Performance Management is one of the most debatable topics in HR as its a pivotal HR function. The entire process of Performance management has long been explored and studied.

However the session on PMS by Ms. Kalpana Ganesh, Assistant General Manager, Corporate HR from Ashok Leyland was far more practical and relevant than a text book session. She took us through the positive feedback session of a performance appraisal. And gave us a feel of how a 360 degree appraisal would happen.

As we jointly listed out the entire process of Performance management, Ms. Kalpana explained how a very strong PMS in an organization, would automatically enable, engage and empower the employees of an organization. Performance management is indeed a responsibility of the entire organization and not just the HR department. The roadmap in an organization leading to the PMS was discussed by the lecturer and the students together.

The parts of PMS, namely setting of KRAs, KPIs and goals, is most often a difficult task for HR executives. Ms. Kalpana gave us a mission for which the students had to list out the KRAs, KPIs and goals. This activity made us analyze the importance of the need to understand the business of the organization, its mission and how the goal and objective of every employee needs to be aligned to the organization.

The objective of any PMS is to assess an employee’s performance and relative worth and contribution to an organization. Finally, it is the responsibility of the HR to grade the employees based on their performance appraisal and normalize the ratings given to the employees.

Performance Management undoubtedly plays a pivotal role in any company. Ms Kalpana Ganesh gave us HR students a splendid insight into the realities of PMS. There was a lot of learning from the real world and for the real world through the entire session.

by Soundharya, HR Varsity

Personal Effectiveness

First impression is the best impression”, this can be achieved only by ensuring personal effectiveness. Ms. Rajeshwari , HR Manager, Fresh and Honest, has had an enormous experience interacting with the candidates in the interview processes. This experience has made her realize how important it is to be personally effective, to ensure one has the right attitude to face the corporate world. She put us through three activities which required us to work as teams. The major take away from these activities were teamwork, strategy formulation, creativity, good communication and good planning. She also took us through a presentation stressing on formal dressing etiquettes for both men and women. It was a good learning session and it educated us on the importance of personal effectiveness to stand out from the crowd.

By Anuradha, HR Varsity

Can tradition combine itself with the modern trend?

Yes, if we are talking about CBS!

Tradition says a B-school always coaches a student in General Management before venturing into specializations. At CBS, tradition is followed – but with a difference! The difference lies in the modern and creative methodology adopted to make students understand and appreciate every concept.The subjects are designed in such a way to provide an insight into the fundamentals of every aspect of management

Real time case studies and role plays form the starting point for teaching the seven P’s of marketing and students get to analyse them .There is more to accounting and finance than just numbers as logic is often used to create solutions. Debates on the financial results and accounting scandals are discussed openly in forums .

‘Will Maslow’s theory of motivation be applied in a real organization?’ Yes and how? Find out from the Human Resources sessions at CBS. The most creative activities and games are undertaken to drive every theory and concept in HR. Never will a CBS student think of these as mere theory classes.

One will find all subjects right from the ‘normally considered dry Economics’ to the ‘mind-boggling Research’ to be taught and delivered from the angle of application in a real life management scenario.

‘Learning for the real world’ is what every student can feel and understand from every General Management session at CBS! And the graduates of today actually are at the right time to enter into this ‘World of real learning’!

Role is just a set of expectations ..

This is my 28th year in HR” says Vasanthi Srinivasan, Assistant Professor, Organisation Behaviour and HRM, IIM-B with an elegant smile on her face. She was addressing the students of HR Varsity in CBS.

The interactive session began with a question posed to her from a student with respect to the academic knowledge and its application in the organizational environment. She replied by describing her first job experience and took us through compensation benchmarking exercise – the real aspect of it. This triggered more questions from the students and the session led to a discussion on compensation benchmarking process.

We also learnt the way to differentiate role and task. The learning that “Role is nothing more than a set of expectations” cannot be forgotten at any moment in our life.

She has done abundant research, published papers and her research on Competency Management helped her to highlight the three frames of competencies for HR professionals. She threw light on “unstated assumptions in Variable Pay” which would be kept in mind when we need to design compensation structure for our organizations. It was an enlightening session that made us realize the strategic importance of this function.

Importance of HR in an organisation

During recession, most of the management students fall in the trap of perceptions and tend to have false impressions about the market conditions . Sometimes, these perceptions can also lead to cloud their perspective about the functions in which they specialise in.

These were some of the issues discussed in the session addressed by Mr Shantaram, HR Head of Prasad Corporation Ltd. on May 1st 2009, on the topic “Importance of HR in an organisation.” The entire session was highly interactive and informative. It lead to discussion on other topics like “Why should HR know the business of the organisation and “Role played by HR in an organisation” as he discussed the functions of a HR professional in an organisation.

The interaction was backed with a lot of industry examples. The students, rather than learning something from the session, unlearned a lot of myths that they had in their mind regarding the HR function in an organisation. The highlight of the session was how Mr. Shantaram made the students realize that the answer for all the questions they had in their minds were always within them and it just needed a little spark to bring it out. At the end of the session, Mr. Shantaram made the students realize that HR in a text book is different from HR in an organisation. After all, at CBS, we are prepared to face the real world .

Abhilash Prakash.
HR Varsity