15 Signs That You're Done Climbing the Corporate Ladder

15 Signs That You're Done Climbing the Corporate Ladder

You climbed the corporate ladder or started your own business. You’ve had your share of success and failure, made a few bucks, made a name for yourself. Congratulations. Now what? I mean, how do you know when you’re done and ready to move on?

Tired old concepts like retirement, even metrics like age and wealth, aren’t as black and white as they used to be. There’s a big world out there beyond the boundaries of your current work life. Maybe you want to do something completely different, something you’ve always dreamt of doing.

I bet a lot of you are thinking about it. How do I know that? Because, it happened to me and a lot of successful people I know. They got tired or burned out. Or they got canned in a tough job market - as good an excuse as any to contemplate what to do next.

But how do you know for sure? Denial, inertia, resistance to change - they’re powerful forces. Sometimes the signs are there but you just don’t recognize them. Fortunately, just like body language, your mind has a way of making its desires known. You need to tap into that; here’s how.


15 signs that you’re done climbing the corporate ladder:

1. Business travel used to be exciting, now it’s just stressful and exhausting
2. You used to enjoy commanding meetings; now it just feels like herding cats
3. Company politics no longer feels like a competitive sport
4. You feel like you’re working just to pay for ever-more expensive “stuff”
5. Punching out that annoying office nemesis is becoming a waking fantasy
6. You’re shooting yourself in the foot all the time and you don’t know why
7. You used to feel compassion for your employees; now they’re just whiny pains in the butt
8. More and more you wonder if this is all there is, if it was all worth it?
9. You think about having an affair just to get some excitement in your life
10. The status of position and buying power no longer satisfies or fills “the void”
11. All the ego stroking is starting to get old and feel disingenuous
12. Operating results are just numbers that affect your compensation
13. You used to feel passion for the business; now it’s just the same old thing
14. You’ve made your pile of gold and now all the fight’s out of you
15. You daydream or fantasize more and more about doing something different

So you’ve got a bunch of these signs and more. Now what? Well, that depends. It depends on a lot of things. Think about it. Spend time with yourself. Be honest with yourself. Bounce it off someone you trust, someone who really knows you. Think of it as a process, a journey, and you’re just at the beginning. Does it feel exciting, maybe a little scary? Good, then you’re on the right path.

Ref: Steve Tobak

Performance Appraisal - Management by Objectives

Performance Appraisal - Management by Objectives

Once an employee has been selected, trained and embarked on his duties, it is time for performance appraisal. What is performance appraisal? Why do companies need to take up this task?

According to Heyel, “it is the process of evaluating the performance and qualifications of the employees in terms of job requirements, for administrative purposes such as placement, selection and promotions, to provide financial rewards and other actions which require differential treatment among the members of a group as distinguished from actions affecting all members equally”.


This concept dates back to the First World War and was then called “Merit rating programme”. Over a period of time, this concept has been through an ocean of change. The areas of evaluation have also changed.


Importance and objectives: Performance appraisals have been considered to be the most significant and indispensable tool for the management as it,

1. Provides useful information for decision making in areas of promotion and merit rating and compensation reviews.
2. Links information gathering and decision making process, which are the basis for judging the effectiveness of personnel subfunctions such as recruiting, selecting and compensation.
3. Helps pinpoint areas of concerns in the primary systems like marketing, finance and production.
4. Enhances understanding for training and counselling needs.

Methods of performance appraisal


There are several methods for evaluating performance. Management by objectives is the most popular one.


Management by objectives is primarily to change the behaviour and attitude towards getting an activity or assignment completed in a manner that it is beneficial for the organisation. Management by objectives is a result-oriented process. In this system, emphasis is on results and goals rather than a prescribed method.


For instance, the number of quality articles to be churned out in a week, at a publishing house is, let’s say, five. This is the goal of the organisation. This goal has to be set in coordination with the writers. The emphasis here again would be on accomplishing this task flawlessly over the week rather than the setting of a method to accomplish the same. You are giving them a free hand to decide as to how they want to work in order to accomplish target. This gives the employee both responsibility as well as authority to do a job. The employees are now responsible for its success and failure and it is their baby. It is a VERY SMART MANAGEMENT TOOL where the employee is involved in the decision making process.


The fives magic sutras


The mystery of management of objectives has the following basic steps.


Set organisational goals. This envisages that organisational goals and business strategies are expressed clearly, concisely and accurately. They are periodically reviewed. They should be challenging enough to motivate the employee. Clear and attainable goals help channel energies towards desired behaviour and let the employee know the basis on which he will be rewarded.


Joint goal setting. This step establishes short-term goals, which are performance oriented, between the management and the employee. The responsibilities are clarified to the employees through organisational charts and job description. The goals decided by the employee need to complement the goals of the management. They also need to be flexible to accommodate new ideas without losing individual responsibilities. Moreover they should be easily quantifiable. For example,


To prepare, process and transfer to the office superintended, all account payable vouchers within three working days from the receipt of the voucher.

To hold weekly meetings with all employee.To use program evaluation and review technique (pert) for all new plant layouts.


Performance reviews. This step suggests frequent performance review between the manager and the employees. During the initial stages the meetings be held once a month and later could be quarterly. For maximum benefit these meetings should be scheduled for more than once a year.


Set check posts: Establishment of major check posts to measure progress. This is merely to check that the employee surges towards his premeditated goal without any disruptions. These check levels should be higher in the initial stages and then gradually reduce. This demands that the manager should be on constant alert and exercise sound judgment.


Feedback: The employees who receive frequent feedback about their performance are highly motivated than those who do not. However, one has to ensure that the feedback is relevant and specific. This helps the employee and the manager understand where they stand.


The five-sutra process of management by objectives ensures that the manager and the employee define and establish goals and objectives for an employee to be achieved within a prescribed period of time. The employee is to be supervised and evaluated, periodically. To this extent, a frequent feedback and superior-employee interaction model must be evolved.

Reference: TheManageMentor

Recruitment & Retention: Assessing jobs, not persons

Recruitment & Retention: Assessing jobs, not persons

Job Analysis (JA) is a process to identify and determine in detail not only the particular responsibilities and requirements but also the relative importance of these responsibilities for a given job. It is a process where judgments are made about data collected on a job.

The purpose of JA is to establish and document the 'job relatedness' of employment procedures such as training, selection, compensation, and performance appraisal.


An important concept about this tool is that it analyses the job, not the person. The data required may be collected from incumbents through interviews or questionnaires.

Job Analysis can be used in:

. Assessment tests to measure effectiveness of training and
. Identifying methods of training (i.e., small group, computer-based, video, classroom...)

It can also be used to structure compensation based on:


. skill levels of an employee
. hazards at the work place
. responsibilities of supervisors at the work place
. required level of training needed to perform the job
. Selection Procedures


This technique can be used in selection procedures to identify or develop:


. job duties that should be included in advertisements of vacant positions
. appropriate salary for the position
. interview questions
. selection tools
. performance appraisal/evaluation forms
. orientation material for new employees

Job Analysis can be used in performance reviews to identify or develop:


. goals and objectives
. performance standards
. evaluation criteria
. length of probationary periods
. Methods of Job Analysis

Several methods exist that may be used individually or in combination. These include:

. review of job classification systems
. incumbent interviews
. supervisor interviews
. expert panels
. structured questionnaires
. task inventories
. check lists
. open-ended questionnaires

A common method of analyzing a job would be, to give the incumbent a simple questionnaire to identify job duties, responsibilities, equipment used, work relationships and work environment. The completed questionnaire would then be assisting the Analyst to conduct an interview of the incumbent. A draft of identified job duties; responsibilities, equipment, relationships and work environment would be reviewed with the supervisor for accuracy. The analyst would then prepare a job description and/or job specifications.

Ten Things You Must Do Before You Recruit

Ten Things You Must Do Before You Recruit

Here's what you must do before you jump into recruiting:

1. Learn Federal and State Laws and Regulations.
The hiring process is rife with lawsuit traps. If you don’t know the tricky anti-discrimination laws that apply to the hiring process, your most innocent comments—even if intended to put an applicant at ease—could form the basis for an expensive lawsuit.

2. Study Your Organization’s Rules and Policies.
If you act without reviewing company rules and policies, it’s easy to be inconsistent (always dangerous) or to overstep your bounds, making commitments that you can’t live up to (for example, flying a person 2,000 miles for an interview, only to learn that relocation isn’t authorized).

Familiarize yourself with the following areas:

1. Job posting and internal search requirements
2. Union agreements and rules
3. Application form and résumé management policies
4. Equal opportunity obligations and policies
6. Relocation policies
7. Salary, compensation, and benefits policies
8. Recruiting budget
9. Reference and background checks policy

3. Clarify Your Role.
Each employer has its own way of running the recruiting process. Some are highly centralized, with the HR department doing most of the work. Others, especially in this era of leaner management, have decentralized recruiting, putting the burden on the shoulders of the hiring manager.

Ask these questions:

1. Who places advertisements?
2. Whose budget pays recruiting costs?
3. Who contacts job boards, search firms, and employment agencies?
4. Who does résumé screening, phone screening, and testing?
5. Who arranges for and conducts interviews?
6. Who extends formal offers of employment?
7. Who makes and maintains records?

4. Verify the Job Opening.
Before investing time and money in interviews, make sure that the job opening is “real.” If your organization has a formal process for approving an opening for hire, make sure that all appropriate forms are signed and authorizations are obtained.

If your organization is less formal, at least send a confirming memo to involved parties, outlining your plan.

5. Identify Controls or Constraints.
There can be any number of constraints on your hiring. You’ll just waste time if you set off without knowing what they are. Ask these questions:

1. Who else needs to interview or meet with final candidates?
2. What authority do you have to set salary?
3. Who needs to approve your final choice for hire?
4. How much of a hurry are you in?
5. Do you have authority to relocate?
6. What is the budget for advertising?
7. What is the budget for job board, search firm, or employment agency fees?

6. Picture the Perfect Candidate.
It sounds silly, but the biggest mistake in hiring is starting the recruiting process before you know what you are looking for. When there's no clear picture of the ideal candidate, you don’t know what questions to ask, what answers to listen for, and how to evaluate candidates.

You're also not going to attract the best candidates because they'll sense your fuzzy thinking, and that's a turn-off. Further, vague requirements mean you won't get poor candidates to self-select out of the process.

Don't rely on a job description; do a little digging:

1. What characteristics have helped others excel at this job?
2. What aspects of this job have caused others to fail?
3. What aspects have caused the manager the most heartache?
4. What failure in performance would get the person in this job fired?
5. In what areas did past jobholders need the most improvement?

7. Clarify for Outsiders.
Now you know what you want, but you still have to translate it into language to share outside the company. How will you describe your opening on job boards, advertisements, and notices to others helping with recruiting?

Each job is different, but in general, consider specifying the following things:

1. Number of years’ experience at a specific job
2. Specific duties or types of duties candidates should have performed
3. Specific responsibilities candidates should have had (management, training, bottom line, etc.)
4. Key characteristics or abilities
5. Industry awareness and trends
6. Degrees required
7. Certification or special training required or desirable
8. Computer abilities or software familiarity

8. Gain Agreement.
When you are comfortable with your description of what you are looking for, share it with others involved in the process. Do they agree that you have captured the essential requirements?

9. Check Legalities.
If you are not careful in setting requirements, you may be guilty of inadvertent discrimination. For example, if you set requirements that aren’t really necessary (such as a college degree for a clerical position), then you may illegally exclude a disproportionate number of members of a particular protected group.

Focus on meaningful requirements based on the position’s essential functions. Avoid any mention of age, sex, race, religion, disability, or national origin, or any characteristic protected by your state law (for example, sexual preference, marital status, or public assistance status).

10. Get Real.
Finally, make a reality check. Managers get carried away in dreaming about the “perfect” candidate, and end up describing a superhero who is overqualified for the job.

So, ask one last question: Would the candidate you have described be attracted to—and succeed at—your job?

And that's it. Get these ten preliminaries out of the way, and you are set for a successful search.

Ref: hrdailyadvisor

Employee-Manager Trust Strengthens Work Relationships

With more than 135,000 employees working in some 80 countries worldwide, Procter & Gamble, creator of brands such as Tide, Folgers, Pringles, Charmin and Crest, has isolated the manager-employee relationship as a critical component of effective performance management.

"It's the No. 1 reason why people leave a company," said Keith Lawrence, director of human resources, beauty, health and well-being at Procter & Gamble Co. "It's such an important relationship. It determines the work an individual is assigned, their future assignments, promotions, compensation, as well as the basic love, care and feeding that we get each day."

In order to enable effective manager-employee relationships, Lawrence said the process must begin with a manager's fundamental belief that a high-quality relationship with every one of his or her employees is important.

Positive manager-employee relationships actually start when an employee joins the manager's team or attends the company on-boarding program. On-boarding can help the two get to know each other, identify their strengths and establish how they can work together.

To set the right tone at this stage, Lawrence said the manager should have clear work plans and objectives for what will be accomplished in the first assignment.

Ongoing, continuous feedback - including not only what needs improvement, but recognition of what is going well - will help reinforce the employee's contribution and build a basic feeling of trust, respect and a sense of teamwork.

"We have a lot of systems to give feedback on an ongoing basis, but the most effective way to give feedback is to tailor it to the individual employee," he explained. "Some employees like to get written feedback, some like to get it in person, others like to hear all the good stuff, and you have to soft pedal the issues. It's important for the manager to know every one of their employees and deliver feedback as they like it delivered."

The level of personalization and trust in this manager-employee relationship is so relevant; it can take only one incident to damage it. Saying one thing and doing another, offering inaccurate information or not fulfilling commitments related to advancement or new opportunities for growth and development are a few critical but common manager mistakes.

"Fundamentally, all relationships boil down to trust," Lawrence said. "The worst thing a manager can do is make a commitment and either not deliver on it or not be honest, candid and complete with their employee. It's very hard to rebuild trust. Stephen Covey would say you need seven deposits in the emotional bank to account for one incident like that. In the trust fund, it's beyond that. A manager can really blow a relationship when they're not trustworthy or when they lack integrity."

Procter & Gamble uses its annual employee survey to measure how well managers are building and sustaining employee relationships. The survey has several relationship-based questions for which answers are monitored, benchmarked and tied to manager - particularly senior managers' - bonuses.

"That puts teeth behind the importance of this," Lawrence said. "We also have a wide range of tools and training available to managers and employees to help their relationship building. For example, we have a relationship-building tool kit that has an array of different exercises and approaches that both employee and manager can use to help them strengthen their respective relationship.

"Last, we're leaning toward what we call strength-based relationships, and the analogy here is in a marriage, you learn to appreciate and play to each other's strengths as opposed to trying to fix the parts you don't like. The same is true here. We're trying to focus on what are the strengths that each employee and manager has and how can they respectively play to those over time and build and strengthen one another."

Reference:
Kellye Whitney

Is Talent Acquisition function alike Sales function?

There was a discussion on a very interesting topic last week on LinkedIn.

Human Resource (Talent Acquistion fuction) is alike sales fuction,Do you agree?If yes, then how will you contrive fixed or variable % in compensation structure?

Below is the answer to the above question and my feeling on how this interesting matter be addressed.

This is a very interesting topic to discuss. I believe that the major KRA of the Talent Acquisition Function is to hire the best talent at affordable rates from the competitive markets. It’s all about having the best talent at the right place at the right time. So, the Fixed and the variable structure should be planned out keeping in mind two major factors – Retention of the existing talent and New Talent Acquisition.

Accordingly, Fixed part should be paid for the retention of the existing talent and the variable to paid for hiring the best talent as per the job requirement, SLA adherence, and the hiring cost saved. Now dividing the compensation structure into percentage is an organisation call.

Your suggestions are always welcome.

Recruitment and Job Analysis

Recruitment and Job Analysis

Job analysis provides important inputs to the recruiting function in two ways. First, job analysis provides job specifications, the personal requirements deemed necessary to perform each job in an organization. This tells planners and recruiters exactly what skills, abilities, experience, and other physical characteristics will be needed for certain jobs. Second, complete and accurate job descriptions are essential for the preparation of recruiting materials, which convey information to potential applicants about the nature of the job.

A recruiting message must portray the job accurately. When the recruiting message misrepresents the true nature of a job, well-suited applicants will not apply. On the other hand, those who do apply have a false impression of what the job actually involves. This can result in employees being mismatched for the job and eventually disillusioned. Mismatches prove costly to organizations if dissatisfied workers perform poorly or decide to quit shortly after being hired. Early terminations create unexpected job vacancies and the need for further recruiting.

Recruitment and Compensation

The compensation function also provides inputs to the recruiting function. In order to attract people to various jobs, an organization must offer wages and salaries that are competitive with those of other organizations in the labor market. A labor market is the geographic area in which forces of supply and demand operate to determine the price, or "going rate," of a certain type of labor. As a rule, labor prices are lower when supply is great, and higher when supply is scarce. Wage and salary surveys provide data useful in determining competitive wage and salary levels for certain types of employees in certain labor markets.

Recruitment and Benefits

Many organizations provide attractive benefit packages to help attract job applicants. The benefit package is often included in the recruiting message. Increasingly, opportunities for career planning and development are being viewed as benefits and used to attract potential employees. While there is little research evidence regarding the usefulness of benefits in attracting job applicants, employers realize that they must offer competitive benefit packages if they are to be successful in recruiting qualified applicants.

Recruitment and Selection

The recruiting function leads directly to the selection function. The selection function chooses and hires-the best qualified applicant(s) from the group of applicants attracted to job vacancies by the recruiting function. Recruiting and selection are both parts of the employment process.

Layoffs can increase your liability

As the economy continues to contract, both large and small companies are facing layoffs. When downsizing, organizations face an increase in work-related injuries and claims alleging disparate treatment. Even though the employee who files the claim may no longer work for you, the claim will continue hurt your workers’ compensation loss history, sometimes for many years. Employment claims, which cost literally tens of thousands of dollars just to defend, will adversely affect your loss record, as well.

Facing layoffs, a proactive plan to prevent post-layoff injury reporting and avoid employment claims can help protect your company.

Here are steps you can take to minimize the risk of post-layoff claims.

1. Develop a lay-off plan before cuts are necessary. With a plan in place before you need it, you can prevent a great deal of workplace turmoil. Ensure that your plan doesn’t adversely impact protected groups—women, minorities or workers over 40. In larger operations, this simply cannot be done without expert assistance. With your broker’s help, you may be able to involve your insurance carrier in the process to help design and implement a pre-layoff process that protects your organization. The cost of developing the plan may be only a fraction of the cost of defending one employment claim.

2. Use a performance-based layoff plan with written criteria for termination. Don’t be afraid to eliminate slackers. This tells your star performers that you appreciate their hard work and loyalty. But before you make a subjective decision to terminate, be sure you base that conclusion on objective standards. Consistently reviewing and documenting performance before terminations makes it is easier to defend disparate treatment claims.

3. Train supervisors and managers who will make employment decisions. Managers should be well-versed in the termination process and know enough financial details to explain the layoffs. Clearly stating to employees why they are being terminated can help if you are later faced with an employment claim.

4. Conduct exit interviews with every employee who will be laid off or terminated. Ensure at least one company executive, and if possible a legal consultant such as a human resources consultant or attorney attends, as well. During the interview, ask that employees help you to complete and then ask them to sign a standardized checklist that includes administrative details such as key surrender. Ask on that questionnaire if the employee has suffered a workplace injury and the current status of that injury.

If non-English speaking employees work in your facilities, have forms available in other languages. While some experts recommend employees sign injury waivers, waivers rarely work as intended and could be perceived as a sign of bad faith. If your downsizing generates publicity, the way in which you handle the closure will be closely scrutinized by attorneys and the media.

5. Offer post-placement assistance such as skills assessments, resume assistance and job search help. The sweeter the severance packages the better. This includes extended help with health benefits and other goodwill efforts.

6. Act quickly, but be careful what you promise. Statements like “We’re through with the cuts” can backfire. Once the decision is made to cut jobs, do so quickly, because not matter how closely organizations guard their decisions, word will probably leak out and your workforce will be negatively impacted.

Eliminating positions is never easy, but the way you handle layoffs is critical. Treat employees with dignity and respect, not just because disgruntled employees can damage your reputation, but because it is the right thing to do. Remember that you may be faced with unwanted media attention and a barrage of plaintiff firms targeting your former employees. Be sure to empathize with employees’ feelings and stressors that accompany a layoff, but protect your organization in the process.

Competency-based Career Planning

Career pathing involves making a series of job-person matches, based on the demands of the job system in the organization, that enable the person to grow into greater levels of responsibility, thus providing the organization with the talent that it requires to meet goals. This should involve the careful assignment of an individual to positions that provide her or him with opportunities for deploying the competencies needed for a more challenging position.

Best approaches to career pathing combine an analysis of positions in terms of both the tasks and the organizational behaviors needed for superior performance. The combined approach is essential for each of the jobs in the chain, because there may be marked differences between the characteristics demanded in one job and those needed in another in the same career path.

Steps to Implement the Competency-based Career Path
The major steps in developing a competency-based career pathing system are:
1. Put together a resource panel of experts on the target and feeder jobs who will set direction and specify the expected job performance criteria.
2. Define tasks and characteristics, through the resource panel, and survey job incumbents to obtain their perceptions of which job tasks and personal characteristics contribute to success in the target and feeder jobs.
3. Identify top performers in the target and feeder jobs, using performance criteria specified by the panel.
4. Conduct in-depth interviews with both superior and average incumbents in the target and feeder jobs to find out what they do and how they do it.
5. Based on the outcome of stage 4, develop a competency model of people in the target and feeder jobs by identifying those competencies that make the biggest contribution to outstanding performance as opposed to the competencies that all job holders need.

5. Based on the outcome of stage 4, develop a competency model of people in the target and feeder jobs by identifying those competencies that make the biggest contribution to outstanding performance as opposed to the competencies that all job holders need.
6. Analyze career paths by combining the survey (stage 2) and the interview (stage 3) results for target and feeder jobs.
7. Implement the career pathing system through a number of options: - computer-based tasks and competency inventories - performance and potential assessment linked to new job opportunities;- systematic counseling- career development and related training programs.

Tools of the System

The tools of a competency-based career path system include:
- a description of the tasks required by target and feeder jobs eventually broken down by job families - a competency model for the target and feeder job system - a dictionary of behavioral descriptions of each competency in the model- performance indicators that provide the material for a competency-based evaluation program and a computerized skills bank- a competency profile grid for either internal or external recruiting and selection of candidates- a career map of the organization, identifying which jobs are the key feeders to higher-level positions- a competencies' gap analysis showing main differences required to flow through the job system to reach high-level jobs- recommendations for training in or selecting for each competency in the path.

COMPETENCY-BASED SUCCESSION PLANNING

Competency-based succession planning enables an organization to determine the critical current competencies necessary for success in key jobs and the strategic competencies necessary for future success. Once this has determined the 'best fit' people, specific developmental plans can then be formulated that build upon these competency requirements to allow the individual's abilities to meet the strategic business needs of the organization.

Steps to implement Competency-based Succession Planning
For the competency-based succession planning to be complete, a logical process consisting of a certain number of steps must be followed. These key steps are as follows:

1. Identify critical jobs that the organization needs to fill
2. Develop a competency model from critical jobs, determining the competencies needed at each step of the job family ladder
3. Develop the most appropriate assessment methods (assessment centre, screening, interviewing, etc) and assess people against the competency model of the job
4. Make the decision whether to:- promote from inside - now or after competencies x, y, z have been developed- not promote but consider - possible lateral transfer- keeping in current job deselection - recruit from outside if no one in the organization is ready or can be developed in time
5. Feed the human resource management information system to track:- promotable employees, for future competencies monitoring - competency requirements of target jobs.

Ref: Hay Group, People and Competencies: The Route to Competitive Advantage

Careers in Human Resource Management

INTRODUCTION

In the globalized era, organizations have realized that the need of the hour is to have skilled, well- trained & highly motivated staff to help the growth of the company. Organizations invest time & money in the welfare & benefit of the employees because they see merit in such activities. All this & more has led this part of an organization's activity to be called Human Resource Management. However there is more to HRM than just being the internal function of a corporate. Some options open for professionals interested in career in Human Resource are given below.

CORPORATE HRM

The role of a HR manager in the corporate sector is to search, select & recruit suitable& qualified staff for his organization. It is also concerned with the development, motivation & training of this staff in order to maximize their satisfaction & minimize turnover. Increasingly the role of the HRM has future been empowered by their involvement in strategic issue revolving around organizational change, statutory compliance & industrial matters. Typically a bachelor's degree in management allows entry into a junior cadre of HRM, or an MBA is usually the norm for entry into mid level/senior position into HR department of large organization.

TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

There are some companies that specialized in T & D as a business. Their jobs is broadly to "Train the Trainer" or in the other words, train HR managers to , in turn, train employees of their organization & equip them with certain skill sets. They often hold work shops on "behavioral skills" etc. They also facilitate highly specialized workshops on "how to price high end derivatives" in which case they act as a link with specialized trainers. Most training firm employ people who have done their masters with either management or psychology or those who have pursued a diploma course in psychology after their bachelors in the same.

RECRUITMENT CONSULTING

The job market is a buzz right now. MNCS are setting up base in India. Many are shifting their back end operations to Indian Cities. The retail sector is booming & every possible foreign bank is also setting foot here. Poaching is no longer a bad word and is, in fact, synonymous with hiring. Thus recruitment consulting is actually a very lucrative & fruitful field to join at this stage.There are several recruitment consulting firms in India. In some the business & business responsibilities are split by industries & in others, they are split by functions. The general requirement to become a recruitment consultant is an MBA with specialization in HR.

HR CONSULTING

This is the upcoming field, where in organizations employ the services of HR consultants to either find solutions or help tide over issues relating to people in the organization. For instance, when 2 companies are merging to form a common entity, they often hire HR consultant to figure out a way to smoothly integrate the people & culture of the organizations. In the case of organizations that need to re-structure, HR consultant decide on those who need to be retained, fired or promoted. In public sector companies when voluntary retirement schemes are announced, HR consultants are hired to make the process smoother. HR consultants are often employed by organizations for compensation, benefit analysis $ review. A bachelor's degree in management or a specialized master's degree in HR would be good entry points at several levels of HR consulting.

CAREER COUNSELLING

One of the most prominent facts of career counselling is the one that caters to the youth. This field includes the paid services of private organizations & also schools & colleges that provide career counselling to their students. To be eligible for this field, a PG diploma in counselling is required.A related field is that of conducting behavioural test, which are carried out in order to analyze personality traits of individuals, through which the type of education & career profile that is best suited to them can be determined. This is a specialized field & requires a degree in clinical psychology. "Several schools & colleges hire counselors to conduct behavioural test for students who are the verge of choosing a career stream. They conduct behavioural tests which help students ascertain their skills set & the field that would be ideal for them to join. An increasing number of institutions understand the advantage of catching children while they are young to detect any odd behavioural pattern by conducting this test.

ACADEMICS

If a person is interested in academics & is keen to take up HR, then a MBA with a specialization in HR or OB is the best option. This followed by doctorate in the same field would make you eligible to teach HR or OB at any institution.HR is a fast developing field, which until a few decades ago, was considered the domain of women. However due to the variety of roles available to day & the increasing relevance of this field, finds more & more men & women pursuing HR as a viable career option.

HR generalist is first point of communication

HR generalist seldom does any design and development of HR processes and systems. That is the job of the specialists in HR, like Compensation, Recruitment, Training & Learning and Systems.

Because the HR generalist is first point of communication with the employees and business unit leaders they are the people who get to know the "bugs" in the various processes. In fact, the difference in the specialists and generalists is usually the focus. The specialists focus on the universality of people needs across business units and locations. The generalists tend to focus on the specifics of the business they look after and the exceptions.

Yes the head of HR role is a generalist role too. So if you aspire to be a VP of HR then you would be spending a large part of your career as a generalist :-)

The definition varies depending on the industry and organization