Legal Implications of Leaves

Under factories act, there is only provision for Sick and Earned (Leave With Wages) Leave.

Casual Leave fall under Industrial establishment Act.

You are free to give any number of leaves but under factories act , leave with wages is restricted to One leave for every 20 days of working and further an individual is required to complete minimum 240 days for becoming entitled to the leave with wages. This leave is encashable and encashment is exempted from income tax upto an encashment of Rs.3 lacs. This exemption is applicable at the time of retirement or resignation. Many organisations give more than 15 days of leave to employees under this category and considers this with the employee cost to company.

As far availmentent is concerned , under factories act , this leave can be sanctioned for minimum of 3 days and maximum of 3 times in a leave year. Again many organisations sanction earned leave even for one day and on more thanoccassionsons.

Sick leave under the factories act , is applicable to all employee who fall sick during the leave year. There is no number specified for this . but many organisations provide 7, 10 or 15 days of sick leave during the year even if employee is covered with the employees sate insurance act and scheme. Under ESI scheme in case an employee falls sick due to any disease the doctor can sanction bed rest for any number of period , till the fitness of the employee. This is also termed as sick leave but may be with or without pay. If employee is covered under ESI scheme and rest has been recommended by ESI dispensary / hospital doctor. ESI authorities will pay compensation for this loss of salary / wages employeeyee. This is onapplicaleale if employer is not paying any benefits of compensation to the concerned employee.

Casual leave is again depends upon the policy of the company. generally 7 days of casual leave is being granted to every employee , in order to attend / discharge his social responsibilities.

Further in general in every industry combination of casual leave with other type of leaves is not permissible, I do not find any reason behind that. If restriction is the target or reduciabsenteeismesm is target , this theory was applicable when most of the work force wunorganizedsed. The scenario has changed now.

Leave without pay is also another type of leave , which is generally discouraged but in case of exigencies this is applicable and helps employers to restrict misuse of leaprivilegeage given by an employer.

Compensatory leave is another type of leave under Factories act. Under this employee is compensated with leave with wages for his absence from duty against the work performed by s/he on any other day when normal working was not there. Under factories act this leave can be availed by employee any time till his/ her retirement.

In nutshell it philospyspy of the company to provide leave benefits to its employees for keeping their morales high.

Manpower Planning Process

HR Strategy

Business competition used to be a lot like traditional theater: On stage, the actors had clearly defined roles, and the customers paid for their tickets, sat back, and watched passively. In business, companies, distributors, and suppliers understood and adhered to their well-defined roles in a corporate relationship. Now the scene has changed, everyone and anyone can be part of the action. Major business discontinuities such as deregulation, globalization, technological convergence, and the rapid evolution of the Internet have blurred the roles that companies play in their dealings with other businesses. The market has become a forum in which consumers play an active role in creating and competing for value. The distinguishing feature of this new marketplace is that consumers become a new source of competence for the corporation. The competence that customers bring is a function of the knowledge and skills they possess, their willingness to learn and experiment, and their ability to engage in an active dialogue. A company's competitiveness thus derives from its core competencies and core products. Core competence is the collective learning in the organization, especially the capacity to coordinate diverse production skills and integrate streams of technologies. First companies must identify core competencies, which provide potential access to a wide variety of markets, make a contribution to the customer benefits of the product, and are difficult for competitors to imitate. Next companies must reorganize to learn from alliances and focus on internal development. Hence organizations today realize that in order to harness the boom time, competence of its human resources should exceed the expectations of its customers consistently.
Locus of Competency
The concept of competence as a source of competitive advantage is key to surviving the tumultuous times of today and tomorrow. Today a company is nothing but a collection of competencies rather than a portfolio of business units. Thus for a company to effectively address any new business opportunities it needs to find new ways to deploy the company's intellectual assets. Managers eventually came to realize that the corporation could also draw on the competencies of its supply-chain partners. During the last decade, managers have extended the search for competencies even further; they now draw on a broad network of suppliers and distributors. Over time, then, the unit of strategic analysis has moved from the single company, to a family of businesses, and finally to what people call the "extended enterprise," which consists of a central firm supported by a constellation of suppliers. But the recognition that consumers are a source of competence forces managers to cast an even wider net: competence now is a function of the collective knowledge available to the whole system-an enhanced network of traditional suppliers, manufacturers, partners, investors, and customers. Here's how the locus of organizational competency has shifted:
The Shifting Locus of Core Competencies
The company Family/network of companies Enhanced network
Unit of analysis The company The extended enterprise-the company, its suppliers, and its partners The whole system-the company, its suppliers, its partners, and its customers
Resources What is available within the company Access to other companies' competencies and investments Access to other companies' competencies and investments as well as customers' competencies and investments of time and effort
Basis for access to competence Internal company-specific processes Privileged access to companies within the network Infrastructure for active ongoing dialogue with diverse customers
Value added of managers Nurture and build competencies Manage collaborative partnerships Harness customer competence, manage personalized experiences, and shape customer expectations
Value Creation Autonomous Collaborate with partner companies Collaborate with partner companies and with active customers
Sources of managerial tension Business-unit autonomy versus leveraging core competencies Partner is both collaborator and competitor for value Customer is both collaborator and competitor for value
Energizing Competence
Energizing people for competence levels needed elevates the game significantly, to the point that many employees/partners go well beyond leaders' expectations, individual accountabilities, financial results, and short-term market objectives. Its imperative for each extended organization to unleash the full individual and collective potential of people-at the front line and across the broad middle-to achieve and sustain higher levels of competence than the workers themselves thought possible, than management or customers expected, and than competitors can realistically achieve. Organizations need to develop innovative means to tap into worker fulfillment to develop the extra quotient of emotional commitment that deeply energizes many people to be competent well beyond conventional norms. These peak workforce competence initiatives need to be pursued within an integrated organization approach or path that generates widespread emotional energy and is disciplined about how that energy is aligned to overall business goals. The energy sources and channels of alignment are supported by mechanisms that simultaneously impact competence and fulfillment.

Training and Development

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT is a subsystem of an organization. It ensures that randomness is reduced and learning or behavioral change takes place in structured format.

TRADITIONAL AND MODERN APPROACH OF TRAINING AND DEVLOPMENT

Traditional Approach – Most of the organizations before never used to believe in training. They were holding the traditional view that managers are born and not made. There were also some views that training is a very costly affair and not worth. Organizations used to believe more in executive pinching. But now the scenario seems to be changing.

The modern approach of training and development is that Indian Organizations have realized the importance of corporate training. Training is now considered as more of retention tool than a cost. The training system in Indian Industry has been changed to create a smarter workforce and yield the best results



TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES

The principal objective of training and development division is to make sure the availability of a skilled and willing workforce to an organization. In addition to that, there are four other objectives: Individual, Organizational, Functional, and Societal.

Individual Objectives – help employees in achieving their personal goals, which in turn, enhances the individual contribution to an organization.

Organizational Objectives – assist the organization with its primary objective by bringing individual effectiveness.

Functional Objectives – maintain the department’s contribution at a level suitable to the organization’s needs.

Societal Objectives – ensure that an organization is ethically and socially responsible to the needs and challenges of the society


TRAINING DEFINED

It is a learning process that involves the acquisition of knowledge, sharpening of skills, concepts, rules, or changing of attitudes and behaviours to enhance the performance of employees.

Training is activity leading to skilled behavior.

It’s not what you want in life, but it’s knowing how to reach it

It’s not where you want to go, but it’s knowing how to get there

It’s not how high you want to rise, but it’s knowing how to take off
It may not be quite the outcome you were aiming for, but it will be an outcome

It’s not what you dream of doing, but it’s having the knowledge to do it

It's not a set of goals, but it’s more like a vision

It’s not the goal you set, but it’s what you need to achieve it
Training is about knowing where you stand (no matter how good or bad the current situation looks) at present, and where you will be after some point of time.

Training is about the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) through professional development.

ROLE OF TRAINING




IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

Optimum Utilization of Human Resources – Training and Development helps in optimizing the utilization of human resource that further helps the employee to achieve the organizational goals as well as their individual goals.

Development of Human Resources – Training and Development helps to provide an opportunity and broad structure for the development of human resources’ technical and behavioral skills in an organization. It also helps the employees in attaining personal growth.

Development of skills of employees – Training and Development helps in increasing the job knowledge and skills of employees at each level. It helps to expand the horizons of
human intellect and an overall personality of the employees.

Productivity – Training and Development helps in increasing the productivity of the employees that helps the organization further to achieve its long-term goal.

Team spirit – Training and Development helps in inculcating the sense of team work, team spirit, and inter-team collaborations. It helps in inculcating the zeal to learn within the employees.

Organization Culture – Training and Development helps to develop and improve the organizational health culture and effectiveness. It helps in creating the learning culture within the organization.

Organization Climate – Training and Development helps building the positive perception and feeling about the organization. The employees get these feelings from leaders, subordinates, and peers.

Quality – Training and Development helps in improving upon the quality of work and work-life.

Healthy work environment – Training and Development helps in creating the healthy working environment. It helps to build good employee, relationship so that individual goals aligns with organizational goal.

Health and Safety – Training and Development helps in improving the health and safety of the organization thus preventing obsolescence.

Morale – Training and Development helps in improving the morale of the work force.

Image – Training and Development helps in creating a better corporate image.

Profitability – Training and Development leads to improved profitability and more positive attitudes towards profit orientation.

Training and Development aids in organizational development i.e. Organization gets more effective decision making and problem solving. It helps in understanding and carrying out organisational policies

Training and Development helps in developing leadership skills, motivation, loyalty, better attitudes, and other aspects that successful workers and managers usually display


TRAINING OBJECTIVES

Training objectives are one of the most important parts of training program. While some people think of training objective as a waste of valuable time. The counterargument here is that resources are always limited and the training objectives actually lead the design of training. It provides the clear guidelines and develops the training program in less time because objectives focus specifically on needs. It helps in adhering to a plan.

Training objective tell the trainee that what is expected out of him at the end of the training program. Training objectives are of great significance from a number of stakeholder perspectives,

1. Trainer
2. Trainee
3. Designer
4. Evaluator

Trainer – The training objective is also beneficial to trainer because it helps the trainer to measure the progress of trainees and make the required adjustments. Also, trainer comes in a position to establish a relationship between objectives and particular segments of training.



Trainee – The training objective is beneficial to the trainee because it helps in reducing the anxiety of the trainee up to some extent. Not knowing anything or going to a place which is unknown creates anxiety that can negatively affect learning. Therefore, it is important to keep the participants aware of the happenings, rather than keeping it surprise.

Secondly, it helps in increase in concentration, which is the crucial factor to make the training successful. The objectives create an image of the training program in trainee’s mind that actually helps in gaining attention.

Thirdly, if the goal is set to be challenging and motivating, then the likelihood of achieving those goals is much higher than the situation in which no goal is set. Therefore, training objectives helps in increasing the probability that the participants will be successful in training.

Designer – The training objective is beneficial to the training designer because if the designer is aware what is to be achieved in the end then he’ll buy the training package according to that only. The training designer would then look for the training methods, training equipments, and training content accordingly to achieve those objectives. Furthermore, planning always helps in dealing effectively in an unexpected situation. Consider an example; the objective of one training program is to deal effectively with customers to increase the sales. Since the objective is known, the designer will design a training program that will include ways to improve the interpersonal skills, such as verbal and non verbal language, dealing in unexpected situation i.e. when there is a defect in a product or when a customer is angry.

Therefore, without any guidance, the training may not be designed appropriately.

Evaluator – It becomes easy for the training evaluator to measure the progress of the trainees because the objectives define the expected performance of trainees. Training objective is an important to tool to judge the performance of participants

Advantages of Outsourcing HR Processes

1. The HR activities that are essential but cannot be done differently from competitors are being outsourced to reduce costs and complexities of internal operations. Companies have seen expenses drop by as much as 20 percent or so by moving the administration and transactional tasks outside.

2. Total revamping of the HR delivery system using improved technology. Many businesses are implementing automated employee self-service system that allows employees to do most of HR clerical work themselves.

3. Outsourcing ensures confidentiality, accuracy, quick response time, fewer administrative tasks for the firm. Many companies handle transactions slowly, unreliably and expensively. Many have no idea that they handle their transactions slowly, unreliably and expensively. Others may have the inkling, but lack hard information to support it. Once a company outsources its HR, it can track these services and hold the supplier accountable through penalties in the contract.

4. Outsourcing provides HR executives more time to spend on strategic issues like team-building, cultural alignment, competencies enhancement etc.

5. BPO offers companies the opportunity for smooth and rapid implementation as well as acceleration. BPO is scalable; that is the provider has the ability to expand service promptly at minimal costs.

6. Outsourcing any activity provides access to new skills and fresh insights. Expertise of the supplier and quality of service were the top advantages in influencing the outsourcing decision.

Competency Mapping

Policies / Systems / Procedures

Policy, procedures and systems are often used together.
 
POLICY
Frameworks for decisions - should not be restrictive, should be progressive, practical and forward looking. Cultural compatibility is an important variable.

The origin of the term policy (from the Greek word “policie” meaning citizenship) could lead to the interpretation that policy should be a reflection of the greater good, or the larger population. Policies:

* Tell the organization WHAT is to be done;
* Are generally set by Top Management;
* Generally provide both vision and inspiration to the organization; and
* Permeate all aspects of an organization

“Good Policies”:

* Are philosophically based and reflect values. They state what is
believed, valued and desired;
* Tell why certain things are wanted;
* Constitute a clear basis for the development and implementation
ofregulations and procedures; and
* Provide positive direction by the Top Management to the staff, but do
not prescribe the methods for arriving at the result

PROCEDURES
How the policy rolls down, step by step. It has to be congruent with the organisations objectives, policies and boundry level restrictions (legal, environmental regulations).

A procedure provides the descriptive narrative on the policy to which it applies. It is the “how to” of the policy. Procedures:

* Tell the organization HOW a policy is to be carried out;
* Are generally defined and carried out by the administrators;
* Are tools used to assemble, create, and operate the organization; and
* Can be and are often specific to certain aspects of an organization.

SYSTEM

An established or organized procedure; a method.
 
Real life, manefestation of information flow that makes the policy live up to expectations. Sytems also take care of interlinkages.

Practices: Actually what happens. Procedures and Systems are necessary to ensure that what is practiced is what is intended (Policy).
 
The extent to which policies and procedures are written down depends majorly on  the size of the organization. From the HR standpoint a small organization can do with policies, grievance procedures, code of conducts etc. documented in the form of employee hand books.
 
As the organizations expand the complexities related to administrating the staff requires inherent discipline. Thus, manuals encompassing the situations that the employee may possibly encounter. 

In businesses with operations being carried out in plants, the operational procedures and safety and security manuals are required.

In organizations with diverse workforce, the HR procedures may be localized and hence needs to be properly documented and be made accessible to employees. Technology plays a major role in communicating the changes that take place in the procedures through internal communication.

Building a Six Sigma Organisation

Six Sigma is a business process improvement strategy which essentially checks that a business is doing what its customers want, that the process employed is the most effective known and that variation is removed from that process to provide significantly improved consistency.

First introduced back in 1986 by Motorola - who began achieving significant results just two years later - it is not a methodology solely for manufacturing industry, far from it. It is equally applicable to any process in any business sector - from banking to construction and much, much more.

The Literal Definition of “Six Sigma”

Literally speaking, the 18th letter in the Greek alphabet, sigma , is the symbol for standard deviation. It is a measure of variance. The goal of Six Sigma is to reduce variation so there are no more than +/- six standard deviations (Six Sigma) between the mean and the nearest specification limit. When a process is operating at Six Sigma, no more than 3.4 “defects” per million opportunities are produced.

Six Sigma means something different to every company. For some, Six Sigma is a total management philosophy, for others it is simply a process improvement effort designed to increase productivity and reduce costs. Regardless of the way it is used within your organization, Six Sigma means data driven decision making!

In its most simple sense, Six Sigma is a highly disciplined approach to decision making that helps people focus on improving processes to make them as near perfect as possible.

The term “Six Sigma” relates to the number of mathematical defects in a process. Six Sigma practitioners focus on systematically eliminating the defects so they can get as close to “zero defects” as possible.

Done properly, Six Sigma ensures that internal processes are running at optimum efficiency.

This powerful strategic tool is customer focused and is ultimately designed to increase profit through improved quality. Companies that practise Six Sigma identify and eliminate costs that provide no value to customers. They analyse their processes to find out where and how defects occur, measure them and eliminate the problems. Its benefits are seen as significant cost reduction, improved customer service and enhanced employee productivity. Research is aiming to identify best practice and challenges in Six Sigma implementation. A Six Sigma Best Practice Implementation framework has been developed as shown below.


MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE & CULTURE

* Major roles in a Six Sigma organisation
* Role of top management in creating and maintaining an enterprise wide vision and culture
* Managing the politics of Six Sigma

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

* Selecting the right people for Six Sigma implementation
* Involving people in Six Sigma implementation
* Skills required
* Training needs
* Overcoming resistance to change

TOOLS & TECHNIQUES

* Identifying and understanding customer requirements
* Measuring and analysing organisational performance
* Achieving Six Sigma process improvement
* Six Sigma process design/redesign

DEPLOYMENT PROCESS

* Selecting business process for improvement
* Planning for Six Sigma
* Communication
* Six Sigma Implementation
* Managing the initiative
* Integrating Six Sigma with the organisational 'way of doing business'

Key Ingredients for a Successful Six Sigma Program

Strong leadership and top management commitment

Many previous quality initiatives, such as TQM, have been faced with a major difficulty, which has been a leadership attitude of ‘ Do as I say….. not as I do’. Some initiatives also faded out because the company leaders lost focus (Pande et al., 2000).
In order to overcome this problem, company leaders have to ensure that the Six Sigma initiative is a momentum for process improvement and hence it must be sustained over the long term.

Good support from top management is imperative in the restructuring of the organisation and achieving the cultural change and motivation of employees towards quality and the Six Sigma strategy to the business. The leaders have to be strong advocates of Six Sigma. Eagerness and enthusiasm shown by the leaders can go a long way in getting the rest of the employees on board.

Organisational infrastructure

In addition to top management support, there also needs to be an effective organisational infrastructure to support the Six Sigma undertaking. A great deal of work in Six Sigma is done by teams. The various roles played and positions held by the team members are explained under the belt system. Pande et al (2000) suggest that a good number for any project team is between 5 to 8 people. Many of the project teams will require cross-functional teams in order to successfully tackle the problem and implement process improvements. In many organisations practising Six Sigma will have project sponsor and process owner in launching and supporting the projects.
Sponsors (also called champions) are senior management staff that guide the team and negotiate resources for the team. Process owners, on the other hand, are individuals responsible for a particular process. The process owners are involved in identifying the opportunities for process improvement. The timing and readiness of the organisation is also important. This is because the introduction of Six Sigma within an organisation requires a great deal of resources, commitment of leadership, time,investment, etc.

Cultural change

The successful introduction of Six Sigma requires adjustments to the culture of the organisation and a change in the mindset of its employees. Employees have to be motivated towards the introduction and development of Six Sigma program through various reward and recognition schemes. There can also be a problem of employees dismissing Six Sigma as the latest fad or hype. To overcome this problem and also to allay the fears that employees may have, there has to be early and effective communication to all employees on the why and how of Six Sigma.

Eckes (2000) identifies four different factors of resistance, which are:

¨ Technical – frequently people find difficulties in understanding statistics within Six Sigma program. Education and involvement is needed.

¨ Political – it is based on seeking the solution to be implemented as a loss, real or imagined. The strategy to avoid this is creating the need for change and then showing how change can be beneficial for them

¨ Individual – it consists of employees who are highly stressed as a result of personal problems. The strategy could be to try to reduce stress with a less workload.

¨ Organisational – this occurs when an entire organisation is committed to certain beliefs, which are usually instituted and communicated by the management. Reluctance to change can be diminished by communicating to the managers the benefits of the initiative. Many authors and theories have been developed to reduce this behaviour (Rao, 1996; Bounds, 1994).
For many successful companies in Six Sigma (GE, Motorola, ABB, Sony,Honeywell), a key factor in communicating over the commitment and enthusiasm of Six Sigma has been the direct involvement of their top leaders.

Training

Training is a crucial factor in the successful introduction and development of Six Sigma program. It is important to communicate both the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of Six Sigma as early as possible, and provide the opportunity to people to improve their comfort level through training classes (Hendricks and Kelbaugh, 199. There is usually a hierarchy of expertise, which is identified by the belt system. Within GE, the belt system is fundamentally divided into (Henderson and Evans, 2000):

· Champions – fully trained business leaders promoting and leading the Six Sigma deployment in significant or critical areas of the business
· Master Black Belts (MBBs) – fully trained quality leaders responsible for Six Sigma strategy, training, mentoring, deployment and results.
· Black Belts (BBs) – fully trained experts leading improvement teams across the business
· Green Belts (GBs) – individuals trained in Six Sigma supporting Six Sigma projects
· Team members – individuals supporting specific projects in their areas The good thing about the belt system is that everyone in the organisation is speaking the same language. Another important by-product of such company-wide training is that it fosters a culture whereby the ownership of quality is viewed as the responsibility of the entire organisation and not just of the quality department (Hoerl,199.

Although investment in training is a key factor, in order for people to successfully use the knowledge, it is important for the training to be structured such that it is relevant to employees’ everyday jobs. The best way to achieve this is to provide ‘hands-on’ learning such that people can put key concepts and skills into immediate practice.
Moreover, the examples and exercises used in the training have to reflect the needs and challenges faced by the particular business.

Understanding the Six Sigma Methodology, Tools, Techniques & Metrics

A healthy portion of the Six Sigma training involves learning of the theory and the principles behind the methodology, i.e., DMAIC cycle. The elements of the DMAIC cycle (which stands for Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control) are explained below.

Define Phase

This phase involves:

Ø Who are the customers and what are their needs and expectations?
Ø Understand the customer CTQs and transform them into project CTQs
Ø Develop a project team charter (who is doing what, determine project goals,what are the key deliverables, benefits of going the project, costs issues, etc.)
Ø Gather data from customers to understand what exactly they want from us (use of customer surveys, benchmarking data, Quality Function Deployment, etc.)
Ø What is the process? Use tool such as high level process mapping to map out core processes

Measure Phase

This phase involves:

Ø How is the process measured and how is it performing?
Ø Decide what to measure and how do we measure it?
Ø Measure current performance of the process (Throughput yield, DPMO,capability , etc.)
Ø Do we have a capable measurement system?
Ø What is the variability contributed by the measurement system to the total variation?

Analyse Phase

This phase involves:

Ø Identify the root causes of defects or failures ?
Ø Understand the data (using simple statistical tools such as scatter plot, histograms, etc.
Ø Use of simple tools ANOVA, Hypothesis test, Regression analysis, etc. to analyse the data
Ø Select the ‘vital few’ causes from the trivial many for improvement phase

Improve Phase

This phase involves:

Ø How can the causes of defects or failures be removed?
Ø Identify the key variables which causes the problem
Ø Document solution statements
Ø Test solutions and measure results

Control Phase

This phase involves:

Ø How can the improvements be maintained or sustained?
Ø Document the new methods
Ø Select and establish standard measures to monitor performance
The employees must be capable of choosing the most appropriate tools and techniques for their situations. There are three major sets of tools/techniques that are required within the Six Sigma problem solving framework. These are outlined below
(Henderson and Evans, 2000) .

¨ Team tools – responsibility grid, threat versus opportunity matrix, action workouts, etc.

¨ Process improvement tools/techniques – brainstorming, Pareto analysis, process mapping, cause and effect analysis, Design of Experiments, Process FMEA, etc,

¨ Statistical Tools – Hypothesis tests (t-test, F-test, Chi squared, test), ANOVA, scatter plots, capability analysis, control charts, regression analysis, etc. In addition to the tools and techniques, we also need to have a clear understanding of the common metrics used within Six Sigma business strategy. Examples of these metrics include: costs of poor quality, number of customer complaints, defect rate, throughput yield to mention a few.

Linking Six Sigma to Customers

Six Sigma should begin and end with the customers. Projects should begin with the determination of customer requirements. The process of linking Six Sigma to the customers can be divided into two main steps:

a. identifying the core processes, defining the key outputs, and defining the key customers that they serve.

b. Defining the customer requirements

The first step is based on Porter’s concept of value chains (Porter, 1985), which aims at representing the organisation as a collection of activities. Core processes are usually chains of tasks involving various departments and functions that deliver the products or services to the customer. Core processes are supported by a number of enabling processes that provide vital inputs to the value-generating activities.
Therefore the companies first need to identify, define and prioritise its core business processes. The next stage would then be to define the key outputs from the core processes and the key customers that these outputs serve. Using this information,
process maps can be produced for each of the core processes and how they interconnect. This helps to create a better understanding of the business and its interdependencies.

Having defined the core processes, the next step is to define the customer requirements. The organisations need to recognise the fact that the needs, demands and attitudes of customers change over time. The organisations therefore need to prioritise projects that enhance the ability to meet the customers’ needs. In line with the data-driven philosophy of Six Sigma, the business needs to have a “Voice of the Customer (VOC)” system to gather customer data. This VOC system becomes valuable only if the data is analysed and acted upon. The insight gained from this data can then be used to establish guidelines for performance and customer satisfaction.
The data can also be used to analyse and prioritise customer requirements and hence link these to the company strategy.

Project Prioritisation and Selection

Poorly selected and defined projects lead to delayed results and also a great deal of frustration. The following three generic criteria may be used for the selection of projects (Pande et al.).

¨ Business benefits criteria

§ Impact on meeting external customer requirement
§ Impact on core competencies
§ Financial impact
§ Urgency
¨ Feasibility criteria
§ Resources required
§ Complexity issues
§ Expertise available and required
§ Likelihood of success within a reasonable timeframe
¨ Organisational impact criteria
§ Learning benefits – new knowledge gained about the business,customers, processes, etc.
§ Cross-functional benefits

For many organisations, financial returns to the bottom-line is the main criterion. Therefore the projects should be selected in such a way that they are closely tied to the business objectives of the organisation (Ingle and Roe, 2001). The scope and the lead time of projects is crucial during the early stages of the Six Sigma effort. Many complex projects require long term efforts and huge investment leading to long lead times for payoffs. This can be sometimes frustrating and discouraging to many people in organisations. Hence it is imperative to keep projects small and focused so that they are meaningful and manageable.

Linking Six Sigma to Human Resources

Human resources-based actions need to be put into effect to promote desired behaviour and results. Some studies show that above 60% of the top performing companies practising Six Sigma link their rewards to their business strategies. At GE,
for instance, for any manager to be considered for promotion, they have to be Six Sigma trained. Likewise, up to 40% of top management bonuses are tied to their specific Six Sigma success (Henderson, 2000).

IT infrastructure

Six Sigma is about change and change requires action from top management. Purposeful and useful action cannot occur without a system to monitor and control it.
Hence effective Six Sigma implementation requires an IT system to receive, organise and help translate this information into effective decisions for the organisation. For such a system to be active and functional, it requires an underlying IT infrastructure.

The following are some of the main roles an effective IT system would be required to play (Kendall and Fulenwider, 2000).

Support the collection of data from the process
Provide a means for effective communication and sharing of data/information across the organisation
Provide an easily accessible database holding information regarding all ongoing and completed Six Sigma projects
Provide an interactive training tool for employees to learn the Six Sigma methodology and the tools within the methodology for problem solving activities
Provide on-line coaching for Six Sigma tools and techniques
Provide software packages to assist with the selection and prioritisation of projects

Linking Six Sigma to Suppliers

Many organisations that implement Six Sigma find it beneficial to extend the application of Six Sigma principles to management of their supply chain. Referring back to Porter’s idea of a value chain, for a business to be successful, it must ensure a seamless and effective chain of supply to satisfy market demand. This alignment of the business towards the customer is one of the principal goals of Six Sigma.
Traditionally the approach was to have many suppliers in order to keep costs down. However, the trend now is to build strong partnerships and win-win relationships with fewer suppliers. Many companies such as Bose and AT & T have extended this even
further by having their supplier representatives work their engineers. This has led to substantial improvement in their product quality. Therefore, strong supplier involvement on Six Sigma programs can be beneficial in bringing the supplier closer to the customers and hence improve the quality of the product/process.

Conclusion

Six Sigma provides a comprehensive and flexible system for maximising business success. It has been considered as a revolutionary approach to product and process improvement through the effective use of statistical methods. This paper illustrates the key ingredients one should consider before a Six Sigma program is initiated in their organisations. All these ingredients are essential for the successful application of Six Sigma principles to any business process. If any of these ingredients is missing during the introduction and development of Six Sigma program, it would be then the difference between a successful implementation and a waste of resources, energy, money and time.


References

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3. Eckes, G. (2000), The Six Sigma Revolution, John Wiley and Sons, USA.
4. Rao, A. (1996), Total Quality Management, John Wiley and Sons, USA.
5. Hendricks, C. and Kelbaugh, R. (199, Implementing Six Sigma at GE, the
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HR in indian Scenario

Industrialization is the general process by which economies and societies in which agriculture and production of handicrafts predominates become transformed into economies and societies where manufacturing and relation extractive industries are central. This process occurred first in the UK during the industrial revolution and was soon repeated. In other West European societies profound changes in social organization of production and distribution are incurred especially a rapid increase in the division of labour both between individual and occupational group and also between industrialized and non-industrialized nation changes. When lead to a transformation of the techniques and the social organization of agriculture as well as of extractive and manufacturing industries. This change has also brought in a new concept of Industrial Relations, which studies the relation between employees and employers. IR basically refers to in the shop-floor (between the management and manual workers). However by the passage of time, IR shifted its focus to a new concept of employer relation which defines the relation between the white-collars and the management. This resulted due the shift in economic activities, economic organization and manufacturing process as a whole. Thus the concept has broadened itself.
The human resource management over the years has emerged as a new dimension to the practice of personnel management in the corporate world. The wealth and prosperity of a nation depends upon the development and effective utilization of human resource. A country which is unable to develop skills and knowledge of its people and employ them effectively will be unable to develop. Human resource management finds the earlier expression in the form of personnel management. It encompasses planning, organizing and controlling of the procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resource to the end that individual organizational and social objectives are accomplished. In practice, it has been seen as a somewhat lose conglomeration of discrete activities such as recruitment, training, labour welfare, labour loss and industrial relations; all working towards individuals. But the outcome of the research on need hierarchy, human relation and participative management, etc. by the management theoretician and practitioners have finally aimed at recognizing human resource at least as important as financial or material resources and advocate for careful and expert attention. Here a new technology called HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT replaced the earlier terminology PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT.
From the above discussion, it becomes clear that HRM particularly has 2 functions:
1) Utilization function (all functions of personnel management).
2) Development function (consider individuals as most valuable asset like other physical assets).
HRM and its development in the Indian contrast have its roots as in development of the functions of management in the West as an indigenous tradition, personalities and practices. The Western impact was felt in this country at 2 levels – a) Political and managerial. The reality of HRD in India is very complex contribution from the world of academics and among thinkers. Which has systemized local tradition to modern management concepts like the model of lurturant? “Task leadership� developed by J.V.P.Sinha, the “affection integration model as an effective style of management in Indian conditions� developed professor N.K.Singh and the team at the foundation for organizational research (FORE). The traditional HRD approaches in India are older than in Japan. They are nearly a century old in a giant company like the TATA Iron and Steel Ltd., the largest private sector company in India or in a much smaller organization like the Malayala Manorama which is India’s largest circulating newspaper and also in number of other companies particularly in the south.
The HRD values help impart dynamism and vitality to organization that they help tap the initiative and creativity of the workforce through clarity of goals, result oriented and team spirit.
T.V.Rao, a management academician cum practitioner clearly defined HRD in the organizational context as a process by which the employees of an organization and helped in a continuous planned way to:
a) Acquire and sharpen capabilities.
b) Need to perform various functions associated with them present and expected future role.
Develop these general capabilities as individuals and discover and exploit their own inner potential as individuals and discover and exploit their own inner potentials for their own organizational purposes.
Develop an organizational culture in which supervisor-subordinate relationship, teamwork and collaboration among everybody in the organization and that they contribute to the professional well-being, motivation and pride of the employees.
HRD systems include performance appraisal, feedback, creativity, career planning and training organizational development. Rewards, employee welfare and quality of life. The element of a whole HRD system comprising the various of the various organizations who based job, based factors as well as employee centered activities like corporate planning, manpower planning, recruitment, training, performance appraisal, job rotation, job redesign, talent spotting, career development and succession planning are to be sighted as intra-development elements.

Building Employer Brand

Here are a variety of no-cost things you can do to begin building your employment brand.

Benchmark and learn all you can internally from successful product and employment brands. Do the same externally (especially look at Cisco, GE, HP and IBM).
Assess your organization's current management practices, benefits, culture, etc., to identify what you "have to sell" and what you need to improve.
Do a quick survey or assessment of your current employment "image" among employees, applicants and general public using surveys and focus groups.
Calculate the potential ROI for branding and sell the idea to management.
Develop a catchy slogan that highlights your very best "great place to work" feature(s).
Develop a people-program inventory that lists each of your organization's unique human resource or people programs. This list should be used as ammunition to highlight your best practices in marketing pieces and in media articles.
Identify company products and programs that involve innovation, help save lives or protect the environment. Use these stories and examples in recruiting materials.
Rename some of your successful people programs with "catchy" names that grab people's attention.
Do a side-by-side comparison of your benefits and people pro-grams against those of your talent competitors. Identify areas where you are clearly superior.
Identify and assess your competitors' employment "brand" against which you'll be competing. Develop a branding strategy that high-lights the differences between you and your competitor.
Compose one or two-paragraph profiles of individual employee "success stories" for use in articles and on the Web site.
Work with the CEO's office to get top executives to mention your organization's great people practices both in their internal and external communications. When necessary, write that section of the speech for the CEO.
Apply for listing in the Fortune 100 Best Places to Work list.
Work with the PR department to identify public events that the company is sponsoring. Send managers and recruiters to talk about the company's great people practices. The recruiting department should also add a few of the marketing staff to its advisory team to offer suggestions and to coach recruiters on the latest marketing tools and strategies.
Work with the sales department to identify public sales events and trade shows where materials highlighting your great people practices can be displayed.
Quantify the participation and usage of your work-life balance and other similar high-profile people programs. Quantifying the usage sends a more powerful message than merely saying "we have a program."
Rank potential media and tools to convey branding efforts (based on what your target audience reads or attends), and then select the initial media and methods to convey the branding message.
Review articles that mention different companies' people pro-grams. Then develop a list of the criteria used by local publications when they select a company or people program to feature. Utilize these criteria for selecting which program stories you should high-light in your branding effort. In addition, build relationships with local publications and their reporters. Volunteer to act as sources, and encourage them to write stories on your great people and management practices.
Identify the target market (the type of candidate you are trying to attract) for your branding efforts. Develop a target profile for them (who they are; where to find them; what they read; events they go to; etc.).
Get key managers to write articles and give talks at industry association meetings. Be sure they include great people practices in their materials.
Get managers to give talks at community meetings and at the local Chamber of Commerce that highlight your people practices.
Invite family and friends of employees on site to see "what it is like to work here" and the importance of employees' work so that they will help spread the word on what a great place your organization is to work.
Offer benchmarking sessions on your great "people practices" to teach your customers and suppliers how you do great people man-agement in an attempt to get the attendees to spread the word.
Profile key employee success stories and best management practices on your corporate career web site. Periodically highlight your great people practices in internal publications to remind employees of the great things you do.
Cosponsor "career workshops" in schools to build your im-age early.
Ask the union, if you have one, to help spread the word about what a great place to work you are.
Encourage local college professors to visit and write "case studies" and articles about the company's people practices.
Participate in industry-wide benchmarking studies to help build your visibility.
Have human resource leaders speak at public human resource seminars and write articles for human resource trade publications about your people practices. Have them join the boards of local nonprofit groups and associations to help spread the word.
Include marketing and branding experience in the criteria you use to hire additional recruiters.
Create a process to measure and evaluate the program's effective-ness, monitor its progress, and improve it.

LOW-COST BRANDING TOOLS
If you have a little money to spend on human resources branding, here are some low-cost things to do.
Re-energize your existing employee referral program and set "targets" for referrals from each department. Include participation as part of the normal performance appraisal process. Provide employees with cards listing the top ten reasons why it's great to work for your company.
Encourage employees to put decals, license plate holders, etc., on their vehicles to broadcast their loyalty. Sell or distribute employment-branded items (hats, T-shirts, pens, etc.) that depict work at your organization.
Participate in community clean-up programs; get your organization named on "clean-up" highway signs.
Develop an alumni club for ex-employees and retirees. Involve these former employees in the process of spreading the word.
Distribute logo book bags, T-shirts, and other similar items to children; sponsor school events.
Work with the advertising department to place ads that occasion-ally highlight your great people and management practices as well as your products.
Train and reward managers for excellent people-management performance.
Conduct surveys of college students, business writers, academics, executive recruiters, and influential business leaders as well as your employees to assess your perceived strengths, weaknesses, corporate culture and image.
Revise recruiting practices to include "wow" elements to make a lasting impression. Continually review your recruitment strategy and team capabilities.
Have the CEO or human resource vice president write a book about the organization's people-management practices.

POSSIBLE DISADVANTAGES OF BEING A SOUGHT-AFTER EMPLOYER
There is also a downside to being a choice employer--a possible downside to your branding efforts. Some of the possible problems include:
Executive recruiters often target your organization's management and its employees.
The strength of the corporate culture makes changing it (as well as many operational changes) difficult.
Because of their "fame," the organization's employees have a tendency to become overconfident.
Performance measurement and willingness to accept criticism often diminish due to this overconfidence.
The company's image must be defended continually. Minor errors can be blown out of proportion by the press.
Pay levels (and thus costs of production) can be high due to the high cost of maintaining a world-class workforce.
New recruits may have unrealistic expectations based on image that can turn into disillusionment if everyday reality does not match.
Being an employer with a great reputation helps an organization grow, and this increase in size makes maintaining the culture and the "choice employer" status difficult over time.