IMPORTANCE OF TEAM WORK IN ORGANIZATIONS

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Teamwork simply defined as a state of unity achieved within a group of people working for a specific economic benefit (Amin, 2011). Teamwork in an organization basically used to define the coordination and corporation between members. "A team is a small number of people with complementary sills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable'. In addition to that, regular communication, coordination, distinctive roles, and shared norms are also important features.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL WORK AND TEAMWORK

Siddique (2015) stated the difference between individual and teamwork as follows,

INDIVIDUAL WORK	TEAM WORK
Work on tasks	Shared responsibility
Work on revised tasks	Better problem solving
Research / developing	Stronger relationships
Networking	Agree on goals / milestones
	Communicate / process monitoring

According to Reddy (2020), there are several factors which help to make team a success. Some of them are,

• Clear understanding of team mission.
• Commitment towards goals
• Predefined roles and responsibilities
• Proper decision making process
• Productive group working process

ADVANTAGES OF TEAMWORK

• 
  Creativity and learning
• Idea generation
• Sharing the workload
• Brings various personality types
• Boost productivity
• Strong work ethics and team spirit

CONCLUSION-

The present day organization assign role to the individuals in a way that they inter related and interdependent upon each other. These interactions of people in small groups bring forth an important question of team work. Team members who participate in successful, effective teams may actually get more in the long run (Sharma, 2012). When done well, teams can bring a lot of good things to an organization. When done poorly, they can sap motivation out of an organization faster than almost anything else. Ineffective teams are a bad sign for the future of an organization.

REFERENCES-

Amin . B (2011) .Importance of teamwork in business.

Reddy. C (2020). Advantages and disadvantages of working in a team.

Sharma. R (2012). Effective and Efficient team work: Making things happen more than anything in working organization

Siddique, S. (2015) Team Building Presentation. Available at,

https://www.slideshare.net/SUSiddiqui/team-building-presentation-49109142

Top 11 benefits of  teamwork in workplace. Available at,

https://blog.proofhub.com/top-11-benefits-of-teamwork-in-workplace-24a55b8ab46e

MANAGING EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCES

Performance management is used as an indicator to support decisions related to strategic planning, succession planning, training and career development, compensation and benefits, promotion, transfers or even termination of employment. This ensures the employees are received with a specific performance target and monitor whether it is being achieved as expected. Performance management is the process of creating a work environment or setting in which people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities (Heathfeild, 2020).

• Factors which helps for a better performance management-

1.  Clear job descriptions. 
2.  Recruit potential employees and select the best among the market.
3. Hold multiple additional meetings, as needed, to get to know your candidates' strengths, weaknesses, and abilities to contribute what you need. Use potential employee testing and assignments where they make sense for the position that you are filling.
4. Select candidates using a comprehensive selection process.
5.  Provide effective new employee orientation and integrate new employee into the organization and its culture.
6. Provide ongoing education and training when needed. “It is about individual attention that caters to an employee’s needs, allowing them to significantly improve their skills and aptitudes and consequently increase their performance” (Clapon, 2014).
7. Provide on-going feedback.
8. Differentiating compensation is required so that “employee pay is meaningfully different across levels of performance and results confirm that this practice links closely with outperformance” (Chowdhury et al., 2018).
9. Design effective compensation and recognition systems that reward people for their ongoing contributions.
10. Provide promotional / career development opportunities including transfers and lateral moves.

Many companies are nowadays changing techniques of performance management for the better. Such change was done by General Electric by converting their once a year review process into a motivating way to guide employees. “GE managers and employees still meet once a year, but it is now a meeting with true purpose and employees future goals: to help with regular feedback the innovation giant is launching its own in-house performance app to help facilitate everyday regular feedback” (Heller, 2017).

References-

Chowdhury, et al., (2018). Harnessing the power of performance management. [online] McKinsey & Company. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/harnessing-the-power-of-performance-management [Accessed 4 Jun. 2019].

Clapon, P. (2014). 10 Must-dos to manage day-to-day employee performance. [online] Hppy. Available at: https://gethppy.com/employee-engagement/10-must-dos-manage-day-day-employee-performance [Accessed 4 Jun. 2019].

Heller, M. (2017). 6 Effective Performance Review Examples from the Best Companies | Blog. [online] iRevü. Available at: https://irevu.me/blog/6-effective-performance-review-examples-best-companies/ [Accessed 4 Jun. 2019].

Susan, H. (2020) .Performance Management . Available at:

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/performance-management-1918226#components-of-a-performance-management-system

BALANCING OF WORK AND LIFE SPECIALLY IN FEMALE EMPLOYEES

Work-life balance concept started in 19^th century with the workers’ Union campaign against the long working hours. In earlier 20^th century , workers demanded for various liabilities such as maximum working hours. Later, in 1980, organizations started to promote more family friendly working policies in order to attract employees. Though these working comforts were implemented focusing on women workers initially, companies offered those family friendly work advantages to male workers as well. Those family friendly work policies had telecommuting & flexible scheduling.

During the initial stage of work-life balance concept it contained protect family life in competitive workplace & career focused society. But at present work-life balance concept has broad indicators such as health & safety at work, equality, labor market flexibility & international competitiveness. (Syed, 2015). 

According to the UK labor market statics 43% of the female workers are employed in part time jobs where as only 13% male workers are engaged in part time jobs. (ONS, 2012) By looking at the fact we can define that the female workers are more concern about work-life balance.

Thomas (2013) suggested that the biggest problem is work-life balance is time pressure. Time pressure is the difficulty faced by the employee to manage both official work & home work. Thomas named the said issue as Work-family conflict. Most of the time women employees are getting affected by the work-family conflict. Women employees would get frustrated when they failed to manage their time. Hence most of the women choose to do a part time or a seasonal job to have more work flexibility.

Due to competition and increasing cost of living, most of women also engage in different type of jobs. Some of them continues their duty for more than 8 to 10 hours. These type of jobs are very stressful and used to add an additional pressure on employee. To reduce the pressure , most of companies in Sri Lanka including government and private sector give alternative options specially for female employees to balance their work - life. Some of them are ,

•         Paid maternity leave for 84 days. If a government female employee, she can apply for no pay leave after paid 84 days.
•         Fe eding hours for women who has children below 12 months.
•         Medical reimbursements for parents/ children / spouse
•         Compulsory 7 days annual leave .

These helps female employees to carry out a balanced work- life since majority of household work are done be female.

References

ONS (Office for National Statistics) 2012. Gender Working Patterns.

Felstead, A., Jewson, N., Phizacklea, A. and Walters, S. 2002. Opportunities to work at home in the context of work–life balance, Human Resource Management Journal, 12: 54–76.

Syed, J. (2015).Work-life balance. Managing Diversity and Inclusion: An International Perspective, pp.291-314. London: Sage.

Thomas, K.C. 2013. Work–Life Balance: A Sociological Study of Women Professionals in Kerala. Kerala: Mahatma Gandhi University.

DIVERSITY OF WORKFORCE

 

Workforce diversity can be identified as the similarities and differences between employees in terms of physical capabilities and disabilities, race, religion, age, social backgrounds, gender, and sexual orientation (Saxenaa, 2014). And also, no two humans are alike and people are different not only in above psychological characteristics but also in their perspectives and prejudices and in current scenario, employing diversified workforce is necessary for every organization but to manage such diversified workforce has become a big challenge.

Workforce diversity is a major concern for most of the businesses today since organizations need to understand and go through the workforce diversity effectively because of globalization requires more attention and interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds.

As per the Esen (2005 ), under the umbrella of diversity practices, currently organizations are employing approaches of understanding and relationship-building which encourage the voice of all employees to be heard and involved with achieving a competitive advantage by learning the perspectives of diverse employee groups are adding value and creativity to organizations’ strategic direction.

According to Devoe (1999), many challenges can be identified in managing diverse work population since it is more than simply acknowledging differences in people. It involves in recognizing the value of differences, combating discrimination and upholding the inclusiveness resulting managers to be challenged with losses in personnel and work throughout due to prejudice and discrimination, also complaints and legal actions against the company.

Negative attitudes and behaviors also can be hurdles to organizational diversity because they can damage working relationships and hurt morale and work productivity (Esty et al. 1995).

Organizations always need to have a look for the ways to becoming comprehensive while holding diversity because it has the potential to yield the greater competitive advantages as well as the work productivity (SHRM 1995). Stephen Butler, chairperson of the Business-Higher Education Forum, strongly trust that diversity is an invaluable competitive asset (Robinson, 2002) and Black Enterprise(2001) highlighted that managing diversity in the current global context is a key factor of effective people management in a workplace.

Hatton national Bank PLC is one of the largest bank networks in the country currently having employees more than 4500. According to their integrated report 2019, there are 1923 female employees and 2623 male employees. Employees are a blend of all religions; Sinhala, Hindu, Muslims and Christians / Catholics. Recruiting age starts from 18 years and retirement ends at 55. The blend of age ensure that the company has experienced and young energetic staff combination to challenge the competitive market. Educational qualifications as well as other qualifications such as sports are required . Most of the employees are from different social backgrounds who could work as a team to reach bank's common goal. Almost all employees can speak more than two languages fluently and it enables to build a strong relationship with customers as well as among employees. These factors shows that Hatton National Bank PLC has a strong workforce diversity in the organization.

References

Black Enterprise. 2001. “Managing a multicultural workforce.” Black Enterprise Magazine (July).

Devoe, D. 1999.Managing a changing workforce: Achieving outstanding service with today’s employees. Davie, FL: Workplace Trends Publishing

Esen, E., 2005. 2005 Workplace Diversity Practices , s.l.: Society for Human Resource Management.

Hatton National Bank, Integrated report ,2019 available at, https://www.hnb.net/2019

Onday, O., 2016. Global Workforce Diversity Management and the Challenge of managing diversity. Global Journal of Human Resource Management , Volume Volume 4.

Saxenaa, A., 2014. Workforce Diversity: A Key to Improve Productivity Ankita. Institute of Management Studies Annual Research Conference .

GLOBALIZATION AND CURRENT HR TRENDS

 

'GLOBALIZATION' can be described as the worldwide movement towards economic, financial, trade and communication integration (Business Dictionary, 2019). The transformation of human resources today is a direct call of the rapid changes within businesses due to factors such as globalization. In the global competition within the flat and connected new world, decision making in organizations has become increasingly intricate and convoluted. The new global world has widened the talent pool for excellent and marginal workers, and for permanent and fluid workers. HR need to take advantage of technology and data analytics to build a global human resource information system that collects and stores data from various sources.

MAJOR FACTORS FOR GLOBALIZATION-

        Shortage of talented people in own country-Most of developed countries will face long term talent shortages mainly due to ageing and the retirement of baby boomers. There are more workers retiring than entering the labor force in these countries. 

           Availability of Low Cost Labor from Emerging Countries-The total number of university-educated workers in low-wage countries far exceeds the number for higher wage countries. Currently, India produces as many young engineers as the United States, and China produces more than twice as many. The migration of workers and outsourcing of work from emerging countries to developed countries.

            Progress in new technology-Globalization is made possible by the development of cost effective, yet very powerful technologies, including the Intra- and Internet, enterprise resource planning system, data warehouse, data mart, and data analytics. Many service jobs, such as call centers, animation, transcription, and software development can be carried out remotely. 

With Globalization, new trends and findings of HR is spreading widely. More and more companies began to study and analyze their employees in workplace, so they can use information on decision making. Adoption of HR related software streamlined data collection and analysis process helping managers
to predict staff needs, expedite the social connections, improve career development and make office environment more productive (Leong, 2017).

SOME KEY HR AREAS CONNECTED WITH GLOBALIZATION-

                DIGITALIZED HR- Globalization brings digitalization to companies worldwide. Artificial intelligence and machine learning tools such as 'Getlink' have contributed to revolutionized recruitment other apps and software digitalized performance management and lower the cost.

                PEOPLE ANALYTICS-People analytics can be defined as the deeply data-driven and goal-focused method of studying all people processes, functions, challenges, and opportunities at work to elevate these systems and achieve sustainable business success (Ghosh, 2019)

               GIG ECONOMY-Gig economy show a free market system where organizations and independent workers engage in short-term work arrangements (Duszynski, 2020) Examples- Freelancers, Consultants, Independent contractors and professionals, Temporary contract workers.

CONCLUSION-

With globalization, a wide path is opened for employees for new job opportunities and it is a challenge for HR leaders to recruit the best among the market only by traditional ways.

references-

Duszynski M,2020 Gig Economy, definition statistics and trends

Ghish P,2019 What is People Analytic? definition process, trends and tools

Kapoor et al, Impact of Globalization on Human Recourse Management. available at,

6 Bhushan Kapoor.pdf (jimsjournal.org)

Leong C 2017 Four key HR trends to watch in 2018(Online) available at,

https://www.forbes.com/sites/cheetung/2017/12/19/four-key-hr-trends-to-watch-in-2018/?sh=50efbb5219de

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN WORKPLACE

 

Employees are the major assets of any organization. The active role they play towards a company’s success cannot be underestimated. As a result, equipping these unique assets through effective training becomes more effective in order to maximize the job performance. Also position them to take on the challenges of the today’s competitive business environment (Nassasi A, 2013).

Employee development is the integration of individual, career and organization development roles in order to achieve maximum productivity, quality, opportunity and fulfillment of organizations members as they work to accomplish the goals of the organization. Training and development is one of the lowest things on the priority list of most companies. When it's organized, it is often at the persistence of the human resources department. Training allows employees to acquire new skills, sharpen existing ones, perform better, increase productivity and to become better leaders.

Organizations have to obtain and utilize the human resources effectively. Organizations need to be aware of face more realistically towards keeping their human resources up - to date. To do that, managers need to pay special attention to all the functions of human resource management as this plays an important role in organizational, social and economically areas among others that are influential to the attainment of the organizational goals and organizations successful continuation in the market. 

Employee training plays a vital role in improving performance as well as increasing productivity. This in turn leads to placing organizations in the better positions to face competition and stay at the top. This therefore implies an existence of a significant difference between the organizations that train their employees and organizations that do not. 

Wright & Geroy (2001) note that employee competencies change through effective training programs. It therefore not only improves the overall performance of the employees to effectively perform their current jobs but also enhances their knowledge, skills an attitude of employees necessary for the future job, thus contributing to superior organizational performance.

MAIN ADVANTAGES OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE EMPLOYEE WORKPLACE-

        Increase Productivity

                 Productivity is not only dependent on employees, but also on the technology they use. Training and development goes a long way in getting employees up to date with new technology, use existing ones better and then discard the outdated ones. This goes a long way in getting things done efficiently and in the most productive way.

        Addressing employee weaknesses-

                    Most employees have some weaknesses in their workplace skills. A training program allows you to strengthen those skills that each employee needs to improve. A development program brings all employees to a higher level so they all have similar skills and knowledge. This helps reduce any weak links within the company who rely heavily on others to complete basic work tasks.

        Improving employee performance-

                        An employee who receives the necessary training is better able to perform the job. The training may also build the employee's confidence because she has a stronger understanding of the industry and the responsibilities of her job. This confidence may push her to perform even better and think of new ideas that help her excel.

        Structured Training and Development-

                  A structured training and development program ensures that employees have a consistent experience and background knowledge. The consistency is particularly relevant for the company's basic policies and procedures.

        Employee job satisfaction-

                Employees with access to training and development programs have the advantage over employees in other companies who are left to seek out training opportunities on their own. The investment in training that a company makes shows the employees they are valued. The training creates a supportive workplace.

Hatton National Bank PLC is a financial institution which has over 4900 employees and provide a full and wide range of financial services all over the country. They have invested more than Rs 48Mn in year 2019 for training and development of their staff.  According to their annual report 2019, training per employee is 38.5 hours. Below are some of the key initiatives they have implemented.

• Rollout of the new organizational structure
• Refinement of job descriptions
• Talent fitment for branches
• Development programmes
• Digital mindset programme for the top management team.

• CORE TRAINING AREA	NO OF PROGRAMMES	NO OF BENEFITTED PEOPLE
  Sales Culture/ Selling Skills	59	1,081
  Service Culture/Customer service excellence	30	899
  Credit Culture	31	109
  Leadership	20	222

CONCLUSION-

Training and development is one of the key functions of organization. The sustainability of the organization depends on how employees perform their duties. Therefore continuous training and development provide both the company as a whole and the individual employees with benefits that make the cost and time a worthwhile investment.

references-

Chopra B, (2015) The Economic Times, Importance of training and development in an organization. Available at

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/hr-leadership/people/importance-of-training-and-development-in-an-organization/articleshow/48739569.cms

Chron, Shelly C, 2019, Importance of training and development in the workplace

available at

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-training-development-workplace-10321.html

Hatton National Bank PLC, integrated report 2019

Nassazi, N. (2013). Effects of training on employee

performance: Evidence from Uganda (Unpublished

doctoral dissertation). University of Applied Sciences,

Vassa, Finland.

Nassazi N,(2013) Effects of training of employee performance: Evidence from Uganda. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation).

Wright, P and Geroy ,D (2001), Changong the mindset: the training myth and the need for word, a class performance, International journal of Human Recourse Management.

HOW DO FIRMS ACHIEVE COMPETITVE ADVANTAGE?

 "Competitive advantage" is a concept founded by Michael Porter  in  1985. He created a framework in order to gain competitive advantage and organization to become unique form their competitors (Armstrong, M.2006).

A competitive advantage exists when an organization is able to give the same benefits as its competitors at a lower cost, or give benefits more than its competitors differently. Therefore, a competitive advantage enables the organization to create additional value than its competitors (Quick MBA, official Web page). 

According to Michal Porter, there are two basic types of competitive advantages;

        1.cost advantage

        2.differenciate advantage

An organization will have competitive advantage when they can reduce cost and differentiate their products / services than its competitors. Let us take an example from Sr Lankan Banking Industry.

What are the competitive advantages of Hatton National Bank?

        -Hatton National Bank has a long history since 1988.

        -Having more than Rs 1.2 Billion Asset base.

        -Island wide network. The bank has 252 branches all over the country with more than 780 ATMs.

        -Customized products and Service.

        - Different products and services which can fulfill customer expectations.

        -Advanced technology.

        -Low cost fund base comparing to advances. (Deposits vs lending products)

        -Sustainability and CSR.

Above - mentioned reasons create a competitive advantage for Hatton National Bank among other banks and financial institutions in the Industry. 

According to Sri Lankan Export Development Board official web page , competitive advantages of Sri Lankan Gem and Jewelry Industry as follows,

        -A long history in Gem mining , cutting, trading  and jewelry manufacturing.

        -Sustainable Gem mining methods.

        -A highly skilled Gem cutting tradition.

    -Availability of Gemstones and untapped resources. (Source- Sri Lankan Export Development Board, official web page)

Above reasons create a competitive advantage for Sri Lankan Gem and Jewelry Industry among international market.

references-

Armstrong (2006), A handbook of Human Recourse Management Practice

Hatton National Bank annual report (2019) available at,

https://www.hnb.net/2019

Hatton National Bank official Web page available at,

https://www.hnb.net/

Pahuja, et al (2012). Achieving Competitive Advantage through HR Practices: A Case study. Journal of Human Resource Management. 1. 35-43. 

Sri Lankan Export Development Board official Web page available at,

https://www.srilankabusiness.com/gem-diamond-and-jewellery/sri-lankas-competitive-advantages.html 

QuickMBA official Web page, available at

http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/competitive-advantage/