Business

Companies taking a critical look at human resource management

— FILE PHOTO

COMPLEX GAME: Students participating in a career awareness and recruitment drive (CARD) programme.

With the competition in the air, and the problems posed by personnel management as well as in the recruitment process, companies are taking a critical look at the human resources management policy. It has become important for them to recruit efficient and reliable hands, retain them in employment, and nurture their growth in the company. Unless such a policy is adopted, HR managers warn that there could be major problems for the companies.

At a time when cyber crimes, hacking, sale of corporate or customers’ classified information, attrition, and even terrorism on the net have come to stay, companies are trying to redraw their policies to plug the loopholes. They do not want to get stuck with employees who may either not be dependable or even have a criminal background.

Says P. K. Balakrishnan, who works for a national HR company that recruits personnel for a host of corporates: “Our clients are asking us to take responsibility for the people we recruit on their behalf. This is possible to some extent, and we can only go by their past record. If they develop criminal intent or contacts after taking up employment, we can obviously not be held responsible for that. So we are taking the references that applicants give very seriously. To the extent possible, we are also checking on the antecedents of the applicants. Where necessary, we even check with the local police if they have information or record about these people. It has become a very complicated exercise. Earlier, we were looking only at experience, qualification, competence, communication skills and the like. Now we focus equally on the personal background. Only after the checks have been made do we call candidates for interviews.”

A HR manager in Bangalore says the “climate has become very complex,” especially in the wake of the terror network that has been unearthed in Karnataka and elsewhere. Many companies are digging up the past history and records of some of their staff following the disclosures in the media of the network. An element of suspicion has crept into every big office and nobody wants to take a risk.

The job melas and mass recruitment pose another challenge. That is why companies prefer to collect the applications and backgrounds of the job seekers and then go in for a process of verification — even of the degrees in some cases, because foregeries have become the order of the day.

HR managers explain that retention has become an equally important task. Given the competition and the greed for trained staff on the one hand and higher salaries on the other, junior and middle level employees seem to be perpetually on the look out for “greener pastures and good breaks.” Many companies have therefore gone in for at least a half-yearly review of the performance of employees and offer a fast track to “exceed expectation” or “high potential good performers” among the staff. Only then will they remain with the organisation.

Senior police officers in the Crime Branch confess that corporate enquiries have been on the increase in the past couple of years. The police organisation has to equip itself to provide such services, perhaps for a fee, a Deputy Commissioner of Police suggests. Intelligence sources say that there have been instances of private mails coming under scrutiny and this becomes inevitable especially in the cases relating to cyber crimes or unearthing a terror network.

On the whole, the employment scenario, at least from the viewpoint of the companies, has become so much more complex and complicated. But the job market is only expanding, with thousands of offers and walk-in interviews on offer every day.

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