Human Resource Management
This domain tests workforce planning, recruitment and selection, learning and development, performance and reward, employee relations and statutory compliance.
Core rules
- HR planning compares demand and supply of labour; gap analysis drives recruit, train, redeploy or retrench decisions.
- Job analysis produces job description (tasks) and job specification (person requirements).
- Selection tools must be reliable (consistent) and valid (predict job performance). Structured interviews and work samples generally outperform unstructured interviews.
- Training needs analysis at organisational, task and person levels; Kirkpatrick evaluates reaction, learning, behaviour and results.
- Performance: MBO, BARS, 360-degree feedback, forced ranking (often demotivating).
- Reward: job evaluation sets internal relativities; pay surveys set external competitiveness; variable pay links pay to performance.
- Statutory: Employees' Provident Fund 12% employee + 12% employer; gratuity after five years, 15/26 × last basic+DA × years; ESI for eligible wage thresholds.
Worked example. An employee with 12 years' service and last basic+DA of ₹30,000: gratuity = 15/26 × 30,000 × 12 = ₹2,07,692 (subject to the statutory ceiling and tax rules). The 15/26 factor converts 15 days' wages per year over a 26-day working month.
Traps. Recruitment attracts candidates; selection chooses among them. A reliable test can be invalid. 360-degree feedback is developmental as well as evaluative. Gratuity eligibility normally requires five years' continuous service. Attrition = leavers/average headcount, not leavers/total employees at year-end.