Responsibilities Of The Manager Commerce Essay



HRM is the process of managing people in organizations in a structured and thorough manner. This covers the fields of staffing, retention of people, pay and perks setting and management, performance management, change management and taking care of exits from the company to round off the activities

Personnel management is essentially "workforce" centered whereas human resource management is "resource" centered. The key difference is HRM in recent times is about fulfilling management objectives of providing and deploying people and a greater emphasis on planning, monitoring and control.

Responsibilities of Manager:

A manager plays a vital role in the development of an organization. He is the intermediary between the management and the employees. They represent management in front of employees and vice versa.They play an important role from recruitment of the employees to the retrenchment of employees and from conducting the plans to reviewing the plans.The main responsibilities of a manager are as follows:

Recruitment procedure:

One of the initial responsibilities is recruiting efficient employees for the company that will deliver the best of their abilities. As the recruitment procedure can be quite expensive for the company, it is imperative not to make an error during the process. If dedicated, honest, intelligent, trustworthy, and deserving candidates are not segmented, the entire company can suffer.

Hiring employees:

Hiring is also one of the most important duties, be it long term or short term. Every individual has a unique set of talents, educational background, and skills that can benefit an organization. Keeping that in mind, He/she should possess an eye for searching these talented people for the company's growth. It all rests on his/her shoulders to carry out this task.

Training and development of employees

The new employees or the old employees entering various departments need to undergo employee training for their specific roles. Not everyone is knowledgeable of what other departments are doing or what their key roles are. The manager has to train these employees such that there will be no compatibility issues with the work assigned later on.

Organization development

This is again one of the key areas where the manager has to execute to the fullest. Development of an organization is a responsibility which includes peculiar organizational culture, making the team more effective by introducing events intervening employees in a formal, and informal way; thus impacting the business.

Bridge for communication:

He/she holds a significant role in reducing the gap between the employees and the employers. Communication as well, in terms of change management, work relationships and environment, interviews and relevant questions, taking actions regarding discipline, resolving conflicts between workers, and acknowledging employees for their hard work by giving out certificates and rewards, etc.

Employee performance:

He/she has to evaluate performances of the employees and determines the appropriate wages, bonuses, employee performance appraisals, and wage increase. He/she has to note the key performance indicators set for each employee and assess them accordingly. Assessment of employee performance works in both the company's and the employees' advantage, making the duties increase furthermore.

Consultation for employees

In case of any issues or misunderstandings, the manager has to come into play and neutralize the scenario. He/she also suffices the role of being a mentor or helping employees cope up with bad bosses. He/she helps inspire employees, build their spirits, and employee motivation to the best of the organization

Advocating company policies:

You can create policies if and when there is confusion regarding behavior, handling situations, harassment and sexual harassment, making rules that are standard to other organizations, and for the current organization; along with considering fair treatment of employees.

Wages and benefits:

The manager has the power to decide the wages offered to an employee or to a recruit. Human resources management decides the break-up of salary and benefits the employee can avail during the tenure of work with the organization. Benefits may include, travel allowances, HRA (Health Reimbursement Arrangements), medical, etc. depending from organization to organization.

Teamwork and team spirit

The manager helps in building a team effective for working under circumstances and makes sure that right people are included in the team, minimizing conflicts and increasing productivity. The manager decides the team right from the team leader to the lowest ranking employee.

Relations amongst employees:

One of the fundamental HR manager responsibilities and duties is to implicate fair labor laws and policy, hiring people with disabilities. Working in congruence with the US Department of Labor, Medical and Family Leave act. How to avoid legal problems, in case of employment termination. Managing paid, casual leaves and so on.

Significance of strategies

To imply strategy for the growth of the company along with the employees and also ensure complete and effective work of HR administration

Performance Plan for the workgroup:

The manager before executing a plan he has to prepare for many things like what are the problem areas for employees and how these problems can be solved.

Use a Performance Plan when you have identified a performance problem and are looking for ways to improve the performance of an employee. The Performance Plan plays an integral role in correcting performance discrepancies. It is a tool to monitor and measure the deficient work products, processes and/or behaviors of a particular employee in an effort to improve performance or modify behavior.

Contents of an effective Performance Plan:

Define the problem.

This is the deficiency statement. Determine if the problem is a performance problem (employee has not been able to demonstrate mastery of skills/tasks) or a behavior problem (employee may perform the tasks but creates an environment that disrupts the workplace).

Define the duties or behaviors where improvement is required.

What are the aspects of performance required to successfully perform these duties?

Which skills need improvement?

What changes need to be made in application of skills an employee has already demonstrated.

What behaviors need modified?

Establish the priorities of the duties.

What are the possible consequences of errors associated with these duties?

How frequently are these duties performed?

How do they relate when compared with other duties?

Identify the standards upon which performance will be measured for each of the duties identified.

Are they reasonable?

Are they attainable?

Establish short-range and long-range goals and timetables for accomplishing change in performance/behavior with employee.

Are they reasonable?

Are they attainable?

Performance Goals Should Be SMARTER:

You can help ensure that goals are agreeable to supervisor and employee by ensuring that they are highly involved in identifying the goals. When setting goals with others, strive to describe them to be "SMARTER." This acronym stands for goals that are:


Measurable -- For example, to be able to assess if the three types of statements were generated or not.

Achievable -- For example, the goal would be irrelevant if the person had no access to the financial information from which to generate the statements.

Relevant -- For example, the goal would not be useful if the organization has no plans to ever make decisions based on the financial statements.

Timely -- The statements should be generated by a certain deadline, for example, in time for the Board to review and approve the statements.

Extending capabilities -- Ideally, the goal involves the person's learning more than they already knew about generating statements.

Rewarding -- Ideally, the activities of generating the financial statements would be fulfilling for the person to accomplish. If goals seem insurmountable to the employee, then break goals down into smaller goals, or sub-goals or objectives until they are SMARTER.

Develop an action plan.

What will the manager do to help the employee accomplish the goals within the desired time frame?

What will the employee do to facilitate improvement of the product or process

Are the items reasonable?

Can the items be accomplished?

Are the items flexible?

Establish periodic review dates.

Are the employee and the manager both aware of what will be reviewed at each of these meetings?

Measure actual performance against the standards to determine if expectations were:

not met met


Establish a Performance Improvement Plan file for the employee.

Does the file contain documentation which identifies both improvements and/or continued deficiencies?

Is the employee encouraged to review this file periodically?

Put the Performance Improvement Plan in writing.

Has plain and simple language been used?

Have specific references been used to identify areas of deficiency?

Have specific examples been used in periodic reviews which clearly identify accomplishments or continuing deficiencies?

Have you chosen an easy-to-read format such as a table or a duty by duty listing?

Have the Terms of Agreement been included in the Performance Improvement Plan?


After making the performance plan for employees , the task of the manager is not done. He hat to review the plan after the regular interval of time. He has to check whether the performance of the employees is according to what is planned in the performance plan. If there is any discrepancy, he has to check why is the discrepancy occurs and what can be done to solve the discrepancy. If any employee is performing good , the manager has to reward him to motivate his or to improve his morale and to encourage or other employees too in the organization. After preparing the performance plan, the manager has to perform the various responsibilities which are as follows:

1.Performance Management, Evaluation, Review,Â Improvement


2.Progressive DisciplinaryÂ Action


3 .Employee JobÂ Termination

When performance improvement isn't working, you may need to help an employee leave your employ. Employment ends for positive reasons such as a new job, a resignation or retirement. But, employment also ends for more negative reasons such as layoffs, downsizing, job termination or firing. Whatever the reason for the employee's job termination, here's help for you to manage the employee's job termination.

4.Goal Setting: Resolution and GoalÂ Achievement

Goal setting is the foundation for personal and business success. Goal setting enables you to achieve your dreams and achieve your resolutions. Goal setting is the framework for management success. Goal setting is the fuel that flames your onward progress. Learn more about goal setting

5.Finding, Motivating, Retaining, and Valuing High PerformanceÂ Employees

Top performers and high performance employees go above and beyond every day at work. How do you find high performance employees, motivate high performance employees, and retain high performance employees. What kind of work environment fosters high performance employees? Find out what you need to know to have an organization full of high performers.

The high performing employees should be motivated and rewarded so that they can perform more better and can prove to be an inspiration for other employees.The high performing employee can be rewarded in two ways.

Monetary Reward

For employees , money is everything. They work for money. But money is the basic reward.Money is required for fulfilling basic requirements of life like food , shelter, clothes etc. But when these requirements are fulfilled, employees required the other non- monetary reward which are very important in his life for better standard of living and to prove himself in the society.

Non- monetary Reward



In today's high paced federal work environment it is reported that employees consider it very rare and infrequent that they receive recognition of their work and efforts. Think about it - What better way to have employees continue their good work and success then to offer them praise-verbal, written or ideally a public announcement or employee award? Recognition is probably the most sought after of the non-monetary rewards in the workplace.

Job Enrichment

Job Enrichment means that increasing the responsibility of employees because they perform well and this will improve his morale and he'll try to perform much better than before.


It means promoting the employees from present position to the upper position.

Job Security

It means that now the employee has no fear of being thrown or fired out from the organization all of a sudden.

Major Myths About Rewarding Employees

Myth 1: "Money is the best reward."

No. Research shows that money does not constitute a strong, ongoing reward in and of itself. It is like having a nice office; it can give a temporary boost in morale and energy. The key roles for money and nice offices are that they can stop people from feeling worse.

Myth 2: "Employees are professionals. They should just 'suck it up' and do their jobs."

That view is outdated. Times have changed dramatically. Workers can no longer be treated like machines. They come at a high price and can cost as much to replace. Workers expect to be valued as human beings. Today, the rewarding of workers is done as a partnership between the supervisors and their workers.

Myth 3: "If I reward every time they do something useful, I will have to reward all the time."

Employees are mature adults. They do not need to be, and do not expect to be, rewarded for every useful thing they do in the workplace. One of the most important outcomes from regularly rewarding workers is that they believe that their supervisors fully acknowledge their value to the workplace.

Myth 4: "We're working to address critical problems, not to make our workers happy."

That is like saying, "This is a wood saw. It should be able to saw wood all the time. It should not ever have to be sharpened!"

Guiding Principles of Effective Reward Systems

There are a variety of ways to reward people for the quality of the work they do in the workplace. For example, rewards can be in the form of money, benefits, time off from work, acknowledgement for work well done, affiliation with other workers or a sense of accomplishment from finishing a major task.

1.Rewards should support behaviors directly aligned with accomplishing strategic goals.

This principle may seem so obvious as to sound trite. However, the goal of carefully tying employees' behaviors to strategic goals has only become important over the past decade or so. Recently, the term "performance" is being used to designate behaviors that really contribute to the "bottom line." An employee can be working as hard as anyone else, but if his/her behaviors are not tied directly to achieving strategic goals, then the employee might be engaged only in busy-work.

2.Rewards should be tied to passion and purpose, not to pressure and fear.

Fear is a powerful motivator, but only for a short time and then it dissipates. For example, if you have initially motivated employees by warning them of a major shortage of funds unless they do a better job, then they will likely be very motivated to work even harder. That approach might work once or twice, but workers soon will realize that the cause of the organization's problems is not because they are not working hard enough. They might soon even resent management's resorting to the use of fear. If, instead, management motivates by reminding workers of their passion for the mission, the motivation will be much more sustainable.

3.Workers should be able to clearly associate the reward to their accomplishments.

Imagine if someone told you "Thank you" and did not say what for. One of the purposes of a reward is to reinforce the positive behaviors that earned the reward in the first place. If employees understand what behaviors they are being rewarded for, they are more likely to repeat those behaviors.

4.Rewards should occur shortly after the behaviors they are intended to reinforce.

The closer the occurrence of the reward to the occurrence of the desired behavior in the workplace, the easier it is for the employee to realize why he/she is being rewarded. The easier it is for him/her to understand what behaviors are being appreciated.

Importance of Sense of Purpose and Feeling Appreciated:

Finding and training new employees is a substantial cost, no matter the size of the organization. One of the best ways to retain employees is to reward them for their work. One of the primary rewards for working adults is to feel a sense of meaning or purpose in their work. If employees feel that they are serving a useful purpose, they are much more likely to stay at their current job.

A common complaint from employees in small- to medium-sized organizations is that they feel burned out. A common symptom of burnout is to feel unappreciated. One of the best ways to address burnout, and retain employees, is to ensure that they feel appreciated for their work.

Thus, it is critical that organizations give careful consideration as to how they reward their employees. Organizations do not need huge sums of money in order to reward them (besides, the belief that money is the major reward is just a myth). Guidelines in this section will help you to think about what might be the best rewards for your employees and to take steps to ensure that you are providing those rewards.

Guidelines to Rewarding Employees

There is not a set of standard rewards to be used for employees everywhere. Instead, each person has his/her own nature and needs. The following guidelines will help you to determine what might be the best ways to reward your employees.

Reward employees by letting them hear positive comments from customers about how the employees' activities benefited the customer.

Occasionally have a Board member come to an employee meeting to thank them. This usually means a lot to employees, almost as much as having customers provide positive feedback about the employees' activities.

Understand what motivates each of your employees. You can do this by applying the "Checklist of Categories of Typical Motivators" in the previous subsection about supporting employee motivation on page 199. A major benefit of this approach is that each employee is afforded the opportunity to explain what motivates him or her.

In each monthly staff meeting, take a few minutes to open the meeting by mentioning major accomplishments of various employees.

Present gift certificates to employees who have made major accomplishments. Guidelines for determining who gets this reward should be clearly explained in your personnel policies in order to ensure all employees perceive the practice as fair and equitable. Allow employees to recommend other employees for awards.

Probably the most fulfilling for employees is to be able to do useful work. Be sure that each employee understands the mission of the business and how his/her work is contributing to that mission. Post your mission statement on the walls. Discuss the action-planning section of your strategic plan with employees so that they see how their activities tie directly to achieving the strategic goals of the organization.

6.Managing Day-to-Day EmployeeÂ Performance


7.Performance Goal Setting and PerformanceÂ Measurement


8.Performance Appraisal: Tips to Make the Most of PerformanceÂ Appraisal

Not everyone has the opportunity to impact the performance appraisal system within which they must work. But, every manager has the opportunity to take the performance appraisal system they've been dealt and turn the performance appraisal process into a positive, rewarding, beneficial process for both themselves and the employees who report to them. Start by implementing these suggestions

9.Performance DevelopmentÂ Planning

At the heart of your performance management system, the performance development planning (PDP) process helps employees know exactly what is expected from them. The performance development planning (PDP) meeting is an opportunity for the manager and employee to share goals for personal and job development. Held four times a year, minimally, performance development planning guides and documents employee performance

10.Technology, HRIS, HRMS, Intranets, WebÂ Sites

Technology is transforming the world of work. Check these technology links for the best ideas in technology application and use. Look for productivity boosting strategies. You'll also find key ideas in understanding technology's impact on work and people. Data management strategies are also available and Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) and Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS) are emphasized

11.When Employment Ends: Layoffs, Job Termination, Firing,Â Resignations


Cost Benefit Analysis

Before conducting the performance plan . the manager has to take the cost benefit analysis in to consideration. That what can be costs associated with the plan and whether the organisation has sufficient funds to conduct this plan.A cost benefit analysis finds, quantifies, and adds all the positive factors. These are the benefits. Then it identifies, quantifies, and subtracts all the negatives, the costs. The difference between the two indicates whether the planned action is advisable. The real trick to doing a cost benefit analysis well is making sure you include all the costs and all the benefits and properly quantify them.

Should we hire an additional sales person or assign overtime? Is it a good idea to purchase the new stamping machine? Will we be better off putting our free cash flow into securities rather than investing in additional capital equipment? Each of these questions can be answered by doing a proper cost benefit analysis.

Example Cost Benefit Analysis

As the Production Manager, you are proposing the purchase of a $1 Million stamping machine to increase output. Before you can present the proposal to the Vice President, you know you need some facts to support your suggestion, so you decide to run the numbers and do a cost benefit analysis.

You itemize the benefits. With the new machine, you can produce 100 more units per hour. The three workers currently doing the stamping by hand can be replaced. The units will be higher quality because they will be more uniform. You are convinced these outweigh the costs.

There is a cost to purchase the machine and it will consume some electricity. Any other costs would be insignificant.

You calculate the selling price of the 100 additional units per hour multiplied by the number of production hours per month. Add to that two percent for the units that aren't rejected because of the quality of the machine output. You also add the monthly salaries of the three workers. That's a pretty good total benefit.

Then you calculate the monthly cost of the machine, by dividing the purchase price by 12 months per year and divide that by the 10 years the machine should last. The manufacturer's specs tell you what the power consumption of the machine is and you can get power cost numbers from accounting so you figure the cost of electricity to run the machine and add the purchase cost to get a total cost figure.

You subtract your total cost figure from your total benefit value and your analysis shows a healthy profit. All you have to do now is present it to the VP, right? Wrong. You've got the right idea, but you left out a lot of detail.

Running The Numbers Means All The Numbers

Lets look at the benefits first. Don't use the selling price of the units to calculate the value. Sales price includes many additional factors that will unnecessarily complicate your analysis if you include them, not the least of which is profit margin. Instead, get the activity based value of the units from accounting and use that. You remembered to add the value of the increased quality by factoring in the average reject rate, but you may want to reduce that a little because even the machine won't always be perfect. Finally, when calculating the value of replacing three employees, in addition to their salaries, be sure to add their overhead costs, the costs of their benefits, etc., which can run 75-100% of their salary. Accounting can give you the exact number for the workers' "fully burdened" labor rates.

In addition to properly quantifying the benefits, make sure you included all of them. For instance, you may be able to buy feed stock for the machine in large rolls instead of the individual sheets needed when the work is done by hand. This should lower the cost of material, another benefit.

As for the cost of the machine, in addition to it's purchase price and any taxes you will have to pay on it, you must add the cost of interest on the money spent to purchase it. The company may purchase it on credit and incur interest charges, or it may buy it outright. However, even if it buys the machine outright, you will have to include interest charges equivalent to what the company could have collected in interest if it had not spent the money.

Check with finance on the amortization period. Just because the machine may last 10 years, doesn't mean the company will keep it on the books that long. It may amortize the purchase over as little as 4 years if it is considered capital equipment. If the cost of the machine is not enough to qualify as capital, the full cost will be expensed in one year. Adjust your monthly purchase cost of the machine to reflect these issues. You have the electricity cost figured out but there are some cost you missed too.

CASE STUDY:HSBC : A world's local Bank

The plan related to managing workforce diversity is being conducted in the world's local bank - HSBC . The plan is conducted to manage workforce diversity and to increase the performance of the employees.The details of the case study are as follows:

HSBC is an equal opportunities employer with no discrimination on grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, language, caste, economic or social status or disability. Being the "WORLD'S LOCAL BANK", they recognize that having a workforce that broadly reflects the composition of local communities in which they operate places them in a unique position to understand & respond to needs of their customers. Diversity initiatives & programmes are driven by their "Diversity Committee" which comprises senior executives from across the company. Its main areas of focus are:


A number of affirmative actions such as maternity, paternity and adoption leave, flexible

working hours, late night transportation etc. have been taken to support gender diversity.


Certain categories of job have been identified as suitable for physically challenged

individuals, like phone banking operators in call centres (for movement impaired only); data processing staff (for movement and hearing impaired); telephone operators in HSBC pan India (for visually impaired).


The "underprivileged" i.e. orphans and destitute individuals are assisted by tying up with

NGOs such as Future Hope and SOS Children's Villages to provide short-term training

internships. After their training, they are eligible to apply to join the bank and will be considered for employment based on merit and availability of suitable vacancies.

HSBC India has signed the Confederation of Indian Industry's and ASSOCHAM's

Code of Conduct for Affirmative Action.

The Company has a senior executive accountable to the CEO to oversee and promote its Affirmative Action policies and programmes. The senior executive presents / will present a biannual report to theBoard of the Company about such policies and programmes.

Writing Services

Essay Writing


Assignment Writing Service


Dissertation Writing Service


Coursework Writing Service


Dissertation Proposal Service


Report Writing


Essay Skeleton Answer Service


Marking & Proofreading Service


Exam Revision
