Challenges faced Before, While and After establishing jobs

When an Organization is considered as a whole, it comprises of tangible and intangible resources and people who are managing those resources to utilize and deliver pre-defined or anticipated results in a directed manner. It is therefore critical for organizations to arrive at a job description which will create scope for an individual to perform activities in a manner that best utilizes the unmapped resources to arrive at a result.

Organizations believe in metrics. This is a way to measure performance against various indicators that are either directly or indirectly associated with organizational objectives or mission. Organizational development and learning rely on these metrics and accordingly action plans can be rolled-out targeting professional and continued development across organization.

Many techniques have been devised to plan and control work. The idea is that work can get abstract if it is not measured. Deviation from actual tasks cannot be measured if there is no quantitative measure associated with it. Intrinsic biases will result, creating scope for work imbalances. Two popular methods to plan and control work involve using Gantt Charts and PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique). This is helpful in deciding whether a project is ahead, behind or as per schedule. The amount of work that an average worker in an industry can do is recorded as man hour. The productivity of a person lies in the amount of work he is able to perform towards completion of a project. Generally all these metrics are decided even before resources are allocated to projects and may be included as part of hiring plan. Thereafter resources are allocated work as per skill sets and availability. Lateral hiring is required if there is no manpower available with certain skill sets. Until then skill leveraging is common across projects. A shared resource may exhibit lesser productivity in initial stages, but this can be addressed easily.

Avoiding showstoppers is critical. What does this mean? Excessive dependence on one person to perform critical jobs must be avoided. This is one common mistake that many startups and mid-sized companies commit. The best way to avoid it is by measuring work and splitting it into measurable sub-units. The idea is that if a job is measurable, then it is transferable.

The next concern is Cultural Fit of a person. As organizations grow, depending on the strategic objectives and values of organization a cultural trend develops. Research indicates that organizational culture has a strong influence on the performance and productivity of its people. The main reason being ‘motivation to work’ is directly linked to the nature of work atmosphere which is a consequence of organizational culture. It is one of the key reasons why Induction of employees is taken seriously in many global organizations to provide an insight into organization from functional and cultural perspectives before starting actual work.