ASSIGNMENT

Course Code : MS - 2

Course Title : Management of Human Resources

Assignement Code : MS-2 /TMA/SEM – I/2017

Note: Attempt all the questions and submit this assignment on or before 30th April, 2017 to the
coordinator of your study center.

Q1.What are the primary objectives, focus, and purpose of Selection Tests and Interview in
the whole process of Hiring in organisational set up? Critically examine their usefulness and
importance in the short term and long term functioning and culture of the organisation.
Draw from the experiences you are familiar with. Describe the organisation and the
situation you are referring to.

Ans:

Hiring the right employee is a challenging process. Hiring the wrong employee is expensive, costly
to your work environment, and time consuming. Hiring the right employee, on the other hand, pays
you back in employee productivity, a successful employment relationship, and a positive impact on
your total work environment.

Hiring the right employee enhances your work culture and pays you back a thousand times over in
high employee morale, positive forward thinking planning, and accomplishing challenging goals.
This is not a comprehensive guide to hiring an employee, but these steps are key when hiring an
employee.

When you consider hiring an employee, it’s tempting to offer the job to the candidate who is most
like you. The candidate feels as comfortable as a well-worn shoe. You won’t get many surprises
once you make the job offer, and your gut is comfortable that your favorite candidate can do the job.
Beware, beware this practice when hiring an employee. Why does your organization need another
employee just like you? Here are the seven critical factors to consider before hiring an employee
and making a job offer.

As a business owner, one of your most important tasks is workforce management. It's your job to
make sure you have the right people--and the right number of people--to keep your company

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running smoothly. Now let's say your business is growing and you're sensing you need to hire new
employees. How can you really be sure the time is right to bring in additional staff? There are at
least seven common clues:

1. Your employees are working very hard--perhaps too hard--and they're letting you know--or
complaining--that they have too much to do. Complaints of this nature aren't uncommon,
but your task is to determine if they're legitimate. How can you do that? Try talking to your
employees and asking them to validate their concerns of being "overworked." Then look at
attendance and productivity indicators to substantiate their claims. If what you find
confirms their feedback, then you might decide to reorganize and restructure roles and
responsibilities to better deal with the workflow. Or you could use your new knowledge as a
guide to hiring additional employees.
2. Employees claim they want to take on more tasks or spend additional time on current
ones--if only they had the time.
3. The growth curve for your products or services is increasing, and you identify that as a
positive trend, not just a blip on the consumer radar.
4. You see an opportunity for growth and expansion in your industry or related industries, and
decide that now's the time to take a calculated risk to expand. But current employees aren't
available to assume additional responsibilities.
5. You determine that your employee's existing job skills and knowledge are fine for your
company's current level of productivity, but to expand, you'll need either increased skills
and knowledge or a new and different set of skills and knowledge.
6. Revenue is at or above target and you project it to continue; other than financially
rewarding yourself and/or your employees, you wonder what to do with the increased
revenue.

After taking a long, hard look at the state of your business, you decide to expand by hiring
additional employees. But what do you have to take into account and do when adding a new
position and a new hire? First, you need to create a comprehensive, clearly written job description
that includes these factors:

 The major and related duties, responsibilities and tasks the employee must perform
 The expected standards of job performance

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  The reporting relationships--the people or job title to whom the employee will report and
who, if anyone, will report to the new hire
 The financial and fiscal responsibilities and spending limits--if any
 The standards of acceptable behavior
 The working conditions

Besides being used when hiring new staff, this same document is crucial in serving as a basis for
evaluating employee performance. If it's too general, non-specific or doesn't adequately reflect
what the employee actually does on the job, then it's a waste of your time and effort.

When it comes to actually choosing the best candidate for the job, the best advice I can give you is
this: Hiring someone simply because you need an "extra body" is foolish and inevitably results in
poor performance, decreased productivity and decreased morale. So be sure to hire only someone
who actually fits the job description you've created. In fact, shooting for the stars by knowingly
increasing your standards to hire the best possible candidate--even it takes some time to find the
right person--is well worth it.

Usefulness and importance in the short term and long term functioning and culture of the
organisation

 Set up a process with the new hire's direct supervisor to monitor progress. Provide
immediate feedback on all aspects of job performance. Don't wait for the end of the typical
90-day review period to catch the person doing something right or wrong. Immediate
feedback provides the immediate opportunity for growth and improved performance.
 Create a training program, either formal or informal, depending on the size of your
company. The goal of this program will be to bring the new person up to speed with the
knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for successful completion of their new job. Simply
because a candidate was successful in a similar job at another organization does not ensure
this person will be successful in your organization.
 Develop a mentoring system: Select an individual who can serve as "Big Brother" or
"Big Sister" to offer advice, especially on "how things are done around here" as well as
possible landmines, such as difficult people, issues, politics, processes, norms or unwritten
rules. This mentor should be a respected individual in your company, but should not be the

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 person's direct supervisor. (Creating such a system is also a good idea for existing
employees.)

By following these guidelines, you'll be able to decide whether or not to expand your workforce,
create a workable job description, provide feedback to the new hire, and created a training and
mentoring system to increase the potential for success.

The organization I am referring to you is Infosys

The recruitment process aims at testing your competence. By the time you have finished the
interview, you will have a very clear picture of the scope of your future activities.The company
always strive to have the right person in the right position. 

During the process, you get to interact with a representative of the HR department and in the next
step, with the person who would be your direct superior. 

 In the first round Comapny looking at several things, some of which cover your interest in
the position and career expectations, your professional background and language
capabilities (specialized language tests). We further discuss with you the general working
environment, atmosphere in our teams and benefits offered by Infosys.

 Your domain knowledge as well as your ability to be compatible with the current team are
also assessed in the process. Last but not least, the job responsibilities will also be explained
to you in detail.

 If you are successful, they call you to congratulate you on the new job and speak about the
job offer details with you.

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Q2.What are the major „problems/errors‟ which came in the way of „Effective Performance
Appraisal Systems‟ of any organization? Describe and explain with the help of your
organizational experiences or the ones you are familiar with. Briefly explain the
organization, situation and its fall out too support your reply.

Ans:

An organization comes across various problems and challenges Of Performance Appraisal in order
to make a performance appraisal system effective and successful. The main Performance Appraisal
challenges involved in the performance appraisal process are:

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• Determining the evaluation criteria

Identification of the appraisal criteria is one of the biggest problems faced by the top management.

The performance data to be considered for evaluation should be carefully selected. For the purpose
of evaluation, the criteria selected should be in quantifiable or measurable terms

• Create a rating instrument

The purpose of the Performance appraisal process is to judge the performance of the employees
rather than the employee. The focus

of the system should be on the development of the employees of the organization.

• Lack of competence

Top management should choose the raters or the evaluators carefully. They should have the
required expertise and the knowledge to decide the criteria accurately. They should have the
experience and the necessary training to carry out the appraisal process objectively.

• Errors in rating and evaluation

Many errors based on the personal bias like stereotyping, halo effect (i.e. one trait influencing the
evaluator’s rating for all other traits) etc. may creep in the appraisal process. Therefore the rater
should exercise objectivity and fairness in evaluating and rating the performance of the employees.

• Resistance

The appraisal process may face resistance from the employees and the trade unions for the fear of
negative ratings. Therefore, the employees should be communicated and clearly explained the
purpose as well the process of appraisal. The standards should be clearly communicated and every
employee should be made aware that what exactly is expected from him/her.

The organization I am referring is TCS

TCS's performance appraisal system is supported by an online system called the Human Resource
Management System- an Oracle Developer based tool. The system individual right from his
biographical details to his projects performance. An employee's performance history at the click of
a button and this accurately maintained for all employees! Right from his entry, an employee in TCS
get formal performance feedback once very two months till such time that he is confirmed after
which the performance feedback is provided twice every year on a formal basis. TCS however

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widely encourages informal feedback discussions between Project Leaders and Team Members and
this concept has found an overwhelming appeal among the people.

TCS conducts two appraisals:

1. At the end of the year

2. At the end of a project.

Appraisals are based on Balanced Scorecard, which tracks the achievement of employees on the
basis of targets at four levels —

 Financial

 Customer

 Internal

 Learning and growth

The financial perspective quantifies the employee’s contribution in terms of revenue growth, cost
reduction, improved asset utilization and so on; The customer perspective looks at the
differentiating value proposition offered by the employee; the internal perspective refers to the
employee’s contribution in creating and sustaining value; the learning and growth are self-
explanatory. The weightage given to each attribute is based on the function the employee performs.
Based on their individual achievements, employees are rated on a scale of one to five (five =
“superstar”). If employees get a low rating (less than two) in two consecutive appraisals, the
warning flags go up.

“If the poor performer continues getting low scores then the exit option may be considered”

Over the years TCS has found the pattern that leads to the maximum decline in performance —
boredom. If employees work for more than two years on the same project, typically either their
performance dips or they leave the organization.

To avoid that, TCS shuffles its employees between projects every 18 months or so.

“Performance drops if motivation drops”

All TCS employees were divided into five bands from A to E – A being the top rated and E being the
bottom. Top 10% associates get A, next 20% B, next 30% C, next 39% D and bottom 1% E. Band
distribution motivates top 10% and at least half of next 20% (bottom half of 20% who knew they
did not deserve A). Overall, 20% of work force is motivated and rest all are demotivated. You can
notice the feeling when associates take longer tea break, hesitate to talk, do not return calls, and
when SLAs breach or just escape breaching.

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Performance appraisal demotivating for 80% of TCS work force

Goals set and evaluated do not govern performance appraisal. Goals are set to evaluate
performance and a number is given on fulfilment of each goal. All these numbers are rolled up to
get a number from 1 to 5. However, this number is not used for performance appraisal band
determination and a manual ranking of associates in each project determines performance band.
Factors that govern ranking and, thus, performance band:

1. Are you required in next 6 months? If so you will get good ranking. It does not matter
whether you have contributed anything to revenue until the time of this ranking.
2. If person is getting released from project then he will get D, if not E.
3. Onsite associates gets lower ranking. Logic is to keep everyone happy – Onsite associate
gets Onsite allowance (which is usually higher than Offshore salary) and Offshore associate
gets higher band.
4. Since consecutive E leads to service termination, another higher performer has to be
sacrificed by giving him E. Following year, this higher performer needs to be saved and the
cycle continues
5. How close you are to decision makers?

Performance appraisal mars collaboration in project. Associates in a project compete to get A, B

or C (tragically, even D to escape E). A Project Manager bleeds when he has to burn his best
diamonds (team member) like a coal.

Need for performance appraisal?

We should have performance appraisal. However, performance appraisal needs major revamp:

1. Only one person or one committee sets performance goals for all associates in a project.
Number generated from goal attained should determine ranking of person in project.
2. Many a times supervisor keeps goals in a goal-sheet vague (not specific or quantifiable) so
that he can evaluate overall and give his opinion. Instead of that one of the goal measure can
be supervisor opinion of appraisee performance. This goal should be subjective.
3. Have two scales of performance appraisal – project performance and personal performance.
4. Have 2-3 performance levels. A – top-performer, B – mediocre, C – non-performer. Employ
level C for very small percentage like 1%. Applying level C should not be mandated on

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 personal performance but mandated on project performance scale. Coach or terminate a
person with both individual and project performance C.
5. Disburse project team that obtains project band A and C.

Performance appraisal in TCS‘s 

1. Ensures that everyone is rated on the same scale. If goals are well-defined and
appraisee appraised on goals then individual factors, onsite/offshore, requirement over the
time etc. will disappear.
2. Promotes collaboration rather than competition especially in team. Reduction in number of
band values (D and E, even possibly C) will further reduce competition.
3. Allows company to grow when performers in best projects are distributed in organization
and bottom performers are coached or terminated.

Performance appraisal can never be perfect and suggested method may also suffer from some
problems. One of the problem I envisage is that reduction in competition will not address lack of
motivation (not demotivation) in 40% of least performers (in TCS‘s D and E scale). With 60% of
work force motivated and rest 40% not demotivated, suggested performance appraisal method is
far superior than TCS‘s current performance appraisal method.

At the heart of an employee's satisfaction lies the fact that his performance is being appreciated and
recognized. TCS's performance management system has metamorphosed into one that emphasizes
objectivity and a system that mandates performance evaluation against pre-determined criteria.

Q3.Critically evaluate the state of workers‟ participation in Management in the present day
business scenario. Explain with examples your answer giving due details of the
organizations and the sources you are referring to.

Ans:

Employers resist the participation of workers in decision-making. This is because they feel that
workers are not competent enough to take decisions.Workers’ representatives who participate in
management have to perform the dual roles of workers’ spokesman and a co-manager. Very few
representatives are competent enough to assume the two incompatible roles.Generally Trade

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Unions’ leaders who represent workers are also active members of various political parties. While
participating in management they tend to give priority to political interests rather than the
workers’ cause.Schemes of workers’ participation have been initiated and sponsored by the
Government.However, there has been a lack of interest and initiative on the part of both the trade
unions and employers.In India, labour laws regulate virtually all terms and conditions of
employment at the workplace. Workers do not feel the urge to participate in management, having
an innate feeling that they are born to serve and not to rule.The focus has always been on
participation at the higher levels, lower levels have never been allowed to participate much in the
decision-making in the organizations.The unwillingness of the employer to share powers with the
workers’ representatives, the disinterest of the workers and the perfunctory attitude of the
government towards participation in management act as stumbling blocks in the way of promotion
of participative management.

Measures for making Participation effective:

Employer should adopt a progressive outlook. They should consider the industry as a joint
endeavor in which workers have an equal say. Workers should be provided and enlightened about
the benefits of their participation in the management.Employers and workers should agree on the
objectives of the industry. They should recognize and respect the rights of each other.Workers and
their representatives should be provided education and training in the philosophy and process of
participative management. Workers should be made aware of the benefits of participative
management.There should be effective communication between workers and management and
effective consultation of workers by the management in decisions that have an impact on
them.Participation should be a continuous process. To begin with, participation should start at the
operating level of management.A mutual co-operation and commitment to participation must be
developed by both management and labour.

Modern scholars are of the mind that the old adage “a worker is a worker, a manager is a manager;
never the twain shall meet” should be replaced by “managers and workers are partners in the
progress of business”

Forms of workers’ participation in management

The various forms of workers’ participation in management currently prevalent in the country are:

Suggestion schemes: Participation of workers can take place through suggestion scheme. Under this
method workers are invited and encouraged to offer suggestions for improving the working of the
enterprise. A suggestion box is installed and any worker can write his suggestions and drop them in
the box. Periodically all the suggestions are scrutinized by the suggestion committee or suggestion
screening committee. The committee is constituted by equal representation from the management
and the workers. The committee screens various suggestions received from the workers. Good
suggestions are accepted for implementation and suitable awards are given to the concerned
workers. Suggestion schemes encourage workers’ interest in the functioning of an
enterprise.Works committee: Under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, every establishment
employing 100 or more workers is required to constitute a works committee. Such a committee

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consists of equal number of representatives from the employer and the employees. The main
purpose of this committee is to provide measures for securing and preserving amity and good
relations between the employer and the employees.Functions: Works committee deals with matters
of day-to-day functioning at the shop floor level. Works committees are concerned with:Conditions
of work such as ventilation, lighting and sanitation.Amenities such as drinking water,canteens,
dining rooms, medical and health services.Educational and recreational activities.Safety measures,
accident prevention mechanisms etc.Works committees function actively in some organizations like
Tata Steel, HLL, etc but the progress of Works Committees in many organizations has not been very
satisfactory due to the following reasons:Lack of competence and interest on the part of workers’
representatives.Employees consider it below their dignity and status to sit alongside blue-collar
workers.Lack of feedback on performance of Works Committee.Undue delay and problems in
implementation due to advisory nature of recommendations.Joint Management Councils: Under
this system Joint Management Councils are constituted at the plant level. These councils were setup
as early as 1958. These councils consist of equal number of representatives of the employers and
employees, not exceeding 12 at the plant level. The plant should employ at least500 workers. The
council discusses various matters relating to the working of the industry. This council is entrusted
with the responsibility of administering welfare measures, supervision of safety and health
schemes, scheduling of working hours, rewards for suggestions etc.

Wages, bonus, personal problems of the workers are outside the scope of Joint management
councils. The council is to take up issues related to accident prevention, management of
canteens,water, meals, revision of work rules, absenteeism, indiscipline etc. the performance of
Joint Management Councils have not been satisfactory due to the following reasons:

Workers’ representatives feel dissatisfied as the council’s functions are concerned with only the
welfare activities.Trade unions fear that these councils will weaken their strength as workers come
under the direct influence of these councils.Work directors: Under this method, one or two
representatives of workers are nominated or elected to the Board of Directors. This is the full-
fledged and highest form of workers’ participation in management. The basic idea behind this
method is that the representation of workers at the top-level would usher Industrial Democracy,
congenial employee-employer relations and safeguard the workers’ interests. The Government of
India introduced this scheme in several public sector enterprises such as Hindustan Antibiotics,
Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd etc. However the scheme of appointment of such a director from
among the employees failed miserably and the scheme was subsequently dropped.Co-partnership:
Co-partnership involves employees’ participation in the share capital of a company in which they
are employed. By virtue of their being shareholders, they have the right to participate in the
management of the company. Shares of the company can be acquired by workers making cash
payment or by way of stock options scheme. The basic objective of stock options is not to pass on
control in the hands of employees but providing better financial incentives for industrial
productivity. But in developed countries, WPM through co-partnership is limited.Joint Councils: The
joint councils are constituted for the whole unit, in every Industrial Unit employing 500 or more
workers; there should be a Joint Council for the whole unit. Only such persons who are actually
engaged in the unit shall be the members of Joint Council. A joint council shall meet at least once in
a quarter. The chief executive of the unit shall be the chairperson of the joint council. The vice-

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chairman of the joint council will be nominated by the worker members of the council. The
decisions of the Joint Council shall be based on the consensus and not on the basis of voting.

In 1977 the above scheme was extended to the PSUs like commercial and service sector
organizations employing 100 or more persons. The organizations include hotels, hospitals, railway
and road transport, post and telegraph offices, state electricity boards.

Workers participation in management in TATA STEEL

100% employees (other than Officers) are represented by independent trade union organizations.
The details of the trade unions at different locations are given in the box. The Officers do not have
any association or union.

Tata Steel is pioneer in the area of Joint Consultation in India and has a three tier Joint Consultation
System that ensures participation of employees at all the levels including top management.

MD-online is another forum to share and interact with employees where Managing Director on 1st
of every month (2nd if 1st is Sunday) communicates the performance through Telecast and receives
feedback for more than one hour. Hotmail is another e-communication channel available on-line for
employees to share their views and the feedback are provided within 48 hours from MD’s Office.
Collective bargaining issues are discussed with the recognized unions at different locations on a
regular basis.

The Personnel Manager of each department consult the employees and their families in the areas of
Family Welfare, Savings, Education of Children and other issues related to domestic management.

Office Bearers of respective Unions are a member of Joint Consultative Committees of Management
and in this forum they discuss all the issues excluding issues of collective bargaining.

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Factory Act 1948 & Bihar Factory Rules 1950 guidelines form the basis for recording and
notification of occupational accidents and diseases in the organization. Any occupational accident is
reported immediately to safety control room manned round the clock through phone. Any injury is
reported to nearby first aid station. There are two First Aid stations inside Works, equipped with
well-maintained ambulance with trained staff, to take care of any emergency situations. First
information on department, location, nature, time of accident, person involved and damage
occurred is sent to Safety Department in the prescribed format. This reporting also includes minor
incident, dangerous occurrences and near miss cases. Reportable accidents (where injured does not
return to work for 48 hours) are reported to Inspector of Factories.

In case of any fatal accident, the information in writing is sent to Chairman, General Safety
Committee, Inspector of Factories and local government officials on the day of such incident. The
jobs are stopped till it is cleared by Inspector of Factories after site verification. Within 48 hours of
accident, enquiry committee is constituted to investigate into the root cause/s of accident. The
recommendation/s are discussed in General Safety Committee and are circulated to all
Departmental Heads/Chiefs to take necessary preventive actions to prevent such occurrences.

This year an online system, called SIS (Safety Improvement System), has been implemented to log
and set target date for improving the unsafe condition observed at site. Observations can be
assigned 3 priority values based on severity of consequence of an existing unsafe situation and
probability of occurrence of an accident. Safety Officer logs his observation on a particular section
in a department, which results in an email to Unit Leader of Section and Head of Section notifying
them of observation. Unit Leader after corrective action triggers a “Closed by Department”, email to
Safety Officer who verifies the status closes it or rejects the same. In the later case the above cycle is
followed again. During the reporting period a total number of 25001 observations were logged by
Safety Officers and 24296 closed by the concerning departments through above mentioned system
as against 15993 and 13160 respectively during 02-03. Any unattended issues are escalated on-line
to top management for their intervention.

Q4.What are the “Principles of Learning” which are followed in developing „Effective
Training Programmes‟? Critically evaluate the „Training Environment‟ you are exposed to
vis-à-vis the „Principles of learning‟ followed/not followed or the ones you are aware of.
Briefly describe the situation and the organization to logically support your replies.

Ans:

'Training' suggests putting stuff into people, when actually we should be developing people from
the inside out - so they achieve their own individual potential - what they love and enjoy, what they
are most capable of, and strong at doing, rather than what we try to make them be.

'Learning' far better expresses this than 'training'.

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Training is about the organisation. Learning is about the person.

Training is (mostly) a chore; people do it because they're paid to. Learning is quite different. People
respond to appropriate learning because they want to; because it benefits and interests them;
because it helps them to grow and to develop their natural abilities; to make a difference; to be
special.

Training is something that happens at work. Learning is something that people pursue by choice at
their own cost in their own time.

The word 'learning' is significant: it suggests that people are driving their own development for
themselves, through relevant experience, beyond work related skills and knowledge and processes.
'Learning' extends the idea of personal development (and thereby organisational development) to
beliefs, values, wisdom, compassion, emotional maturity, ethics, integrity - and most important of
all, to helping others to identify, aspire to and to achieve and fulfil their own unique individual
personal potential.

Learning describes a person growing. Whereas 'training' merely describes, and commonly
represents, transfer of knowledge or skill for organisational gain, which has generally got bugger-all
to do with the trainee. No wonder people don't typically enjoy or queue up for training.

When you help people to develop as people, you create far greater alignment and congruence
between work and people and lives - you provide more meaning for people at work, and you also
build and strengthen platform and readiness for any amount of skills, processes, and knowledge
development that your organization will ever need.

Obviously do not ignore basic skills and knowledge training, for example: health and safety; how to
use the phones, how to drive the fork-lift, etc - of course these basics must be trained - but they are
not what makes the difference. Train the essential skills and knowledge of course, but most
importantly focus on facilitating learning and development for the person, beyond 'work skills' -
help them grow and develop for life - help them to identify, aspire to, and take steps towards
fulfilling their own personal unique potential.

Training Environment‟ you are exposed to vis-à-vis the „Principles of learning‟ followed/not
followed or the ones you are aware of is RIL

For a long time, Asia-Pacific countries have been engaged in logging, and have in recent decades
emerged as the world’s largest producers of tropical hardwoods. However, in a rising number of
countries, ecological stability and the continuity of forest-derived benefits have become doubtful,
indicating that timber-extraction techniques have been too exploitative. To counteract this trend,
the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission (APFC) has been trying to motivate its member countries to
adopt and apply reduced impact logging (RIL) techniques as a means to achieve sustainable forest
management (SFM).

A necessary condition for implementing RIL is that personnel have the qualifications to perform
their tasks and responsibilities effectively and efficiently. These qualifications have to be acquired
and developed through training and capacity building. First and foremost, personnel need to know

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and understand the nature and scope of the work to be done, why it has to be done and how best to
do it. They need technical skills and manual dexterity. In combination, these skills enable them to
carry out complex tasks efficiently. Thus, greater efficiency and higher productivity in timber
extraction under RIL is achieved through training: the development of appropriate knowledge,
favourable attitudes and suitable skills (KAS) enable a person to perform assigned duties and tasks
with minimum effort (least cost) and maximum results (highest outputs).

This paper presents an approach to developing training strategies that could lead to more effective
implementation of RIL. Many of the concepts and approaches presented here are drawn from
Regional Training Strategy in Support of the Implementation of the Code of Practice for Forest
Harvesting (APFC, 2000).[8]

THE NEED FOR A TRAINING STRATEGY

Training is easier to implement, more effective in capacity building, and simpler to monitor and
evaluate if it is guided by a comprehensive strategy, i.e. a carefully-prepared plan for achieving
goals and objectives. Without such a strategy, training efforts generally remain reactive, i.e.
piecemeal and uncoordinated responses to emerging problems. For example, RIL training often
concentrates on felling/bucking and yarding/skidding operations simply because their negative
impacts on the residual stands and the forest ecosystem as a whole are highly visible, and readily
measurable in physical and monetary terms. Unfortunately, this approach often fails to recognize
that other key stakeholders, such as policy-makers, planners and supervisors also need to undergo
training because their decisions have significant and long-term impacts on the productivity and
sustainability of the forest resources.

A training program that is guided by strategic thinking is pro-active in nature. It adopts a

comprehensive, systematic and long-term approach to that leads to a training strategy
encompassing:

 The whole range of logging operations.

 Identification and prioritization of the various personnel groups who need to be trained
(the target trainees).

 Identification of the KAS essential to perform the various harvesting operations (the
subjects covered in training).

 Determination of the different approaches and delivery techniques to produce the required
expertise for carrying out the tasks (training methods).

 Identification of agencies and groups that could collaborate in implementing the training
strategy and programs.

 Formulation of ways and means for securing financial resources for the training programs.

Constraints and opportunities for RIL

A number of constraints inhibit the adoption of RIL. Two important ones are:

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  Widespread belief in the industry that RIL interferes with efficient harvesting operations
and raises costs.

 Lack of appreciation in the industry and the general public of the expected benefits from RIL
that could ultimately lead to ecological stability and sustainable forest production.

However, the rapid decline and degradation of forest resources and the fast-rising demand for
forest products and services have created excellent opportunities for drawing the attention of
policy-makers, forest managers, forest users and the general public to the urgent need to apply RIL
to help perpetuate economic, ecological and social benefits derived from the forest.

Knowledge gaps in RIL

At this stage of RIL development in the region, significant gaps in knowledge exist regarding:

 The nature and magnitude of the negative impacts of forest harvesting that could be
minimized through the application of RIL.

 The efficacy of various RIL components in reducing ecological and socio-economic damage.

 The comparative benefits and costs of RIL, especially from the perspective of the private
sector.

Research needs in support of RIL application

The knowledge gaps indicate the need to undertake research, to generate both qualitative and
quantitative information on the ecological and socio-economic benefits of RIL, the comparative
costs of ‘with’ and ‘without’ RIL in forest harvesting, and the long-term effects of RIL on forest
sustainability. The research outputs would be of critical value for formulating appropriate policies
and for developing RIL techniques. They would likewise be useful reference materials for RIL
training courses.

DEVELOPING A RIL TRAINING STRATEGY

There is nothing new in developing a generic training strategy. It simply involves the setting of
goals and objectives; identifying target trainees; determining training needs; and formulating
training courses that address those needs.

What may be unique to developing a RIL training strategy are the following considerations: (a)
enlisting the participation of a much broader group of collaborators (e.g. government, industry, the
general public, NGOs and academia); (b) focusing on a wider group of target trainees beyond just
harvesting operators (i.e. top policy-makers, middle management, frontline supervisors, opinion-
makers, and advocacy groups); (c) recognizing that RIL training is not just manual skills
development but includes imparting of new knowledge and creation of favourable attitudes as well;
(d) promoting the integration of RIL principles and techniques in formal forestry courses in
academic institutions.

Goal and objectives of a training strategy

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The broad goal of a RIL training strategy is to strengthen the capacity of appropriate persons,
groups and agencies to formulate and implement RIL programs for forest management.

The objectives to achieve the above goal are to:

 identify and prioritize the target trainee groups (TTGs);

 improve the capability to design, organize and conduct training courses;

 assist in developing and organizing of in-country training courses for priority TTGs;

 promote the sharing of capacity-building experiences and training resources among

countries to improve the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of training; and

 encourage the integration of RIL techniques in forest-harvesting and silviculture courses

offered by forestry schools in the Asia-Pacific region.

The scope of the training strategy

A RIL training strategy for APFC member countries will have to be at two levels: regional and
national.

The regional training strategy would involve the execution of three important tactics:

 Training of national RIL trainers.

 Development and organization of RIL training courses for priority TTGs.

 Integration of RIL principles and techniques in formal silviculture and forest-harvesting

courses in forestry education institutions.

Adoption of the above tactics necessitates the following activities:

For the regional or sub-regional level

 Organization, with the assistance of APFC, FAO and other international donors and NGOs, of
regional or sub-regional trainers’ training courses that will develop a corps of competent
national RIL trainers.

For the national level

 Organization of national workshops, with the involvement of industry, local government

and local NGOs to identify and prioritize the TTGs.

 Assessment of the RIL training needs.

 Design, development and formulation of RIL training courses specific to each TTG.

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  Implementation of in-country RIL training courses for each TTG.

 Promotion of the integration of RIL principles and techniques in silviculture and forest-
harvesting courses in forestry colleges in the Asia-Pacific region.

Identification of TTGs

In each country, three principal groups are targeted for training:

(a) National trainers - personnel drawn from government or private sector associations to be
trained at the regional or sub-regional level, and whose main tasks are to help develop and execute
national programs for training TTGs who will become in-country RIL implementers.

(b) In-country RIL implementers - government and private sector personnel of various ranks and
responsibilities who will be trained in-country by the national trainers and who will help plan and
execute RIL programs in their countries:

 Senior management - top government or corporate executives who set up their

organization’s vision and formulate policies that guide forestry operations.

 Middle management - mid-level officers who translate broad corporate policies into logging
work and budget plans and programs using RIL techniques.

 Frontline supervisors - lower level officers, who directly interact with field operators and
ensure that the RIL-guided logging plans are carried out.

 Field workers/operators - field-level workers directly responsible for timber harvesting

using RIL techniques.

(c) Media practitioners and advocacy groups

 Opinion-makers - information analysts who disseminate expert views through mass media
to shape public opinion.

 Journalists - skilled writers and reporters, who collect, process and disseminate information
through the media that helps create public awareness concerning important issues.

 NGOs - organizations that play strong advocacy roles to help promote public awareness of
the importance of RIL for sustainable development.

TRAINING NEEDS ASSESSMENT (TNA)

Each RIL training program should aim directly at filling the training needs of each TTG. Initially it is
necessary to determine the required degree of KAS to make the TTG an efficient and effective RIL
implementer at his/her level of responsibility. In short, the training needs should be ascertained
first.

A four-step generic approach to determining the training needs of each TTG is outlined below:

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  Ascertain the nature and scope of RIL-related tasks and the duties of each TTG.

 Determine the type and level of KAS required.

 Ascertain the current or actual level of KAS for RIL possessed by the personnel.

 Determine the capacity gap by comparing the current with the required KAS. The capacity
gap has to be filled through training.

The nature of RIL training needs

Most candidates for RIL training are employed by logging firms and forest departments and have
had significant experience in timber extraction. Thus, training does not have to include basic forest
harvesting aspects. Instead it needs to focus on new skills to enable personnel to carry out their old
tasks in new ways that minimize damage to the forest ecosystem while maintaining output levels
and keeping costs down.

For example, experienced felling crews no longer need to be trained in directional felling. Rather
they should be taught to apply their directional felling capabilities to minimize damage to the
residual forests, to reduce breakage of the harvested logs, and to facilitate yarding or skidding - in
short, to lessen the negative economic and ecological impacts of forest harvesting.

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