Tag: Competency Mapping

Individual change management is an understanding of how one person makes a change successfully. Whether at home, in the community or at work, individuals move through the change process in a predictable and expected path. Individual change management provides a framework for enabling one person to make a transition.

The role of the individual in the overall change process is one such factor that is gaining increasing consideration. As after all, while a new tool can be implemented on schedule and on budget it does not automatically begin generating value for an organisation until it becomes adopted and individuals begin to use it with the required level of proficiency.

With the growing recognition for enterprise change management the need to understand the change management capabilities of the organisation as whole are evident but without a solid understanding of how individuals perceive and succeed in changing there are a number of associated risks.

One of the biggest risks is the idea that the implementation process of enterprise change management is ‘recipe-driven’: a list of actions or requirements that can be simply checked off. As it is important that each and every individual achieves a successful change in behaviour and/or attitudes, focus must be given to the progress of every employee in their transition and this requires continuous measurement. 

Increased communication, although one particular indicator of enterprise change management capabilities, does not ensure an organisation can expect to send X-X-number of emails about a change and not face any resistance; these emails must also contain considerations of the individual and indeed emails may not be an individual’s preferred method of receiving messages. Increasing communications activities in an unplanned, unstructured and intangible way is evidence of an organisation ‘doing’ change management without including a focus of what they were trying to achieve or why.

The next biggest consequence of not giving consideration to individual change management is the increasing difficulty in determining when success has been achieved. Time scales and budget are success factors of project implementation; but determining how successful the people side of the change has been, requires consideration of what is expected from each individual in order to generate the true value of a project; ensuring real acceptance, adoption of new ways of working with measurable proficiency.

Desire to Participate in and Support the Change

• What are the personal motivators and organizational drivers that would cause me to support the change?

Knowledge on How to Change

• What knowledge, skills and behaviors are required during and after the change is implemented?

Ability to Implement Required Skills and Behaviors

• How do I demonstrate the ability to do my job the new way?
• What barriers may inhibit me making the change?

Reinforcement to Sustain the Change

• What will make the change stick?
• What are the rewards, recognition, incentives and consequences?

ADKAR is an individual model, so it describes the change process from the perspective of one impacted employee whose job is being changed as a result of a project or initiative. Whether it is a new process, a new technology, a new job role or a new behavior, a person makes the change successfully when they have awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement. If the change impacts 1,000 people, then the change will only happen when all 1,000 people have awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement. An individual change management model is crucial for effective change management because of the reality that change must happen one individual at a time. Each impacted employee must move from their own current state to their own future state.

ADKAR is used in a number of ways:

• Making sense of change
• Guiding change management plans
• Measuring progress
• Diagnosing gaps
• Developing corrective actions
• Enabling managers and supervisors

Importance

Ensures a Match Between Requirements and Results

Through change management, you are aware of how to effectively equip and support people who will drive the change and bring it to life. You also have a process to have the right people in place to ensure success.

Increases Probability of Project Success

Research is clear that the better an organization is on change management the more likely project objectives are met. Harvard Business school research shows that initiatives with excellent change management are six times more likely to meet objectives than those with poor change management.

Improves Revenues

Solves problems reduces operation cost, helps seize emerging opportunities, or aligning work with strategy.

Helps in Remaining Profitable and Relevant

By remaining competitive through innovation companies can drive sales for their products. We no longer leave in a world changes occurs after 3 years. Businesses are facing complex and fast changes than ever before. An organization must, therefore, apply change management to enable it to build competencies that grow the organization’s ability to change as soon as they need arises. Only through changes can you remain relevant today. For example, social media has really changed how businesses operate so you have to change and incorporate it into your day to day operations.

• Typically, labor accounts for about 65 % of every business in any industry. The percentage is more for labor intensive businesses for example those in manufacturing.
• The performance difference between talented and lesser talented employees is huge.
• Employees and how they are managed is the most important source of most organizational competencies and strengths.

Talent management is not only important for hiring people as per the need, it is also important for determining when to hire. In the traditional model of hiring supply meant developing people internally for future. There was an upfront investment in candidates recovered through an enhanced performance over time. This was a good perspective; there were equal chances of making and losing money by investing in your people.

Hiring from outside or temporary employment on the other hand was seen as something that cannot fetch your substantial returns and or act as potential source of knowledge and competitive advantage.

Benefits of Integrated Talent Management

Companies especially growing ones are constantly changing. Change management strategy dovetails nicely with integrated talent management to ensure that talent can respond to change and adapt to it.

Technology in Integrated Talent Management

Technology that enables easy sharing of data across departments and processes is yet another essential component of integrated talent management. In some cases it might be possible to sustain communication without a technology solution, but a technology solution is necessary for scalability as companies grow larger and larger.

Consistency of Terms and Language

Communication is only effective if all parties understand what is being communicated. One essential part of integrated talent management is using a common language or consistent terms to talk about the talent management process. This helps all parties evaluate the process and share data that can lead to improvements.

Benefits of Talent Management Review

Organization	Appraiser	Appraisee
Recognize and manage talent performance. Planning and decision making. Improved staff retention.	Framework for sharing feedback. Promote career planning and benefits. Feedback on management style and leadership.	Reflection on areas of weakness and strength. Opportunity to raise issues. Focus on developing individual performance. Better understanding of goals and requirement. Identify action plan for future development.

Talent management teams observe the following competencies while undertaking managerial talent and reward score when the requirements are met.

• Communication: The review team analyzes communication skills among the performers. It also reviews the channels of communication in the organization.
• Leadership: The team identifies leadership qualities and takes a note of effective and emerging leaders in the organization.
• Resource Management: The team evaluates the resource management styles of the employees.
• Teamwork: The team underscores team performance of individual employees.

The primary purpose of talent management is to create a motivated workforce who will stay with your company in the long run. The exact way to achieve this will differ from company to company.

A multi-year, collaborative research study set out to examine the steps global companies can take to ensure that they recruit, develop and deploy the right people.  Researchers from institutions including INSEAD, Cornell, and Cambridge University came together and analysed companies that were selected based on superior business performance and reputation.

They found that in addition to adhering to a common set of talent management principles, leading companies follow many of the same talent-related practices. During their study, they asked interviewees why they thought their company’s individual practices were effective and valuable. As a result of their responses, the authors formulated six core principles.

Adopting a set of principles rather than best practices is more effective at challenging current thinking. Moreover, best practices are only ‘best’ in the context for which they were designed; principles, on the other hand, have broad application.

Principles

• Alignment with strategy: managers should ask themselves, given the company’s strategy, what kind of talent do we need? Strategic flexibility is important, and organizations must be able to adapt to changing business conditions and revamp their talent approach when necessary. Examples of companies that have done so include; GE and Oracle.
• Internal consistency: implementing practices in isolation may not work and can actually be counter productive. The principle of internal consistency refers to the way the company’s talent management practices fit with each other. Consistency is crucial. The emphasis placed on consistency at companies such as BAE Systems and IBM can help to illustrate why that is paramount.
• Cultural embeddedness: many successful companies make deliberate efforts to integrate their stated core values and business principles into talent management processes such as hiring methods, leadership development activities, performance management systems, and compensation and benefits programs. IKEA, the Sweden-based furniture retailer, for example, where applicants are selected using tools that focus on values and cultural fit. Another approach to promoting the organization’s core values and behavioural standards can through secondary socialization and training.
• Management involvement: successful companies know that the talent management process needs to have broad ownership, not just by HR, but by managers at all levels, including the CEO. Senior leaders need to be actively involved in the talent management process and make recruitment, succession planning, leadership development and retention of key employees their top priorities. One of the most potent tools companies can use to develop leaders is to involve line managers. It means getting them to play a key role in the recruitment of talent and then making them accountable for developing the skills and knowledge of their employees. The research cites the example of Unilever to demonstrate how this can be done.
• Balance of global and local needs: for organizations operating in multiple countries, cultures and institutional environments, managers need to figure out how to respond to local demands while maintaining a coherent HR strategy and management approach. The research found different methods of doing this, giving examples of Matsushita, Rolls Royce, Shell and others. However, among all the companies they studied, there was no single strategy.
• Employer branding through differentiation: companies should find ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors, in order to attract employees with the right skills and attitudes. The companies studied differed considerably in how they resolve the tension between maintaining a consistent brand identity across business units and regions and responding to local demands. One-way companies are trying to get an edge on competitors in attracting talent is by stressing their corporate social responsibility activities.

The differentiated approach. Although the practice of sorting employees based on their performance and potential has generated criticism, many companies in our study placed heavy emphasis on high-potential employees. Companies favoring this approach focused most of the rewards, incentives and attention on their top talent (“A players”); gave less recog­nition, financial rewards and development attention to the bulk of the other employ­ees (“B players”); and worked aggressively to weed out employees who didn’t meet performance expectations and were deemed to have little potential (“C players”). This approach has been popularized by General Electric’s “vitality curve,” which differentiates between the top 20%, the middle 70% and the bottom 10%. The actual definition of “high potential” tends to vary from company to company, but many factor in the employee’s cultural fit and values. Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, for example, looks at whether someone displays the key values and behaviors the company wants in its future leaders.

The percentage of employees included in the high-potential group also differs across companies. For example, Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer products company, puts 15% of employees from each management level in its high-potential category each year, expecting that they will move to the next management level within five years. Other companies are more selective. Infosys, a global technology services company headquartered in Bangalore, India, limits the high-potential pool to less than 3% of the total work force in an effort to manage expectations and limit potential frustration, productivity loss and harmful attrition.

The inclusive approach. Some companies prefer a more inclusive approach and attempt to address the needs of employees at all levels of the organi­zation. For example, when asked how Shell defined talent, Shell’s new head of talent management replied, Under an inclusive approach, talent management tactics used for different groups are based on an assessment of how best to leverage the value that each group of employees can bring to the company.

The two philosophies of talent management are not mutually exclusive; many of the companies we studied use a combination of both. Depending on the specific talent pool (such as senior executive, technical expert and early career high-potential), there will usually be different career paths and development strategies. A hybrid approach allows for differentiation, and it skirts the controversial issue of whether some employee groups are intrinsically more valuable than others.

Talent Management initiatives

• Recognition: Recognising employees’ contribution and their work on individual grounds, boost up self-confidence in them.
• Remuneration and Reward: Increasing pay and remuneration of the employees as a reward for their better performance.
• Providing Opportunities: Giving the charge of challenging projects to the employees along with the authority and responsibility of the same, makes them more confident.
• Role Design: The role of employees in the organisation must be designed to keep them occupied and committed, it must be flexible enough to inculcate and adapt to the employee’s talent and knowledge.
• Job Rotation: Employees lack enthusiasm if they perform the same kind of work daily. Thus, job rotation or temporary shifting of employees from one job to another within the organisation is essential to keep them engaged and motivated.
• Training and Development: On the job training, e-learning programmes, work-related tutorials, educational courses, internship, etc. are essential to enhance the competencies, skills and knowledge of the employees.
• Succession Planning: Internal promotions helps identify and develop an individual who can be the successor to senior positions in the organisation.
• Flexibility: Providing a flexible work environment to the employees makes them more adaptable to the organisation and brings out their creativity.
• Relationship Management: Maintaining a positive workplace where employees are free to express their ideas, take part in the decision-making process, encourage employees to achieve goals and are rewarded for better performance leads to employee retention.
• Self-motivation: Nothing can be effective if the employee is not self-determined and motivated to work.

Training and Development is one of the main functions of the human resource management department. Training refers to a systematic setup where employees are instructed and taught matters of technical knowledge related to their jobs. It focuses on teaching employees how to use particular machines or how to do specific tasks to increase efficiency.

“Management” is the area occupied between “leadership” and the “rank-and-file” employees.

Managers may receive inspiration and direction from leaders. Yet managers are charged with the application of aspirational and strategic principles to the day-to-day process of getting the job done, done right and done efficiently. Managers’ critical function is to translate leadership and shareholder objectives (or create them on their own when they do not come from above) into legal and effective actions to achieve those objectives. In doing so, managers act as facilitators and problem-solvers.

Management development is the systematic process of creating effective managers. It is simultaneously rigorous, academic and practical. An organization’s approach to management development should include a variety of techniques to constantly build on a manager’s existing KSAs. Examples of major areas in which managers should be competent are:

• Recognizing and accepting people’s individual behavioral differences.
• Verbal and nonverbal communication.
• Conflict management.

Different training is given to employees at different levels. The following training methods are used For the training of skilled workers and operators-  Specific job training programmes, Technical training at a training with live demos, Internship training, Training via the process of rotation of job.

Training given to people in a supervisory or managerial capacity is – Lectures, Group Discussions, Case studies, Role-playing, Conferences etc.

People in managerial programmes are given this type of training- Management Games to develop decision making, Programmes to identify potential executives, Sensitivity training to understand and influence employee behaviour, Simulation and role-playing, Programmes for improving communication, human relations and managerial skills.

Training Programmes

Technical Training: Technical training is that type of training that is aimed at teaching employees how a particular technology or a machine.

Quality Training: Quality training is usually performed in companies who physically produce a product. Quality training teaches employees to identify faulty products and only allow perfect products to go out to the markets.

Skills Training: Skills training refers to training given to employees so as to perform their particular jobs. For e.g. A receptionist would be specifically taught to answer calls and handle the answering machine.

Soft Skills: Soft skills training includes personality development, being welcoming and friendly to clients, building rapport, training on sexual harassment etc.

Professional Training: Professional Training is done for jobs that have constantly changing and evolving work like the field of medicine and research. People working in these sectors have to be regularly updated on matters of the industry.

Team Training: Team training establishes a level of trust and synchronicity between team members for increased efficiency.

Factors that contribute to the increased need to training and development in organisations:

• Change: The word change encapsulates almost everything. It is one of the biggest factors that contribute to the need of training and development. There is in fact a direct relationship between the two. Change leads to the need for training and development and training and development leads to individual and organisational change, and the cycle goes on and on. More specifically it is the technology that is driving the need; changing the way how businesses function, compete and deliver.
• Development: It is again one the strong reasons for training and development becoming all the more important. Money is not the sole motivator at work and this is especially very true for the 21st century. People who work with organisations seek more than just employment out of their work; they look at holistic development of self. Spirituality and self awareness for example are gaining momentum world over. People seek happiness at jobs which may not be possible unless an individual is aware of the self. At ford, for example, an individual can enrol himself / herself in a course on ‘self awareness’, which apparently seems inconsequential to ones performance at work but contributes to the spiritual well being of an individual which is all the more important.

Benefits of Development

• Ensures that the employees utilise their managerial and leadership skills in particular to the fullest.
• Exposes executives to the latest techniques and trends in their professional fields.
• Helps in the long-term growth and survival of the company.
• Creates an effective team of managers who can handle the company issues without fail.
• Ensures that the company has an adequate number of managers with knowledge and skill at any given point.

Benefits of Training

• Improves job satisfaction and thus boosts morale.
• It improves upon the time and money required to reach the company’s goals. For e.g. Trained salesmen achieve and exceed their targets faster than inexperienced and untrained salesmen.
• Training helps to identify the highly skilled and talented employees and the company can give them jobs of higher responsibilities.
• Training improves the quantity and quality of the workforce. It increases the skills and knowledge base of the employees.
• Trained employees are highly efficient in comparison to untrained ones.
• Reduces the need to constantly supervise and overlook the employees.

Human resource planning is used by organisations to ensure that they have the right number and the right kind of people at the right place and at the right time. Where this process is carried out properly, it brings maximum long-run benefits to both the organisation and the individual employee.

Human Resource Planning is the planning of Human Resources. It is also called manpower planning/ personnel planning/ employment planning. It is only after Human Resource Planning that the Human Resource department can initiate the recruitment and selection process. Therefore, Human Resource Planning is a sub-system of organisational planning.

Definitions “Human Resource Planning is a strategy for the acquisition, utilisation, improvement and preservation of an organisation’s human resource” – Y.C. Moushell

“Human Resource Planning is a process of forecasting an organisation’s future demand for human resource and supply of right type of people in right numbers” – J.Chennly.K

Scope of Human Resource Planning

• It keeps the record of current manpower with the organization.
• Assessing the future requirements of manpower for organization objectives.
• To make the manpower recruitment plans.
• To phase out the surplus employees.
• To make a layout of training programme for different categories of employees.

Need for Human Resource Planning      

• Shortage of Skills: These days we find shortage of skills in people. So it is necessary to plan for such skilled people much in advance than when we actually need them. Non-availability of skilled people when and where they are needed is an important factor which prompts sound Human Resource Planning.
• Frequent Labour Turnover: Human Resource Planning is essential because of frequent labour turnover which is unavoidable by all means. Labour turnover arises because of discharges, marriages, promotion, transfer etc. which causes a constant ebb and flow in the workforce in the organisation.
• Changing needs of technology: Due to changes in technology and new techniques of production, existing employees need to be trained or new blood injected into an organisation.
• Identify areas of surplus or shortage of personnel: Manpower planning is needed in order to identify areas with a surplus of personnel or areas in which there is a shortage of personnel. If there is a surplus, it can be re-deployed, or if there is a shortage new employee can be procured.
• Changes in organisation design and structure: Due to changes in organisation structure and design we need to plan the required human resources right from the beginning.

Approaches

On the theoretical plane there are three options to any educational planner. The first option is to treat the education as consumption goods and demand for education as an aggregate of individual consumer’s demand schooling, and to provide the facilities for education and training according. The second option is to view education an investment goods, evaluate the investments in education at par with investment in education with the rate of return on investment in physical capital. The third option is to considered skilled manpower as basic inputs to the production goods and services within the economy; assess the skill requirements to achieve any predetermined economic growth target, and to gear the expansion of educational system to provide the needed education and training.

There are three approaches to educational planning:

• Social demand approach
• Rate of return approach, and
• Manpower requirement approaches.

Social Demand Approach: The social demand approach lies on the assessment of society’s requirement for education. In principles, it is an aggregate of individuals demand for education in respect of all individuals within the society. It is not always possible particularly in large societies, to assess individual demand for education. In practice, therefore, social demand approach relies on a projection of past trends in demographic aspects of population and the enrollment at the different levels of education.

Social demand approach is thus capable of revealing the number of students with differently types of professional preparations that may be a given target date, based on past experiences. Projections of social demand for education are contingent upon given levels of:

• Income of educated people,
• Taste and references of household for education,
• Demographic characteristics such as fertility and mortality,
• Direct costs of education,
• Student grants, and
• Existing standard of admission to various levels of education.

Added to these constraints, there are the perennial problems associated with the data base on demographic aspects at disaggregated levels such as districts, blocks and villages and data on wastage and stagnation in education, and intensity of utilization of existing educational facilities. Social demand approach thus suffers from the difficulties associated with any futurological exercise.

Rate of Return Approaches: Critics of social demand approach argue that the decision to choose more or less of education, beyond a legal school-learning age, is made by an individual who attaches a positive value to the present and the future benefits of education. Aggregate of individuals demand for education, which is constructed the social demand for education, should then be based exaggerate of individuals assessment of benefits of education-reflecting the social benefits.

This brings us the rate of return approach to education:

Rate of return approach looks upon education as a contributor to productivity and this sense, it is expected to facilitate investment decisions in education whether or not the students should undergo more schooling, or whether or not the state should invest more and expand educational facilities.

Like in the rate of return-on-investment analysis, rate of return on investment in education is used to expand educational facilities until schooling equalizes.

• On the one hand yield of investment in different types of education, and
• On the other hand, yield of investment in education vis-à-vis other sectors of economy.

Manpower Requirement Approach: The fundamental axioms of manpower requirements approach is that there is a definite link between the education and economic growth and that lack of skilled manpower in required number impedes growth. In this approach an attempt is made to forecast future requirements of educated manpower to fulfill a future target of Gross National Product (GNP) or specified targets of industrial production. Based on the forecasts of educated manpower requirement over a specified period, the planners would then indicate the directions of development of the educational sector over the same specific period.

The basic steps involved in this exercise are as under:

• Anticipating the directions and the magnitude of development of each individual sectors of the economy.
• Evolving norms of the employing manpower in each individual sector keeping the view the
• Technological options Present as well as future for each sector of the economy.
• Translating the physical targets for the development of each individual sector into the manpower requirement using the sector specific manpower norms.
• Estimating the educational; equivalents of the manpower requirement.
• Analyzing the implications of estimates of educated manpower requirements for educational development, based on assumptions regarding the enrollment rates, transitions probability and wastage and the stagnation rates at each level of education.

Limitations of the Manpower Requirement Approach:

The first limitation assumes that the educated manpower of different types is used in fixed proportions and that there no substitutions possibilities among the various categories of educated manpower.

The second limitation is that it postulates a definite link between an industrial task and an educational level. Prices, either in terms of cost of producing educated manpower or in terms of salaries and wages of educational people do not play any role in matching demand with supplies of educated manpower in this brand of educational planning. This makes the good sense if formal education and training is the only means of producing educated manpower. If there are alternative ways of producing a given category of skilled manpower, then prices play a significant role and the manpower requirements approach fails to take cognizance of this respect. In the Indian context, even in the case of highly skilled occupation where graduate level engineers are required, it has been observed that over 30 per cent of the manpower do not have the basic minimum qualification. They have reached these levels through on-the-job training and such other informal training, in the requisite skills. Such persons are categorized as “practical” and these practical are to be found in every occupation.

The crucial information in all forecasting exercises is the assumptions about the distant unknown future. Any error in judgment, in this regard, will seriously affect manpower balances at a later date resulting in either excess supply or excess demand. In the context of educational planning, excess demand is relatively easier to manage. Excess supply, on the other hand, leads to serious economic and sociological problems which are often difficult to deal with.

Human Resource Planning is done at various levels for their own purposes by various institutions. There are various levels of human resource planning in an industrial enterprise:

• National Level
• Sectoral Level
• Industry Level
• Unit Level
• Departmental Level
• Job Level

1. HRP at National Level:

HRP at the national level helps to plan for educational facilities, health care facilities, agricultural and industrial development, and employment plans etc. The government of the country plans for human resources at the national level.

2. Sectoral Level:

Central and state governments also plan human resource requirements at sectoral level. It tries to satisfy needs of some particular sectors like Agriculture Sector, Industrial Sector and Service Sector.

3. Industry Level:

This level of planning is done to suit manpower needs of a particular industry such as Engineering, Heavy Industries, Paper Industry, Consumer Goods Industries. Public Utility Industries, Textile, Cement/Chemical Industries etc.

4. HRP at the Unit Level:

HR Planning at the company level is based on the estimation of human resource needs of the particular company in question. It is based on the business plan of the company.

5. Departmental Level:

This level of planning is done to suit the manpower needs of a particular department in a company e.g., Marketing Department, Production Department. Finance Department, etc.

5. Job Level:

This level of planning fulfills the human resource needs of a particular job family within department. For example, the requirement of number of sales executes in the marketing department.

Need for HRP at Macro Level

Major reasons for the emphasis on HRP at macro level include:

Technological Changes: The myriad changes in production technologies, marketing methods and management techniques have been extensive and rapid. Their effect has been profound on job contents and job contexts. These changes cause problems relating to redundancies, retraining and redeployment. All these suggest the need to plan manpower needs intensively and systematically.

Organizational Changes: In the turbulent environment marked by cyclical fluctuations and discontinuities, the nature and pace of changes in organizational environment, activities and structures affect manpower requirements and require strategic considerations.

Employment-Unemployment Situation: Though in general the number of educated unemployed is on the rise, there is acute shortage for a variety of skills. This emphasises the need for more effective recruitment and retaining people.

Demographic Changes: The changing profile of the work force in terms of age, sex, litercy, technical inputs and social background have implications for HRP.

Skill Shortages: Unemployment does not mean that the labour market is a buyer’s market. Organizations have generally become more complex and require a wide range of specialist skills that are rare and scarce. Problems arise when such employees leave.

Legislative Controls: The days of executive fiat and ‘hire and fire’ policies are gone. Now legislation makes it difficult to reduce the size of an organization quickly and cheaply. It is easy to increase but difficult to shed the fat in terms of the numbers employed because of recent changes in labour law relating to lay-offs and closures. Those responsible for managing manpower must look far ahead and thus attempt to foresee manpower problems.

Governmental Influences: Government control and changes in legislation with regard to affirmative action for disadvantaged groups, working conditions and hours of work, restrictions on women and child employment, casual and contract labout, etc. have stimulated the organizations to become involved in systematic HRP.

Impact of Pressure Groups: Pressure groups such as unions, politicians and persons displaced from land by location of giant enterprises have been raising contradictory pressures on enterprise management such as internal recruitment and promotions, preference to employees’ children, displace persons, sons of the soil etc.

Lead Time: The long lead time is necessary in the selection process and for training and deployment of the employee to handle new knowledge and skills successfully.

Systems Concept: The spread of systems thinking and the advent of the macro computer as part of the on-going revolution in information technology which emphasises planning and newer ways of handling voluminous personnel records.

Human Resource Audit is a systematic and comprehensive review of an organization’s HR policies, practices, procedures, and strategies. Its purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness, compliance, and alignment of HR functions with organizational goals and legal requirements. The audit identifies strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement, ensuring the organization’s HR management is efficient and up-to-date. It covers various aspects such as recruitment, training, performance management, compensation, employee relations, and compliance with labor laws. By providing actionable insights, a Human Resource Audit helps organizations enhance their HR practices, reduce risks, and foster a productive and legally compliant workplace.

Need of Human Resource Audit:

• Compliance with Labor Laws

An HR audit ensures adherence to local, national, and international labor laws and regulations. It reviews policies, contracts, and practices to confirm compliance, reducing the risk of legal penalties and reputational damage.

• Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses

The audit evaluates existing HR policies, practices, and strategies, identifying areas of strength that can be leveraged and weaknesses that require improvement. This enables organizations to maintain effective HR management.

• Aligning HR with Organizational Goals

HR audits assess whether HR activities align with the organization’s strategic objectives. This alignment ensures that human resource efforts contribute directly to business growth and success.

• Improving Efficiency and Effectiveness

By reviewing HR processes such as recruitment, training, and performance management, an audit identifies inefficiencies and recommends solutions to enhance productivity and employee satisfaction.

• Managing Risks and Mitigating issues

An HR audit helps detect potential risks, such as non-compliance, outdated policies, or high employee turnover. Proactively addressing these risks prevents long-term problems and ensures smooth operations.

• Enhancing Employee Satisfaction

The audit evaluates employee engagement and satisfaction levels. By identifying gaps in employee welfare and communication, it helps create a supportive workplace that fosters loyalty and reduces turnover.

• Ensuring Data Integrity and Security

HR audits review the accuracy and security of employee records and HR systems. This ensures that sensitive information is managed appropriately and reduces the risk of data breaches.

Objectives of Human Resource Audit:

• Assessing Compliance with Laws and Policies

The primary objective of an HR audit is to ensure compliance with labor laws, regulations, and internal policies. It examines employment contracts, workplace practices, and policy documents to identify gaps and avoid legal risks, penalties, or reputational harm.

• Evaluating HR Strategies and Alignment

An HR audit ensures that HR strategies and processes align with the organization’s mission, vision, and objectives. By reviewing recruitment, training, and performance management practices, it identifies whether these efforts effectively support long-term business goals.

• Enhancing HR Efficiency and Effectiveness

The audit seeks to measure the efficiency of HR operations and their impact on overall organizational performance. It identifies redundancies, inefficiencies, or bottlenecks in HR workflows and recommends strategies for optimization and resource allocation.

• Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses

One of the critical objectives of an HR audit is to pinpoint strengths that can be leveraged and weaknesses that need improvement. This analysis provides actionable insights to enhance HR practices and policies, ensuring they remain competitive and relevant.

• Improving Employee Experience

An HR audit evaluates the employee lifecycle, from hiring and onboarding to engagement, retention, and exit processes. By identifying areas for improvement, the audit helps create a positive work environment that enhances employee satisfaction and reduces turnover.

• Supporting Risk Management

An HR audit identifies potential risks, such as non-compliance, inadequate record-keeping, or workforce mismanagement. It provides solutions to mitigate these risks, ensuring the organization operates smoothly and avoids costly disruptions.

Process of Human Resource Audit:

The process of conducting a Human Resource (HR) Audit involves a systematic, comprehensive review of HR practices, policies, and procedures to evaluate their effectiveness and alignment with organizational goals. The process typically follows several stages, from planning and data collection to analysis and reporting.

1. Planning and Defining Objectives

The first step in an HR audit is to clearly define the objectives and scope of the audit. This involves identifying specific areas of HR to be reviewed (e.g., recruitment, training, compensation, compliance, etc.) and determining the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to assess HR effectiveness. The planning stage ensures that the audit is focused on areas that directly impact organizational goals and performance.

2. Data Collection

Data collection is the next critical phase of the audit. This involves gathering relevant information from various sources, such as:

• HR records: Employee files, contracts, compensation details, and performance reviews.
• Policies and Procedures: Current HR policies, employee handbooks, training manuals, and compliance documents.
• Employee Feedback: Surveys, interviews, or focus groups to gather insights into employee satisfaction, engagement, and organizational culture.
• Compliance Documents: Legal and regulatory records to ensure adherence to labor laws and industry standards.

The goal is to collect comprehensive data to evaluate all aspects of HR operations.

3. Evaluation of Current HR Practices

During this phase, the collected data is analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of HR functions against industry standards and best practices. The HR audit team looks at:

• Compliance with legal requirements: Ensuring that employment laws, tax laws, and health and safety regulations are followed.
• Alignment with organizational goals: Evaluating whether HR strategies support the organization’s mission and objectives.
• Employee engagement and satisfaction: Assessing the employee experience, from recruitment to retention.
• HR process efficiency: Analyzing recruitment, training, performance management, and compensation processes for effectiveness and cost-efficiency.

4. Identifying Gaps and Areas for Improvement

After evaluating current HR practices, the audit team identifies gaps, inefficiencies, or areas of non-compliance. These can:

• Outdated policies or procedures
• Gaps in employee training or development
• Inefficient recruitment practices
• Non-compliance with labor laws
• Lack of alignment between HR functions and organizational goals
• Low employee engagement or satisfaction

This stage provides valuable insights into what is working well and where improvements are needed.

5. Reporting and Recommendations

Once the audit is complete, the findings are compiled into a detailed report. The report includes:

• Key findings: An overview of the audit’s results, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and areas of concern.
• Actionable recommendations: Specific, practical recommendations to improve HR policies, practices, or processes.
• Strategic recommendations: Suggestions for aligning HR practices more closely with organizational goals, improving employee satisfaction, or mitigating risks.
• Legal compliance: Any identified compliance issues and how to address them.

This report serves as a roadmap for HR management to take corrective actions.

6. Implementing Changes and Monitoring

Based on the audit findings and recommendations, the organization takes steps to implement the suggested changes. This could involve revising HR policies, improving training programs, addressing compliance issues, or realigning HR strategies with business goals. After implementation, ongoing monitoring is essential to ensure that the changes are effectively integrated and yield the desired results.

7. Follow-Up and Re-Audit

The final step involves conducting follow-up reviews and re-audits to assess whether the changes have been successfully implemented and whether further improvements are necessary. This ensures that HR practices evolve with changing business needs, regulatory requirements, and industry trends.

Areas of Human Resource Audit:

1. Recruitment and Staffing

This area examines the organization’s hiring practices to ensure that the recruitment process is efficient, fair, and aligned with the organization’s needs. The audit looks at:

• Job descriptions and specifications
• Recruitment strategies (advertising, sourcing)
• Selection processes (interviews, testing)
• Adherence to diversity and inclusion policies
• Onboarding and orientation procedures

The goal is to ensure that the organization attracts, selects, and retains the right talent efficiently.

2. Training and Development

The audit assesses the effectiveness of employee development programs and their alignment with organizational goals. Key areas of evaluation include:

• Employee training needs analysis
• Design and delivery of training programs
• Career development and succession planning
• Employee skill development initiatives
• Learning management systems (LMS) usage

The aim is to ensure that training initiatives contribute to employee growth and enhance organizational capability.

3. Compensation and Benefits

This area examines the organization’s compensation structures, ensuring they are competitive, equitable, and legally compliant. The audit evaluates:

• Salary and wage structures
• Incentive and bonus programs
• Benefits (healthcare, retirement plans, leave policies)
• Pay equity and fairness
• Compliance with compensation laws and regulations

The goal is to ensure that employees are fairly compensated and that the organization remains competitive in attracting and retaining talent.

4. Performance Management

This area focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of the performance management system. Key components reviewed include:

• Goal-setting processes
• Performance appraisals and feedback mechanisms
• Alignment of performance metrics with organizational goals
• Employee recognition and rewards systems
• Coaching and mentoring programs

The audit ensures that performance management systems are motivating employees and contributing to organizational success.

5. Employee Relations and Engagement

The audit assesses the state of employee relations and engagement within the organization. It includes reviewing:

• Employee communication channels (surveys, town halls)
• Disciplinary and grievance handling processes
• Conflict resolution mechanisms
• Employee engagement and satisfaction levels
• Retention strategies

The aim is to foster a positive workplace culture, minimize turnover, and enhance employee loyalty.

6. Legal Compliance

An essential part of any HR audit, this area ensures that the organization complies with labor laws, employment regulations, and industry standards. The audit checks:

• Compliance with local, state, and federal labor laws
• Equal employment opportunity (EEO) compliance
• Occupational health and safety (OHS) regulations
• Employee record-keeping requirements
• Anti-discrimination and harassment policies

This area minimizes legal risks and protects the organization from potential lawsuits or penalties.

7. Health and Safety

The audit evaluates the organization’s health and safety policies and practices to ensure employee well-being. This includes:

• Workplace safety programs and protocols
• Health insurance and wellness programs
• Compliance with safety regulations (e.g., OSHA)
• Emergency preparedness plans
• Mental health and stress management initiatives

Ensuring a safe and healthy work environment is critical to reducing workplace injuries and improving employee morale.

8. Employee Benefits Administration

This area reviews the administration of employee benefits programs, ensuring that employees have access to competitive and compliant benefits. The audit looks at:

• Benefit options and enrollment processes
• Employee communications about benefits
• Compliance with benefits-related laws (e.g., ERISA, ACA)
• Cost-effectiveness and sustainability of benefits programs

The objective is to provide valuable benefits that attract and retain employees while maintaining cost-efficiency.

9. Organizational Structure and HR Planning

The audit assesses the alignment of the organizational structure with business goals and identifies the effectiveness of HR planning. Key points include:

• Role clarity and reporting structures
• Workforce planning and forecasting
• HR budget allocation and resource management
• Organizational change management processes

This ensures that the HR function is well-structured to support the organization’s long-term strategy.

10. Technology and HR Information Systems (HRIS)

The audit evaluates the use and efficiency of technology in HR management. Key areas include:

• Integration and functionality of HR software systems (e.g., HRIS, payroll systems)
• Data security and privacy compliance
• Automation of HR processes (recruitment, payroll, performance management)
• Use of data analytics in HR decision-making

This ensures that HR technology supports organizational efficiency, enhances data-driven decision-making, and complies with data protection regulations.

An interview is a structured conversation between an employer and a candidate aimed at evaluating the candidate’s suitability for a specific job role. It allows the employer to assess the candidate’s skills, qualifications, experience, and personality, while also giving the candidate a chance to learn more about the organization and the position. Interviews can be conducted in various formats, including one-on-one, panel, or virtual. The process typically includes questions related to the candidate’s background, technical expertise, and behavioral traits to determine if they align with the job requirements and company culture.

Personal interview

Personal interviews are one of the most used types of interviews, where the questions are asked personally directly to the respondent. For this, a researcher can have a guide online surveys to take note of the answers. A researcher can design his/her survey in such a way that they take notes of the comments or points of view that stands out from the interviewee.

Advantage:

• More complete answers can be obtained if there is doubt on both sides or a particular information is detected that is remarkable.
• When the interviewees and respondents are face-to-face, there is a way to adapt the questions if this is not understood.
• The researcher has an opportunity to detect and analyze the interviewee’s body language at the time of asking the questions and taking notes about it.
• Higher response rate.

Disadvantages:

• Contacting the interviewees can be a real headache, either scheduling an appointment in workplaces or going from house to house and not finding anyone.
• They can generate distrust on the part of the interviewee, since they may be self-conscious and not answer truthfully.
• They are time-consuming and extremely expensive.
• Therefore, many interviews are conducted in public places, such as shopping centers or parks. There are even consumer studies that take advantage of these sites to conduct interviews or surveys and give incentives, gifts, coupons, in short; There are great opportunities for online research in shopping centers.
• Among the advantages of conducting these types of interviews is that the respondents will have more fresh information if the interview is conducted in the context and with the appropriate stimuli, so that researchers can have data from their experience at the scene of the events, immediately and first hand. The interviewer can use an online survey through a mobile device that will undoubtedly facilitate the entire process.

Focused group

A focus group is qualitative research because it asks participants for open-ended responses conveying thoughts or feelings. The other prominent research type is quantitative research. This is more data-driven research that uses surveys or questionnaires to derive numerical-based statistics or percentages.

With qualitative research, researchers seek more open and complete perspectives on the brand or product. However, more general interpretations and uses of the research are necessary, since you cannot as easily break down the research into facts.

Steps to conduct focus group research

• Recruit the right participants

A researcher must be careful while recruiting participants. Members need adequate knowledge of the topic so that they can add to the conversation.

• Choose a moderator

Your moderator should understand the topic of discussion and possess the following qualities:

• Ensures participation from all members of the group.
• Regulates dominant group members so others may speak.
• Motivates inattentive members through supportive words and positive body language.
• Makes the executive decision to end or continue a discussion should it become too heated.

Verify your moderator doesn’t know any of the participants. Existing relationships between a member and moderator cause bias and can skew your data.

• Record the meeting for future purposes

While conducting a focus group, it is essential to record the sessions or meetings. A researcher can record the discussion through audio or video. You must let participants know you’re planning to record the event and get their consent.

• Write clear discussion guidelines

Before the session starts, it is crucial to write down clear session guidelines. Include key questions, expectations of focus group members, whether you’re recording the discussion, and methods of sharing results. Give out the instructions in advance and request participants to comply with them.

• Conduct the session and generate a report

Once participants understand their role, the moderator leads the focus group survey. You can ask members to fill out a feedback form to collect quantitative data from the event. Use your data and generate reports on the overall findings of your study.

• Use the data to make a plan of action

Share your report with stakeholders and decisionmakers in your organization. A good report helps you design actionable plans to improve products or services according to the focus group feedback. Update focus group members on the changes you make and the results of those changes.

In 1991, marketing and psychological expert Ernest Dichter coined the name “Focus Group.” The term described meetings held with a limited group of participants with the objective of discussion.

• You use a focus group in qualitative research. A group of 6-10 people, usually 8, meet to explore and discuss a topic, such as a new product. The group shares their feedback, opinions, knowledge, and insights about the topic at hand.
• Participants openly share opinions and are free to convince other participants of their ideas.
• The mediator takes notes on the discussion and opinions of group members.
• The right group members affect the results of your research, so it’s vital to be picky when selecting members.

Types of focus groups

• Dual-moderator focus group: There are two moderators for this event. One ensures smooth execution, and the other guarantees the discussion of each question.
• Two-way focus group: A two-way group involves two separate groups having discussions on the topic at different times. As one group conducts their study, the other group observes the discussion. In the end, the group that observed the first session performs their conversation. The second group can use insights gained from watching the first discussion to dive deeper into the topic and offer more perspective.
• Mini focus group: This type of group restricts participants to 4-5 members instead of the usual 6-10.
• Client-involvement focus group: Use this group when clients ask you to conduct a focus group and invite those who ask.
• Participant-moderated focus group: One or more participants provisionally take up the role of moderator.
• Online focus group: These groups employ online mediums to gather opinions and feedback. There are three categories of people in an online focus panel: observer, moderator, and respondent.

Benefits of Focus Groups

A focus group is generally more useful when outcomes of research are very unpredictable and you’re looking for more open feedback rather than comparisons of potential results as in a quantified research method. A focus group also allows consumers to express clear ideas and share feelings that do not typically come out in a quantified survey or paper test. Because of the open conversation among group members, topics and discussions are freer flowing and members can use comments from others to stimulate recall.

Another benefit is that the moderator can observe the dynamics among members of the focus group as they discuss their opinions with each other. In many of these groups, the moderator will leave the room to allow focus group members to communicate with each other without feeling self-conscious. This type of honest commentary can often yield nuggets that you can later use to further refine your marketing strategy and your messaging.

Drawbacks of Focus Groups

“Groupthink” is a primary concern with focus groups. When you bring a group of people together to talk about a brand, the tendency exists for influential group members to affect the expressions of others within the group. Additionally, consumers are often more reluctant to express negative ideas in a face-to-face setting than in a more indirect research format when they know the company is conducting research.

Another major drawback of a focus group is that if you don’t hire a good moderator, it can be difficult to elicit the full range of thoughts, opinions, wants and needs of the group. And if your moderator is weak, some focus group members may not feel comfortable enough in the environment to offer their opinion.

In-depth Interview

As with all data collection methods, including (but not limited to) online surveys, direct mail surveys, email surveys, focus groups, mystery shoppers and so on, there are both advantages and disadvantages of in-depth interviews.

A type of qualitative research involving an unstructured personal interview with a single respondent, conducted by a highly skilled interviewer. The purpose of in-depth interviews is to understand the underlying motivations, beliefs, attitudes, and feelings of respondents on a particular subject.

In-Depth Interview Advantages

• Interviewers have greater opportunity to ask follow-up questions, probe for additional information, and circle back to key questions later on in the interview to generate a rich understanding of attitudes, perceptions, motivations, etc.
• Interviewers can establish rapport with participants to make them feel more comfortable, which can generate more insightful responses, especially regarding sensitive topics.
• Interviewers can monitor changes in tone and word choice to gain a deeper understanding. (Note, if the in-depth interview is face-to-face, researchers can also focus on body language.)
• There is a higher quality of sampling compared to some other data collection methods.
• Researchers need fewer participants to glean useful and relevant insights.
• There are none of the potential distractions or peer-pressure dynamics that can sometimes emerge in focus groups.
• Because in-depth interviews can potentially be so insightful, it is possible to identify highly valuable findings quickly.

The design of a questionnaire will depend on whether the researcher wishes to collect exploratory information (i.e. qualitative information for the purposes of better understanding or the generation of hypotheses on a subject) or quantitative information (to test specific hypotheses that have previously been generated).

Exploratory questionnaires: If the data to be collected is qualitative or is not to be statistically evaluated, it may be that no formal questionnaire is needed. For example, in interviewing the female head of the household to find out how decisions are made within the family when purchasing breakfast foodstuffs, a formal questionnaire may restrict the discussion and prevent a full exploration of the woman’s views and processes. Instead, one might prepare a brief guide, listing perhaps ten major open-ended questions, with appropriate probes/prompts listed under each.

Formal standardised questionnaires: If the researcher is looking to test and quantify hypotheses and the data is to be analysed statistically, a formal standardised questionnaire is designed. Such questionnaires are generally characterised by:

• Prescribed wording and order of questions, to ensure that each respondent receives the same stimuli
• Prescribed definitions or explanations for each question, to ensure interviewers handle questions consistently and can answer respondents’ requests for clarification if they occur
• Prescribed response format, to enable rapid completion of the questionnaire during the interviewing process.

Given the same task and the same hypotheses, six different people will probably come up with six different questionnaires that differ widely in their choice of questions, line of questioning, use of open-ended questions and length. There are no hard-and-fast rules about how to design a questionnaire, but there are a number of points that can be borne in mind:

1. A well-designed questionnaire should meet the research objectives. This may seem obvious, but many research surveys omit important aspects due to inadequate preparatory work, and do not adequately probe particular issues due to poor understanding. To a certain degree some of this is inevitable. Every survey is bound to leave some questions unanswered and provide a need for further research but the objective of good questionnaire design is to ‘minimise’ these problems.
2. It should obtain the most complete and accurate information possible. The questionnaire designer needs to ensure that respondents fully understand the questions and are not likely to refuse to answer, lie to the interviewer or try to conceal their attitudes. A good questionnaire is organised and worded to encourage respondents to provide accurate, unbiased and complete information.
3. A well-designed questionnaire should make it easy for respondents to give the necessary information and for the interviewer to record the answer, and it should be arranged so that sound analysis and interpretation are possible.
4. It would keep the interview brief and to the point and be so arranged that the respondent(s) remain interested throughout the interview.

Preliminary decisions in questionnaire design

There are nine steps involved in the development of a questionnaire:

1. Decide the information required.
2. Define the target respondents.
3. Choose the method(s) of reaching your target respondents.
4. Decide on question content.
5. Develop the question wording.
6. Put questions into a meaningful order and format.
7. Check the length of the questionnaire.
8. Pre-test the questionnaire.
9. Develop the final survey form.

Deciding on the information required

It should be noted that one does not start by writing questions. The first step is to decide ‘what are the things one needs to know from the respondent in order to meet the survey’s objectives?’ These, as has been indicated in the opening chapter of this textbook, should appear in the research brief and the research proposal.

One may already have an idea about the kind of information to be collected, but additional help can be obtained from secondary data, previous rapid rural appraisals and exploratory research. In respect of secondary data, the researcher should be aware of what work has been done on the same or similar problems in the past, what factors have not yet been examined, and how the present survey questionnaire can build on what has already been discovered. Further, a small number of preliminary informal interviews with target respondents will give a glimpse of reality that may help clarify ideas about what information is required.

Define the target respondents

At the outset, the researcher must define the population about which he/she wishes to generalise from the sample data to be collected. For example, in marketing research, researchers often have to decide whether they should cover only existing users of the generic product type or whether to also include non-users. Secondly, researchers have to draw up a sampling frame. Thirdly, in designing the questionnaire we must take into account factors such as the age, education, etc. of the target respondents.

Choose the methods of reaching target respondents

It may seem strange to be suggesting that the method of reaching the intended respondents should constitute part of the questionnaire design process. However, a moment’s reflection is sufficient to conclude that the method of contact will influence not only the questions the researcher is able to ask but the phrasing of those questions. The main methods available in survey research are:

• Personal interviews
• Group or focus interviews
• Mailed questionnaires
• Telephone interviews.

Within this region the first two mentioned are used much more extensively than the second pair. However, each has its advantages and disadvantages. A general rule is that the more sensitive or personal the information, the more personal the form of data collection should be.

Decide on question content

Researchers must always be prepared to ask, “Is this question really needed?” The temptation to include questions without critically evaluating their contribution towards the achievement of the research objectives, as they are specified in the research proposal, is surprisingly strong. No question should be included unless the data it gives rise to is directly of use in testing one or more of the hypotheses established during the research design.

There are only two occasions when seemingly “redundant” questions might be included:

• Opening questions that are easy to answer and which are not perceived as being “threatening”, and/or are perceived as being interesting, can greatly assist in gaining the respondent’s involvement in the survey and help to establish a rapport.

This, however, should not be an approach that should be overly used. It is almost always the case that questions which are of use in testing hypotheses can also serve the same functions.

• “Dummy” questions can disguise the purpose of the survey and/or the sponsorship of a study. For example, if a manufacturer wanted to find out whether its distributors were giving the consumers or end-users of its products a reasonable level of service, the researcher would want to disguise the fact that the distributors’ service level was being investigated. If he/she did not, then rumours would abound that there was something wrong with the distributor.

Develop the question wording

Survey questions can be classified into three forms, i.e. closed, open-ended and open response-option questions. So far only the first of these, i.e. closed questions has been discussed. This type of questioning has a number of important advantages;

• It provides the respondent with an easy method of indicating his answer – he does not have to think about how to articulate his answer.
• It ‘prompts’ the respondent so that the respondent has to rely less on memory in answering a question.
• Responses can be easily classified, making analysis very straightforward.
• It permits the respondent to specify the answer categories most suitable for their purposes.

Putting questions into a meaningful order and format

Opening questions: Opening questions should be easy to answer and not in any way threatening to THE respondents. The first question is crucial because it is the respondent’s first exposure to the interview and sets the tone for the nature of the task to be performed. If they find the first question difficult to understand, or beyond their knowledge and experience, or embarrassing in some way, they are likely to break off immediately. If, on the other hand, they find the opening question easy and pleasant to answer, they are encouraged to continue.

Question flow: Questions should flow in some kind of psychological order, so that one leads easily and naturally to the next. Questions on one subject, or one particular aspect of a subject, should be grouped together. Respondents may feel it disconcerting to keep shifting from one topic to another, or to be asked to return to some subject they thought they gave their opinions about earlier.

Question variety:. Respondents become bored quickly and restless when asked similar questions for half an hour or so. It usually improves response, therefore, to vary the respondent’s task from time to time. An open-ended question here and there (even if it is not analysed) may provide much-needed relief from a long series of questions in which respondents have been forced to limit their replies to pre-coded categories. Questions involving showing cards/pictures to respondents can help vary the pace and increase interest.

Closing questions

It is natural for a respondent to become increasingly indifferent to the questionnaire as it nears the end. Because of impatience or fatigue, he may give careless answers to the later questions. Those questions, therefore, that are of special importance should, if possible, be included in the earlier part of the questionnaire. Potentially sensitive questions should be left to the end, to avoid respondents cutting off the interview before important information is collected.

In developing the questionnaire the researcher should pay particular attention to the presentation and layout of the interview form itself. The interviewer’s task needs to be made as straight-forward as possible.

• Questions should be clearly worded and response options clearly identified.
• Prescribed definitions and explanations should be provided. This ensures that the questions are handled consistently by all interviewers and that during the interview process the interviewer can answer/clarify respondents’ queries.

Ample writing space should be allowed to record open-ended answers, and to cater for differences in handwriting between interviewers.

Physical appearance of the questionnaire

The physical appearance of a questionnaire can have a significant effect upon both the quantity and quality of marketing data obtained. The quantity of data is a function of the response rate. Ill-designed questionnaires can give an impression of complexity, medium and too big a time commitment. Data quality can also be affected by the physical appearance of the questionnaire with unnecessarily confusing layouts making it more difficult for interviewers, or respondents in the case of self-completion questionnaires, to complete this task accurately. Attention to just a few basic details can have a disproportionately advantageous impact on the data obtained through a questionnaire.