netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Doculabs, Inc., is a privately owned information and technology consulting firm based in Chicago, Illinois. The firm provides expertise in enterprise social collaboration and content management, developing strategic plans and roadmaps to help its clients make use of these technologies to create competitive advantage. Doculabs also provides assistance in records management and information governance to facilitate compliance, reduce risk, and reduce the costs of e-discovery for its clients.
Doculabs was founded in 1993 by James K. Watson, Jr. and Paul Burian, both formerly of Xerox Corporation; and Richard Medina, formerly of Information Resources, Inc. The firm's mission was based on three principles: a specialization in content-based applications, analysis grounded by benchmark data, and objectivity. These principles remain the foundation of Doculabs' business and continue to differentiate the firm in the technology consulting services market
HR METRICS
As organizations focus their efforts on implementing more strategic management of human capital, they
also place more importance on the development of HR metrics to benchmark the organization’s HR
performance in key areas and monitor changes as a result of the implementation of various HR
initiatives. These (or a key subset) can be presented in an integrated format with an organization’s
other performance metrics in such formats as balanced scorecards or “dashboards”.
Good practice
Develop a set of HR metrics that are relevant to the business strategy and that can be readily
gathered on a periodic basis to permit trend analysis
Examples of HR metrics, which are or may be relevant to CGIAR Centers for benchmarking and then
monitoring trends, are:
Staff turnover/retention
Staff “headroom” – proportion of filled positions to total positions; proportion of positions filled by
long-term staff versus temporary staff and consultants
Staff qualifications and experience
Numbers and types of applicants for advertised vacancies
Staff diversity
Staff satisfaction
Staff performance ratings
Professional development hours achieved
Overtime and (where Centers implement time tracking systems) unbilled time
Health and safety statistics
Many of these metrics can be efficiently captured through good HR management information systems.
Good Practice Note –Human Resource Management 14
Staff satisfaction is usually measured as a composite of various submetrics captured through Centerwide
confidential staff surveys. They may be supplemented at unit or location level by self assessment
exercises using anonymous polling technology.
ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN
Organizational design can be defined as the “process of managing the organizational structure” (Wagner
and Hollenbeck, 1998). The organization’s structure is not only a tool for managing the workforce but
also a means of communicating priorities and responsibilities, enabling management to focus
employees’ and stakeholders’ attention on particular aspects of the business (Davenport and Beck,
2002). Organizational design should support strategy implementation, facilitate the flow of work,
permit effective managerial control, and create reasonable and measurable jobs (Nadler and Tushman,
1992).
According to Galbraith (2003), the problem of organizational design occurs when there are many
employees in a number of specialist groups, which need to be integrated around the completion of a
global task.
CGIAR Centers seek to have staff from different scientific disciplines, as well as those from financial,
administrative, and technology support functions, working collaboratively on identifying key research
problems, attracting donor funding to have these tackled, and delivering the necessary research products.
Often, overlaying this is a move by Centers to decentralize functions geographically (in varying degrees)
to regionally located offices. Many Centers have turned to various types of matrix organizations and the
formation of multidisciplinary teams to facilitate this collaboration.
In “strong” matrix management structures, resources are managed by function or discipline; managers
work on projects managed by program managers.
Pitagorsky (1998) notes that, while project and program managers (PMs) and functional managers
(FMs) are in the business of keeping their organizations happy and healthy, their relationship is often
competitive and antagonistic. Conflict between PMs and FMs is often rooted in problems with the
organization's structure, particularly, role definition, incentive/compensation, reporting hierarchies, and
lines of communication. Pitagorsky identifies the need for stability in program/project resourcing
promised by functional managers, and defining program/functional manager roles as important elements
in minimizing problems with matrix management.
Doculabs was founded in 1993 by James K. Watson, Jr. and Paul Burian, both formerly of Xerox Corporation; and Richard Medina, formerly of Information Resources, Inc. The firm's mission was based on three principles: a specialization in content-based applications, analysis grounded by benchmark data, and objectivity. These principles remain the foundation of Doculabs' business and continue to differentiate the firm in the technology consulting services market
HR METRICS
As organizations focus their efforts on implementing more strategic management of human capital, they
also place more importance on the development of HR metrics to benchmark the organization’s HR
performance in key areas and monitor changes as a result of the implementation of various HR
initiatives. These (or a key subset) can be presented in an integrated format with an organization’s
other performance metrics in such formats as balanced scorecards or “dashboards”.
Good practice
Develop a set of HR metrics that are relevant to the business strategy and that can be readily
gathered on a periodic basis to permit trend analysis
Examples of HR metrics, which are or may be relevant to CGIAR Centers for benchmarking and then
monitoring trends, are:
Staff turnover/retention
Staff “headroom” – proportion of filled positions to total positions; proportion of positions filled by
long-term staff versus temporary staff and consultants
Staff qualifications and experience
Numbers and types of applicants for advertised vacancies
Staff diversity
Staff satisfaction
Staff performance ratings
Professional development hours achieved
Overtime and (where Centers implement time tracking systems) unbilled time
Health and safety statistics
Many of these metrics can be efficiently captured through good HR management information systems.
Good Practice Note –Human Resource Management 14
Staff satisfaction is usually measured as a composite of various submetrics captured through Centerwide
confidential staff surveys. They may be supplemented at unit or location level by self assessment
exercises using anonymous polling technology.
ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN
Organizational design can be defined as the “process of managing the organizational structure” (Wagner
and Hollenbeck, 1998). The organization’s structure is not only a tool for managing the workforce but
also a means of communicating priorities and responsibilities, enabling management to focus
employees’ and stakeholders’ attention on particular aspects of the business (Davenport and Beck,
2002). Organizational design should support strategy implementation, facilitate the flow of work,
permit effective managerial control, and create reasonable and measurable jobs (Nadler and Tushman,
1992).
According to Galbraith (2003), the problem of organizational design occurs when there are many
employees in a number of specialist groups, which need to be integrated around the completion of a
global task.
CGIAR Centers seek to have staff from different scientific disciplines, as well as those from financial,
administrative, and technology support functions, working collaboratively on identifying key research
problems, attracting donor funding to have these tackled, and delivering the necessary research products.
Often, overlaying this is a move by Centers to decentralize functions geographically (in varying degrees)
to regionally located offices. Many Centers have turned to various types of matrix organizations and the
formation of multidisciplinary teams to facilitate this collaboration.
In “strong” matrix management structures, resources are managed by function or discipline; managers
work on projects managed by program managers.
Pitagorsky (1998) notes that, while project and program managers (PMs) and functional managers
(FMs) are in the business of keeping their organizations happy and healthy, their relationship is often
competitive and antagonistic. Conflict between PMs and FMs is often rooted in problems with the
organization's structure, particularly, role definition, incentive/compensation, reporting hierarchies, and
lines of communication. Pitagorsky identifies the need for stability in program/project resourcing
promised by functional managers, and defining program/functional manager roles as important elements
in minimizing problems with matrix management.
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