E-profiling R&D involvement/earnings of researchers: a G2E tool for performance management at CSIR–NML

Purpose - Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)–National Metallurgical Laboratory (CSIR–NML) has launched a number of initiatives in different perspectives of e-Government. The “Mandays-Involvement” website was implemented by the laboratory in Government-to-Employee (G2E) perspective i.e. facilitating its research and development (R&D) manpower by providing data with respect to their own performance parameters through a single window. The development and implementation of the website had two major objectives : (1) to provide a system to the researchers for tracking and improving their own performance with respect to mandays and external cash flow generation and (2) to equip the management with a tool to enhance the organizational performance and enable optimum employee utilization. Design/methodology/approach - Software Development Life Cycle approach was followed for the web-based system development and iterative model was used. Open source web development tools i.e. Php, My-Sql and CSS were used for the system development. Findings - The new system helped in detailed profiling of current and future assignment of the researchers so as to have a check over preference-based allocation of work and providing equal opportunities of work to all. Research limitations/implications - The percentage average mandays utilization was stabilized after the implementation of the website. The percentage under and over engagements of researchers in R&D projects was controlled and reduced. Practical implications - The system outputs are utilized for R&D Team formation, Project approvals and Annual Performance Evaluations. Originality/value - This new information system acts as a decision support system that helps the management to align its organizational policies toward the Future Research Projects and R&D manpower.