Effects of Changes in Business Strategy on People Resourcing Focus - Essay Example

?Introduction: Our life styles are now in a constant of evolution, and with that come a change in every aspect of it. One of these aspects being greatly influenced is the business sphere. The current business scenario has drastically shifted and transformed beyond recognition over the past few decades. The business practices and priorities that were functional previously, have now become primitive and misfit for today’s dynamic environment (Magnus, 2007). In broader terms we can categorize the factors affecting the business environment into three categories. The first one is technological advancements, which has contributed in eliminating the influence of time, space and other such intermediary factors in the business environment. Similarly it has also contributed in promoting low cost and high speed data transmission, hardware that produces information more conveniently and quickly, and software that makes the data and communication tools more accessible (Sack & Albretch, 2000). The second factor is that of globalization. In business sphere it plays a vital part in availability of instantaneous information, faster means of transportation making the world a huge market place (Sack & Albretch, 2000). Third factor is that of increased power of the market investors with such an influence on the business sphere that if they are displeased it can put the business in jeopardy and hence their consent is given quite an importance (Sack & Albretch, 2000). Effects of changes in business strategy on people resourcing focus and activities: Current business scenario is as such that it is dominated by the continuously changing economic environment along with the globalization phenomena, characterizing the ever changing investor and consumer demands, and the factor of competitive advantage. All these drivers make it vital to the existence and sustainability of the organizations to continuously improve in terms of all the fronts of cost, productivity, time and skills management just to name a few (Becker & Gerhart, 1996). Substantial changes seem to have taken place in the workplace structure all around over the past few decades which are being intensified all the more by the current turbulence in the business spheres. In order to succeed in today’s business environment, organizations have now started to focus more on the knowledge aspect of things rather than the mindset of the industrial economy (Saini, 2006). The front running companies now invest more in the intangibles so as to gain a more long term market value. The most crucial of such intangibles is in relation to the work force in terms of their mindset, skill, speed, learning ability, collaboration, accountability and leadership qualities. In the picture of such intangibles, it becomes one of the top most priorities to capitalize on these aspects through cooperation and unions so as to be able to effectively utilize their talent along with creating future competencies, which now hold critical importance to all the industries (Saini, 2006). The strategy makers have now shifted their focus from systems, structures and strategies to skills, staff and shared values. The focus on these aspects has exacerbated the importance of the adoption of the HR strategy and people development in terms of inculcating soft skills and establishing high performance work systems (Saini, 2006). The true worth of any organization is defined in terms of its workforce. As Bill Gates puts it in Fortune: “Take our 20 best people away, and I will tell you that Microsoft would become an unimportant company.” (Gates, 1996) On the same grounds, in terms of the gambling industry we see that it has undergone a dramatic change all around over the past few years. Previously, while it just used to comprise of a ‘horses and dogs’ business, it now certifies as just comprising 60% of the overall industry. In other words we see that the wide range of topics and events that people can place bets on have had a huge impact on the gambling industry providing the people betting with a diverse range of entities to place bets on (News, 2011). In addition to that, the industry has also changed in the light of modern technological advancements; the deregulations have also played a part in altering the route of things. People now, have various mediums to place their bets on, namely internet, television, mobile phones, contact centres or just by going to the high street shops. On top of all that, latest advancements in terms of the initiatives being taken to legalize and regulate the whole gambling process can also be attributed in causing a shift in the industry (Cuts, 2011). As a result, all this has caused a drastic change in the whole functioning of the industry which in turn provides the managers with all the more challenges particularly in terms of keeping the whole work force in flow of things. Any industry, when faced with such a drastic change in the flow of events, has one primary asset to rely on: its work force. Work force is the first one to get influenced whenever an industry is faced with a new set of environment and hence, opts for a new set of strategies. In order to succeed and to be able to keep up with the pace of those around, the company in turn, has to quicken the pace of its work force accordingly. Hence, investing and truly giving some serious thought, when it comes to the labour and people of the company, becomes the top most priority (Costen Wanda, 2010). Same goes for the gambling industry, which had to redefine the requirements and the functioning of its workforce, with the current change in circumstances. With the current advancements there has been a huge growth in the opening hours of the industry making the availability of work force on increased hours more vital. This provided the HR managers with quite a challenge so as to make the employees shift from a five out of 6 days contracts to five out of seven. Obtaining flexibility in such a case is not easy. This in turn, has also had an impact on the turnover rate. In order to deal with such state of events HR managers wanted to employ the right people for the right jobs, right from the start. So, in other words we can say that the best way to deal with such changes in the infrastructure is to begin right from the beginning of the whole process, which in this case of employee management, was employee the right people from scratch (Right person for the right job, 2008). By going back to the basics, the managers then defined the specifications, job requirements and the recruiting and induction processes. By doing so, they were able to filter the candidates, right from the very start of the process. In addition to that, with the advancing technologies, the betting channels have also modified redefining the role that people played in the whole process. This itself presents quite a challenge to what people have been doing for years and hence, requires an extra effort to fit into (Right person for the right job, 2008). Employing the right kind of people for the right sort of tasks, at the time, definitely pays off. Same was the case for the betting industry where the implementation of latest advancements such as telephonic screening systems contributed a lot in screening the right sort of people, with the right attitude, right from the beginning of the employee selection process. This also contributed in terms of eliminating the factors of ageism and sexism from the selection process along with helping the recruits in pushing through the process a lot quicker than the traditional practices (Association, 2003). As the case of gambling industry suggests, people are a vital factor to the organizational success. People comprise an important factor to the organization based on the fact that they comprise the entity by means of which the organization achieves its goals. These days there is innumerable evidence present that suggests the presence of a distinct link between human resource strategies and organization’s strategies (The Association of Business Executives). In the dynamic environments, as the one that is faced by the businesses today all around, the alignment of the human resource activities to the organizational strategies becomes of vital importance. Furthermore, the human resource strategies should be designed as such that they satisfy the criteria of being the best fit for all the other aspects of the organization (The Association of Business Executives). Impact on employee retention, commitment, well being and organizational performance: When the organization realizes the importance of the human factor and utilizes it to its advantage then it also takes the satisfaction of the employee him/herself into consideration as well. It is only through good relations with the employees, can an organization truly attain a sustainable leadership and growth in the market place. Good organizations always incorporate the factor of human resources at the core of their organizational development process (High turnover to high retention). It is as Charles Ferst, President of the Strata Environmental Services puts it: “If a company is there for the employees, you can wind up with a lot more dedication. We get a lot of after-hours contributions from our employees because they feel like they're a part of the unit.” (What the 2003 pricipal 10 best companies say about their commitment to employee benefits., 2011) In case of the gambling industry, we see that while it was going a drastic change in its structure, it presented great problems in terms of employee management particularly in terms of their turn over and retention. For that the managers took up the process of beginning from scratch for which they initiated a whole new recruitment process. How it contributes to the employee side of the picture is that the organization, through better screening and induction techniques gains an increasing probability of selecting the right people for the right job. When the person applying goes through such a broken down screening process he/she exactly knows where he/she stands in terms of the company’s interests as well as his/her own. As a result of which if someone wants to drop out or the company classifies the person as being unsuitable for the job, he/she is eliminated beforehand. Selecting the right people, for the right job, on the right criteria through the behaviour based testing and competency screening is the starting point for having a more sustainable work force at your hands (Heathfield, 2011). In the same manner while the gambling industry capitalizes on its work force by designing the recruitment process taking into consideration the motivational aspect as well, it is in other words exploit the prospects of having a more dedicated workforce for the future. It can also be said that the company actually employees people that in reality have a desire for doing that particular job. The company in the gambling industry sets up screening process designed by Hill’s best front line people that in turn, sets the bar high for the recruits. Effective hiring of people with the right set of skills, talent along with the desirability to work in that specific line in turn ensures the factor of employee retention and a decreased turnover rate in the organizations (Heathfield, 2011). On the same lines, when the employee is satisfied with the organizations functioning and is comfortable with the whole process, then it also contributes to his greater commitment to the job assigned. With the increase in the trend of globalization, the organization’s performance is highly reliable on the organization’s ability to effectively exploit the human resources. This factor of globalizations forces the organizations to improve its efficiency at its workforce level so as to be able to sustain a competitive advantage at a global level (Cesyniene, 2008). Human resource management when brought to a global level is like a puzzle with fires issuing from a multitude of issues, with which the employees have to deal with. Each step of the puzzle is vital to the overall picture and hence, one can say that when organizational performance is brought at a global front, every aspect of it has to be considered and kept in alignment with all the other organizational functions (Polack, 2011). In the light of all the changes taking place in the business sphere, companies now for the purpose of the well being of the work force as well the organizations take a multitude of steps into account that also serve the purpose of keeping the work force satisfied and committed to the process of things. One such response has been the induction of flexible employee relationships so as to enhance and maintain the level of adaptability that an organization has. This has been inculcated in the process flow through flexible working hours, part time work opportunities, a multitude of employment contracts and flexibility in the functions of the employees so as to make them more multi skilled so that they are not just confined to the performance of one task alone. In such a manner the employees can easily provide a cover up for absenteeism. Businesses now also have flexible pay packages with some percentage of it being dependent on the performance factor which in turn serves as a motivational factor to the workforce and also contributes to the employee retention (Mani, 2006). Along with that, the ever increasing pace of the technological advancements pushes the employees to keep up the pace in assisting the organization in keeping the pace set with all the advancements. It requires the work force to be highly skilled along with being flexible and adaptable to the changing environment. The trends such as globalization and technological advancements bring with it all the more changes to the workforce. These factors have highly contributed in increasing the worker’s involvement in the conception, execution and the controlling factors of the organizational functioning. The focus has now also shifted to workforce relations and practices in order to enhance their motivational and performance level through factors such as information sharing and two way communication (Mani, 2006). How to build on your current strengths and opportunities to support your personal challenges and development both now and in the future: The changing environment has shifted the spectrum of activities in all fronts of the business sphere. Be it the technological advancements pushing the competition to a whole new level in terms of its intervention from production, to distribution to the business functions itself, or the ever increasing demands of the customer base in terms of quality, quantity and time management, or even the functions being performed by the business managers and employees, everything has been redefined in the light of the modern advancements. The first step for sustaining an advantage in any business sphere is to realize the importance of the workforce as the true determining factor of the organizational performance. Any organization cannot exist without an effective workforce as it would be completely crippled without it. The organizations should recognize its workforce as a valuable asset and invest in it accordingly so as to build upon it as the organizations major strength. The organization should set the workforce targets right from the very beginning in terms of the selection and recruitment of the right people for the right jobs. By doing so the organization would not only capitalize on building a stringer and sustainable workforce, but also set the grounds for a longer sustaining competitive advantage. In addition to that, the business now have to keep pace with all the globalization trends and hence have to structure themselves as such that they are more adaptable to the dynamic environment that now faces all the business spheres. This factor would not only serve as a solution for various challenges but would also help the organization in being more flexible to the changes of the global environment. Also, the organization’s workforce, being the most important factor of the organization’s functioning should be kept motivated and dedicated to the organization’s functioning so that it gives its best to the process flow. This can be done by some efforts of keeping the employees more satisfied and involved in the business process so that they build a greater commitment and hence reduce the rate of employee turnover and assist in employee retention, which in the long run is of ultimate value to the organizations. It is as John Hoeven puts it: “If we are going to create the best business climate to create higher paying jobs and retain our young people, we are going to have to build a workforce prepared for the opportunities of the future.” (Hoeven) Works Cited Association, A. G. (2003). Industry Information. Retrieved January 26, 2011, from American Gaming Association: http://www.americangaming.org/Industry/factsheets/general_info_detail.cfv?id=28 Becker, B., & Gerhart, B. (1996). The impact of human resource management on organizational performance: Progress and Prospects. The Academy of Management Journal , Vol 39 (4), 779-801. Cesyniene, R. (2008). Globalization and human resource management. Retrieved January 26, 2011, from http://www.leidykla.vu.lt/fileadmin/Ekonomika/82/41-56.pdf Costen Wanda, J. M. (2010). The development of quality managers in hospital indstry. Journal of Human Resources of Hospitability and Tourism , 9 (2), 131-141. Cuts, D. (2011). Business environment. 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