OXEN, org - Critical Issues in International Charitable Organisation and Possible Solutions - Assignment Example

Introduction This report examines an international charitable organisation, OXEN.org. The organisation has merged with two smaller entities and the staff members are now in three different locations of OXEN.org, which include Manchester, London and New York with 300, 1,000 and 275 staff members respectively. The companys corporate ratings have fallen drastically due to the merger. Employees in Manchester and New York are dissatisfied and the staff turnover rate seem to be high. This shows that there is a set of major human resource management challenge. Reasons given for the turnover and staff dissatisfaction include the fact that the organization has a poor promotion plan which is adjudged as unfair. The working options are somewhat rigid and the human resource management systems are not very fair. This report is written on the background of these issues and identifies the major UK labour market and its linkage to the issue at hand. The report will look at the critical issues in the organization and the possible solutions to the issue. Factors on Labour Market and Causes of Issues in Human Resource/Talent Management at OXEN.org There are some elements of the human resource management and talent management system that seem to be problematic. These issues form the basis and foundation of the challenges that OXEN.org is facing at the moment. Merger and Cultural Matters From the scenario, it appears there is a merger of OXEN.org and some other companies. Mergers normally bring up cultural differences and matters that leads to major conflicts and issues in an organisation. When a merger is done and reasonable care is not taken to streamline the culture and the activities of the members of the two organisations, there is bound to be cultural tensions and issues that affects talent management and human resource issues. Cultural issues in mergers and acquisitions that have bearings on talent management and human resource management appear in the initial planning stage, closing of the deal and the post-merger integration stage (Harzing and Ruysseveldt, 2012). This involves the cultural clash of the different entities that come together under the merger and acquisition agreement. From this case, OXEN.org seem to have major problems and issues that relates to the clashes of cultures which is creating some degree of confusion that is having an adverse impact on the performance of the charitable organisation. Geographical Coordination It appears there is a major issue with the coordination of affairs between the London, Manchester and New York offices of the company. And this is probably a cause of some human resource management issues and matters which could include amongst other things, consistency, coordination and other factors. Concentration on the London Branch It appears that OXEN.org has concentrated its efforts in the London branch. This is evidenced by the fact that most of the complaints and issues in the company come from the New York and Manchester branch. The issue of dissatisfaction in the branches leads to a major issue about the appropriateness of the methods of management and the control of affairs in OXEN.org. There are questions like consistency of talent management policy and adaptability of human resource management arrangements across the branches of OXEN.org. Staff Turnover The high incidence of staff turnover indicates that the staff retention packages are not attractive enough. This is because it appears that staff members seem to lack the commitment to stay and work with OXEN.org to meet its ends and mission. Hence, they look out for other opportunities elsewhere and this renders OXEN.org more as a preparatory grounds for people who look for job and talent options other than what exists in OXEN.org Unfair Promotion Plan “Many observers deduce that there is a crisis in succession planning if it is not universally acknowledged” (Clutterbuck, 2012: p3). This means that promotion and succession plans need to be set up and must be accepted by all and sundry if it is to be effective. An ideal promotion plan needs to be objective and transparent. This will ensure that all members of the organisation accepts it and live by it. Armstrong draws a strong relationship between performance, pay, promotion, inclusion and development (2012). This is because as a person gets promoted higher up the ranks of an organisation, that individual is likely to earn more money and his performance is likely to reflect what is required of that position. Also, promotion affirms inclusion and ensures that all peoples including minorities are recognised and accepted as part of the organisation. This also enables an individual to feel that he is part of the organisation and the person links his personal career development to the companys promotion plan. From the scenario, OXEN.org has a promotion plan that is a source of dissatisfaction and a major reason for resignation. OXEN.org has employees who are quitting work because they tend to be sidelined and feel the succession planning system is unfair. This makes some people fell unwelcomed and excluded in the system. They tend to move on to find opportunities in entities that seek to treat them better. Poor Recruitment and Selection Practices Recruitment refers to a firms quest to advertise their vacancies and get the best pool of potential candidates aware and interested of the vacancies and apply for them (Billsbery, 2011). Recruitment is more about an invitation to treat. And it involves inviting as many suitable persons to apply as possible. Selection involves the use of various techniques to screen and select the most suitable person(s) to take up a given position in an organisation (Aswathappa, 2012). Selection must be done through a scientific method and approach that ensures that the best candidates are identified and employed from the pool of potential individuals who contacted the firm in the recruitment process (Billsbery, 2011) Clearly, OXEN.org has a poor recruitment system. This means that people are not scientifically invited and objectively screened to take up vacancies that become available. If there is no recruitment and selection process in an organisation, jobs are likely to go to people who are not qualified to do it. And this means that the wrong people will fill up sensitive positions and this will surely lead to low productivity because people with limited qualifications for a given job are likely to make mistakes and perform below expectation. And this will have an adverse impact on the entity as a whole. Rigid Working Options OXEN.org has shown that it has very rigid working options and workers cannot do important things that they want and get the peace of mind necessary to attain results. Hence, they will have to conflicting interests and might not deliver according to the standard required. The implication is that the rational employee will start looking for options elsewhere. And this will mean they will quickly abandon their positions and take up other positions in entities that promise more flexible and less rigid work environments. Approach for Talent Planning From the issues raised above, there is a major problem in the human resource management system and structures of OXEN.org. Hence, there is the need for the HR system and structures to be modified and improved through Talent Planning to ensure that things improve in OXEN.org. “Talent planning is a strategic activity aligned with the firms business strategy that aims to attract, develop and retain talented employees at each level of the organisation” (Hatum, 2009 p13). Talent management aims at the following: 1. Identifying the most critical staffing issues; 2. Developing long-term talent management strategies that addresses the current issues 3. Defining specific short-term staffing and developing plans within the context of the talent management strategies 4. Implementing the talent management strategies that ensure the best results (Bechet, 2011). There are other elements that are identified by other writers in the field. Shukla (2012) states that talent management is an integrated approach which is part of the human resource management process and it aims at identifying critical business process and the staffing needs and improving them by shifting responsibility to managers of the organisation. The traditional approach to talent management is recruitment, selection and performance management of people to attain important results that relates to the talent planning targets (Hatum, 2009). Another approach is to build strong management structures and use that as the basis to set up talent pools (Hatum, 2009). Talent management involves the identification of workers and human resource as an investment rather than a liability. Human resource is therefore seen as an asset and it is used to attain more results and bring more revenue to the organisation as a means of improving the status of the organisation. Thus, the popular approach that can be used by a company like OXEN.org will first have to figure out the cost of its staff members. And this will involve the evaluation of costs on the basis of payments and the impact of the losses that relate to human resource management problems, labour turnover, defects and other costs of recruitment. This way, the costs will be valued and given financial and economic terms. This will help to identify critical talent pools. And the talent pools provide information about how much must go into a given unit or a given section of the company. After that, the benefits and rewards should identified and outlined in a critical manner and/or fashion. This will include the results each unit brings and how much money must be invested into the different positions of the organisations. Based on the requirements of each talent pool, the company will formulate targets for long-term and short-term human resource management activities. These targets must be given to the respective managers of the strategic business units that are affected. This will help the managers to watch results and continue monitoring their units in human resource terms. Resourcing and Talent Management Strategies for OXEN.org OXEN.org has major problems with its human resource management unit. Clearly, there is a limited human resource management system. And due to that, there are many issues that cause staff dissatisfaction and this has been the main reason for the staff turnover and the staff development systems and structures. In order to apply talent management, there is the need for the revisiting of OXEN.orgs main vision and mission. This can be done by examining the core factors and things that make the business operate. This will mean going back to first principles to examine the mission and vision of OXEN.org. And the implication is that the organisation will have to find the sensitive and critical staff activities. Once the critical staff activities are identified a long-term talent management strategy must be identified for the company. This will culminate in the definition of talent pools and important talents that are needed in all the units. The critical staff activity evaluation must be done in both qualitative and quantitative terms. In qualitative terms, the actual activities and how it links up to the vision must identified and categorised based on their importance. This will lead to the identification of different roles and positions in the organisation and how important and sensitive they are. After that, the qualitative analysis will be conducted. This is to be done through the identification of the financial costs and benefits of the human resource base of each strategic business unit. The procedure will involve the identification of the level of output that each of the units staff members are expected to be attained. Through the degree of outputs needed, the level of investment to the development of staff members will be identified. This will be linked to the staff development and the development of the earning capacity of the company. Through this a clear identification of talent pool and talent investment will be made. Talent pools will involve the identification of new management structures and management requirements. This will mean that OXEN.org will need to restructure the existing system and identify new talent pools and requirements. This will be done on the basis of long-term strategic goals and short term goals. It is on this basis that new management team members can be designated and their obligations and duties can be identified. This will lay the foundation for an improved human resource management system through a clearly defined talent management structure or system. Since there is a management recruitment planned, there is the need for the management of OXEN.org to identify the critical staffing issues that fit into their talent management and human resource management plan and system. This is done by identifying the critical staff members and the crucial managerial positions that need to be set up to capture the required staff membership levels and needs. The second thing that needs to be done will be to redefine the long-term talent management goals and strategies that OXEN.org will want to employ. This must be done by trying to address the goals of the company and the qualitative and quantitative investment targets and levels. This will show how well the different units and managers will need to operate and how well they will work to attain these results and expectations. After that, the short-term staffing and development goals must be defined in a relatively clearer approach and method. This will mean identifying staffing targets that must be attained in each strategic business unit. And the target that each manager must attain and how it must be attained. This will lay the foundation for the development of metrics that will be used to measure staff performance and talent development. When this is done, the obligations and requirements of each of the managers to be employed will be stated clearly. This will define the talent management goals that will be entrusted to each class of managers and how they can be used and applied to attain optimum results and expectations. With that clearly defined, the next step will be to recruit the new members and identify what they actually need to do and implement the talent planning goals and targets. Recommendations for Improved Employee Brand. In line with the elements of talent management, I will make the following recommendations for the improvement of results and employee branding and human resource in generation in OXEN.org. They are as follows: 1. There must be a general reformation of the human resource management systems and structures of the company. OXEN.org will need to set up a human resource management system in the London office and set up human resource management units in the Manchester and New York offices who will stay in constant touch with the head office for information and report issues in the stations promptly. 2. Immediate issues and matters must be identified and they must form the basis for a strategic human resource planning system or method. To this end, the human resource management team will have to undertake a critical evaluation of the human resource management issues and find ways of evaluating the talent pools and the talent management systems. This way, they will set up a plan for restructuring the company and creating new and better methods of dealing with human resource problems and issues. 3. A staff-retention plan must be identified and this must be critiqued through the issues at hand like the unfair promotion structures, rigid work options amongst others. This should be factored into the talent analysis which should involve how to address the staff turnover and methods of improving staff satisfaction. 4. Critical evaluation of talent needs through the identification of crucial staffing matters and the long-term talent management needs and expectations. From there, there will be identification of staff costs of different units. After that, an assessment of the talent development possibilities will be identified and laid out in a clearly defined way and manner. 5. After the talent evaluation, the role of managers in the attainment of results in talent development must be clearly defined. This will mean the statement of the different jobs and expectations of the managers and their impacts on their respective units. 6. When the roles of managers and other suitable employees are found, there must be an advertisement of the different roles for the company. This will result in a recruitment drive that will bring in the most suitable and the most appropriately qualified persons. From there, selection will be done. 7. When managers are employed, they must be briefed on the talent management plan and their roles and metrics for evaluation must be given to them clearly. From there, recruitment will be done for respective positions and they must be given targets that they need to meet. The targets will be evaluated from time to time and the contribution of each unit and its ability to meet its talent management requirement will be evaluated from time to time. References Armstrong, M. (2012) Armstrongs Handbook of Performance Management London: Kogan Page. Aswathappa, A. K. (2012) Human Resource and Personnel Management Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill. Bechet, T. P. (2011) Strategic Staffing New York: AMACOM Publishing. Billsbery, J. (2011) Experiencing Recruitment and Selection London: Wiley Publishing. Clutterbuck, D. (2012) The Talent Wave: Why Succession Planning Fails and What to Do About it London: Kogan Page. Harzing, A. W. And Ruysseveldt, J. V. (2012) International Human Resource Management London: SAGE Publications. Hatum, A. (2009) Next Generation Talent Management London: Palgrave Macmillan. Schweyer, A. (2010) Talent Management Systems. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons Publishing. Shukla, R. (2012) Talent Management Delhi: Global India Publications. Read More