Labour Regulation in the 21st Century - Research Paper Example

Human Resource Management Strategies QUESTION Human Resource Planning Introduction Human resource department is a functional unit within an organization that is responsible for ensuring the organization has a competent workforce in the right numbers. The success of every organization is determined by the nature of its manpower in terms of quality and quantity (Farnham, 2010, p. 23). Human resource planning refers to the process through which an organization or a company seek to gather and quantify demand and supply of human resources in order to meet present and future needs of the organization. It focuses on the quality of workers such as qualifications, skills, personalities, attitude, etc. It is a continuous process of methodical design to achieve optimum use of organization’s human resources (Ree & French, 2010, p. 121). The aim of this study is to examine the implementation of human resource planning by the organizations. In order to achieve the organizational goals of labour requirements, the organization requires effective human resource planning. However, most of the organizations lack effective programmes on human resource planning to determine their recruitment and hiring practices. Therefore, human resource planning ensures the success of the organization by helping it to acquire the right labour force in the right numbers to match available jobs. However, some organizations fail to implement human resource planning for the following reasons; 2. Fluctuating demand of labour In order for the organization to have effective manpower planning, they must forecast the future demand for workforce. They can achieve this through trends analysis by studying the demand of some previous years and project the same in the future (Ree & French, 2010). However, the demand and supply of labour is affected by economic conditions such as recession and boom periods. Such unpredictable economic conditions affect the capacity of the organizations to conduct effective resource planning (Kew & Stredwick, 2010, p. 113). 0.3 Resource Constraints Organizations incur much expense to conduct human resource planning (Kew & Stredwick, 2010). This is because almost all personnel must be involved in making a projection in order to achieve the reliable result. However, considering most organizations are small in size they cannot afford the cost of carrying out market research to obtain data for effective market trend analysis and predict the future demand for workforce. Instead of matching present and future labour requirements of organization, they acquire workers whenever the need arises and will downsize the workforce in case of fall in demand due to changes in economic conditions or other factors (Ree & French, 2010). 4. Competence Personnel Prediction of workforce involves a lot data gathering and analysis. Some organizations may consider this as a waste of time for the personnel involved in data collection and analysis (Farnham, 2010, p. 211). Furthermore, due to the current nature of labour market workers prefer flexible working environment. Therefore, there is high rate of labour turnover making it hard for organizations to control their workforce. Consequently, most organizations do not care to plan for resources that they cannot control. 05. Conclusion Despites the importance of manpower planning most organizations do not have a properly designed human resource planning. Most organizations do not use HR planning widely because they make planning of manpower in a changing environment hence there is no certainty about the future. Also, flexibility of labour has resulted in high labour turnover hence making organizations lose control of their workforce. Furthermore, a small organization cannot afford the high cost involved in effective HR planning. The challenges of balancing present and future manpower requirements are complicated. Therefore, most organizations act on impulse depending on the prevailing conditions. QUESTION 2: The Employment Relationship 1. Introduction The flexibility of employment contract is an arrangement that has enabled organizations especially in the developed countries to meet the organizational labour requirements in a changing environment (Williams & Adam-Smith, 2010). It involves short-term or fixed-term contractual arrangement that enable employers to hire a fraction of the workers. It implies diversifying from working fixed number of hours in a day or week to variable working schedules such as flextime, zero hours, annualized hours or time accounts (Williams & Adam-Smith, 2010). In order for the organizations to achieve their objectives, they have to adjust the size of their labour force according to the market requirements (Davulis & Petrylaite, 2012, p. 34). This study focuses on how organizations control flexible employment relationship to achieve their objectives. The objective is to examine how organizations adjust their labour requirements to meet their objectives. For example, when demand for labour increase the organizations would have to increase the workforce while a decreased demand for labour require the organizations to downsize the workforce in order to achieve optimum workforce (Zeytinoglu, n.d). Although the flexibility of work has advantages for employers and the employees, the employers control most of the flexibility contracts in a number of ways as discussed in this document. 2. Adjust The Size Of Workforce The flexible employment agreement provides organizational with an opportunity to vary the size of the workforce rapidly depending on the shift of demand of the firm (Zeytinoglu, n.d). They can increase of decrease the number of workers depending on the changes in labour demand. For example, supermarkets and travel companies have successfully implemented flexible working contracts that have resulted to the prolonged opening time of the businesses to allow workers to take jobs during odd hours such as weekends and holidays (Williams & Adam-Smith, 2010). 3. Compensation Of Workers Is Based On Completed Work The flexible employment contract provides workers an opportunity to choose the most convenient time for working thus enabling them to achieve work-life balance (Zeytinoglu, n.d). However, workers are compensated for the time they have worked without requirements that the employees must complete a certain piece of work within specified time. In so doing employers, can control the flexibility of the agreement because workers have to respond to work whenever there is work in order to earn a living. 4. Short-Term Contract Agreements Employers form a contract with workers to cover the period they anticipate the high demand for the demand for labour in order to avoid a shortage of the workforce during peak seasons (Davulis & Petrylaite, 2012, p. 97). Through contract agreement, workers commit themselves to the service of the organizations in order to avoid consequences for the breach of contracts. Through such legal agreements employers can manipulate the labour to their advantage by establishing short-term contracts to cater for the periods of high labour demands in the organizations. 5. Conclusion The increasing demand for flexible working agreement gives managers opportunity to control the labour depending on the prevailing conditions. Organizations can adjust the size of labour force according to seasons and through contractual relationships with workers and bonus incentives. Through contract formation, employers can manipulate the available workforce to maximize their objectives. Furthermore, by paying workers according to a piece of work complete they can control the size of the workforce. Bibliography Davulis, T. & Petrylaite, D. 2012, Labour Regulation in the 21st Century: In Search of Flexibility and Security. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Pp. 1-350. Farnham, D. 2010, Human Resource Management in Context: Strategy, Insights and Solutions. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Pp. 1- 506. Kew, J. & Stredwick, J. 2010, Human Resource Management in a Business Context. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Pp. 1-481. Ree, G. & French, R. 2010, Leading, Managing and Developing People. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Pp. 1-322. Williams, S. & Adam-Smith, D. 2010, Contemporary Employment Relations: A Critical Introduction. Oxford University Press. P. 1 – 426. Zeytinoglu, I.U. ( Ed.) n.d, Flexibility in Workplaces: Effects on Workers, Work Environment and the Unions. Pp. 1-106. 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