What Are the Impacts of Increased Flexibility on the Workplace - Assignment Example

Answer six questions Is there any value in HR Planning? Justify your answer The work culture can be developed in a manner which suits the interests of the organization in the best form possible. For this to happen, it is necessary to understand that human resources department has got an immense role to play in the related equation. One must understand that we live in a global world where human resources has of late been instrumental at dramatically changing the way we perceive the way in which people think, act and feel on the job. The basic dogma on which the dot com companies work is to reach out to the greatest amount of people and make those people as their clients within a short duration of time. This would be on the expense of not being at concern related with the loss in the stock prices. The culture which was adopted by these companies was of get large or get lost in the whole frame of things. Only the technological basis makes the very same possible and a work culture of this regime is necessary to put things into perspective. (Taylor, 2005) Pertinent planning can help the human resources gain immensely and in accordance with its goals and objectives that had been planned and drafted but in the current times much more attention and emphasis is laid on whether these plans can actually deliver what was expected out of them in the first place. Thus management has the responsibility to plan, organize, lead and control the relevant resources that are present within the realms of the organizational contexts. The element of value in human resources planning is thus very significant to the eventual basis of any organization as it dictates the exact manner under which employees are hired, provided incentives and effectively fired from their jobs in order to curtail the costs and other pertinent factors under the able consideration of an organization. The value element is essential as it instills a belief that the company understands the people who work for the betterment of its processes, tasks and activities and thus it wants to reward them on a constant basis every now and then. Value can only be built if the employees feel that they are being looked after without the fear of losing their jobs due to illegitimate means. They must be ready to face accountability issues and be answerable to the human resources department at all times though. (Werling, 2005) 2. How could interviewing be made a more effective part of the selection process? Organizations have devised ways to effectively manage their incoming employees as well as form a proper agenda as to how they would feel at ease with the new environment that is going to be offered to them. This atmosphere will make them feel homely towards the office place as well as hold them in nice stead with the different employees who are already working within the domains of the organization. To this day, interviewing has remained as the cornerstone of achieving the best results envisaged when it comes to recruiting and selecting individuals best suited towards a particular job, task or duty. This is due to its very direct manner of putting the interviewer and the interviewee in close association with each other. They have an eye ball to eye ball connection where the interviewer easily gauges the amount of confidence that the interviewee possesses within him and how he copes up with the pressure of giving an interview as well. Interviewing has by far been one of the major success factors in recruiting and selection regimes in the modern day organizations. (Rothwell, 2005) The reason it is hailed as a success lies in its results. The interviewer gauges the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate in a very open and direct manner. He finds out whether or not a candidate will be able to live up to the expectations of his bosses, the organizational norms and routines as well as any other reservations that the company has from the beginning. At times it becomes crystal clear within interviews that the candidates are not able to come out properly in terms of their replies and hence the interviewer decides it instantly whether or not to hire such an individual. However what should be understood is the fact that interviewing asks an interviewee to be nervous and thus the interviewer should give him some leeway as per the results of the interview. It is significant to understand that interviews do deliver the goods when it is really needed. This is because the process has a very transparent and see-through ability of finding the good and the bad points related with the potential employees who are mere candidates on the other side of the table for the interviewing authority. Hiring qualified individuals is a pre-requisite for any organization in the time and age of today, more so when there is a dearth of talent within the industrial domains. To choose a capable employee is any organization’s dream come true and to make it happen, an organization must be ready to have change mechanism in place within its system. (Tyson & York, 2000) 3. Explain how employee turnover can be linked to the selection process? Employee turnover is defined as the ratio comparison basis of the exact number of employees that must be replaced in a specific period of time to the average of all the employees within an organization. Employee turnover is a significant yardstick for finding out whether or not the selection process is a success and hence it proves a point of the effectiveness involved with the recruitment and selection regimes. If the employees feel interested in a particular position within the organization, the employee turnover would be far greater and the decision to pick the right candidate would be a difficult one. However this is entirely different in the case of a vacant position upon which no candidates appear for selection at all. Employee turnover is a source of huge concern for most of the organization since it is a very costly affair. In the case of low paying jobs, this becomes even arduous and the cost factors go out of the window. (Yates, 2001) However for these low paying jobs, the employee turnover rate is the highest and hence the problems arise as a result of the same. Since it is a very costly basis of conducting a business, the organization takes a keen interest in this issue and gives a lot of its time towards these domains. The direct and indirect expenses come under the regimes of the employee turnover and thus these expenses seem to increase with each passing day. With these aspects in mind, the advertising costs, the headhunting expenditures, human resource department’s costs and productivity losses are also incurred by the organization. Add to that, the new hire training and customer retention are the other tangents that need to be worked upon in detail by any organization which is interested in finding out the exact details related with the employee turnover subject. The selection process is thus linked very strongly with this phenomenon and enough consideration should be placed on the subject in order to attain best results. (Mesch, 1990) Employee turnover in the form of benefits and incentives becomes a point of significance for the people applying within the reigns of the organization in the first place. 4. What are the impacts of increased flexibility on the workplace? Increased flexibility at the workplace works to the benefit of the employees and thus they give their best shot at becoming effective towards the working basis of the organization. They seek these flexibilities in order to relieve their mind and to work with renewed energy and passion. A workplace environment seems to gain a great deal of benefit if the employees are contented with their jobs and their respective roles are growing on a continuous basis. (Levine, 1995) Dull and mundane job roles would mean that their job foci are not clear and that they are not happy with the task assigned. Being flexible at work makes the employees feel cozy and comfortable with the way work is done yet it can have its downsides as well. The employees might start taking the organization and its flexibility issues in the wrong sense and thus this could go down the drain as well. They might just begin to take the company for granted and end up coming late and going leaving early from the office premises. The employees must be given the room to maneuver their ship but they must not be let free on the indiscipline tenet. Discipline will make them feel committed towards their jobs more than ever and thus they would start respecting the organizational regimes. (Cappelli, 1999) However workplace flexibility usually brings in the much needed commitment levels of the employees and they prefer not to switch to other jobs since they feel they are at home within such office place environments coming to their help. Thus the impacts are both positive as well as negative. Now it is the responsibility of the employees and the organization as to how they manage this relationship and decide for their own good whether or not this workplace flexibility is a helpful agent or a destructive activity. Work must reign supreme under all conditions and the organization needs to know this salient aspect before it plans to have serious flexibility regimes within the office environment. 5. What are the legal and ethical considerations within the recruitment process? The legal and ethical considerations within the recruitment process entail the manner under which candidates are selected and later on hired for respective openings within an organization. This means that the legal ramifications are strong in the event of any mishap to the employee or even his death on the job. All these important aspects need to be covered in the contract that is given to the employees when they get on board. They need to properly read the document, agree with and sign it for their own understanding and agreement. There must be a documentation regime in charge of such measures that are usually carried out by the human resources department of any organization and it must be made sure that no stone is left unturned in the event of any calamity or unfortunate event. Further, the ethical requirements that need to be met by the organizations involve their fair selection methods and transparency within such acts of hiring new individuals. (Vickers, 2005) This would mean that the people who are not hired be given the exact reason for the same and the ones who have been hired be given a training session to get acquainted with the norms and procedures of the office place. After this they could be offered a contract to which these employees have the right to sign or otherwise they could ask the management to relieve him of his services. Everything should be settled in a peaceful and amicable way so that there is absolutely no resentment at any side. (Rhode, 2005) The employees need to feel that the organization is not taking them for a ride at any time within the recruitment and selection process and also give them the legal cover in the form of different clauses within the contract or the appointment note. The employees need to feel that the organization is coming out clean and clear with them on all counts and there are absolutely no loopholes on which they can fall upon in the wake of any problem or issue. There needs to be a friendly attitude amongst all concerned and the legal and ethical considerations must always be kept under a check. 6. What do you see as the most important issue relating to the future of work and why? The future of work has a number of drastic issues that need to be settled at the earliest. This is because employees fear for these issue to crop up every now and then within their workplace philosophies. A couple of issues that will shape up the future of work include the privacy tenets as well as the falling motivation levels. There have been a number of problems for both men and women working in the office environments which have distracted the potential array of people with employment vacancies and ultimately their process of recruitment. Privacy for employees is something that holds immense importance since privacy is their own self to which they can relate best with. Nobody likes to mingle and share his views in the workplace and more so when this individual sees the peers and subordinates for a stretched time, the repulsion seems natural. Everyone likes to share his cozy attitude in a soft and settled way and this is understandable since privacy is central to one’s own self. (Mount Jr., 1990)The various rights of the employees within the workplace definitely include privacy as a major tenet within it since the top management knows that if the subordinates, middle management and the lower management is not at ease (in terms of mind and heart) at the workplace, then it is very much impossible to extract the best possible work out of them and this is for sure that the efficiency levels will drop as a result of the same. Employee motivation at workplace works to the advantage of the firm and the people at the helm of it since they know for sure that their employees would give in their best no matter how trying or tough the circumstances are. This means that they are assured of their commitment levels and the intensity of the hard work that they will put in, even under the most strenuous of routines. But this raises an interesting proposition, a stance which needs to be discussed by all and sundry. Over work can reduce employee motivation as well as add to the stress on the part of the employees’ physical and mental domains. What needs to be done is to gauge the exact amount of work that they can handle within a time period as well as give them enough incentives so that they remain loyal to the cause of the organization. If there is no privacy for the employees, they would not feel motivated to do their tasks and activities in an effective and efficient manner and it is ultimately the firm which will lose out on the productivity angle nonetheless. (Williams, 1992) All said and done, the employee privacy rights at the workplace are an issue that gets raised every time there is a problem within the office decorum. It is better to contemplate the causes beforehand rather than finding the cause of evil after some harm has been done. A proactive approach rather than a reactive one is the key to building strong employee relations at the workplace and not to forget the guaranteeing of privacy at all possible times. There has to be a concerted effort to counter the problems which might arise within the organizational set up. The future of work would be made secured if such issues are addressed on a consistent basis. Bibliography CAPPELLI, Peter. (1999). Employment Practices and Business Strategy. Oxford University Press LEVINE, David I. (1995). Reinventing the Workplace: How Business and Employees Can Both Win. Brookings Institution MESCH, Debra J. (1990). The Impact of Flexible Scheduling on Employee Attendance and Turnover. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 35 MOUNT Jr., Eric. (1990). Professional Ethics in Context: Institutions, Images and Empathy. Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky RHODE, Deborah. (2005). Profits and Professionalism. Fordham Urban Law Journal, Vol. 33 ROTHWELL, William J. (2005). Career Planning and Succession Management: Developing Your Organization’s Talent for Today and Tomorrow. Praeger TAYLOR, Stephen. (2005). People Resourcing. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 3rd Ed. TYSON, Shaun & YORK, Alfred. (2000). Essentials of HRM. Butterworth-Heinemann; 4th Edition VICKERS, Mark R. (2005). Business Ethics and the HR Role: Past, Present, and Future. Human Resource Planning, Vol. 28 WERLING, Steve. (2005). The HR Value Proposition. Human Resource Planning, Vol. 28 WILLIAMS, Gerald J. (1992). Ethics in Modern Management. Quorum Books, New York YATES, Jacquelyn. (2001). The Real World of Employee Ownership. Cornell University Press Word Count: 2,540 Read More