Trends in the Workplace - Term Paper Example

Trends in the Workplace Functional areas of Human Resources Management The field of human resource management incorporates numerous functional areas. Human resource professionals, therefore, work to improve these functional areas in the workplace. They include employee relations, staffing, safety, total rewards, and employee development (Holley et al. 2012). Staffing seeks to provide adequate supply of highly qualified people to fill job vacancies in organizations. In addition, staffing helps in defining the needs of the employees, screening interviewees, and recruiting applicants. Other functions of staffing include creating job postings, tracking flow numbers of candidates, determining when and where to advertize open positions, carrying out interviews, and controlling and interpreting skill evaluation. Total rewards refer to compensation done in the form of benefits and pay incentives, which are aimed at rewarding employees for accomplishing their individual tasks (Holley et al. 2012). This function enables an organization to attract, retain, and motivate employees. An organization can gain competitive advantage through the utilization of a comprehensive strategy of rewards such as benefits, compensation, work-life, recognition, and career opportunities. In the healthcare sector, for instance, as the cost of healthcare is increasingly on the rise, organizations may use benefits like healthcare packages in attracting and retaining employees. An employee relation is a functional area that is used by human resource professionals to create a good relationship between employees and managers (Holley et al. 2012). This tool seeks to avoid unlawful issues and sufficiently addresses the employee-employer rights. It focuses on sustaining mutual relationships between an organization and associates of the organization’s workforce. As a tool, employee relations discuss the importance of formulating, communicating, and appraising human resource policies to update both employees and managers in an organization. Every organization has to provide its employees a safe working environment. This function guarantees that the organization in question abides by the requirements of health and occupational safety act, and any other significant tasks related to security (Holley et al. 2012). It encompasses fundamental functions such as creating and implementing security policies, as well as procedures, carrying out audits, supervising safety meetings and teachings. It also focuses on addressing occupational illnesses and injuries and dealing with requirements of accident reporting. Employees who operate in a healthy and safe environment are much more likely to be highly productive (Holley et al. 2012). Therefore, safety entails protecting workers from work-related injuries and accidents. On the other hand, health activities seek to thwart illness and ensure general mental and physical well-being. Federal equal employment opportunity laws Organizations use equal employment opportunity to ensure that they offer a fair and equitable chance of employment irrespective of sex, national origin, age, or race (Berg, 1964). Equal employment opportunity covers a range of laws that all organizations are expected to follow. The 1963 equal pay act protects women and men who work in the same organization and carry out considerably similar work, from wage discrimination based on sex (Berg, 1964). It requires such men and women to receive same or equal pay. The 1967 age discrimination act protects employees who have attained the age of forty years and above (Berg, 1964). It, therefore, forbids age discrimination within the workplace. The 1964 Title VII civil right act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of color, sex, race, religion, or national origin. The1990 Title V and Title I of the disabilities act forbid employment discrimination against qualified persons with disabilities in local governments, private sectors, and in the state. These equal employment opportunities laws are very evident in the Aviation Brigade where I used to work. In this organization, the human resource professionals ensure that each and every federal employee is aware of all the laws, regulations and policies that are governed by equal employment opportunities laws upon being employed. All the employees are issued with an employee handbook, which has all the requirements outlined in them. This acts as a quick guide. These employees sign statements as proof that they have read and understood the equal employment opportunity laws. They are hence made to understand their pay category, equal pay act. They also receive a policy of age discrimination. For this particular organization, the federal workers are composed of employees of age ranging from 25 to 80, who are capable of carrying out the tasks. In addition, lectures are offered regarding the civil rights act. The union instructs the teachings to ensure that each and every employee is treated fairly besides being employed on the basis of his or her knowledge and skills. These strategies ensure that the diverse workforce provide an inclusive atmosphere that increases not only individual performance but also organizational performance. Trends affecting organizations today With the changes in technology, skill deficiencies among the workforce increase (O'Toole, 2006). Skill deficiencies bring about severe losses in the group. These losses occur in terms of low productivity due to poor quality work. Also, it causes an increase in customer complaints and employee accidents. This is because the increasing number of jobs will necessitate more education as well as higher levels of skills. In the Aviation Brigade, the workplace is changing due to skill deficiency (O'Toole, 2006). For this reason, there is a need to keep the skill sets at pace with the expectations of the Institute. For instance, the employees have to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and understanding of the values that the organization deems necessary. Aviation Bridge workers have had to review their instructional methods by incorporating electronic manuals, distance learning, and interactive multimedia. With more students presently learning from their homes before they come to the organization, the teachers learn how apply the use of various tools to help them achieve their goals. In the past decades, human resource management was significantly simpler since the workforce was extremely homogenous. Presently, workforce consists of individuals of different age, sex, social classes, religion, ethnicity, gender, values, education, physical appearance, language, personality, and lifestyle (O'Toole, 2006). Diversity is closely linked to the strategic direction of an organization. Where diversity thrives, there may be probable benefits from increased creativity and innovation as well as informed decision-making. These can increase the competitiveness of an organization. However, diversity in modern organizations has negatively affected such organizations. The differences in ethnicity, races, language and gender can pose challenges of adapting to the organizational practices and activities (O'Toole, 2006). Diversity within the Aviation Brigade is equally growing with the expansion of the organization to offer global education to countries such as Taiwan, Mexico, Korea, and Sweden (O'Toole, 2006). Therefore, the instructors have to adapt to gender, racial and ethnic terms. In order to realize this, the organization has employed instructors from these nationalities to enable other people in the organization apprehend the ethnic and cultural background of those states. The aging workforce is yet another significant trend that affects organizations. According to the department of labor statistics, the workforce generation of individuals of 55 years and above, is anticipated to form the greatest fraction of the workforce compared to the past (O'Toole, 2006). From 1992 to date, the labor force population for individuals aged 55 years and above has progressively increased. This population is still being projected to increase in the future (O'Toole, 2006). The implication of this increase to the military organization, as well as the Aviation Brigade, is that both older and younger airmen, soldiers, and marines, retire and hence join the federal labor force. As this past generation retires and joins this workforce, the majority of them would require retraining. As this occurs, employers need to be cognizant of the fact that they are expected to reduce the legal, accidental, and financial problems that arise with employing older employees who are vulnerable to disabilities compared to younger employees. Workplace flexibility Workplace flexibility can be said to be a strategy that is helpful to employers as well as to employees. It encompasses the question as to how, where, and when work is completed (Noe et al. 2014). In big manufacturing corporations, flexible work programs are presented as first, second, and third shift work. This provides employees with the option of choosing the duty period that they would wish to work, the tools and equipment would use to perform a particular task, and the department to which they are hired. Employers are searching for ways of valuing their workers by providing them with the option of carrying out their tasks from home or choosing the days as well as the number of hours they would wish to work. In addition, workplace flexibility includes alternative work schedules, which are alternative staffing methods other than the classical employment of full-time employees (Noe et al. 2014). The organization employs temporary workers, independent contractors, as well as establishment contractors who help fill the other work arrangements. These options make use of caution. The Aviation Brigade makes use of alternative work schedules and flexible work arrangements. With these alternative methods, this organization has integrated company contractors that help in handling its knowledge management, as well as internet infrastructure. This in turn, has improved output and efficiency in the Institute by freeing up tutors to train students. Even though some instructors have extra duties, this liberates them to focus on those tasks hence receiving a higher rating on their assessments. In addition, Aviation Brigade employs flexible work schedules. These schedules are, however, not given to all workers. Instead, they are only given to those workers who failed to interact with students. The organization targeted base closing and the creation of joint basis turn out to be the norm. Later, government administrators were told to make a flex schedule to remove overcrowding at the entry gates. Also, Aviation Brigade workers have the opportunity to pick along with their supervisors, the days they would wish to come to work. Aviation Brigade acknowledges the importance of using flexible work program and integrates the work schedules into its flexible work policy. References Berg, R. K. (1964). Equal employment opportunity under the civil rights act of 1964. Brook. L. Rev., 31, 62. Holley, W., Jennings, K., Wolters, R., Mathis, R., & Jackson, J. (2012). Employment and labor relations (2nd ed.). Mason, Ohio: Cengage. Noe, R., Hollenbeck, j., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. (2014). Fundamentals of human resource management (5th ed.). Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill O'Toole, J. (2006). The new American workplace. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Read More