Human Resources in Organizations - Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Human Resources in Organizations Institution: Date: Executive Summary Managing human resources is a key component in the effectiveness of any organization. It calls for measures that create a balance between satisfaction of employees and satisfaction of the organization that the employees are providing value to the organisation. To better suit workers, the provision for flexible working has to be introduced in organisations so that workers can work even when they have to meet other responsibilities that require their presence. Flexible working is capable of making huge benefits for the employers and the employees alike. By handling the issue properly and ensuring that both the employee and the employer have an understanding of their rights, flexible working will benefit them. This calls for setting up of the right policies that govern the procedure for flexible working. In this report, the concept of the ideal worker in accordance to the case study shall be discussed together with its shortcomings to the organization. Policies shall be proposed to ensure that there is sustainability in the organisation. The report concludes by indicating the benefits obtained from clear policies guiding the process of work flexibility, especially the concept of part time workers. The workers should have a fare treatment because they are also a productive part of the organisation. The organisation should embrace some of the policies proposed together with monitoring the productivity of the part time employees and continually reviewing their policies with time to accommodate the changing dynamism of work. Human Resources in Organisations Most organisations usually require that their workers be at their work place on full time basis to achieve high performance. This limits the opportunity for some workers who might be held up in other responsibilities. Such workers include women workers who have huge family responsibilities and are at times supposed to give in to maternity and the responsibility there after. For the organisation in case, part time workers are not given the same opportunities as their full time counter parts and the structure of the organisation does not favour their performance. The structure also favours male workers only. The report illustrates some of these issues as well as indicating some of the policies that can be used to address them. The aim of the report includes the following; To demonstrate that the organisation presented has a structure that does not favour the part time structure of flexible working. To propose some of the policies that should be changed and those that should be introduced to address the issues faced by the organisation. Scope wise, the report covers the concept of the ideal worker with respect to the organisation presented. In addition, it looks into some of the problems that are associated with the issue of the “ideal” worker. These problems are stated with respect to how the organisation and the worker are affected. Finally, the report proposes some policies that need to be changed and some that need to be introduced to address the problems of part time workers. From the case study, the ideal worker is stated to be the worker who is available and does the work on a full time basis. This includes working overtime and for long hours. Under this case, the ideal worker is assumed to have some partner back at home who carries out the responsibilities at home including handling any family commitments. For the case of operational areas, the ideal worker is biased to the male worker who is the sole bread winner of his family and this notion emerges because of the belief that such a worker is reliable because of his family responsibilities. For the case of the white collar areas, the ideal worker is not biased to either male or female, but the person has to be somebody who is a go-getter and has a “can do” attitude. The person should have the ability to work for long hours. This notion was backed by one manager who purported that face time for an ideal worker is very important. From this notion, the ideal worker is presented as someone who commits their full time responsibility to working at the expense of other responsibilities since they have someone else covering for them on their other responsibilities. For instance, they are purported to have partners carrying out other family responsibilities. By having their partners doing the other works, the workers will commit most of their time to the organization. Male are preferred for the plant collar jobs because they are not easily tied down to family commitments when compared to their female counterparts. For the white collar jobs, there is no gender bias and this could be attributed to the fact the job requires someone with that extra ability to carry it out, regardless of their gender (Gichera, 2009). This notion does not in any way favour the running of the organization. In a study by Aja-Mursula et al (2006), long working hours were reported to aggravate high levels of sickness to the workers. During the sickness, the workers had to be absent from work and this reduced the number of active workers in an organization. In the long run, this reduces the productivity of the organization since some of the important workers would be away due to sickness. In addition, working for long hours is heavily associated to male dominance. This leads to biasness in employment as majority of the employees will have to be male workers. As a result, the abilities of female workers are not utilised in the organizations since they will either not be employed by the organizations, or they will be neglected in assignment of some duties. It also limits the effectiveness of the organization in terms of its overall ability to utilise talent. According to Simpson (2005), working for long hours led to presenteeism, where people work beyond the required time, and this limited the ability of women to work in such organizations since they had to find a balance between work and family. In extreme cases, there was competitive presenteeism where managers competed to determine who stayed longer at work. This is a not a good sign for the organization. Long working hours have according to DTI (2006), been associated with high levels of fatigue among workers. This is reported to greatly affect their performance and this trickles down to the performance of the organization. Besides, Caruso (2006) suggests that the high levels of fatigue may at times lead to occurrences of accidents and incidents at the places of work. In addition, employees find difficulties in establishing a work-life balance. By finding their work consuming most of their time, employees are less motivated at work since their life is not balanced compared to their work. Low employee motivation has been associated with low levels of performance. This means that the organization’s performance will also be affected by the low performance of their employees. From the case study, various policies on part time need to be changed. The change should be based on some of the findings from the case study which indicate the need for change. These findings include the biasness that part time workers face. For instance, women returning from maternity leave have to take up a less position than they had before if they are to maintain their family and for them to rescue their position; they are forced to sacrifice a major part of their time with their families, much against their wish. In addition, part time jobs are at times not really part time in terms of the amount of work and pay received. This is because of the amount of work load that they have to face during their part time work. Furthermore, people working on part time basis are not given the same access to information as those working fulltime and neither are they given the same support as their fulltime counterparts. Another related issue to the part time concept is that most part timers do not really value development of their careers. On the contrary, they take up the part time job for convenient reasons, for the good of their family as well as their job. The part time policies therefore have to be changed or improved to ensure that the organization as well as workers benefit. In other cases, new policies will have to be introduced. A flexible work pattern is essential for all organizations and for this reason, the organisation should have a flexible departure or arrival time for the part time workers. This is because employees may be faced by some emergencies and this calls for the allowance to handle these emergencies when they come up. From a report by Catalyst (2005) on member contribution towards flexible departure or arrival time, 82 % of the respondents were for the idea. In addition, the maximum number of hours that employees can work on part time should be stated. This will give the employees a target while working and it ensures that the employees maximize the time they are at work. Due to the resistance by some managers to part time, it should be made clear to them that part time is part of flexibility at work and it should be embraced by the managers. The managers should also be given guidelines in planning for the part time workers so that there is no workload to both the full time workers while the part timers are away and to the part timers when they get back to work. This will address the confusion that arises after women come from their maternity leaves. By ensuring that there is formalised process for these workers, the organization will not waste time in finding out what should be done. Rather, the workers and the managers will have the guidelines given to them so they will just have to follow the set procedures. Policies on part time pay have to be reviewed. To begin with, the pay for part timers have to be made based on factors such as the position held, their skills, experience, abilities and their education (HR Related policies and Procedures, 2012). This is because there is need to address the fact that employees on part time get less pay as compared to the amount of work they do. By paying part time workers based on their abilities and their work, they get motivated in their work. They also get challenged to sacrifice more time for the work. On matters concerning development, training and opportunities for promotion, all the workers should have the right to access this information. The workers should all be considered for these privileges and their managers should support all the workers alike when it comes to the issue. This is due to the fact that some part time workers have complained of the lack of support given to them by their managers when it comes to promotion, training and development. They have also complained of the lack of access to this information. In addition to this, the part time employees should also be given benefits while at work. The organization should ensure that no employee is discriminated against because of their family status, responsibility or their age (Lu et al, 2008). For an employee to shift to the flexible working plan, he/ she has to fill an application form. In the form, the employee has to agree to certain terms and conditions that will be related to the new mode of working. These include issues such as their new pay and the expectations of the organization from them after they join the new system of work. For instance, the female workers have to agree that they will accept the new position that they will be offered so that they do not feel hard done by. This protects the organization from the negative image that the employee was forced to take up a certain position or to accept a pay cut. In this arrangement, a provision shall be made to cater for the event that the employee feels they can take back their older position. In this arrangement, they can be allowed to take back their position when they feel they have accomplished their other commitments. In conclusion, it is important to note that part time workers are important to any organisation. An organisation that provides for part time working will have employees that are free to handle their issues as well as their work. It is therefore imperative that organisations set up mechanisms that will provide a comfortable part time work schedule and its corresponding recompense. In addition, policies should be laid to ensure that part time workers are protected and they are comfortable to work. By doing so, the workers will be motivated and this will reflect on their performance. It is recommended that the organisation should review their policies on part time workers so as to ensure they also have a comfortable time at work and to avoid discriminating them. The organisation should also provide the workers with opportunities to choose to take back their older positions once they are done with their responsibilities. In addition, the idea of the ideal worker should be changed to mean a worker who performs his or her duties as required and meets or goes beyond the expectations. Bibliography Aja-Mursula, et al. 2006, Long hours in paid and domestic work and subsequent sickness absence: does control over daily working hours matter, Occupational & Environmental Medicine Vol. 63 Issue 9, p. 608. Carmen, B 2010, Structuring the flexible and feminized labor market: Global gap standards for agricultural labor in Chile, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Caruso, C 2006, Possible Broad Impacts of Long Work Hours, Industrial Health Journal, Vol 44, 531–536. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 2006, Managing Change: Practical Ways to Reduce Long Hours and Reform Working Practices, Longhorn Publishers, UK. Gicheva Dora, 2009, Working Long Hours and Career Wage Growth, Yale University Press, Yale. HR Related policies and Procedures, 2012, Part-Time Employment, Ferris state University, Ferris. Williams Audrey, 2005, Flexible Working: Latest Best Practice for Employers and Employees: A Specially Commissioned Report, Thorogood, NY. Lu et al, 2008, Work/family demands, work flexibility, work/family conflict, and their consequences at work: A national probability sample in Taiwan, International Journal of Stress Management, Vol 15(1), 1-21. Simpson Ruth, 2005, Presenteeism, Power and Organizational Change: Long Hours as a Career Barrier and the Impact on the Working Lives of Women Managers, British Journal of Management, Vol. 9: 37-50. Read More