Job Design and Human Resource Planning - Coursework Example

Name: University: Instructor: Date: Assessment Item Two Introduction While business environment has continued to be a crucial base for all forms of organization, the HR function also has its own external and internal environment that makes associated issues exceedingly complex (Noe, Hollenbeck and Gerhart). As indicated by Genç (102), the HRM function has numerous organisational roles such as being a strategic partner in integrating HR and business strategies; strengthening as well as developing business processes and offering crucial human resource services; satisfying workers’ demands; and increasing efficiency and effectiveness in organisation through creation of change processes. Basically, an HR program operates in a multifaceted setting that has numerous elements both internally and externally, and so to as have a HR program that is effective, HR managers have to focus keenly on every facets of the external environment (Dowling, Festing and Engle 18). In the society, there are rapid changes taking place and this consequently impact the external environment wherein the organizations operate. As mentioned by Kennerley and Neely (214), changes in business environment bring challenges that need prompt solutions so that the HR program can be effective. Recently, there has been a decline in the number of middle-manager jobs, together with an increasing number of baby boomers seeking for such positions. Additional challenges like the immigrants’ influx, unemployment, the skills and education gap, changes in lifestyle for dual-career couples, the espousal of innovative technology, and all that have considerably impacted HRM. In this case, the essay critically examines and assesses how the present external business environment impacts upon job design, human resource planning as well as staffing. Discussion Job Design Job design according to Griffin and Moorhead (126) can be defined as the work arrangement process intended for overcoming or reducing dissatisfaction at job as well as alienation of employee attributed to mechanistic and repetitive tasks. Organizations through job design endeavor to improve levels of productivity through provision of non-monetary rewards like more satisfaction from an individual success in overcoming the challenge of one's work. In this case, job simplification, job rotation, job enrichment, as well as job enlargement are the numerous practices utilized in the job design exercise. There are numerous external business environment factors that have effect on job design; first is the economic factors. Normally, initiatives of job design are attributed to economic changes needed by the external business environment. As mentioned by Pisapia (9), external business environment changes can result in obsolesce of numerous services or products; so, introduction of new products, products modification, or altering the output or means of delivery in order to exploit a number of underlying opportunities can as well create the need for redesigning jobs. Besides that, the general wellbeing of the population may as well impact job design since organisation in areas that have hardworking and healthy populations may design jobs so as to make certain that the organisation gets maximum productivity or structuring working hours to introduce overtime. Contrary, companies situated in areas where the large percentage of the population is poor, like in third world cannot hope to achieve higher level of productivity and efficiency. Expectations in addition to social and cultural norms play an important role in job design. According to Härtel and Fujimoto (20), factors like religious and national holidays, rules on standard working hours as well as vacation in addition to other related factors may impact the design of jobs. For example, in Middle East countries Friday is officially a weekly holiday while in Western countries and America both Saturday and Sunday are considered resting days. In a number of cultures, bureaucratic divisions as well as designations of job roles indicates supremacy, while in other cultures, employees do any job as demanded by the situation. For example, for companies operation in a society with high stratification, top executives as well as managers are not expected to do minor jobs like preparing a coffee and other basic tasks, rather people are employed for such tasks. However, in flexible ad open societies, these designations are non-existent. As mentioned by Härtel and Fujimoto (21), failure to take into account the social norms as well as expectations may lead to social offense and dissatisfaction, resulting in levels of low motivation. Furthermore, disregarding sensibilities of the local people may create employees availability challenges. Nowadays, global economy changes impact economies at national level promptly, and this is attributed to world economies integration. Therefore, any slump in a nation such as U.S. that is exceedingly crucial to the world economy can effortlessly arouse similar conditions in other countries. So, when the world economy is in unstable terms, the bargain between firms as well as unions may be difficult. That is to say, negative economic developments such as global recession can lead to undesired circumstances, which as result affect the design of work. Global recession such as that in 2008, may lead to increase in unemployment rates, which consequently weakens the employees’ social status. For this reason, Kennerley and Neely (215) posit that positive international economy developments can result in high rates of exportation, which may consequently increase manufacturing leading to an increased proportion of employment. But economic crisis as evidenced in Turkey in 2001 leads to decrease in demand, and consequently decrease in manufacturing as well as employment. Human Resource Planning Human resource planning (HRP) as defined by Aswathappa (64) is the process of analytically predicting both the future supply of and demand for workers in addition to the their skills deployment pertaining to the organisational strategic objectives. Aswathappa (65) further states that, HRP is a process for identifying future and current organisational HR needs, in relation to the objectives as well as goals set by the management. HRP responds to the significance of business planning and strategy so as to make certain the supply and availability of human resources in both quality and number (Noe, Hollenbeck and Gerhart). Importantly, HRP serves as a connection between HRM as well as the overall organisational strategic plan. Akin to job design, HRP is also impacted by external business environment. Political factor heavily impact HRP. As pointed out by Caruth, Caruth and Pane (12), politics is crucial in deciding the amount of money available for funding, the amount of tax that need to be paid, the minimum rates of wage, and also the quantity and quality of employees accessible for hire. So, when the HR department is planning ahead, it must take into account the possible changes to budgets, markets, as well as accessibility of appropriate applicants due to the anticipated or recent political influences. If there is a looming general election, for instance, the HR department must comprehend the likely priorities of the new government with regard to businesses, industries and markets. Economic factors also impact HRP bearing in mind that the most immediate concern of HRP in most organizations is the amount of money available for training and equipment and salaries. Still, the external economics also affect HRP; for instance, the sales of the company’s products can be impacted in case of an economic downturn, since customers do not have much money for spending and so they will be more selective. This connotes that a number of industries, especially those creating non-essential services or luxury items will sell less during economic downturn and they may as a result, be forced to lay off a number of employees. So, developing economic factors into the HRP may assist in forecasting the number of workers the company may need in future. Besides that, a number of social factors can have an effect on organization’s HR planning, but the HR department must especially consider diversity and equalities. As suggested by Caruth, Caruth and Pane (13) organizations should exploit existing social group discrepancies, to build in means of uncovering innovative opportunities. For instance, for companies having large number of Hispanic people in contrast to other cultures in the community, they must seek ways of redressing the balance, and this can be achieve by holding a recruitment event or carrying out a survey of locals. Besides that, Technology impacts HRP since new technology creates the need for new skills. Therefore, organizations must at all times understand the training and proficiencies needs during HR planning. As mentioned by Caruth, Caruth and Pane (14), technological changes can reduce the need for labor, which may lead to lower level of employment. In consequence, qualified employees demand may increase, and as a result, increase the costs of training. Similarly, policies like those promoting early retirement may occur more dominantly, and consequently, increase social security spending. Simultaneously, developments in technology may make a number of workers functionless, particularly those who are valuable in old style or conventional manufacturing. As a result, a number of employees may become demotivated, all this must be considered during HR planning. Law on employment as part of the legal system considerably impacts HR planning, bearing in mind that it changes continually. Occasionally, there enough time to put policy changes into practice, given that the law takes long before it takes effect. For this reason, the HR managers should at all times be updated and subscribe to employment law specialist services for consultation purposes. Furthermore, changes in employment law have to be reflected in policy of the company and put into practices; therefore, the company may have to integrate an additional training need into its HRP. Staffing Staffing according to Bechet (88) is the selection and training of persons for certain job functions, as well as allocating them particular responsibilities. A number of external business environment factors also affect staffing. Competitive Factors; basically, competition is strictly a global issue that directly impact the number of personnel employed by the company. Global competition is affected by conditions such as include new product offerings, socio-political events, as well as competitors from developing economies. But, there are forecasting tools that have purposely been designed to help companies in managing global competition, and they include journalistic business reports, consulting firms, as well as trade associations. The above mentioned sources have the ability to offer information that can help the company exactly decide the number of employees it has hire so as to counterbalance competitive forces. Another factor affecting staffing is consumer demand; considering that organizations are in business so as to offer services or products that consumers need, then customer demand affects staffing since it dictates the amount of products that the company needs to produce. The levels of production then drive create the need for more staff, and this interrelated bond signifies an external factor that companies do not have adequate control over them so as to forecast accurately the organization’s staffing needs. Therefore, the most effective way of developing a perfect customer demand forecast is through development of an effective communication means with the company’s customer base. This can be achieved through sales follow-up, customer surveys as well as customer feedback. Another external business factor impacting staffing is governmental regulations; without a doubt every business is affected by an array of state, local, and federal laws as well as regulations. For instance, the law on minimum wage, insurance costs for workers compensation, and unemployment benefits are limiting factors for companies when performing staffing processes. Bigger corporations, especially MNCs such as Coca Cola and MacDonald have legal departments for keeping track of issues regarding to regulations, but SMEs can only survive with forecasting tools offered by state agencies or local office that focuses on unemployment. Other information sources concerning government laws and regulation come from trade unions and associations. Areas that Need Improvements While HR continues to be key competitive advantage in all industries, HRP function should continue plying a more strategic role. As suggested by Genç (102) HRM should go further than its function of administrative support to front line as well as operations departments. An effective HRP will obviously guarantee the company an n increased sales, market share, and revenues. Therefore, the HRP function should be equally decisive as the marketing strategy of the company. Furthermore, companies must understand that technology is changing not just HR roles, but also HRP, staffing and job design. As companies become knowledge-based, human resource performance indicators will change from man-hours as well as manpower supplied to brain hours and brainpower delivered. Furthermore, the main areas of HR management will change from quantity and production to quality and productivity, and all this will hugely impact staffing and HRP. What is more, competence, measured in terms of workers’ generated ideas as well as productivity achieved will become more crucial for HRP. For staffing and job design, strategic human resource will align criteria systems for performance with corporate strategies as well as goals instead of conventional performance concerns. Basically, strategic HR will impact job design and staffing because it appraises employees based on productivity, quality, and external and internal customer satisfaction. Basically, strategic HR intends to change employees’ attitude as well as behaviour by connecting directly their appraisal to something that actually inclined to customer satisfaction as well as corporate performance. Strategic HR is beneficial in HR planning because it puts less emphasis on ill-defined criteria such as attendance, neatness, employer satisfaction, as well as teamwork. Companies should understand that HR is no more a support function or backroom, rather it is steers corporate strategy, much similar to marketing and sales. HR determines and offers competitiveness, and so companies need must change their human resources’ focus from nuts and bolts administration in order to see HR as a function. In this case, employing the right people when needed through improved staffing processes, in addition to the ability to create stability amongst employees through enhanced HR planning can ultimately result in improved productivity. Besides that, companies must continuously search for HR staff with different abilities and skills so as to become successful in a strategic and dynamic HR world. Companies should not risk employing ‘administrators of programs’, who lack ability to strategically think. Conclusion In conclusion, it has been argued that technology universally impacts staffing, HRP, and job design. For instance, new technological tools such as software and mobile phones have forced companies to change their job descriptions as well as the manner they recruit, select as well as train new talent. Besides that, national economy changes indirectly or directly organisation’s HR functions. Therefore, must take it into consideration and come up with measures that will guarantee smooth operation of business functions. Technology has helped a number of companies to remain competitive, since they have espoused new recruitment technologies that help them finding recruit easily and quickly when needed. However, government regulations can affect staffing especially with regard to credentialing or licencing requirements that have made employee recruiting tougher. In this case, organisational policies have to support the existing employment laws on issues such as workplace harassment, affirmative action, equal opportunity on employment and employee benefits; this can be achieved through effective HR planning. As mentioned in the essay, companies are operating in a regulated environment where labour laws have to be followed to the letter. This as a result, impact the proportion of labour in the company’s operating budget and makes staffing exceeding expensive. Work Cited Aswathappa, K. Human Resource And Personnel Management. Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2005. Bechet, Thomas P. Strategic Staffing: A Comprehensive System for Effective Workforce Planning. New York City: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2008. Caruth, Donald L., Gail D. Caruth and Stephanie S. Pane. Staffing the Contemporary Organization: A Guide to Planning, Recruiting, and Selecting for Human Resource Professionals. 3rd. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2008. Dowling, Peter J., Marion Festing and Allen D. Engle. International Human Resource Management: Managing People in a Multinational Context. Andover, Hampshire: Cengage Learning EMEA, 2008. Genç, Kurtuluş Yılmaz. "Environmental Factors Affecting Human Resources Management Activities of Turkish Large Firms." International Journal of Business and Management 9.11 (2014): 102-122. Griffin, Ricky and Gregory Moorhead. Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. New York: Cengage Learning, 2013. Härtel, Charmine E.J. and Yuka Fujimoto. Human Resource Management. Sydney: Pearson Australia, 2014. Kennerley, Mike and Andy Neely. "Measuring performance in a changing business environment." International Journal of Operations & Production Management 23.2 (2003): 213-229. Noe, Raymond, et al. Human Resource Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2014. Pisapia, John. The Strategic Leader: New Tactics for a Globalizing World. Charlotte, North Carolina: IAP, 2009. Read More