The Types of Staffing Arrangements Used in an IT Industry - Literature review Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Human resource and IT Management Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Human resource and IT management Introduction The technology is advancing at a very high rate with the efforts geared towards trying to make work easier by replacing manual work with the use of machines or increasing the effectiveness. Unlike human beings machines such as computers are faster. The Human resource personnel and management officers are using all means to staff and manage workers in the industries so as to survive the stiff competition in the market. The members recruited or hired through the chosen ways may have merits and demerits in the quality of the services that an industry offers. The report shows the types of staffing arrangements used in an IT industry and their advantages and disadvantages to the quality of services offered by an organization. The personnel concern with IT staffing should be keen so as to efficiently balance the act. The staff hired should not be too few to overburden them with responsibilities neither should they be too many to be a wastage of resources. They should regularly study the requirements of their staffing to ensure that they have the desired number with the best qualifications as well as checking the ratio of the demand of the industry and the supply. Before hiring new employees, the existing ones should be efficient and reproductive since more workers increases the expenses of the industry. The processes to be considered includes standardize processes, centralize administration, consolidate infrastructure and minimize customization. Vendors or contractors should be hired in case the industry needs a short term labour and hire them to be full time when the need arises. This is essential as a guarantee of permanently employing well skilled and expertise in relevant fields of IT such data collection and storage, disaster recovery, programming and networking (Bureau of National Affairs, 1992 p. 37). The types of staffing arrangements used in the IT industry definitions and processes used to implement Kangas (2003 p.192) argues that “models of staffing analytically identify how the time of an employee is used up in the workplace or improves the efficiency of the workforce of an industry”. A good model determines the skills or the capability of an employee hence the position which best suits him. The managers of an IT industry who are armed with information concerning the abilities and inabilities of the potential workers van be able to determine the best person for the identified post instead of hiring workers just to fill vacancies. There are many different types of models followed to staff in the IT industry depending on the nature of the field of concern and the nature of the employment. For example, if the staff is permanent, contractual or outsourcing; and the job rank of him, either the executive or supervisor and so on. Various fields in the IT industry are so specific and require personnel who are well armed with the skills concerning that field and also flexible to changes which are likely to occur. For instance, programming, database, networking and web designing are the most common areas of specialization in the IT industry which requires specified skills to operate. Kangas (2003 p89) advices that “before choosing the most favourable model, the management of the industry should analyse the overall performance to determine the nature of the employees that they can afford.” Temporary employment, although sometimes considered as the best in the IT industry due to its flexibility or changes in the skills, is the most expensive method of staffing. The terms of payment is not fixed and their demand is always high due to their advancement in the skills hence their services are never expired. They best fit in the low skilled jobs like the casual work since their loyalty is to the employer who can hire them and not to the performance of the entire organization or its long-term records and are very mobile from industry to industry hence only requires little skills to work in any field. According to Schniederjans & Schniederjans (2007 p. 276), they should be considered when there is need for more workforce within a given period of time for example, installation of computers or networking cables. They should work together with the internal workers who are aware of the objectives of the whole organization and under strict supervision of those in the management. Bureau of National Affairs (1994, 36) states that, “the other model of staffing is the recruitment of the project employees who work for duration of time taken to complete a project or an agreement and then they are disbanded or released to work on other projects”. There is little loyalty a part from that of professional relationship between supplier and customer since they are not permanent in the firm and their concern is only on the performance of the project they conduct and not that of the whole firm. For example, if they are creating and installing a program to run the management of the industry, they will only bother with the effectiveness of the program and not the image of the industry in the society. Khosrowpou (2000 p. 56) notes that “the only benefit that the industry enjoys from these programs is that they work very hard to complete the agreement and work in other industries and ensure that their work is perfect to create a room for another assignment”. For effective performance of the project employees is implemented by choosing the most qualified workers and letting them to be managed by the project internal manager who can be fully accountable for the project and has all the authority to manage it on behalf of the entire industry. For instance one who is left in charge of implementation of new programs has the authority to manage a project under the same field. Pasuraman, & Berry, (2004 p. 128). argues that, “the long term contract employees are close to internal workers in both commitments and cost as they are wholly involved in the long term success of the organization although their loyalty is entitled to their direct employers”. In an IT industry these employees can either be software or hardware technicians whose services are needed unless new ideas are invented needing technicians with similar skills for maintenance. The system of long term employees is implemented by considering ways of minimizing the tension of inter-personality. The internal workers should be assigned the duties in their relevant fields like web designing and then be given some contractors to assist them. Bénaud, & Bordeianu, (1998 p.127) argues that “the contractors should be given equal treatment as other internal workers and receive similar benefits like meeting allowances.” They can also be included in the process of making decisions for the entire organization. The internal workers of an organization are the permanent workers who are granted the opportunity to run the entire industry. These can be products vendors or those in charge of deliverables or services like the internet or other networks. According to Bureau of National Affairs. Inc. (2000, p 79), “the management personnel are ranked under this model since they are permanent and seen as motivators and role models to the others models as bears of the overall goal of the entire organization”. The human resource department is in charge of implementing the process of hiring these workers and motivating them for their services to be effective. This can be through providing a stable financial support and granting them training opportunities to gain more skills or keep them up dated. They carry the image of the entire organization to the society. Khosrowpour (2000 p. 981) states that, “to ensure that a qualified workforce is selected, the human resource manager should be keen on the skills of the potential workers and those required in the industry so as to determine whether they qualify to join the work force or not”. Analysis of the strengths and limitations of each model in regard to quality of service Each of the models used has strengths and weaknesses thus they are considered by some organizations and not others. The temporary employment is considered to be the best in most of the IT industries because of the often changes in the technology. So many programs are formulated and published nearly every single day and some of them are too complicated for the workers. Thus the industry prefers hiring the programmers to install and run them instead of keeping on training their workers on every new service in the market. Companies may use the flexible mode of staffing to access workers with special skills and the most effective in the market or cater for their desires for a short period of time. This helps the management to gauge the capabilities so as to determine their qualifications for the regular positions. Bergström & Storrie (2003 p. 89), argue that, “most of the newly formed industries in the today’s market are IT based due to the highly changing technology and the increasing demand of IT services like internet and programming which eases day to day activities including those under management of the industries”. These young industries prefer flexible staffing arrangements so as to save on the salaries of the workers and other benefits like pension, allowances and medical covers given to the regular workers. The temporary workers may not need training allowances to advance their skills since once their contract is over other the more skilled ones are hired. For the services of an IT industry to be effective in the changing technology it has to keep on updating them to fit in the recent interests of the society and keeping an eye on the changes taking place so as to implement them immediately. Bénaud & Bordeianu (1999, p. 48) states that, “the project employment program is the best to be considered because different philosophers are coming up with new techniques; it is not possible to regularly employ all these thinkers but can use the project employment”. This is whereby the workers are hired to install and run their program for a period of time then leave after they are through. This means that the IT industry gets high level services at a reduced cost. The long term contractual can receive benefits such as training so as to be able to do common jobs such as installation of devices like networking cables or programmes and repairing the IT devices like computers. According to Bénaud & Bordeianu (1999, p 54), “Although this mode of employment is very common in today’s market, it has some limitation both to the employer and the employees however; they are viewed from different perspective”. These workers are not part of the ownership of the industry since they work with it for only an identified period of time then they move to another one. Thus their aim is not to meet the long term goals of an industry but complete their project and leave, this means that the industry does not fully benefit from the workers. They also have to work under the influence and supervision of the internal workers. The part time workers are not entitled to the benefits that the regular ones enjoy, for example, profit or gain sharing, health insurance, payments on vocations and holidays or sick leaves. This means that a part from the fixed wages there are no other ways of motivating them or there are no job security because their working periods can easily be terminated. They also do not have the freedom to make any decision concerning the entire organization. They are not concern about the services that they offer but rather aim to complete the assigned duties. Regular workers have job security since they know that their employment is permanent. They also enjoy other employment benefits such as pensions or training allowances which are not accorded to other flexible workers. Permanent workers are also aware of the general goals and objectives of the entire industry and as its representatives they work hard to give the best thus offering services of the highest qualities. They also work very hard to be good role models to the flexible workers so as to motivate them work hard and give the best. Schniederjans & Schniederjans (2007 p. 304) argue that “it is due to stiff competition within the IT industries hence the need to produce the best services to be in position to survive”. The regular workers are so much attached to the identified industry and they have no time to acquire skills from other fields or the changing market skills. This is because they are recommended to specialise on one area and perform it to the best. In case the performance of this industry deteriorates they have low possibilities of securing jobs in other industries or may not enjoy gains in their salaries. They also agree to be associated with the industry in all status either in its down fall or success. Being in charge of making decisions concerning the activities of the organization means that the workers have to be wise to avoid mistakes which are likely to affect the performance of the industry. The relative merits of in-house verses contracted out service delivery According to Robbins (2009, p100), “IT industries are the most unstable in the market due to the changes in the services offered and emergence of various sources”. Outsourcing services are therefore introduced to reduce the costs or minimise the potential risks. Most of the providers of domestic IT services have formulated a landscape of the business; however, there are other major trends which change the style of outsourcing: emergence of contractors based offshores which are accessible through the internet and releasing the internal business processes. This ends up in the creation of the new capabilities of the services in the world. Outsourcing has benefits on the overall performance of the entire industry especially its ability to influence the scale of the suppliers and the systems. Labour is available at lower prices and higher quality services are provided since the management focuses on the centre business as it tries to be keen on the performance of the workers. Most of the managers find it difficult to choose what to outsource from a variety of the fields so as to capture more benefits and still avoid such risks as loss of strategic control. According to Plunkett (2008 p. 131) “it is difficult to manage so many strangers who are not part of the in house members”. The industry may have hopes of benefiting from the outsourcing process but their expectations fail to materialize. For example, the research survey of AMR shows that almost 80% of the outsourcing agreements did not meet the targets of the ROI. Outsourcing industries may also suffer service quality problems because most of the outsourced workforce might not have well developed skills to produce the best qualities or might not fully commit themselves for the long term success of the industry. The industry struggle hard to ensure that the services they offer comply with the regulations of the government and some of these activities may lead to risks like unexpected expenses. According Barta et al (1997 p. 67) “in the highly competing market, there is need to keep the information of an industry private and confidential”. This can only be achieved by reducing the process of outsourcing because while outsourcing the services of an industry such as payroll processing can lead to linkage of the confidential information to the opponents hence the organization is less secure. Sometimes conducting some activities like web designing is cheaper than outsourcing it. Some of the outsource providers may not be stable since they are not permanent employers of the organization hence if they move or have financial problems the business is forced to look for another provider or move its operations in-house a process which is very expensive. Plunkett (2008 p. 142) argues that, “Outsourcing affects the attitudes of the internal workers since it shows that the management fails to trust them so as to hire outside workers”. They may not like this idea hence develop some lack of interest in the quality of work that they do, if the organization relies only on the in-house operations the internal workers would work hard to give the best since they know they are only responsible for the general performance of the entire organization. Robbins (2009 p112) notes that, “outsourcing providers are not attached to a certain organization but caters for the interests of different companies thus they may lack fully devotion to one company”. It can therefore be noted that they just offer the assigned duties without minding about the value of the services meaning that there is no assurance of the overall success of the organization. The management lacks control of the outsourced processes hence they only rely on what the outsource provider gives. However most of the services offered by the outsource providers are of low quality but the in-house workers are not in a position to manage them. This also affects the relationship between the industry and the customers since the outsource providers do have the interpersonal relationship or do not carry out market research to know the interests of the identified customers. These and some other reasons like costs of renewing the contracts, poor and delayed services delivery means that in-house service delivery is better than the outsource process although it is cheaper. Conclusion There is high competition in the field of IT which has led to a large poll of workforce due to the increase in their demand. This has also come along with provision of different ways of hiring or employing these workers depending on the services that they offer to the organization. They may either be temporary and either short term or long term based or regular depending on the agreement with the management; however most of the IT industries prefer the contractual staffs. This is because of the reduced costs of hiring them and other benefits that the organization receives, the industry also considers the in-house process of delivering the services since it is at their exposure and under their management hence they are the ones to determine the value of services to offer and how to handle their customers. Bibliography Bénaud, C. & Bordeianu, S., 1998, Outsourcing library operations in academic libraries: an overview of issues and outcomes. Libraries Unlimited, West Virginia. Pasuraman, A. & Berry, L. L. (2004). Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Publishers. Bureau of National Affairs. Inc., 1992, Staffing and Scheduling Strategies. Personnel Policies Forum Survey No. 152, The Bureau of nationwide Affairs, Washington, DC. Robbins, S., 2009, Organisational behaviour: global and Southern African perspectives. Pearson South Africa, London. Khosrowpour, M., 2000, Challenges of information technology management in the 21st century: 2000 Information Resources Management Association International Conference, Idea Group Inc (IGI), Alaska, USA. Kangas K., 2003, Business strategies for information technology management. Group Inc (IGI), Alaska. Schniederjans, M. J. & Schniederjans A. M., 2007, Outsourcing management information systems. Idea Group Inc (IGI), Alaska. Plunkett, J. W., 2008, Plunkett's Outsourcing and Offshoring Industry Almanac 2009 (E-Book): Outsourcing and Offshoring Industry Market Research, Statistics, Trends and Leading Companies. Plunkett Research, Ltd., New York. Barta, B. Z. et al., 1997, Place of Information Technology in Management and Business, Springer, London. Read More