Strengths of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services - Essay Example

? Organizational Design: Strengths of US Citizenship and Immigration Services: One of the strengthsof the organization lies on the number of its staff, and the strengths of their qualification. The USCIS has over 18000 employees working at over 250 stations all over the globe. The organization recruits most of its employees through a competitive process; as a result, this makes the organization to find suitable candidates for the various jobs that are on offer. The organization also manages to develop the skills of their employees through on job training and coaching sessions (About Us, 2013). Coaching sessions are always targeted on their senior employees and managers of various units. The organization has enough and sufficient resources for purposes of developing and training its employees. The organization is funded by user’s fees. The organization charges fees on various services it offers. Such fees include the visa processing fees, fees paid to access the various forms that the organization offers. For example, in 2008, the congress allocated 1% of the federal budget to fund the activities of USCIS. The remaining 99% emanated from the various fees charged to users. These financial resources help the organization to train its employees for purposes of imparting the necessary skills that the organization needs. The organization manages to clearly identify its mission statement, and core values to its employees. In communicating these messages, the organization uses their official websites, at the about us page. The organization values integrity, vigilance, respect and ingenuity. Employees of the organization have to work hard to satisfy these values (About Us, 2013). Weaknesses of US Citizenship and Immigration Services: One major weakness of the organization is that its employees are not trained on the capability to enforce the various immigration laws. The responsibility to enforce these laws lies on the federal and state security organs. For instance, immigration officials cannot arrest nor detain a suspected drug trafficker using falsified immigration documents at the border. All they have to do is to notify the police so an arrest can be made (Kretsedemas, 2012). Employees of the organization are also faced with too much work. This is because the employees have to verify and check on the profiles of numerous applications. The number of people applying for citizenship and visa always range to millions. There is a need for relevant technology to help in these areas (Kretsedemas, 2012). Linkages and Personnel Management: The organization has a presence on almost all the countries of the world. This is because of an interest by citizens of other countries to visit the States. This organization seconds its employees to the various embassies of the country, who in turn offer their services there. Due to their international presence, the organization normally trains its international employees on the various aspects of international relations. This knowledge is necessary because it will help them interact with the communities in which they are sent to work in (Eastman, 2012). On this basis, the organization will post its employees to work in positions that they have skills in. The best human resource management theory that explains this approach is the motivational theory. According to this theory, the management has to motivate its human resource personnel for purposes of achieving the best results. Providing education on international relations is an important way of motivating these staff. Personnel Recruitment and Hiring Practices: One of the major components of the organizations systems goals and practices is to identify and develop the necessary talent amongst its employees. Talent identification is a major goal of the various human resources policies of the company. This involves conducting performance appraisals for purposes of identifying top performers. The organization will either promote these people, or train them further for purposes of developing their skills. Another important goal for the human resources strategies involves creating a culture of innovation within the organization (Hayes, 2012). The organization encourages any innovative ideas from its employees, as this will result to the efficiency in which it offers its services to aliens. On this basis, the organization has a reward system in place to encourage innovative ideas, and their implementation. This reward system might include financing the idea, or promoting the innovator. Another important goal for the organization is to identify and recruit highly skilled personnel. It achieves this goal by initiating a competitive method of recruiting skilled employees. These employees are also trained by the organization for purposes of developing the skills under their possession. Employees Skills Training: The organization prefers to use on job training sessions and coaching seminars for purposes of developing their staff. For example, once an employee is recruited into the organization, he or she must work under the supervision of a senior employee for a period of time. It is the responsibility of the senior employee to orient the new employee on the organizations culture, objectives and values. He also helps the new employee to develop his skills in the area where he or she is employed. He does this by assigning the new employee various roles, but under his guidance (Truss and Mankin, 2012). The main strength of this type of an initiative is that it creates a positive working relationship amongst employees. It also helps in the identification of the other talents of the new employee; hence the management can create programs on how to use such a talent. However, the major weakness of this program is that it is time consuming. This trainings always takes months, and even years. The organization also has some coaching sessions, but this usually target senior employees of the organization. These coaching sessions are meant to impart administrative skills to the management, leading to efficiency in service delivery. The coaches identified are senior and successful entrepreneurs and managers in United States and all over the world. The main strength of this program is that managers are able to learn on different managerial techniques from different professionals. However, these trainings are always expensive, as the coaches usually demand a big sum of money to provide their services. Recruiting and Training Recommendation: The following are the recommendations for improving on the recruitment and training strategies of the business organization. Creating an immigration college for the sole purpose of training its employees on the necessary skills that the organization needs. Creating a partnership with academic institutions for the purposes of benefiting from their facilities and resources. These are for using in training of its staff, and developing talent. Developing a culture of efficiency amongst the employees of the organization by insisting on high work quality. These are judged through performance appraisals. References: About Us. (n.d.). Homepage. Retrieved October 31, 2013, from http://www.uscis.gov/about-us Eastman, C. L. (2012). Shaping the immigration debate: contending civil societies on the US- Mexico border. Boulder, Colo.: FirstForumPress. Hayes, P. J. (2012). The making of modern immigration: an encyclopedia of people and ideas. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. Kretsedemas, P. (2012). The immigration crucible: transforming race, nation, and the limits of the law. New York: Columbia University Press. Truss, C., & Mankin, D. (2012). Strategic human resource management. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More