Human Resource Employee Policy - Assignment Example

Human Resource Employee Policy Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Introduction Human resource policy focuses on identifying and forecasting current and future workforce requirement in an organization ensuring availability of essential number of the workforce, with sufficient knowledge and skills required to perform different duties. It is a dynamic policy involving scrutiny of the overall workforce characteristics, and linking the identified workforce composition to organizational goals. It also involves prediction of future workforce requirements and making plans on how to obtain the requisite future human resources to achieve organizational goals (Helms & Nixon 2010, pp. 215-251). In analysing the vitality of Human resource policy, this paper will focus on policy strategies from The Department of Culture and the Arts' (DCA) through an interview conducted on Aloysius Toh, a Workforce analyst at The DCA. According to Aloysius Toh DCA has over nine hundred employees working in branches such as The Western Australian library, The Perth Theater, Trust, The State Library of Western Australia, The State Records office The Art gallery of Western Australia Demographics   Out of over nine hundreds DCA workforce, sixty percent are over fifty years old, those aged between twenty-five and fifty years account for only eighteen percent, whereas workers under twenty-five years account for less than four percent of the workforce. Eighty percent of librarians and library officers are female, who also account for sixty five percent of the executive. In addition, two percent of DCA workforce has disabilities and two percent are aboriginals. This diversity brings in different organizational differences, increases workers creativity including provision of different problem solving criteria. Strategy to Enhance the Culture of DCA The DCA, supports cultural and arts sectors thereby providing exceptional and transformational experiences which assists in improving the lives of Western Australians. In addition, the DCA provides articulate leadership in improving the delivery of Arts and cultural policies, on-behalf of Western Australian Government. The DCA has over nine hundred workers across different Arts and Cultural portfolios working hand in hand to see to it that the organization goals are met. The DCA aims at creating a public value in Australian’s workforce thereby, developing an impartial and varied workforce that, to the greatest level, roughly represent different Australians intellectual stimulations, cultural richness as well as artistic inspirations. The department also supports participation and enrolment of physically challenged people in the management positions to encompass different aspects of Western Australian diversities. Strategy on Work Force Planning Human resource planning is the process of identifying current and future workforce requirement in an organization ensuring availability of essential number of the workforce, with sufficient knowledge and skills required to perform different duties. Sufficient work force with ample knowledge skills and expertise are essential to any organization, hence the need to institute workforce planning (Jung & Lee 2012, pp. 1-29). Workforce planning is made possible by the workforce analysts who play a vital role in determining the current and future man-power need in an institution. Workforce planning has five distinct processes, starting with environmental scan, a planning procedure aimed at identifying facts surrounding the work place, profiling current workforce, which entails detailing demand and supply. These are followed by future workforce view, that encompasses planning and working towards future workforce requirements given the circumstances identified in environmental scan process. The fourth procedure involves analysing the targeted future workforce, through qualitative and quantitative analysis of the internal and external factors affecting workforce planning. The last procedure in workforce planning is closing gaps which entails eight key areas, among them, resourcing, training and development of existing workforce, recruitment, retention, knowledge management, industrial relations, recruitment and remunerations (Yvonne 2011, p.85). SWOT Analysis Strategy  To analyse personnel requirements, Aloysius Toh, uses management tools such as environmental analysis, Strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis, to get the current business stability, predict the case scenarios. Other tools used include demographics and statistics to study, analyse and predict current and future workforce requirements to meet daily organisational objectives, Environmental analysis which includes scrutiny of organisational internal and external environment, as well as scenario analysis. All these are used in developing human resource employee policy to facilitate smooth work flow so as to achieve organisational goals. In predicting personnel requirements, analysts aim at attaining best achievable case scenarios and therefore advice human resource manager on the number, skills and knowledge that incoming employees should possess. Strategy on Internal Factors In conducting workforce analysis, Aloysius Toh, incorporates internal factors such as the general organisational structure, staff remuneration budgets, as well as the external factors such as general training of potential workforce, source of organisational funds, government policies, and environmental factors. According to Ruchi (2012, p.119), internal factors affecting the workforce include the financial budget, remuneration, current labour supply, number, knowledge and skills of the existing workforce as well as organisational structure. External factors affecting workforce planning are those occurrences outside the organisation but that greatly influence the organisations workforce. These factors include social cultural factors, economical, political and legislative factors, demographical and technological factors, information sources as well as the organisation’s competitors. Aloysius Toh, has a streamline plan of how the workforce should function. The plan assists developing different skills and leadership qualities in the organisation at different times and levels to achieve organisational goals. Development of workforce knowledge and skills is attained through knowledge management and communication, whereby the top level management interact with other workers, during mentorship programs and in the process imparting knowledge and skills perceived to be crucial for the success of the organization.. This is based on the future organisational goals rather than workforce planning goals, and as such, the workforce training is aimed at attaining organisational goals rather than workforce planning goals. According to Suzanne & Michael (2013, pp. 272-285) workforce training is a vital strategy in attaining organisational goals. Training may be on-the-job or off-the-job and is more valuable only if it helps in attaining set objectives, therefore it should be frequently evaluated to conform to the set objectives. Workforce planners should adopt both qualitative and quantitative methods of forecasting future workforce requirement. Qualitative strategies include skill inventory such as use of clear defined organisational objectives and regular monitoring of workforce performance; replacement charts which clearly profile workforce details showing their likely replacement periods as well as succession planning that aims at filling created vacancies ensuring continued performance. Quantitative methods include turnover analysis that accurately predict future demand for labour and Markov analysis matrix which shows probability of workforce moving to alternative employers thereby planning on replacement (Pornsalum et al 2007, pp. 525-553). The DCA adopts both qualitative and quantitative strategies to predict the exact number of employees needed hence enabling him meet workforce demand in the organisation. According to Aloysius Toh, the DCA has an elaborate strategic short-term plan for its workforce along with strategies to achieve the set goals. These include, occupational and health strategies, recruitment diversity strategies among others. One of the long-term strategies adopted by the DCA is meant to pass and retain knowledge, skills and abilities of potential retirees onto new workforce. DCA has in recent past implemented a system to allow employees enlighten the managers about their developmental needs, which helps in improving workers’ morale thereby increasing their productivity and organisational development. Setting clear workforce planning goals is critical in enhancing organisational performance since the HR management is sure of the employee number, skills and abilities required to achieve the set goals (Kanter 1983, pp. 9-21). According to Aloysius Toh, the DCA has an informal succession plan for key positions. They adopt an informal plan whereby, an employee is promoted to a vacancy after it is rendered vacant only when the HR management is convinced that the individual has adequate knowledge and skills to assume that position. Failure to have an intricate succession plan, the DCA faces potential challenges of not getting sufficiently qualified staff to replace some of the most trained and qualified staff either in WUA art gallery or the WUA museum. This is compounded even more by the fact that the staff members are highly specialized meaning it would take time to train or get a suitable candidate to fill a vacancy. Any abrupt departure of the specialised staff would negatively affect DCA’s resources. Aloysius Toh, is of the view that DCA has to invest in new technology due to the increased advancement and use of technology in recent years. The technology progress advancement has increased use of online services, iPods and computers, hence the need to invest and training current workforce to keep abreast with changes. Conversely, the increasing technological advancement will render conservatives outmoded since their skills are structured and fixed. They will be required to completely change and improve their skills to remain relevant in future job market. The DCA has created a replacement chart to identify key organisational roles, the level of importance attached and the ease of replacing that skill hence strategizing on replacement methods. DCA monitors the workforce planning process after every six months based on set plans. This assists in identifying unproductive working strategies and rectification process. In addition, the strategic risks are regularly reviewed to know DCA overall performance. An elaborate succession plan needs to be implemented to ensure that existing employees will fulfil organisational goals after retirement of aged employees. An elaborate succession planning assists in internal and/or external identification of appropriate replacements. This is achieved through training and developing other workers or recruiting already trained workforce to assume vacant responsibilities. Succession planning must be elaborate to avoid organisational gaps and losses after retirement or departure of skilled employees (Jung & Lee 2012, pp. 1-29). According to Aloysius Toh, the DCA sends workforce to different training courses to acquire different skills requisite in it operations. In addition, the DCA has the informal training program where the managers train other staff members on required skill, conversely, though informally, the DCA provides inexperienced workers with skilful mentors who work them through challenges in their work. In workforce planning, the DCA has a short-term workforce replacement programme but basically adopts a long-term workforce planning program by making ties to universities and colleges in preparation for future organisational needs. The DCA does not use HR forecasting methods of determining exactly the number of employees required in future dates but rather gets employees after vacancies arise. Their short-term workforce plan is in many cases changed to conform to current organisational needs. Potential Risks Management- in- Crisis DCA has a policy of open communication method, it entails passing of knowledge and skills to new generation through mentorship and management training programs. This method may be ineffective compared to closed skill training methods especially with the inaccessibility of top-level or training management. In addition, the DCA adopts short-term human resource planning rather than pursuing long run organisational goals. This short-term management planning strategy is referred to as management- in- crisis and may catch the HRM unaware hence employee unavailability or lack of requisite skills. Unavailability of experienced and well trained workforce due to short term workforce training may hinder attainment of organisational strategic goals (Helms & Nixon 2010, pp. 215-251). Workforce Retention Being in a highly specialised industry, DCA faces a great challenge in getting sufficiently trained and skilled workforce. The high workforce retention rate of DCA due to the limited choice of the skills acquired ensures low distribution of skills acquired at DCA hence the problem of insufficient trained potential workers. In Western Australia, the only other lucrative employment choice for artistic skills is DCA. According to, Elbanna (2008, pp. 779-796) training and workforce retention are among the best methods of reducing workforce gaps. This is because, retained workforce maintains their positions hence no gaps created in the workforce, whereas, training imparts knowledge and skills to other workers ensuring smooth transition and avoiding employee transitional gaps. Risks Related to Technology Due to technological advancement, the DCA workforce has to embrace current technology whereby all employees will be required to know how to use current technology such as use of ipads. This may negatively affect the DCA since it has higher percentage of aged workforce constituting more than sixty percent of the workforce. Ageing workforce requires more training to adopt new technology as compared to the younger workforce. Labour Market Demands The high specialisation in the DCA requiring extensive expertise may make it difficult to employ more workforces from the labour market once the old generation retire. This is because the labour market may fail to supply the requisite knowledge and skills. In addition, the global market may not supply sufficient workforce due to the high specialisation in DCA. The DCA offers low salaries to low-level employees such as the framers, a practice that may put off potential framers. Equal Employment Opportunity The DCA is dedicated to the policy on equal employment opportunity where it provides its employees with conducive working environment which is free of harassment and discrimination. All DCA employees are employed based on their qualifications, organization needs and job provisions regardless of their race, ethnic origin, religious beliefs, nationality, colour, social background or gender. Similarly, the DCA does not discriminate against the physically challenged, HIV status, domestic partnership status and family medical history (Dessler 2005, p. 390). Conclusion Human Resource Employee Policy plays a vital role in identifying the requisite workforce number and skills in organisation as well as providing means of attaining identified workforce characteristics through attracting training and retaining skills within the organisation, advising on workforce and time to lay off some employees, thereby attainment of the best workforce characteristics required to achieve organizational goals. Workforce planning strategies assist in Knowledge Management, hence if the DCA implements these recommendations, it will attract more skilful workforce, retaining them and passing skills within the organisation thereby having the required workforce that is essential in attaining organisational goals. Training and succession planning would endear the DCA to the younger generation since it shows opportunities of growth, development and advancement. References Batta, R., Berman. O., & Wang, Q. 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