SWOT Analysis of Department of Employee Relations in the State of Minnesota - Literature review Example

SWOT Analysis

According to Schluter (2017), the Department of Employee Relations in the United States is tasked with ensuring a continuous improvement of the human resources products and services that can support the government in providing better services to all the services. In the recent past, the government has moved to privatize the organization's services to increase competition due to the inherent weaknesses faced by many state-owned organizations, such lack of accountability (CPS, 2004). It is not clear; however, whether the available resources can guarantee that the department will exploit the available opportunities in the market and this creates a lot of uncertainties. This paper focuses on a strategic analysis of the department using the SWOT to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the Department of Employee Relations in the State of Minnesota. The underlying assumption of the analysis tool is that effective strategy arises from a proper articulation of the internal resources and the external situation. Therefore, the SWOT analysis of the department is expected to reveal the risks and uncertainties that affect the decision-making process.

Strengths

• Innovative solutions

The previous strategic human resources in the department offer numerous innovative solutions. Innovation in the department is all about the introduction of new services, and products that can also include changing the way business is conducted in the department. Innovation in this department embraces the use of modern technology in running almost all operations as well as improving the traditional departmental methods to meet the needs and demands of the employees. Abubakar & Bello (2013) argue that embracing innovative solutions by the department has been a significant achievement in improving efficiency and performance of the department. Creative solutions have increased competitiveness among the employees leading to higher productivity of departmental operations at relatively lower costs. Furthermore, innovative solutions in the department allow the department to retain employees as in essence; employees appreciate innovation in performing different tasks in problem-solving. Besides, the unit has in the recent past undertaken proactive approach in conducting its operations.

• Availability of tools

Tools are available for improving the human resources, such as an interview guide and training manuals. The human resource of this department is not only concerned with increasing the return of the department but also the output that each employee of the department receives. The employees are provided with the opportunity to establish themselves through continuous training. This availability of training opportunities enables the unit to retain its employees.

• Experienced workforce

There is an experienced workforce dedicated to the department's mission. All the employees have a feeling that they belong to the department as team members. Skilled employees in the department are instrumental due to the substantial knowledge base they possess. That is, they have many years of experience in the department thus a better understating of the culture and operations of the unit. Besides, Abubakar et al. (2013) argue that these experienced workforce act as an invaluable support system to the newcomers in the department. By the very many years of experience in the department, these employees reflect a stable work environment in the district as with termination of employee's contracts disrupts the stability of the working environment. Furthermore, the experienced, dedicated employees save s on the expenditure in the budget of the department as continuous workforce turnover cost the department a lot of money that is usually used in the replacement of the employees through recruitment of new employees. Experienced employees are loyal to the unit, and they can efficiently perform their tasks under minimal supervision.

Weaknesses

• Underdeveloped communication system

Communication across functions and within the department, both formally and informally, is undeveloped. This poor communication channel impairs the efficiency of the department. Orders from the top management do not reach to all employees thus delegation of duties is difficult. The moral of the employees depends on in the effectiveness of the communication system thus poor communication system impact negatively in the morale. Effective communication promotes the productivity, inspiration as well as the creativity of the employees. Thus ineffective communication results in unclear instructions on the projects conducted within the department leading to monotony and confusion.

• Lack of evaluation mechanism

The department does not have a mechanism for continued evaluation and updating of the human resources practices and policies. This lack of evaluation mechanism impact negatively to the office as the human resource as the workforce in the department cannot be efficiently assessed to determine the factors that might be wasting resources in different departments. The performance of the department will reduce due to the inability to identify the skills of the employees.

• Lack of accountability

The management and the employees lack accountability, which hinders the achievement of clear and measurable performance levels. Lack of accountability in the side of the manager and the employees reduces client satisfaction that may progress to legal battles and lawsuits. Besides, lack of accountability negatively impacts the budget of the department as there are cases of increased costs to cover shortages in staffing and fixing mistakes. Furthermore, the department earns a negative long-term perception.

Opportunities

• Advanced technology

The department has advanced technologies are available that can foster the human resource activities. One human resource activity where technology has impacted is the recruitment of skilled personnel. CPS (2004) indicates that the department currently can utilize internet rather than the traditional methods that involved the use of print media. Advanced technology allows the effective training of both the experienced and new employees in the department. Storage of data and retrieval has been made effective through the incorporation of technology.

• Better practices exist in the human resources

The human resource department is engaging in employee's development that has seen the improvement of employee retention and job satisfaction. Besides, training opportunities that the department is undertaking provide an avenue for employees' growth and thus increasing productivity if the department (OLA, 2004).

• Strategic Alliances

The Department of Employee Relations could benefit enormously by entering into a partnership with other state department and labor unions for development and expansion of innovative and advancement of employee relations. By so doing, employees' satisfaction will greatly improve.

Threats

• Imposition of permanent full-time employees

The government imposes full-time employees, yet there is a budget constraint. The current budgetary allocation of the Department of Employee Relations is not sufficient to impose full-time employees. This is a threat to the department as there is the likelihood of this budgetary constraint to paralyze the operation of the department in the future.

• Privatization of services

The government is attempting to privatize the services offered by the department to facilitate competition. This privatization may lead to a change of ownership of the department in the future.

• Competition from different organizations

Organizations can attract employees and business away from those provided by the department. This attraction of the employees and the industry creates a stiff competition to the department and may fail the operations of the department if the top management does not act quickly to sustain the completion.

Analysis of the Results

The SWOT analysis above presents the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that the department faces. The strengths and weaknesses occur from the internal environment while the opportunities and the threats are from the external environment (Osita et al., 2014). The strengths and the weaknesses will help identify the current position of the department and its ability to exploit the available opportunities in the market. The available concentrations have helped the department remain in operation despite actions that have not worked well or have been inefficient within the organization. For example, the strategic human resources within the department provide better innovative solutions. Through the help of tools such as interview guides and training manuals, the department has been able to develop its human resources. All the workers have emerged as well-experienced and dedicated to their tasks since they feel part of the department.

However, the department faces some weaknesses which have resulted in the government calling for privatization of such services to allow for competition. For example, the management and employees lack accountability in their work. This results in the achievement of performance levels not being measurable. The issue of accountability may have resulted from the unavailability of robust communication across the functions and within the department, both formally and informally. The department also has not put in place measures that will ensure evaluation and updating of the human resources on the best practices and policies within the organization. The organization has opportunities presented by the external environment that it can exploit using its strengths (Abubakar et al., 2013). The department can utilize the available advanced technologies to foster its human resource activities.

Implementing the technology in the management of the human resources can help in storage, communication, and other complex transactions. Technology can help forecast future human resources to align with requirements. Also, the advanced technology can contribute to align the human resource plans and activities with the organization's strategic plan. The agency also has the opportunity of exploiting other available better practices in human resources, namely diversity, innovation, and quality recruitment. Introducing variety in the workforce has the advantage of introducing change, and this can only occur when hiring (Abdi et al., 2013). Therefore, when hiring the manager in charge, the organization should consider not only the manager's skills, qualifications, and experience but also their ability to relate to employees as people rather than team members. When hiring, getting the right personnel requires the use of the most appropriate strategies to reach the target audience. Social media platforms, for instance, can reach many people.

In the light of the available opportunities, there are threats brought about by the external environment that can curtail the organization from exploiting opportunities (Abubakar et al., 2013). For example, the government requires the employment of full-time employees, yet the possible financial allocation for the department cannot support this. Additionally, following the widespread lack of accountability in the major public departments and agencies, the government has decided to privatize the services to create competition so that the quality of services provided will improve. Upon implementation of this policy by the government, it will be easy for the organizations using services from the department to get employees and other businesses of private agencies.

Recommendation

The level of risk posed by the current threats from the external environment is uncertain. Between the weaknesses and the threats, the department can only deal with the weaknesses, since they fall within the internal environment. If the department can address all its weaknesses, it can turn them into strengths. Having additional strengths will help the organization exploit the available opportunities. Utilizing the opportunities will improve the current position of the department and make it more competitive in the industry even if the government privatizes the human resource services currently being offered by the department. Additionally, improved services from the use of advanced technology in the human resources will attract more customers. Finally, drawing additional clients will bring extra profits that can be used to employ full-time employees as required by the government.