Talent Management Exam - Essay Example

Talent Management Exam Introduction Most organizations understand the benefits brought by a long-lasting approach to staff handling. Many actually try to create staffing strategies or workforce plans. Unfortunately, such companies often realize that traditional approaches to workforce planning and strategic staffing that they are attempting to implement are not effective, and that the anticipated gains are not realized. According to Bechet, in his book, Strategic Staffing: A Comprehensive System for Effective Workforce Planning, the solution to this issue does not lie in attempting to improve the efficiency of the traditional approach rather in implementing an entirely different type of procedure for strategic staffing. Question 1: Strategic Staffing Strategic staffing can be defined as the process that companies utilize to identify and deal with the staffing implications of specific business plans and strategies. It includes both the idea of identifying and tackling, but not either of the two. Some organizations implement strategic staffing only to assist them identify problems like staffing gaps; in which demand surpasses supply, or surpluses; in which supply surpasses demand. Even though this identification process is essential, it is also inadequate. Strategic staffing is helpful solely when the procedure also defines what the company ought to do to reduce or eliminate those surpluses and staffing gaps most efficiently. Strategic staffing can also be defined to mean a process towards change. Emphasizing change means that staffing insinuations should be identified and discussed continuously, any time changes are made to the business plan, not just once per year (Bechet 51). Mostly, organizations perceive that the aim of strategic staffing is to forecast future staffing requirements. They then attempt to define staffing activities that must be considered in that context to get rid of issues that may or may not come up in the future. This move cannot be accurately achieved, while at the same time, has little or no impact to the company. As a result, some organizations give up to the procedure immediately since their managers have no understanding, knowledge, and skills to predict their lasting staffing needs reliably. The objective is therefore to develop a long-term context in which the most efficient short-term decisions can be made. For a company to develop a strategic staffing plan that is successful, it has to encounter several issues or problems. This can include lack of specificity on expected competencies, invalid data for making sound decisions, and poor incorporation with other related human resource management activities (Bechet 104). Question 3: Defining the right staffing levels for a company Before one can start to define the right staffing levels, he needs to make sure that he has a common understanding with his managers of what he is trying to achieve. Lack of a common perspective will most definitely lead to failure. To define the right staffing levels of my company, I will consider the following steps: Understanding my business fully I will first identify what is actually driving changes in my company’s staffing levels. To do this precisely, I need to wholly understand my business and the strategies in it. The staffing process will be at my fingertips so that I get a clear comprehension. Identifying the force behind the staffing needs I will consider what really is changing or creating my company’s staffing needs. Staffing requirements are usually pushed by changes in business activities, geographic expansion, shifts in goods/services mix, improvements in service levels, and other related factors. Identifying limitations concerning staffing Apart from defining the staffing forces, I will also have to discover the limiting factors of the required staffing levels. These include factors like change in the priorities of the clients or failed predictions. Defining changes in positions and roles It is quite significant that I identify the changes in roles that will be required to implement business strategies and plans. Staffing levels can only be defined well after I figure out what people should be doing. After this, I will define changes in capabilities and skills that will be needed to perform the roles. Applying quantitative methods First, I will have to spot out where quantitative techniques need to be applied and where they do not. It is appropriate to apply quantitative techniques where there are measurable, direct relations between task times and staffing levels. Staffing ratios or ratios based on time can be set basing on desired changes or actual values. In this step, I will need to confirm that the quantitative relationships that I have defined are based on available data in business forecasts. Supplementing quantitative methods with qualitative Mostly, quantitative relationships are hard to define. To define staffing levels in such cases, I will conduct planned interviews with managers. I will give each one of them a snapshot of recent staff; discuss how the changes that will take place during the planning time, and define the effects that such changes will have on the desired staffing. Learning with time Even if I will not get it right the first time, I will do my best by establishing each parts of my analysis worked perfectly and which ones failed. I will then sharpen the factors that actually drive staffing requirements, and then focus my efforts on these factors. Next, I will adjust my staffing ratios to get results that are more accurate. If quantitative methods do not produce predictable outcomes, I will apply qualitative ones. With all these done, the process will become more efficient and effective with each change. Question 10: The four steps of the strategic staffing process The strategic staffing process provides a strategy that makes a company be sure that it has appropriate number of employees with the right skills for the current and future business objectives. As the business grows, using the following steps will be an added advantage. Short-term staffing analysis This will help in determining the suitability of a company’s current staffing size. Analyze the work required to be carried out by computing the specific time for the job to be performed. If the company finds out that the recent full-time employee’s task function needs more than 40 hours weekly, it can increase its staff by adding a full or part-time employee, based on the analysis. Defining staffing requirements Often, staffing requirements, change with season as the company grows; change in technology, or in times of decreased earnings. Match the skills, or competencies, of every employee to the company’s needs by analyzing job details. Determine if each of the employees require more training in technological or management skills by using monthly income statements or payroll records. This will help in projecting if the company needs to budget for permanent or temporary help when increasing sales in seasons. Future staffing Needs Include training dollars and extra staff in the future budgeting process if a small business is still growing sufficient staffing levels can minimize injuries related to work, increase the level of client satisfaction, and motivate employees. Use a five-year and ten-year strategy to determine the number of employees the company anticipates to hire in future. Improving effectiveness Effectual and skilled employees help the business grow competitively, reduce turnover, and increase employee job satisfaction. Retaining effective employees by giving upward promotion and training opportunities saves a company’s money and increases loyalty feelings of employees to the company. Use job analysis and descriptions to plan possible worker advancement tracks that are in line with the company’s strategic plan. Question 12: Types of implementation frameworks Implementation Drivers This framework involves developing central implementation elements, or implementation drivers. It results in a framework that supports sustainable and competent service delivery (Bechet 160). Organized, Expert Implementation Support This is where implementation support can be offered externally by use of active suppliers and intermediary firms, or internally by use of implementation teams. The Organized, Expert Implementation Support (OEIS) is the more effective framework. This is due to the fact that, creating implementation teams that are active in implementing interventions would result in higher quality and quick implementation. Work Cited Bechet, Thomas. Strategic Staffing: A Comprehensive System for Effective Workforce Planning. New York: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2008. Print. Read More