HR Administration - Essay Example

HR Administration al Affiliation: Privatization and partnerships Privatization is a term most commonly used to refer to anymove by the government functions or activities from a public agency to the private sector. It accounts for greater private sector participation in the delivery of public services. It involves the participation of private sector in provision of public services. Partnerships between the public and private sectors involve providing basic services and supplying, designing, constructing, operating and owning public utilities. The public sector privatizes services to realize savings in costs, achieve efficiencies in construction and operation, utilize expertise, access private capital and improve the quality of services. Ownership is the key distinction of privatization according to this focused definition of privatization (Klingner et al, 2010). Privatization is viewed as an option for providing services to the community and the decision to privatize should be made by the government reflecting the government to deliver public goods and services by the private sector creates a balanced evaluation of the financial and non-financial issues with the needs of the community.Market-based competition basis. Privatization is characterized by little involvement by the government and collaborating with private service providers. Government stops providing a service directly and relies on the private sector to deliver the service (Klingner et al, 2010). 2) Effects the baby boomers are having on HR Management Human resource managers are facing an imminent mass exodus of senior workers, the likes of which has never been seen before. These workers will need to be replaced due to death or retirement. Some organizations might lose up to 50% of their seniors in the next two to three years. This exit will strain the governmental entitlement programs, company benefit, pension plans, and press the concern on empty chairs in offices across the nation. The smaller size of Generation X (25 – 38- year-olds) along with their high rate of turnover and the transitory nature of their work force lately will lead to a shrinking pool of replacements and competition for those employees will increase. Demographic realities seem to suggest a possible shortage of labor in the coming decades (Klingner et al, 2010). Many Boomers will maintain their positions after their typical retirement age due to longer life expectancy. The likelihood of new legislation increasing the age for Social Security benefits, the high costs in living, recent losses in pension and IRA accounts attached to the stock market could make older employees delay their retirement. Luckily, it is doubtful that all of the Baby Boomers will retire at the same time, however the planning for such a case needs to begin now. 3) Disadvantages of current employee evaluation systems Some managers are biased in evaluating employees, which may happen intentionally or unintentionally. They unconsciously favor employees that show similar characteristics as the manager. These managers focus more on the personality and style of the employee at the expense of their actual achievements. Good employees feel slighted a situation that may cause tension in the workplace. Favorable employees may miss much-needed guidance to improve their performance when biased (Freyss, 2014). Meeting during evaluations can result in a one-sided conversation as managers may give an employee a chance to offer feedback but they already make up their minds about an employee without being open to a two-sided dialogue. Such employees feel as if their opinions are not important and this causes them to divert communication with management in the future. The managers, and make corrections to the evaluations should listen to the feedback offered by employees if employees make valid points failure to which it will create a negative experience Klingner et al, 2010). Performance evaluations are very time consuming when not done appropriately and can be overwhelming to managers with many employees. They are also based on human assessment and are hence prone to rater errors and biases. 4) The most important federal laws regarding public sectors workers The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) lays down standards of wages and overtime payments in most private and public employment. It necessitates employers to pay covered employees who are not otherwise exempt at least the federal minimum wage and overtime. It controls the hours that children under age of 16 and during schools can work and prohibits companies from employing children under the age of 18 in certain jobs considered too dangerous. This protects employees from exploitation by employers in terms of payments and length of working hours (Klingner et al, 2010). The Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA) establishes an all-inclusive compensation of workers for the disability or death of a federal employee that may result from personal injury while an employee is in line of duty. Total or partial disabled benefit from wage lose compensation, permanent loss or loss of use of specified members benefit from schedule awards, and vocational rehabilitation alongside medical related costs. The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act that is administered by the OSHA regulates safety and health conditions of employees in most private industries and public sector employers. OSHA covers employees who comply with the regulations and the safety and health standards it promulgates. Under OSH Act, employees are protected from work and a workplace free from recognized serious hazards. 5) Major challenges facing current human resources systems in the public sector today Compliance Legislation and federal state laws make compliance a crucial aspect of running an HR department. HR managers face a major challenge in the process of ensuring that the strategy of the department coincides with its legal obligations. Issues related to compliance require collaboration among HR leaders, specialists of compensation and benefits and human resource information systems. If HR managers do not comply to set obligations, they put the organization in a serious jeopardy (Freyss, 2014). Employee Relationships Many employees feel that there is a parent-child relationship in the workplace, instead of adult-adult relationship, and that nothing good comes out of visiting the HR department. To induce employees that HR is their advocate together with the company, HR managers have to improvise measures to put a face on HR in an attempt to convince employees that HR is an employee advocate (Freyss, 2014). Budget Money is necessary for supporting HR activities and people, the most valuable resources of the organization. However, it is not nearly enough to support all of the functions that HR managers would probably like to do. HR managers who organize for expensive workforce assessments, surveys on employee opinion and advice and counsel from subject matter experts are sometimes denied the budget they propose. Private sector HR managers feel the strain of requesting bigger budgets like training that is considered unnecessary (Freyss, 2014). 6) Advantages of succession planning Planning success is essential to keep the organization moving in the right direction even if key staff exit, retire or move on for other reasons. Deciding the key employees who will replace such employees in leadership and senior management positions is essential to uphold the accomplishment of a business during any economic climate or business situation (Klingner et al, 2010). It is also an office morale and engagement booster by grooming employees for their future roles when more complex tasks are given to them. Investing in their growth keeps the employees focused, motivated and loyal to the organization. Dedicating time to plan for the future of the organization will save the company time and money as plans to promote and train people within the company means less time will be spent in recruiting external candidates, interviewing them and checking their references. Money allocated to those efforts will also decrease with a solid succession plan in place (Klingner et al, 2010) Finding future leaders exposes the strengths within the workforce and uncovers the weak spots that the organization must improve on to secure business and financial growth. Offering training and availing other resources will help improve performance. Evaluating the workforce in preparation for succession planning gives a great perspective of the talent in the company. 7) Quid pro quo and hostile work environment sexual harassment Quid pro quo is a Latin term that translates to this for that in English. Quid pro quo sexual harassment is linked to people in power forcing an employee to give in to demands of sexual favors in exchange for promotion in the workplace or under the threat of adverse employment action. Quid pro quo sexual harassment arises when a supervisor makes sexual conduct of an employee a condition to entitlement of employment benefits or promotions, or a condition to avoid adverse employment actions like sacking, poor performance reviews and preclusion from salary advancements or increases (Klingner et al, 2010). Hostile work environment sexual harassment is experienced when an employee is subjected to uninvited advances, sexual allusions; offensive and vulgar graffiti or offensive language related to gender that is sufficiently pervasive or severe from a reasonable person’s perspective who shares the same gender with the offended employee. A supervisor’s favoritism towards an employee he/she is having a consensual sexual affair with does not generally constitute harassment of other employees. Although, a sexual favoritism pattern may comprise an hostile work environment when the management states that sexual affairs are a way to advance in the workplace (Klingner et al, 2010). References Klingner, D. E., Nalbandian, J., & Llorens, J. (2010). Public Personnel Management. 7th ED. London; Pearson. 2010, Latest Edition Freyss, S. F. (Ed.). (2004). Human resource management in local government: An essential guide. International City/County Management Association. Read More