RESOURCING AND TALENT PLANNING 5RST

RESOURCING AND TALENT PLANNING 5RST

Question 1: Labor Market

• Google LLC is a multinational technology company that specializes in internet-based services and products such as cloud computing and search engine. The company is situated both in the United Kingdom and America. Despite both countries having progressive labor laws, they have differential policies and trends.

There is a similarity in income wage disparities in both frontiers. Income inequality is the measurement of disposable incomes, which include wages, salaries, and interest on savings and after-tax benefits. In the United Kingdom, Groshen and Holzer (2019) report that the income share for the 1% households has increased over the years; there has been a rough reduction in inequality among the rest of the population. Factoring in the recent economic recession, unfortunately, the 1% of individuals of higher income standards has decreased significantly compared to the middle-class and lower-income households (Groshen and Holzer, 2019). On the other hand, in America, the inequality issue worsens. It is described that America’s top 10% average nine times as much income as the bottom 90%. Interestingly, the income inequality with the 1% population dipped after the recent economic crisis of 2007/2008 but, the bottom 90% had a reduction in wage discrepancies (Groshen and Holzer, 2019). Nonetheless, it is evident that income inequality is worse in America than it is in the United Kingdom.

Concerning the differences between the public and private sectors, the income gap and skill-gap is evidential. In the United Kingdom, the workers in the public sector receive lesser pay compared to those in the private sector, according to Groshen and Holzer (2019). This is on account of the type and level of skills whereby those of higher-skilled category in the public sector receive considerably lower earnings compared to those in the private sector. Nonetheless, within the private sector, the difference is in the level of skill. Those of high-skills in larger companies experience higher income wages compared to those in smaller private organizations. This is a similar trend in America, as well (Groshen and Holzer, 2019). Therefore, the type of pay demands that individuals have a college or university degree in both countries to have a high paying job in the private sector but have limited constraints in the public sector where a high school diploma may suffice.

• Tight and Loose Labor markets

Tight labor markets are characterized by a brief period of reduction in skills and knowledge required by the aspect of the labor market. Contrary, a loose labor market results from an overflow of knowledge and skills in which the individuals help undertake different tasks (CIPD, 2020). As a result, there is a lot of recruitment and staff selection in a loose labor market, which warrants a company to be innovative to stay ahead of the competition. As such, a loose or tight market has a strong influence on the condition of the labor market. On the one hand, a loose labor market requires a robust, efficient, and effective recruitment process in addition to retention to sustain competition by any organization (CIPD, 2020). On the other hand, a tight labor market implies stricter competitive principles that require highly skilled and talented as well as specialized workers. Therefore, companies have to become innovative in strategizing ways of maintaining the best employees in tandem to remaining competitive.

Therefore, to become competitive, there are certain factors a company such as Google could use, including how to become an employer of choice, employer branding, and employee value proposition. In a tight labor market, it could mean that the company or the overall labor market will have to re-strategize on how to retain employees through employee branding (CIPD, 2020). For instance, the execution of branding through association where Google could enhance employer of choice confidence by ensuring that employees determine their employment success through the company.

Question 2: Future Skills

Government

With globalization and competitive advantage being at the center stage in determining whether an economy is relevant or not, the government of the United Kingdom can focus on diverse factors as follows. The first could be the initiation of increased investment and focus on new technical skills, as Lerman (2017) suggests. With the advent of big data analytics, the promise the technology brings not only to businesses but to individuals, and the government can boost its investment in this concept. It will not only lead to the consequential up-skill development in individuals, but it will also boost the smaller and medium-sized companies to invest also in such technology through incentives offered by the government (Cimatti, 2016). Another aspect is the labor market. With the increasing global competition for skills, the government could revise the current laws and regulations to suit current and future demand protégés. Cimatti (2016) elucidates that offering a flexible labor market could be beneficial in limiting in-house competition as compared to global competition for skills. The advantage is that companies will have lesser hiring policies than they do today. Also, the government could include a revision of the education and hiring process to primarily focus on skill and talent development (Cimatti, 2016). Learning institutions should be the sole custodians of knowledge based on how students could hone their skills and talent. The world today and in the future will not be fixated on degree; rather, it will be fixated on individualism through skills and talent.

Employers

The role of employers in unlocking the workforce skill potential cannot be overemphasized. To do so, Lerman (2017) points out that an organization should comprehend the current and future business needs. In doing so, they not only become more sustainable, but they will also have effective talent and succession planning criteria. Hence, when companies are offering up training, it should not focus entirely on the specific job position. Rather, it should focus on positioning the employee for employability potential. It is the norm for organizations to train someone for the role they are employed for and not for any other skills (Lerman, 2017). The role recommends that employers should focus on ensuring that the worker has extensive skills that can co-habit with the growing skill diversity in the market place.

Additionally, the employer should be more inclined to re-strategize on company culture. This could include forming mentoring and budding systems, socialization systems, and performance appraisals and dealing with mistakes. The idea behind such roles is that the employer is more concerned about the worker rather than their performance (Lerman, 2017). By placing more value in the worker, the employer ensures that retention, loyalty, and initiative to be more motivated rests on the employee. In turn, this can be countered with improved performance and competitive advantage.

Trade Unions

The main role that the trade unions have is to shape the working conditions of the employees within different organizations of the market place. The observation is that trade unions should be more specific in how they demand better working conditions and pay for their workers. In the recent past, with increased pressure from the trade unions to increase salaries and wages, for instance, companies have been forced to lay-off or let go of workers. In this case, it is a lose-lose scenario for the trade union and workers (Cimatti, 2016). It is, therefore, paramount that trade unions play a significant role in working together with the government to provide for better working policies and regulations that ensure unemployment rates are not increasing every decade. For example, the trade unions should play an equivocal role with the companies to ensure there is success in the retention of workers. It could be the promotion of foreign direct investment, which could see more attractive and lucrative avenues for workers to be employed in different areas.

Question 3: WorkForce Planning

Workforce planning requires the identification of current in addition to the future needs of the workers through the exploration of effective cost methods. In this regard, workforce planning is the process of ensuring an organization has current and future access to human capital to remain competitive within the sector, industry, and globally (Momin and Mishra, 2015). Workforce planning, therefore, aligns with the core business process. To effectively realize the benefits of workforce planning, the organization involved should understand the key mission goals alongside the future objectives of the business. It could include leadership, which is paramount as to how the workforce needs to be aligned to achieve the specific goals every financial year. Hence, various principles guide companies on how to engage with workforce planning.

Principles of Workforce Planning

• The first principle is the involvement of top management, employees, and stakeholders in developing communication, implementation, and strategic workforce. The process requires planning, developing, and implementing a strategic workforce plan, including reshaping of the current workforce through management attrition and increased hiring, to mention a few. The idea is to ensure that the top management has the overall direction and goals of workforce planning. Also, involving the employees and other stakeholders in developing and implementing future workforce strategies, including employee unions, supervisors, and agency managers (Momin and Mishra, 2015). To achieve this, it requires the establishment of a communication strategy that creates shared expectations and transparency.
• The second principle is in the determination of the critical skills and competencies that will be required to achieve the future of workforce programming. Agencies must determine the skills and competencies that are crucial to successfully achieving the company’s goals and mission (Momin and Mishra, 2015). Specifically, it could gravitate towards technology, budgetary constraints, operational improvements, and national security in the case of the government. Human capital issues are often associated with how companies hire their workforce. There is a need to account for various issues, including how critical skills such as those needed in emergent markets, corporate failures, and accounting scandals can be handled.
• Development of strategies tailored to address the gap and human capital conditions in critical skills and competencies that need attention. There is a need to stress that workforce importance in companies should be emphasized. It includes the need to build and manage the workforce, such as having the needs of the company tailored to suit those of the employees (Momin and Mishra, 2015). It could include management on the succession of managers and top management officials. For instance, the strategy could include the need to maximize employee contributions. These are not limited to: continuing attention to senior leaders and managers through valuation and investment in them and investment in the workforce through approaches that require development and retention of best employees.
• Building capability needed to address administrative, educational, and other requirements important to the workforce strategies. The strategies in this could include the education of managers and employees on the availability and use of flexibilities. Managers and supervisors could be more effective in using workers that are oriented on new flexibilities, including recruitment bonuses (Momin and Mishra, 2015). Moreover, it could include the streamlining and improvement of administrative processes such as flexibilities in fairness and consistency on how employees are treated.

To achieve the above strategies, tools such as gap analysis. Gap analysis involves the comprehension of the gaps between workforce demand and supply. By defining the top priority gaps with the greatest impact of organizational performance is the ideal factor. For instance, the principle of communication with the employees, especially in top management, is crucial to developing the right platform for future workforce planning (World Health Organization, 2010). It could include an assessment of competencies and skills, occupation skill levels, diversity, inclusion, skills, and gaps that exist within the organization.

Additionally, the use of determining key skills can also be used. As stated through the four principles, the crucial element in workforce planning is acknowledging the role of each employee (World Health Organization, 2010). To determine this, it prompts the need to assess what skills are relevant for the business currently and in the future. They should also align with the organization’s needs and objectives.

Question 4: H.R. Planning and Documentation

Developing basic succession and career development plans

The human resource department plays a critical role in the succession planning process. In most scenarios, its sole responsibility is in the implementation process. Chief among them is strategizing on how to create the best portfolio for a business. According to Nadiv et al. (2017), it includes hiring high-quality employees for all positions, developing quality evaluation programs, assisting in the development of training programs for the successful candidates, and evaluating as well as recommending the appropriate compensation.

Moreover, HR’s role ensures that it develops reporting mechanisms for each candidate in addition to reviewing and developing employee retention programs. Similarly, the career development plans are HR’s role within any organization. The HR achieves through the implementation of a secure and efficient career development management system (Nadiv et al., 2017). This is defined as the process of designing, implementing goals, plans, and strategies to enable an organization to satisfy their employees’ requirements. It can include the conversion of a personal career plan into action to achieve career goals. It should involve the organization, manager, and employee.

Contributing to Plans and Downsizing an Organization

Downsizing can be a gruesome task to undertake for any HR department. Nevertheless, it is critical for future operational chances for any business. As such, the consequential role of HR is to determine the decision on the several factors that influence downsizing decisions, as Nadiv et al. (2017) elaborate. They include the availability of resources concurrent with the number of employees. If there is any chance of exploring alternatives, then the HR department needs to address these avenues. From this, the HR then prepares to downsize by indicating which units shall be affected and which employees are critical to the business. To achieve a proper and efficient downsizing, the HR department crafts a communication plan. In this communication plan, the HR drafts a communication template in which employees who will be dismissed from the organization will receive the news through the communication. It can also involve the provision of the reason for the downsizing to the employees as to why the employers are seeking to use such a strategy on the business (Nadiv et al., 2017). Therefore, in the communication, the HR department seeks to expound on the potential risks of alienating groups that are critical to the future of the organization. Another tenet is education. The HR department is tasked with the most difficult role of informing the employees of what is happening with the business, the measures the business is willing to take, including downsizing and who it will affect. In this information, the HR department has to be clear and indicative of why the groups of employees are being let go.

Contributing to the Development of Job Descriptions, Person Specifications, and Competency Framework

First and foremost, the HR department should be well informed about company goals, objectives, and vision. Understanding these concepts is crucial to knowing what needs to be achieved in each department or unit. From this juncture, the role of HR begins with the identification of the description of each job. For instance, when describing the job position for an IT manager, the HR department has to be critical of why it is pertinent to include such a position (Momin and Mishra, 2015). From this point, specifications on the roles and responsibilities are addressed in tandem to the goals and objectives of the business. By defining the roles and responsibilities, the HR department is then tasked with the duty of placing qualifications or person specifications about the job title. In this case, the IT manager ought to have a college or university degree in IT-related courses such as programming and web design depending on the organization’s functions. Concurrently, HR is tasked with creating a competency framework. Defining the capability of a person can be done on a two-pronged perspective: hard and soft skills. Hard skills are position oriented, such as degree qualifications (Momin and Mishra, 2015). As for soft skills, they revolve around teamwork, self-supervision, communication skills, and diligence, or efficiency.

Question 5: Legal Requirements about Recruitment and Retention

The United Kingdom has a diverse and stable law regulating the recruitment and selection of employees. Among the laws is the Equality Act (2010) and Protected Characteristics. The Equality Act (2010) expounds on the prevention of discrimination against specific employees, which supports the progress on equality (Chiripanhura and Wolf, 2019). They include the Equal Pay Act (1970), the Sex Discrimination Act (1975), and Race Relations Act (1976), among others. The Equal Pay Act (1970) was introduced as a means of prohibiting unequal pay and working conditions among men and women (Chiripanhura and Wolf, 2019). The Sex Discrimination Act (1975) protects the men and women of the United Kingdom from any discrimination regarding sex or marital status.

In the recruitment process, the methods include direct and indirect methods. The direct method pertains to the organization taking the initiative to hire their employees. The strength of this method is that representatives of the organization are critical about the hiring process. Besides, the organization has control over who it hires (Pilbeam and Corbridge, 2010). On the other hand, the limitation is that it is a tedious process that takes up time and resources from the organization. There might be some degree of biasness while recruiting employees. The other method is the indirect method. This entails the use of mainstream media such as radio or newspaper to hire employees. The merit to this is that the organization gains a multitude of individuals to choose from, and the organization intends to fill up the position using a more qualified individual (Pilbeam and Corbridge, 2010). On the other hand, the process requires experienced employers to determine who to hire or not to hire. It is also a tedious process as it requires the vetting and verification of the qualifications of the individuals.

The reason employees remain or leave an organization could include better work-life balance, better pay, better career opportunity, more independence, and control over their work and job security. The dysfunctional costs involved in employee turnover include: hiring for a position, training the new employee, any severance or bonus packages, and managing the role in case it is not filled (Pilbeam and Corbridge, 2010). There are numerous ways of retaining employees, among them increased salary and benefits. The advantage of this is that employees are motivated to stay in the organization, which leads to improved morale and performance. However, it could mean increased operational costs for the business, which may require the business to re-strategize on how to improve profits or revenue. Another method is the reduction of employee burnout through computer or technology investment. The advantage of this is that the employee will improve on their work-life balance, will feel more fulfilled at work and will reduce burnouts (Pilbeam and Corbridge, 2010). However, the disadvantage is that the employee may start slacking off at work, performing less, and the company will have to invest in technical employees to handle the new technology.

Question 6: Lawful Practice for Managing Dismissal, Retirement and Redundancies

My company is Google LLC. With respect to dismissal, the UK law on Employment Rights 1996 states that companies should be wary of the employment particulars based on contracts, payment, and benefits packages in case of dismissal of an employee. Despite the recent amendment in the law, it is crucial that Google maintains a clear understanding of what law affects the dismissal of an employee. In order to be lawful, the dismissal should be within the confines or structure of the law in order to prevent any lawsuit pertaining to unfair dismissal. This includes employees from global to regional as each has its specific dismissal rights. This also serves for issues regarding retirement (Chiripanhura and Wolf, 2019). Google should be vigilant on the proper procedure to ensure that upon receiving the retirement letter from the employee, the frameworks of the Employment Act rights are followed. It includes aspects of a severance package, benefits, and bonuses. It also includes the type of contract the company signed with the employee on the terms and conditions of retirement, including the period of which the individual shall receive the bonus check or final check. This is also stipulated in the Employees Act Rights 1996 (Chiripanhura and Wolf, 2019). Finally, for issues regarding redundancies, the law on Redundancy Law stipulates what the organization ought to do regarding employees. For instance, a minimum notice period of 12 weeks is required if an employee has been working for the company for more than 12 years or more. A one week notice is provided for an employee who has worked for the company for more than one month or two years.

Bibliography

Pilbeam, S., and Corbridge, M., 2010. People resourcing and talent planning: HRM in practice. Prentice-Hall.

Groshen, E.L., and Holzer, H.J., 2019. Improving Employment and Earnings in Twenty-First Century Labor Markets: An Introduction. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 5(5), pp.1-19.

Chiripanhura, B., and Wolf, N., 2019. Long-term trends in UK employment: 1861 to.

CIPD. 2020. Understanding the Economy and Labor Market. CIPD.CO.Uk. https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/work/trends/economy-labour-market-factsheet

Cimatti, B., 2016. Definition, development, assessment of soft skills, and their role for the quality of organizations and enterprises. International Journal for quality research, 10(1).

Lerman, R.I., 2017. Skill Development in Middle-Level Occupations. The Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training, p.180.

Momin, W.Y.M., and Mishra, K., 2015. HR analytics as a strategic workforce planning. International Journal of Applied Research, 1(4), pp.258-260.

Nadiv, R., Raz, A., and Kuna, S., 2017. What a difference a role makes: Occupational and organizational characteristics related to the HR strategic role among human resource managers. Employee Relations, 39(7), pp.1131-1147.

World Health Organization, 2010. Models and tools for health workforce planning and projections. World Health Organization.