Management of Risk and Workplace Planning - Literature review Example

Management of Risk and Workplace Planning Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course: Management of Risk and Workplace Planning Introduction Aspects of workforce planning continue to draw mixed findings and views from different researchers. From the one hand, studies have been concentrated in ensuring that workforce planning entails aspects such as forecasting and assessment, succession planning, leadership development, contingent workforce, retention and recruitment among other aspects (Schweyer 2010). However, contemporary studies have begun to see workforce planning beyond the limits of Schweyer (2010). That is, the process is seen as a planning tool for contemporary organization so that the process of managing organisations can realize full life-cycle and wide range of human resource activities that encompass issues such as worker selection/recruitment, aspects of training, classification and compensation, retention and performance management. Again, the complexities of modern organisations and failures of corporate organisations such as Dynegy that collapsed in 2012 (was United States based) have necessitated researches that have viewed workforce planning as a process that should integrate theoretical models that bring about different behaviours within the organization (Lent 2013). These studies attempt to integrate theories of management with scientific management with the aim of focusing on behavioral aspects of employees and management in the realization of what constitute workforce planning. In as much as there are divergent views on the aspects of workforce planning, what need to realized are ways in which workforce planning can be affected by organizational internal and external factors and ways in which management can incorporate aspects such as attracting and retention of skilled labour. Based on gaps in previous researches and contemporary problems that continue to affect corporate organisations, this report succinctly outlines aspects of workforce planning. Additionally, the report brings different models and theories and results from previous studies that analysed workforce planning, specifically with regard to elements such as performance management and workforce management. We conceptualise these findings, models and theories within the framework of different organisations. We consider that taking case studies on different organisations is essential since these organisations consider workforce planning as the core of their problems and as such, the report not only provide direction with regard to contingency planning and industrial planning but focuses on the best practice that attract and retain skilled workforce. One of the important aspects of workforce planning is the review on human capital and it is relationship to aspects such as retention. The increased significance of human capital has been apparent at both the supply and the demand side of the labour (Osatuke et al. 2013). This study takes a case of Oxygen Property Management which according to studies such as Kuhlang et al. (2011) has continued to lack adequate supply of and demand for highly qualified labour thus not able to guarantee economic progress. In such cases, proposals have been suggested and taking recent review from studies such as Curson et al (2010), solving problems of retention has been viewed in terms of developing top management support for such companies as a framework for Oxygen Property Management which will not only test issues such as appraisal, retention policies and competitive advantage but one which ensures that supply of and demand for labour and human capital is matched. Celletti et al. (2010) researched on the effectiveness of workforce planning and concluded that most organisations in knowledge-based economy are at higher risks of being challenged when they attempt to meet their demand for highly trained workers in labour markets which is already characterized by a shortage of qualified labour. Speaking oon findings from studies by Celletti et al. (2010), it is possible that most organisations pay less attention in the development of workforce planning. It has to be noted that recruitment and selection is key to the success of any organization. Basically, report by Kazaz, Manisali and Ulubeyli (2008) indicates that this is the approach that Pepsi management has adopted to help the Company to be involved in different policy development that follows the linear model or rational model. The form of recruitment and selection within Pepsi is determined by job related knowledge and the level of skill of an individual. For instance, when Pepsi Company developed Cheetos and Doritos to replace Lay---a policy that followed linear model to ensure that brand developments are balanced, rational, objective and analytical, the management tasked the responsibility to its top performers (Fragnière, Gondzio and Yang 2010). Based on Pepsi’s approach it is worth noting that any criteria of recruitment and selection should be based on the degree of performance or global cultural values which tend to be technical in that case. Interpersonal skills and age are terms seen as soft criteriainterpersonal skilles which tend to a technical criteria. on ual aomng to say, either the parent country or the host since they tend to be of low performance or defined status. The cultural context may therefore elaborate both the preferred internal and external recruitment. For example, the internal recruitment and selection may be considered in order to ensure loyalty to the firm. Despite this, it has to be noted that culture influences the channels and methods of recruitment through formalization, structuring and widespread cultural doctrines. Workforce planning as it is seen with Pepsi is an evolving concept. However, the main objective of workforce planning is to develop the ability of human to work towards organizational growth and development and through improving the employee’s welfare and standards of living. In addition to this approach, recruitment and selection should be strategic so that it makes the organization to be competitive. Still on the case study of Pepsi, recruitment and selection strategies at Pepsi include series of decisions ratified to enhance competitive advantage thus ending with a set of skills and activities that can deal with competitors from companies such as Coca-Cola. There is anecdotal evidence indicating benefits and challenges of undertaking workforce planning aspects such aspects of training, classification and compensation. According to Ghosh (2009), training, classification and compensation help in understanding the policy that will be used in worker motivation and organization productivity. Kjellstrom, Holmer and Lemke (2009) took a case study on Basingstoke Skip Hire & Southern, Independent Commodity Supplies and Agmet and found that companies are based on the monopolisation of skilled labour thus denying upcoming talents. It is for this reason that scholars have found training as the aspect of workforce planning that could effectively eliminate such practices. Classification compensation and contingency theory applied to the management approach is another level of business strategies that provide the organization with an opportunity to gather cross-functional and diverse teams under each focus segment, and provide customized and effective solution to needs. In order to better understand the design structure of the company and analyse its alignment with its external environment, Indra Nooyi (Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo) recently reshuffled management at the company to maximimise the productivity and structural designs thus utilising what Elbanna (2008) terms as multiple intelligences theory (different people are intelligent in different domains and that reshuffling and re-structuring ensures effectiveness). Also related to this point, given the fact that the firm (PepsiCo) operates an asset-heavy strategy, it is currently leveraging the risks of economic downturns by diversifying its income channels and beverage brands. The strategy used by PepsiCo was also incorporated in Apple and the figure 1 below provides the details. Figure 1: Apple’s Structure for Compensation According to Steve Jobs, Apple’s managing director, the structure as shown in figure 1 above is used as a one-time compensation or reward to workers as appreciation for meeting a given performance goals or productivity objective (Kerzner 2011). The approach Apple has taken is what summarises structure for compensation and retention of skilled labour as far as workforce planning is concerned. Employees in an organization need something to keep them at work every time. In many occasions, it is the meaningful and reasonable salary that keeps the employees working. In an effort to realize the full potential of the employees, there is need to create a working environment which is motivating to them. The incentive theory of motivation is basically concerned with the way the employees can be controlled to work in a particular way as a result of the external rewards (Karlson et al, 2010). This theory might motivate people to go to work regularly and work with a lot of vigour. The association and reinforcement principles of motivation play an important role in maintaining behaviour which would sustain the drive to work to meet the goals. On the contrary, Atkinson (2004) as cited in Karlson et al, (2010) also stresses on the use of punitive rewards like punishment to motivate employees as an approach of realizing workforce planning. While this report is interested in understanding aspects of workforce planning within the context of different organization, motivation has been incorporated as the force that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviours towards some aspects of workforce planning (attraction and retention of skilled workers). The need to model such forces to appeal to the employees is an important aspect that should be considered by the workforce planners. It is therefore vital to provide a working environment that motivates the employees to continue working hard to achieve the fore-set objectives. Supyuenyong, Islam and Kulkarni (2009) stated that when management of any organization makes their employees undergo trainings and utilize workplace planning aspects then the operations will succeed because success depends on the effectiveness of utilization of workplace planning aspects. This approach has been applied successfully by Optus communications that decided to train their employees through what it termed as Participation in the Communication Alliance and Australian Mobile Telecommunication Association (AMTA) so that the employees could look for cooperative approaches of improving life standards at places of work besides mastering concepts essential in bringing forward corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives (Pronk and Kottke 2009). One possible conclusion that can be drawn from Optus workplace planning processes is that organizational planning is primarily focussed on a long-term strategy and risk management, which to a larger extent, includes general development objectives, specific employee satisfaction and retention strategies. Also captured in the Company’s workplace planning processes is the medium and employee-retention planning and long-term staffing plans. From the perspective of succession planning, leadership development and contingent workforce, current functional structure provides clear outline of the core mechanisms and procedures the company is using to define its hierarchical structure. Additionally, divisional setting as practiced in the company allows it to focus on its core business competence thus providing an opportunity to bring a given leadership expertise to their product lines. However, studies have warned that aspects of workplace planning undertaken by Optus may prove detrimental especially in building cost effective reward and remuneration structures (Girasek et al. 2016). Looking at the Company’s Sustainability Report 2013, Optus is already investing the creation of reward and remuneration structures that have been outsourced (Girasek et al. 2016). This approach may deepen the issues of strategic misalignment since they can pursue different motivational and influential strategies rather than what the company intends to achieve. However, there is need to appreciate what Optus has undertaken and perhaps the best direction to take is to check vertical integration towards corporate values and employment standards. In addition to this, there are the Six Sigma role structure which helps to provide a procedure in recruiting employees who have skills such as working with team, knowledge and dedication towards quality. Six Sigma role structure encourages the involvement of employees in quality management and provide recognition to their performance in the form of rewards and promotions. These factors will make employees to take the challenging problems in quality thus solving some of the problems inherent in workplace planning processes. Still on the link between workplace planning processes and Six Sigma theory, the theory outlines that trainings to the employees should be given incrementally so that employees can apply them when they learn as incremental training will result in improved performance. Thus Six Sigma role structure is related positively with the structured improvement procedures of workplace planning processes. It is for this reason that it is important to look at the definition of workforce planning beyond the scope of Minnesota Management and Budget (2005) definitions. The point is that current challenges in organisation and specifically with workforce cannot be looked at only in terms of aligning an organisation’s human capital with its business direction. Giving practical examples why Minnesota Management and Budget definitions may not be applicable in all cases, the collapse of Parmalat Group challenges this definitions because the collapse brings a number of questions on the soundness of the financial reporting standards, worker motivation, retention, recruitment, the soundness of performance standards and the dialogic theory of compensation in organisations. Therefore, it is worth noting that workforce planning stretches beyond human capital alignment with orgnisational directions. Figure 2 below has therefore been developed to integrate the definition provided by Minnesota Management and Budget and the current challenges facing organisation so that an understanding is reached on what constitute workforce planning. Figure 2: Workforce Planning Processes as Needed in Modern Organisations Figure 2 has incorporated different aspects of workforce planning but has inserted key performance indicators and variables that need to be attained in each process/aspect so that organizational goals can be aligned with human capital and orgnisational directions without compromising on specific needs of workers or employees. For instance, the fourth process indicates the need for identifying short and long term risks in attracting and retaining critical talent. When this direction is taken the benefit is two-fold. Firstly, the organization will benefit by assessing the long and short term risks of attracting and retaining critical talents. Secondly, the worker will benefit as the retention processes shall have factored compensatory costs of the processes. Generally, figure 2 above plays a vital role in controlling the locus dimension of an overall employee and organisations productivity. It further provides an understanding on behaviours that control workers and at the end, provide employers with the skills on the gaps to fill so as to guide the way individual employees perform. The process further provides an opportunity for translating business strategies into human capital needs. Accordingly, the organizational strategies need to base on motivational logical appeals which focus on feelings, personality, emotions, praise and advice. The proper usage of such appeals as portrayed by Atkinson (2004) is relevant in boosting the morale of workers and proves the need in results. The arousal theory suggests that people take particular actions depending on the level to which their desire to fulfill certain tasks have reached. For motivating situations, the level of arousal would be high thus the need to perform tasks faster and with fulfillment. These views have been supported ins studies such as O’Brien‐Pallas and Hayes (2008) who noted that properly aligned workforce aspects are likely to attract and retain the staff as it will enhance variables such as ‘rewarding and recognizing top performers. O’Brien‐Pallas and Hayes (2008) found that 33% of the staff responses believed that introduction of the compensatory schemes will retain the staff as the framework will reward and recognize top performers. Separately, Vischer and Wifi (2016) conducted a research on Optus telecommunication to ascertain application of different aspects of workforce planning and their effects on worker productivity, retention and attraction of skilled labour. According to the research findings, about 37% responded that introduction of different aspects of workforce planning will further improve the performance of the company. Workers interviewed on monitoring and evaluation noted that introduction of performance contracting, appraisals and remunerations were essential in enhancing their performance. Workforce planning is about enhancing good practices that further promote retention of best workers in an organisation. Good management practices remain multifaceted but within the scope of workforce aspects they include organizational legislative forecasts, workload projections, task planning, budget projections and turnover analyses. Relating the aforementioned practices with the research conducted by Weiss (2016), any workforce planning processes that take note of the above is likely to attract and retain staff as it will enhance variables such as ‘rewarding and recognizing top performers, helping workers to forecast and plan. This position notwithstanding, analyses of different workforce planning processes across different organsiations provide an indication that the apparent main reason that organisations may not perform well can be due to inappropriate human resource planning processes that tailor these organisations towards production enhancement and appraisal systems that do not conform to specific needs of workers. Figure 3 below has been suggested to present that argument. According to the figure, organisations will need to build capabilities of workers, ensure their wellbeing, attract and retain them in what will still be considered as workforce planning that is oriented towards the wellbeing of workforce. Figure 3: Worker Oriented Workforce Planning Processes When figure 3 above is taken into consideration, strategic planning, workload projections and turnover analyses shall not only have been considered but performance management will be predominantly a function of performance enhancement. On the same note, the figure provides the needed theoretical and hypothetical evidence for the best workforce planning processes that modern organsiations need for performance enhancement. The aspects of attraction, building capability, wellbeing and retention as shown in figure 3 above are pointers of what employers should to when applying different management theories of workforce management. Studies such as Lantz Friedrich, Sjöberg and Friedrich (2016) have taken time to review humanistic theories of workforce planning processes which focus on the cognitive reasons that guide workers to performing certain actions. The researcher argues that for employees to tap the potential of employees optimally there is need for an understanding of their cognitive desires at work. The principle of worker attraction and retention as portrayed by Bartlett et al (2016) who have suggested that the various needs of workers need to be satisfied at various levels along the hierarchy of needs. The lower needs should be satisfied before the higher needs are met. For instance, in a working scenario, the basic needs of employees need to be satisfied first followed by the security of tenure before the higher needs like actualization are satisfied. Therefore, employers need to understand the order in which the needs of the employees need to be satisfied. The employees will thus be motivated to work once the needs have been satisfied at various levels. Intrinsic and extrinsic methods of understanding workers need have been relevant designing workforce planning processes and the various aspects of workforce processes. Pronk and Kottke (2009) argue that when specific aspect of workforce processes are developed within an organization then the concept of competition can be utilized by organizations to model the behaviour of employees by encouraging them to work harder to enjoy the competitive advantage over others. Workforce aspects that are specific to the needs of employees will drive employees to enjoy the performance of tasks as well as work to improve their skills, thereby increasing their capabilities (Bartlett et al 2016). On a broader perspective, workforce planning has been affected negatively by organization inherent factors and those factors that are beyond the control or confines of the organisation. There have been studies that have been concerned with ways in which workforce planning are affected by a number of external and internal factors (Bartlett et al 2016). These factors as are as shown in figure 4 below. Figure 4 above has been developed to summarise main issues and problems that are inherent within different companies and subsequently connect to the existing employee relationship. The first internal issue that has been captured in the figure above is employee engagement. Employee engagement is a vast construct that touches almost all parts of workplace planning processes. Conclusively, there are key management issues that this report finds. First, complexities in modern organization has redefined workplace planning to encompass a process that ensures that workers with knowledge, skills and experiences are identified and recruited so as to deliver an organizational short and long term goals and objectives. Therefore, the workplace processes and aspects as explained above seen to describe roles that every worker should take for effective performance. Generally, workforce planning remains to be inescapable as it drives the following: The need for organisations to secure different sources of income and in return, deliver quality services The need to reduce costs of operations and in return, attain different levels of productivity Develop performance indicators that propel delivery of better services Developing financial imperatives so that there can be maximum utilization of existing workforce This report further realizes that workforce planning is essential in understanding talent management as it includes a rich description of the current and future workforces required in an organization and succinct illustrations of the needed changes an organisation will make in order to achieve the future needed by the organization. However, this report is concerned about the complexity of developing an inclusive workforce plan that suits every organization. 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