An Employee Resourcing Management Book Report Paper

Employee Resourcing
Name
Institution
Employee Resourcing
HRP and Talent Management
ENG Co has some issues that can be addressed through human resource planning and talent management. According to Carbery and Cross (2013), HRP refers to the ongoing consideration of a firm’s staffing requirements, now and in the future, taking into account specific skills and jobs that are and will be required. Effective HRP can be useful in the success of an organization. Carbery and Cross (2013) point out that, with effective HRP, skills or staff shortages in the organization can be avoided. It ensures that the members who make up the workforce have the skills that the organization needs to stay competitive. In case certain skills are not available, the implementation of HRP can help the development of workers to gain those skills or recruitment of people to fill the skills gap. Talent management is also necessary to address the challenges facing ENG Co. The two dimensions of Exclusive/Inclusive and People/Position as described by Bratton and Gold (2017) can help ENG Co address some of the problems it is experiencing.
ENG Co is a firm that has won two Queen’s Award and is also considered a leader in its field. However, the issues it is facing currently can derail the progress it has made if they are not managed well. It is evident the company does not utilize human resource planning effectively. A problem facing the firm is that the two project managers claim that they are overworked and that they had not been prepared well for their roles. Given that two trainee project managers have left the firm in the last two years and have not been replaced, the claims of the project managers being overworked are justified. Also, the main system engineer complained of the incompetence of the project managers, pointing out that they lacked the necessary skills for their jobs. With crisis meetings and missed deadlines characterizing the projects, the claims by the primary system engineer can be substantiated. Through proper HRP, these challenges can be addressed before it completely affects the operations of the whole organization. HRP aims to ensure that an organization has the correct number of employees with the right skills. It is clear that ENG Co does not have the correct number of project managers and those present are not skilled enough to carry out the requirements of their jobs. HRP, in this case, can focus on recruitment or promoting members of the workforce to be project managers. The candidates recruited or promoted should have the correct project management expertise and skills needed by the firm. According to Sunindijo (2015), the cost performance of a project is influenced by interpersonal skill, emotional intelligence, budgeting, and sincerity.
Moreover, the quality of project performance is affected by skills such as visioning, interpersonal skill, quality management, transformational leadership, and interpersonal influence. Therefore, the possession of these skills needs to be taken into consideration when recruiting or promoting individuals to the project management. Instead of recruiting or promoting, ENG Co can alternatively focus on training the two project manager on the skills necessary in order for them to fulfill their roles effectively. The training of the project managers can focus on the skills described above.
ENG Co also has issues that can be addressed through talent management. System engineers are vital for the operations of the company and effective talent management. Engineers are in short supply in the labor market, and it is important for the company to take care of its valuable human resources. Also, some of the engineers are very close to retirement. In this regard, the People/Position and Exclusive/Inclusive dimensions described by Bratton and Gold (2017) can help ENG Co-manage talent better. The exclusive people approach assumes that some key individuals are necessary for the success of the organization. In this case, the system engineers are integral for the success of the projects. Therefore, their needs have to be prioritised. Another key aspect of talent management is succession planning. This will ensure that the members of the project team that are close to retirement are replaced smoothly.
Failure to address these issues related to HRP and talent management can affect the operations of the firm negatively. If the company does not address the inadequate number of project managers and their lack of skills, disunity with other members of the project team is likely to continue. The dissatisfaction by the main system engineer points to a lack of unity among project members. It is likely for the company to lose more members of the project if the project managers continue to show incompetence in discharging their duties. Also, if the needs of engineers who are integral for the project operations are not taken care of, they are likely to leave. Given that some engineers are very close to retirement, failure to hire new ones on time can affect the capacity of the organization to handle project activities effectively.
Flexible working and downsizing
A flexible working environment improves employee job satisfaction and productivity level (Bratton & Jeff, 2017). Companies sometimes downsize as an approach to a flexible working environment for their employees in response to change. ENG Co is facing an issue in balancing their staff, where some are overworked, as the project managers voiced out. Also, the issue of staffing has extended to the human resource department, due to the absence of the human resource director, thus affecting other areas such as performance management. Further, the company takes much time to approve designs of systems and establish contracts. These issues are relevant because they indicate the challenges that a company can face and how flexibility and downsizing can help improve the situation. As noted by Al-Hammali, Habtoor, and Muthaliff (2017), downsizing is a practice that has been adopted by many organizations as a way of illustrating their flexibility and improving communications. However, downsizing does not always result in firing employees since it is possible to allocate those employees to other departments, especially if they have the necessary skills.
One of the actions ENG Co can utilize is downsizing, a strategy that involves reducing employees in some departments and increasing employees in understaffed departments, such as the project management department. This strategy is referred to as rightsizing and involves linking the needs of employees to the company’s strategy (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2016). This enables the company to be responsive to changes in the work environment, thus facilitating flexibility. Also, project managers will not be overwhelmed with projects and will be able to meet deadlines. The fact that they previously had graduate trainees assisting them is an indication that their workload has increased since the trainees left. Bringing in people to assist them will improve their motivation and productivity. Another action would be adopting a systematic redesign downsizing strategy, which addresses the culture, values, and attitudes of the organization’s employee (Al-Hammali, Habtoor, & Muthaliff, 2017). This strategy of downsizing does not involve letting go of any employee but focuses on ensuring that all employees are working towards improving the operations of the company. For instance, ENG Co can reduce the waiting time in the project chain, thus ensuring that projects are completed on time. This can also be helpful in reducing the time taken to deliver to a client. Finally, the company can adopt contingency models which encourage a contingent workforce. This workforce includes temporary, part-time and contracts employees who are hired when the workload on permanent employees increases (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2016). This increases organizational flexibility, which is paramount in responding to changes in the labor market and the industry in general. As such, the management can use temporary or part-time workers to assist project managers when the projects are at a peak to reduce their workload. This is also very relevant because most contingent workers are project-based and as the company managers noted, project-based working is the future of the company.
Further, the company can benefit from a temporary director of human resources, who will ensure that the human assets are sufficiently managed before the permanent director gets back to work. However, it is imperative that ENG Co have some level of flexibility regarding their employment guidelines before adopting this strategy. This is because as put forward by Guest (2017), contingency models can only be adopted if flexible employment has been implemented.
Failure to solve the issues raised by ENG Co from a flexibility point can result in dire effects on the company as a whole. First, employees who are overworked might sought employment from the company’s competitors. Retaining employees is a challenge, and as such, it is important to devise measures to make sure employees feel appreciated. One approach is increased flexibility, which, as noted by Guest (2017), increases employees well-being and productivity. Further, it is important that the company reduce the waiting time for approval of designs, which will ensure that clients receive products in good time. To ensure that these actions are implemented, the company will be required to embrace both internal and external flexibility. Internal flexibility involves using the existing workforce such as reducing employees in one department and reassigning them to another in response to their needs, while external flexibility involves using external workforce(Lastra, Martin-Alcazar, & Sanchez-Gardey, 2014). It is imperative to understand that flexibility is a continuous process which will require ENG Co to adopt flexibility inducing approaches. Such approaches include job rotations and training programs (Lastra, Martin-Alcazar, & Sanchez-Gardey, 2014), especially when adopting inherent flexibility, which makes all the above recommendation long-term approaches. The use of the contingent workforce and systematic redesign as a downsizing strategy will ensure that ENG Co’s clients receive their products on time, which will increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Further, flexibility inducing approaches will improve the human resource management systems at ENG Co, thereby improving employee well-being and overall performance.
Performance Management
Performance management involves reviewing employee performance, the setting of employee objectives and talent management (Bach & Edwards, 2013). ENG Co lacks in this core area of human resource, which has resulted in a lack of confidence in the management. Employees feel that with the director of human resources absent, issues concerning performance management have been neglected. The performances of the project managers are wanting, something that could have been addressed if the company was conducting formal performance appraisal. The major issue here is that the project managers do not seem to understand how they are supposed to carry out their roles, which indicates a shortcoming on the part of the human resource manager for assuming the employees are well equipped.
Further, the project managers are missing deadlines, an indication that they have poor time management skills. As noted by Shields et al. (2016), timeliness is one of the outcomes considered in the measurement of performance. Performance management is beneficial to an organization as it helps a company keep track of the quality of its human assets, thus improving the overall performance of the organization (Waal & Kourtit, 2013). It is through performance management that organizations can design reward structures and identify needs for training and development.
ENG Co can adopt the goal setting approach in performance management. This approach involves every employee setting their own goals based on the key result areas (KRAs), with assistance from their supervisors. According to Shields, et al. (2016), individuals will be more motivated if they have set goals that are challenging but achievable. For the goal-setting approach to be practical, the KRAs for each employee must be identified and well clarified (Shields et al., 2016). For instance, the project managers and their supervisors can discuss the key result areas such as proper planning, problem-solving, and time management. The next step involves the employee and the supervisors setting and deciding on achievable goals, which are then reviewed occasionally to keep up with any changes in the organization. The advantage of the goal setting approach is that the employees participate in the performance management. They can self-monitor their progress and receive feedback from the employers, albeit informal, on a regular basis (Shields et al., 2016). For instance, the project manager who is very poor when it comes to planning can set goals that will help them improve that key result area, and can monitor their progress occasionally. Goal setting approach also focuses on specific performance standards and encourages the employee to manage themselves (Shields et al., 2016). In this sense, this approach will also help ENG Co deal employees who have a culture of making excuses when they do not achieve in their areas of specialization. Engineers are blaming project managers for their shortcomings while project managers are blaming the management for not preparing them well for their roles. Allowing all players to set their own goals will ensure that if they do not achieve them, they will be held accountable, whether they fail or succeed.
An effective performance management system will ensure that ENG Co can identify their employees' training needs through performance appraisal and facilitate decision making on issues related to employee development (Aggarwal & Thakur, 2013). For instance, the training needs on problem-solving skills and time management would have been identified in the project managers’ performance had been appraised. Instead of making excuses for the challenges the company is facing, the project managers would have provided solutions and ensured that projects were completed on time. Further, since performance management also entails talent management (Bach & Edwards, 2013), they will be able to identify and retain highly skilled and well-performing employees. For instance, the company would have appraised the performance of the trainees working under the project managers and would have been able to retain the most effective one to assist the project managers. The company cannot be able to attract new graduates if no efforts are being made to retain the older graduates.
Actions addressing issues of performance management such as poor performance among some of the employees and lack of clear expectations of roles are necessary because failure to take actions will reduce the people and organizational qualities. For instance, failure to appraise project managers will result in a downward trend where employees do not perform because they are not thoroughly prepared for their roles. Waal and Kourtit (2013) note that performance management and measurement is an ongoing process, and as such, these practices are long-term. However, these will require changing the company’s human resource practices from informal to formal performance management. This will ensure consistency and employees will feel more engaged. The human resource department should have other personnel to ensure that even in the absence of the department’s director, core practices such as performance management are still ongoing.
Reward
ENG Co faces the risk of high employee turnover as a result of low motivation and job dissatisfaction. This points out to the issue of rewards and employee motivation, which is a relevant area in human resource management. Rewards have a direct influence on motivation, job satisfaction, and productivity of employees (Sareen, 2018) and as such, a proper reward system should be incorporated in ENG Co HR policy. It is clear that ENG Co values their employees, especially the engineers who have worked for the company for long. This can be an indication that employees have been satisfied with their jobs in the past years, although the recent unrest point to a critical issue concerning poor motivation and job dissatisfaction.
Further, the company should address the issue of co-operation between the engineers and the project managers. It is evident that there is a culture of blame games and making excuses for shortcomings in the company, which can only be solved through cooperation between the players. This can be addressed through a reward system which focuses on improving employee behavior. There is a posi...