This essay examine value of surplus labour and its effect on the HR policy of a company and also the importance of the shortage labour market to the HR policy.
Surplus labour is an idea used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. It means labour performed in excess of the labour needed to produce the means of livelihood of the worker.
It is also important in the world of HR. Torrington et al (2009) says that surplus labour markets are also charachterized as easy buyer oriented labour markets. This is where the supply of available people exceeds what is actually required by the company. For example if company generic Sugar company in South Africa wanted to recruit 15 people , but when it advertised its job vacancy it got 500 responses, this could be seen as the example of a surplus labour market.
In contrast, you also have the shortage labour market. The shortage labour market on the other hand is a very challenging one for the business. If this same business Generic Sugar company wanted to recruit 15 people but because either the economy was doing well, or there was a shortage of people available to work and they only got for example 3 responses this could be seen as a shortage labour market.
Shortage labour markets are more problematic for companies. They need to focus on attracting candidates and putting all their effort in. You could say that they need to work extra hard to attract people, keep people and also focus on retention, people development and talent management.
Example of things companies do during the shortage labour market include this generic sugar company can work hard to offer flexible work arrangements, they need to advertise in a lot of places, not just normal print advertisement but also maybe branch out to magazines, social media. They will also need to build up their brand. Because there is so much competition for people