Ol-600-04251 Strategic Human Resource Management
Southern New Hampshire University
Betty Smith
OL-600-04251 Strategic Human Resource Management
Final Paper
Professor Danielle Lombard Sims
August 23, 2014
In today’s global economy, the roles and responsibilities, the functions, and the needed skills of HR have changed. The role has gone from a traditional transactional focus on compensation, hiring and staffing to the new “Knowledge Age” transformational focus on business services and strategic partner role. The new HR professional emphasizes knowing the entire business. HR roles and responsibilities cover administrative services, business services, and strategic partner roles. The administrative service is a product of the old HR. Today HR focuses on the role of strategic …show more content…
business partner, change agent, and employee advocate. Technology has helped decrease HR roles in administration, what used to take days to complete now take a few clicks on a computer and a few minutes. For example, with my company, I am able to access information about benefit from my company’s website as well as enrollment of benefits and comlete training. Also many of my company’s responsibilities have been outsourced (services provided by another company); such things as Bckground checks, payroll services, and employee development, performance management, communication plans, and strategies about polices and development. HR managers work directly with line managers to build partnership to ensure a competitive advantage for the company. Therefore the need for HR professionals now include being able to understand finance and business. The competencies needed in the Knowledge has also changed
Competencies
HR operates under three Administrative Services and divisions: (1) Transactions, (2) Business
Partner Services, and (3) Strategic Partner.
Grossman (2007) defined a credible business partner as someone who possesses six competencies: Credible Activist, Cultural Steward, Talent Manager/Organizational Designer, Strategy Architect, Business Ally, and Operational Executor Demonstrating theses competencies can help HR create value, contribute to the business strategy and shape the company’s culture.
HRMS
The role in administration is decreasing as technology is used for many of the administrative purposes such as managing employee records and allowing employees to get information about and enroll in training, benefits, and other programs. HR is viewed as a strategic business partner and change agent. In order for her company to gain a competitive advantage, it will need to seek/train good talent with the education and skills with a more business foundation. The new Knowledge Age HR professionals take advantage of technology to automate routine activities which will free up more time for HR to focus on HRM activities that will add substantial value to the company. Organizations are now implementing HRMS to provide service and information to the employee. Moving much of the work that is being done by the HR professional into the employee hands give HR more time to concentrate on strategic activities. The use of a HRMS allows employees to serve themselves. HRMS …show more content…
must focus on the efficient work structures and policies that allow employees and technology to interact. This technology gives employees access help with such functions as: payroll services, benefits management, time and attendance, employee assistance, background and criminal checks, recruitment, training, and records keeping.
This minimizes cost and ensures that the organization operates efficiently and effectively.
Some of the providers of the HRMS are ADP, Accenture, HR Services, Convergys, Hewitts, and BambooHR. Bamboo HR is an HR software provider that is user friendly and can customize all your technology needs to allow your HR department to maximize its potential.
Virtual Workplace
Another concept that is now being executed by HR professions is the use of the virtual office.
As a Human Resource professional incorporating the “Virtual Workplace” concept into an organization would come with challenges.
The first concern would be the effect the change would have to our customers, shareholders, employees, departments, and the community. There would be plenty of communication session regarding the change. Employees would not only be given information about the positive and the negative aspects of the new concept but would have opportunities to ask questions and voice their concerns as well. This will help to do any problem-solving in the groundbreaking stage. One negative aspect of my organization is that the employees were not given any information or asked their opinions regarding the move. There should have been surveys, questionnaires or meetings to give and get some feedback. The strategies and goals of an organization rely on employees’ involvement as well as commitment. There would be plenty of training offered to everyone. The Human Resource Management aspects must include acquiring, preparing, compensating, and training and developing for the employees. There will need to be policies changes made as well, employees would be asked their input in developing the new policies. Boundaries that were previously established would be abandoned. I would start the virtual workplace with my managers/supervisors collaborating with my HR department. This team would be responsible for identifying the best talent “talentship” (Moore, 2007) and connecting
with those employees. To see how this new concept would affect the company’s overall goals. Virtual workplaces have been made easier by technology. They provide mobility and flexibility. To help with their success, managers have to empower employees to accept the change.
Great Place to Work
According to “A Great Place to Work” Institute, there are three criteria when evaluating a great place to work: (1) trust the people you work for, (2) have pride in what you do and, (3) enjoy the people you work with. Included in this model are 5 dimensions; credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. Trust is the one that is most important to me. Respect involves providing employees with equipment, resources, and training that thy need to do their jobs. It means appreciating good work and extra effort. It includes reaching out to employees and making them partners in the organization’s activities, fostering a spirit of collaboration across departments, and creating a work environment that’s safe and healthy. Respect means that work/life balance is a practice not a slogan. To be a part of an organization that extends respect to its employees and embodies all the above characteristics you are able to return the respect.
Provide employees with resources
Employers show respect to employees through training and development. Training refers to a planned effort by an organization to facilitate employees learning of job related compencies.. These competencies include knowledge, skills, or behavior of the employee (Nope, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright 2010). Managers know that employees who are given the opportunities to learn and develop create positive work environments. Employee development is a necessary part of an organization’s effort to compete in the new economy, Employee retention and commitment are directly related to how managers treat their employees.
Appreciate good work and effort
In adapting to the Knowledge Age, employees are now paid for the skill they are capable of using and for the job they perform at a particular time. Good managers understand that money is not the only way to motivate behavior; they must also show respect to the employee by rewards and recognition; this encourages employees to generate high levels of effort.
Reach out to employees to make them a part of the organization
Employee who are engaged in their work and committed to the organization they work for give organizations competitive advantages including high productivity, better customer service and lower turnover (Huselid 1995).
Foster a spirit of collaboration
In an organization where respect is shown, employees, managers, vendors, customers, and suppliers work together to improve service and product quality and to create new product and services. In my previous organization, all decisions were made by the manager and the focus was on efficiency, a set of boundaries were established and every employee knew not to cross those boundaries. There was no cohesiveness and little time for employee to socialize.
Create a work environment that is safe and healthy
A way for organization to provide a safe and healthy work environment is by providing employee with wellness and preventive health programs. Employees’ wellness programs focus on changing behavior on and off work time. For example, Microsoft’s weight management employee benefit offers $6000 toward a comprehensive clinically managed program that includes a counselor, personal trainer, medical supervisor, and support group.
OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act) law authorize the federal government to establish and enforce occupational safety and health standards for all places of employee. Each employer has a general duty to provide each employee a place of employment free from recognized hazard that cause or is likely to cause death or severe harm.
Provide work/life balance
In the Knowledge Age of employment, organizations require frequent changes in the quality , innovation, creativeness, and timelessness of the employee contributions and skills needed to provide for them Employee are responsible for their own careers from seeking job training to balancing work and family.
A great place to work is one that prepares, develops, compensates, protect, and interact with the employees to create a culture that delivers respect to its employees. These are the values that I seek in an organization. An employer can have a good relationship with co-workers, the compensation can be equitable, and management credible, but unless the employee is treated with respect, the organization still fails to reach “A Great Place to Work” status.
Leading Change
Change means making things different. In organizations planned change are those activities that are intentional and goal oriented, (Robbins 2001). Organization change is an episodic activity, meaning it starts at some point, proceed through a series of steps and culminates in some outcome that is an improvement over the starting point, (Vaill, 1989). It’s a beginning, middle, and an end. There are different drivers of change in organization.”
1. Technology: Technology allows organizations to get work done faster and cheaper. For example, HR departments now have HRMS at their disposal.
2. Economic Shocks: A. economy shock is an unexpected event that affects the economy. With the collapse in the housing market in 2012, many banks and construction organizations went bankrupt.
3. Competition: In today’s global economy, competitors come from across the ocean as well as from across town. Successful organizations will be the ones that can change in response to the competition.
4. Social Trends: Social trends affect the demands of and organization’s resources (human resources) as well as the operation of the organization. For example, with the increase in social media, organizations are able to reach out to younger employees in their own environments. Ernst & Young allows Facebook users to chat with recruiters from the organization.
5. World Politics: The political climate in the world will cause an organization to change. In 2013 due to reduced government spending, Lockheed Martin cut 4,000 positions.
6. Nature of the Workforce: HR policies and practices in organizations have to change in order to attract and keep a diverse workforce. Border’s Bookstore is capitalizing on the older worker. In order to attract and retain older employees, Borders added medical and dental benefits for part-time workers.
The goal of change is to improve the ability of the organization and to change the employee behavior to accept the change. When leading change, John Kotter laid out an 8 step plan:
1. Establish a Sense of Urgency. Managers need to connect to the deepest values of their people and inspire them to greatness. There need to be a strong sense of urgency for the need and it should be shared with everyone else
2. Create the Guiding Coalition. The coalition must have position and power, expertise, credibility and leadership. Leadership must be supportive of the change
3. Develop a Change Vision. The vision should be simply, motivates people to take action, help to coordinate the action of different people in effective ways. Is should be focused, flexible and easy to communicate.
4. Communicate the Vision for Buy-In. The vision should be backed up with words. It must show how the future will be different from the present.
5. Empower Broad-Based Action. Remove as many barriers as possible.
6. Generate Sort-term Wins. This provides evidence that the sacrifices that people are making are paying off.
7. Don’t Let Up. Resistance is always there. Take time to make sure everyone are firmly grounded in the organization’s culture.
8. Make It Stick. New practices must grow roots in order to remain firmly planted in the culture. The success must be visible and well communicated.
In organizational behavior it is true that there will be resistance to change. In a sense this is positive because it provides a degree of predictability to behavior. It can be overt or implicit.
Robbins, (2001) suggested five reasons for resistance to change:
1. Habit. As human being, we are creature of habits to cope with life complexity we rely on habits, so when confronted with change, the tendency to response in the usually way becomes a source of resistance. For instance our organization moved to a new location and everyone freaked out because we were used to the office lay out, the parking area, the cafeteria, the restaurants in the area and so on. Now we had to learn all these things over.
2. Security. People with a high need for security resist change because it threatens their level of safety. I worked for a university and it was announced that the school was converting to on-line admission and financial aid application, we all became upset because we feared our jobs were in jeopardy.
3. Economic Factors. Some people feel that change will lower their income. When my organization decided to go to “pay-per-essay”., my co-worker became concerned that she wouldn’t receive as much pay as she was used to getting and she became stressed over it.
4. Fear of the Unknown. Change replaces the known with the unknown. For example, HRMS means employees will have to learn to use this system to get answers to payroll issues. Some may feel unable to do so; therefore the employee may come to dislike the system
5. Selective Information Processing. People are guilty of selectively processing information in order to keep their perceptions intact. We hear what we want to hear. To go back to the HRMS; some employees may miss the part when HR explained the benefits of using the system. They come to resist the change because they never got the information.
The above examples showed the employees in Bridges’ first (Ending, Losing and Letting Go) and second stage (the Neutral Zone) where they are still holding on to the old but trying to embrace the new. In the third stage (The New Beginning) or acceptance, people adapted to each of the changes with great enthusiasm, readiness for new ways of learning and new skills, and a renewed commitment to the organization.
Resistance to change can be overcome by education and communication. Employees need to get the facts and be allowed to discuss any concerns they may have. Communication channels should be open both upward and downward. Employees should be encouraged to talk about their feelings. They should be allowed to participate in the change process. Prior to making a change, those opposed can be brought into the decision process. Employees counseling and therapy, training and developing of new skills should be offered to any employee that needs it. Another way to deal with resistance is to offer something of value for a lessening of the resistance.
Recruitment and Retention
Retention Rewarded
Generation X refers to the individuals that entered the workforce in the late 1980. This group of individuals value flexibility, a balanced lifestyle, and the achievement of job satisfaction. They are loyal to relationships, family. Money is not a motivator for this particular group., they are willing to trade off salary increase for a balanced lifestyle. They value true friendship, happiness, and pleasure. Their lives have been shaped by globalization and technology. They are willing to give you their all if you make them part of the mission.
My retention plan for this generation would first be to offer them a flexible work schedule. Employees can schedule their hours to fit their personal schedules. I would require them to vary the hours that they work each day although they would be required to work a specific number of hours. I would go so far as allow extra hours to be worked which can be used as a day of each month. For example, if the office is opened from 7am until 7pm, I would set the core time from 10am until 3pm when all employees would be required to be there but would be allowed to accumulate the remaining hours to their benefit either before or after the core period. Flextime tends to reduce absenteeism and improve productivity, increase autonomy, eliminate tardiness and lessen hostility toward management (Dalton & Mesch, 1990). Along with flextime I would offer job sharing and job rotation. For example, one person may work four hours while the other hours is worked by another employee, this would work well in my company because I would partner my new hires with employees that had been with the organization for a while. This would allow them to learn more about the organization as well as get a feel for where they can go in the company. I would definitely promote from within there they get to learn of career opportunities.
Another method that I would use to retain my employee would be the with my benefit package and perks, this would not be a one size fit all, benefits would be tailored to fit each individual and demographic. For example to accommodate my employees with small children, I would offer on-site childcare.
References:
BambooHR (n.d.). Human Resource Management System. Retrieved from http://www.bamboohr.com/hrms.software
Colin, M. (2006). More Micro, Less Soft. Business Weekly, November 27, 2006. p42.
Dalton, D. & Mesch, D. (June 1991). The Impact of Flexible Scheduling on Employee Attendance and Turnover. Administrative Science Quarterly. pPp370-387
Grossman, R. (2007). New Competencies for HR. HR Magazine (52)6.
Huselid, M. (1995). The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices in Turnover, Productivity, and Corporate Financial Reform. Academy of Management Journal Vol 38 p638.
Noe, R., Hollenbeck, J., Gerhart, B., and Wright, P. Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. New York, NY. McGraw- Hill Companies Inc.
Tully, S. (June 1995). America’s Healthiest Companies. Pp98-106
Betty Smith
OL-600-04251 Strategic Human Resource Management
Final Paper
Professor Danielle Lombard Sims
August 23, 2014
In today’s global economy, the roles and responsibilities, the functions, and the needed skills of HR have changed. The role has gone from a traditional transactional focus on compensation, hiring and staffing to the new “Knowledge Age” transformational focus on business services and strategic partner role. The new HR professional emphasizes knowing the entire business. HR roles and responsibilities cover administrative services, business services, and strategic partner roles. The administrative service is a product of the old HR. Today HR focuses on the role of strategic …show more content…
business partner, change agent, and employee advocate. Technology has helped decrease HR roles in administration, what used to take days to complete now take a few clicks on a computer and a few minutes. For example, with my company, I am able to access information about benefit from my company’s website as well as enrollment of benefits and comlete training. Also many of my company’s responsibilities have been outsourced (services provided by another company); such things as Bckground checks, payroll services, and employee development, performance management, communication plans, and strategies about polices and development. HR managers work directly with line managers to build partnership to ensure a competitive advantage for the company. Therefore the need for HR professionals now include being able to understand finance and business. The competencies needed in the Knowledge has also changed
Competencies
HR operates under three Administrative Services and divisions: (1) Transactions, (2) Business
Partner Services, and (3) Strategic Partner.
Grossman (2007) defined a credible business partner as someone who possesses six competencies: Credible Activist, Cultural Steward, Talent Manager/Organizational Designer, Strategy Architect, Business Ally, and Operational Executor Demonstrating theses competencies can help HR create value, contribute to the business strategy and shape the company’s culture.
HRMS
The role in administration is decreasing as technology is used for many of the administrative purposes such as managing employee records and allowing employees to get information about and enroll in training, benefits, and other programs. HR is viewed as a strategic business partner and change agent. In order for her company to gain a competitive advantage, it will need to seek/train good talent with the education and skills with a more business foundation. The new Knowledge Age HR professionals take advantage of technology to automate routine activities which will free up more time for HR to focus on HRM activities that will add substantial value to the company. Organizations are now implementing HRMS to provide service and information to the employee. Moving much of the work that is being done by the HR professional into the employee hands give HR more time to concentrate on strategic activities. The use of a HRMS allows employees to serve themselves. HRMS …show more content…
must focus on the efficient work structures and policies that allow employees and technology to interact. This technology gives employees access help with such functions as: payroll services, benefits management, time and attendance, employee assistance, background and criminal checks, recruitment, training, and records keeping.
This minimizes cost and ensures that the organization operates efficiently and effectively.
Some of the providers of the HRMS are ADP, Accenture, HR Services, Convergys, Hewitts, and BambooHR. Bamboo HR is an HR software provider that is user friendly and can customize all your technology needs to allow your HR department to maximize its potential.
Virtual Workplace
Another concept that is now being executed by HR professions is the use of the virtual office.
As a Human Resource professional incorporating the “Virtual Workplace” concept into an organization would come with challenges.
The first concern would be the effect the change would have to our customers, shareholders, employees, departments, and the community. There would be plenty of communication session regarding the change. Employees would not only be given information about the positive and the negative aspects of the new concept but would have opportunities to ask questions and voice their concerns as well. This will help to do any problem-solving in the groundbreaking stage. One negative aspect of my organization is that the employees were not given any information or asked their opinions regarding the move. There should have been surveys, questionnaires or meetings to give and get some feedback. The strategies and goals of an organization rely on employees’ involvement as well as commitment. There would be plenty of training offered to everyone. The Human Resource Management aspects must include acquiring, preparing, compensating, and training and developing for the employees. There will need to be policies changes made as well, employees would be asked their input in developing the new policies. Boundaries that were previously established would be abandoned. I would start the virtual workplace with my managers/supervisors collaborating with my HR department. This team would be responsible for identifying the best talent “talentship” (Moore, 2007) and connecting
with those employees. To see how this new concept would affect the company’s overall goals. Virtual workplaces have been made easier by technology. They provide mobility and flexibility. To help with their success, managers have to empower employees to accept the change.
Great Place to Work
According to “A Great Place to Work” Institute, there are three criteria when evaluating a great place to work: (1) trust the people you work for, (2) have pride in what you do and, (3) enjoy the people you work with. Included in this model are 5 dimensions; credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. Trust is the one that is most important to me. Respect involves providing employees with equipment, resources, and training that thy need to do their jobs. It means appreciating good work and extra effort. It includes reaching out to employees and making them partners in the organization’s activities, fostering a spirit of collaboration across departments, and creating a work environment that’s safe and healthy. Respect means that work/life balance is a practice not a slogan. To be a part of an organization that extends respect to its employees and embodies all the above characteristics you are able to return the respect.
Provide employees with resources
Employers show respect to employees through training and development. Training refers to a planned effort by an organization to facilitate employees learning of job related compencies.. These competencies include knowledge, skills, or behavior of the employee (Nope, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright 2010). Managers know that employees who are given the opportunities to learn and develop create positive work environments. Employee development is a necessary part of an organization’s effort to compete in the new economy, Employee retention and commitment are directly related to how managers treat their employees.
Appreciate good work and effort
In adapting to the Knowledge Age, employees are now paid for the skill they are capable of using and for the job they perform at a particular time. Good managers understand that money is not the only way to motivate behavior; they must also show respect to the employee by rewards and recognition; this encourages employees to generate high levels of effort.
Reach out to employees to make them a part of the organization
Employee who are engaged in their work and committed to the organization they work for give organizations competitive advantages including high productivity, better customer service and lower turnover (Huselid 1995).
Foster a spirit of collaboration
In an organization where respect is shown, employees, managers, vendors, customers, and suppliers work together to improve service and product quality and to create new product and services. In my previous organization, all decisions were made by the manager and the focus was on efficiency, a set of boundaries were established and every employee knew not to cross those boundaries. There was no cohesiveness and little time for employee to socialize.
Create a work environment that is safe and healthy
A way for organization to provide a safe and healthy work environment is by providing employee with wellness and preventive health programs. Employees’ wellness programs focus on changing behavior on and off work time. For example, Microsoft’s weight management employee benefit offers $6000 toward a comprehensive clinically managed program that includes a counselor, personal trainer, medical supervisor, and support group.
OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act) law authorize the federal government to establish and enforce occupational safety and health standards for all places of employee. Each employer has a general duty to provide each employee a place of employment free from recognized hazard that cause or is likely to cause death or severe harm.
Provide work/life balance
In the Knowledge Age of employment, organizations require frequent changes in the quality , innovation, creativeness, and timelessness of the employee contributions and skills needed to provide for them Employee are responsible for their own careers from seeking job training to balancing work and family.
A great place to work is one that prepares, develops, compensates, protect, and interact with the employees to create a culture that delivers respect to its employees. These are the values that I seek in an organization. An employer can have a good relationship with co-workers, the compensation can be equitable, and management credible, but unless the employee is treated with respect, the organization still fails to reach “A Great Place to Work” status.
Leading Change
Change means making things different. In organizations planned change are those activities that are intentional and goal oriented, (Robbins 2001). Organization change is an episodic activity, meaning it starts at some point, proceed through a series of steps and culminates in some outcome that is an improvement over the starting point, (Vaill, 1989). It’s a beginning, middle, and an end. There are different drivers of change in organization.”
1. Technology: Technology allows organizations to get work done faster and cheaper. For example, HR departments now have HRMS at their disposal.
2. Economic Shocks: A. economy shock is an unexpected event that affects the economy. With the collapse in the housing market in 2012, many banks and construction organizations went bankrupt.
3. Competition: In today’s global economy, competitors come from across the ocean as well as from across town. Successful organizations will be the ones that can change in response to the competition.
4. Social Trends: Social trends affect the demands of and organization’s resources (human resources) as well as the operation of the organization. For example, with the increase in social media, organizations are able to reach out to younger employees in their own environments. Ernst & Young allows Facebook users to chat with recruiters from the organization.
5. World Politics: The political climate in the world will cause an organization to change. In 2013 due to reduced government spending, Lockheed Martin cut 4,000 positions.
6. Nature of the Workforce: HR policies and practices in organizations have to change in order to attract and keep a diverse workforce. Border’s Bookstore is capitalizing on the older worker. In order to attract and retain older employees, Borders added medical and dental benefits for part-time workers.
The goal of change is to improve the ability of the organization and to change the employee behavior to accept the change. When leading change, John Kotter laid out an 8 step plan:
1. Establish a Sense of Urgency. Managers need to connect to the deepest values of their people and inspire them to greatness. There need to be a strong sense of urgency for the need and it should be shared with everyone else
2. Create the Guiding Coalition. The coalition must have position and power, expertise, credibility and leadership. Leadership must be supportive of the change
3. Develop a Change Vision. The vision should be simply, motivates people to take action, help to coordinate the action of different people in effective ways. Is should be focused, flexible and easy to communicate.
4. Communicate the Vision for Buy-In. The vision should be backed up with words. It must show how the future will be different from the present.
5. Empower Broad-Based Action. Remove as many barriers as possible.
6. Generate Sort-term Wins. This provides evidence that the sacrifices that people are making are paying off.
7. Don’t Let Up. Resistance is always there. Take time to make sure everyone are firmly grounded in the organization’s culture.
8. Make It Stick. New practices must grow roots in order to remain firmly planted in the culture. The success must be visible and well communicated.
In organizational behavior it is true that there will be resistance to change. In a sense this is positive because it provides a degree of predictability to behavior. It can be overt or implicit.
Robbins, (2001) suggested five reasons for resistance to change:
1. Habit. As human being, we are creature of habits to cope with life complexity we rely on habits, so when confronted with change, the tendency to response in the usually way becomes a source of resistance. For instance our organization moved to a new location and everyone freaked out because we were used to the office lay out, the parking area, the cafeteria, the restaurants in the area and so on. Now we had to learn all these things over.
2. Security. People with a high need for security resist change because it threatens their level of safety. I worked for a university and it was announced that the school was converting to on-line admission and financial aid application, we all became upset because we feared our jobs were in jeopardy.
3. Economic Factors. Some people feel that change will lower their income. When my organization decided to go to “pay-per-essay”., my co-worker became concerned that she wouldn’t receive as much pay as she was used to getting and she became stressed over it.
4. Fear of the Unknown. Change replaces the known with the unknown. For example, HRMS means employees will have to learn to use this system to get answers to payroll issues. Some may feel unable to do so; therefore the employee may come to dislike the system
5. Selective Information Processing. People are guilty of selectively processing information in order to keep their perceptions intact. We hear what we want to hear. To go back to the HRMS; some employees may miss the part when HR explained the benefits of using the system. They come to resist the change because they never got the information.
The above examples showed the employees in Bridges’ first (Ending, Losing and Letting Go) and second stage (the Neutral Zone) where they are still holding on to the old but trying to embrace the new. In the third stage (The New Beginning) or acceptance, people adapted to each of the changes with great enthusiasm, readiness for new ways of learning and new skills, and a renewed commitment to the organization.
Resistance to change can be overcome by education and communication. Employees need to get the facts and be allowed to discuss any concerns they may have. Communication channels should be open both upward and downward. Employees should be encouraged to talk about their feelings. They should be allowed to participate in the change process. Prior to making a change, those opposed can be brought into the decision process. Employees counseling and therapy, training and developing of new skills should be offered to any employee that needs it. Another way to deal with resistance is to offer something of value for a lessening of the resistance.
Recruitment and Retention
Retention Rewarded
Generation X refers to the individuals that entered the workforce in the late 1980. This group of individuals value flexibility, a balanced lifestyle, and the achievement of job satisfaction. They are loyal to relationships, family. Money is not a motivator for this particular group., they are willing to trade off salary increase for a balanced lifestyle. They value true friendship, happiness, and pleasure. Their lives have been shaped by globalization and technology. They are willing to give you their all if you make them part of the mission.
My retention plan for this generation would first be to offer them a flexible work schedule. Employees can schedule their hours to fit their personal schedules. I would require them to vary the hours that they work each day although they would be required to work a specific number of hours. I would go so far as allow extra hours to be worked which can be used as a day of each month. For example, if the office is opened from 7am until 7pm, I would set the core time from 10am until 3pm when all employees would be required to be there but would be allowed to accumulate the remaining hours to their benefit either before or after the core period. Flextime tends to reduce absenteeism and improve productivity, increase autonomy, eliminate tardiness and lessen hostility toward management (Dalton & Mesch, 1990). Along with flextime I would offer job sharing and job rotation. For example, one person may work four hours while the other hours is worked by another employee, this would work well in my company because I would partner my new hires with employees that had been with the organization for a while. This would allow them to learn more about the organization as well as get a feel for where they can go in the company. I would definitely promote from within there they get to learn of career opportunities.
Another method that I would use to retain my employee would be the with my benefit package and perks, this would not be a one size fit all, benefits would be tailored to fit each individual and demographic. For example to accommodate my employees with small children, I would offer on-site childcare.
References:
BambooHR (n.d.). Human Resource Management System. Retrieved from http://www.bamboohr.com/hrms.software
Colin, M. (2006). More Micro, Less Soft. Business Weekly, November 27, 2006. p42.
Dalton, D. & Mesch, D. (June 1991). The Impact of Flexible Scheduling on Employee Attendance and Turnover. Administrative Science Quarterly. pPp370-387
Grossman, R. (2007). New Competencies for HR. HR Magazine (52)6.
Huselid, M. (1995). The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices in Turnover, Productivity, and Corporate Financial Reform. Academy of Management Journal Vol 38 p638.
Noe, R., Hollenbeck, J., Gerhart, B., and Wright, P. Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. New York, NY. McGraw- Hill Companies Inc.
Tully, S. (June 1995). America’s Healthiest Companies. Pp98-106