Marinating a Quality Workforce

Abstract

According to Harvard business article review, it is difficult for an organization to attract, develop and maintain a high quality workforce. This is because hiring and training workers only with an aim of meeting the organizational needs may not be enough. In order to be retained, workers need to be nurtured in successful way and given enough support. The most effective tools which can help in maintaining a quality workforce include providing them with an opportunity to train and develop in their careers, allowing them flexible work schedules and paying them competitive wages and salaries (Hallowell, 2012). An Organization that is reluctant to pay, train and continuously improve its workforce usually finds it difficult to favorably compete with other organizations operating in the same industry. This being the case, it is a requirement for organizations to pay close attention to recruitment and retention of its employees. It is a prerequisite for an organization to achieve a high financial performance and be able to enhance its standing with other organizations.

Tools and Strategies for Building and Maintaining a Quality Workforce

Quality and diverse workforce can be best managed through positioning an agency, designing and implementing a diversity program and sustaining development. For any organization to be successful, the management must be committed to build and maintain a high quality workforce. The commitment should be stated and communicated from the management to all employees within the organization. Managements commitment can be shown through the following ways:

Providing leadership that allows employees to be involved in the organizations decision making.

Proper allocation of resources to various organizations activities.

Making sure senior managers take part in planning and conducting the activies of the organization

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Involving employees in planning and conducting various activities.

Training employees in intercultural communication to enable them communicate effectively across different cultures

The management should be able to understand the organizations current situation. This can be achieved by developing a profile for the workforce, which includes its complete picture and how it reflects diversity at all levels in the major occupations and organizational components.

Workforce Planning

Making an analysis of the trends of organizations workforce and their projections, determining the gaps for kills needed and coming up with succession planning strategies are important steps for any business planning. The activities provide managers with the knowledge on how to allocate resources within the organization and planning for works to be performed in the future. The information is used to assess the current workforce to determine whether it is useful in meeting the organizations future goals and objectives (Kotter, 2013). It also helps the management understanding the areas to be focused during recruitment and retention of the workforce and actions to be taken into consideration in order to have a supportive work environment in place.

Building the Workforce After conducting a workforce planning, the organization will be in a good position to know the number spaces to be filled and the organizational needs to be targeted. The organization will then find and hire the high quality workforce to enable it achieve its goals and objectives. In order to get a diverse and high quality workforce, the organization should put into practice tailored approaches to recruit and hire people into their overall strategies (Goffee & Jones 2011). This starts with recruitment. The main purpose of recruitment is to attract candidates who are ready to meet the organizations strategic goals and priorities and be prepared to work in the organizations environment. In order to conduct an effective recruitment, the organization should consider the following factors:

Ensure that those who are carrying out the recruitment process work in close association with the human resource department. Maintaining a close relationship with the experts will bring about a smooth and easy recruitment process.

The organization should try to understand the competition and figure out the recruiting needs.

Design a long-term recruitment plan with input from managers, supervisors, and employees, as well as from specialists in the areas of human resources management.

Involve the senior managers directly in planning and conducting recruitment activities.

Follow up with candidates. The organization should send follow up letters and make calls to candidates who were met during the recruitment process.

After finding a high quality workforce, the organization will consider hiring them. During this process, the following factors should be considered;

Reviewing of the organizations internal human resource policies, processes and operations. This will help the organization in identifying new ways of streamlining hiring.

Take full advantage of customizing the competitive process by using the many staffing flexibilities and hiring authorities available.

Consider hiring for part time and seasonal work and use of temporary and term appointments where it is appropriate. This will help in attracting a group of people who may not have interest in fulltime and permanent jobs.

Maintaining the Workforce

According to Hallowell, (2012), after attracting and hiring the desired employees, the next organizational objective will be ensuring that the employees are retained in the organization. An organization which is committed to cultivating rewards of providing a supportive working environment, putting emphasis on learning and development and ensuring its employees get effective rewards and recognition places itself in a better position to retain the high quality workforce it has built. A supportive environment is that which provides employees with tools and direction they need to perform in the organization to the best of their ability. Some of the actions which can be taken by the organization to support its employees include:

i. Providing the managers and supervisors with leadership and diversity training. This will enable them to understand the benefits and rewards of a diverse workforce enhancing the potential of all employees

ii. An organization should develop a process to provide accommodation to job applicants and employees with disabilities.

iii. The organization should ensure that the available facilities offer safe and productive work environment.

Learning and development opportunities have a great influence on the employees decisions to stay in the organization. The organization can provide an environment which continuously supports learning and development using a variety of approaches. Among them are:

i. Providing opportunities for acquiring skills and experience needed by employees for their progressive learning and career development

ii. Ensuring that the training opportunities are open to all employees.

iii. Encouraging employees to mentor people from different cultural, racial and academic backgrounds

Rewarding and recognizing employees is a key factor in maintaining the organizations diverse and high quality workforce. Organizations should consider using awards to recognize significant contributions. This can come in form of lump sum awards or accelerated pay through quality step increases. It should also pay retention allowances when challenged in order to keep particular skills available (Goffee & Jones 2011).

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