Best Practices for Workforce Planning and Management

Identifying and Addressing Workforce Issues

1.Identify two groups other than employees whose agreement and endorsement you would seek when setting objectives and targets and creating workforce plans. Explain why their agreement should be sought.

2 It has been determined that your organisation needs to make changes to its workforce. Some staff will need to be recruited, some will need to undergo training, some will need to be redeployed and others are going to be made redundant. You have been asked to head up a team that is going to develop an implementation plan. None of the team has done this before so it is up to you to explain what an implementation plan should contain and how it should be written. What would you tell them?

3 It has been determined that your organisation needs to make changes to its workforce. Some staff will need to be recruited, some will need to undergo training, some will need to be redeployed and others are going to be made redundant. You have been asked to head up a team that is going to develop an implementation plan. None of the team has done this before so it is up to you to explain what an implementation plan should contain and how it should be written. What would you tell them?

4 How would you identify desirable workers who can be developed and retained to fill key positions that might become vacant within the organisation? You do not have to limit your ideas to those provided in the text. Why do you think your method of identifying desirable workers would be best?

5 Choose an industry in which there is an under-supply of labour. Summarise the situation in that industry. Explain why there is an under-supply of labour in that industry? What are the effects of the labour trends in this industry on the demand for labour? What can the organisation do to nullify the effects of the labour trends? You will need to carry out your own research to complete this activity.

6 There has been a downturn in the economy on a global scale. Your organisation, which organises overseas holidays for families has been hit hard by this downturn. People are scared of spending money and are cutting back on luxuries including travel. As a result, you have too many staff for the amount of business coming in. What recommendations would you make in response to this situation?

7 You run a security business. You supply bouncers and security guards to a chain of nightclubs. A number of the nightclubs have complained that fights are breaking out in areas of the clubs when security staff are elsewhere. What changes might need to the workforce plan might need to be made to address this issue

8 How would you evaluate effectiveness of change processes made to address the nightclubs concerns against agreed objectives? What should be done if the change was determined to be ineffective?

9 It is not only an organisation’s internal circumstances that need to be taken into account when conducting workforce planning. Organisations also need to research and review current and predicted external labour supply data, demographic data and economic data. This will help organisations to forecast human resources supply. How might organisations gather current information about labour supply relevant to their specific industry or skill requirements?

10 What does the term, workplace relations refer to? How can sound workplace relations management assist organisations in maintaining a skilled workforce? You might need to conduct your own research to answer this question.

Identifying and Addressing Workforce Issues

Question 1

The investors and the customer are the major groups whose agreement and approval needs to be considered while setting objectives and targets as well as formulating the workforce plan for the organization. These groups have certain significant impact on the business that is undertaken by an organization. Investors are those who provide money to the organization and the customers are those who purchase the services and products from these organizations. The investor has invested in the organization for gaining profit that is associated with the transaction of the business (Mondy, 2008; Cotton, 2007). The profit and growth of an organization has resulted towards reaping good objective and effectiveness of work force. The agreement and support of investors has provided the organization more confidence and better execution of plan. Customers are significant groups that are likely to create an impact on the organizations based on the positive and negative approaches. The organization has emphasized on considering the customer to be important group that helps in developing the strategies. It provides the company effective formulation of objective and better management that are associated with the work force. These two groups have significant impact on the organization (Mondy, 2008; Cotton, 2007).

Question 2

The workforce planning is very significant for every organization helps the organization to achieve better outcome by providing capable workforce. The implementation plan of workforce management comprises of different steps, which helps the organization to manage the workforce effectively and enhance the performance of the worker as well as the organization. In the first step, the head of the team needs to develop profiles for the worker who is presently working in the organization. Additionally, based on employee profiles the head should evaluate the work capabilities of the workers. This will help to identifying the need of recruitment, redundant and training of the workers. The next step will be the identification of workforce issues helps the team to develop the effective future needs and the evaluation of current workforce. Proper identification of issues related to the workforce helps the team members to formulate and implement an effective solution plan. The identification of issues helps to improve the performance of the employees. Hence, the accessed processes will help in developing a good foundation for implementation plan. A good foundation helps the managers to understand the important aspect of the implementation plan. There is some principle which boost the implementation process such as the workforce planning that requires long-term commitment, well-defined roles and responsibility for the workers. In the last step, the team members will be observing and evaluating the effectiveness associated with the implementation program (Mondy, 2008; Cotton, 2007).