Essay: Pros And Cons Of Increasing Contract Employees Vs Permanent Employees.

• Human Resource Management (HRM) refers to the procedure of managing the human elements within an organization that involves managing the incoming, maintenance and outgoing of the employees within an organization. HRM involves recruitment, selection, training and development, managing the wages and salaries of the employees, evaluating the performance of the employees, resolving conflicts within an organization and managing the promotion, demotion, retirement and termination of the organizational employees.
• HRM is essential for the success of an organization as it ensures that right candidates are selected for the organization and they are given proper knowledge and training so that he can perform his job efficiently. HRM ensures that the employees meet the requirements of the organization through constant evaluation of their performance according to which they are provided compensation, incentives and bonus. HRM ensures efficient use of the human resources within an organization that helps the organization in obtaining better return on investment.
• HRM is very important to the employees of an organization as it deals with several issues that are related to salaries, wages, safety, benefits, performance management, employee motivation, employee conflicts and other related problems. HRM involves motivating the organizational employees and evaluating their performance that helps the employees in improving their performance.

Contract employees are those employees who work for a short-period of time or until a project given to them is completed. Whereas, permanent employees are those employees who work for an undefined time period for an organization. The following are the pros and cons of increasing the number of contract employees as compared to the permanent employees:

• The cost associated with hiring of contract employees are usually lower than that of permanent employees
• Hiring contract employees in short-run turns out to be a cost-effective decision
• Hiring contract employees helps the organizations to easily adjust to its workload fluctuations
• Hiring contract employees proves to be very fruitful in case of seasonal business or exclusive projects
• Increasing the number of contract employees helps in maintaining the flexibility in staffing and helps the organization to meet its needs more efficiently

• In case of hiring contract employees, the requirement of providing training increases as each time an employee is hired, he has to be trained appropriately
• Several morale issues arise as the contract employees are usually paid less compensation as compared to that of the permanent employees
• The chances of on-job injuries are often higher in case of contract employees
• Several legal concerns also arise with the employment of a contract staff as they are often not treated with the respect and care that is provided to the permanent employees

1. If I was a part of the HR Department of Fresh First Canning, I would give the following advice to the CEO of the organization:

• As a part of the HR department, my advice to the CEO of the organisation would be to consider the existing employees of the other company outlets before considering the applicants of the external labor This will provide promotional opportunity for the existing staffs of the company and retaining the experienced employees.
• I would also advice the CEO of the organization to work simultaneously with the manufacturing union as this will provide provide opportunity for both the parties to communicate effectively.

2. As a new factory outlet, the outlet will encounter consequences in respect to human resource management and industrial relations within the company. The human resource department needs to evaluate the applications critically in order to match their suitability for the vacancy in the new factory outlet. The HR department might encounter issues while recruiting the applicants by determining their willingness and readiness to accept the employment. The factory outlet has numerous applicants both from within and outside the factory. Therefore, the HR department might find it difficult judge the 500 over applications from the external labor market.

1. Some companies disappoint by not including HR plans in their merger and acquisition strategies because they focus more on maintaining their financial performance and surviving competition due to which they often ignore the human resources of the organization. Mergers and acquisitions bring drastic changes in the organizations as well as in the jobs of the existing employees. Usually HR plans are not considered in the strategies of mergers and acquisitions as they neglect the human resources of the organization. However, it has been observed that failure in developing HR plans during mergers and acquisitions have often led to failure of the ventures.
2. The HR department has a crucial role while an organization goes through mergers or acquisitions as the two companies involved might have different cultures and terms of employment. Mergers and acquisitions bring changes in the number of employees required. Here arises the importance of HR as he has to manage the human resources according to the needs of the organization by recruiting additional staff or laying out extra staff. The HR department is also required to solve any disputes that may rise as a result of mergers and acquisitions. The HR is required to analyze the new organizational culture and motivate the employees by solving the employee benefit issues.

1. Lack of flexibility in the working hours and more emphasis given to the work-life balance of the women often leads to men getting less time to spend with their families. There are no such workplace laws to provide flexibility in the working hours of the men. Men usually work for long hours that have become a major barrier to men and they are unable to spend much time with their family and kids. Another major barrier is gender biasness. Usually women are considered to be the weaker gender due to which the men are given more work and responsibilities that increases their working hours and burden. This results in the men staying away from their family and giving more time in offices.
2. A few strategies that encourage work life balance for men are as follows:

• Allowing schedule flexibility: The men must be provided with flexi timings so that they can give sufficient time to their families and also complete their work on time.
• Allowing unpaid leaves for life events: Men must be provided with unpaid leaves so that they can meet their family needs and take care of their parents and children. This shall allow them to help their sick parents or attend the school functions of their children.

1. The two recruitment strategies chosen are consultancy and referrals.

Advantages of recruitment through consultancy firm are:

• The consultancy firm reduces the burden of the company to recruit appropriate candidates
• Consultants help in filtering the unqualified candidates
• Consultants can also handle negotiations on behalf of the company

Disadvantages of recruitment through consultancy firm are:

• The consultancies might fail to meet the expectations of the organization
• The consultancies might misrepresent an organization
• Extra costs are involved in hiring a consultant or recruiter
• The consultancy might send the same candidate to several organizations that means that the chosen candidate might have multiple offers from different companies

Advantages of recruitment through internal referrals are:

• The companies can get qualified candidates through referrals
• Monetary bonus provided to the existing employees for referring candidates helps in recruiting good quality candidates
• It is best suitable when candidates for specialized positions are required
• The rate of retention is higher in case of referred candidates

Disadvantages of recruitment through internal referrals are:

• It might increase the chances of discrimination among the employees
• Referring a candidate might lead to alienation from the other employees
• Internal references reduces the possibilities of getting innovative candidates

2. Recruitment of candidates through consultancy firm the privacy of the firm is lost as the consultancy firm gets to know about the internal processes and operations of the company along with the details of the employees and the management. This leads to lack of secrecy. However, in case of recruitment via referrals, the privacy of the firms is maintained as the information about the company is not sent to any outside party. Therefore, the privacy of the company is maintained.

1. The traditional eight-hour workday is slowing fading away for the Gen Y employers, as they prefer flexibility in the working hours. This is because, the Gen Y employers work nationally and globally. Though some companies believe, lack of structure distracts the employees thereby, making them less productive. However, Gen Y employees prefer freedom at workplace as they feel their preferences and priorities are respected and valued. The Gen Y employees prefer being connected with their families and friends along with colleagues throughout the day in spite of had been at work. Gen Y employees prefer workplace flexibility to money, as this makes the employees more productive and loyal. Workplace flexibility allows the employees to be connected with work through technology, for example, work emails thereby, making it more productive.
2. According to me workplace flexibility increases productivity and retention rates, as the employees feel valued and respected if they are allowed to work according to convenience. This enables the employees to devote their time complete to work when they are working. By providing workplace flexibility in terms of working hours and freedom to use social media, the companies are able to retain their valued and experienced employees. Such a policy can be managed by implementing workplace flexibility with appropriate terms and conditions.

1. The AMQ initiative was taken to strengthen the management of the Ambulance Service of NSW in order to manage the required change. The initiative will greatly influence the new frontline managers by providing a support framework by providing training, guidance, coaching and mentoring to them. This will build skills and expertise to the frontline managers thereby, enabling them to handle tough situations effectively. The initiative will reaffirm the responsibilities thereby, monitoring the well-being of the staffs and improving the knowledge to handle workplace grievances and concerns. Moreover, the initiative has enabled the managers to support the staffs efficiently thereby, promoting positive workplace culture.
2. Apart from the managers, the program needs to emphasize on frontline operational staff and the customers service staff in order to support change for the Ambulance Service at NSW. The frontline operational staff needs to be provided training and coaching about how to handle workplace concerns and grievances tactfully. Moreover, the customer service staff needs to be trained about how to handle the patients in emergency in the ambulance while availing the services. Development and learning for the customer service staffs need to emphasize on the training and educating the individuals to handle emergencies encountered by the patients.

1. According to the interview, Sandy feels extremely upset and unhappy with her appraisal performance interview. As the manager stopped giving her negative comments and the positive feedbacks received from the customers made her think, she had improved greatly since when she started. Sandy’s appraisal rating showed that she has been performing average with no drastic improvement. Sandy was extremely demotivated post the performance appraisal interview, as she was confident about her performance improvement. The management did not consider Sandy’s improvement in terms of the positive customer feedback and high customer tips. The demotivation thereby, hampers the psychological and dedication of Sandy for further improvement.
2. During the interview, the manager made some mistakes that could have been avoided in Sandy’s case.

• In the case of Sandy’s performance appraisal interview, the managers could have considered the positive feedback and higher tips from the customers for her that is higher compared to other staffs.
• Highlighting only the negative pints such as Sandy’s inability to open wine bottles was incorrect as this demotivated sandy for further performance improvement.
• The managers could have acknowledged Sandy’s improvement since she started as she was really nervous and lacked confidence at that time.

Human resource management plays a crucial role for business organizations as this provides an opportunity for the management to recruit according to the present requirement of the organization. As human resource is influenced by different factors, the future predication is considered difficult. For example, the services and products of an organization influence the human resource management. For example, the human resource management of a healthcare service is different from that of a fast-food chain. The human resource management provides opportunities for the organizations to recruit and select according to the current needs of the organization. Moreover, HRM and the strategies will be greatly influenced by the local and global industries thereby, ensuring and gaining competitive advantage.

The human resource management helps in ensuring the greater use technology by the business organizations by promoting diverse workplace culture and flexibility. The grater the workplace flexibility implemented by the human resource management, the more is the production of the company over time. While operating, business organizations need to ensure compliance with environmental issues, corporate social responsibility and corporate governances by obtaining competitive advantage. The HRM facility also ensures employment security by developing and helping high performance people strategies. Therefore, HRM has huge scope in the future.

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