Discussing The Role Of Graduate Competencies And Cultural Differences In Employability

Discuss About The Graduate Competencies And Employability.

Employability Challenges in International Human Resource Management

Employability in the global scenario is  affected by different limitations like lack of skilled workforce and their willingness to change (WTC) as per the employment opportunities (EO) that are provided to them. The clash between the management of the organizations and the major portion of the workforce is based on the change that is undertaken by businesses in order to sustain in the international markets. On the other hand, the employees’ resistances to the work based learning attributes affects the smooth workflow.  Organizations employ people in order to undertake the smooth functioning of the processes of the business. Employability is dependent on the expectations of the employers as per the job requirements. However, there are instances where graduates hold more expectation from the employers. The question for the research will be based on understanding the different international HRM issues faced relating to employability. The purpose of undertaking the discussion is to identify the different issues that are faced by the international HRM relating to employability. The study of the different cultural clashes powered by the skills of the candidates has affected the employability of the same while considering the international scenario.

Employability in the international scenario is constrained by mostly two most effective factors- Skills and cultural differences. Lack of skills due to the increasing number of undergraduates in the different nations of the world is an indicator for integrating the higher education training courses as per the employer’s demands. In most of the nations, the courses that are offered to the students are ineffective for their employability in future. Andrews  and Russell (2012) stated that the design of the courses are meant simply for enhancing the theoretical knowledge which is often not valued by the employers in the globalized scenario. Costea,   Amiridis  and Crump (2012) added that the skills of the individuals are mostly induced through the courses that are offered by the institutions. However, the skills that are induced by the institutions might not be required by the organizations, which affect the employability ratio adversely.  The lack of proper skills like communicational, professional, integrative and responsive affects the employability of the candidates in the international HRM practices. Most of the employers in the global scenario look out for candidates who have practical knowledge on how to deal with different situations. Therefore, in that case the theoretical knowledge on the skills might affect the employability.

On the other hand, Andrews  and Russell (2012) noted that the skills that are induced by the institutions might be theoretical in nature but is helpful for creating huge scopes of employment as knowledge of the processes will be helping the students in gaining the required experience. Qenani,   MacDougall  and Sexton (2014) argued that most of the international organizations recruit students who have practical knowledge of the activities that are planned by the businesses. The undergraduates are often faced down in the interviews due to their limited knowledge on the processes. Therefore, the rate of undergraduates in the nation denotes the employability ratio. Jackson  (2014) stated that the employability of the candidates are based on the expectations of the employers as per the organizational needs. De Cuyper et al. (2012) argued that job satisfaction also acts as an important factor as a skilled graduate will not compromise with the remuneration that is provided by the organization. The different instances of the graduates leaving their jobs due to poor remuneration systems of the organization has proven that employability is not solely dependent on the expectations of the employers.

Impact of Lack of Training Courses on Undergraduates

The cultural differences also affect the employability of the people in the international scenario. Teijeiro,   Rungo  and Freire (2013) stated that the lack of adjustment among the employees in the different working conditions affects the employability of the same while considering the global scenario.  The expectations of the employers, as per the needs of the organization, help in boosting the employability of the nation. However, Nilsson  and Ellström (2012) stated that there are instances where the  employers feel constrained due to the lack of skilled workforce in the markets. The differences in the languages and expressions in the inter- cultural contexts has affected the employability of the candidates. For instance,   a candidate from China would be facing issues in adjusting to the working environment that is prevalent in America due to the clashes in the culture, heritage and language. Cai (2013) stated that the freedom of expression helps in enhancing the scopes of employability while considering the international context. However, in most of the cases, the issues that are faced by the international HRM are based on the clash of the cultural dialects. Tomlinson (2012) argued that the most intriguing issue that is faced by the students relating to their employability is due to their individual expectations which are not backed by their cultures. The expectations of the skilled or semi- skilled candidates has affected the employability, as most of the employers hire candidates from the host countries in order to cut off their operating expenses. The lack of suitable payroll affects the morale of the skilled employees, which increases the turnover ratio rapidly.  

According to Finch, Hamilton, Baldwin and Zehner (2013), employability is more relevant for the undergraduates. This is due to the reason that undergraduate students are having the challenge to get employed by completing their studies. However, according to the authors, there are number of issues that can get raised from the getting employed by the undergraduate students. One of the major issues identified is the differences in skills and expertise of the students and the organizational requirements. This is having higher probability due to the reason that there are number of instances where the students are given leanings and knowledge without aligning with the organizational requirements in the practical situation. Thus, according to the authors, it becomes difficult for the human resource managers to get match the organizational requirements with that of the candidates. In the case of the international human resource management, this issue is more relevant due to the reason that candidates are being selected from different regions, the probability is lower than organizational requirement and the skills, and knowledge of the undergraduates will be in the same line.

The Role of Skills in Employability

On the other hand, it is stated by Jackson (2015) that human resource managers also face the issue of enhancing the skills of the employees in order to increase their employability. This is due to the reason that in order to have enhanced employability among the employees, the skills and expertise of them should be diverse and varied. However, as per the authors, in the practical situation, it becomes the responsibilities of the human resource managers to increase the employability of the employees by initiating training and development activities for them. In this case also, there are number of issues to be faced by human resource managers are being identified by the authors. One of the major issues will be the different skill sets of the employees. With the having the universal human resource management approach in place, it is more difficult to drive the employability of the employees by the human resource managers.

There are number of authors who have the taken the different approach in analyzing the employability of the individuals. According to Jollands, Clarke, Grando, Hamilton, Smith, Xenos and Pocknee (2015), rather than just discussing about the challenges and issues in the human resource management for the employability, it is more important to discuss their mitigation process. It is stated that in order to have the proper and ideal employability of the employees, it is important to have partnerships between the industry and the professional associations. This is due to the reason that the gaps between the different institutions are creating the issues in employability of the candidates. Thus, according to authors, if the different involved entities can be partnered such as partnerships between the professional associations and the industry, the coordination will get enhanced. With the inputs from the industry, it will be more beneficial for the professional associations to train the candidates accordingly. This will ensure that candidates will be more aligned to the organizational and industrial requirements.

Therefore, from the above analysis it might be stated that the employability of the people in the international market face issues due to two specific reasons, which are skills and the cultural shifts. The skills of the employees help in attracting the attention of the employers and thereby maintain the congruency between the expectations of the employers and the skill offerings of the candidates. The maximization of the number of graduates will be helping in enhancing the scopes of employability. However, there are different instances where the skilled workforce is unsatisfied with the remuneration provided to them. The discussion also enumerates the different recommended actions that might be undertaken in order to bring in improvements in the situations of the global employability operations.  

References

Andrews, G. & Russell, M., 2012. Employability skills development: strategy, evaluation and impact. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, 2(1), pp.33-44.

Cai, Y., 2013. Graduate employability: A conceptual framework for understanding employers’ perceptions. Higher Education, 65(4), pp.457-469.

Costea, B., Amiridis, K. & Crump, N., 2012. Graduate employability and the principle of potentiality: An aspect of the ethics of HRM. Journal of business ethics, 111(1), pp.25-36.

De Cuyper, N., Raeder, S., Van der Heijden, B.I. & Wittekind, A., 2012. The association between workers' employability and burnout in a reorganization context: Longitudinal evidence building upon the conservation of resources theory. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 17(2), p.162.

Finch, D.J., Hamilton, L.K., Baldwin, R. & Zehner, M., 2013. An exploratory study of factors affecting undergraduate employability. Education+ Training, 55(7), pp.681-704.

Jackson, D., 2014. Testing a model of undergraduate competence in employability skills and its implications for stakeholders. Journal of Education and Work, 27(2), pp.220-242.

Jackson, D., 2015. Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and best practice. Studies in Higher Education, 40(2), pp.350-367.

Jollands, M., Clarke, B., Grando, D., Hamilton, M., Smith, J., Xenos, S. & Pocknee, C., 2015. Developing graduate employability through partnerships with industry and professional associations. Strawberry Hills: Office for Learning and Teaching.

Nilsson, S. & Ellström, P.E., 2012. Employability and talent management: challenges for HRD practices. European Journal of Training and Development, 36(1), pp.26-45.

Qenani, E., MacDougall, N. & Sexton, C., 2014. An empirical study of self-perceived employability: Improving the prospects for student employment success in an uncertain environment. Active Learning in Higher Education, 15(3), pp.199-213.

Teijeiro, M., Rungo, P. & Freire, M.J., 2013. Graduate competencies and employability: The impact of matching firms’ needs and personal attainments. Economics of Education Review, 34, pp.286-295.

Tomlinson, M. 2012. Graduate employability: A review of conceptual and empirical themes. Higher Education Policy, 25(4), 407-