W3 Assign Grant
Strategic Human Resources Management – Week #3 Lecture 2
W3 Planning and Work Systems
This chapter discusses the importance of proper design and redesign of work systems. Job duties and characteristics are taken into account when jobs are designed. Job design is necessary in order to respond to, among other things, changes in technology and the increased use of teams and project groups. Environmental and organizational change can serve as a catalyst to redesigning work systems. Organizational change can be difficult, and may be resisted by some, but must be managed effectively to facilitate organizational performance (Mello, 2015).
Succession Planning
Succession planning focuses on ensuring key critical management positions in organization remain filled with individuals who provide best fit. In order for managers to decide who the best fit for a position, the manager has to make sure that the potential employee is a good both in person and in looking at the resume. Managers want to ensure that the potential employee understands the organization’s culture and is also knowledgeable about the position.
Succession Planning Involves:
· Identifying key management positions the organization cannot afford to have vacant
· Purposes of succession planning
· Facilitates transition when employee leaves
· Identifies development needs of high-potential employees & assists in career planning
· Many organizations fail to implement succession planning effectively
· Qualified successors may seek external career advancement opportunities if succession is not forthcoming
Guidelines for Effective Succession Planning.
· Tie into organization’s strategy (and modified accordingly)
· Monitor the progress and measure outcomes of succession planning initiatives
· Ensure that all HR functions that impact the succession plan are iterated and working in tandem
· Ensure centralized coordination of succession planning
· Engage and involve managers throughout the organization (Mello, 2015)
Offshoring
Many businesses offshore different tasks and jobs within the organizations because labor is cheaper, compared to the United States. Majority of the functions includes computer programming, back-office accounting, and customer service call centers. The issue with offshoring is that managers are unable to keep up with employees because all transaction is conducted via virtual teams. Offshoring has presented a challenge to organizations via means of managing virtual global teams, and a disadvantage of offshoring is that there is a loss of domestic jobs, which may cause major concerns with Americans (Mello, 2015).
Outsourcing
Outsourcing involves contracting some of the organization’s noncore work activities to outside specialists who can do the job more effectively (Mello, 2015). Many organizations outsource jobs to specialized service companies, which frequently operate abroad. The outsourcing trend stands to continue; the latest wave of outsourcing impacts the information technology field. IT outsourcing includes data center operations, desktop and help desk support, software development, e-commerce outsourcing, software applications services, network operations and disaster recovery (Meehan, 2016). Information Technology or the telecommunication functions.
Telecommuting
Telecommuting has allowed employees to work from home either in a full-time or part-time capacity. This is a great recruitment tool for organizations to use because it offers the flexibility of working from home because there are less time restrictions to get work completed. Some employers may be concerned with the ability to supervise employees who telework. Performance measures and accountability are two major concerns for managers. A clear performance measurement system is the key component of a successful telework program. The telework employee should have a clearly defined set of measurable objectives, which can be integrated into a telework agreement (Mello, 2015). Telework is a great program because it eliminates the issue with high turnovers with in organizations. Employees area more creative because there is less disruptions throughout the days, and he/she is also able to take less time away from the office for personal appointments, which lowers reduces absenteeism and increases innovation. Recently, telework has been used to aid succession planning particularly in cases of high potential, high performing employees whose services the employer does not want to lose but are unable to move for career advancement (Mello, 2015).
Work Systems
Job analysis and design is used to determine and record all pertinent information needed for a specific vacancy. These include tasks, knowledge and abilities, skills and responsibilities needed to perform the job successfully. Job design is the process of structuring work and assigning specific activities at an individual or group level. A good design incorporates the relationship with organizational goals and values and should be well understood in order to align and prioritize the job’s responsibilities.
The design of work systems includes:
Job Specialization
· Creates jobs with very narrow task (activity) assignments
· Resulted in high efficiency, quickly achieved job competency, low training costs, but created monotonous jobs
Job Enlargement
· An increase in task variety to relieve boredom
Job Rotation
· Employees moved across different specialized positions
· Enlargement & rotation add variety but not necessarily responsibility
Job Enrichment
· Increasing amount of responsibility for quality & productivity that employees have for their own work
· Vertical Loading
· Reassignment of job responsibility formerly delegated to supervisor to employee (Mello, 2015)
References
Meehan, C. (2016). Advantages and disadvantages to outsourcing IT. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-outsourcing-it- 764.html
Mello, J.A. (2015). Strategic human resource management. (4th Ed). Cengage Learning