WEEKLY DISCUSSION 3 Identify and discuss the potential influence of three of the
ID: 356494 • Letter: W
Question
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 3
Identify and discuss the potential influence of three of the following trends and changes in the external environment on the design and implementation of staffing practices. How do these trends impact staffing strategies?
Aging of the labor force
Life expectancy (76.9 years); Workers 55 years and older are about 27% of workforce;
Increase in knowledge workers
Workers who responsibilities involve more planning, decision-making, problem-solving, rather than merely physical execution
Increasing diversity in the workforce (women and minorities)
2010 – White (64%), Hispanics (16%), Black (12%), Asian (4%)
2050 – White (46%), Hispanic (30%), Black (14%)
Women 47% of the workforce, will reach 50% by 2020
80% of women with school-going children employed
Increasing number of foreign-born employees
Highly skilled immigrants
Low skilled immigrants
Multi-generational workforce
People 55 years and over will be 25% of workforce by 2018
16-24 years will be 12% of workforce in 2018
24-54 years will be 63.5 percent of the workforce
Increasing use of social networks
Facebook users over a billion monthly users
Global warming, environmental awareness, sustainability, CSR
Explanation / Answer
Staffing strategies of companies are effected by the trends in the following manner:-
1) With growing workforce age and workers aged 55 and older comprising about 27% of the total workforce, the lack in productivity of the companies is becoming evident slowly. The aged workers can work in areas that need decision making, or areas where intellectual abilitites are sufficient, but to work in areas where some physical exertion happens, it is always better to go with a younger employee. Sadly this isn't happening as the population growth rate of most of the nations is on a steady decline, leading to lesser no. of new people joining the workforce. Organizations also end up spending a lot because of aging of workforce as they have to be provided with the best possible facilities in order get the best out of them. With that said, people >55 years of age also have to retire in 5-7 years, which again leads to loss of experience, which is again very difficult to replace and leads to huge losses in certain areas.
In such a scenario, it is important for hr department to strategize their staffing activities in a way that minimize this risk as much as possible. Also they need to come up with altered strategies to make sure that employees gain enough skill by the age of 40-45 years so as to reap benefits for atleast 15-20 years. The balance between the experienced and the youth too has to be taken into account by the staffers.
2) As the no. of knowledge workers have increased. the requirements of each and every type of job have changed. With the increase in such workers and clear decrease in blue collar workers, knowledge workers are forced to take up jobs that were earlier done by the less skilled blue collar people. Such an issue leads to alienation of the employees, employees being underpaid compared to their level of skills and decrease in productivity of the industry despite growth in intellect. To manage such a situation hr department should strategize their staffing in a way that people are properly aligned to their jobs based on their skills. The staffers should make sure that the right candidate is picked for the job and not just go after higher qualified but cheap labour just to save some costs.
3) Increasing of social network have made employees more informed about various issues at hand, and are much more sensitive to the issues related to the environment. Staffers should strategize their recruitment in such a way that they look out for candidates who can not only work upon their general day to day work, but can also help the company in its environment and CSR related activities as well. The employees these days look out for the best possible company to work for in terms of their environmental consciousness as well, and staffers should consider this aspect of prospective employees too.
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