Studied by 28 peopleWhat is HR/workforce planning?
A systematic process that assesses current and future needs of an organization’s workforce
What does workforce planning do?
Sets out necessary actions to meet HR needs
What does short-term workforce planning address?
Immediate needs of the org
Eg. Replaces workers on maternity leave, going into retirement, or suddenly dismissed and plans on covering absent employees
What does long-term workforce planning address?
Supports the strategic plan of the organization
Eg. Expansion of the business into new locations or different countries
What does HR do?
Recruitment, induction, retention, appraisals, dismissals, redundancies, training and development, performance appraisals, absenteeism
What is recruitment?
Hiring the right number of appropriately qualified and suitable workers at the right time
What is retention?
Retaining and keeping workers at the organization by meeting the needs of employees
What are appraisals?
The formal procedure of assessing the performance and effectiveness of employees
What is absenteeism?
Dealing with issues that arise when employees are unable to attend work
What is dismissal?
Letting go of workers no longer needed due to underperformance or misconduct
What are redundancies?
Letting go of workers when when their jobs are no longer needed
What is training and development?
Improving the competencies, productivity, and skills of workers
What are performance appraisals?
Holding workers accountable for their performance and conduct at work
What are internal factors that affect workforce planning?
Size of an organization
Larger firms need more HR planning, more workers = more recruitment, training, appraisals, etc.
Strategic direction of the organization
Different objectives have different needs
Organizational structure
Finances
Motivation in the workplace
More motivation = more productivity and lower labor turnover
Corporate culture
What are external factors that affect workforce planning?
Demographic changes (change in working population, death rate, birth rate, education, average income)
Change in labor mobility (willingness to move between geographical locations or occupations)
Immigration
Flexi-time
Gig economy
What is occupational mobility?
The ability and willingness to find another job/pursue a different career
What allows for occupational mobility?
Having the necessary qualifications, experiences, and skills
What is geographical mobility?
The ability and willingness to relocate
What do businesses offer to make geographical mobility attractive?
International packages tend to have more remuneration (Expats)
Why would employees not want to relocate?
Moving away from family, relocation costs, lower pay, less benefits, higher cost of living
What is the effect of labor mobility on HR?
Increasing and maintaining labor mobility makes allocation of HR more efficient, greater labor productivity
How does labor mobility benefit workers?
Can find better paying jobs to improve their standard of living
Who are migrant workers?
People who move to other locations or countries in search of job opportunities
What are benefits for business of having more migrant workers?
Can hire skilled migrant workers to fill skill shortages and keep wage costs down
More flexible work structures
Can be open for longer
Adds to supply of staff willing to work part-time or shift jobs
Can have a more flexible and dynamic workforce
May bring new ideas, experiences, and ways of thinking
Migrant workers are a threat to domestic workers, competition increases the standard of skills
A majority of migrants are working age who will pay taxes and spend income on goods and services, benefits the economy
What is flexi-time?
Flexible work practice that allows employees to work a set number of core hours per week at the office or during peak hours and choosing where to work the rest of the week as long as work gets done
What are the benefits of flexi-time?
Encourages a good work-life balance
Empowers workers by giving them autonomy and flexibility in personal schedules
Can improve moral and labor productivity
What are disadvantages of flexi-time?
Potential lack of productivity and accountability
Costs implications if managers need to check and approve the hours staff claim to have worked
What is the gig economy?
Workers are on-call, independent contractors who enter into formal agreements with on-demand businesses (Grab, Uber, Postmates, freelance writing, graphic design, tutoring, babysitting, gardeners, cleaners)
What are advantages of gig economy?
Workers enjoy freedom and flexibility to choose the job and how long they work
Workers have the potential to earn more
Businesses reduce costs from full-time workers and office space
Lower costs of production can lead to more price-competitive goods and services
What are disadvantages of gig economy?
Reduces the need for full-time workers, can limit people’s potential for career development
Gig workers may lack job security and a stable income
Increased competition for gigs pressures workers to always look for their next job
Gig workers have set-up costs (bikes and vehicles needed for delivery services)
Gig workers don’t have employee rights and benefits
Gig workers don’t have the social aspects of traditional work
People who don’t know how to use online services may be left out
What are reasons for resistance to change?
Self-interest: employees place their own interest above the organization, occurs when change is a threat to person’s job security, status/rank, or financial position
Low tolerance: people don’t like disruptions and uncertianty
Misinformation and misunderstandings: may arise from gossip, makes workers feel like change is unnecessary
Interpretation of circumstances (different assessment of the situation): employees and employers may disagree on the rationale for and benefits of change, may feel that business isn’t acting in the best interest of the workers
What is change management?
Processes and techniques used to plan, implement, and evaluate changes in business operations
What are strategies to reduce impact and resistance to change?
Inform and educate employees and stakeholders beforehand to reduce any unsubstantiated claims or rumors and limit misinformation and misunderstanding
Involving employees in decision-making gives them ownership, motivates them, and improves morale
Provide authentic support so that people have skills and resources to cope with change
Use incentives to remove or limit change, can make amendments to contracts
Gaslight a representative’s thinking so that the advantages of change can be communicated to those resisting
Threaten disciplinary action, dismissals, job losses, redeployment, or no promotion
What is delegation?
Line manager gives subordinates authority to successfully complete a task, project, or role
Who has authority in delegation?
Authority and decision-making is passed on, but responsibility for the outcome remains on the line manager
What are advantages of delegation?
Can motivate employees, make them feel valued, empowered, and recognized
Can improve quality and speed of decision-making as they are made by employees who understand the job and customers better
Reduces the workload of senior managers, allows them to focus on strategic direction of a business
Improves skills and qualities of employees
Prepares employees for more senior roles
Boosts morale and staff retention
What are limitations of delegation?
Usually comes with additional pay or remuneration, increases costs
Must invest in prior training and development to ensure employees have skills and qualifications to do the task
Employees may not want to do the work of managers
Not suitable for work that is low-skilled, manual workers who require supervision or during a major crisis
What is span of control?
How many workers are directly accountable to or under th authority of a particular line manager
What is a narrow span of control?
Each manager has less people
What are features of a business with narrow span of control?
Organization likes to have a tighter control on decision-making
Managers can keep closer control over activities and operations
Tends to be less delegation
What is a wide span of control?
Line manager has responsibility for many subordinates
What are features of a business with a wide span of control?
May have challenges with communication and control unless they can delegate effectively
Workers have more independence
Can reduce costs as there are less levels of management
Strong leadership required
Factors to consider when choosing wide or narrow span of control
Skills, qualifications, training, and experience of employees, more competent employees will allow for wider spans of control
The attitude and beliefs of managers, if they believe freedom makes employees efficient they are likely to use wide spans of control
Nature of an organization, the market they are in, and activities under consideration, MNCs will have wider span of control while smaller businesses will have narrower spans of control
What are levels or hierarchy
Number of layers of formal authority
What is a tall or vertical structure?
Structure with many levels of hierarchy
What are characteristics of a tall structure?
Likely to have a narrow span of control
Decision-making tends to be centralized and quick
Can benefit from delegation
Can be costly due to many managerial structures
What is a flat or horizontal structure?
Structure with few layers of hierarchy
What are characteristics of a flat structure?
Wide span of control
Decision-making is decentralized and takes longer
Faster communication due to less layers
Less promotion opportunities
Can overburden managers
What is chain of command?
The formal lines of authority
What is the difference in chain of command of a tall structure vs. a flat structure?
A tall structure tends to have longer chains of commands, flat structures tend to have shorter chains
What is bureaucracy?
Administrative systems within an organization (formal policies and procedures)
What are characteristics of a bureaucratic organization?
Has a lot of rules, regulations, and procedures, lacks flexibility (a lot of paperwork to get tasks approved and done), slow in responding to external changes, creativity and innovation is discouraged, slow decision-making due to operational inefficiencies
What is centralization?
Decision-making is mostly made by a small group of senior managers at the top
What businesses are likely to be centralized?
Tall structures with narrow spans of control with a autocratic or paternalistic leadership style
What are characteristics of a centralized organization?
Decision-making is fast
Managers maintain better command and control
Delegation rarely happens, may lower morale and productivity
Inflexibility can be demotivating
Unsuitable for creative and autonomous industries
When does centralization work well?
Rapid decision-making required, major cirsis
Organizations with mostly low-skilled workers
When need to save costs, less managers
What is decentralization?
Decision-making authority is delegated throughout
What businesses are likely to be decentralized?
Flatter hierarchy with wider spans of control
Democratic leadership
What are characteristics of decentralized businesses?
Can improve morale and productivity as workers feel valued and empowered
Flexible and fast decision-making
Reduced workload on senior managers
Less control
What is delayering?
Removing 1 or more layers in its hierarchical structure, making it flatter
What is the purpose of delayering?
Cut costs or reduce bureaucratic inefficiencies
What is the effect of delayering?
Can result in reduction in wage costs
Widens span of control
Improves communication
Increases flexibility
Adds work to existing workforce
Can cause anxiety, stress, resentment, and conflict
May threaten security needs
Demotivation in employees that lose out
Lowers productivity
Loss of institutional knowledge and internal expertise as past managers no longer make decisions
What is a matrix structure?
A flexible, task-oriented structure designed to allow firms to be more responsive to changes in the market and the needs of the business
How does a matrix structure work?
Employees are assigned to multiple roles and have multiple reporting lines, promotes cross-functional collaboration, may need to report to multiple managers
What is the effect of having a matrix structure?
More efficient decision-making and faster response times due to improved communication
Can be confusing and lead to conflict due to complex reporting lines and people holding multiple roles
Using experts from across the organization can help generate new, creative ideas and improve productivity
Can isolate members who are out of their comfort zone
May have difficulty in prioritizing different tasks
Expensive, additional resources and finances needed to fund different teams
May feel demoralized due to more work and pressure
What are organizational charts?
Diagrammatic representation of an organization’s formal structure that shows roles of responsibilities of people in the organization
What are flat organizational charts?
Has few layers, wide span of control, short chain of command
What is the effect of having a flat organization?
Open and informal
Increased opportunities due to more delegation
Improved communication, less layers
Cheaper to operate
Reduces power distance between juniors and seniors
What organizations are typically flat?
Start-ups and small businesses that value creativity and flexibility
What are tall organizational charts?
Narrow span of control, many layers long chains of command
What is the effect of having a tall organization?
Formal, inflexible, and bureaucratic with clear lines of seniority
Changes don’t happen easily
More opportunities for promotion
Quicker and effective communication due to narrow span of control
Increased efficiency and productivity due to specialization of labor
Potential for miscommunication due to long chain of command
What businesses are usually tall?
Large
What is organization by product?
Structure the workforce according to goods and services sold, each department focuses on a different product in portfolio
When is organization by product suitable?
Large organization with a broad product portfolio
What is the benefit of having an organization by product?
Each team has its own internal structure, enables specialization on a market segment
Improves product knowledge and marketing activities
Encourages healthy internal competition between departments
What are disadvantages of having an organization by product?
Functions may duplicate, multiple finance, marketing people, etc. for each product
Associated with decentralized decision-making, difficult for senior executives to maintain control over separate divisions
What is organization by function?
Structuring according to business functions (operations, marketing, finance, HR)
When does organization by product work well?
Organizations with 1 or a small number of related goods and services
What are advantages of organization by function?
Roles and tasks are done by experts
Higher productivity and output
What is a disadvantage of organization by function?
Departments tend to work in isolation, only focus on their area
What is organization by region?
Structuring by geographical areas where firm’s operations are
When is organization by region suitable?
Large organizations, MNCs, likely used with with other structures
What are advantages of organization by region?
Focus on specific needs of a regional market
Adapts to regional differences and exploit local knowledge
What are disadvantages of organization by region?
Difficult to control
Decentralized
What is considered when choosing the structure (centralized, hierarchical, bureaucratic, decentralized, etc.) that a regional office will use?
Corporate culture, size of workforce, skills, qualifications, experiences, and talent of workforce, nature of decisions (strategic vs. routine)
How do external factors cause organizational structure to change?
Pandemic caused more tech and work from home options to be integrated
Tech increased the popularity of gig economy, businesses hire and retain less employees leading to a flatter structure
Tech reduces in-house market researchers, flatter structure
Need for social media marketing increases the number of jobs
More competition may require changes in prices, cut costs and employees
Growth can make a structure more complicated
What is a project-based organizational structure?
Experts are put together for short-term/temporary projects and disband after its completion
What are project-based organization used for?
Critical and urgent projects
What is the role of a project manager (PM)?
Responsible for the entire project, may create appraisals for each member of the project
Who are the members of a project?
Members come from any part of the organization and are often self-selected volunteers
What are the advantages of project-based organization?
More responsive to market changes
Using experts from across the org can create new ideas and improve productivity
Good for highly complex and strategic projects
What are disadvantages of project-based organization?
Can end up isolating members who work outside of normal area
Differences in culture between members
Difficulties in prioritizing work
Feel demotivated due to more work and pressure
What is a shamrock organization?
An organization with 3 types of workforce, profession core/core workers, contingent workers/peripheral workers, and outsourced vendors/contractual fringe
Who are professional core/core workers?
Full-time experts that are essential for businesses to meet objectives, mission, and vision
Who are contingent workers/peripheral workers?
Part-time staff, seasonal workers, flexitime workers, or portfolio workers who do routine jobs
Who are outsourced vendors/contractual fringe?
Individuals or other organizations hired on a contract to carry out specific, non-core roles (security guards, cleaners, catering, accounting, or marketing)
How can a shamrock structure make a business more competitive?
Use peripheral workers to avoid stress and cost of redundancies
Only have core workers for core business activities
Outsource for non-core functions
What is scientific management?
Making decisions and problem solve by gathering necessary info/data and analyzing it
What does scientific management answer?
“Where are we now?”, “Where do we want to be?”, and “How do we get there?”
What is the benefits of scientific management?
Objective, rational, logical, minimizes risks
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