Hr Management Essay On Attracting And Retaining Staff

Question

Task: There are two choices (will be announced) for Essay 3 – for example, the ‘X’ sector, or the ‘Y’ sector.
You will write an essay on the key challenges in attracting and retaining a workforce in your selected sector.
Your essay will draw on at least five themes from Week 1 to Week 11 of this unit, being those most relevant to your selected industry sector.
Your essay will draw on the academic literature (including the articles from ‘Reviewing the Literature’ you developed for Assessment 2), and develop an argument applying that literature to your selected sector

Answer

Introduction
Attracting and retaining proper talent explored in this HR management essay within an organization is the key to achieving performance and productivity. Employees are the main driving force of an organization and their skills and competencies help the company to grow and achieve success in the market. Increasing job satisfaction by delivering satisfaction and breathable working environment is the key to retaining employees in a company. Talented employee always offers better performance and productivity from an average one and their optimum performance increases the overall productivity of the firm which as a result helps the firm to achieve growth and success. The aim of the study is to understand the attraction and retention of talent within communication sector organizations followed by its key challenges.   

Discussion
Key challenges mentioned in HR management essay on attracting and retaining the workforce within the communication sector
The productivity of an organization directly connected with the talent of its employees. According to the research, high performer employees are 400% more productive than an average one. However, with great performance, there comes a few challenges that every organization faces for retaining their talented employees within their framework. Retaining employees need proper planning and programs by the HR department to increase the satisfaction of the employees. As an employee, they always seek for workplace safety, job satisfaction, good and breathable working environment, adequate pay scale and other additional facilities. Without these factor employee gets frustrated with their job life and often seeks for other organizations where they can find these kinds of facilities.

Figure 1: Employee turnover drivers
(Source: AIHR Analytics, 2019)

People are now using the internet and communication technologies more than before which creates immense pressure on communication industries. Increase in customer base, the organizations always try to pressure their employees to deliver maximum work from them. However, due to the extra investment, companies often avoid to attract an adequate number of employees, instead of that they try to sort out their queries to their existing number of employees by pressurizing them to do additional work than their usual work shift hours. This creates immense work pressure on the employees which forces them to change their current organization and they try to find companies where the working pressure is manageable (Cloutier et al. 2015). The organization that creates pressure on the employees should focus on recruiting new employees to handle increasing work pressure or otherwise they will face employee retention problems.

Another problem discussed in this HR management essay that companies usually face is recruiting proper talent for their organization. Sometimes the employees have no clear idea about their own capabilities and skills and they often cannot assume their own capabilities. After recruiting these types of employees, organizations face problems which also creates pressure on those employees. Sometimes, organizations often find difficult to attract proper talent and skillsets for their organization and daily operation and in this case, they have to compromise their requirements to recruit employees for different job roles (Kossivi, Xu & Kalgora, 2016). The employers have to understand which set of skills they want from the employees for recruitment. Sometimes diverse skill sets are also necessary within an employee but due to education system, sometimes people lack these kinds of skills and abilities within them.

It is mentioned in this HR management essay that retaining an employee within every sector is essential and communication sector is no different than that. Technology is advancing with a high pace and with it; the apparatus and types of machinery are also evolving with time rapidly within the business framework. Employees who are working within the corporate sector have to understand, use and maintain these machines properly. However, lack of knowledge and skills make this difficult for them and sometimes they face fatal problems due to these reasons. The organizations have to make sure that they are providing adequate training bad learning sessions to their employees to increase knowledge on these advanced machines to operate properly (Deery & Jago, 2015). This can improve their working efficiency and job satisfaction to a great extent. The employees have to be fluent and habituated with these new technologies to improve their responsibility and performance.

Employees often avoid giving their optimum performance and output to the companies. Lack of knowledge, skills, experience or simply work lethargy are the reason behind it. Because of these reasons, companies fail to utilize the optimum potential of their employees in their daily work which decreases the productivity and limits the growth of the company (Qazi, Khalid & Shafique, 2015). Employees sometimes also oppose the change in the system due to fear which also creates a problem for the companies. The management body has to make sure that their employees find their work interesting and to do that the company have to create good working environment and provide rewards for their work and performance (Hyphen, 2018).   

Theme 1: Influence of internal brand management upon job satisfaction level of employees, brand commitment and talent retention in IBM.

Figure 1: Impact of internal brand management in different factors at IBM

Based on the above graph mentioned in this HR management essay it has been observed that internal brand management has made a positive impact upon the different aspects in terms of job satisfaction level of employees, Brand commitment and staff retention at IBM. Having a knowledge regarding the brads it is necessary that all of the employees are satisfied with their job feeling happy and recognized by superiors (Burgess et al. 2018). Dedication towards the brand from employees’ side helps to foster the chances of satisfaction level of employees and brand commitment (Du Preez & Bendixen, 2015). A huge level of employee retention is also gets fostered by which a good market value is continued to ensure the continuous improvement of an organization. Company branding also facilitates the to build a positive image for attracting the best talent and selecting them based upon the criteria and credibility, that they get selected after going through the selection process. The employed workforce is efficient enough to take the responsibilities of being a brand ambassador of an organization. The customer's interaction capability encourages the employees to enhance their performance level hence it develops the brand commitment among them. On the other hand, brand value gets improvised and developed as they are committed towards the brand by promoting them among key and service customers. Moreover, high job satisfaction level in employees helps to enhance the staff retention level at IBM as they feel recognized and emotionally attached to their superiors through motivation and support. The brainstorming ideas are recognized by which the employees feel important and recognized by which their intention to stay is increased to a great extent (Al Mamun & Hasan, 2017). On the other hand, the brand is also committed to providing the job satisfaction level by which they remain loyal towards the organization hence productivity is enhanced to another level. Following the Fair Work Act (2009) is necessary in terms of workplace relations can be described and the employees can have legal right to workplace agreements. Moreover, this also facilitates the chances of developing the relation between the industrial relations with the SHRM (Strategic human resource management). An ideal relationship also links a business with the HRM plans and strategies, which increases the market share, profitability, overall productivity, quality of product.  Delphi technique has been adopted for consultation, weighted and structured questionnaire for HR forecasting managers and supervisors. The HRM needs to take the responsibilities for ensuring that internal brand management are being focused and talented employees are getting retained in the organization. The overall productivity level can be enhanced if the employees are satisfied with their jobs and staff retention gets fostered by which they are intended to enhance their performance level along with their commitment towards brand.

Theme 2: Influence of talent management strategies on organizational performance.

From the above graph provided in this HR management essay, it has been observed that talent management strategies are playing an important role in terms of developing the overall performance of an organization as it possesses to attract more loyal customers. Organizational performance and activities get enhanced after choosing appropriate strategies for talent management and ensuring the employees' retention in the organization. Moreover, in this competitive market it is necessary to analyse the balance between the physical assets and human capital to gain a competitive advantage from other organizations (Rukunga & Nzulwa, 2018). On the other hand, some employees and managers are asked about the Influence of talent management strategies on organizational performance. Most of the respondents are agreed with the talent management strategies positive influence of organizational performance and activities by 38%. More than 5% said that these talent management strategies are able to enhance the competitive advantage by which the organization can develop its overall market share and productivity growth to maintain the competency level in the competitive market. On the other hand, 35% respondents have been responded that it is neither ineffective nor effective, which means that they are neutral as they think other attributes are also important for developing the organizational performance. 19% respondents have been responded it as an ineffective matter on the other hand 4% respondents have been responded it as a very ineffective matter in terms of improving the organizational activities and performance (Radford, Shacklock & Bradley, 2015). Although, most of them are agreed with the positive impact of adopting talent management strategies for developing the organizational performance and employee retention process. The talent management also need to consider the strategically aligned performance management by counselling of employees, maintain discipline among them, review of their performance, absence management and termination. Some factors are able to foster the chances of talent management strategies in an organization including positive experience of employees in the organization, prioritizing the talent management strategies by HRM policies and comprehensive understanding of organizational strategies among HR leaders. Effective talent management is depending upon three paradigms including positive experience, rapid talent allocation and strategic HR team by which the overall financial performance also get enhanced (McKinsey & Company, 2018).

Theme 3: Relationship between talent management strategies and psychological contract of employees.

From the above chart provided in this HR management essay, it has been shown that talent management strategies and psychological contract of employees are correlated with each other as it has some similar paradigms by which its attributes are same in some manner. The undefined expectations of employees have been considered to develop the psychological contract and their talent (Festing & Schäfer, 2014). In this competitive market, tremendous change in the globalization causes growing war for searching new talents in terms of developing the overall performance and increasing the productivity of an organization. Increasing demands for skills and knowledge fosters the chances of increasing demand of employees when both of the parties are agreed with each other’s offered services a relationship gets established. Fulfilling the expectations of both parties whether they are employees or employers are the main factors to ensure the job satisfaction level and staff retention in an organization. On the other hand, most of the employees are committed towards a brand by which they are intended to improve their performance level by which the overall productivity and market share have increased (Burgess et al. 2018). Moreover, rewards mangemnt also fosters the chnaces of developing the psychological contract and their talent by providing them financial rewards including benefits, bonus. Some intrinsic, extrinsic rewards and some developmental rewards depending upon their performance level.  As per the chart it has been shown that 43% respondents have agreed that a relationship between both of the talent management strategies and psychological contract of employees is an important factor for ensuring the continuous improvement of an organization and job satisfaction level of employees. 28% respondents have been greatly agreed and 7% respondents have strongly agreed that this kind of relationship can easily enhance the chance of training purposes by which the quality of offered products are enhanced. On the other hand, 4 % respondents have strongly disagreed and 18% respondents have responded it neutrally regarding the relationship talent management strategies and psychological contract of employees (Manxhari, 2015). So, it is necessary that HRM need to pay significant priority towards the talent management strategies and psychological contract of employees to ensure that both parties are committed towards the organization and staff retention gets enhanced.

Theme 4: Influence of HRM practices on staff retention in an organization illustrated in this HR management essay.

 A healthy relationship between the staff and the HR management team can be able to develop the organization into an inclusive work culture by which all of the employees are treated equally. Moreover, several developmental programs have been associated with the proper HR practices to foster the chances of fair environment in the workplace, where no discrimination takes place based upon their age, gender, and status (Haider et al. 2015). For doing that, on the other hand, ethical behaviour has been implemented by which the employee growth gets fostered by which the diversified workplace gets fostered. Moreover, it has been shown from the above graph that, 44% respondents have been left their job due to insufficient payment, 43% respondents are due to limited career paths, 30% respondents are due to unchallenging work, 27% respondents are due to lack of recognition and 28% respondents are due to work and life balance. So, it has been shown in the HR management essay that there have been several reasons to leave the job by employees, so it is necessary that employers are offered them sufficient payment, variations are career paths, new challenges every day, recognition by which the job satisfaction level gets increased and staff retention also gets enhanced to a great extent. There are mainly five retention factors by which the retention of talents can be accomplished including challenging work, good manager, flexible work arrangements, reasonable payment and empowerments. Adopting an inclusive work culture in the organization can be able to develop the overall diversification in the workplace to fairly treat people for ensuring staff retention (whatishumanresource, 2019).

Theme 5: Impact of bullying and harassment in the workplace and methods of reducing this problem
Workplace bullying and harassment is a common issue in every organization nowadays. With time, the issue is getting bigger and bigger and it largely affects the workplace environment within that organization. The competition is the market is increasing and with-it people are now trying to secure his or her position within their workplace by any means (Burgess et al. 2018). The pressure on the employees are also increasing and to avoid that or to make fun in that, they take negative approaches within their everyday work environment. There are different kinds of people present within a workplace, people who are smart works beside a person who has relatively lower IQ and they becomes the victim of this bullying and harassment. These types of activities mentioned in this HR management essay greatly impact the performance of employees who are being harassed or bullied by others. These types of activities also increase the chance of employee turnover which is unacceptable for any organization (Pastorek, Contacos-Sawyer & Thomas, 2015). Bullying and harassment involve both physical and mental attack by the others which creates immense pressure on the victim employee. These kinds of harassments include only word of mouth to sexual harassment. Sometimes workplace conflict turs into a harassment, which needs to be tackled in the preliminary stage by adapting common alternative dispute resolution process (ADR). The mental state also gets affected severely due to these types of activities. Bullying and harassment increase stress and creates a fear in the employees who get victimized by other employees. Stress and depression directly affect their performance because they fail to concentrate on their work resulting decrease in performance and efficiency in their work.

Around 34% of women and 20% men employees get victimized by workplace bullying and harassment in Australia. Around 20% of people faced sexual harassment at least once in their workplace (safe work australia, 2019). 

The Human Resource (HR) department has to take strict action on this type of situations and they have to punish the employees who take part in this bullying and harassment activities. They also have to maintain the government rules and regulations of this matter have to make sure that each of the employees is free from harassment or bullying in their organization. Managing the health, safety and welfare in the workplace is necessary, which can be accomplished by some prevention and remediation program. Having a dynamic environment is also essential for inducing the worker’s compensation systems and occupational rehabilitation. The higher authorities have to create a strong code of ethics within their framework so that their every employee and other officials have to maintain that code to avoid harassment and discrimination in the workplace.   

Conclusion
Retaining employees within an organization is essential for minimizing resource consumption and increase productivity and efficiency. From the above study of HR management essay it has been concluded that job satisfaction, pay scale, training, workplace environment, harassment, and other factors have had an immense effect on employee retention. The communication sector organizations have to make sure that each of their employees is getting adequate help and training from them to use the latest machines effectively. Assuring workplace safety and good working ambiance by the HR department, companies will achieve a stable employee base and satisfied employees within their organization.   

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