Human Resource Management

The term labour force is a general way to refer to all the people willing and able to work. For an organization, the internal labour force consists of the organization’s workers - its employees and the people who have contracts to work at the organization. This internal labour force has been drawn from the organization’s external labour market, that is, individuals who are actively seeking employment.
The three major trends today in the change in labour force are: 1. An aging workforce, 2. A diverse workforce and 3. Skills deficiencies of the workforce.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN

Student Name: Pham Tuan Phuong Nam

Student Number: CT0109634

Module: Human Resource Management
Assignment 1
Question:

The term labour force is a general way to refer to all the people willing and able to work. For an organization, the internal labour force consists of the organization’s workers - its employees and the people who have contracts to work at the organization. This internal labour force has been drawn from the organization’s external labour market, that is, individuals who are actively seeking employment.
The three major trends today in the change in labour force are: 1. an aging workforce, 2. a diverse workforce and 3. Skills deficiencies of the workforce.

Choose only one of the three major trends in the change of labour as shown above and write a report on how the chosen trend affects human resource management practices in organisations today.

TABLE OF CONTENT:

I. Introduction

* Definition of Human Resource Management * Definition of Aging workforce * Two advantages and two disadvantages * Strategies to overcome the disadvantages of the aging workforce

II. Body

* Two advantages of the aging workforce: * Experiences. * High responsibility, commitment and consistency.

* Two disadvantages of the aging workforce: * Lack of flexibility * The problem of diminishing health

* Strategies to overcome the disadvantages of the aging workforce: * Training, promotion, competition * Improve OHS

III. Conclusion

* Sum up all the mentioned information

IV. References

Human Resource Management (HRM) means the policies, practices, and systems the influence employees’ behavior, attitudes and performance. Nowadays, the labour force has been changed which directly affects to the HRM of the organization. One of the trends has become the worldwide phenomenon and has a significant importance on the HRM is the aging workforce. The aging workforce is defined as working individuals who are 45 years of age or older. According to preliminary results from Ministry of Manpower’s comprehensive mid-year Labour Force Survey, the employment rate for elder residents aged 55 to 64 in Singapore is 57.2%. This trend has brought a number of advantages and disadvantages to the HRM of the organizations. Additionally, some strategies will be considered so as to solve these disadvantages.

As far as the advantages are concerned, perhaps the most noticeable benefit is that the mature-aged employers have a lot of experiences due to having been working for a long time. Therefore, they may choose the best solution for the task hence reducing the risks as well as the time completing it. Moreover, they may pass on their experiences to the new employers in order to retain these valuable experiences and enhance the quality of the workforce in general. This also helps saving the training costs and improving the performance which support the HRM. In addition, with full of the knowledge of customers, they are likely to sustain the loyal communication between customers and the organization. This is crucial to the organizations as they may help maintaining the profits.
In my opinion, another benefit of the aging workforce is that the high responsibility, the commitment and the consistency. In other words, the assigned job may be well handled by considering different sides then producing better quality outcomes. Furthermore, with the high commitment, they may strictly follow the discipline, for example, going to work or submitting task in time. Plus, it is usually that the older employers are more consistent in work as they may be afraid of changing different jobs with the intention of ensuring the amount of wages and getting promotion in the long time. Hence, the labour turnover in this case may also be reduced which helps the HRM in terms of the planning, recruitment and training new employers, therefore decreasing the costs for the organizations. These issues yet substantially contribute to the performance of the workforce which is good for the HRM in general.
As regards the disadvantages, it is concerned that the aging workforce may lack of flexibility in compared with the younger generation. This means that the young employers may show more enthusiastic, energetic and determined. Thus, they may be more willing to accept new challenges and risks which is sometimes likely to result in large success. Moreover, they are also more willing to take opportunities in compared to the older ones with the intention of competing with other employers to achieve higher positions. This, in turn, encourages the creativity and the innovation which is very important to the development and the competitiveness of the organizations in the economy. As a consequence, the organization that hires the majority of the aging workforce may be deficient in new inventions hence losing the market shares. This further adversely affects the general performance of the organizations which also has a worse impact in the HRM since they may lay off the employers to reduce the costs. As a result, an aging workforce may decrease the productivity level of the organizations.
The second drawback should be considered is the problem of diminishing health. At the age over 40, the fact that people have higher chance of catching diseases e.g. chronic diseases, diabetes or other common illness caused by the surrounding environment. The problem of unhealthier vision of aging workforce should also be taken into account. These issues are concerned as a significant barrier for the mature-age employers to entirely participate and contribute to the work. In other words, the declining health may increase the labour absenteeism since these employers need a number of days off so as to recover their health condition, therefore adversely affecting the productivity level. Additionally, the organizations may be suffered from the rising costs for the healthcare services e.g. health insurance, which are responsible for employers’ health. This put a heavy strain on the financial side of the organizations. Since the production costs increase while the profits may decrease due to the lower productivity level. Furthermore, this also has an impact on the HRM in term of recruiting plans in order to new employers to fill the vacancies of seriously ill employers that are unable to work. In my opinion, health plays an important role on the performance hence this issue of the aging workforce should be seen as a significant obstacle for the organizations.

In terms of the strategies to tackle the above disadvantages, in the first place, the HR professionals should address the skill shortages of the aging workforce, hence investing on the training programmes. It is argued that the older workers are interested in undertaking training and furthering their careers. And if the learning programs are tailored to the age, knowledge and experience of mature-age employers then learning is just as effective as and no more expensive than for young employers (A recent report of Swinburne University in Australia). Therefore, they are able to not only improve their intellectual capacities but also fit in the dynamic changes of world economy. Furthermore, since most of the older employers have reached the plateau careers, the HR professionals should pay an attention on promoting and rewarding them, especially those with best skills so as to retain the valued workers. It is essential that the organizations should organize different competitions with the intention of providing incentives for employers to produce more innovations. Moreover, the HR professionals should implement life-long learning strategies in order to cope with the fast-paced developing economy. These solutions may help enhancing the flexibility of the aging labour force.
Secondly, the organizations may reduce the consequences caused by the problem of diminishing health by undertaking assessments of physical, environmental and organizational risk factors in the workplace for older workers; hence the occupational health and safety (OHS) will be improved. The OHS is the key to limit the accidents happened in the workplace. Plus, the employers should also have periodic check-up, therefore reducing the risks of catching severe diseases. In addition, the HR professionals should arrange more flexible working plans which are suitable with the working conditions. For instance, they may allow the older workers move from full-time to part-time jobs, work at home or sign fixed term contracts. More flexible working hours may be beneficial for the health problems of the aging workforce, thus preventing the increasing of the labour turnover and absenteeism.

In conclusion, the aging workforce has different advantages as well as disadvantages. It depends on the environment of each organizations in which the advantages may outweigh the disadvantages and vice versa. In other words, that organizations may use varying polices so as to encourage the benefits and reducing the drawbacks. However, these policies may cost a large amount of money but in the long term, these may be effective and produce better outcomes for the organizations, especially in the case that the pool of external youth labour in the market is gradually lessening. Therefore, the organizations should implement various suitable policies to cope with this contemporary phenomenon. Ultimately, the governments should intervene by perhaps extending the retiring age.

References:
Mehta, D (2012): Human Resource Management Study Guide, Dublin: University College Dublin http://www.globalhrnews.com/story.asp?sid=1061 http://www.thomsons.asia/page/11367/singapore-to-tackle-problems-of-an-aging-workforce [19 November 2009] http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1604388281.html [1October 2008] http://www.mom.gov.sg/statistics-publications/national-labour-market-information/statistics/Pages/labourforce.aspx [31 January 2012]

References: Mehta, D (2012): Human Resource Management Study Guide, Dublin: University College Dublin http://www.globalhrnews.com/story.asp?sid=1061 http://www.thomsons.asia/page/11367/singapore-to-tackle-problems-of-an-aging-workforce [19 November 2009] http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1604388281.html [1October 2008] http://www.mom.gov.sg/statistics-publications/national-labour-market-information/statistics/Pages/labourforce.aspx [31 January 2012]