Role of Government, Employers and Trade Unions in Future Skills Needs

The future is not predictable. Many predictions made years ago have turned into reality; however, some predictions have failed to turn into reality. There are natural as well as artificial influences that labour market. Also, there are several bodies that try to control it with the predictions of seeing the current situation. Since what is done today is always influenced by the thought of tomorrow, the labour market is affected by systematically so it becomes profitable for everyone (Drucker 2014). In the process of securing the future, there is a contribution made by several organisations, institute and individual (Wynarczyk et al. 2016).  The government is one such body that has an influential role to play in ensuring future skills that are required nationally or internationally. Another entity that has been established primarily for this particular job of providing skills is the Trade union of the nation (Humphrey 2017). Often it is the employers of the organisations as well who bear the responsibility of producing quality skilled employees for the state and labour market. This report is based on the strong influences of the labour market that includes government, employers and the trade union. Firstly, the report gives a brief explanation of the role that government, employers and trade unions in assuring that the skills that are needed in the future are met. Secondly, the main principles of effective workforce planning are discussed in the report followed by a concise account of the role of Human Resource (HR), and it’s role in the several important sectors. The report has also focused on the legal requirements concerning recruitment and selection. Lastly, on the basis of the whole report, there are recommendation and advice that might be helpful.

1.In the growth of country’s economy, skill development plays a vital role; therefore, the nation has the responsibility to develop strategies that will enhance the skills of the nation. As being one of the well-built skilled states earns the country monetary and prestige growth the government take different forms of measures to improve the nation’s skills. The UK has been one of the countries that have been performing poorly in productivity. It is a widely known fact that progress requires improvement in workforce skills, and the UK requires significant improvement in its workforce. There is a need to improve the employability skills that will ensure more adults having minimum standards in math and English. UK’s investment in skills has also declined. The government holds the most powerful position regarding control (Mead 2013). The government make policies and laws, and these policies can be education oriented that will enhance the skills of the nation. The UK Commission of Employment and Ability determines to transform approaches to skill investment to drive enterprise, growth and jobs (Oliver, B., 2015). With the growing globalisation the global labour market is likely to be highly competitive and to survive in the market new attitudes and behaviour is highly required. When the high-skilled and highly productive economy is the target, the trade union also has an important role to play. Trade union works with management to assist in resolving workplace issues (Forth et al. 2013). It acts as the voice of the employees and advocates behalf of employees. The trade union ensures that employees are reaching their minimum obligations. The discrimination laws, workplace laws and workplace protection laws are significant concerns of the trade union. Since the trade union acts as a check, it helps in improving the quality of the workplace.3.Ensuring that an organisation has the right workforce possessing the right skills at the right time is workforce planning. The workforce planning is a helpful method for the human resource team to identify the gap in the workforce and also determine the Human resource needs in the future. The main principles of effective workforce planning are:

1.Commitment, support and participation from every person involved in the process: It is one of the fundamental principles that is needed for workforce planning. Every person in the organisation including managers, all levels of management, the entire workforce of people being supported, commissioners and other professionals are required to give full participation.

2.Effective communication: Communication with everyone inside as well as externally is a significant part that is capable of bringing effective changes. This should be ongoing throughout the process.

3.Strong leadership: Active participation and support from the leaders can help in creating an efficient team active participation lets in-depth view of the organisation.

4.Analyze the workplace: Analysing the workplace to identify the scope of improvements, drawbacks and favourable factors of the organisation.Effective tools for workforce planning are-

The explanation of the organisation’s strategy: an effective workforce is only achievable when the organisation develops the direction, and the strategic plans of the organisation are communicated to every member of the organisation. This will include a thorough review of the history and present performance. The process of reviewing the past and present will help in to identify the required skills and strategies for the company’s well-being (Nankervis et al. 2013). A company with strategic plans can figure out the expected changes in the work volume, geographical distribution, access hours, types of served clients and service delivery modes. These informations will act as a useful tool for effective workforce planning. The mentioned factors are significant to consider as changes in any of the following sector will bring necessary implications for a business demand for specific skills.

Main Principles of Effective Workforce Planning

Construction of a model for the existing workforce: Organizations who want to develop new and advance workforce plan understand that it is a crucial factor to know characteristics, capabilities and workforce distributions. Considering the following factors also provide a fundamental understanding of the workforce(Paillé, Boiral and Jin 2014). An organisation must be aware of the entire permanent, supplement and contractual employees in modelling their current workforce. This particular information is available with HR and often has helpful in starting workforce planning.

Identifying micro and macro environment: Organisations are affected by many external and internal factors which are necessary to review for developing a competent workforce plan. The effective workforce planning requires a review of a demographic, social, political, economic and technological trend as well as issues (Morgeson et al. 2013). Since these factors have a significant role in determining the direction of an organisation, it is a useful tool in developing the workforce effectively. Revising the micro and macro changes help to refine the workforce planning in a better strategic manner.

Strategy development for closing the gap: Gap analysis is one of the vital tools used by modern organisations. Analyzing the gap identifies the deficit or surplus existing between workforce demand and workforce supply (Tang et al. 2017). The gap analysis is a useful tool for overcoming the deficiencies and finding ways to meet the surplus. The gap closing strategies can include recruitment of new employees with required skills, plans for employee development, reducing over staffing, building employees’ skills and retaining organisation’s knowledge along with other strategies needed.

4.Succession and development plans: The process of identifying the high-potential employees who are capable of top management positions when they are vacant for recruitment. The succession planning distinguishes necessary competencies and works to evaluate, develop and retain a talent pool of employees (Kehoe 2013). This is done to assure a continuum of leadership for the crucial positions. The succession planning is a strategy for the organisation’s benefit purpose which brings forth particular steps that need to be followed to achieve the goal of the workforce planning (Friedman 2017). It is the old employees who understand their organisation in best form therefore, the top management positions are for the potential employees of the organisation. However, it is a crucial decision and done carefully by the human resource.

1.Contribute to plans for downsizing an organisation: Downsizing a company means to reduce the number of employees for the organisation’s benefit. In case of improper downsizing, the company may have to lose money instead of gaining. Human resource managers have been contributing to plans that are required for downsizing an organisation. HR managers weigh several factors that influence the downsizing decision. Identifying the reasons and specific problems that downsize will solve and access the resources that can is required. This process helps the human resource management make the decisions of downsizing (Stone and Stone 2013). The HR team not only initiates the decision, it also explores the alternatives. After analysing the downsizing, it comes up with the strategic planning process of downsizing and manages the whole process. Downsizing often causes the high level of stress, poor morale and guilt that the HR team needs to consider and instil confidence among employees that the changes are for beneficial to everyone.

HR’s Role in Succession Planning, Downsizing, and Job Descriptions

2.Development of job descriptions, person specifications and competency framework: The HR team is the recruitment body who identifies the hiring need of the company. The process of hiring is carried out by the human resources from the beginning to end (Frey and Osborne 2017). After the human resource obtains the information from the operation the recruitment plan is developed by the human resource team. Human resource prepares the job description and ensures a proper process for reviewing candidates and approval of them. The team also checks whether the department level is met through the interview process as it is one of the effective workforce planning. A competency framework is a structured process that helps human resource teams develops their skills (Kinniburgh et al. 2017). The framework outlines the works HR needs to do to be effective in their roles as well as show roles that are related to HR for long-term business goals and success. The framework components are some basic attributes such as commitment, honesty, responsibility and a few crucial criteria such as leadership and management skills. Also, there are some core competencies such as ethics and accountability followed by specific competency requirements that are needed for specific HR roles.

5.Although neither there is no specific piece or individual section of legislation that applies to the recruitment and selection there are some basic requirement that needs the attention in regarding to relation to recruitment and selection. Few of the keylegislation regarding the recruitment and selection are:

Equality Act 2010: According to the Equality Act 2010, it is against the government to discriminate in employment, including recruitment and pick on the ground of any of the following characteristics:

• Age
• Gender
• Civil partnership and marriage
• Maternity and pregnancy
• Race including Color, nationality, ethnicity, national origin and race
• Religion or belief
• Sexual orientation
• Sex (Hepple 2013)

Asylum and Immigration Act 2006: According to this act, it is an illegal offence to hire a person who does not possess the authority to live and work in the UK. The candidates must provide evidence to prove that he is approved to operate in the UK. The evidence can include a birth certificate or passport (Bosworth 2013).

Police Act 1997:As per the police act 1997, it is an absolute necessity to carry out a Criminal Records Bureau Check on employees serving along with kids and weak adults. This process of the criminal check is needed to be done before confirmation of the candidate (Rowbotham and Stevenson 2017).

Data Protection Act 2003: according to this act, applicants are informed that their application forms will be used following this act which means that informationobtained from the candidate for the selection method will be confidential and will be used for assessment, selection and employment record purpose only (Greenleaf 2014).

1.There are many recruitment strategies and methods. Companies select among the mentioned methods as per their requirement (Greiner et al. 2014). The widely used recruitment methods are:

Job advertisement: It is one of the most common and basic recruitment methods organizations uses. Companies place job advertisement in local newspaper or national print and online publication. The job seekers instantly respond to it when the positions available. The weakness of this method is that the company will attract a large crowd which will become hard in screening.

Legal Requirements in Recruitment and Selection

Employment and recruitment agencies: Using of employment agencies as a staffing strategy has been the preferred by many businesses since it saves from the hassle that is involved. The weakness of this method is that employment and recruitment agencies will take commission from the company and often they are unable to describe the job details.

Government job centers: Government job centres offer advertising assistance as a part of employment services for the citizens which is approached by the companies. People tend to rely on the government job centres frequently as it is filtered from fraud job calls (Halpern and Sanders 2016). The weakness of this method is that government job centres are easily approached and it becomes hard for the government job centers to screen the large crowd.

Personal references: Often companies use the internal sources to alert the staff about the vacancies and positions that is available. Many organizationprefer personal references as the expected candidate will be aware of the company policies, work ethics and work environment. The weakness of this method is the personal references can often bring wrong candidates as the person giving reference might have personal benefits.

Print media, broadcast media or social media: The media is usually used to reach large mass of people therefore organizations often make use of the media to alert citizens regarding the available position. The weakness for this method is that like advertisement, this method also reaches out to the large population which attracts large population and thus makes it hard for the company to screen.

2.Employees can have several reasons for sticking to an organization or leaving an organization. There can be functional turnover and dysfunctional turnover. Functional turnover is when the underperformer leaves the organization whereas dysfunctional turnover is when the productive and best performers leave the organization. The functional turnover happens to maintain the standards of the firm, where quality is the top priority. The dysfunction turnover occurs when the employees are not satisfied internally including unsatisfying payment, lack of promotional opportunities with many more and seek the opportunities externally.

3.Some of the best effective employee retention methods are-

• Ensuring employee satisfaction with work duties and pay: The first and most important factor to be paid attention for employee retention is the job satisfaction from the employee’s perspective. The weakness of this factor is that the process might lead to employee’s deliberate dissatisfaction for more pay raise.
• Providing educational opportunities for the employees: The educational opportunities make the employees enthusiastic regarding the growth in terms of knowledge and skills. This is an effective method of retention as employees seek growth for self development. The weakness for this factor is that the company might face extra cost in providing educational opportunities to the employees.
• Providing mentors: often providing mentors have made the employees satisfied as employees get to learn from the senior and are provided guidelines for carrying out difficult tasks. The weakness for this factor is that mentors will cost the company extra and once the employees are trained the job of mentors can become obsolete.
• Non-tangible benefits: perks, recognition, recreational activities and many more from organization helps the employees balance their work stress. Companies making sure of employees well-being has been an effective method of retaining employees. The weakness of this factor is that non-tangible benefits are often unrecognized and therefore might not be valued by the employees.

4.An organization is based on several factors. All the three bodies, government, trade union and employer make pillars of an organization. The government is the superior body that has the ultimate power to make required policy and therefore, it has the responsibility to make innovative policies and agendas that would improve the nation’s skills.Involvement of trade union make the life of the employees easier as there is a body that speaks behalf of them and ensures safety for them. The employees of the company bear the responsibility of the employers and also the responsibility to deliver skilful labors for the company and nation in future.The organization needs to follow the effective principle for workforce planning keeping the current and future situation of the company. The recruitment process should be taken care following the legal laws and process. At the end of the report it can be stated that a proper analysis and strategies will be able to give the solution with the help of an effective human resource managers.

Assessing Approaches to Retaining Talent

Conclusion:

The role of government, trade unions and employers are inter-related. When the three bodies act together the nation experiences growth and development. The nation’s development is hugely depended on the employer and therefore it is necessary to make the labours skilled and knowledgeable. It is the responsibility of the nation to develop skillful labours. Trade union is for the employees to ensure their rights and safety is secured. The process of development requires the three bodies and to ensure the three bodies are making the best use each one is cross-checked by another. Organisations should implement good ethics and principles and involving trade union to develop the safety and rights of the employers. The governments should be responsible for the overall process so there should not be any illegal methods involved. At the end, it is the contribution of the three bodies to work together and bring change together.

References:

Bosworth, M., 2013. 8 Immigration detention in Britain. In Human trafficking (pp. 171-189).Willan.

Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship.Routledge.

Forth, J., Kersley, B.E., Lardies, C.A., Bryson, A., Bewley, H., Dix, G. and Oxenbridge, S., 2013. Inside the workplace: findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey. Routledge.

Frey, C.B. and Osborne, M.A., 2017. The future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation?. Technological forecasting and social change, 114, pp.254-280.

Friedman, S.D., 2017. Succession systems in large corporations: Characteristics and correlates of performance. In Leadership succession (pp. 15-38).Routledge.

Greenleaf, G., 2014. Sheherezade and the 101 data privacy laws: Origins, significance and global trajectories. JL Inf. & Sci., 23, p.4.

Greiner, K.A., Friedman, D.B., Adams, S.A., Gwede, C.K., Cupertino, P., Engelman, K.K., Meade, C.D. and Hébert, J.R., 2014. Effective recruitment strategies and community-based participatory research: community networks program centers’ recruitment in cancer prevention studies. Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Biomarkers, 23(3), pp.416-423.

Halpern, D. and Sanders, M., 2016. Nudging by government: Progress, impact, & lessons learned. Behavioral Science & Policy, 2(2), pp.52-65.

Hepple, B., 2013. Back to the future: employment law under the Coalition government. Industrial Law Journal, 42(3), pp.203-223.

Humphrey, J.C., 2017. Towards a politics of the rainbow: Self-organization in the trade union movement. Routledge

Kehoe, R.R. and Wright, P.M., 2013. The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management, 39(2), pp.366-391.

Kinniburgh, K.J., Blaustein, M., Spinazzola, J. and Van der Kolk, B.A., 2017. Attachment, Self-Regulation, and Competency: A comprehensive intervention framework for children with complex trauma. Psychiatric annals, 35(5), pp.424-430.

Mead, W.R., 2013. Special providence: American foreign policy and how it changed the world. Routledge.

Morgeson, F.P., Aguinis, H., Waldman, D.A. and Siegel, D.S., 2013. Extending corporate social responsibility research to the human resource management and organizational behavior domains: A look to the future.Personnel Psychology, 66(4), pp.805-824.

Nankervis, A.R., Baird, M., Coffey, J. and Shields, J., 2013. Human resource management: strategy and practice.

Oliver, B., 2015. Redefining graduate employability and work-integrated learning: Proposals for effective higher education in disrupted economies. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 6(1), p.56.

Paillé, P., Chen, Y., Boiral, O. and Jin, J., 2014. The impact of human resource management on environmental performance: An employee-level study. Journal of Business Ethics, 121(3), pp.451-466.

Rowbotham, J. and Stevenson, K., 2017. Behaving Badly: Social Panic and Moral Outrage-Victorian and Modern Parallels.Routledge.

Stone, R.J. and Stone, R.J., 2013. Managing human resources.John Wiley and Sons.

Tang, J.P., Lam, H.L., Aziz, M.A. and Morad, N.A., 2017. Palm biomass strategic resource managment–A competitive game analysis. Energy, 118, pp.456-463.

Wynarczyk, P., Watson, R., Storey, D.J., Short, H. and Keasey, K., 2016. Managerial labour markets in small and medium-sized enterprises.Routledge.