The Impact of Social, Economic, Legal, Political, Technological, Institutional or Cultural Context on Employment Practices
The manufacturing industry around the globe is facing a lot of challenges in human resource with a few skilled people who are willing to work in the sector due to long working hours and other unfriendly conditions. The industry is getting it really tough because of frequently changing laws in many countries. This paper closely looks at the challenges difficulties faced in the sector’s human resource. Additionally, the paper addresses the issue of implementing good work place practices, developing ways of attracting good workers into the sector.
The performance of organizations’ employment practices are largely affected by social, economic, legal, political, technological, institutional or cultural context. The industry is quite critical and essential to the economy of significant number of countries. There is very little that has been done regarding the management of human resource internationally. There is a big relationship between the organizational performance, and the strategic management, human resource management, flexibility and enterprise bargaining, workers participation as well as their safety and health(Connell, Nankervis, & Burgess, 2015). Every company in the manufacturing industry must train, hire, motivate pay and maintain its employees. For all this to happen, the function of human resource management must be included in the constitution of the organization. The future of any organization lies in their ability to control and manage the big range of talented workforce who can come up with new perceptions, views and innovative ideas in regard to their work. Organizations can really gain much by capitalizing on their diversity of talents to solve different problems and challenges that they face daily (Suhasini & Babu, 2013). The workplace diversity rage from gender, age, religion, level of education, social economic status, marital status, ethnicity, geographical location etc.
In the recent years, the human resource sector has continued to improve and boom internationally due to the heavy investment into the sector. Many substantive changes have taken place in regard to employees and employers relationship. Although all this efforts have been put to improve the industry, it continues to face uncountable challenges.
Addressing the issue of attracting and retaining talented workers in a manufacturing industry is a critical process that must be carefully dealt with. It is a crucial stage of hiring the staff that determines how prosperous and effective an organization is. The process has become a global agenda due to the competitive business environment. A well planned recruitment and selection process helps a company to hire the best candidates for various positions . An effective recruitment and selection process can assist a company maximize their competition (French, 2010). Many manufacturing companies have continuously failed to hire the best candidates due to poor strategies to manage the recruitment process . Failure to understand and create good strategies of hiring has cost companies a lot of money making them to continue lagging behind. The need to fill different positions within an organization has continued to pose a threat and a challenge not only to the HR but the entire company ( Syed, J., & Kramar, R. (2017) Recruitment and selection.. Human resource management (2nd edition pp .153-184). London, UK : Palgrave.)
The Importance of Human Resource Management in the Manufacturing Industry
The task is more complicated due to the high demand of employees with specific skills and qualifications set by the management. The biggest hurdle to the HR in manufacturing industry to do their job well in their effort to get skilled workers is the shortage of individuals with the set abilities and right skills to perform and execute the specified task effectively(Agrawal, Khatri, & Srinivasan, 2012).
It is obvious that hiring new talented and skilled employees is a critical issue when it comes to effectively addressing the shortage of skilled manpower in the manufacturing industry. It is unfortunate that many of the problems during the recruitment and selection process are due to the perspective of the society and have gradually become deep rooted in the industry. Different positions in many manufacturing companies are very much specified and calls for specialized individuals with great specific skills and abilities which is a major problem to the management to meet the required standards (Hamilton, 2009).
It is also unfortunate that many organizations continue giving the same recruitment budgets for several years. The idea has caused the human resource sector to remain without any significant improvement for a very long time. The sector has not been as competitive as other industries, particularly in regard to change of college curriculums to meet the standard expectations in the manufacturing field.
In order to address the recruitment challenges successfully, the managers in the human resource departments should learn to be competitive and outdo other industries in hiring the best personnel to work in their organizations. This means there is every need for the corporations in the manufacturing industry to adopt recruitment strategies that are driven by the market research. Such techniques will help them to attract and retain qualified, skilled and talent graduates who are much innovative to stimulate the sector to higher levels (Yang & Cherry, 2008).
Majority of people in the manufacturing industry think that the recruitment woes and high turnover are the main issues but training and developing the HR is among the major challenges. For any organization to continue thriving in the global competitive market, serious measures must be taken to monitor its performance from time to time. The key issue in a company’s success is how effective the human resource is. Managers in the manufacturing companies continue focus on their profit making as the measure of success and neglect the main area which is the human resource. Many companies have come up and went down because they failed to capitalize and invest more on their workforce (Stites & Michael, 2011) . The technology in the manufacturing industry is growing at a very high rate. Many organizations continue improving and advancing the production machines yet doing nothing to improve the human resource. They forget it is people make key decision and determine a lot on the progress of an organization. There is every need for companies in the manufacturing industry to develop policies on how to improve the human resource. Evaluation of performance should be narrowed down to individual and departmental levels to ensure better accountability (Daoanis, 2012).
Attracting and Retaining Talented Workers in the Manufacturing Industry
Organizations must also allocate more resources in training and developing their workers to meet the changes and competitive requirement in the market (Azizi, 2015). Frequent training is the sphere through which the HR can optimize their potential. Further, it is equally essential for the employees to get adequate updated training in line with the latest development to prepare them for the future challenges. Moreover, training and development are crucial in enhancing, improving and developing professional and personal skills that are essential in developing high levels of employee stimulation and satisfaction ( Syed, J., & Kramar, R. (2017) performance management. Human resource management (2nd edition pp .185-212). London, UK: Palgrave.)
Motivation is another critical factor in the manufacturing industry efficiency. It plays an important role in influencing the performance and general outcomes of an organization. To motivate means to influence, push or move to continue with the desire and task for fulfilling a need. Motivation is a set of reasons or incentives concerned with the willingness that increase performance in endeavoring to accomplish some well defined and set targets(Schneider, 2008) . The success of any company in the manufacturing industry depends on highly motivated workers who are creative and productive in every level. In many cases motivating and rewarding the employee results in increased morale and high Productivity (Syed, J., & Kramar, R. (2017) reward management. Human resource management. (2nd edition pp .153-184). London, UK: Palgrave.)
People working in the industries must be motivated in order to understand their major responsibilities and roles as individuals. Motivation is an essential element in the human resource management. it is quite an important tool for improving the organizational productivity which is considered cheaper to acquiring new equipment. Fully trained, skilled and experienced individuals who are less motivated are likely to be much unproductive. However, individuals who are enthusiastic less trained and without any experience but who are well motivated are likely to learn fast and be more productive for the company (Conchie, 2013). Motivating employees in an organization creates a good environment in which people are willing to give more of their time and energy in order to ensure the company does well in the competitive global market.
In manufacturing industry, the responsibilities of HR are gradually becoming more complicated and impactful due to the considerable rise of global competition. Many manufacturing organizations are in danger due to the rapidly aging employees and insufficiencies in the recruitment process . such matters pose a threat of destabilizing many things in the organizations. With the advancement in technology and innovation of social media as well as introduction of new means of transport, the world as become open and many companies are working hard to take advantage of the unexploited market. Different nations and states have also come together to open up for business and foreign investment. The move has increased competition of the market among different manufacturing companies. In order to outdo the rival companies in the international or global market, an organization must be in a position of attract a significant number of innovative and talented individuals to work for them (Bhavani & Srinivas, 2015).
Hiring Skilled Workers in the Manufacturing Industry
Competition in the manufacturing industry gets worse following the substantially lower wages paid to the employees by the industries. Everything possible should be done by the HR to increase output and productivity at all levels to ensure the organization remains relevant and competitive in the global market(Mendes & MacHado, 2015) . A good and conducive environment in which the employees are engaged should be created to maximize innovation, commitment and productivity of every individual and department to counter the foreign competition as a result of lower labor costs.
In every sector of the economy where different organizations are competing to take hold and control of the market, the employees at each and every level must be the centre of all attention. The organizations should be in a position to leverage the insight and power provided by the workforce. Manufacturing industries must tremendously initiate some key changes and improvement on their ability to foster and create engaging environment in the workplace. Manufacturing industry continue to enjoy a tremendous job growth every year but little has been done in ensuring their expanded workforce has been properly engaged in the process of making the industry better(Arora, 2015).
Manufacturing companies continue suffering as a results of low engagement of staff due to lack of proper communication tools and employee feedback. This is a special challenge to the department of human resource; due to the sheer number of workers and the culture of spreading employees to a number of locations within a big geographical area. The worst of all conditions is that the senior management team and other leaders live in an entirely different state, town, city or country far away from where we have the largest number of the company’s workforce(Sonnentag, Binnewies, & Mojza, 2010).
In order to reduce the effects of differences in locations, managers in the manufacturing industry, can utilize the available trade unions. They can develop a healthy relationship with the trade unions which are vital in bridging the gap between the employees and the management through communication. The union leaders have the capability to bridge the inherent gaps developed as a results of geographic distance hence creating an effective media for companies to engage their workers (Zhang & Bartol, 2010). The fundamental issue in regard to engagement of the employees is always respecting and considering the powers of the trade unions when making decision on human resource.
The biggest challenge of retaining the best employees in an organization is the poor relationships between the management and the junior employees. Most of the voluntary exits from an organization are largely initiated by the managers. It is very important to understand and satisfy the underlying needs of the employees. Doing this makes it easier for the corporation to recruit and retain the talented, skilled and innovative employees. For the manufacturing industry corporations to continue thriving in the competitive market, it is not enough to have an effective recruitment and orientation. Retaining the valuable quality staff is an essential part of a successful corporation. Retaining quality staff members also helps to offer leadership at all levels of the organization (Meisler, 2014) . Some of the key factors that assist in retaining the performing members of staff is offering opportunities for career development and achievement like proper feedback process, realistic and reliable self assessment and mentorship programs. Very few corporations in the manufacturing industry have achieved this kind of programs to their employees. Every individual employee should be treated exceptionally because everybody has his /her way of understanding the environment around them. Many manufacturing corporations have neglected these crucial elements that could help them retain the best of their staff. Many employees value promotions, positive feedback, good interpersonal relations and good environment for growth and development more than the care about the salaries (Ahmed, Shields, White, & Wilbert, 2010).
The Importance of Training and Development in the Manufacturing Industry
A debate on how best to engage the staff members continue with many organizations experience labor turnover. The problem of turnover is as a result of managerial challenges. Probably the management hires people who are not fit for a particular position or they fail to create a working environment conducive for productivity. Many organizations have not realized how critical it is manage and secure their best performing human resource as the best resource that they own. It is human resource who facilitates efficient and effective production as well as delivery of goods and services. Different organizations have wonderful strategies on employees’ retention but have failed to capitalize on the important factors affecting retention such as extrinsic rewards, attachment with co-workers, job satisfaction, organizational fairness and prestige as well as opportunities for advancement. Reward is something aimed at effort by the workers worthwhile and this makes motivation and other rewards an important aspect of keeping the bet quality staff. However, due to the rapidly changing demands by individual employees and shortage of new skilled and talented people in the industry, it is become quite difficult to retain the best people since they get better offers from other rival corporations daily(Mosadeghrad & Ferdosi, 2013). The satisfaction of the employees is the foundation to retain the best personnel in any organization and the corner stone of every success story therefore managers should do everything in their capacity to keep the best quality of the staff.
Conclusion
Today, companies in the manufacturing industry cannot overlook the fact that the main element of their success is human resource. Therefore, great attention must be given to the recruitment, selection, motivation and retention of employees because they make up an important factor that determines the success and overall performance of companies. In order to get the maximum profits, companies should give more attention employees and strategies of retaining the best workers for long. Industries should create opportunities for the employees to develop. Performing workers should be acknowledged, motivated, appreciated and rewarded to keep their morale for greater things high. Managers should also come up with the best way b to hire the best personnel who can propel the organization to achieve its goals and objectives.
References
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