Job Design and Workforce Planning at CERA
Question:
Discuss about the Managing Employee Performance and Reward.
The report is prepared to discuss about the work design pilot at CERA considering the various human management practices within the organization. It is important to provide advice to Rachel Amaro for ensuring proper designing of jobs to support innovative behavior as well as ensure that the human resources are managed properly. Civil Engineering and Research associates or CERA was founded in 2007 and its vision is to become one of the most established go-to consulting companies within the civil construction industry in Australia. CERA is one of the major engineering and research associated Consultancy Company that has managed to provide the best quality consulting services to the construction and engineering company to make sure that good quality infrastructures are built. The topic will demonstrate the work design pilot will be prepared that is to be prepared at CERA. By maintaining a proper work design, it will be easy to ensure workforce planning and recruiting the individuals from different backgrounds and from different fields of knowledge, because of which, it will be easy to share and exchange opinions and ideas at CERA. The issues related to the lack of filling the job roles and not being able to employ the right candidates will be illustrated along with the forecasting of human resources to provide supplies according to the demands of workforce. The proper human resources management and its practices to enable creativity and innovation will also be included in this report.
CERA is quite clear about its vision and strategic goals with the involvement of both Mark French and Kellie Lincoln. To differentiate itself from others within the industry, the company has decided to bring innovativeness and manages orientation of services through enhanced design and engineering. One of the major issues faced by the company could be the lack of proper workforce planning or human resource planning, due to which the organization suffered in several areas and even faced complexities in responding to the external environment within quick time. Thus, there was necessity to develop an appropriate work design pilot considering the external market data and information based on the potential demands along with the checking of feasibility (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). The designing of work pilot also could include considering the numbers of inventories, skills and demographics within the present staffing process, which would combine the statistical methods and expert judgments for running a much more detailed workforce planning with the involvement of both the Planning and Engineering divisions (Alfes et al., 2013).
Recruitment and Employee Retention Strategies at CERA
The forecasting of human resources should be done along with effective recruitment, replacement and employee retention strategies for maintaining a strong workforce and straightforward labor supply. It is the roles and responsibilities of the HR manager of CERA to ensure that the demands of labor supply are met and their skills and abilities are identified (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014). One of the major ways to do is the utilization of gap analysis technique where the HR managers are assigned with the roles of predicting the labor demands in the future and compare those with the available skills and abilities of the individuals working for CERA (Anderson, Poto?nik & Zhou, 2014). As soon as Rachel would understand the benefits of the employee performance measurement or appraisal, she would likely create a positive work culture within the workplace, which can provide better working conditions for the employees (Ma Prieto & Pilar Perez-Santana, 2014). Rachel wants a creative workplace where the employees do possess extensive creative and thinking abilities and can handle tasks with ease.
The analysis of jobs was done to identify the positions that were left to be filled with candidates even make sure to engage the candidates properly during the recruitment and selection process. The job analysis must include considering the job roles, qualifications required to get selected for the job role and finally ensuring that the job requirements are met. The measurement of the performances of the workers is also important for gaining knowledge about the appropriate management of HR planning and creates job designs in such a manner that it supports the innovative behaviors within the workforce. The actual performance and the performance that has been desired in the future should be identified as well for ensuring that the gaps are overcome and the organizational efficiency could be improved as well. The gaps of employees would be identified with the use of transitional matrix analysis, which could make the HR mangers prepare sound designs for work to accomplish the aims and objectives of the organization as well as bring innovation all throughout (Marler & Fisher, 2013).
At CERA, there was shortage of labor, due to which there was a huge gap between the human resources available and the actual demands in the workforce. The jobs should be designed in such a manner so that more and more candidates are attracted and even the existing employees must be retained for providing long-term solutions to the business problems. To keep the workforce production, innovative job designs should include creating a good working environment consisting of a good culture so that the employees could be kept satisfied and encouraged to perform to their potential. The implementation of advanced technologies should also be considered as a major aspect of designing innovative jobs for reducing the work load of and enhance the production capabilities and reduce the costs of operations managed by the workforce too (Nankervis et al., 2013). The employees must be provided with proper training and developmental sessions for enhancing their skills, attributes and necessary knowledge gaining abilities while working for the company. This is how the issue related to the shortage of human resources at CERA would be overcome with ease and effectiveness.
Performance Management at CERA
The job designing process is the main cause of job satisfaction for the employees and managing the aggression of lack of commitment of the employees that may be arising due to the regular and same kinds of job responsibilities. Designing a job role properly would assist the HR manager to create satisfaction among the employees as well as keep them motivated and encouraged to tackle the job related challenges and roles with much ease and convenience. Motivation would be possible through better compensation and wages structure while designing the jobs and this would automatically interest among the employees, enhance the level of coordination and promote better teamwork (Kehoe & Wright, 2013). A job design should also include defining the work processes clearly and setting up good working hours to make the employees feel valued at CERA, which could even drive their potential to work with more dedication. It is essential to make Rachel Amaro informed about the changes in the new job design for supporting innovative behavior and at the same time measure the performances of employees to check for any areas where they might be weak (Shields et al., 2015).
There are four major techniques required to prepare an effective job design and these are as follows:
Simplification of work: Here the jobs are designed for filling the vacancies within the department managed by Rachel. The job is simplified by breaking it into smaller sub tasks and each of the tasks are allotted to a specific individual. The individual can gain proficiency and skills in doing the similar kind of task repeatedly. The work simplification requires minimum effort and money while training the individuals because of the need of low level skills.
Job rotation: The employees are needed to move from one job to another without changing their roles and responsibilities. Though the individual performs different types of tasks, still those are of the same nature and similar kinds of aspects are involved. The level of skills and knowledge is increased and the employees will become competent enough in different kinds of tasks (Ozguner & Ozguner, 2014).
Job enlargement: It recreates the job role by adding more tasks to the job, which creates more scopes for the employee to excel in his career. The employees will feel more interested through motivation and encouragement by the leaders, which can allow for committing fully to the business efficacy.
Job enrichment: Motivation of jobs is possible through job enrichment where motivating factors are added to the job and the employees will perform to this potential. It will also make them capable of handling critical issues and challenges, thereby acquire opportunities to grow and provide useful ideas and opinions for the improvement of outcomes for CERA (Kramer & Thayer, 2013)
Motivation through Job Design
The Herzberg’s theory demonstrates the motivation and hygiene factors that are responsible for motivating the workforce and making the employees perform to their potential as well. Various factors could be considered such as opportunities for learning and growth, safe and good working conditions along with providing them with both monetary and non-monetary rewards for their performances within the workplace (Malik & Naeem, 2013). There are various factors that can decrease the motivation level and morale of employees such as lower wages paid to them, inaccurate organizational policies and lack of safety and good working conditions within the workplace, which are also considered as hygiene factors. The humanistic approach to job designing could not managed at CERA would both raise the morale of employees as well as maintain the organizational values and ethics within the organization with ease and effectiveness (Yusoff et al., 2013).
The motivational job design is implemented to make sure that the job roles and responsibilities are planned in such a manner so that the employees remain satisfied (Todorovi?, Mitrovi? & Bjelica, 2013). The job designs at CERA are managed to allocate the tasks to the individuals and groups specifying about the methods, content and relationships of jobs for fulfilling organizational and technological requirements along with the satisfaction of the employees working at CERA. The job designs should include additional benefits and rewards to the employees for performance enhancement and accomplishment of organizational goals. Both monetary and non-monetary rewards could be included in the job designing approach for facilitating the motivation level and encouraging them to work harder. Taylorism could be an effective way of managing motivational job design and enable creation of a standard method at CERA for each of the job roles, This would also include providing training to the workers and supporting them to perform to their potential with the enhancement of their skills, knowledge and expertise. The socio technical systems approach should also allow for designing the job according to the goals and objectives of the organization. The employees must be engaged altogether in preparing the design of the job role, which should also help in controlling the variances in production or service centered benefits. The job design should not only ensure high quality working life, but could also assist in the adaptation to changes and handling the pressures within the changing environment of the organization. It would ensure that the programs and initiatives are implemented as designed in the job roles, furthermore analyze the insights to achieve better outcomes. The progress achieved should be communicated along with the success rate both internally and externally and the efficiency of the program would allow for rigorous program evaluation too (Choi, 2014).
Techniques for Effective Job Design
The motivational job design enables creating a job role for the employee that can keep them satisfied and encouraged to work for the company and deliver his best. The job designing is done in such a manner, so that the various features will benefit the employees and make them feel interested to perform to their potential. It could allow the individuals to present their new and innovative ideas that may be beneficial for the company in terms of production, growth and higher profitability. The working life quality would tend to improve and thus create better scopes and opportunities were created for the employees to show their innovative skills and behaviors, which should enhance the business functioning efficiency and derive positive outcomes.
There are also job enriching and job enlargement approaches that can influence the level of motivation and satisfaction of employees. The job enlargement procedure, as the name suggests allow for providing additional responsibilities to the staffs working at CERA and creating enough scopes and opportunities for them to obtain better skills, knowledge and expertise to perform to their potential. The existing employees of the organization would also be able to master the required skills and evolve in better learning and knowledge acquisition to achieve the desired objectives. On the other hand, the job enriching procedure means creating better working conditions and allowing to enhance the skills of the staffs for handling critical and challenging tasks with ease (Battistelli, Montani & Odoardi, 2013). There would be positive relationships between the characteristics of the job and responses of the employees, which could further bring variety of skills and make them identify the importance of the tasks and even provide feedbacks regarding the job. The HR manager must play a major role in managing designs of the jobs and create a flexible structure so that the employees could adapt to the changes and perform efficiently as well (Cera.org.au, 2018).
The Job Characteristic model or theory could determine the impact of characteristics or features of a job affecting the job outcomes such as enhanced level of job satisfaction and keeping the employees engaged within the department managed by Rachel. The major characteristics could be the variety of skills, tasks’ variety, significance or importance of task, autonomy and feedbacks obtained from the staffs regarding the job roles. By obtaining the feedbacks, necessary changes are to be done at the departments for improving the workplace efficiency and creating satisfaction among the workers regarding the job roles and job related benefits (Zefinescu et al., 2015). The model can enable recreation or redesigning of the jobs to prevent repetitive work and posting different challenges for the employees. Based on the job enrichment techniques and job characteristics model, it would be effective for managing self recognition, enhanced roles and responsibilities, managing growth and providing better benefits, scopes and opportunities for improving their level of morale ad satisfaction. The job enrichment can improve the job design efficiency, which will improve the production level, reduce the turnover ratio and even lead to better job satisfaction (e Silva & Costa, 2013). Due to this, the employees shall be motivated and encouraged to perform to their potential at CERA.
Herzberg’s Theory for Motivation through Job Design
The challenges and issues faced were increased number of tasks, which might enhance the level of complexity, providing enough benefits could often result in gaining freedom and the employees’ performance might be deteriorated. Few other challenges were variety of tasks, which may be difficult for the employees to manage due to the lack of skills in certain areas. Based on the weaknesses of the employees, the training and developmental programs would be structured as well with the use of this system for enhancing their skills, knowledge and expertise. Therefore, all these aspects of human resource management must be understood by Rachel Amaro to design jobs within her department and support innovative and creative behaviors all throughout (Li, 2013). Few other issues of motivational job design could be complexities arising while revising the tasks, sharing of jobs, alternative work patterns and techno stress. It is advisable that the job designs are created by aligning with the benefits that can be achieved by the individuals to reduce the workload and make them influenced to perform efficiently. Working from home sometimes could lead to boredom and not getting the perfect working conditions, which might create discomfort.
Conclusion
The report was developed for managing the work design pilot at CERA to improve the human resource management practices as well as make Rachel Amaro understand the ways by which the job designs could bring innovativeness. The work design pilot would be needed for managing growth and development and even would meet the labor demands through the combination of statistical methods and judgments made by the experts. Few of the issues faced by CERA were lack of labor supply, inappropriate management of working conditions and inability to fill the positions for certain job roles within the workplace. To promote innovation and creativity, suitable job designs were required along with the analysis of gaps of employees. This should ensure successful innovative behavior and provide the workforce with high power and autonomy. Measuring the employee performance would be essential for achieving the desired positive results and at the same time, facilitate creative and innovative decision making by the employees. Lastly, the implementation of human resource management information system could create better working conditions and allow for the creation of better job designs to promote innovation and creativity at CERA, Australia.
References
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Conclusion
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