Recruitment and Selection
Discuss about the HR Department Of The Manufacturing Sector.
The term manufacturing can be defined as the production of merchandise for usage or selling purposes. Manufacturing sectors can be defined as the branch of an organization which is based on fabrication, processing and preparation of merchandises from raw materials. The manufacturing industry chiefly includes the production of food, textiles, chemicals, equipment and machines. Extraction of minerals and metals derived from ores also falls under the mentioned sector. The human resource department of the manufacturing sector helps the organizations to realign themselves with the ever-changing demands of the consumers. Not only that the human resource department also helps the mentioned sector to enhance its overall productivity and consumers loyalty by enhancing the productivity and loyalty of the employees. However, in these process, several potential challenges are faced by the HR department of the manufacturing sectors (Jehanzeb, Rasheed & Rasheed, 2013). In this essay, the key challenges faced by the Human Resource department in attracting and retaining employees in the manufacturing sector have been analyzed. The role of the human resource department is highly crucial when it comes to the success of any organization.
The HR department of the manufacturing sector reported to faces several challenges during the recruitment and selection procedures. According to a survey, 55 percent manufacturers in the research and development industry reported that they suffer from the issue of shortage of skilled employees (Ghosh et al. 2013). Half of the manufacturers in the food industry reported that they are facing a similar shortage of employees. One of the chief reasons behind the mentioned issue is the ageing population of the developed nation like Australia, UK and US. As a result of ageing population, employers have compelled recruit employees who are above 40 years old. The efficiency and productivity of these employees are much less than that of the younger employees. As a result of this, manufacturing industries are not able to reach their yearly target and hence fails to cope up with the increasing demands of the consumers. According to the researchers, the working force of the manufacturing industry in America is shrinking at an alarming rate (Tan et al. 2015). A recent survey shows that while the average age of a highly skilled manufacturing worker is 56 years and most of them are about to retire.
Another challenge faced by the mentioned sector includes the need to make the speedy hire. Due to increased demands of the consumers, the manufacturing industry needs to increase their workforce within a short period. Moreover, the competition between the manufacturing companies for recruiting skilled employees has further increased the need for selecting candidates within a very short time ranges. Additionally, manufacturing companies in Australia are growing fast along with that the need to fill up multiple positions at the same time. Hence recruiters in the manufacturing industry no longer possess the time to conduct detailed research about the background of the candidates and conduct multiple interview session before selecting a candidate (Jain & Ahuja, 2013). Hence, HR professionals are found to conduct a single round of interview and very less amount of research before recruiting candidates. However, rushing into the recruitment process bears the risk of recruiting unskilled and unworthy candidates. Several manufacturing companies have reported the deterioration of their productivity and overall revenue due to the recruitment of unskilled and irresponsible employees.
Employee Relation Challenges
Another major issue of the recruitment and selection process in the manufacturing industry includes lack of resources. The manufacturing sector can be considered as one of the most overlooked sectors. Most of the graduates in the developed country opt for other industries like Healthcare, IT and others when it comes to selecting their jo profile. Moreover, a good number of organizations are found to be reluctant when it comes to investing a reasonable amount of money for recruitment and selection process.
In order to deal with the aging population of the country, several developed countries like Germany depends upon the immigrants for enhancing theitr workforce (Tan et al. 2015). Hence government of the developed countries should provide opportunities to the immigrants so that they can settle down enhance the productivity of the mentioned sector. Like any other sector, the hr professionals can use advanced technologies like social media platforms for rapid back ground check of the candidates.
It is highly important to maintain a healthy relationship between the employees as well as between the employees and the employers in order to prevent employee attrition in the manufacturing sectors. However, the manufacturing industry is facing several challenges associated with employee relation which will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
Legal issues that include workplace harassment, lack of equal opportunity and discrimination due to race, colour and culture falls among the employee relation issues which is often faced by the workers of the manufacturing sector. Moreover, when it comes to manufacturing industry, safety is one of the most crucial concerns of the workers. Several accidents and injuries have been recorded in the chemical manufacturing sectors in Australia which have given birth to deterioration of the employee commitment. As been discussed earlier, the mentioned sector is suffering from employee shortage. As a result of this, the management of a majority of manufacturing industries is found to be pressuring the workers to work more than the stipulated work time. This imposes a negative impact on the relationship between the employees and the management (Kramar, 2014). This overload has resulted in fatigue in the employees. Annual leave disputes can be considered as another challenge faced by the manufacturing industry of Australia. Due to lack of skilled employees and the ever rising demand of the consumers, the organizations are not able to grant leave applications of the employees even when they are justified. As a result of this, a bitter relationship often develops between the management and the employees. This adversely affects the productivity of the employees and also results in a decrement in employee loyalty. Excessive work pressure also results in attendance issue in the manufacturing industry. Considering the fact that a majority of skilled employees are over 45 years old, workers often face difficulties in reaching the office within the stipulated time and maintain regular attendance due to excessive fatigue and workload.
Managing Diversity and Work-Life Balance
The manufacturing sectors should consider ensuring safety in the workplace as their top priority. In order to Hence in order to deal with the issue of excessive work load, the HR professionals should track the schedule so that employees have a justified amount of time to rest. According to researchers, one of the most common ways to deal with the mentioned challenges is to implement employee self-service software (Agrawal, Khatri & Srinivasan, 2012). The mentioned software will not only help the employees to keep their time an attendance but will also reduce the chances of conflict between the management and the workers.
The manufacturing industry has gone through a major makeover in the past few decades when it comes to gender diversity. In earlier days, people used to equate manufacturing sectors with dangerous, dirty factory floor majorly occupied by men. The chief reasons behind this were the strenuous works and the lack of machines in the mentioned sector during the early period. The situation has changed in this era of modernization. According to the Bureau of labour statistics, 27.5 percent of employees are employed in the manufacturing industry which has greatly reduced the stress of ageing population (Edries, Jelsma & Maart, 2013). However, severe gender discrimination related issues have been encountered in the mentioned sector. One of the chief issue faced by the women workers in the lower amount of compensation compared to that of their male colleagues. Besides that, a good number of manufacturing companies in Australia that includes Austal Ships and ASC Pty Ltd. have implemented rule to deduct compensation for maternity leave more than 25 days. Moreover, a majority of female employees are finding it difficult to manage their work-life balance due to excessive workload and compulsory overtime strategies o the manufacturing companies. As a result of these, the work-life balance of the female workers is getting majorly hampered. Moreover, sexual assault during conflict is another major issue in the mentioned sector. As a result of this retention of female employees has become a major challenge for the Human resource department of the manufacturing sectors.
In multicultural manufacturing companies, conflicts arise between the workers due to racial, cultural and religious differences. Cross-cultural misunderstanding is common within the workers of the manufacturing industry. Conflicts are frequent in American manufacturing sectors due to the difference in cultural as well as religious values. Lack of cultural competence often results in trust issues among the teammates and as a result, conflicts take place. Not only cultural competency, lack of communication skills of the worker’s results in misunderstanding which can be considered as another reason behind the development of team conflicts (De Cieri & Kramar, 2003). As a result of these conflicts, several numbers of organizations are found be losing crucial projects since they were not able to manufacture the required amount of products within the stipulated deadline. Thus cultural diversity related conflict can be considered as a major challenge for the human resource department of the manufacturing sectors across the world. However, this HR related issue is comparatively low in the manufacturing industry in Australia due to its multicultural society and high cultural competence among the employees.
In order to deal with the conflicts associated with gender and cultural diversities, the HR department of the manufacturing industry should provide education and traing to the employees about the importance of cultural diversity in an organization. Moreover, strict rules and regulations should also be implemented in order to provide guidance as well as for puinishing employees for practicing discrimination within the workplace (Edries, Jelsma & Maart, 2013).
Lack of clear objective and expectation in the majority of the manufacturing sectors is a major reason behind demotivation of the employees. Since workers are not are of the expectation of the organization from them, they are not able to attain the expected goal for the organization. Moreover, due to several issues like ageing population and a shortage of skilled employees the manufacturing industry of the developed nations are found to be reluctant in incorporating reward system in order to motivate employees. Lack of motivation even after excessive workload and overtime is a major reason behind employee turnover in the mentioned sectors. Manufacturing companies should implement inceptive strategies in order to make the employees understand that their hard work is valued by the organization (Jain & Ahuja, 2013). This, in turn, enhances the quality of their work. According to a survey, the amount of money earned as a reward is not as crucial as the recognition earned to the majority of the employees (Berlin et al. 2013). In developing and underdeveloped countries like Africa, inadequate material and lack of technologically advanced equipment also leads to the demotion of the employees. Workers often feel undervalued since the management does not invest required amount of assets to achieve steady productivity. Along with that lack of organizational infrastructure for requesting additional equipment cam exacerbate the problem and further damage staff motivation. Moreover, the monthly compensation offered to the employees of the manufacturing industry is comparatively lower than the compensation offered in other industries like healthcare,, hospitality and Information Technology. This adversely affects the motivation of the employees and as a result of this retain employees become a major challenge for the HR department of the mentioned sector.
Recognizing and rewarding employee contributions and accomplishments are an important part of creating a quality culture (Jain & Ahuja, 2013). If the workers of the manufacturing industry realize that their effort is been appreciated by the company, both their self-esteem as well as job satisfaction get enhanced. Hence appropriate rewarding and compensation system should be implemented in the mentioned sector. Moreover, the HR manager of the mentioned industry should conduct meeting with the managers so that new and advanced equipment can be implemented in the organizations in order to ensure enhancement in the quality of the products along with employee motivation.
Apart from the above-discussed factors, some of the chief reasons behind employee turnover include appraisal and feedback, personal reasons and ineffective communication. It has been postulated that a majority of supervisors in the manufacturing companies fail to give candid feedback and reviews that truly reflect the amount of work done by workers. This, in turn, imposes a detrimental impact on the self-esteem of the workers. According to researchers, negative feedback on the performance of the employees can be perceived as reflecting a hostile and unfriendly attitude towards them (Lowe, 2014). According to a survey, more than 52 percent of the employees are found to be dissatisfied with feedback system used by the manufacturing organizations (Berlin et al. 2013). Moreover, the appraisal system of a good number of manufacturing industries in Australia is found to have a partial approach. Hence negative feedback along with lack of appraisal often leads to employees leaving the company.
The abundance of white color job and the mindset of the society about the manufacturing industry can be considered as another reason for the enhanced turnover rate in the manufacturing industry. According to a survey conducted in Saudi Arabia, most of the employees fail to attend office regularly and as a result, high rates of employee turnover take place (Lowe, 2014). Along with that the mindset of people that manufacturing industry is a less prestigious job role since it involves a huge amount of manual activity can be considered as another reason for employee turnover. As mentioned earlier, the majority of the graduates prefers white collar jobs over working in a manufacturing industry.
Appropriate and clear communication, especially in manufacturing industries, is highly crucial for the success of the organizations. Poor communication is another chief reason behind excessive turnover in the mentioned industry. It has been found that inappropriate perception of the team leaders and supervisors is a major reason for employee attrition (Houtenville & Kalargyrou, 2012). Several manages considers workers of lower designation to be the second class citizens. This type of perception often leads to ill-treatment with the workers which results in job dissatisfaction. Additionally, the employers also develop stereotypes about the drivers and hence found it challenging to learn about and address the complaints of the employees.
The manufacturing companies should +consider promoting their businesses through both online and offline promotional media. This will help the sector to eradicate the traditional mindset of the society and attract more skilled candidates towards the industry (Lowe, 2014). While online social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn can be considered as most cost effective ways to promote a business, the companies can conduct serves in order to educate people about the changing environment in the manufacturing industry.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the manufacturing industry all over the world is suffering from several challenges associated with employee recruitment and retention. When it comes to major HR challenges associated with employee recruitment, the ageing population of the developed country and the attraction of the graduates towards white collar jobs can be considered as two major reasons for the shrinking workforce in the mentioned sector. While the conservative mindset of the society about the manufacturing industry is one of the major reasons behind excessive turnover, other reasons behind lack of employee retention include lack of motivation, rewarding and appraisal system, the absence of advanced equipment and conflicts between the employees due to cultural and gender diversity.
Reference List:
Agrawal, N. M., Khatri, N., & Srinivasan, R. (2012). Managing growth: Human resource management challenges facing the Indian software industry. Journal of World Business, 47(2), 159-166.
Berlin, C., Dedering, C., Jónsdóttir, G. R., & Stahre, J. (2013, September). Social sustainability challenges for European manufacturing industry: attract, recruit and sustain. In IFIP International Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems (pp. 78-85). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
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Kramar, R. (2014). Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), 1069-1089.
Lowe, N. J. (2014). Beyond the deal: Using industrial recruitment as a strategic tool for manufacturing development. Economic Development Quarterly, 28(4), 287-299.
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