Transformational process, Social Changes, Economic Changes, Organizational And Technological Changes in Organisation, Human Resource Planning, MS-23

Explain the transformational process through social, economic, organizational and technological changes in the present day organization. As a HR manger, how you will deal with the transformation process? Discuss.

Transforming work organization is to change the structure and behavior system from one form to another. The concepts and the results presented hereafter are designed to improve the organization of work, but also the mindset of the managers, of the trade unions, and even of the employees. Concerning this last point, two observations struck us. First, there is a very strong ideological attachment to splitting up the work process, while at the same time we have shown its destructive effects on a socio-economic level. Second, pragmatic realities of the field, on a daily basis are incompatible with intellectual recognition, and increased participation.

The principles of socio-economic organization of work
The four primary principles of "the socio-economic organization" of work (Savall, 1975) are:
1. entrust a workgroup/team with the production of a good or service, as complete as possible (from A toZ);
2.    allocate, on all hierarchical levels, responsibility and autonomy, which are sources of job satisfaction for state of the art work;
3.    create customer oriented teams; and
4.    develop multiskilling within all teams.

These four principles are based on the lessons learned from criticisms addressed to scientific management organizational practices, as well as from the STS (Emery and Trist, 1969; Davis, 1957). However, the socio-economic design of the organization of work highlights the following key points:
•     Two categories of actors - two targets - are simultaneously targeted in any organization. First, internal, the company members, be they executives, middle management, garden workers or clerks, and second the external actors, customers and other partners. A socio-economic organization thus seeks to simultaneously improve the company's performance, to the benefit of the firm itself, its personnel, and its external partners (stakeholders as a whole).
•     The economic performance is studied as much as the social performance. Thus the responsibility and autonomy are considered as a type of tool to control the performance of the people and the teams, through management reports, with indicators relating to productivity and quality.
•     The hierarchy preserves a legitimacy in this form of organization. In essence, the delegation of authority, decision making, loan approval, and sign-offs are devices to facilitate discussions or coordination between the employees and management, and to a certain extent a form of external control on the team to ensure periodically, that the company's strategy is being implemented and that the results in terms of economy, marketing, human resources etc. have been reached. However, the pedagogical role of supervisors is much more developed compared with supervisors' traditional role.
•     The economic performance of such an organization, since it increases, does not benefit exclusively the company and its shareholders, but also the personnel, on all the levels, in the form of additional compensation.
•     All work groups have customers (external or internal) with whom they develop a marketing oriented relationship, thus allowing a break with the task oriented organizations, where the actor no longer knows for whom, or why they work.

Concrete applications on the evolution of organizations
Reduce the functional specialization via collective responsibilities. Company D has consistently progressed and not just experienced one remarkable year. Each year the marketing performance has dramatically improved (it has increased five times since 1987). One notices at the same time, a significant increase in the payroll; it has more than doubled in ten years. Within this framework, and after studying its most profitable activities, the company wanted to take a closer look at the increase in the general sales administration and overhead costs (non-billable expenses with external customers) particularly focusing on the financial management function. It proved that the financial management was, over the years, more and more isolated from the firm's operations. In order to reduce this functional and operational gap, work was re-allocated, the missions and the responsibilities were redefined, enabling everyone to "clean-up" their act:
•     Finance management must support top management and the operations managers by creating four financial indicators: revenue per person; net income per person; cash-flow per person; and the standard cost for one hour of work. For the first time since 1987 (in 2002), the company obtained for each subsidiary and their related services, these four indicators. This result enabled management to dramatically reduce the number of production indicators and to broaden its business portfolio at the same time. In addition to the production indicators, they conducted audits to help operations management in their missions. In addition, they were able to make the operations management more aware of the economic impact, starting with the new collaborators evaluating the workgroup disorganization, the unprofitable training (i.e. more than Euro40,000 at the beginning).
•     Operations managers are the prescribers of costs and margins, and they must therefore support finance managers by becoming internal financial (cost and revenue) controllers (Savall and Zardet, 1992). They are responsible for the reliability of the information transmitted to finance managers, respecting the costs for each project and must make decisions using socio-economic analysis.
Reducing site specialization and restraining headquarter's role. Company A grew quickly in 15 years: from 300 people in 1984 with only one site, to over 3,500 people in 2001, with nine sites and a headquarters office. However, the company was structured on the basis of several principles implemented to counteract specialization dysfunctions:
•     Renunciation of the economies of scale principle: each site has a limited size of 350 workers. When this threshold is reached, the company develops, repurchases or creates another site, in order not to incur additional costs related to an increased complexity.
•     Renunciation of the principle of minimization of the costs by the series effect: all the bakery factories are multiskilled to produce all the products, in the same way for all the pastry making factories. The objective is to give to each site-subsidiary company complete autonomy and responsibility for all its activities, production, marketing, accounting, social and logistic.
•     Renunciation of the principle of specialization of the sites on the only function of production: the sites are "full exercise sites", i.e. they cover the whole gamut of functions. Thus, each subsidiary company has complete autonomy, but the company defined a standard structure for the sites. Each site has, whatever its size (even 50 people), all the vital functions: purchasing, manufacturing, marketing, research and development, quality, finance, data processing, and human resources. When a site is created from scratch, it includes all the departments; the executives are recruited two years before the opening when hiving off a new site, and the technical staff is recruited and trained four months before. In addition, each site has its own national or international marketing area.ln corollary, this synchronized decentralization between the group and the sites leads to a weakening of the specialized functions at headquarters. They have a primary inter-site communication role and are responsible for all strategic projects. Headquarters are relatively small: approximately 40 people for 3,500 employees; this is approximately 1 percent.Each manufacturing facility is managed by a two-person team made up of the managing director (marketing or production manager) and a co-director (who has complementary skills and experience to the managing director). The company expects them to manage the business, whether they held degrees or not.
•     Renunciation of the principle of centralized trade negotiations. Although the distribution customers impose a centralized annual negotiation (a purchaser of each key customer negotiates all the general conditions of sale with the suppliers), Company A decided to decentralize the negotiation with the customers and the suppliers to the production facilities. Thus each plant manager is responsible for one or two key client accounts (Carrefour-Promodes and Leclerc) and one or two key suppliers (chocolate, flour, butter, etc.) and he does this for the whole group. Therefore, headquarters do not handle these negotiations, but someone from each site.

Reduction in work specialization through the implementation of production lines integrating different professions. When the specialization of work harms the cohesion and the performance of the company, "the integration" of the separate elements constitutes a fertile path.

Company A has applied this principle to all of its services. Thus, the production was formerly separated into four sections: kneading, cooking, packing, and equipment maintenance; each was managed by a supervisor. The hidden costs were evaluated at Eurol0,000 per person per year. These costs came from absenteeism in packing, the lack of responsibility and accountability of the cooking sector regarding finished product quality, chronic preventive maintenance delays, and breakdown service repair delays (Pasquier, 1993).

The integration of the four sectors consisted of setting up production line teams. Each team is managed by just one supervisor who is responsible for all of the different production functions from A to Z (from kneading to packing). The maintenance staff is also integrated into the teams and each has a technician in charge of the regular preventive equipment maintenance, breakdown services, and training of the operators on the basic maintenance operations.

Every morning management reports display the results of the day before: line productivity; quality; and product losses. The greatest resistance, which management had to overcome came from the engineering department, made up of people with more training and expertise than the production personnel. They did not want to report hierarchically to a line manager. But the objections were finally overcome when the technicians understood their new training role for line operators. A similar example in company A relates to sales management: territories existed for the sales people, but the customer dealt with various people depending on whether it was an invoice, a claim, or a credit etc. An administrative person was responsible for each sales territory, interfacing with the secretaries, communicating between the customers and the sales representatives, keeping and budgeting travel expenses. It took three years for the transition to become effective: the secretaries had to learn accounting; the technicians with a two-year university degree did not want to use a word processing system at the beginning. The company is successful today - not an easy feat with 3,500 workers, and not a single secretary in the company. Indeed, the secretarial activities are integrated into each workstation.

Socio-economic evaluation of new organization forms
The socio-economic organization of work involves measurable impacts on performance evolution:
•     Economic performance: integration involves a drop in absenteeism and staff turnover, fewer and less severe industrial accidents, increased direct productivity, due to a reduction in time wasted on material handling and on tedious or routine tasks. With respect to the customers, the improvement in the service quality is noticeable, the response to customers is faster, and the reception and handling of customers is personalized. Lastly, the marketing image of the company is improved.
•     Personnel satisfaction: functional integration develops qualified jobs, enriches jobs of workers, employees and the middle and higher management, increases compensation due to higher qualifications, while entailing a greater implication and interest in the work, as well as improved communication-coordination-conciliation. The human resources image of the company is thus improved, enabling the company to better attract employees.
•     Transformation of the supervisors' and middle managers' role: contrary to the STS school which forecasted a progressive abolition of Supervisors, our research interventions show the importance of a revitalization of the control role through the transfer of personnel of tasks of execution and through the addition of new tasks of facilitation, training and informing the personnel and technical assistance. One observes as well that a vertical push of blue and white collars workers' job enrichment and employee leads to that of the supervisors, which involves in its turn that of the middle management then of the top executives.

"Functional slipping" indeed is a universal dysfunction which involves many hidden costs: an activity or task that should have been dealt with on level "N", is actually taken on by the higher hierarchical level n + 1. Thus the entire organization "implodes" resulting in a weakening of work at all levels (time 1). The socio-economic organization leads to a vertical push of the work on all hierarchical levels, which changes the organizational structure over time.

Continue Reading ...

Induction is the guided adjustment of employee, Human Resource Planning, MS-23

"Induction is the guided adjustment of employee to the organization and his work environment". Discuss in the light of your organization or any organization you are familiar with. Briefly describe the organization you are referring to.

There are three main stages to the induction of new staff
a. pre-appointment
b. school/service level induction
c. corporate induction

The following flow chart summarises each of these stages.

A. Pre-Appointment

Although this Policy is concerned primarily with the effective induction of new staff after appointment, it is important to regard the induction process as commencing with the initial contact between DEL and the prospective employee established during the recruitment process. It is during this period that prospective staff form initial impressions about us and it is crucial that they are positive.

In this respect, Personnel Services are responsible for devising the policy on the recruitment and selection of staff and refining and monitoring its implementation. This policy aims to enhance our standing as a good employer and sets out the responsibilities of managers and Personnel Services and other staff in respect of:
•     the quality of recruitment information provided to potential recruits
•     the quality of recruitment practices and procedures generally (refer to Recruitment and Selection guidelines for more information)

Prior to the commencement of employment, Personnel Services will also take responsibility for providing the appointee with comprehensive and clear documentation detailing terms and conditions of employment.
The School of Education is responsible for providing new academic staff with the opportunity to develop learning and teaching skills via the Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE). In accordance with our probation schemes both full and part time lecturers with limited teaching experience are contractually required to undertake a PGCLTHE. Staff who are required to undertake the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education will be selected by the selection panel by the Chairperson completing the P6 -Appointment Form accordingly.

The postgraduate certificate programme leader will then contact participants to liaise with them about the programme.

B. School/Service level Induction
The integration of new staff is critically affected by the quality of induction to their immediate working environment. Induction at this level must be carefully structured and should aim to put the new member of staff at ease.
The new staff member's immediate manager, when planning staff induction at a school or service level, must take into account the following:
•     Making arrangements to welcome a new member of staff
•     Ensuring that immediate and long term practical needs relating to the new member of staff are identified and arranged where possible before his or her arrival
•     Clarifying roles and expectations
•     Familiarising him or her with the specific aims, practices and ethos of the school or service
•     Arranging for an experienced colleague to help the staff member settle in and adjust to their new working environment. Typically he or she will provide guided tours of the campus and staff facilities, answer questions and provide practical advice.
Managers are responsible for ensuring that new staff have the facilities and support that they need
to do their job effectively.
Specifically immediate managers should:
•     Conduct, regular, constructive reviews of performance during the staff members induction and probation period
•     Refer to the job description and in conjunction with the new member of staff identify initial training and development needs
•     Support and encourage staff to meet identified needs, in liaison, as necessary, with UEL's Staff Development Unit.
To assist the manager in the preparation, delivery and evaluation of the new member of staffs school/service level induction, a 'Staff Induction Checklist' has been designed. The checklist needs to be completed by the immediate manager, although some items may be delegated to the colleague helping the new staff member settle in.
Before the first day of employment the manager and new member of staff will receive, from Personnel Services, a copy of the Staff Induction Checklist, a 'Staff Induction Handbook' and a contract of employment. Completed Staff Induction Checklists should be returned to the Staff Development Unit within 6 weeks, by the immediate manager. The unit will action the staff development needs identified and monitor and evaluate the induction process. A copy of the checklist should be kept by the new staff member and their immediate manager. At a local level, completed Staff Induction Checklists should be revisited as part of the first probationary review (see relevant probation procedures) and any outstanding development needs discussed.

C. Corporate Induction
The Staff Development Unit in collaboration with UEL's Organisational Development Manager will facilitate regular 'Staff Induction Days'.
Staff Induction Days will ensure that all new staff are welcomed to DEL personally by the VC (or rarely, by a senior colleague), and are briefed by Personnel Services staff on the following:
• UEL's vision, values, history and future
• An overview of schools and services
• The range of staff and student facilities available
• Maintaining and continuously improving the student experience
• How UEL manages and develops staff and how we communicate as a staff team
• Key policies, procedures and practices, including an introduction to our IT network, Equality and
Diversity, Health and Safety, Staff Development and Personnel Services
The Staff Induction Days will also provide an opportunity for new staff to network and enrol onto the following workshops:
• Introduction to the HE Sector
• Introduction to the UEL Network and Microsoft Outlook
• Introduction to DELTA (student database)
• Mandatory Fire Safety training

Help us improve this article...

Please comment on the PHRASE

Induction is the guided adjustment of employee to the organization and his work environment 

Thanks

Continue Reading ...

HR Audit, How to Conduct HR Audit, Human Resource Planning, MS-23

Explain the need and scope of HR audit. Assuming you are required to conduct an HR audit for your organization or any organization you are familiar with, discuss how you will conduct this. Briefly describe the organization you are referring to.

There are various reasons why companies want to undertake HRD audit, some of which have been
stated below:

1. To make the HR function business-driver:
HRD audit is undertaken by organizations to make HR systems and processes more relevant to business goals. Over a period of time business changes may have taken place for a variety of reasons including environmental changes. Organizational restricting, may have necessitated meeting the changing environmental demands and opportunities. Such changes should be accompanied by appropriate changes in the HRD function. Some companies go in the HRD audit to examine and make changes in the HRD function to accompany organizational changes. Some organizations that have undertaken business process re-engineering have conducted HRD audit to ensure that the HRD function is aligned with business goals and strategies.

2. To take stock of things and to improve HRD for expanding diversifying and entering into a fast growth phases.
Many good organizations in India, after liberalization, have entered a competitive phase. There are those organizations which saw a lot of opportunities both within the country and abroad. In light of these new opportunities some of these felt that they had not paid adequate attention to their human resource due to constraints of the past. They used to recruit employees at low salaries on the basis of contract rather than competence. As a result the organizations ended up having very heterogeneous categories of employees. Moreover organizations suddenly discovered that what was valued in the past— employees with average competence and high loyalty—had become a weakness in the present. In order to compete for the future they had to challenge their profiles. Thus companies felt need to take shock and see the direction in which they should move.

Some of the companies have borrowed many HRD practices form professionally managed companies but with out adequate preparation. They are not sure if they are going in the right direction.

3.  For promoting  professionalism among employees  and to switch  over to professional
management.
While the world becoming a global village some companies started realizing the importance of skill
development and professionalism among the employees. In order to include professionalism they
wanted to take stock of their HRD and therefore undertook as HRD audit.

4. Multinationals want to know the reasons for lower labour productivity and for improving their HRD strategies in the Indian context.
Some multinationals who have been operating in the country found from their experience that though they pay low salaries in India as compared to other plants they have in their countries the labour productivity is poor. After a careful examination of number of good practices they had introduced they discovered that they had some unique problems with the Indian people. Some of these included high designation-conscious, low level of teamwork, tendencies to unionise lack of trust on the management, low energy level, and preference for a paternalistic treatment. Some of these companies relied heavily on their HRD departments to change the situation. Their experience were not as positive as they desired. Therefore they decided to undertake an HRD audit. They perceived HRD audit more as a renewal exercise.

5. For growth and diversification
A few organizations after their initial success and building core competencies in certain areas wanted to diversify and expand into new areas. They even undertook the initial steps using their existing staff to handle new projects. They were not every sure whether this was likely to work out. They also wanted the direction in which they should move. Therefore they decided to undertake HRD audit.

6. Dissatisfaction with a particular Component
A few organizations undertake HRD audit more as a necessary comprehensive review of their sub
systems of HRD. For example, in one company HRD audit was taken as a means to improve
communications. In another company appraisal was starting point but they decided that since appraisal
is linked to many HRD sub systems they should get a comprehensive examination of HRD done. A third
company used HRD audit though their main interest was development of a training plan. In all these
cases the influencing factor for initiating and using HRD audit has been some visionary either at the top
level or at the board level who has a more holistic view of the organization.

7. Change of leadership
Some organization undertook HRD audit as their HRD manager was leaving and they needed to recruit
new HRD manager and reorient the entire HRD department. Sometimes a change in the CEOs and
other top management members may also prompt HRD audit.
Thus there can be various reasons for initiating HRD audit.

ROLE OF HRD AUDIT IN BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT
The experiences of the companies discussed above indicate that HRD audit can give many insights into
a company's affairs. HRD audit is also cost effective. The auditors normally camp in the organization for
one to two weeks, make their observation and give their reporting in a month's time. They normally
make preliminary presentation at the end of their visit.

The auditors bring with them their experience of HRD with large number of companies and provide a
good degree of qualitative data. Thus, the retunes on such low-cost audit can be substantial.

The following are some of the favorable consequence of HRD audit that have been observed.

• it can get the top management to think in terms of strategic and long-term business plans. Ironically, it may seem that HRD audit should bring with such strategic plans, but in some cases it has propelled the top management to formulate such plans. Another aspect in this regard is that people cannot participate in HRD audit without some sharing of these plans. The audit therefore has forced the top management to share their plans across the organization resulting in increased involvement and commitment of employees. In a few cases a new system of annual planning and sharing of the business plans with management staff, to enable them to plan their own activities and competency development programmes have been initiated.

•     Change in the styles of the top management
Any successful HRD company has an excellent learning environment. Thus one of the objective of HRD is to create a learning organization. A learning culture can be created only if the managers of the company exhibit an HRD orientation ability to convert and use mistakes, conflicts and problems as learning opportunities and so on. Some top-level managers in India have been found to block the motivation and learning of employees through coercive, autocratic and even paternalistic styles of management. HRD audit highlights such detrimental styles of management thereby pointing out the difficulties in developing and preparing the employees for the future. This has helped in providing subtle feedback to the top management and initiating a change process.
•     Role clarity of HRD department and the role of line managers in HRD
In almost all cases the HRD audit has been found to draw the attention of employees at various levels to the important role of the HRD department: current as well as the future, better role clarity of the HRD department and the HRD function, resulting in increased understanding of line managers about their HRD role and the uniform results of HRD audit. While the degree may vary from organization to organization on various factors, this exercise has favorable impact on employee productivity.
•     Improvement in HRD systems
HRD audit has helped most organizations in measuring the effectiveness of their HRD systems, and in designing or redesigning HRD systems the most frequently changed or renewed system include performance appraisal induction training job rotation, career planning and promotion policies monitoring communication and training. A number of organizations have change or strengthened one or more of their HRD subsystem as a result of HRD audit.
•     Increased focus on human resources and human competencies
One of the results of HRD audit is to focus on new knowledge, attitudes and skills required by the employees. Comments are made about the technical, managerial, human and conceptual competencies of staff at various levels. This differentiation has been fund to help organizations in identifying and focusing sharply on the competency requirements and gaps. The audit establishes a system of role clarity and fixing of accountability. This may take place through separate role-clarity exercises or through the development of and appropriate performance appraisal systems. In any case, the attention of the organization gets focused on developing the competency base of the organization. More sensitives are developed towards missing aspects of competencies. For example one organization was found to neglect the human relations competencies of their staff which led to quite a few problems and wastage of time. With HRD audit many of these were streamlined. The virus HRD policies also got strengthened.
•     Better recruitment policies and more professional staff
HRD audit proposes the competence base required by the organization. It gives direction for competency requirements of employees at various level, thus providing a base for recruitment policies and procedures. As a results in some companies new recruitment and retention strategies have been worked out. In other companies the audit has led to strengthening recruitment policies and procedures.
•     More planning and more cost-effective training
HRD audit has been found to assist in assessing the returns on training. One of the aspects emphasized in the HRD audit is to calculate the investments made in training and ask questions about the returns. The process of identifying training needs and utilization of training and learning for organization growth development are assessed. As direct investment are made training any cost benefit analysis draws the attention of the management and HRD managers to review the training function with relative ease. For example, one organization has strengthened its training function by introducing a new system of post training follow up and dissemination of knowledge to others through new systems and action plans. Many organizations have developed training policies and systematized their training function. Training needs assessment also has become more scientific in these organizations.
•     Strengthening accountability through appraisal system and other mechanisms
HRD audit can give significant inputs about existing state of accountability of employees. This can be assessed through performance appraisal as well as through the work culture and other cultural dimensions. A number of organizations have introduced systems of performance planning, sharing, of exceptions and documenting the accountability of staff. HRD audit had led to the chaining of appraisal systems.
•     Streamlining of other management practices
Most often HRD audit points out the strengths and weaknesses in some of the management systems existing in the organization. It also indicates the absence of systems which enhance both human productivity and utilization of the existing competency base e.g. MIS, rules and procedures, etc, which may have an effect on the functioning of employees. In a few cases HRD audit has helped the management to look at some subsystems and work procedures. Preparation of a manual for delegation of powers, clarification of roles and responsibilities developing or strengthening the manuals of financial
and accounting procedures and systems, strengthening the information systems ad sharing of information are some of the resultantly activities.
•     TQM interventions
Quality improvements and establishing TQM systems  require a  high degree of involvement of
employees. In a number of cases HRD audit has pointed out to the linkages between TQM and other
quality programmes, and helped in strengthening the same.
Due to improvements in the training systems,  enhancement of the quality of group work and
strengthening of the appraisals system, TQM programmes also get improved. In a few organizations
performance  appraisal  have  been  changed to  integrate quality  aspects  and  internal  customer
satisfaction in to the appraisal systems. Thus HRD audit leads to the strengthening of quality systems.
•     It can enhance the ROI of the HR function
In addition to all the above points HRD audit aligns the HR function and activities with business goals. In
the process it eliminates non-value adding HR systems, activities and processes and enhances the
value-adding activities and processes. It reduces nonproductive assets of the HR department and
sharpens the focus of the HR function to get better results. The main contribution of HRD audit is to
focus on value adding HRD.

Continue Reading ...

Dislocation, Significance of Dislocation, Problems of Dislocated Employees, Human Resource Planning, MS-23

Discuss the significance of dislocation and problems of dislocated employees. Identify the need and process of dislocation in your organization or an organization you are familiar with. Briefly describe the organization you are referring to.

The process of developing new skills and capabilities of dislocated employees are discussed here by taking the example of US army and its economy. The retaining needs of dislocation employees are also determined with the help of the said big organisation of world. The causes of job dislocation are mentioned according to US army and another organisation in short at the end.

DISLOCATED WORKERS: ISSUES AND FEDERAL OPTIONS
Even when the U.S. economy has recovered from the present recession, some portion of the workforce that is now unemployed will remain jobless despite concerted efforts to return to work. This group, identified as dislocated workers and composed of people who have been displaced by structural changes in the economy, will face particular difficulty adjusting to changed employment demands and will likely endure longer-than-usual periods of joblessness. Whether the federal government should provide special assistance to such workers and what form any aid might take are likely to be important questions as the Congress considers a number of proposals that have been advanced to assist dislocated workers.

SOURCES AND SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
Several factors are likely to contribute to substantial displacement of labor in the 1980s. First, shifts in consumer demand and in foreign competition will cause many traditional manufacturing industries such as steel production, automotive manufacturing, and the textile industry to grow slowly or actually decline in the years ahead. Second, the modernization of many older industries through labor-saving technology will further reduce the need for workers in those sectors. In particular, the diffusion of microelectronic technology could cause the loss of three million jobs by the end of the decade~or 15 percent of the current manufacturing workforce.

Some workers who become unemployed due to these changes will face serious problems in becoming reemployed. Adjustment is likely to be particularly difficult for older blue-collar workers with long service records in their former jobs; they will not easily find new employment and may suffer financial loss when they do. Complicating adjustment for such workers will be differences in skill requirements between the jobs lost and those that may be available, as well as differences in their locations. The number of workers likely to be dislocated in the near future is a function of the exact characteristics used to define dislocation-age, length of job tenure, occupation, industry, and duration of employment. Applying several different definitions and a range of assumptions regarding future economic conditions, the number of dislocated workers in 1983, when recovery is expected to be under way, could range from 100,000 to 2.1 million-that is, from about 1 percent of all unemployed workers to 20 percent. At the lower extreme, if only workers who are displaced from declining industries and who remain jobless for longer than 26 weeks are considered dislocated, the number ranges from 100,000 to 150,000-most of whom would be blue-collar workers in the Northeast and Midwest. On the other hand, if ail unemployedworkers in declining geographic areas are also considered dislocated, the number could range from 1.7
million to 2.1 million; about 50 percent would be blue-collar workers, but nearly 25 percent would be
managerial, sales, and clerical workers.

The Congress confronts difficult questions concerning dislocated workers. Do they warrant special
assistance and, if so, what kind? Some observers view dislocation as a private market problem for
which direct federal involvement is unnecessary or inappropriate. On the other hand, proponents of
special aid contend that dislocated workers face a uniquely difficult employment situation, which
warrants special assistance. Still others would argue that dislocated workers, if unaided, could use
legislative efforts to hinder economic changes that could benefit society in the long run. Relaxed
international trade restrictions is one example of the kind of policy change that hard-pressed jobless
workers might seek to impede.

CURRENT UNEMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS AND DISLOCATED WORKERS
The federal government currently operates an array of programs for unemployed people. Although
current programs offer the variety of services that dislocated workers may need-placement help, job
training, relocation aid, and cash assistance-because of funding restrictions and gaps in coverage,
present efforts are available to only a portion of all dislocated workers. Together, these programs could
not be considered to constitute a comprehensive dislocation policy.

The Employment Service. Staffing limitations at the Employment Service (ES)--a federal-state system
providing job-search assistance through 2,600 regional offices-restrict the quantity of personal services
that can be provided to dislocated workers. Furthermore, the ES has had problems building listings for
the types of jobs that might be suitable for the experienced workers who predominate among the
dislocated.

CETA. Assistance under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA)-the major program
for providing job training-has generally not been used by dislocated workers. This programs is targeted
toward low-income, disadvantaged applicants and, in addition, many dislocated workers are reluctant to
seek aid through it.

Unemployment Insurance. Most experienced workers who lose their jobs are eligible for income
replacement benefits under the Unemployment Insurance (Ul) system. In many instances, however, Ul
benefits-which are generally available for 26 weeks-will be exhausted before dislocated workers
acquire new positions. Furthermore, dislocated workers are likely to have smaller proportions of their
earnings replaced by Ul than are other unemployed workers.

Special  Assistance Programs. Some workers also receive aid under a number of special assistance
programs. Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA)--the largest of these programs—is restricted to workers
whose unemployment results from import competition, however. Also, TAA has served more as an
income maintenance than an adjustment assistance program in the past, because few TAA recipients
participated in available employment services.

Improve this Article

What's your take on Dislocation. Please comment on this

Thanks

Continue Reading ...

Human Resource Planning, MS-23

Explain the concept and process of human resource planning (HRP). Describe the practices of HRP of your organization or an organization you are familiar with. Briefly describe the organization you are referring to.

Educational planning essentially aims at improving the quality of manpower resources in the country. The benefits to the economy from educational planning are thus in directed and intangible. Planning in other sectors of the economy have tangible benefits and hence contribute directly to the growth of the economy. It is this aspect of the education sector which has led to a bias against the education sector in macro economic planning exercises among many developing nations.

The practices in planning indicate that other sectors of the economy covertly and overtly claim higher priority in the thinking of planners. Also, it is in the nature of projects in other sectors of the economy that once they are started they will have to be completed so as to be of any use to the economy. Projects in education sector on the other hand can either be postponed or left incomplete. For example, and incomplete irrigation dam cannot be of any use to the economy; while school buildings without roof, without a black board, or without teacher in some cases can be put to use by the society through improvisation. As a result, education seems to have residual claim to the plan resources. The interaction between technical inputs to educational planning - based on well thought out dictate of planning - and the political process of planning often results in the statement of monetary resources available to education sector as a whole which need to be allocated to different sub-sectors of education. Added to this, lack of effective monetary device in education - resulting again form the inadequacy of financial resources to education - often causes divergence in the implementation of monetary plans for education from the physical plan for education. In the process it may even result in the distortion of physical priorities within the education sector.

Decision making with regard to education sector development, in practice, has been such that the essence of the ritual of educational planning is honoured more in its branch than in its observance. Yet, many developing countries go through these rituals at definite intervals.

In view of the qualitative aspects which predominate educational planning decision, it appears that comprehension of quality as a variable and its manoeurability is better facilitated at mocro-level. There is this a case for decentralized planning with regard to education sector.

Improve this article

Please comment on Human Resource Planning. What's Your Opinion on that? Let us Know.

Thanks

Continue Reading ...