Solution
5RST Part C
2.1 Principles of Effective Workforce Planning and the Tools Used in the Process
Workforce planning is defined by CIPD (2019a) as an initiative intended to ensure an appropriate number of people possessing the right skills are engaged in the right positioning and at the right time. This is intending to deliver set short and long-term organisation objectives (see figure 1).
Figure 1: Workforce Planning Phases
The principles of workforce planning include;
- Aligning the strategic objectives for the recruited employees in an organisation
- Being best positioned in consulting the key stakeholders and determining the essential skills
- To establish overall skills and competencies necessary for achieving future organisation objectives
- Effective monitoring and evaluation
The tools that can be used include;
- Span and gap analysis– this tool is used to guide the creation of short and long-term organisation strategies to achieve organisation goals (CIPD, 2019b).
- Benchmarking– involve comparing different organisations best practice in carrying out workforce planning and other employee’s development functions.
- Analyse-plan-do-review– this includes an evaluation of different forces directly contributing to effective workforce planning strategies.
2.3 Key considerations when planning and conducting a downsizing of an organisation
According to Personnel Today (2020), downsizing is defined as a process of reducing the number of employees, specifically as a result of lowering overall organisation profits or a successful reorganization. One of the considerations made in downsizing is the need to redesigning the previously existing job roles based on the emerging needs of the workforce. Also, any dissatisfied employees in this process must be noted, and their interests addressed in the organisation. HR is tasked with the core responsibility of ensuring that the overall performance is managed after downsizing process. To achieve this, an equitable and fair process would have to be followed that is in tandem with an organisation set strategies.
Further, the communication process is managed as its failure would negatively affect the success of downsizing. The employees need to be adequately informed with their decision or actions would be based on their level of understanding of the communicated message. Also, the employees would be provided with appropriate leadership who would be involved in the process.
2.4 Development of job descriptions, person specifications, and competency frameworks
In Job descriptions, the aspects that are put into account include the purpose, scope, duties, and the different roles of the employees. Also, HR must prioritise on the aspects of distinct job descriptions in different recruitment areas and selection. For the person specification, HR department consideration would include the descriptions of qualifying employees, developing of skills, experience consideration, knowledge management and other aspects necessary for a potential candidate to ensure the entire organisation performance is enhanced in all the roles performance (see figure 1);
Figure 1: Person Specification example
Lastly, for the competency frameworks, targeting specific employees whose skills and competencies are supposed to be enhanced and, in the end, restructuring their profiles can be taken into account. Also, the skills, experience, knowledge levels, values, and individual attributes need to be put into account. This consideration is affirmed by the Ulrich model that note that point out that employee thinking and their roles ought to be outside the box contrary to the traditional practices in competencies development.
2.5 Main Legal Requirements concerning Recruitment and Selection
Equality Act 2010
This legal requirement is tasked with ensuring that the rights of employers and employees are safeguarded. Since both have varying interests, they must be noted in recruitment and selection (Legislation.go.uk, 2014). This requirement ensures that no discrimination or harassment is advanced based on prevailing socio-economic inequalities and equality in the context of payments for either gender. There are fines set for entities that fail to take into account the issues of equality in recruiting and selecting employees.
GDPR 2018
This ensures that any data used in recruitment or selection is safely protected. For instance, CIPD (2019e) argued that the CV and employees offer letters that need to be stored appropriately, and third parties should not access the documents. Also, in the selection, the employee’s pay or any other data should not be disclosed to any party. This is precisely the case in instances of data provision in the recruitment phase of the employees. Any failure in observing the employees’ rights in protecting their data and information could contribute to fining or cases to an organisation.
2.6 Strengths and Weaknesses of Different Methods of Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment Methods
- Mass Media
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