Solution
5RST- Resourcing and Talent Planning
Question 1
1.1
In line with CIPD (2022) definition, “labour markets represent a country working environment and entail all aspects ranging from resourcing, redundancies, turnover and rewards”. Also labour market evidence the importance of the employment composition in regard to demographics, job functions (public, private and part-time). Further, as part of the evaluation demand of skills level, availability economy is prioritised. In this section, UK and Saudi Arabia (KSA) have been identified for evaluation.
Employment/Unemployment Trends
Considering UK and KSA, since COVID-19 pandemic emerged, an enormous ramification to the economy has been occasioned. According to Bauer and Weber (2021), the scope of effects “include increasing unemployment rate specifically in 2021”. In UK for instance, before the COVID-19 pandemic existed, unemployment rate had stabilised at 3.9% averagely. Nevertheless, ONS (2022) note that since emergence of COVID-19, unemployment rates in UK have consistently oscillated upwards with 1%. Similar phenomenon is evident in KSA where unemployment has significantly surged upwards since COVID19 pandemic was declared. For instance, Bourghelle et al. (2021) highlight that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, oil reserves decline have been occasioned owing to the reduced global consumption. Specifically, MacroTrends (2022) report evidence that in KSA prior COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate was at 6.0%. This has doubled to the current 15%. The employment market has particularly been impacted by what Expatica (2022) identify as expatriates who have ended leaving the country.
From an employer point of view, the noted trends have a direct implication on existence of a tight UK labour market. The rationale of this is that the employees preferences are for full-time employment contrary to contracts short-term based. Owing to the UK labour market provision of security for pay, popular reward approaches are applied hence stabilising the labour market pay levels. This is not the case in KSA where the noted trends evidence an increased foreign employees inclusion representing 20% of entire labour market. This has informed the introduction of Saudisation policy which intend to increase the number of local citizens prioritised in the employment (Alotaibi, 2019).
Working Population Trends
Considering workforce, ONS (2022) note that “by year 2019, an overall of 27 million staff and 5 million were working on public and private sectors in UK respectively. Conversely, in KSA, 10.0 million were engaged in labour market (Trading Economics, 2022). The core similarity in the two countries is that they boast of a high rate of foreign expatriates who work in the labour sector totalling to 25%. For the gender representation in workplaces, for UK context, the female include 73% of the overall workforce population which is primarily involved in a full-time arrangement (Research Briefings, 2022). Further, for KSA, women make up to 16% of the entire work population.
For the impact of this trend, an employer ought to harness the overall demand for labour market inclusion and improvement of diversification of the overall resourcing strategy. Further, this has an influence on the extent in which labour shortages are put into consideration, capacity development and remuneration for increasing performance and overall productivity.
1.2
Adopting the definition of CIPD (2021), “employer of choice identify employers providing a good culture and workplace environment which attract and retain best performers”. The definition is supported by People Management (2021) using “Higgs model of Employer of Choice” identifying he process as inclusive of the capacity for an entity to appropriately position themselves in competitive labour market.
For becoming an. Employer of choice, the core features are as summarised in figure 1. The rationale of this is owing to the positive experiences gained amongst the staff, elaborate values and reviewing resourcing and retention approaches.
Figure 1: Employer of Choice Features
Further, the Award List (2021) which ranks the best organisations to work for offer several metrics appropriately used in ranking entities as the top 100. The primary aspect is attracting and retaining employees and clients in equal breadth.
For becoming an employer of choice, best practice in labour market position entail prioritising a set of factors. These are identified in CIPD (2021a) as benefiting such an organisation with high rate of retention, productivity increased, appropriate and fitting culture of workplace and attraction of best employees. Hence, such an entity is categorised as an employer of choice and clearly differentiate itself from other entities based in similar labour markets.
An employer of choice who is successful is linked with establishment a strong employer brand. The rationale of this is guiding such an organisation in increasing their position in terms of competitiveness in retaining most resourceful employee with credibility as an employer doubling. Additionally, by achieving employee value proposition, CIPD (2022a) note that an entity could note, evidence the main beliefs, skills demand and appropriate employer of choice. From an individual experience working in the HR function, this include flexibility in pay and uniqueness in set goals aligned with employees expectations. In my position in XXX retail sector company in UK, employer of choice is regarded as embracing a high-level employee value proposition. This is particularly by harnessing equality in terms of opportunities granted, insights for career development, health and wellbeing. Further, the XXX organisation is appropriately positioned in implementing varying jo functions in their friendly environment with work-life balance successfully advanced. Therefore, for XXX, they are currently leading the UK retail sector irrespective of its high-level competitiveness.
1.3
The tight labour markets are identified by CIPD (2022b) “ as a situation where there are immense skilled and knowledge-full people not readily available”. Contrarily, loose labour markets are defined as “a situation where there is a surplus with the knowledgeable employees being available to take jobs which are not available”. These definitions are supported by Taylor (2021) which adopted the Stephen Taylors Model which is based on the assumption that the tight labour markets have an influence on harnessing competition in resourcing employees to fil available opportunities. This is not the case in loose labour markets which have many people available to fill these positions but they are few hence hindering their progress.
For significance of the tight and loose labour markets, the organisation design and structure is impacted. A case example is XXX organisation based in UK retail sector which is majorly a tight labour market, full-term employees are high in number. Also, the policies of employment are strategically initiated for managing uncertainties and promoting sustainability of the labour market. For supporting the view CIPD (2022b) highlight that tight labour markets are defined by employees holistically controlling bargaining power to define contract terms with most of them preference being on the non-contractual engagement and full-permanent job roles. This is different from the loose labour markets which influence entail employers having a control on the overall recruiting process and dictating pay. For example, considering technology use in job functions have contributed to a decline in job opportunities for Millennials and Generation Z. On the other hand, in tight labour markets such as UK, the issues impacting their labour markets include and not limited to job and income security, consistent pay and zero-hour contracts. Recently, after emergence of COVID-19 pandemic, the flexible working/remote working strategies has increased their popularity.
Question 2
1.4
Government
The different roles of the government is promoting sustainable practice, diversity and inclusion and mobility of labour (UK, 2019). for instance, governments fund apprenticeships or equivalent. For example, in UK, 97% of apprenticeships costs are provide by the government with the employer settling for 3% (Martin et al., 2020). Also, KSA government has initiated apprenticeships and career fair programs for future skills development.
Also, governments initiates reforms. For instance, the initiation of T-Level policy offer an opportunity for employees to leverage from classroom active learning and on-the-job experience with upto 315 hours spent. This make sure they acquire relevant skills and knowledge to enable them execute their ropes successfully.
Finally, Kim (2018) identify governments as investing in infrastructure for acquisition of future sills. Particularly, the investment in networking and technology opportunities ensures easier future skills acquisition.
Employer
Employers have a role of developing trailblazers by initiating achievable professional standards. According to Sevens and Nightingale (2020), “employers are appropriately placed to ensure they offer future skills acquisition path”. This is by partnering with institution to develop capacity of their employees in different areas. Additionally, by solving potential skills mismatch, employers are able to align their skills demand with available skills in labour market. Further, inhouse development are popular for employers developing future skills. Considering UK for instance, they have initiated secondment opportunities for their senior leaders and managers in harnessing skills acquisition for future.
Trade Unions
Trade unions are identified as playing a core function in promoting personalised employees development and capacity development opportunities. This represent a practice required for ensuring all staff are well placed for appreciating employees rights. The organisations ensure they promote their employees learning and development opportunities. Esmond (2019) further note that “trade unions provide opportunities for UnionLearn for educating members on English and Math subjects”. These are core for advancing their roles and responsibilities successfully.
Question 3
2.1
Workforce planning is identified in CIPD (2021b) “capacity for ensuring entities are involving staff who have relevant skills in particular job positions at the most ideal time”. The rationale of this is guiding an entity to achieve both short and long-term objectives. Taylor 5 rights Model (Berghs et al., 2019) is applicable to evidence the best practice in workforce planning (see figure 2);
Figure 2: Taylor 5 Rights Model
Hence, the best practice in workforce planning include ensuring that right shape, skills, size, cost and location is prioritised.
The various principles of workforce planning are;
Key Stakeholders Involvement
For effectiveness of workforce planning, Järlström et al. (2018) identify necessity of involving various HR teams and stakeholders representatives. Inclusion of different stakeholders promote success of reporting, evidencing on functions and effectiveness. Different stakeholders inclusion is core to improve performance, health and wellbeing, innovation embrace and aligning organisation goals with employees expectation. Further, by noting any gap amongst the different stakeholders, workforce planning suggests on the best practice of improving their capability and capacity to execute their roles.
For success in workforce planning, a set of tools can be used. The importance of the tools is guided by the capacity of reviewing performance demands with the core skills and competencies guiding entity operations put into account. The tools include;
Span and Gap Analysis
This tool is used to establish the best practice in meeting future workforce needs in the situation in place. For Saleem and Al-Shiban (2020), span and gap analysis is used to guide in creating short and long-term practices intended to attain set organisation strategy. Success in span and gap analysis provide HR teams with a chance to provide leaders with a good opportunity of analysis of future demands in employment positioning. This is promoted by identifying the different competencies of vision set requiring an appropriate comparison and employees contracts development.
Organisation Benchmarking
For this approach, it compares organisation operations with the rest. The outcome of this is obtaining information on competition capacity or involvement of the organisations in various areas. The relevance of benchmarking is avoiding a situation an entity can come up with inappropriate assumption on various practices. Further, through benchmarking approaches, it is possible to identify skills acquisition best practice. This is to mitigate any inappropriate performance when capacity lack for implementation of workforce planning.
Question 4
2.2
Succession planning
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