This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic.(September 2024) |
Workforce management (WFM) is an institutional process that maximizes performance levels and competency for an organization. The process includes all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce, such as field service management, human resource management, performance and training management, data collection, recruiting, budgeting, forecasting, scheduling and analytics.
Workforce management provides a common set of performance-based tools and software to support corporate management, front-line supervisors, store managers and workers across manufacturing, distribution, transportation, and retail operations. It is sometimes referred to as HRM systems, Workforce asset management, or part of ERP systems.
As workforce management has developed from a traditional approach of staff scheduling to improve time management, it has become more integrated and demand-oriented to optimize the scheduling of staff. Besides the two core aspects of demand-orientation and optimization, workforce management may also incorporate:
The starting point is a clear definition of the work required through engineered standards and optimal methods for performing each task as efficiently and safely as possible. Based on this foundation and demand-based forecasts, workers are scheduled, tasks are assigned, performance is measured, feedback is provided and incentives are computed and paid. In addition, online training is provided along with supervisor-based coaching to bring all workers up to required levels of proficiency. Workforce management is a complete approach designed to make workforce as productive as possible, reduce labor costs, and improve customer service. [1]
Workforce management also uses the process of field service management in order to have oversight of company's resources not used on company property. Examples include:
In the 1980s and 1990s, entrepreneurs focused on topics such as supply chain management, production planning systems or enterprise resource planning. As cost pressures have increased, managers have turned their attention to human resources issues. In all personnel-intensive industries, workforce management has become an important strategic element in corporate management. The process has experienced growth in all sectors, including healthcare. The rise of the gig economy has also gone hand in hand with the rise of workforce management practices. [4] [5]
As our society continues to adopt new technologies such as smartphones and enterprise mobility tools, more companies are allowing employees to become mobile. Mobile workforce management refers to activities used to schedule the employees working outside the company premises. It helps distribute workforce efficiently across various departments in an institution. [6] The need for social distancing imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about major changes in both employer's and employee's vision of remote work, which will likely have a long-lasting impact on workforce organization and management in the coming years. [7] [8] [9]
What is the Public Service
Good people are essential for managing a government's most important resource – it’s employees (the Public Service). While some work in human resources, most are line and staff managers, whose skills are vital for achieving results. Over time, managing human resources has evolved and includes activities like recruitment, classification, compensation, training, and evaluation. [10] The public service is any service intended to address the specific needs of a community and is used to describe all public service departments, department agencies, interdepartmental executive boards, and interdepartmental ventures. [11] [12] The public service is experiencing unprecedented levels of change with ever increasing technology, evolving workforce demographics, budget pressures and expectations of trust and confidence from citizens who access public services. [13]
In section 11 of the New Zealand Public Service Act 2020, the public service is described as: supporting constitutional and democratic government, enables both the current and successive governments to develop and implement their policies, delivers high-quality and efficient public services, supports the Government to pursue the long-term public interest, facilitates active citizenship, and acts in accordance with the law. [14]
In New Zealand, the current delivery of public services is overseen by five central agencies - the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Public Services Commission, the Treasury Department, the Ministry for Regulation, and the Social Investment Agency. These agencies work together to deliver results for ministers and everyone in New Zealand. They are responsible for coordinating the work of the government, acting as stewards of the machinery of government and ensuring that standards of fairness, integrity and efficiency are maintained across the public service. [15] The Head of the Public Service is a statutory appointment (a Public Service Commissioner) who runs the Public Service Commission. This role is to protect and enhance the legitimacy and integrity of the Public Service. This role is supported by two Deputy Public Service Commissioners, and they work together with the Public Service secretaries and chief executives to lead agencies as a single system in order to maintain the public’s trust and confidence in the Public Service. [16]
Public Service Commission role in workforce management
The Public Service Commission (PSC; Māori: Te Kawa Mataaho), called the State Services Commission until 2020, is the central public service department of New Zealand charged with overseeing, managing, and improving the performance of the state sector of New Zealand and its organisations. [17] The Public Service Act 2020 provides a modern legislative framework that supports a more adaptive, agile and collaborative Public Service. The key enablers for this are public service culture and behaviour; an updated framework for employment; effective leadership; and a range of options for configuring fit-for-purpose public service organisations. [18] PSC has an important role in workforce management.
Working with Chief Executives and Secretaries of government organisations, the Public Service Commission oversees the following key functions and responsibilities typically associated workforce management across the Public Service:
Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI): the PSC will often work to ensure there is DEI within the public service. This will involve policies, action plans and practices that will support the composition of a workforce that is diverse, address bias and foster diverse leadership within the workforce.
Recruitment and selection: the PSC oversees (through advice and guidance) the recruitment practices of public service roles. This includes having fair and transparent hiring practices and policies to ensure that the best candidates are selected based on suitability and merit for the role.
Workforce planning: the PSC develops strategies that focuses on composition, capability and capacity. This is done through collation and analysis of public service workforce data that supports identifying and designing approaches to address workforce needs and forecasting future requirements.
Training and development: the PSC supports and enables the creation and promotion of professional development programmes for public servants to ensure they have the skills and knowledge needed to perform effectively in their roles as well as progress in their careers.
Employment standards and regulations: the PSC will also set and enforce the appropriate standards related to employment conditions. This includes remuneration and working conditions so that public servants are treated fairly and consistently. The PSC will also provide guidance on performance standards as well as advice on addressing issues related to employee conduct and performance.
Policy development and advice: the PSC will develop and provide advice on policies that are related to human resources management in the public service including recommendations on improvements to existing polices ensuring they align to the wider public service goals and regulations.
Overall, the Public Service Commission's role is to ensure that the public service operates efficiently, ethically, and in accordance with the Public Service principles of being politically neutral; providing free and frank advice; having merit-based appointments; open government and stewardship. All of which contribute to a high-performing and accountable public service workforce.
What is diversity and inclusion-based recruitment strategy?
Diversity refers to differences within a group. [19] [20] The word diverse takes it origins from the middle English word dyversite which means “difference, separateness, variety”. [21] Diversity can include, but is not limited to, differences in race, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, disability, gender, identity and sexual orientation. Inclusion as it relates to a workplace environment, is where all employees are supported and able to effectively make a difference with the organization. [22] Diversity can fall into four broad categories, although there is said to be intersectionality between the categories; [23] these are defined as Internal, External, Organizational and Worldview diversity. Internal diversity relates to the way people are born, and includes factors such as race, gender identity, age and health. External diversity relates to characteristics of a person that are acquired in life. This includes interests, education, appearance, religious beliefs, and location. Organizational diversity includes job function, management status, and salary band. Worldview diversity is as its states – a person’s worldview, political views and moral belief systems. [24]
Diversity and inclusion-based recruitment is an employment strategy aimed at creating more equitable and representative workforces. It uses processes free from bias for, or against any individual or group of candidates. Organizational workforces should reflect the general makeup of the society in which you live and work. Organizational leadership that embraces and cultivates an open culture for all individuals to thrive is the cornerstone of success in recruiting a diverse workforce. [25]
What are its origins?
Diversity in recruiting has evolved over recent decades to become an important strategy in all organizations. During World War II many industries required replacement labor as the male workforce was being drafted into the war. While some companies began to hire women and people from minority groups, racial discrimination was rampant. In an attempt to combat this, in 1941, American President Franklin Roosevelt issued an order prohibiting racial discrimination in defense industry jobs. [26] Diversity theory has its origins in the 1960’s when equal employment laws (equity statutes and equal opportunity regulations) and affirmative action (policies and practices aimed at increasing marginalized and underrepresented groups) were introduced. [27] This brought the issue of diversity and inclusion to the forefront and encouraged organizations to implement diversity training programmes and establish related policies. It is said that global spending on diversity and inclusion is projected to reach US$24.3 billion dollars by 2030 [28]
In recent times, social movements such as #Metoo and #Blacklivesmatter have intensified discussion about injustice, leading to deeper reflection on its impact within the workplace. As these issues gained prominence, the professional world was motivated to enhance and evolve its diversity and inclusion practices, resulting in the rapid redevelopment of recruitment and retention strategies focused on diversity and inclusion.
What are the organizational benefits of diversity and inclusion-based recruitment strategies?
Organizations often perceive themselves as being torn between increasing diversity and focusing on hiring for optimal performance. [29] Despite this view, beyond meeting societal expectations, organizations can also benefit financially from increasing diversity in their workforce. A 2015 study found companies with greater racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to achieve financial returns that exceed industry standards. [30] Some of the other benefits of diversity in organizations are as follows:
Advantage in talent acquisition – Human capital is the core component of company success. A focus on diversity and inclusion opens the talent sourcing pool [31]
Increased employee satisfaction – women and members of minority groups in particular report that diversity and inclusion is of high importance to them [32]
Alignment with customer base – Focusing on diversity enables companies to better align with an increasingly diverse and globalized customer base, helping to enhance customer relationships which in turn strengthens their brand [33]
Drives innovation, competitive advantage and market growth – the basis lies in diversity of thought, giving people a voice and empowering staff to feed into decision making and solutions [34]
Employee turnover is costly and disruptive to organisations. Not only does it take time and cost to recruit and train new staff, turnover has been shown to negatively impact organisational performance, engagement and productivity and increase absenteeism. [35] The estimated costs to replace staff range from 40 percent of front-line workers’ salaries up to 200 percent of managers’ salaries. [36]
The public service faces additional challenges with turnover. Disruption to critical front-line services, such as health, education, policing and border control can have catastrophic impacts, and so workforce management that minimises the impacts of turnover is essential to ensure continuity of services. [37] Furthermore, public services roles can be highly specialised making recruitment challenging, due to scarcity of suitability trained and experienced candidates. It is even more challenging to replace staff where there are existing workforce shortages, or the service is based in a remote community. [35] [38] Studies have shown that even when minimum capacity required for continuity is maintained, turnover introduces additional costs into service delivery, which are sometimes passed on to consumers. [39]
Public service organisations seek to retain and elevate existing employees as much as possible. Employee retention strategies usually include a combination of:
- Talent management strategies
- Flexible working arrangements, such as working from home options
- Clear organisational goals and purpose
- Opportunities to develop and career progression
- Clear connection between individual job descriptions and tasks and public value.
- Lifelong training and support focusing on digital skills [40]
How the values and features of the public service alters the application of typical employee retention strategies
Public service motivation (PSM) theory suggests public servants are naturally altruistic and choose jobs in the public service because they can align their personal actions to public good. [41] This means the relationship between intrinsic motivators and extrinsic rewards is not as straightforward as in the private sector.
Research has shown that when employees have low PSM, money and promotion rewards have a positive impact on engagement. However, when employees have high PSM, these extrinsic incentives negatively impact engagement. This is because the extrinsic rewards are seen to undermine and crowd out the intrinsic values that drive public servants – the altruistic qualities that drew them to public service careers. [42] [43] Instead, public servants tend to be more motivated by pursuit of public good, and the perception of personal fit with their organisation’s values and purpose. [44]
New Zealand public service organisations tend to be characterised by organisational values relating to social good, fairness and the pursuit of delivering public value. The public service also tends to be highly unionised – in 2010 around 70 percent of public servants in New Zealand were members of a union. [45] These core values affect the ways in which talent management is used to retain and develop employees. For example:
- Public service values: Talent management strategies tend to blend a focus individuals’ strengths and contribution to organisational performance with the ethos of public service and the pursuit of delivering public value. Rather than only focusing on the highest performers, public service organisations also seek to motivate and develop a common set of values and skills across all employees, and take a longer term focus to building capability. [46]
- Standardisation: New Zealand public service organisations tend to be organised by top-down design, with standardised position descriptions for comparable roles, and fixed pay bands. This means job crafting is uncommon, and compensation is considered in the context of relativities across team members. [47]
- Pay philosophy: The culture of fiscal restraint in New Zealand public service organisations reinforces a match pay philosophy, where organisations pay market rates rather than seeking to compete for workforce via compensation. Compensation tends to be treated as a cost to the organisation, rather than a strategic talent management tool. [48] This is in part due to the lower effectiveness of performance pay regimes within the public sector compared to the private sector. [49]
- Strong focus on diversity and inclusion: Public service organisations aim to reflect the people they serve, particularly for senior management teams. In New Zealand, talent management strategies aim to develop a diverse and representative pipeline of future leaders, with resources provided to public sector managers by the Public Service Commission. [50]
With public sector organisations facing challenges with budget constraints, rising demand for services and complex operational environments, partnering with community has become a key strategic shift, highlighting the need for public sector human resource strategies to integrate policies and programs that foster the skills and cultural competencies required to manage these partnerships effectively, a 2021 survey by the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand (HRINZ) found that 80% of HR professionals identified strong collaboration and relationship management skills as essential for managing external partnerships effectively.
According to Suggett (2012), [51] the public sector faces significant challenges in designing and implementing effective engagement strategies, due to the undervaluation of these skills across the sector. These skills are not consistently reflected in performance evaluations or professional development opportunities. The process of designing, conducting, and analysing stakeholder engagement has evolved beyond simple communication tasks and demands a comprehensive set of abilities, including relationship management, needs analysis, negotiation, and extensive knowledge of specific policy or service areas. Despite recognising staff capability as a major challenge to their effectiveness, the public sector is yet to develop organisational strategies to address this issue.
Essential Skills for Effective External Partnerships in the Public Sector.
Public sector employees in New Zealand and around the world need a broad range of skills to effectively manage relationships with external partners. In response to this need, the Public Services Commission launched the Capability Review Programme in June 2023. This initiative aims to boost the effectiveness of the Public Service in fostering collaboration (Commission, 2023). [52] Developing these skills is essential for creating productive, inclusive, and responsive partnerships that address the needs of all stakeholders. Traditionally, public sector organizations have worked within their own systems, providing services through internal channels. However, community organisations are now increasingly recognised as vital partners in tackling these challenges for several reasons:
Research indicates that such training is essential for building effective partnerships and overcoming the inherent challenges of integrating external organisations into public sector operations (Bryson, Crosby, & Bloomberg, 2014). [53]
Cultural Competency
According to (Dergarapet, 2020) [54] public organisations are increasingly required to address the needs of culturally diverse populations which is vital for managing external partnerships successfully. In New Zealand, this competency includes understanding and integrating Māori perspectives and practices into public services, reflecting the country’s commitment to cultural inclusivity in accordance with Māori Crown Relations Capability Framework for the Public Service - Individual Capability Component. HRINZ (2021) reported that 65% of HR departments in the public sector have integrated cultural competency training into their professional development programs to ensure effective engagement with Māori and other communities.
As public services encounter the limits of traditional management approaches, new practices stress the need for ongoing learning and reform. Managers who embrace complexity are increasingly using relational resources to enhance their learning. [55] Adapting to changes in partnerships and evolving cultural and political contexts requires strong change management skills. For future public sector workforce planning, integrating skills training and cultural competencies into HR strategies will be essential for improving effectiveness and service delivery.
Workforce management solutions[ buzzword ] can be deployed enterprise-wide and through mobile platforms. While special software is commonly used in numerous areas such as ERP (enterprise resource planning), SLM (service lifecycle management), CRM (customer relationship management) and HR (human resources) management, the management of the workforce is often still handled using spreadsheet programs or time recording. This often results in expensive overtime, non-productive idle times, high fluctuation rates, poor customer service and opportunity costs being incurred. By using a software solution[ buzzword ] for demand-oriented workforce management, planners can optimize staffing by creating schedules that at all times conform to the forecasted requirements. [56] At the same time, a workforce management solution[ buzzword ] helps users to observe all relevant legislations, local agreements and the contracts of individual employees – including work-life balance guidelines. [57]
A key aspect of workforce management is scheduling. This is achieved by establishing likely demand by analyzing historical data (such as the number and duration of customer contacts, sales figures, check-out transactions or orders to be handled). Many workforce management systems also offer manual adjustment capabilities. The calculated forecast values are then converted into actual staffing requirements by means of an algorithm that is adjusted to the particular use case. The algorithm itself is based on the work of Erlang though most modern adaptations of workforce management have shifted towards a richer state management, and optimizations to the original idea.
Current and future staffing requirements, short-term peak loads, availabilities, holidays, budget allowances, skills, labour law-related restrictions, as well as wage and contractual terms have to be integrated into the planning process to guarantee optimal staff deployment. In the workforce management process, the integration of employees is an important factor. In several workforce management systems, employees can log in their availability or planned absences and they can bid for specific shifts so long as they have the necessary skills for the activities planned for these shifts. [58]
The three methods of delivery for contact center technologies are on-premises solution[ buzzword ], hosted or cloud-based computing. [59]
Job rotation is the lateral transfer of employees between jobs in an organization without a change in their hierarchical rank or salary grade. Rotated employees usually do not remain in these jobs permanently and may also not return to former jobs. The frequency and duration of intervals in a job rotation can vary widely from daily to periods of years. The practice serves several functions including staffing, employee motivation, managing employee fatigue, employee orientation and placement, and career development.
A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to women, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy. The metaphor was first used by feminists in reference to barriers in the careers of high-achieving women. It was coined by Marilyn Loden during a speech in 1978.
Staffing is the process of finding the right worker with appropriate qualifications or experience and recruiting them to fill a job position or role. Through this process, organizations acquire, deploy, and retain a workforce of sufficient quantity and quality to create positive impacts on the organization's effectiveness. In management, staffing is an operation of recruiting the employees by evaluating their skills and knowledge before offering them specific job roles accordingly.
Recruitment is the overall process of identifying, sourcing, screening, shortlisting, and interviewing candidates for jobs within an organization. Recruitment also is the process involved in choosing people for unpaid roles. Managers, human resource generalists, and recruitment specialists may be tasked with carrying out recruitment, but in some cases, public-sector employment, commercial recruitment agencies, or specialist search consultancies such as Executive search in the case of more senior roles, are used to undertake parts of the process. Internet-based recruitment is now widespread, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the effective and efficient management of people in a company or organization such that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. It is designed to maximize employee performance in service of an employer's strategic objectives. Human resource management is primarily concerned with the management of people within organizations, focusing on policies and systems. HR departments are responsible for overseeing employee-benefits design, employee recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal, and reward management, such as managing pay and employee benefits systems. HR also concerns itself with organizational change and industrial relations, or the balancing of organizational practices with requirements arising from collective bargaining and governmental laws.
Health human resources (HHR) – also known as human resources for health (HRH) or health workforce – is defined as "all people engaged in actions whose primary intent is to enhance positive health outcomes", according to World Health Organization's World Health Report 2006. Human resources for health are identified as one of the six core building blocks of a health system. They include physicians, nursing professionals, pharmacists, midwives, dentists, allied health professions, community health workers, and other social service and health care providers.
Workforce productivity is the amount of goods and services that a group of workers produce in a given amount of time. It is one of several types of productivity that economists measure. Workforce productivity, often referred to as labor productivity, is a measure for an organisation or company, a process, an industry, or a country.
Employee engagement is a fundamental concept in the effort to understand and describe, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the nature of the relationship between an organization and its employees. An "engaged employee" is defined as one who is fully absorbed by and enthusiastic about their work and so takes positive action to further the organization's reputation and interests. An engaged employee has a positive attitude towards the organization and its values. In contrast, a disengaged employee may range from someone doing the bare minimum at work, up to an employee who is actively damaging the company's work output and reputation.
The Public Service Commission, called the State Services Commission until 2020, is the central public service department of New Zealand charged with overseeing, managing, and improving the performance of the state sector of New Zealand and its organisations.
In human resources, turnover refers to employees who leave an organization. The turnover rate is the percentage of the total workforce who leave over a certain period. Organizations and wider industries may measure their turnover rate during a fiscal or calendar year.
Diversity, in a business context, is hiring and promoting employees from a variety of different backgrounds and identities. Those characteristics may include various legally protected groups, such as people of different religions or races, or backgrounds that are not legally protected, such as people from different social classes or educational levels. A business or group with people from a variety of backgrounds is called diverse; a business or group with people who are very similar to each other is not diverse.
The Public Service of Canada is the civilian workforce of the Government of Canada's departments, agencies, and other public bodies.
Talent management (TM) is the anticipation of required human capital for an organization and the planning to meet those needs. The field has been growing in significance and gaining interest among practitioners as well as in the scholarly debate over the past 10 years as of 2020, particularly after McKinsey's 1997 research and the 2001 book on The War for Talent. Although much of the previous research focused on private companies and organizations, TM is now also found in public organizations.
Training and development involves improving the effectiveness of organizations and the individuals and teams within them. Training may be viewed as being related to immediate changes in effectiveness via organized instruction, while development is related to the progress of longer-term organizational and employee goals. While training and development technically have differing definitions, the terms are often used interchangeably. Training and development have historically been topics within adult education and applied psychology, but have within the last two decades become closely associated with human resources management, talent management, human resources development, instructional design, human factors, and knowledge management.
The war for talent is a term coined by Steven Hankin of McKinsey & Company in 1997, and a book by Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Beth Axelrod, Harvard Business Press, 2001 ISBN 978-1-57851-459-5. The war for talent refers to an increasingly competitive landscape for recruiting and retaining talented employees. In the book, Michaels, et al., describe not a set of superior Human Resources processes, but a mindset that emphasizes the importance of talent to the success of organizations.
Employee retention is the ability of an organization to retain its employees and ensure sustainability. Employee retention can be represented by a simple statistic. Employee retention is also the strategies employers use to try to retain the employees in their workforce.
Human resource planning is a process that identifies current and future human resources needs for an organization to achieve its goals. Human resource planning should serve as a link between human resource management and the overall strategic plan of an organization. Ageing workers population in most western countries and growing demands for qualified workers in developing economies have underscored the importance of effective human resource planning.
Workforce development, an American approach to economic development, attempts to enhance a region's economic stability and prosperity by focusing on people rather than businesses. It essentially develops a human-resources strategy. Work-force development has evolved from a problem-focused approach, addressing issues such as low-skilled workers or the need for more employees in a particular industry, to a holistic approach considering participants' many barriers and the overall needs of the region.
Compensation and benefits refer to remuneration to employees from employers. Which is the payments or rewards provided to an individual for the work that has been completed.
Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) is a term used in organisational psychology that refers to the shared belief held by workers that their psychological health and safety is protected and supported by senior management. PSC builds on other work stress theories and concerns the corporate climate for worker psychological health and safety. Studies have found that a favourable PSC is associated with low rates of absenteeism and high productivity, while a poor climate is linked to high levels of workplace stress and job dissatisfaction. PSC can be promoted by organisational practices, policies and procedures that prioritise the psychosocial safety and wellbeing of workers. The theory has implications for the design of workplaces for the best possible outcomes for both workers and management.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{citation}}
: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)