Challenges Faced By Manufacturing Sectors In Attracting And Retaining Employees

Learning and Development

Discuss about the Human Resource Management for Medical Pharmaceuticals.

In 2016, Australia was ranked 21^st among the global leaders of manufacturing. The key factors which lead to this was continuous investment in the research and development unit of the companies, innovation shown, high quality goods and valued services and finally advanced technologies and skills (Adeoye, Atiku & Fields, 2016). The main manufacturing sectors of Australia are the food and agribusiness on the top followed by Mining Equipment, Technology & Services; Oil, Gas & Energy Resources; Advanced Manufacturing and finally Medical Technologies & Pharmaceuticals. Therefore, human resources management has become an integral part of the company strategies to obtain its set objectives. It is needless to say that the increasing rate of change of global markets has forced the markets to become competitive which has led to the development of challenges for both the organizations and the industries (Nankervis et al., 2013). This paper illustrates the key challenges that are faced by the manufacturing sectors in the context of employee attraction and retention. It further discusses about the various human resource strategies like training and development and employee relations. Additionally several other attributes of the strategy are addressed like employee empowerment, compensation management. With respect to these key strategies the challenges that are faced in recent times by the manufacturing sector is discussed in this paper. From several studies in relation to human resource management, it has been concluded that inspite of the challenges the above mentioned attributes does play a role in employee attraction and retention. 

The shift in the world economy has opened up opportunities in the internal markets. However these opportunities come along with several challenges and threats which the earlier organizations had never had to deal with.  Managing the human resources has become the new fundamental for the successful operation of an organization irrespective of the size of the industry. It is clearly observe that the more effectively a firm is able to manage its human resources, the more successful it can become in its ventures. HR has been connected to increase of production, better customer service, higher gains and total organizational survival. In order to achieve this chain of success, management must not only focus on facing the issues in hand of human resource management but also tackle the future challenges related to it effectively.

Among the several challenges faced, firstly the challenges regarding learning, development and career management is discussed. The human resource managers is soon going to face a challenge in terms of learning and development of human capital. With the development of organizations there is an ever growing need of operations in the interconnected world. In order to support these changes, learning, development and career management activities are essential for the success of any organizational strategies. The quality of the human resources is the major competitive advantage in the competitive global market scenario (Abdulrahman, Gunasekaran, & Subramanian, 2014). Until now, the concept of training and development was only restricted to the local and regional efforts. Increasing emphasis has been given only on the internal training of the employees and on only job training has been used instead of ant external training programs. Although, there is only provision for limited funding from the business for globalization however inspite of that a more intricate and expensive training investment is required (Albrecht et al., 2015). The change that is brought about in the amount of training and development is quite consistent and considerable and this have eventually made the employee realise that the success is dependent on their skill set and abilities as an employee. The growth of human resource management with its focus on the welfare of the employees and the skills have been invested in order to possess a process by which organizational efficiency can be increased. Concepts of human resource management like the commitment to the firm and the quality growth movement have led to the managerial teams to understand that the increased importance of development and training (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang 2014). In the recent economic scenario, the process of learning and developing knowledge and its management cannot be decided by fate and luck any longer. It can be recognized that the knowledge and therefore training is a potential factor that is competitive and which is often company-specific. It is important for the overall success of the organization and must be given a corresponding amount of managerial support. There should be an establishment of a consensus report within the organization that will benefit the all over development of the company. A training program is highly required to be implemented within the planning of a business which is strategic and the methods of application and the required needs are to be agreed upon by organization (Odunlami, & Matthew, 2014). According to (Raza et al., 2017), the companies should focus on training and developing previous and experienced employees as well rather than concentrating on only hiring new employees who are qualified and experienced. 

Managing Diversity and Work-Life Balance

Secondly, along with learning, development and career management, focus should also be given by the human resource managers on the managing diversity and work-life balance of their employees. In recent times it has become a necessity to balance work with the daily lifestyle. In order to maintain this, provision of flexible work arrangements should be provided by the firms (Yang et al., 2015). This is another area of challenge which the human resource management faces. Non-standard working patterns have developed as major elements of the reality of employment these days and it is predicted to be growing more and more in the coming years. The organization should make attempts in order to understand the diverse needs of its employees. Home and work commitments can be duly achieved through flexible working patterns and they can act as stepping stones towards the achievement of equality of opportunity (Tzabbar, Tzafrir, & Baruch, 2017).  A study was conducted in respect to this, which showed that the part-time workforce consists of the women predominantly which is about 81% whereas only where three-fifths of employed women work on a part-time basis who have with dependent children. Many countries and unions are trying to come up with solutions in order to adapt with the flexible form of working. This is again dependent on the employers who have to take the responsibly to see that the practice is duly implemented.  It is difficult to generalize, however a number of employers have assumed that a more or less active role in this arena. Research reports suggests a significant trend towards greater labour flexibility throughout the late 19^th century (Sripirabaa & Krishnaveni, 2009). Inspite of the fact that the flexibility us accepted the challenge still remains as to finding out how far and how permanently, and to what extent of strategy and to whose interest is the achievement of flexibility of the company is dependent.

The challenges in human resource management which are mentioned above cannot be sufficed without the context of employee relations and welfare which is the third factor. Provision of fair and similar treatment to all employees describes a good employee relation. The human resource management strategy which considers the value of the employees are at par with that of the stakeholders are the companies which are believed to have a good employee relation. Additionally, companies with good employee relations evidently gains since their workforce is greatly motivated to put in its best efforts (Snell, Morris & Bohlander, 2015). As a return of the efforts they expend for the company’s welfare, they just demand a fair treatment and recognition for their achievements. Experts in human resources play a vital role in maintaining employee relations. For example, if the Human Resources managers develop suitable forms of communications and appropriate methodology that can apply as appropriate information medium. This way employees too can have access to more and higher quality inside information and can communicate more effectively with the management which will result in more work efficiency (Fiori, Bollmann & Rossier, 2015). The human resource specialists and the firm managers should work alongside each other in order to ensure better management of employee relations. To develop and maintain such relations the employee should be fully aware of the company policies and strategies which they adopt (Sheikh, Hasnu, & Khan, 2016). In addition to this, to ensure good employee relations, managers must pay attention to and understand what the employees are trying to put forward and provide employees with the freedom to express grievances about managerial decisions according to it. The employer-employee behaviour of this kind is an integral part of the corporate environment, which has an influence on the expectations of the employee and in turn their productivity (Katou & Budhwar, 2010).  This corporate culture has set a benchmark of standards on the work performance of the employees. This is able to provide better guidelines on the attendance record, punctuality and quality of the customer services provided. Better understanding of the employee attitudes helps the corporate environment take decisions. The organizations that are sensitive to employee attitudes and customs have a definite future of success. Apart from this, the style of management of the line managers also has a direct impact on the employee relations, as they are the important links between the human resource function and the individuals who take control of the distinctive skills, personalities and objectives of the employees (Kehoe & Wright, 2013). Managers must also oversee the facilitation of the interactions that occur within the several work groups. In their role, managers provide correct ways, encouragement, and authority to evoke desired behaviours (Nankervis et al., 2013). In addition, managers try reinforcing desirable behaviour so that it is maintained and enhanced (Fiori, Bollmann & Rossier, 2015). The management style will influence the ways the Human Resource Management programs are conveyed and applied. 

Employee Relations and Welfare

Employee turnover and retention is another major of part of employee relations management which can be discussed as the fourth factor. In this context, the process of increasing employee turnover consists of providing workers with the skillset and power to take decisions that would have been generally be made by managers of the company (Guan et al., 2016). The objective of the concept of employee retention and turnover is an organization consisting of energetic, organization committed people who do their work because they trust it and like doing it (Tzabbar, Tzafrir & Baruch, 2017). Empowerment can motivate employees to be more creative and to take risks, which are main components that can give a firm a competitive advantage in employee retention (Snell, Morris & Bohlander, 2015). Research results reveals that if there is lack of career growth and job dissatisfaction among the employees, this could lead to the employees leaving their jobs thus decline in the employee turnover. To summarise, it can be put forward that, the most important task of the human resource managers in recent times is to understand that empowerment is really a necessary objective to elevate employee satisfaction, which will turn into employee turnover and retention. For the improvement of such situation certain retention strategies might be applied by the human resources like improvement of the recruitment methods in order to form a realistic impression in front of the candidate about the company, giving assistance to the new recruits in the initial job days, and properly communicating and consulting with the employees on a daily basis (Adeoye & Fields, 2014).  

Lastly, in the field of human resource management, motivation, rewards and compensation management plays a significant role as it is one of the most complex issues. If an organization wants to achieve its objectives and wants to handle its human resources effectively, it should recognize the core aspects of compensation management. The term compensation management illustrates the process by which wage levels are structured for various designations by applying an incentives system (Coetzee & Stoltz, 2015). Compensational packages are provided to the employees and the subordinates within or beyond their expectations. The effect of compensations can be further described by the help of various motivational theories. Based on such theories it has been seen that there is a direct relationship between compensation and the employee performance which needs to be harnessed by the manufacturing sectors. It is evident that the employees are a major of the human resources management, therefore attention should be given to their proper compensation policies and incentive schemes so as to trigger their performance level (Odunlami & Matthew,  2014). Reports from recent studies states that there is a significant relationship between good working conditions and the performance of the employees. The good working environment is in turn dependent on employee satisfaction. Reports from several studies have shown that the challenges were faced in human resource management regarding the equity of wage payment. Although the wages are decided in accordance to the Enterprise Bargaining Agreements, irrespective of the background of the employees (Nankervis et al., 2013). Interviews were conducted of the employees who accepted that the reward and compensation system enriched cooperation and team work, but failed to recognize the outstanding individual performance. The level of job security was same for all as stated by the employees, however there was a lack of acceptance of diversity in the organizations. Although the employees received a certain level of personal interaction irrespective of the background, interviewees indicated that true social interaction and acceptance of non-native cultures was absent (Abdulrahman, Gunasekaran & Subramanian, 2014). It was evident from the interview conducted that the reward and compensation management system did encourage in growth of team work and cooperation among the employees but it not recognize the individual performance. This was the major challenge faced. The remuneration scheme for most of the organizations failed to include the diversity management as an important performance signalling method which indicated the raise in an individual’s performance. This could have directly affected the appraisal process and monetary rewards which were no longer linked to good diversity management strategy (Adeoye & Fields, 2014). 

Employee Turnover and Retention

From the studies on the various HRM strategies, conclusion can be drawn that  these practices such as learning and development, compensation and reward and the employee relations and welfare activities has a major effect in attracting employee and making them stay through organizational commitment. Without employee satisfaction such objectives cannot be met. This in turn will have an impact on the profitability and goodwill of the organization. Therefore, it is evident that human resource management practices influence the organizational commitment which carves the way to retention of skilled employees. Therefore, in cases where human resource management is properly put into effect, the production and effort of employees will become more efficient. This is applicable mainly in the new organizations where globalization is present and competition undermines the inter-country boundaries. The findings of the paper suggests for a scope for additional research in the several other areas of human resources functions. With the increase in globalization and strong competition that exists in the market. The organizations need to thrive consistently by designing various human resource practices that are employee friendly and for the betterment of the organization. 

References

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