Questions and Answers on Human Resources Management

3. How do human resources managers go about matching a firm's supply of workers with demand?

Matching workers supply and demand in an organization plays a significant role in an organization production continuity and also ensuring that an organization has talented employees. Human resource planning has a significant role in ensuring a match between employees supply and demand. Through the anticipation of demand, human resources managers can increase or decrease the number of employees to meet the market output demand. Forecasting demand and also understanding turnover enables an organization human resources manager to adjust the worker's supply and demand. The following methods are used by human resources managers to match employee's supply and demand:

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Additional Labor Needs

Overtime work, contract hiring, recruitment and retraining employees, and outsourcing

When additional labor is needed the human resource manager can encourage employees to work overtime by providing incentives which would compensate for the need of extra workforce. Contract hire can be used for the seasonal increase in demand of goods and services whereas long-term measures like recruitment and outsourcing can be used to contain the sustained demand for labor and the shortage of talented employees in the workforce (Miller, Benjamin Israel 43)

Reducing labor surplus

Downsizing, the freeze of hiring and reducing pay and working hours

When the supply of employees is greater than the demand for goods and services, the human resources should reduce the number of workforces to reduce organization labor costs and promote sustainability. In this case, the human resource manager can downsize the workforce through early voluntary retirement, stop hiring altogether or reduce the pay and working hours which will reduce the further need for the excess workforce which could increase an organization operation cost (Miller, Benjamin Israel 55).

4. What are the major challenges and benefits associated with a culturally diverse workforce?

Culturally diverse organizations are organizations that promote diversity in gender, race, and ethnicity in their workforce.

Benefits

- High productivity and creativity

Cultural diverse workforces can generate many different ideas which boost problem-solving capacity of the organizations. The diverse workforce leads to positive competition while allowing new perspectives that can help to meet the customer needs by resolving organization problems. - Cultural diversity helps businesses to attract and retain talented personnel

Through diversity in the workforce, an organization can be able to attract and retain employees who are talented from a multicultural perspective which is beneficial to an organization need for new ideas and solutions to business problems.

- Cultural diversity increases organization cultural sensitivity

Cultural sensitivity in multicultural organizations is very important in understanding the needs of the consumers and different markets and regulations. Through cultural competence, an organization can make better decisions due to the ability to understand the market and consumers.

Challenges

- Prejudice and negative cultural stereotypes

Cultural diverse organizations are highly affected by the prejudice and negative stereotypes directed towards specific race and ethnic groups which makes it hard for some employees to fit in or contribute fully to the organization activities. Negative stereotypes and prejudice reduce employee's morale and reduce productivity.

- Professional communication challenges

The language barrier is a significant challenge faced by culturally diverse organizations. Verbal and non-verbal misunderstandings lead to lack of cohesiveness within an organization. Differing attitudes, values, and behaviors between cultures make it difficult for an organization to achieve its communication goals.

- Difficulty in conforming to employment laws

Cultural diverse organizations attract employees from different countries which have different employment laws and makes it difficult for such organizations to comply with all the laws and workplace requirements (Pride et al., 2016, p. 245).

7. Suppose that you have just opened a new ford sales showroom and repair shop: which of your employees would be paid wages which would receive salaries and which would receive commissions?

Salaries

Managers, supervisors, accountants, secretaries, receptionists, and department heads should be paid salaries because they are paid a fixed amount of money on a monthly basis. Salaries should be meant for permanent and important organization employees who are responsible for day to day running of the organization and the management of the rest of the workforce.

Wages

Wages are paid at an hourly rate depending on the number of hours that the employees have worked. In this case, the mechanics, cleaners, value assessors and security guards should be paid regarding the hours they have worked because their services within the showroom are limited with time and demand.

Commissions

Salespeople would receive commissions with the aim of encouraging them to engage consumers more and increase sales for the showroom. Commissions are paid regarding the percentage of the number of sales that a salesperson contributes to the organization (Pride et al., 2016, p. 254-258).

8. Why is it so important to provide feedback after a performance appraisal?

Feedback is important during employee performance appraisal because it helps the employees to improve their performance and identify areas that they are performing poorly and would require improvement (Van den Bossche, Piet, Mien Segers, and Niekie Jansen 81). Feedback motivates employees to improve their performance towards achieving organization goals and constructive criticism of the employees has been found to improve employees decision making and work engagement. Finally, performance feedback after employee appraisal facilitates continued employees learning which helps align the employees with the goals of an organization (Pride et al., 2016, p. 264).

10. Are employee benefits really necessary? Why?

Employee's benefits are very necessary for an organization because they increase employee engagement in an organization and can facilitate the ability of an organization to retain talented employees. Attracting and retaining talented employees plays a significant role in the overall success of an organization. Organizations can identify themselves different from their competitors by offering the employees with benefits such as health coverage and allowances that increase the quality of decisions and creativity by attracting talented employees (Pride et al., 2016, p. 258).

13. Of the laws discussed in the text, which are the most important, in your opinion?

The Occupation Safety and Health Act

OSHA is an employment law that regulates the health and safety in the working environment to protect the safety and health of the employees. The law compliance is very important because it improves employee engagement and can facilitate the ability of an organization to retain talented employees (Pride et al., 2016, p. 266).

The Fair Labor Standards Act

It is an organizational responsibility to ensure compliance to the fair labor standards Act that ensures that the employees are adequately remunerated and ensuring that only employees who are competent and required age limits participate in organization activities. Failure of an organization to observe the fair labor standards Act can lead to loss of talented employees to competitors (Pride et al., 2016, p. 265).

Equal Pay Act

The equal pay act ensures that employees in an organization are entitled to equal remuneration regardless of their ethnic, race and gender which is important legislation that aims at encouraging diversity in an organization (Pride et al., 2016, p. 266).

Works Cited

Miller, Benjamin Israel. "Estimating the Firm's Demand for Human Resource Management Practices." (2008). 43-55

Pride, William M., Robert J. Hughes, and Jack R. Kapoor. Foundations of business. Cengage Learning, 2014. 244-259

Van den Bossche, Piet, Mien Segers, and Niekie Jansen. "Transfer of training: the role of feedback in supportive social networks." International Journal of Training and Development14.2 (2010): 81-94.