Change Management what HR managers should know

Introduction 

Source: www.theintentionallife.com

In the current dynamic operational environment, an organization needs to enact continuous change to maintain competitiveness. Change management is a systemic transformation of the organization, its people and the process from the current state to the desired future status, (Austin, 2015). Change management can be described in 3 perspectives. It is the systemic transformation of the process of the organization such as a change in corporate structure, processes and adoption of technology, (Austin, 2015). in response to the internal and external environmental changes. It also involves transformation and aligns of employees with the new organization structure. Further, change management is the alignment of the organization in accordance with the marketplace (Lisa at el, cited Ryerson University, 2011).

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Moving towards high performing education sector in Sri Lanka

Introduction

Source: http://www.ips.lk

Education has a positive effect on people and society. It helps to expand the economy and reduce the poverty level. Further, education promotes the health and wellbeing of people. Countries need to have a high quality of the education system to achieve the above benefits. When the Sri Lankan education system is considered, it faces many challenges. Pertinent issues in the field are Lack of training and development for teachers, low quality of the education, lack of responsiveness to the labor market demands, less focus on technical/vocational training, outdated curriculums and low budgetary allocation, (Gnanawansa, 2017). The dismal performance of the education sector is a barrier to uplift the country to higher state and to face the challenges in the 21^st century.

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Employee Engagement and Its relevance to Sri Lanka

What is employee engagement? 

Source: www.daveclare.com

Employee engagement is a form of personal attachment to the workplace and they find personal meaning in what they do, (Kruse, 2012). It is rather a psychological contract between the employee and the organization. When employees are engaged and committed, competitiveness increases, produce higher sales, increase productivity and lower the turnover of employees, (Vance, 2006). Engaged employee perform 20% more compared to their counterparts and they support the business in many ways, (Robertson - Smith and Markwick, 2009).

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Learning organization: Way forward

Introduction 

Source: www. qaspire.com

Human beings intrinsically passionate about learning. An infant learns and explores things naturally. An employee continues learning if the organization has a conducive environment. According to Senge (1990),  “learning organizations are where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together”.  

A continuous change is mandatory to maintain competitiveness. Stimuli to change comes from rivals, change in consumer behavior and the advancement of technology. Organizations that pose and utilize the talent of employees for change and innovation run the forefront. The learning culture of the organization enables the creation of a pool of employees with advanced skills, motivation and high morale. Organizations need to embrace and master the following five disciplines to become a learning organization, namely system thinking, personal mastery, mental model, shared vision and team building, (Garvin, n.d.). 

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Talent management: an insight into the health sector of Sri Lanka

Talent management 

Source: blog.planview.com

Most important resource of an organization is its employees. In order to harness the full benefit from employees a comprehensive talent management programs need to be in place and it needs to fully align with the strategic plan of the business.

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), talent management is the systematic attraction, development and deployment of individuals who are of particular value to the organization, either because they fulfill a critical role or the possess skills that have higher potential for adding value in the future, (CIPD, 2018). Talent management process typically has organizational planning, recruitment, development, retention, assessment, performance management and system for outplacement, (Armstrong, 2006). Employee tenure shall be taken into account when planning talent management. Some employees will change their employer time to time while some individuals will remain in the organization. These employees ideal for grooming for promotion. 

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Employee: An Assets or Liability

(Employees come first for Sir Richard Branson, 2018)

In the past human resource managers considered the headcount of the employees in the payroll and thought them as a liability because of wages and other benefits draining a large portion from the balance sheet.

Does the thinking has changed over time?

Is employees are still considered as an expense?

Organizational competitiveness determined by the resources its own at a given time. Resources can be tangible or intangible assets. Examples of resources are brand names, in house technology, skilled laborers, trade contracts, capital, etc. Further, anything that generates cash flow can be considered as an asset while liability can be defined as something that has a negative effect, (Richardson & Osborne, 2007). 

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Flexible working... the future ?

Nature of work 

Nature of the work has changed through out the history. Most important development over the last few years in relation to HRM are increase use of part time workers, out sourcing, subcontracting, use of higher number of knowledge workers and teleworking, (Armstrong, 2006).

According to the society of Human Resource Management, flexible work arrangement could means teleworking, flexitime and compressed work week, (Society of Human Resource Management, 2015). Advancement of Information and Communication Technology has enable application of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) for wide variety of jobs. White collar (or the office work) works and Information technology works sees a great potential for application of FWAs. Because of the advancement of technology now employees can work whenever they want and where ever they are. Therefore now human resource departments now focuses more on personal time rather than the personal space. 

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Talent acquisition: Implications of technology

Talent acquisition

Technological disruption taking place everywhere. People adopting technology for all most every aspect at an alarming rate. Changes in the recruitment process are witnessed with the advancement of information technology and the widespread use of social media platforms. Digital footprint enables understanding of individuals’ behavior more than ever, (Lambiotte and Kosinski, 2014) and this could influence the hiring of specialized knowledge workers in the digital age. 

The selection of the best fit for the job has been a challenging task always. Reduction of tenure has evident and this is particularly common among younger people. It is found that average employee tenure is 2 year while it is 10 years in older workers (US Department of Labour, 2018). New developments such as flexible work arrangement, teleworking along with changes in employee tenure, etc. bring fresh challenges for human resource management in general and recruitment process in particular. 

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Evolution of HRM: A Synopsis

Evolution of Human resource management 

In simple terms, human resource management (HRM) is the management of organizational manpower. Armstrong has provided more detail and comprehensive definition, “strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives” (Armstrong, 2006). Modern-day HRM is derived from human relations with the organization which came to light during the 1970 and early 1980s in the USA (Henderson, 2011). Globalization and technological advancement have influenced the modern HR functions which are now focus on more of strategic initiatives. This article gives a brief account of the evolution of HRM. 

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Challenges in strategic HRM

Employees are one of the key resources that add values to a company hence human resource management is very important. There are a few developments that will have profound effects on a company’s performance. Technological disruption has a huge impact on jobs (job creation and displacement), labor productivity and widening of skill gap. It is predicted that 65 % of kids who enter kindergarten today will do a job in an entirely new specialty that was not existed (World Economic Forum, 2016). Human resource management has become very challenging because of these megatrends.  Brief description of these megatrends given below, 

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