netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Sunny Delight Beverages Co. is the creator of Sunny Delight, aka SunnyD. It spun off from Procter & Gamble in 2004. The company is owned by J.W. Childs Associates. [
1. Intense Competition
The organization finds itself operating in an environment of growing competitive pressures. The intense competition between firms makes it more difficult to develop and sustain any kind of competitive advantage. New products are quickly reverse-engineered, copied, and produced less expensively. When new services are launched, competing services soon follow. Organizations are pressured to innovate and stay ahead of the competition (Kraiger 2002).
2. Change
The business environment is changing at an incredibly rapid pace, which means that organizations must respond in kind. Because products and services can be copied more quickly than ever before, there is pressure on organizations to stay ahead or to respond rapidly to competition. Employees are being trained and developed in order to adapt continually to new demands (Kraiger 2002).
3. Increased focus on Customer
Consumers are becoming more smart and knowledgeable. Organizations are focusing on consumers – analyzing their behavior, attitudes and decision-making process. Organizations need to prepare better the employees who interact with customers who interact with customers, providing them with better information, better skills, and greater autonomy to address customer requests and concerns (Kraiger 2002).
4. Need to Maintain High Levels of Talent
One of the most compelling challenges with implications for a company’s training strategy is the war for talent. Labor shortages exist in many markets, and particularly in knowledge-intensive industries. Heightened competition intensifies this problem. If products and services can be copied, then competencies – for example, to innovate, to refine processes, to solve problems, to form relationships – become an organization’s only sustainable advantage. Attracting, retaining, and developing people with critical competencies becomes paramount. Organizations need talented people to succeed and must compete in part on their ability to attract, develop, and retain them (Kraiger 2002).
These challenges have an impact on the training and development process of the organization. In order to remain competitive, the firm must train and develop its human resources. As a source of competitive advantage, the firm must invest on its employees. This report focuses on the training and development needs of a Hotel organization. It is the goal of this report to present recommendations and suggestions in developing the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) of the employees. As a service-oriented organization, the primary focus of the training initiative will be the development of customer service KSAs, and abilities of the employees.
In order for the organization to gain competitive advantage, training must encompass a broader focus than just basic skills development. Training should be viewed as a way to create intellectual capital. Intellectual capital includes the KSAs to perform one’s job, advances skills, and an understanding of customers and organizational processes key to the organization’s success. Organizations according to Sims (2002) provide training for many reasons: to orient new hires to the organization or teach them how to perform in their initial job assignment, to improve the current performance of employees who may not be working as effectively as desired, or to prepare employees for future promotions of for upcoming changes in design, processes, or technology in their present jobs. Recent changes in the business environment have made the training function even more important in helping organizations maintain competitiveness and prepare for the future.
A major element that affects labor supply is the government. Today, managers are confronted with an expanding and often bewildering array of government rules as regulation of HR activities has steadily increased. As a result, HR planning must be done by individuals who understand the legal requirements of various government regulations.
Hence, Government trade policies and restrictions can affect HR planning.
3. Economic Conditions
The general business cycle of recessions and booms also affects HR planning. Such factors as interest rates, inflation, and economic growth help determine the availability of workers and figure into organizational plans and objectives. Decisions on wages, overtime, and hiring or laying off workers all hinge on economic
conditions.
4. Geographic and Competitive Concerns
Employers must consider the following geographic and competitive concerns in making HR plans:
l Net migration into the area
l Other employers in the area
l Employee resistance to geographic relocation
l Direct competitors in the area
l Impact of international competition on the area
5. Workforce Composition and Work Patterns
Changes in the composition of the workforce, combined with the use of varied work patterns, have created workplaces and organizations that are very different from those of a decade ago. As noted in Chapter 1, demographic shifts have resulted in greater workforce diversity. Many organizations are addressing concerns about having sufficient workers with the necessary capabilities, and have turned to such sources as welfare-to-work programs. The use of outsourcing and contingent workers also must be considered as part of human resource planning.
ALTERNATIVE WORK SCHEDULES
The traditional work schedule, in which employees work full time, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week at the employer’s place of operations, is in transition.
Organizations have been experimenting with many different possibilities for change: the 4-day, 40-hour week; the 4-day, 32-hour week; the 3-day week; and flexible scheduling.
Many employers have adopted some flexibility in work schedules and locations. Changes of this nature must be considered in HR planning.
These alternative work schedules allow organizations to make better use of workers by matching work demands to work hours.
Workers also are better able to balance their work and family responsibilities. One type of schedule redesign is flextime, in which employees work a setnumber of hours per day but vary starting and ending times.
ALTERNATIVE WORK ARRANGEMENTS
A growing number of employers are allowing workers to use widely different working arrangements. Some employees work partly at home and partly at an office, and share office space with other “office nomads.”
The shift to such arrangements means that work is done anywhere, anytime,
and that people are judged more on results than on “putting in time.” Greater
trust, less direct supervision, and more self-scheduling are all job characteristics of those with virtual offices and other less traditional arrangements.
COMPONENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITIES INVENTORY
This inventory of organizational capabilities often consists of:
l Individual employee demographics (age, length of service in the organization, time in present job)
l Individual career progression (jobs held, time in each job, promotions or other job changes, pay rates)
l Individual performance data (work accomplishment, growth in skills)
These three types of information can be expanded to include:
l Education and training
l Mobility and geographic preference
l Specific aptitudes, abilities, and interests
l Areas of interest and internal promotion ladders
l Promotability ratings
l Anticipated retirement
All the information that goes into an employee’s skills inventory affects the
employee’s career. Therefore, the data and their use must meet the same standards of job-relatedness and nondiscrimination as those used when the
employee was initially hired. Furthermore, security of such information is important to ensure that sensitive information is available only to those who have specific use for it.
USING ORGANIZATIONAL INVENTORY DATA
Data on individual employees can be aggregated into a profile of the current organizational workforce. This profile reveals many of the current strengths and deficiencies. The absence of some specialized expertise, such as advanced computer skills, may affect the ability of an organization to take advantage of new technological developments. Likewise, if a large group of experienced employees are all in the same age bracket, their eventual retirement will lead to high turnover and a major void in the organization.
.
Establishing an HRIS
The explosion of information technology has changed the nature of HR information
usage. Just a few years ago, most HR information had to be compiled
and maintained on mainframe computers. Today, many different types of
information technology are being integrated and used so that HR professionals
can access HR-related data and communicate it to other managers and executives.
CHOOSING AN HRIS
It is crucial when establishing an HRIS that the system be able to support the HR strategies of the organization.
1. Intense Competition
The organization finds itself operating in an environment of growing competitive pressures. The intense competition between firms makes it more difficult to develop and sustain any kind of competitive advantage. New products are quickly reverse-engineered, copied, and produced less expensively. When new services are launched, competing services soon follow. Organizations are pressured to innovate and stay ahead of the competition (Kraiger 2002).
2. Change
The business environment is changing at an incredibly rapid pace, which means that organizations must respond in kind. Because products and services can be copied more quickly than ever before, there is pressure on organizations to stay ahead or to respond rapidly to competition. Employees are being trained and developed in order to adapt continually to new demands (Kraiger 2002).
3. Increased focus on Customer
Consumers are becoming more smart and knowledgeable. Organizations are focusing on consumers – analyzing their behavior, attitudes and decision-making process. Organizations need to prepare better the employees who interact with customers who interact with customers, providing them with better information, better skills, and greater autonomy to address customer requests and concerns (Kraiger 2002).
4. Need to Maintain High Levels of Talent
One of the most compelling challenges with implications for a company’s training strategy is the war for talent. Labor shortages exist in many markets, and particularly in knowledge-intensive industries. Heightened competition intensifies this problem. If products and services can be copied, then competencies – for example, to innovate, to refine processes, to solve problems, to form relationships – become an organization’s only sustainable advantage. Attracting, retaining, and developing people with critical competencies becomes paramount. Organizations need talented people to succeed and must compete in part on their ability to attract, develop, and retain them (Kraiger 2002).
These challenges have an impact on the training and development process of the organization. In order to remain competitive, the firm must train and develop its human resources. As a source of competitive advantage, the firm must invest on its employees. This report focuses on the training and development needs of a Hotel organization. It is the goal of this report to present recommendations and suggestions in developing the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) of the employees. As a service-oriented organization, the primary focus of the training initiative will be the development of customer service KSAs, and abilities of the employees.
In order for the organization to gain competitive advantage, training must encompass a broader focus than just basic skills development. Training should be viewed as a way to create intellectual capital. Intellectual capital includes the KSAs to perform one’s job, advances skills, and an understanding of customers and organizational processes key to the organization’s success. Organizations according to Sims (2002) provide training for many reasons: to orient new hires to the organization or teach them how to perform in their initial job assignment, to improve the current performance of employees who may not be working as effectively as desired, or to prepare employees for future promotions of for upcoming changes in design, processes, or technology in their present jobs. Recent changes in the business environment have made the training function even more important in helping organizations maintain competitiveness and prepare for the future.
A major element that affects labor supply is the government. Today, managers are confronted with an expanding and often bewildering array of government rules as regulation of HR activities has steadily increased. As a result, HR planning must be done by individuals who understand the legal requirements of various government regulations.
Hence, Government trade policies and restrictions can affect HR planning.
3. Economic Conditions
The general business cycle of recessions and booms also affects HR planning. Such factors as interest rates, inflation, and economic growth help determine the availability of workers and figure into organizational plans and objectives. Decisions on wages, overtime, and hiring or laying off workers all hinge on economic
conditions.
4. Geographic and Competitive Concerns
Employers must consider the following geographic and competitive concerns in making HR plans:
l Net migration into the area
l Other employers in the area
l Employee resistance to geographic relocation
l Direct competitors in the area
l Impact of international competition on the area
5. Workforce Composition and Work Patterns
Changes in the composition of the workforce, combined with the use of varied work patterns, have created workplaces and organizations that are very different from those of a decade ago. As noted in Chapter 1, demographic shifts have resulted in greater workforce diversity. Many organizations are addressing concerns about having sufficient workers with the necessary capabilities, and have turned to such sources as welfare-to-work programs. The use of outsourcing and contingent workers also must be considered as part of human resource planning.
ALTERNATIVE WORK SCHEDULES
The traditional work schedule, in which employees work full time, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week at the employer’s place of operations, is in transition.
Organizations have been experimenting with many different possibilities for change: the 4-day, 40-hour week; the 4-day, 32-hour week; the 3-day week; and flexible scheduling.
Many employers have adopted some flexibility in work schedules and locations. Changes of this nature must be considered in HR planning.
These alternative work schedules allow organizations to make better use of workers by matching work demands to work hours.
Workers also are better able to balance their work and family responsibilities. One type of schedule redesign is flextime, in which employees work a setnumber of hours per day but vary starting and ending times.
ALTERNATIVE WORK ARRANGEMENTS
A growing number of employers are allowing workers to use widely different working arrangements. Some employees work partly at home and partly at an office, and share office space with other “office nomads.”
The shift to such arrangements means that work is done anywhere, anytime,
and that people are judged more on results than on “putting in time.” Greater
trust, less direct supervision, and more self-scheduling are all job characteristics of those with virtual offices and other less traditional arrangements.
COMPONENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITIES INVENTORY
This inventory of organizational capabilities often consists of:
l Individual employee demographics (age, length of service in the organization, time in present job)
l Individual career progression (jobs held, time in each job, promotions or other job changes, pay rates)
l Individual performance data (work accomplishment, growth in skills)
These three types of information can be expanded to include:
l Education and training
l Mobility and geographic preference
l Specific aptitudes, abilities, and interests
l Areas of interest and internal promotion ladders
l Promotability ratings
l Anticipated retirement
All the information that goes into an employee’s skills inventory affects the
employee’s career. Therefore, the data and their use must meet the same standards of job-relatedness and nondiscrimination as those used when the
employee was initially hired. Furthermore, security of such information is important to ensure that sensitive information is available only to those who have specific use for it.
USING ORGANIZATIONAL INVENTORY DATA
Data on individual employees can be aggregated into a profile of the current organizational workforce. This profile reveals many of the current strengths and deficiencies. The absence of some specialized expertise, such as advanced computer skills, may affect the ability of an organization to take advantage of new technological developments. Likewise, if a large group of experienced employees are all in the same age bracket, their eventual retirement will lead to high turnover and a major void in the organization.
.
Establishing an HRIS
The explosion of information technology has changed the nature of HR information
usage. Just a few years ago, most HR information had to be compiled
and maintained on mainframe computers. Today, many different types of
information technology are being integrated and used so that HR professionals
can access HR-related data and communicate it to other managers and executives.
CHOOSING AN HRIS
It is crucial when establishing an HRIS that the system be able to support the HR strategies of the organization.
Last edited: