Human Resources Planning Exemple Business Essay

Human Resources Planning Exemple Business Essay Since individuals are requested to work together within organisations and corporations, the needs for organisations to create a human resources management department to manage their human capital became ineluctably necessary. From the past until nowadays, human resources management use its classical administrative function which is human resources planning to achieve its goal. Various authors and schools have different definitions of human resource planning. Vetter (1967) defined human resource planning as a process by which management determines how the organization should move from its current manpower position to its desired position. Through planning, managers strive to have the right number and the right kind of people, at the right places, at the right time, doing things which results in both the organization and the individual receiving maximum long-run benefits. (p.15). More recently, Shaun Tyson (2006) agreed that in practice, HR planning is concerned with the demand and supply of labour and problems arising from the process of reconciling these factors. Any system has to be based on analyses of demand and supply and the plans and decisions which follow these analyses (p.110). In fact, employees are companies essential asset, so the changes in the global economy, the changes in social, political, technological as well as environmental factors requ ired human resource planning to be dealt carefully in organisations or companies if they want to ensure their business competitive advantage as well as if they want to achieve their organisations goals. Human resource management thus plays an important role within each business to achieve its goals, straightforward, its clear that it is necessary for small or large companies to have a strong and clear understanding of what is human resource planning and how does it contribute in achieving an organisations goals? About IBM International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) also known as big blue is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation based in New York, USA. The company founded in 1911 manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, infrastructure services, hosting services and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM offers a broad range of middleware for collaboration, predictive analytics, software development and the worlds most advanced servers and supercomputers. Utilizing its business consulting, technology and RD expertise, IB helps clients around the world become smarter as the planet becomes more digitally interconnected. That includes working with organizations and governments to build systems that improve traffic congestion, food safety, the availability of clean water, and health and safety populations. IBM has pioneered the corporate operating model for 21st century changing from a classic multinational to a global i ntegrated company with a highly skilled global workforce managed by a common set of values. (LinkedIn 2011) IBM is the world largest information technology employer with more than 400000 employees including engineers and consultants serving about 170 countries in the world. Since 2003, IBM corporation main values are: dedication to every clients success, innovation that matters, for our company and for the world, trust and personal responsibility in all relationships In our work, we will underline how IBM Corporation define human resource planning and how does it helps the company to meet its strategic goals. RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PLANNING As recruitment and selection planning of employees are highly correlated with each organisations human resource planning, it is relevant to know that human resource managers are those who organise and are responsible for the work of employees and thus set up the relationships between employees within their organisations key of their performance. Managers use human resource planning to fulfil their obligations within their organisation. In the next paragraph, we will underline the importance of human resource planning before getting in the recruitment and selection step, to better understand how IBM Corporation proceeds for its recruitment strategies. Human resource planning, essential function of human resource management is not always implemented by many organisations, because critics believe that is mostly a matter of common sense than a complex equation to deal with by organisations planners. It shows that, the main purpose of human resource planning is not totally understood. Its known that companies are using their material, financial and human resources to generate revenues or profits. We also know that investing in a business is always attached with a risk; therefore planning the use of resources is how managers target to reduce this risk, achieve their goals and make profit for the company survival. But all the companies will always plan for their financial and material resources either long or short term plans because of the uncertainty environment of each business. Why planning for the most essential resource (human resource) still a matter of discussion? IBM Corporation leader in innovation invest huge amount of money more than $6 billion a year in its RD unit to improve companys performance. The companys RD department is associated with some universities in USA and Europe. Therefore, IBM using the results of many studies and research improve its core management and corporates goals. Today with changing nature of public sector workforce, IBM emphasise its workforce planning to meet the companys human capital requirement. Workforce planning tells an organization what types of skills are needed to get the job done. In doing so, workforce planning should drive all human capital strategies. Workforce planning is about aligning an organizations human capital-its people-with its business plan to achieve its mission. It helps ensure that the organization has the right people with the right skills in the right job at the right time. Workforce planning tells an organization what types of skills are needed to get the job done. In doing so, wor kforce planning should drive all human capital strategies. Workforce planning is about aligning an organizations human capital-its people-with its business plan to achieve its mission. It helps ensure that the organization has the right people with the right skills in the right job at the right time. (Ann Cotten, 2007. P4) Therefore, IBM uses the seven-step workforce planning model as a framework. The seven-step workforce planning has been set-up mainly by public sector organisations particularly in USA. The Seven-Step workforce planning is to: 1- Define the organisations strategic direction 2- Scan the internal and external environments 3- Model the current workforce 4- Assess future workforce needs and project future workforce supply 5- Identify gaps and develop gap-closing strategies 6- Implement gap-closing strategies 7- Evaluate the effectiveness of gap-closing strategies and revise strategies as needed In fact human resource planning should be a process and also and outcome, because of the unpredictable changes in both external and internal environment. It is not have to be a fixed system, it has to remain dynamic. Each company should adapt the component of human resource planning model according to its one circumstance, there is not a model of human resource planning enable to fit all companies at the same times. From these definitions one might get the impression that workforce planning is a rigid system that must be implemented agency-wide in order to do it right and reap the benefits. While many organizations follow a systematic approach, there is no one size- fits-all workforce planning program. (Ann. Cotton, 2007, p13). A good human resource planning allows managers to measure recruitment and selection, employees retention, training and development and manage employees performance. Recruitment and selection planning Recruitment can be defined as a process of identifying and hiring the best qualified individual ( from within or outside of an organisation) for a given vacancy, in a most timely and cost effective manner. Experts believe that recruitment is a very sensitive and important part of human resource management function within an organisation because its business survival relies on its employees. Organizations recruit their triumphs and disasters, their creativity, sustainability, and growth. (Shaun Tyson, 2006) Recruitment main stages can be shaped as: Identify and define the requirements for organisation Main tools used here are Job descriptions and job specifications. Two important models are mostly used by companies or organisations. The seven point plan and the fivefold grading system. The seven-point plan (Rodger, 1973) Physical health Attainments: skills knowledge Intelligence: specifics abilities Special aptitudes Interests: personal interests Disposition: self-reliance, drive, initiative Circumstances: personal circumstances as commitment, mobility. The seven-point plan model underlines both emotional intelligence as well as Intellectual quotient (IQ). The Fivefold grading system (Munro Fraser, 1966) Can be described by: Impact on others: appearance Qualification: work experience Innate abilities: aptitude to learn Motivation Adjustment: relationships with others The Fivefold grading system underlines Intellectual quotient (IQ) Attract potential employees Select and employ the appropriate people from the job applicants These are the main stages involved in the recruitment and selection procedures which is a continuous process, as internal or external factors can affect the business at any time, managers should be able to take and appropriate decision to tackle issues or opportunities occurring like: staff resignation or retirement, changes in business itself (market penetration or new market entrance), changes in business location or promotion. Therefore, recruitment is a dynamic process. Main factors describing recruitment and selection procedures can be summarise as follow: Characteristic of the job, Characteristics of applicants Characteristics of recruiters Recruiting policies. Let us focus in recruiting policies that creates an environment in which each business will operate. Organisations policies lead the business direction and main vision. All corporations should comply with laws regulations and procedures. Legal rules and requirements can be different from one country to another, but the market globalisation tends to promotes similar rules for each corporation all over the world. The laws relating to discrimination in employment are generally accepted worldwide. Shaun Tyson, 2006 clarify the importance of laws in recruitment policies: The legal framework covers racial, gender, religious, age and disability discrimination, as well as rules regarding ex-offenders, and references among other areas. This affects choices of recruitment methods, advertisements and the processes used. IBM recruitment policies are well known, since its creation, the company underlines is willing to promote respect for individual. The managers give more importance to their peop le than to companys products. Tom Watson IBMs founder said in 1957 there are many things I would like IBM to be known for, but no matter how big we become, I want this company to be known as the company which has the greatest respect for the individual. The value place on IBM employees was codified in one of their three fundamental principles (mentioned in our introduction). In 1926, IBMs founder, Thomas J. Watson, told employees that: They say a man is known for the company he keeps. We say in our business that a company is known by he men it keeps. IBM corporate implemented also implemented programs policies and practices to respect its employees. For example its open door policy, the Speak! up program, comprehensive employees opinions surveys and so one. By doing that, IBM acquires and retains quality people need for its businesss success. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT POLICIES In todays increasing competition in the market, companies are looking to increase their benefits, their productivity and also to boost their employees performance. Training and development programs are tools use by most of the companies to reach their target and enhance their corporates culture. Although some companies dont give such importance to training and development matter because for them it is better to invest to acquire material asset than to improve their workforce skill. IBM always focus on its employees improvement even its recruitment policy focus on qualified workforce, they still need to implement its training programs. IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, said there is no saturation point in education. The benefits of training programs can be resuming as: Increased productivity and performance improvement Reduced server loads and bandwidth costs Stricter adherence to corporate policies Improved customer satisfaction Increased employee morale and retention Increased revenue The reason why most of companies dont apply training and development program is that they assume that the cost of this function doesnt worth enough to be taken on board within their organisation. In the opposite way, Gartner, 2007 said Untrained or poorly trained users will cost significantly more to support than well-trained workers. Untrained traveling workers who spend a significant portion of their time away from the office, and who often have networking questions from multiple remote locations, are generally more expensive to support, regardless of the types of devices theyre using. But in fact, the last changes operate among workforce shows that training can affects employees retention in a company. American Society for Training Development demonstrates in 2003 that 41% of employees at companies with inadequate training programs plan to leave within a year versus 12% of employees at companies who provide excellent training and professional development programs. The main value of training and development planning can also be defines as follow: Revenues generation. The more a company invest in its training programs, the higher its revenues are. Productivity and performance improvement. Skills and knowledge are ineluctably the essential keys factors in business survival. Cost reduction. Companies can save huge amount of money in labour cost just by improving their employees skills. Collateral saving. Companies that employ training programs would have a benefits form their product, but they may also see a unintended savings. It is now sure that training and development programs and companies success is highly correlated. By providing more tools to its employees and using also training and development as a factor of decision-making can lead a company to achieve easily its corporates goals, retains its employees and maintains its competitive advantage among its competitors. STAFF MOTIVATION AND APPRAISAL PLAN The possibility for a business to growth depends on the quality human resources within the organisation. How a company can rewards its employees after their performance. First of all, we know that to reward employees most of the organisation use money as a value for their rewarding system. To set up a reward system, managers always evaluate their employees. Job as reward system should be clear and fair for each employee. Talking about job evaluation, Shaun Tyson, 2006 said Job evaluation is a term used in a general way for a number of techniques that are in different forms. These techniques entail analysing and assessing the content of jobs so that they may be classified in an order relating to one another and to the marketplace. To have a fairly base, job evaluation need to have common features as far as possible to avoid inequalities among rewarding systems, it is necessary to set up at least general framework that fits in these different evaluation techniques. Common features of evaluation techniques are the following: Job evaluation is concerned with differences in the work itself, not in differences that are found between people. Reference is made to the content of the job, i.e. what the work consists of, what is being done, what skills are deployed and the actions that are performed. This is normally discovered by job analysis. There are predetermined criteria, or factors, against which each job is measured. These may be descriptions of the whole job, or of its component parts. The practice of involving those who are to be subject to the job evaluation at an early stage helps to ensure both accuracy in job analysis and a commitment to the job evaluation scheme. The outcome of a job evaluation should be wage and salary scales covering the range of evaluated jobs. All systems need regular review and updating, and have to be flexible enough to be of use for different kinds of work, so that new jobs can be accommodated. In fact many purposes are use to estimate employees salaries. It also correlated with government regulation laws and rules. We are not going to dig deeper in that area. One of the most important that companies need to take on board is looking their employees as individuals. The social aspect of each individual is dominated by its own expectations and needs. Ignoring this aspect of human, could leads sometimes in a failure of rewarding employees within a company. Wage and promotion are not the only ways to reward employees, many organisations as IBM introduce in their corporate goals a strong culture of rewarding that make employees feel safe and secure and then improve their performance, their commitment and a strong willing to stay in the company as employees. IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson, Jr. 1970 said Money and title alone are not enough to satisfy the kinds of people that make IBM great. What counts most of all is knowledge that individual contributions are recognized and valued. We all want to receive that sort of recognition and we must all be quick to give it, too. I believe youll find, in most cases that you give thoughtful care to your people, they can take care of the problems. That is the perfect illustration of what sort of organisation is IBM. They put individuals first and then the success comes easily after making IBM the most successful IT Company in which every scientist or employee would like to work and perform well since the last decade. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS In our work, weve tried to demonstrate the importance of recruitment and selection, training and development policies, motivation and appraisal of labour in the achievement of corporates goals. Human resource capital is obviously the main important asset of each organisation. Although experts believe that managing human resource is mostly a matter of common sense, the changing environment, the actual need of economic market trend, the increasing competition among businesses might lead each organisation to think efficiently to find how to use this asset to achieve its corporates goals and make profit from its business. Managing wisely its human capital is the key success of many corporations as IBM. In 1969, IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson, Jr. wrote to his management team: Our basic belief is respect for the individual, for his rights and dignity. It follows from this principle that IBM should: help each employee to develop his potential and make the best use of his abilities; pay and promote on merit; and maintain two-way communications between manager and employee, with an opportunity for a fair hearing and equitable settlement of disagreements. Human resource planning is therefore a powerful tool for each organisation to create a useful link between its labour and its corporates goals, without this link, a company can easily runs out of its business. The main recommendation to all the companies willing to improve their performance is to use IBM corporate as a model if the want to survive in the present market that is highly competitive.

John Locke Provisos

John Locke was an English philosopher who had the idea that all people have natural rights. Their natural rights included that of life, liberty and property and the idea of these rights being held by each individual is often said to be the primary influence of the American Declaration of Independence. Locke further explains his rationale behind natural rights in Two Treatises of Government and particularly property right in his â€Å"Provisos,† stating the conditions the make property public or private. Locke’s â€Å"Provisos† discusses the idea that property becomes private when a person labors upon the property. His reasoning that the land becomes the person’s private property is that a person has the right to the fruits of his labor, and he also has the right to the resource that bore his fruits, in this case the property. As Locke says, â€Å"He by his labor does, as it were, enclose it from the common† (page 437). By this he means that by laboring over the land, the land is taken away from the rest of society, the common, and becomes the private property of the individual. Locke also believes that â€Å"as much as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property† (page 437). In this, he is stating that a man can own as much as can be useful to him; claiming property in excess and not being able to make it productive is wrong because the property will then go to waste instead of bearing fruit. This is wrong because â€Å"nothing was made by God for man to spoil or destroy† (page 436) and having land lying to waste is along the same lines as ruining the land. This idea from Locke’s â€Å"Provisos† follows from his idea of general property rights. He believes that land that has not been influenced by an individual’s labor is land available for all of society. Man should still respect the land and not exploit it, but â€Å"were it not for the corruption and viciousness of degenerate man, there would be no need of any other, no necessity that men should separate from this great and natural community† (page 441). However because mankind cannot be trusted, Locke believes that once a man does put forth effort to improve a piece of property, that land and the products of it belong to him. Although that land might belong to one man, it is still benefiting the rest of society because â€Å"the provisions serving to the support of human life produced by one acre of enclosed and cultivated land are ten times more than those which are yielded by an acre of land of an equal richness lying waste in common† (page 437). This is similar to the way in which both a farmer and society benefits from his harvest. The farmer and society both can receive nourishment from his harvest and what harvest goes to the rest of society, he is repaid for, which allows him to continue sowing seeds that will continue to nurture the common. A situation of private property that would conflict with one of the Lockean provisos is property that is acclaimed through forcing Native Americans to agree with the American customs that were being imposed and the American rule, or to leave, such as with the Indian Removal Act that was signed into law in 1830. The Native Americans had worked the land and made it suitable to support their lifestyle and in the quest to achieve Manifest Destiny, nothing would hinder the determined minds of the Americans. According to Locke, the land rightfully belonged to the Native Americans because they had labored on the land to make it prosperous. They did not exploit it; they used the resources wisely and nothing went to waste with their minimalist lifestyle. With the Indian Removal Act that President Andrew Jackson signed into effect, all Native Americans had to be relocated to areas west of the Mississippi River. The Native Americans were removed on the basis that American colonizers needed the land and wanted to achieve Manifest Destiny. Another situation involving private property that would violate one of the Lockean provisos would be that of the government seizing land due to unpaid taxes. In this situation, a farmer could have yielded a large harvest, but the demand for his crop declined greatly to the point that he is unable to make a large enough profit to pay his taxes. This could fall into a pattern for many years to come, eventually reaching the point that the government can no longer just keep putting the farmer into more debt. The farmer would have to claim bankruptcy and the government would seize his land. This would violate Locke’s idea that the land a man works, is his. The farmer was doing the best he could, was benefiting society, and never consented to losing his right to his land, but the government took it away anyway. I believe that Locke correctly draws the line on private property because we have the right over our own bodies, and if the work of those bodies can combine with resources to create something, then we have the right to claim that product and the resources we used to make it. No one else put forth the effort and therefore the fruit of our efforts are ours. I believe that hard work deserves reward and that reward is the right to the product. As Locke says, â€Å"The labor of his body and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his† (page 436).

Is cooperation better than competition?

Our society forging ahead, the significance of both cooperation and competition, methodologies by which humanity cope with awkward social encounters, tends to be acceleratingly pivotal to all walks of life. However, whether the effectiveness of cooperation override that of competition has sparked off spirited debate. I personally advocate the belief that, at the status quo, more weight should be attached to the sense of collaboration, the effervescence instilled into a wide spectrum of communities and the spirit profoundly immersed in success. â€Å"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.† By which I mean, by no means can the sum of all individual efforts, regardless of how marvelous they might be, prevail over the integrity in terms of stability and rigidity, effectiveness and efficiency. The unity of spider’s net can tie up a lion, albeit fragile a single thread seems to be; a bundle of matches can hardly be broken, albeit brittle a single stick seems to be; cascades of water coalescing together can forge a sea, albeit futile a single drop seems to be. â€Å"Great discoveries invariably involve the cooperation of many minds.† Could you appoint a single scientist to invent a brand-new, cutting-edge devise without others’ assistance? Certainly not! Apparently, there is not a scintilla of possibility that merely one scientist, regardless of how world-renown he is and how ineffable works he has accomplished, can flawlessly combat all hindrances attached to such explorations. Moreover, cooperation is the catalyst for strengthening social rapports. There is no denying that accompanying the process in which we pay concerted efforts for the sake of obtaining the ultimate goal, mutual fidelity and faith play an paramount role, both of which, therefore, will have been bolstered eventually. Furthermore, the arduous but rewarding process during which people have collaborated will consistently echo in everyone’s mind. The partnership, therefore, will certainly be strengthened once those unforgettable experiences are recalled. Admittedly, there exist some benefits brought about by competition that cannot be neglected, whereas its more apparent adverse effects tend to be rendered the friction for social burgeoning. Here comes a compelling example: A couple of waves out of phase tend to be cancelled out, whereas a couple in phase can reinforce each other. What is more, competition may also abstract leaders from focusing on the genuine target, thus distort the value of ultimate outputs. To illustrate, two political parties of a country may give their best shot on how to defeat each other, other than devoting themselves to serving the society. Consequently, who will suffer are the innocent citizens who were promised the idyllic living ambience that are jeopardized by the â€Å"political war†. Competition being the developing stumbling block to some extents, the superiority of cooperation will suffice to be reinforced. Having critically and objectively analyzed all the arguments relating to this dilemma, although some minuscule benefits of competition can not be masked, I will consistently held in high regard the belief that the sense cooperation must be dominant over the sense of competition.

pKb Definition in Chemistry

pKb is the negative base-10 logarithm of the base dissociation constant (Kb) of a solution. It is used to determine the strength of a base or alkaline solution. pKb -log10KbThe lower the pKb value, the stronger the base. As with the acid dissociation constant, pKa, the base dissociation constant calculation is an approximation that is only accurate in dilute solutions. Kb can be found using the following formula: Kb [B][OH-] / [BOH] which is obtained from the chemical equation: BH   OH−  Ã¢â€¡Å' B H2O Finding pKb from pKa or Ka The base dissociation constant is related to the acid dissociation constant, so if you know one, you can find the other value. For an aqueous solution, the hydroxide ion concentration [OH- follows the relation of the hydrogen ion concentration [H] Kw [H][OH- Putting this relation into the Kb equation gives: Kb [HBKw / ([B][H]) Kw / Ka At the same ionic strength and temperatures: pKb pKw - pKa. For aqueous solutions at 25 ° C, pKw 13.9965 (or about 14), so: pKb 14 - pKa Sample pKb Calculation Find the value of the base dissociation constant Kb and pKb for a 0.50 dm-3 aqueous solution of a weak base that has a pH of 9.5. First calculate the hydrogen and hydroxide ion concentrations in the solution to get values to plug into the formula. [H] 10-pH 10-9.5   3.16 x 10–10  mol dm–3 Kw   [H(aq)] [OH–(aq)] 1 x 10–14  mol2  dm–6 [OH–(aq)]   Kw/[H(aq)] 1 x 10–14  / 3.16 x 10–10   3.16 x 10–5  mol dm–3 Now, you have the necessary information to solve for the base dissociation constant: Kb   [OH–(aq)]2/[B(aq)] (3.16 x 10–5)2  / 0.50   2.00 x 10–9  mol dm–3 pKb   –log(2.00 x 10–9)   8.70