Labor Market Policy A Comparative View- Contribute To The Development

Question: Understand key contemporary labour market trends and their significance for different kinds of organisation in different country contexts? Know how to contribute to the development of resourcing strategies? Understand how to maximise employee retention? Answer: Introduction: This assignment deals with the aspect of resourcing and planning of talent within business organization. This assignment deals with the given case study of two big companies within online gambling market. Two fictions company XXX and ZZZ compete with each other within this industry. Trends of the labor market and recommendation for retaining the employees have been discussed in this assignment. Evaluating major trends in contemporary labor markets of different countries: The performance of labor market within UK has been increased from the fallen scenario of the labor market. Labor market of United Kingdom has experienced a severe fall in the rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the year of 2008 and 2009. The labor market of United Kingdom is more flexible than other economies of Europe. Other European countries have more rigid labor market. However, it is less flexible than the labor market of United States. On the other hand, David and Dorn (2013) argued that, in recent times, United Kingdom has shown a huge growth in real level of GDP. In the period of recession, the economy of United Kingdom has shown that, average growth of UK has been remained slightly lower than the total of OECD, in contrast with the faster growth of United Kingdom for the period of 2007. As discussed by Crpon et al. (2012), online gambling industry has potential market in the countries like China. India, United Kingdom, America, South Korea. However, there are provisions in order to provide opportunity of online gambling for the industry. There are different trends in the market industry of online gambling also. Important trends are included in the aspect of industry consolidation, business-to-business expansion and entry of different land based casino operators and emerging platforms. Online gambling industry is one of the richest companies within different industries. The growth of online gambling industry is the important sources of business within this industry (Brooks, 2014). However, Leuven and Oosterbeek (2011) discussed that, the economy of UK has returned to a sustained trend of recovery. The economic structure of United Kingdom has rapidly increased. Therefore, the rate of unemployment has also been increased in accordance with the increased nature of economy. However, the labor market of United Kingdom has faced some issues regarding the level of productivity among the employees within different industry of the competitive sector of the market. The rate of skilled labor is very low within the competitive sector of the market. In case of online gambling, every labor market has faced immense rate of competition between the rival companies within the competitive sector of the market (Sparrow, Scullion and Tarique, 2014). Explaining the significance of loosening or tightening the condition of labor market: As discussed by Kahn (2012), tight labor markets have resulted in the particular period of time when there are shortage in knowledge and skills within the aspect of labor market. On the other hand, loose labor markets are the result of knowledge and surplus of skills those are very useful for undertaking different available roles. The roles as well as responsibilities of loose labor market are included within the initiatives of recruitment, retention of employees and effective design of organization. Therefore, Armstrong and Taylor (2014) argued that, losing and tightening both have strong impact over the condition of labor market. Loosing labor market requires effective process of recruitment, retention among the employees within the competitive sector of the market. Tight labor market has implied fierce competition for the skilled and talented labors within the market sector. On the other part, loose market indicates that the potential employees have the plenty of supplies within the competitive sector of the market. However, Nikolaou (2014) stated that, there are many conflicts among the scholar as well as practitioners in order to implement tight or loose labor market. Loosening or tightening the condition of labor market is very cyclical in nature. It can also be stated that, tight labor markets can become as norm. In the tight labor market, such trends can be done with the help of some challenges of ageing population of workforce or changed nature of work. On the other hand, Handley (2012) stated that, in order to compete within a tight labor market, the market requires reduced people with required capabilities for completing the whole project. The group of employees should remain aware about the effect of power balance (Knight, 2013). In the situation of tight labor market, employees do not have any opportunities for demanding such necessary things. They cannot be able to demand for good working condition, flexibility, pay and development opportunities within the competitive sector of the market. However, in this perspective, the process of work life balance is very required. It is very much required for maintaining the level of employment and labor market within the competitive sector of the market (Kahn, 2012). Describing the role of government and employer for meeting the needs of future: Policy of government and trade union has been changed over the time. With the effect of globalization, liberalization and privatization the scenario has been changed within different competitive sectors of market. In the scenario of United Kingdom, the needs of the employees and employer have also been changed within the competitive sector of the market. The level of competition has been increased due to the changed scenario of the market place. Therefore, every employer of the organization has focused upon the process of meeting the demands and need of the employees within the organization. Therefore, the government and trade union should change the policies and procedures in order to meet the future trends of the market place. However, Ransbotham et al. (2015) argued that, trade union has played a significant role in order to shape the working condition of the employees within different organizations of market place. However, in the very near future, different internal strategies can be adopted by different organizations. Government and trade union should play significant roles as well as responsibilities towards the employer organization or the employees within the competitive sector of the market. Flexible labor market: Government can reduce the impact of laws and regulation towards the situation of labor market. Flexible labor market refers to the market where intervention and regulation of government is low than other competitive market of labor. A flexible labor market has several advantages for the employers and employees also (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Therefore, the flexible labor market has effective features as well as advantages for the sector of labor market. In a flexible labor market, employer organization can hire as well as fire employees with very easy steps. A firm can be very competitive and efficient as well as effective towards the workers of the organization. With the effect of globalization, every firm needs to be very competitive within the competitive sector of the market. The productivity of labor should be increased within the competitive sector of the market (King, 2014). Most of the employees prefer flexible work environment because it can be suited with the life style and working condition of the employees (Crowley-Henry, 2013). On the other hand, trade union can provide adequate success towards the employees with the changing nature of the employment relation. Foreign direct investment, property and share should be attractive for the employer and employees within the competitive sector of the market place. Trade union can develop different measures for the development of the employees as well as workers (Cooper, 2013, June). Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of competitors of labor market: UK labor market has seen different difficulties within the competitive sector of the industry. The online gambling industry is very competitive. The industry of online gambling has faced immense competition and rivalry within the competitive sector of the market. However, technological changes have happened within the market sector (Handley, 2014). UK labor market has seen a severe down turn in the period of recession. In the year of 2008 and 2009, the level o economic condition was low in relation with the other competitive sector o labor market. The rate of unemployment was very low within this period of United Kingdom. However, United Kingdom has played an effective role in order to increase the productivity among the labor market. Different policies and regulations of labor market have played efficient role in order to reduce the gap within the productivity among different employer organization (Cooke et al. 2014). The strengths are included within different well-managed firms. United Kingdom has huge capital market (Raidn and Sempik, 2013). The firms here operate within very limited competition (Pilbeam and Atherton, 2012). On the other hand, weakness is included within the wide perception of the competitiveness within the competitive sector of the market. There are substantial issues of low skilled workforce. Process of poor management is also included in the weakness of labor market (Cooper, 2013). Explain how organisations position themselves strategically in competitive labour markets. Organization like XXX and ZZZ are operating their business in online gambling industry. This kind of business is not legal in every country. So they have to be very careful about their business process. There are countries where online gambling is legal and that are the reason both the companies have established their business in Gibraltar. Gibraltar is a place where cost of living is very high. Both the companies operate dozens of website which require skilled employees to operate. Both the company is facing problem in the employee management so they have employed human resource director for the first time (Ransbotham, Kiron and Prentice, 2015). 200 employees are working in each company. The recruitment criteria of the company are the fluency in two languages compulsory in English. Both companies were facing the same problem of staff turnover since the requirement of the employees was high skill since they have to talk with customer to solve their problems. The main problem of this industry was that it requires skilled employees but the job was not so exciting and more over the cost of living in Gibraltar was very high. So both the companies have to make a good human resource strategy to retain their staff. The strategies are as follows (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014) Demand forecasting Demand forecasting is the process by which the human resource department will evaluate the current employee position and what will be their future requirement of employee. By this process the company will be able to understand their future recruitment. Demand forecasting can be done on the rate of employee turnover of the concerned organization (Gray et al. 2012). If the employee turnover is less, then the demand of employees will be less in the future which will also benefit the companys total profitability. If the turnover is high then the demand of future employee will also be high because organization will plan accordingly (Nikolaou, 2014). Supply forecasting Supply forecasting is also a very important task for the human resource department (Leuven and Oosterbeek, 2011). Supply forecast is generally being done on the availability of proper employee in that particular area where they are operating their business. The local demography is the primary source of supply forecasting because organization will always prefer those employees who are local. This kind of strategy will help to retain the employees for a long time. If the local area is not supporting the employee requirement of the organization then they have to think of other sources from where they will be getting their employees (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Forecasting requirement Forecasting requirement deals with the type of the employee organization required. This is the most important because without proper skilled employee it is very difficult to operate business. Only available of the people will not be able to solve the problem, employees has to be skilled enough to met the requirement of the company.Many time companies find that the local people are not so skilled then they have to hire people from different places to meet their requirement (Handley, 2014). Action Planning In this stage company plans their recruitment by evaluating all the forecasting methods. In this stage company knows what their requirements are and what the supply of employees for the industry is? If local area is not supporting the demand of employee then they recruit their employees from other areas (Taylor, 2014). The compensation has to be good to retain their employees because the cost of living in Gibraltar is also high for the outsiders. Action plan also ensures planning for employee retention. Training is one of them. Training for the employees provides two benefits, first is to increase the skill of the employees for better performance and second is if employees are trained for the proper skill then they will be able to perform well which in turn retain that employee because they are satisfied with their job (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Figure: Human resource planning flow chart (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014) Evaluate why and how organisations seek to be seen as employers of choice. The company is operating in the industry of online gambling where customer satisfaction has to be very high. To provide best of customer service, company should employ skilled employees for the operational process. Bothe the organization have employed human resource department who will look after the payroll section and introduce the human resource policies for better administrational efficacy of the organization. This kind of activity will ensure a better treatment of the employees who are working in those companies. The organization has introduced few policies which are Responsibility the Companys human resources policies starts different responsibility programme from both the end. The company is taking responsibility for better work environment and skill development of their employees where as they are giving responsibility to the employees, who will provide better work satisfaction for them. Both the companies are operating the business which is illegal in many countries so it is very important wherever they operate their business they operate it ethically by following all the guideline of the local government. Ethical policy will provide stability for the company.Respect Respect is very important for any job it can be respect of the job profile, respect in the work place by the employees and the other colleagues and respect of the job in the society. Both the companies changed their human resources policies for their employees so that they can be satisfied from both the end. The job profile was changed which will provide a good respect in the society.Work life balance Work life balance is important in every industry so that the employees can balance their professional and family life. In this industry the operation of the company runs twenty four hours. There is a need to break the work responsibility of the employees in different shifts so that they do not get tired. The breakdown of shift will provide good balance of personal and professional life. Both the companies are providing good opportunity for the better growth of the personal and professional life which also balances the work life. 5.1 Explain the costs associated with dysfunctional employee turnover and ways of calculating them. Employee turnover is a common problem in the gambling industry where there is a minimum employee retention rate for all companies. The recruitment of employees has certain procedure. There are many consultancies who supply employees for the companies who have a demand of this. The recruiting company has to pay a lot for this service which incurred lot of cost for the company. The process of recruitment therefore cannot be cost effective. Companies spent lot of money to recruit an employee then they spent on their training and development process. If an employee leaves the job after these process then these cost does not add any value to the companys growth. These types of expenses are then treated as loos for the company. Company runs their business on the basis of certain fixed cost which includes the cost to the employee. Now if there is a huge turnover in the originations, then it become difficult to calculate the fixed cost (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Examine why people choose to leave or remain employed by organisations. The job of gambling industry is call centre type where well skilled worker is very important. Now a people with good skill will always try to find a good company in a good industry for his or her employment. This was the main problem of this industry. Another problem was there of cost of leaving in Gibraltar which was not affordable for the outsiders which was not compensated by the salary (Handley, 2012). If the company can increase their salary then they might retain more number of employees for longer period of time. The job profile was also not good as well as the industry. This kind of industry is not acceptable throughout the world and the job is monotonous so the employees do not get proper motivation to retain in this industry. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to the retention of talent. Strength and weakness of the retention strategy of the companies are discussed below. Strength Both the organization have introduced different HR policies like good payroll, better administration, flexibility of job timing which might be counted as the strength of the company for the retention of their employees (van Hoek and Schultz, 2013, July). Weakness In this industry the weakness is more than the strength for the employee retention. The job is type of call centre where stress is high and employee satisfaction is very less. The cost of living is very high which also contribute to the high employee turnover and moreover the job profile and the industry are not very respectable (Scott, 2014). 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