Article Critique. Workforce Management

Article Critique. Workforce Management

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Workforce management article critique

An increase in globalization and the associated growth in the workload have shifted attention to telecommunication and collaboration technology to solve workforce management problems in today’s business world.  However, employer-employee relations remain the key to solving all problems in the organization. The article “Key trends in workforce management and new challenges for HR. Employment Relations Today” outlines the emerging trends and compliance issues that define how organizations are shifting their focus on employee-related issues. In the article, Marc Moschetto acknowledges that most organizations are consolidating their workforce management under HR. This holistic approach ensures that organizations attract the right talents and comply with various labor regulations in their areas of operations (Moschetto, 2013). Also, the concentration of workforce management under the jurisdiction of HR creates a more unified approach that fosters effective decision making. The article identifies automation, leave managing, and employee fatigue as emerging issues in today’s workforce.

In addition to what workforce management can and should deliver, Marc identifies automation as the best practice and the future of workforce management. According to the article, automation increase operational efficiency by creating a dynamic modern workforce management infrastructure. The findings revealed increasing workload has led to growing concerns over employee fatigue and emerging issues in leave management. Organizations are striving to comply with the rules and regulations regarding the employees’ physical and mental health in the workplace. Employee fatigue poses significant risks to productivity for all types of business. Inadequate work-life balance causes employee burnout, resulting in poor performance in the service industry and safety issues in the private sector (Moschetto, 2013). In this regard, fatigue leads to additional staff-related costs like injury and time off due to sickness. Therefore, leave management is a crucial aspect of human resource management. Specific changes in regulations such as those resulting in compulsory leave are becoming a challenge to many organizations in the USA. Findings from the article reveal that untimeliness of the communication between the line managers and HR over leave causes problems in organizing the workforce.

Compliance with the law is one of the widely discussed issues in the article. Today, workforce management faces a burgeoning legal compliance workload. For instance, ACA has outlined various regulations under the employee mandate that has influenced the workforce management system redesign. ACA provisions have led to employees’ reclassification in terms of labor hours, wages, and perceived value. Compliance with the labor laws is a necessity to business today because it helps in building a positive corporate image. One of the major compliance issues identified in the article is difficulty in keeping up with the changing labour laws. Also, the employers must ensure that employees are aware of the existing laws in order to reinforce employees’ confidence and morale (Moschetto, 2013). Therefore, the employee-employer relationship is very important in compliance with labor laws. Employer-employee relationship directly influences compliance with the workforce management requirements. The federal and state regulations outline the minimum wage requirements, hiring and firing decisions, and remuneration for overtime services. The law also requires that employees are trained on specific rights and responsibilities.  Therefore, in adhering to a legal provision like leave management, employers must work together with employees to avoid overburdening of the HR professionals.

In my opinion, the author provides meaningful insights into the employer-employee relationship and how they affect legal compliance. The employee-employer relationship is very crucial in managing all aspects of an organization. Employees are the most crucial and yet delicate factor of production business has. Marc recognizes that keeping up with the changing laws is just as crucial as making employees aware of the laws. Also, in combating employee fatigue, the article considers flextime and schedule adjustments. These two strategies can only succeed if the employer and the employee cooperate in finding the most suitable action. Ideally, the author of the article assumes that all businesses have a formal enterprise setting.  Therefore, the article focuses on the employee-employer relationship in big corporations. It would have been practical to consider how the independent contractors, volunteers, temporary workforce, students, and interns are incorporated in the legal compliance requirements. In this regard, the applicability of the article is limited in scope. Large firms experience many compliance issues because of the size of their workforce. In most cases, legal compliance increases with a decrease in the number of workers.

Reference

Moschetto, M. (2013). Key trends in workforce management and new challenges for HR. Employment Relations Today, 40(4), 7–13.