The Changing Workforce

The goal of this project is to illustrate the changing workforce and to create ideas, which may lead to lesser rates of turnover and help this corporation hire better employees.  It is no surprise that employees who leave a company do so for a specific reason generally.  One of the necessary duties Human resource (HR) managers must perform is to pinpoint the various reasons why valued employees leave, so that in the future valuable employees are not lost to competing agencies.  There are a handful of areas to consider when setting goals for retention and increasing skill level, creating those valuable employees to begin with.

HR managers must look at the constantly changing demographics of the area, the generational size issues, and finally the skill levels available to them. There are other factors for consideration, such as planning for the future of the company and the HR needs.  However to simply understand how to lower the turnover rate, and help the corporation hire better employees, these are the topics to be focused upon.

The composition of the workforce is changing rapidly.  Increased life expectancy, an aging population, retirement of the baby boomers, heavy immigration, and generational diversity are all expected to create new demands on society, and within this corporation.  “The United States is, perhaps more than any other industrialized country, distinguished by the size and diversity of its racial and ethnic populations; and current trends promise that these features will endure. In fact, demographers project that by the year 2050 the United States will likely have no single majority group.” (Demographic Change and Local Government: Overview of Issues, http://www.mrsc.org/Subjects/Governance/DemogOver.aspx#Overview).

In reference to generational size issues, “The Baby Boom is probably the most significant demographic phenomenon of the 20th century, shaping all aspects of our economic lives. The aging of the 76 million Baby Boomers has major implications not only for them, but also for the following generations of workers who must support them as they retire. (The 20th Century’s Tectonic Shifts in the Demographic Landscape, http://www.learnframe.com/aboutelearning/page10.asp).  This generation is quickly moving on to retirement and leaving the workforce.  Their much appreciated and needed talents and wisdom leaves with them, leaving corporations with large shoes to fill.

Family status is also a large part of the changing demographics corporations are facing today, causing higher employee turnover rates. “The ‘disintegration’ of the nuclear family began in 1970 and has only begun to stabilize. The rise in single parent families has, unfortunately, been a major factor in rising child poverty rates” (The 20th Century’s Tectonic Shifts in the Demographic Landscape, http://www.learnframe.com/aboutelearning/page10.asp).  Single parent families often can cause employee turnover rates to increase due to absenteeism or poor family benefits. 

When all of these forces combine, corporations cannot prosper without proper strategic plans for continuous change and improvement.  There are several solutions to high employee turnover rates.  Integrate career planning, offer training and development programs to create the skilled individuals the corporation may be lacking, and retain valuable employees by elevating their motivation perhaps by offering incentives pertaining to their families. 

“In many parts of the world today, significant workforce shortages exist due to an inadequate supply of workers with the skills needed to perform the job being added” (Mathis, 35).  Training within the corporation can rectify at least part of the skill shortages that will be experienced during this changing workforce.  By providing these training programs and elevating bus boys to master chefs eventually, flexible staffing could be utilized with the lower end positions.  Theoretically, the most valuable positions will have the lesser turnover rates due to better incentives and increased motivation, saving costly dollars in the retraining of new master chefs for example. Mathis, author of Human Resource Management, argued this very same point.  He gave the example of a large bank that wanted to become one of the top 10 in the United States, however they did not have the skill level.  In that situation, “a series of training and development programs was designed and implemented to close the gap” (55).

            Regarding the changes in family status, programs to assist the family could be implemented.  Flexible hours for employees with day care issues may be one approach.  Guaranteeing to employees that their families are important to the corporation will motivate individuals to remain with the organization.

            Finally, above and beyond any programs that might be implemented is the HR plan.  It will be imperative for human resources to develop a plan regarding the anticipated future growth of the company, the company’s needs for the long run, where employees may be shifted in other departments versus cutbacks, and so forth. “The HR plan provides a road map for the future” (58).