Strategic Human Capital Management: NRC Could Better Manage the Size and Composition of Its Workforce by Further Incorporating Leading Practices

[Excerpt] After the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which included tax incentives for nuclear energy, NRC significantly expanded its workforce to meet the demands of an anticipated increase in workload that ultimately did not occur. More recently, a forecast for reduced growth in the nuclear industry prompted NRC to develop plans for changing its structure and workforce to better respond to changes in the nuclear industry. Strategic human capital planning is one of several actions the agency is taking. The explanatory statement accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2016 included a provision for GAO to report on NRC’s workforce management. GAO examined NRC’s strategic human capital management efforts and the extent to which these efforts incorporate leading practices. GAO reviewed NRC’s strategic workforce plan and other related documents and interviewed knowledgeable NRC officials

Contingent Workforce Management

[Excerpt] A contingent workforce is comprised of various types of non employees who are not legally employed by the companies they work for. Traditionally contingent labor has been used for seasonal or absence related needs, but it is now used as part of companies strategic direction to cut costs, reduce risks, and create a flexible workforce. In fact, adapting flexible staffing models presents an opportunity to create competitive advantage through increased organizational agility and acquisition of critical skills. As the contingent workforce continues to grow, Human Resource departments need to be well equipped with the unique needs and challenges non employee labor presents

Toward an integrated workforce planning framework using structured equations

Strategic Workforce Planning is a company process providing best in class, economically sound, workforce management policies and goals. Despite the abundance of literature on the subject, this is a notorious challenge in terms of implementation. Reasons span from the youth of the field itself to broader data integration concerns that arise from gathering information from financial, human resource and business excellence systems. This paper aims at setting the first stones to a simple yet robust quantitative framework for Strategic Workforce Planning exercises. First a method based on structured equations is detailed. It is then used to answer two main workforce related questions: how to optimally hire to keep labor costs flat? How to build an experience constrained workforce at a minimal cost

Understanding the Workforce Needs of New Jersey's Public Health and Other Disaster Management Employers

This report explores the priority workforce needs of New Jersey's public disaster management system. An advisory group of disaster management-related employers from law enforcement and state and local public health systems and educational institutions was convened in the spring of 2006 to identify priority workforce skill needs. Researchers also conducted interviews with state officials, domestic security, public health, and disaster planning experts, as well as reviews of labor market information, state and national websites, and industry and scholarly literature

Perception of Employers' in Transforming Technical and Vocational Education and Training vis-a-vis Emerging Technology Tools for Sustainable Workforce Development in Nigeria

Economic competitiveness of a country depends to a large extent on the skills of its workforce. The skills and the competencies of the workforce, in turn, are dependent upon the quality of the country’s education and training. Education and training are undergoing continuous change, and this change poses more challenges to the 21st-century workforce, and to training institutions. Despite the importance of TVET in transforming economic development, of any nation, Nigeria still has different perspectives about the competency of its TVET graduates. Therefore, the paper aims at determining the perceptions of Organized Private Sector (OPS) employers’ regarding the competency of TVET graduates and the role of emerging technology tools in transforming TVET for a sustainable workforce development. Using a descriptive survey research design and a sample of 80 OPS employers. A validated and piloted questionnaire based on a 5-point Likert scale used as the data collection instrument for the study. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics including means, standard deviation and ANOVA. Data analysis was facilitated using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings revealed that employers were not satisfied with the competency level of TVET graduates as it is showed that they are not well prepared to enter the competitive workforce and to be self-reliant. Given the nature and complexity of the field of TVET for a sustainable workforce, it was recommended that the utilization of adequate planning and management of emerging technology tools and resources in teaching TVET programs could contribute enormously to the quality and sustainability of the Nigerian workforce

Cause and effect relationship between post-merger operating performance changes and workforce adjustments

Prior empirical research provides substantial evidence showing that mergers and acquisitions lead to operating performance decline (Ghosh, 2001). At the same time such transactions involve workforce reductions, as reported in the public media. However, systematic empirical evidence on the association between operating performance and workforce adjustments is inconclusive. On the one hand workforce reductions may be undertaken to improve efficiency and firm profitability (Cascio et al., 1997) or to arrest further performance deterioration. On the other, post-takeover layoffs may be undertaken to create shareholder value and to regain premiums paid to targets. Consequently, it is suggested that such layoffs destroy the human capital of acquired firms and thereby negatively affect firm performance post-merger (Krishnan et al., 2007). Thus, the answers to (1) whether post-takeover performance decline leads to workforce reductions and (2) whether such layoffs positively or negatively affect firm performance are unknown. This chapter aims to provide new empirical evidence on these two questions. Empirical evidence on these questions would clarify whether post-merger labour management decisions are made to further enhance efficiency and firm profitability

Disability management: Key concepts and techniques for an aging workforce

The aging workforce is likely to result in increasing numbers of workers with disabilities. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the 45-54 and 55-64 year-old population in the United States will grow by nearly 44.2 million (17%) and 35 million (39%) in the next ten years (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004). By the year 2010, this group will account for nearly half (44%) of the working age population (20-64), and the number of people with disabilities between the ages of 50 and 65 will almost double (Weathers, 2006). Disability management and accommodation policies and practices readily lend themselves to addressing the challenges employers will face with an aging workforce, and the increasing prevalence of disability which these demographics bring. Proactive education about ways to maximize the productivity of an aging workforce, effective case management, and workplace accommodation can significantly contribute to maximizing aging worker retention

Workforce participation: developing a theoretical framework for longitudinal research

This paper describes and evaluates an action research project on workforce participation at Viewpoint Research Community Interest Company (CIC). By setting out the research protocols devised by Viewpoint to stimulate and study co-operative management, it is possible to abstract a theoretical framework that emerged from a pilot case study. The paper contributes to theory by highlighting not only the potential of action research to catalyse interest in co operative management but also how to engage theoretically with the paradox of a workforce voting to limit its own participation in ownership, governance and management. In this study, the authors interpreted that participants did not automatically equate participatory management with workplace democracy leading to a theoretical perspective that “democratic management is the propensity and capacity of management systems to respond to members’ desires regarding the scope, depth, level and quality of participation in management”. The paper concludes by evaluating the efficacy of Viewpoint’s action research methodology as a strategy for deepening knowledge on workforce participation in co-operatives and employee-owned businesses