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

What are Findings and Practices Associated with Measuring and Taking Steps to Increase the Engagement of Contingent Workers?

[Excerpt] Over the past few decades, the workforce has been shifting to include a larger number of contingent workers. While the corporate agenda regarding these temporary workers has been to cut cost and shirk some legal responsibilities, these past years show there is greater interest a greater interest in labor flexibility or tight market for specialized skills. In order for companies to attract and retain their valued professional contingent workforce, there needs to be greater focus placed on their integration with the firm

Project Diane: Women's Foundation of Greater Kansas City Final Report

Women's Foundation partnered with the University of Kansas researchers and included a large-scale survey and analyzed 24 focus groups with 198 Special Forces men and women in order to identify potential barriers and benefits to female integration in Special Forces. The findings can also be applied in other male-dominated professions in the civilian workforce

Defining the Millennial Superwoman: Strategies for Work-Life Integration

Defining the Millennial Superwoman: Strategies for Work-Life Integration uncovers the perceptions of millennial females and contrasts them with the perceptions of working women in other generations. This research determines how millennial females are different in their search for work-life integration – the act of mixing work and personal life – and explains what this difference means for companies in the upcoming years. Historically, there has been much literature focused on women fighting for equality to get into the workforce, as well as why highly educated and successful women began taking themselves out of the workforce. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding why and how millennial women are different from their past counterparts, as well as what this discrepancy means for companies. This capstone includes a research paper and short film which highlights why women perceive work-life integration differently across generations; additionally, it offers insight into what strategies will best suit millennial women in their search for work-life integration

Labour Migration in the Enlarged EU: A New Economic Geography Approach

The paper studies the impact of migration policy liberalisation on international labour migration in the enlarged EU in a structural NEG approach. The liberalisation of migration policy would induce additional 1.80 - 2.98 percent of the total EU workforce to change their country of location, with most of migrant workers relocating from the East to the West. The average net migration rate is decreasing in the level of integration, suggesting that from the economic point of view no regulatory policy responses are necessary to labour migration in the enlarged EU.Labour Migration, Economic Integration, Economic Geography, Market Access.

Does Labor Diversity Affect Firm Productivity?

Using an employer-employee dataset, we analyze how diversity in cultural background, skills and demographic characteristics affects total factor productivity (TFP) of firms in Denmark. Implementing structural estimation of firms’ production function, we find evidence that labor diversity in skills/education significantly enhances firm performance as measured by firm TFP. Conversely, diversity in demographics and ethnicity brings mixed results – both dimensions of workforce diversity have either no or negative effects on firm TFP. Hence, it seems as if the negative effects, coming from communication and integration costs connected to a more demographically and culturally diverse workforce, counteract the positive effects of diversity on firm TFP, coming from creativity and knowledge spillovers. However, we find that ethnic diversity is valuable for firms operating in industries characterized by above-average trade openness, giving support to the hypothesis that an ethnically diverse workforce provides information and access to global markets.Labor diversity; skill complementarities; communication barriers; total factor productivity

Europe: is it ready for free movement of its workforce?

Purpose – To examine what could be achieved through workforce mobility in Europe. Design/methodology/approach – Literature and case review Findings – Findings indicate that full mobility of a European workforce is largely permitted and tolerated though a complex web of legal policy and constraints which need to be reviewed if full mobility is to be achieved within the EU. Practical implications – The paper draws on integration and trade theory to highlight the issues of mobility within the EU. The paper may prove useful to policy makers and researchers. Originality / value – This paper allows researchers to gain an understanding of the issues in workforce mobility within the EU and build a conceptual portrait of the challenges faced by policy makers

The labor market effects of foreign-owned firms

Foreign firms often have a more educated workforce and pay higher wages than domestic firms. This does not necessarily imply that foreign ownership translates into higher demand for educated workers or higher wages, since foreign investment may be guided by unobservable firm characteristics correlated with the demand for educated workers or wages. The author examines foreign acquisitions of domestic firms in Portugal in the 1990s and finds small changes in the workforce skill composition and wages following acquisition. Foreign investors"cherry pick"domestic firms that are already very similar to the group of existing foreign firms.Environmental Economics&Policies,Small and Medium Size Enterprises,Small Scale Enterprise,Labor Policies,Microfinance,Private Participation in Infrastructure,Small Scale Enterprise,Environmental Economics&Policies,Trade and Regional Integration,Microfinance

Managing temporary workers in higher education: still at the margin?

Purpose – To evaluate whether “numerical flexibility” – specifically a form of temporary and precarious employment – hourly-paid part-time teaching in the UK higher education sector – adds strategic value and demonstrates good practice. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on new evidence drawn from five case study organisations in which a range of managers was interviewed in depth. Findings – Analysis identifies a continuum of strategies from integration into the main workforce through to “deepened differentiation”. Although integration is somewhat problematic when applied to a diverse group, differentiation seems predicated on a defensive, risk management approach designed to further marginalise this activity. Also, differentiation fails to address the aspirations of many employees, creating tensions between institutional strategy and the needs of academic heads. Research limitations/implications – The number of case studies is limited. These case studies were selected because they had the most proactive strategies on this issue, which infers that the majority of employers in HE have not been rather less strategic or proactive. Practical implications – The paper is of particular value to HR professionals considering the use of numerical flexibility approaches. It also contributes to the academic debate on the strategic value of such approaches. Originality/value – The paper explores a neglected but important area of the workforce. The paper notes that some supposed benefits of numerical flexibility might be illusory, such as the deployment of allegedly “cheap and disposable” substitute workers which may be offset by unintentional consequences including rigidities in an organisation's human resource systems

Integration of overseas-trained doctors into the Australian medical workforce

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included. See page 7 of PDF for this item.Linsey S Hart, Jane Vernon-Robert