Understanding the Talent Cliff

The talent cliff is a looming challenge facing organizations across a variety of industries. The phrase refers to the coming shortage of experienced, knowledgeable workers as the baby boomer generation retires en masse. This large cohort of workers has played a central role in driving the U.S. economy for the past several decades, and their absence could lead to a significant talent gap that could prove detrimental to many industries.

This essay will explore the talent cliff, its causes and effects, and the potential strategies and solutions that organizations can adopt to mitigate the talent cliff’s impact on their operations.

Causes of the Talent Cliff

The baby boomer generation, which includes individuals born between 1946 and 1964, has played a central role in the U.S.… Read the rest

What is HR Professionalism?

In order to understand what HR professionalism is we first have to break down what it means to be a professional. The term professional could be an individual who is a qualified member of a professional body, someone who continuously updates their knowledge, is competent, and uses their skills in practice. Professionalism could be interpreted as the use of specialist knowledge necessary to perform a particular type of work or role. Professionals are associated with increased training, the development of professional knowledge standards, and a requirement to update this knowledge.

One way the CIPD (The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) measures professionalism is through their code of conduct which can be broken down into 4 sections as shown below:

  1. Professional Competence and Behaviour
  2. Ethical Standards and Integrity
  3. Representative of the Profession
  4. Stewardship.
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Human Resource Management (HRM) in a Global Environment

As the organizations continue to grow globally at a rapid pace, nations are increasingly permeable to the international exchange of knowledge, capital, goods and services, giving rise to more complexities and uncertainties. Intensified rate of globalization is evident from the changing trends in foreign direct investment which is increasingly indicating a shift toward developing economies like China and India. Growing internationalization is breaking down organizational and geographical boundaries with business processes and structures undergoing complete transformation. This has brought the role of human resources to the fore as the competitiveness of these organizations is contingent on their ability to adapt and design human resource strategies that can sustain global nuances and dynamics.… Read the rest

Three Approaches for Promoting Diversity in the Workplace

Though, diversity can have a wide range of meanings, some companies use the traditional Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) definition of diversity, which deals with differences in gender, racioethnicity, and age. Other companies tend to favor the broadest definitions of diversity, ones that encompass differences in gender, racioethnicity, age, physical abilities, qualities, and sexual orientation, as well as differences in attitudes, perspectives and background. Many individuals rely on a more detailed definition of diversity considering diverse people as being in the non-dominant social system who have been traditionally under research and under served. While there is no correct definition of diversity, the three diversity initiatives discussed in this article seem to target a definition that encompasses creating a diverse work environment that is inclusive to  everyone, specifically focusing on the inclusion of minorities and non minorities.… Read the rest

Economic Theories of Pay and Reward

The issue of pay and reward can be said to be the most important part of work for individuals in the work place as they expect a reward or compensation for the efforts they put in. hence, employers and organizations have established regular reward packages to insure that workers are paid and remain loyal to their jobs.

Pay however, has been influenced by many factors, and scholars have propounded theories to explain the reasons why wages vary, rise and fall in occupations. There exist the economic theory that stipulates the demand and supply factor to the variation of wages. Here, the demand for labor is a resultant effect of the services labor can produce, and the supply indicates the willingness of any individual to provide labor that will be priced at a certain range.… Read the rest

Working Across Boundaries

During the last decade, the concept of working across boundaries has become a popular concept. The basic premise is that individuals and organizations need to traverse boundaries if they are to achieve their goals. Essentially earlier concepts of fixed organizational demarcation lines no longer apply in modern-day business concepts. Within the organizational framework, the concept of boundaries can become a reasonably complex issue. There still remains an active debate as to whether the definitions of boundaries are realistic, objective, or imagined. The concept has become more complex with the use of outsourcing and Public/Private partnerships in terms of lines of demarcation and authority. … Read the rest