Advances in human resources have been cited by many researchers as the pivot in an organization’s failure or success in its operations. Employees reach retirement age and without proper strategies to recruit new employees competent enough to take over from the retiring employees, then an organization risks becoming redundant in the marketplace. This paper focuses on an extensive discussion of the whole idea of developing human resources in organizations, where work place flexibility is cited as the determining factor of whether advances in developing human resources becomes a success or a failure. Most ideas discussed in this paper are borrowed from the article by Eversole, Venneberg, and Crowder (2012), titled ‘Creating a Flexible Organizational Culture to Attract and Retain Talented Workers across Generations’. The article mainly focuses on the three workforce generations in the United States and their different behaviours and expectations in the workplace.
Review of the Article
The United States workforce is comprised of three generations; the baby boomers, generation X, and the millennials (Eversole, Venneberg & Crowder, 2012). These three workforce generations are generally the types of workforce found in most organizations and workplaces across the whole of the United States. According to Eversole, Venneberg and Crowder (2012), the oldest among the three workforce generations is the baby boomers that are nearing their retirement ages. This type of generation is much experienced and reliable in the workplaces. Their exit from active participation in the workplaces is expected to deprive the United States industries of most of its experienced workforce (Eversole, Venneberg & Crowder, 2012). As such, attention is directed to organization managers to devise proper mechanisms to induce the coming workforce generations with the expertise possessed by the outgoing baby boomers workforce generation. Managers need to find competent replacements for the positions which were held by the baby boomers if they decide to retire when their retirement time comes.
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However, creating an organizational culture that is favourable to the baby boomers personal needs is a solution to retaining this workforce generation for longer. According to Eversole, Venneberg, and Crowder (2012), organizations which prioritize the wellbeing of its employees is likely to retaining its talented workforce for longer than organizations that only believe in full time service provision (Eversole, Venneberg & Crowder, 2012). The second workforce generation is the generation X which does not possess strong ties to their jobs like their predecessors, baby boomer workforce generation. The generation X liken the work they do to the payments they get and believe that creating time for their families is paramount (Eversole, Vennerberg & Crowder, 2012). The generation X is likely to stick to one particular company if their personal needs are properly attended to but unlikely to stick to a company that interferes with their personal needs.
The last generation according to Eversole, Venneberg, and Crowder (2012) is the millenials, who are expected to dominate the United States workforce in the next decades. The millenials workforce generation is more detached to their organizational loyalties than the generation X, and although they are more educated and more technology oriented, they demands are expected to be higher than for the baby boomers and generation X. The millenials workforce generation is expected to take longer to acquire the experience that is needed in the United States industries. Most characteristics shared by the millenials at the workplaces are copied from their grandparents and great grandparents who participated in the World War II (Eversole, Venneberg & Crowder, 2012). Their personal demands and work flexibility are expected to be higher than those of their predecessors, generation X.
Implications and Recommendations
Productivity in organizations is negatively influenced if flexibility is not adopted to meet employees’ personal needs and demands. In as much as work output is essential in an organization, sustainability of the work output will depend on whether an organization adopts flexibility in its operations or not. Organizations that do not have well-defined work flexibility cannot attract competent workforce or retain the ones they have. On the other hand, organizations that have well-defined work flexibilities stand a better chance of attracting a competent workforce and retaining their experienced employees for longer. The development of an organizational work flexibility lies with the managers and top management of organizations. Managers should incorporate flexibility in their organizations to attract and retain workforce for the benefit of their organizations. Experienced employees in an organization will be willing to work past their retirement ages is their personal needs and demands are attended to. Therefore, managers should fully adopt the idea of work flexibility in their organizations and give priority to the wellbeing of their employees.
Application
Organizations can apply workforce flexibility to realize more positive returns from their operations (Wickramasinghe et al., 2019). One common situation in most organizations is rotation of job specifications and horizontal and vertical skills unification. The concept of workforce flexibility is very much applicable in the situation of rotating job specifications and horizontal and vertical skills unification. The three workforce generations in the United States precede each other and have varying expertise which can be reliable to the coming workforce generation. For instance, the baby boomers have been cited as the ones with most work experience and are more productive than the generation X and millenials workforce generations (Eversole, Venneberg & Crowder, 2012). Organizations that have adopted the idea of workforce flexibility are more likely to exercise rotation of job specifications and horizontal and vertical skills unification in their operations.
Rotation of job specifications helps organizations to train employees on different roles within its operations and stands a better chance of retaining their expertise workforce for long (Wickramasinghe et al., 2019). Same results are also realised from horizontal and vertical skills unification where different skills and expertise level and experience are passed on to different employees within the organization, retaining the required workforce experience by the organization. Rotation of job specifications and horizontal and vertical skills unification can be realized where self-management is encouraged. Self-management, according to Griffith et al. (2018) calls for dedication to one’s roles in an organization and willingness to corporate with other employees to meet the organization’s goals and targets (Griffith et al., 2018). This can only be realized in an environment where workforce flexibility is highly upheld because the working morale of the employees will be enhanced.
Rotation of job specifications and horizontal and vertical skills unification can practically be applied in the United States workforce where the generation X can enhance their work experience by working with the baby boomers. Also, the millenials can build a strong work experience through learning from the generation X, although the three workforce generations have varying demands. Horizontal and vertical skills unification is very vital for the United States workforce and a reliable way to retain experience within its workforce. Different skills and experiences are passed on from one workforce generation to the other through exercising flexibility within the workforce (Wickramasinghe et al., 2019). The future of organizations’ ability to retain expertise in its workforce greatly depend on their ability to adopt the aspect of workforce flexibility which in turn employ the idea of rotation of job specifications and horizontal and vertical skills unification.
Conclusion
Retirement is inevitable to employees and this is a reality to the United States workforce. Organizations and industries in the United States are coming to a reality of losing two competent workforce generations, baby boomers and the generation X. The two generations are being replaced by a younger and less experienced generation, millenials. However, workforce flexibility has been suggested as a way of retaining the expertise portrayed by the two outgoing workforce generations. Managers in the United States organizations have a great role to play in ensuring that workforce flexibility is upheld within the organizations. Without proper workforce flexibility mechanisms, then much experience will be lost in the United States workforce. However, if workforce flexibility is embraced in the organizations, then the necessary experienced required in the organizations will not be lost.
References
Eversole, B., Venneberg, D., & Crowder, C. (2012). Advances in Developing Human Resources: Creating a Flexible Organizational Culture to Attract and Retain Talented Workers Across Generations. 14: 607.
Griffith, T., Nordbäck, E., Sawyer, J., & Rice, R. (2018). Field Study of Complements to Supervisory Leadership in More and Less Flexible Work Settings. Pp. 1-26.
Wickramasinghe, V., Wickramasinghe, G., Silva, C., Chandrasekara, R., & Jayabandu, S. (2019). Practice of Workforce Flexibility—Internal, External, Numerical and Functional Flexibility. 31(4): 355-379.
