A case study research concerning organization Evidence-Based Management (EBM) and strategic workforce planning has undertaken significant methodological development over the years. This paradigm shift in EBM and strategic workforce management has led to an in-depth understanding, flexible and pragmatic studies regarding various organizations’ range of Human Resource issues such as employee motivation, work-life balance, incentives, happiness, holistic work environment, etc. In this research project, we examine the case study regarding Human Resources Management issues from the Children’s at Heart Ministries Organization. Based on the case study, there is a significant need for this organization to apply the EBM Model to evaluate accurately, control and improve the value of their employees. The use of EBM would help these companies to reduce risks in their organizations, optimize their employees’ productivity and improve their organization's outcome.
A strategic workforce planning is a process of analyzing the existing workforce, identifying the need of new personnel in the future and assessing the gap between the right workforce and existing workforce in an organization (Hasanpoor et al., 2019). In this regard, for Children’s at Heart Ministries Company, in this case, study to best engage its employees and develop a proper workforce planning, there is a need to coordinate its EBM in its HRM and workforce planning to improve the value and productivity of all employees in these companies (Greasley & Thomas, 2020). In this paper, we explore the role of EBM in HR workforce strategic planning and approaches a company can take to improve the value of employees, reduce risks, optimize employees’ productivity and improve outcome.
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Literature review
Workforce Planning, Employee Satisfaction and Engagement
Brennan and Rajan (2020) define EBM in HRM as the process of applying the human resource practices in a manner that minimizes reactions, assumptions and fads in HR Management and achieving prudence in the use of critical thinking, strategic decision-making and high-quality HR data. Employee satisfaction and engagement is achieved by avoiding compromising factors in HRM, which may include biases and command chain (Cave & Willis, 2020; Greasley & Thomas, 2020). Nonetheless, Horvitz-Lennon (2020) warns that making an assumption that EBM in HR only requires the decision-makers always to conduct research may be a real danger because this is not the actual case. Moreover, the author (Horvitz-Lennon, 2020) believes that the main objective of EBM in HR is not often to convert HR managers into academics, but the aim is always to enable them to assess, monitor and control their HR practices in a manner that ensure the value, commitment and productivity of employees are achieved.
In the case of Children’s at Heart Ministries organization, the HR managers of this company will need to use EBM approaches in HR practices to help the company change the course of their practices and realize great success in terms of employee engagement and satisfaction (Leake et al. 2020; Moustaghfir, El Fatihi & Benouarrek, 2020). Another concern in improving employee value has been about the application of Business Intelligence and analytics in Evidence-Based Management for HR practices.
Consequently, almost 80% of HR managers around the world are currently having plans of investing more in advanced analytics and BI with the aim achieving efficiency in their HR practices and reducing employee turnover rates (Sarff and O'Brien, 2020; Zehir et al. 2020). In this case, all the HR managers must strive to be accountable for the workforce planning strategies they would decide to use in improving the value of their employees. Importantly, the EBM in HRM has significantly helped various companies in changing how they make decisions regarding employee satisfaction, appraisals, motivation and engagement (Cave & Willis, 2020; Greasley & Thomas, 2020). This, to a larger extent, has helped to increase efficiency and trust in various companies since it helps to make HRM outcomes more people-centric. The use of Evidence-Based HR practices will help an organization to avoid direct impact on decision-makers and avoid overburdening of decision-makers with too much academic information.
Evidence-Based Management Model for HRM Strategic Workforce Planning
The Evidence-Based Management Model for HRM has proven effective in the employment of the right personnel, right and talented skills, right timing, right workforce planning and right costing (Froidevaux, Alterman and Wang, 2020). The research conducted by Zehir, Karaboğa and Başar (2020) found out that an organization’s “ business as usual ” to its workforce planning cannot remain sustainable without a successful application of EBM strategies in HR practices. In this regard, there is a significant need for a coordinated HRM long-term reform, regular employee training and professional capacity building to help these companies achieve an affordable and sustainable workforce (Moustaghfir et al. 2020). Moreover, the main policy-pillars which have also been established to be core in driving HRM changes are reform, innovations and workforce distribution. In fact, reform and innovation are said to be running hand-in-hand with EBM in HRM since help to improve workforce arrangement effectiveness and support most of the HRM activities that are geared towards employee satisfaction and motivation such as effective communication, coordination and control (Cave & Willis, 2020; Greasley & Thomas, 2020).
Moustaghfir, El Fatihi and Benouarrek argue that an actual EBM in HRM needs to put its primary focus on establishing a positive workforce culture to improve employee retention, morale, efficiency and productivity (Moustaghfir et al. 2020). According to the researchers, appropriate application of Evidence-Based Management in HRM will significantly result in high quality work performance, collaboration and job satisfaction thus creating a work environment that is free from stress and violence of any kind. The HR managers must also use various reform and innovation programs such as value-focused programs to help improve workforce productivity and expand the scopes of HRM practices across various companies (Zehir, Karaboğa & Başar, 2020).
Employee Retention, Low Turnovers and High Productivity
The use of Evidence-Based Management in HR practices has proven effective in workforce retention around the world (Cave & Willis, 2020; Greasley & Thomas, 2020). An HR manager who embraces EBM in HR practices will be able to create clear values and ethos for the organization. A company that sets clear core values, positive cultures and communicates with its employees regularly is likely to achieve more employee satisfaction and engagement since employees feel part and parcel of the organization. This will, in turn, reduces employee turnover, increase their retention and increase their productivity as well (Zehir et al. 2020). Moreover, employee retention, low turnovers and high productivity is the decision that a company makes by implementing social changes or going green.
Regarding nurses, Hasanpoor et al. (2019) state the use of EBM in HRM had a significant impact on the nursing workforce retention, and this proved that reducing nurses turnover and increasing their productivity in the workforce is critical in minimizing possible future shortage of nurses. Therefore, reducing nurses’ turnover ultimately comes down with getting then into roles where they thrive, and this starts with the hiring process (Hasanpoor et al. 2019). The research conducted by Froidevaux, Alterman and Wang (2020) found that they were able to reduce annual employee turnover from 30% down to 6% by eliminating resumes altogether. Instead, companies that hire people for their talents- aspects like whether they were good problem-solvers, communicators, and innovators. These talents are far more predictive of whether or not someone will succeed in a role than the skills and knowledge they would find a resume.
Critical Analysis
The information derived from the Children’s at Heart Ministries organization indicates that they were faced with some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that could either lead to employee retention or high employee turnover.
Strengths
The most important strength that would help this company to achieve right employees, culture and core values, employees’ value propositions, purpose, organizational identity, distinctive experience and signature experience includes significant use of EBM in its HR practices. This first starts with communication from the employer to employees which often starts with the recruitment process. The recruitment representative has to ensure that the on-boarding and recruitment process is clear and smooth. Moreover, the HR managers must ensure that there is clear communication of policies, processes or changes in their existing HR systems. In this regard, the HR policy, benefits and processes must be geared towards the communication between the employer and their employees.
Weaknesses
The significant weakness that faced the Children’s at Heart Ministries Company includes self-sufficiency, demographic, distribution and implementing workforce reforms challenges. This situation is likely to present a huge challenge as the company tries to employ more employees. Regarding the demographic challenge, the Children’s at Heart Ministries organization Company had inexperienced employees, especially employees with less than a year of experience. The major problem with this includes having few experienced employees to support the newly recruited ones, having little pool of experienced personnel from which some of these companies can draw their workforce, experiencing more loses due to the semi-skilled workforce and having a larger pool of inexperienced employees who cannot improve the company’s growth and development. Nonetheless, these significant weaknesses are compounded by the poor application of EBM Models in its HR practices.
Opportunities
Employee training and development performed by the Children’s at Heart Ministries Organization is significantly critical in making this company a more desirable place to work. Moreover, these kinds of training and development programs will make the firm more flexible in the industry, thus presenting its HRM with several opportunities such as attracting, hiring and retaining talented and skilled employees. When a firm’s personnel are well trained, they develop the capacity to counter to changes in the industry, which ensures long term success of the firm’s. In this regard, there is a more need for the company to invests in staff training and development because this makes the staff feel valued and appreciated and makes them more loyal thus leading to high worker retention and guarantee they are more engaged and motivated and oblige less supervision.
Threats
The distribution challenges these companies experienced may have resulted from the availability of sufficient healthcare personnel in the country. This issue may have resulted in the demographic problems experienced with the majority of these companies as well. Finally, these companies may have failed to implement their workforce reforms appropriately because of the existing barriers to reform and innovation, which could have improved their employee productivity. These issues may include leadership failures, lack of incentives, lack of good organizational culture and resources. For example, rewarding employees who have worked for a longer duration means that the employer values people who have given a long term commitment to the organisation. Therefore, successful use of EBM in HR practices ensures the feedback process is streamlined, and employee satisfaction surveys must be kept confidential, i.e. tweaking as per the employer. Also, the HR management needs to be approachable, available and be able to resolve all people-related issues, and the engagement strategies can be framed basis the need of the organisation.
Conclusion
An analysis of this case study reveals that application of EBM in HRM has proven effective, particularly in improving the value of employees, reducing risks, optimizing employees’ productivity, and improving organizations outcome. EBM in HRM is indeed important in developing skills and understanding the business, and the company will apparently need to expend less energy in managing its resources. Done right, the EBM in HRM can contribute more to a company’s success over time and freeing the company to focus on growing its business. The cost of retention is usually far lower than replacement; therefore, using EBM appropriately to recruit and train old staff will save the company more dollars while improving productivity. However, failure to retain employees would be the devil that is none but better than that which is unfamiliar to a company. On the other hand, what too many business owners normally fail to realize is their true job. Once they own a business, they are no longer the technician who gets things done, but only the HR managers are supposed to chart the course, assign duties and manage to enable their crew to perform their best. Competent HR managers will know that selecting people based on talents rather than skills and knowledge does not have to stop at the hiring process, either. Organizations that keep that talent data on file can use it to internally move talent within the organization once someone has outgrown a role or when an open role arises. The right application of EBM in HR practices ensures that employees are satisfied and endowed with diverse experiences, thus helping companies to reap several benefits such as improved productivity, retention and conducive work environment.
References
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