Impact of Demographic Factor on Future HR Planning and Job Design: Drake Australia PTY Ltd

This report discusses the impact of demographic changes on HR planning and job design in Drake Australia PTY Ltd. It provides recommendations for addressing the identified impacts.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Impact of Demographic Factor on Future HR Planning and Job Design: Drake
Australia PTY Ltd
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. Analysis of the Potential Impacts of Changing Demography on the HR Planning and Job
Design of Drake Australia Pty Ltd.............................................................................................2
3. Recommendations for addressing the Identified Impacts......................................................6
4. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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1. Introduction
Drake International Pty Ltd is a popular organization in Australia that offers human
resources solutions to each stage of employee lifecycle. The Drake Universe of talent
management solutions can be used for assisting their employees to enhance performance and
productivity and thus increasing business profitability (Drake International. 2019). The
organization was established in the year of 1951 in Canada and currently they are operating
in eleven international countries in the entire world. They have twenty two branch locations
and the national head office is present in Melbourne, Australia. The success of HR
practitioners is highly dependent on impact of agility to respond to every emerging challenge
that has occurred in the organizational external and internal environments (Drake
International. 2019). The following report outlines a brief discussion on the impact of major
demographic changes that affect future HR planning and job design of Drake Australia Pty
Ltd. A set of justified recommendations would also be provided in this report.
2. Analysis of the Potential Impacts of Changing Demography on the HR Planning and
Job Design of Drake Australia Pty Ltd
Drake Australia Pty Ltd, although being one of the most popular organizations in
Australia, has to deal with various human resource management issues and challenges. They
try to eradicate or remove all of these challenges, however few of such issues can have
potential impacts on the organization itself (Noe et al., 2017). One of such significant issue is
change in demography. The entire process of human resource planning and job designing is
being highly impacted due to this type of changes in demography. A proper management of
diversity refers to the range of leadership and management, which aim to value diversity in
work force and thus helping the organization for becoming more successful (Cascio, 2015).
There are some of the major challenges that occur in the external and internal environment of

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the company. This demographic change can often become quite problematic for the entire HR
processes in the respective organization. The main objective to manage diversity is to
encourage organizational productivity as well as beneficial interaction amongst the
employees so that these employees are value with different backgrounds, skill sets and
requirements (Bratton & Gold, 2017). It is required to produce optimal benefits for the staff
and even for the customers that they are serving.
The main and the most significant demographic changes that are required to be
considered are as follows:
i) Change in Family Structure: The first and the foremost demographic change that
is needed to be considered in the business of Drake Australia Pty Ltd. In present days, family
structures are changing and they are conflicting with the existing structures (Budhwar &
Debrah, 2013). One parent families are quite common and parents have to juggle work,
household chores, child care and parenting.
ii) Aging Population: Another significant demographic change is aging population.
This factor highly impacts business of Drake Australia in every aspect (Brewster, Chung &
Sparrow, 2016). Since, they provide talent management solutions and training for the
customers, this particular demographic change could be extremely effective for the overall
HR planning and assessment.
iii) Lesser Social Service Support: People with lesser social service support like
people with disabilities, issues related to stress and health together comprise of another issue
of demographic use.
iv) Labour Force Diversification: According to Aswathappa (2013), the ethnic and
religious diversification and participation of women is always kept on top priority for the
employees or staff in human resource practices within Drake Australia Pty Ltd.

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v) Geographic Region Variables: Different employees belong to different
geographical background. Drake Australia Pty Ltd has modified their human resources
planning and practices in such a manner that the geographic regional demographic change
does not create major issue for their employees (Anderson, 2013).
vi) Education Level Variable: This is yet another important and noteworthy
demographic change that majorly impacts the entire human resources policies and strategies.
Every employee does not have same education level and thus it is needed to ensure that every
employee is gaining equal opportunity and respect from his or her organizational members
(Alfes et al., 2013).
vii) Influence of Income: The income has a strong influence on the overall changes
and advantages of the business. This type of demographic change can eventually bring out
employee conflicts and challenges in working together (Brewster et al., 2016). However, with
the proper involvement of few legal contracts and agreements to not to disclose income
structure in front of other employees.
The Environmental Influences Model is termed as one of the major and the most
significant models that that help to understand the external and internal environment of a
business (Albrecht et al., 2015). The micro system and macro system of this particular model
is responsible for identifying the main factors that help to evaluate that how major
demographic changes can affect the overall job designing and HR planning. Drake Australia
Pty Ltd can also be analysed for checking the entire effect of demographic changes affecting
their future HR planning as well as job designing in the company (Cascio, 2015). This model
Environmental Influences Model is sub divided into two major aspects. The first aspect is
macro factor that ensure that external environmental analysis is completed properly and the

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second aspect is micro factor that ensures that internal environmental analysis is being
completed effectively for that particular organization (Nankervis et al., 2016).
HRM or human resource management is a strategic approach towards an effective
people management in any organization so that they can be helpful to the business for
obtaining competitive advantages. It is being designed for maximizing overall employee
performances in respect to strategic objectives of an employer (Collings, Wood & Szamosi,
2018). HRM concerns about employee management by focusing on few systems and policies.
Diversity changes pools of few potential employees, requirements of employees and
influencing broad business goals such as service provision. Moreover the constantly changing
demographic profile of several employees refer to the factor the organizations require to
develop several strategies, which can fulfil the desires and requirements of organizational
employees (Cowling & Mailer, 2013). In Drake Australia Pty Ltd, the above mentioned seven
distinctive demographic changes have subsequent stronger impacts on their future planning
of human resources and job designing. If these factors will not be considered, it is evident
that the organization would not be achieving several competitive advantages (Bailey et al.,
2018). Moreover, due to the lack of effective planning of HR, the staff or employees of the
company might feel demotivated and dissatisfied.
For the first identified demographic change of changes in family structure, the job
designing should be done in such a manner that every employee would get equal opportunity
to manage both of their personal and professional lives. It highly impacts on future HR
planning and job designing in Drake Australia Pty Ltd as employee satisfaction is required
for in every business (Budhwar & Debrah, 2013). According to Expectancy theory, an
individual would be behaving in a proper manner only when they are motivated. The
motivation of this behaviour selection is mainly determined by outcome desirability.

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There are few motivational elements that are required to be considered while making
the ultimate choice. Choices should be provided to the single parent so that he or she feels
motivated (Bratton & Gold, 2017). The second demographic change of ageing population
also has an important impact on future HR planning. Every senior employee comprises of
valuable experiences and knowledge that can be impeccable for bringing success in the
company. However, when this employee resigns, such significant knowledge and experiences
also gets lost. It would be quite effective for the organization if these senior employees would
have been able to share their knowledge and experiences with the new joiners in Drake
Australia Pty Ltd (Nankervis et al., 2016). Moreover, job designing should also include
proper effectiveness.
Educational level and income influences are other significant demographic changes in
this scenario. According to Equity Theory, there should be a striking balance within
employee inputs and outputs and all the employees should be treated with utmost sincerity
and respect (Collings, Wood & Szamosi, 2018). Equity is being measured after comparison
of the ratio of contributions or costs and benefits or rewards for every individual. For
maximizing individual rewards, the management can tend to create few systems, in which
resources could be fairly sub divided amongst the employees, irrespective of their educational
qualification and income influence (Cowling & Mailer, 2013). The inequalities in
relationships would cause those in the company or group to be unhappy and even
demotivated and disturbed. Hence, the employees would feel highly motivated while working
in Drake Australia Pty Ltd.
3. Recommendations for addressing the Identified Impacts
The few suitable recommendations for addressing the identified potential impacts are
as follows:

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i) The firs and the foremost recommendation for the top management of Drake
Australia Pty Ltd is to arrange for periodical meetings. It is extremely important and
significant to know about the current scenario of both internal and external work
environments. The senior management should have a one to one meeting with every
employee for understanding that whether he or she is satisfied working in the organization
and with his or her colleagues or not and if not what are the main reasons for such
dissatisfaction.
Since, Drake Australia Pty Ltd is responsible for providing talent solutions and other
HR related services, it is quite vital for them to know about the issues of their own
employees. Moreover, as few employees can belong to different geographical locations, he or
she should not feel demotivated and ignored under any circumstance. Drake Australia should
make their HR plan is such a manner that violation of these above mentioned factors can
eventually lead the employee to high penalty or even suspension and termination.
ii) The second significant recommendation for the identified impacts of demographic
changes is to change the existing human resource plan of Drake Australia Pty Ltd for
demographic changes like family structure and ageing population. Regarding family
structure, the organizational management should make a separate job design that would be
providing few employee benefits and motivational elements to the respective employee for
assuring him or her that he or she is well managing their works and they have scope for even
better opportunities.
For ageing population, the top management of Drake Australia Pty Ltd should include
succession planning and team development. The HR professionals can construct few ways for
disseminating the invaluable knowledge and experience that the senior employee is carrying.

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It is highly recommended to include a job sharing program in the future HR plan, in which
both older and younger employees exchange their confidential work related information.
iii) The next important and noteworthy recommendation for the top management of
Drake Australia Pty Ltd to include in their future HR planning and job designing is
maintaining a proper balance for education level and influence of income. These two factors
should not be shared with other employees and should be kept highly confidential. It would
resolve the complexity and issue of this particular demographic change within their business.
It would even be effective for removing discrimination and hence providing motivation to
employees. The employees should be assured that they would be getting employee benefits as
per thei performances.
4. Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that demographic changes
in any organization can be extremely important to maintain effectiveness and efficiency of
employee performance. Since human resource department of an organization is responsible
for focusing on organizational changes and industrial relations, they have to consider the
demographic changes as well. This type of change is the most significant reason that any
organization needs to adapt the practices for responding to increasing diversity in employee
performance. The stakeholders are also involved in this purpose for resolving issues, which
involve diversity. The above provided report has properly outlined a detailed discussion on
impact of demographic changes on HR planning and job design in one of the most significant
organizations in Australia, Drake Australia Pty Ltd with relevant details.

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References
Albrecht, S. L., Bakker, A. B., Gruman, J. A., Macey, W. H., & Saks, A. M. (2015).
Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive
advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People
and Performance, 2(1), 7-35.
Alfes, K., Shantz, A. D., Truss, C., & Soane, E. C. (2013). The link between perceived
human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a
moderated mediation model. The international journal of human resource
management, 24(2), 330-351.
Anderson, V. (2013). Research methods in human resource management: investigating a
business issue. Kogan Page Publishers.
Aswathappa, K. (2013). Human resource management: Text and cases. Tata McGraw-Hill
Education.
Bailey, C., Mankin, D., Kelliher, C., & Garavan, T. (2018). Strategic human resource
management. Oxford University Press.
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Budhwar, P. S., & Debrah, Y. A. (Eds.). (2013). Human resource management in developing
countries. Routledge.

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Cascio, W. F. (2015). Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill.
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