Resourcing and Talent Planning

This article discusses resourcing and talent planning in organizations. It covers the labor market trends in the UK and Saudi Arabia, the role of the government, employers, and HR in workforce planning, legal provisions, and recruitment and selection methods.

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RESOURCING AND TALENT PLANNING
Student’s Name
Course
Instructor’s Name
Institution
City (State)
Date

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Resourcing and Talent Planning
Question 1
My organization is based in the UK and Saudi Arabia. In the UK, the labor market enjoys
a stable job growth and a steady supply of skilled EU workers. The UK is part of the EU and G8,
which directly makes the local labor market attractive to local and foreign skilled workers. With
the favorable economic status, the market is playing a key role in the globalized business world.
The unemployment rate in the UK currently stands at 5.6 percent, which shows it has a relatively
low unemployment rate in Europe. The success of the market is, partly, due to effective labor
legislation (Immigration Expert, n. d.); Expatica, n. d.). The labor market trend in Saudi Arabia
also influences the globalized world as the country provides an international market. Currently,
the local labor market is made up of 30-percent immigrants. Enactment of new laws or
amendments affect the operations the immigrants and their families as well. High levels of
unemployment, however, adversely affect the country. The current unemployment rate is about
13 percent. Economists consider that structural problems including intense competition from the
poorly paid workers are responsible for the increase in the rate of unemployment (Alhamad,
2014). The government has intervened by passing Saudization laws to ensure the private sector
trains and employs more locals.
Tight and loose labor market conditions influence the economy in a number of ways. In
tight labor markets, an economy suffers from the shortage of skills and knowledge. The UK
market may soon be a tight one as its unemployment rate is low, and it requires the support of
skilled foreigners (Heywood & Peoples, 2006; Gonzalez, 2008). Saudi Arabia’s market, on the
other hand, is a loose labor market as it has a surplus of skills and knowledge.

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The levels of unemployment have influenced the enactment of laws that favor the
respective countries. The UK’s Equality Act 2010 and the Employment Rights Act 1996; for
example, safeguard the rights of people to equal employment opportunities (Shah, 2015; Landry
& Duran, 2012)). Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, has passed a series of laws those strict private
organizations to employ more citizens. The inequalities in wage levels help Saudi Arabia to
achieve the objective. The UK, on the other hand, relies on the equalities act to ensure equitable
pay.
The public and private sectors are different, and that ensures labor market laws in these
sectors are unique. The public sector pays great attention to serving the interest of the citizens
while the private sector focuses on creating markets to earn profits. Besides, a shorter hiring
process may be acceptable in the private sector. Managers in these sectors can also fire
employees whenever they consider it appropriate to do so. However, in the public sector, a
longer hiring process is involved, and firing is often based on different factors and time frames
(Lienert, 2009; Stiglitz, 2000). Further, the procurement process is often clearer in public
organizations than the private sector. Public organizations also often face outstanding
accountability but cannot choose their goals, unlike private organizations that are accountable
primarily to their board of directors and shareholders and can work with these stakeholders to
choose their organization’s goals.
Countries also choose the right types of employment contracts depending on their needs.
In the UK, for example, the most common contracts are full and part time, agency staff, and
freelance contracts (Gov, n.d.).. In Saudi Arabia, the leading employment terms are full-term
employment, part-time employment, temporary, and special contracts. In the country’s private
sector, the most common terms are fixed term and unlimited term contract (Government, n.d.).

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The UK market and Saudi Arabia are some of the leading labor markets given the
exceptionally high interest of international businesses such as ours in the regions, and the
organizations use several ways to position themselves strategically in the markets. The first
strategy is training their staff to offer the right products and services in culturally sensitive ways
(Shoult, 2002; Clarke & Morgan, 2007). That ensures the organizations know the needs of the
international market and meets them. Besides, they used several appropriate market entry
strategies including franchising, which is critical for organizations that have a weak brand
identity. They also ensure to offer competitive remuneration. Competitive pay helps them to
attract qualified personnel as they need to take care of the local cost of living and tax rates. As
such, the organizations train their staff, use the right market entry strategies, and offer
competitive wages.
Question 2
The Saudi government has a special role to play to ensure future job skills are met.
According to the country’s strategy for economic and social development report, the government
underscores that it has a responsibility to support the creation of sustainable jobs in the private
sector (Rivlin, 2009). The private sector has the ability to offer the types of jobs that the
locations consider attractive but needs government support to achieve this goal. One of the best
ways to realize this is enforced labor laws and establish the required employee right workplace
standards. Another strategy is attracting women to the workplace by reducing barriers that are
often on their way and reduce the cost of employing them, making the workplace friendly to
women. By creating the jobs, the locals consider attractive and supporting more women to join
the workforce, the country is increasing the number of people who can serve the country and
contribute to its economic growth.

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The government’s other role is to educate youths and women and guide them to make
educated career decisions. These individuals often fail to acquire the right skills due to lack of
education or poor career choices (Wilson, 2004). Another solution to the unemployment problem
is funding apprenticeships. Through on-the-job training, a new generation of practitioners can get
the education required to the licenses required to practice in certain regulated professions. The
government needs to partner with private companies and no-profit organizations to offer the
service. This way, the country will be able to empower many locals to join the workplace.
The government also has the duty to expand labor protection. The government should protect
wages and protects workers against exploitation. In this way, many of them would be encouraged
to acquire the skills to join the local workplace.
In addition, the government should align labor market needs with the education system.
The imbalances between workforce needs and education qualifications make it unnecessary to
acquire the skills (Wilson, 2004). The government should solve this issue so as to encourage
students to go to institutions of higher learning to be empowered to serve the people of Saudi
Arabia.
Employers also have a duty to ensure future skills needs are met. They need to
collaborate with the government and none profits to train their current workers. Besides, they
need to respect the law and pay competitive packages to attract more citizens to the local labor
market (Wilson, 2004). When employers train the workforce, obey the law, and offer attractive
rewards, they make the workplace attractive and more locals will be willing to acquire the skills
needed in the market.
Workplace representatives in Saudi Arabia also have a central role to play to ensure the
skills are met. They need to work closely with the lawmakers to protect the rights of workers

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(Wilson, 2004). In addition, they can educate workers on their rights. The cooperation and
education of workers are necessary for empowering employees to pursue the rights to be
equipped with the most relevant skills.
In the UK, trade unions exist and perform several duties to protect and advance the rights
of workers. These organizations achieve this objective by negotiating agreements on
employment conditions and terms with employers, addressing the concerns of their members on
matters such as possible redundancy, and offering the workers moral support when attending
disciplinary and grievance meetings (Striking Women, n.d.). In addition, whenever necessary,
trade unions in the UK provide workers who are their members with financial and legal support.
Question 3
Workforce planning helps to ensure the present and future skills needs are met.
Organizations cannot meet these needs if they fail to plan (Moore, 2012). However, for efficient
planning, they must make use of several principles.
One of the main principles of effective planning is setting strategy. The principles involve
laying out a plan through which the organization intends to achieve its staffing objectives (Moore
2012). From the strategy, the organization is able to define the best steps of action.
The next principle is key stakeholder involvement. An organization that wants to
effectively plan its workforce must involve all its key stakeholders. The entire planning and
implementation process require teamwork (Moore, 2012). One way to promote teamwork is to
embrace this principle from the strategy setting stage.
The other critical step involves determining key skills and competencies. According to
Dahlenburg, Crossley, & Pejovic (2005), an adequate knowledge of the skills and competencies
that a country or nation requires to meet its workforce needs is required to develop a viable

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workforce plan. Without the information, the entire planning process cannot produce any useful
results.
Span and gap analysis is another core principle of workforce planning. It involves
identifying the desired future state of the workforce and its present state and then developing
long and short-term strategies that would help achieve the objectives. The analysis identifies any
deficiencies that the organization needs to overcome.
Organizations need also to use the most efficient work planning tools to be able to realize
their goals. One of these tools is defining the direction of the workforce (Dahlenburg et al.,
2005). The tool refers to setting the direction and communicating the plan organization-wide.
This process may involve reviewing performance requirements as well as identifying the core
skills and competencies that the organization requires.
Another tool is modeling the current workforce. Organizations that use this tool ensure
they understand capabilities of workers and workforce distribution and use that to project a new
workforce plan (Dahlenburg et al., 2005). The tool helps to develop strategies that are helpful for
closing the gap.
Environment scanning is also another major tool for organizations are affected by
external and internal factors (Dahlenburg et al., 2005) This tool helps to review the social,
technological, political, demographic, and economic trends in the environment.
Another essential tool is organizational benchmarking with competitors. The benchmarking
ensures that organization is in the right direction based on industry standards. An organization
can assume it is on the right track yet it is performing poorly if it fails to use this tool.
Question 4

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The human resource department ensures their organizations have the required number of
employees, and plays a special role in developing basic succession planning process. Though the
department is not often responsible for the initiation or creation of the plan, it is in charge of
much of the implementation process (Noe, 2013). The HR department works closely with the top
management to hire qualified individuals for all position. By doing this, the department
maintains a pool of workers who are potential succession candidates. Further, the HR
department develops assessment programs that provide quality feedback to workers and
employers. The employers can use the feedback to track workers’ performance, which helps to
determine who can raise the leadership leader and when that should happen. The department also
acts as a catalyst and therefore ensures the appropriate supervisors deliver the assessments at the
right time and in the right manner. At the same time, HR assists to mature succession candidates.
The department does this by helping to plan training programs that equipped the targeted
candidates for the roles ahead. HR also evaluates and recommends the right compensation to
ensure workers are being competitively rewarded, which ultimately helps to retain many
potential succession candidates. Besides, it reviews and develops employee retention programs,
which also helps to ensure the organization retains the brightest and most effective candidates.
Moreover, the HR department develops reporting mechanisms that its uses to update senior
management and the board on the progress of individual candidates. The human response
department is, therefore, critical in driving succession plans in organizations.
The human resource department also advises the top management and board on career
development options. The department understands the skill requirements and when necessary can
guide their organizations on matters pertaining to job enrichment, mentoring, rotation, training

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assignment, and coaching to help equip employees for organizational future skill needs (Noe,
2013).
In addition, HR contributes to plans to downsize organizations. The department
communicates with the operations, sales and marketing, and other departments to know the
required labor force (Noe, 2013). If the organization cannot ensure equity and fairness due to its
size, the department can recommend downsizing. As such, HR can provide leadership when size
is the main problem hindering their organization’s success.
In addition, HR contributes to the development of job descriptions. Gilley, Eggland, &
Gilley (2002) provides that the department understands the required person specifications,
competency frameworks, labor laws and best practices, and relies on that knowledge to advise
and support their managers when making decisions on recruitment.
Question 5
Organizations must make recruitment decisions that accord with the relevant laws. Some
of the main legal provisions regard minimum wage, gender equality, and work conditions
requirements. The UK’s Equality Act (2010) is an example of a legal provision that safeguards
the interests of employers and employees (Selmi, 2013). The law, in particular, safeguards the
rights of youths, disabled persons, married people or those in civil partnerships, and pregnant or
nursing mothers. Besides, guards against racism, gender discrimination, and vices relating to
sexual orientation. The Data Protection Act (1998) ensures the data of employees remain secure
in the hands of the employer only.
Employers use various recruitment and selection methods despite that all of them have
certain weaknesses. Some of them choose to advertise in the mass media while others
recruitment agencies (Edenborough, 2007). The former option reaches out to many potential

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employees and, therefore, increases the chances of hiring the brightest individuals. However, if
the organization does not draft an appealing advert, it might not attract the right candidates as the
work of the media does not include offering guidance on how to drafts adverts. Besides, some
media houses charge exorbitant amounts of money, which small businesses cannot afford.
Recruitment agencies, on the other hand, are highly reliable and cheaper since
organizations pay them only after they succeed to get the right candidates. Besides, payment is
often based on the nature of support required (Edenborough, 2007). The agencies also offer
technical support on the best ways to attract qualified candidates, and in most cases, they take
over the task of looking for the candidates. If need be, the agencies interview and train the right
candidates on behalf of their clients. However, it can hardly attract as many potential candidates
as the media. Some of the agencies also lack the skills required to select the right candidates. As
such, organizations must choose the best methods depending on their respective needs and
budgets.
Other than the recruitment and selection costs, organizations are often forced to bear
costs related to employee turnover as there are many possible reasons employees leave
organizations. Some employees resign when they attracted to new jobs (Edenborough, 2007). On
another occasion, they are forced out of their current jobs due to dissatisfaction as a result of
issues such as lack of training and personal development and career opportunities. If, for
example, an employee learns he or she is not competent to handle the task at hand, the most
practical solution can be to resign. A combination of these two factors sometimes also leads to
their resignation. However, when employees are empowered to do their work, are paid
competitively, and are treated fairly by their line managers, they are more likely to stay for a
long period.

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Several costs are associated with dysfunctional employee turnover. For example, the
advertising costs for replacement, recruitment and selections costs, and training and induction
costs are high (Michel, 2009). The ultimate cost could be business closure as the amount of
money required to equip new employees frequently could be beyond the organization’s financial
strength.
Organizations should use the most appropriate approaches to retain workers, but they
should appreciate that these approaches have both strengths and weaknesses. Financial benefit is
useful for retaining workers as all workers expect competitive pay. In addition, high pay has the
potential to motivate employees instantly (Michel, 2009; Woodhouse, 2006). However, the
motivation often does not last for a long period. As a result, financial benefits alone cannot be a
reliable way to retain workers. Organizations can also use flexible working hours. Employees
feel valued when they are allowed to work flexibly. Nevertheless, this approach cannot be used if
the organizations ignore other approaches including financial benefits. As a result, organizations
should assess the exact needs of their employees and use the approaches that most appeals to
them.
Question 6
Organizations need to understand how they should use good and lawful practice to
manage dismissal, retirement, and redundancy cases. I would advise my company that there is
currently no default retirement age. The Equality Act 2010 abolished the requirement. I would
also inform them that the law on redundancies, The Collective Redundancies (Amendments)
Regulations 2008 repealed the 1985 Redundancies payment Act (Wadham et al., 2016).
Redundancy announcements often have adverse effects on morale, motivation, and productivity.
I would want my managers to know that the new law requires employers to allow their workers

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an opportunity to consult and identify suitable alternative employment. Organizations that have
between one to 20 employees have no obligation to consult, but it is good practice to do so. As
such, my organization should, whenever possible, consult. I would also bring to their attention
that employers with 21 to 99 employees are required to allow a 30 days consultation period. One
hundred-99 employee needs 45 days consultation period. However, the two parties have a right
to agree to stop talking in each of these cases at any time within the stipulated time frame. The
organization should remember that it is proper to operate within the law. However, strict legal
compliance may not be equal to good practice. As a result, they should always endeavor to reach
mutual agreements so as to satisfy the needs of both parties by promoting the observance of
‘good’ practice.
Additionally, I would advise them on dismissal. The Employment Rights Acts 1996 deals
with this matter and require employment tribunals to focus on fairness and justification. The
tribunals have to ensure that dismissing employees is the last resort (Stiglitz & Rosengard, 2015).
Besides, it is the duty of employers to never without any unreasonable delay investigate
allegations against employees to establish the facts. Further, employers are required to use a fair
and consistent procedure whenever dismissing any worker. Before taking any action, the
employer and employee should hold a meeting to establish the facts. If at the end of the
investigation the employee is dismissed unfairly, the employee has a right to challenge that
before a competent tribunal.
I would also advise my managers to know the consequences of dismissal. For employees
who had been in employment before April 6, 2012, they should get one year’s service. For those
who started employment on or after this date, they qualify for two year’s service payment.
However, for employees who are dismissed on ‘automatically unfair grounds’, there is no length

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of service requirement (Davies, 2009). The organization should, as a result, set out the rules
governing disciplinary measures in writing and ensure the employees and managers understand
them and avoid paying a lot of money due to dismissal cases.
There are potentially fair reasons for dismissal, and I would want my managers to
understand them. Reasons related to the conduct, capabilities, qualification for the job of the
employees are potentially justified (Davies, 2009). Other fair reasons could be redundancy,
statutory prohibition, and other substantial reason that could justify the dismissal.
Organizations should also know the automatically unfair reasons for dismissal so I would
advise my managers on the requirements. If the employee is exercising specific rights relating to
pregnancy and maternity, family reasons such as paternity and parental leave, and representation,
including acting as a representative of an employee, they cannot be dismissed (Chandran, 2011).
Other grounds on which an employee should never be dismissed include trade union
membership, part-time and fixed-term working, and national minimum wage.
I would also advise them on unfair dismissal, which arises when there is no good reason
for dismissing an employee (Chandran, 2011). When an employee is dismissed for asking for
flexible working, refusing to give up working time rights or demanding for a time off jury
service and is dismissed, it amounts to unfair dismissal.

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RAND.

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