Analysis of HR Ethical Issues and Labor Force Trends Impact

This report delves into current HR ethical issues, with a specific focus on gender equity in the workplace and its implications for HRM policies and practices. It discusses a case of gender discrimination and emphasizes the importance of equality and equity in HR management. The report further explores the implications of various labor force trends, including an aging workforce, a diverse workforce, and skill deficiencies, on HRM. It analyzes the challenges and opportunities presented by these trends, such as increased medical costs, lack of innovativeness in an aging workforce, the benefits of a diverse workforce, and the consequences of skill deficiencies. The report concludes by highlighting the need for companies to adapt their HR policies to address these evolving trends and ensure effective workforce management. References from leading HRM literature support the analysis.

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1. Current HR ethical issues in organization and their implications for HRM policies
and practices
Gender Equity in workplaces has been an issue that has been in discussion for quite a
moment. The modern woman is learned and is climbing the ladder as a career woman as fast as
her male counterparts. Although some years back, most of the opportunities were going to the
men, currently, women have better access to flexible working conditions, more support during
their maternity period and women are getting better qualifications than the men. A case in point,
is where a a company in Indonesia refused to promote a woman into a managerial position citing
her availability as a woman since she was pregnant at the time. The position was taken by her
junior who had less qualifications in the department. She went to court and was awarded for the
company had not given her valid reasons why she was not promoted (Bratton, and Gold, 2017).
The ethical practice in HR is that there should be equality and equity in human resource
management. Issues in persistent pay gap and inequality in workplaces has led to male
domination in the place of work.
Women are usually under-represented in the work place in executive positions and the
impact of a women and work life balances affecting the modern women. To avoid this work
place pay gap, companies and HR policies employ a requirement that they would publish their
respective pay gap in their company websites. This is deemed to stop the disparity in wage
payment where men are paid better than women yet they perform similar job descriptions.

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(2) Explain the implications of each of the following labour force trends for HRM:
An ageing workforce
An ageing workforce brings with it several challenges; First, an organization with an
aging workforce will incur higher medical costs caused by among other things disability and
various diseases. One study revealed that in a workforce that has employees of ages between 40
to 50 the increase in cost is 25% and 35% increase in medical cost for a workforce that has ages
between 50 to 60 years. There is lack of innovativeness in an organization with an older
workforce compared to a younger workforce (Brewster, and Hegewisch, 2017).
b) A diverse workforce
Companies have realised that there are more pros than cons in this era of globalization and
technology hence many companies are making an effort to increase cultural diversity. Some of
the positive benefits that a diverse workforce brings are increased productivity, increased
creativity , improved cultural insights, the company gets a good reputation and lastly a reduced
employee turnover.
C) skill deficiencies
A skill deficiency can be defined as the inability to supply the right skills according to the
organization’s needs. The implications of skill deficiency to the organization is loss of business
to more competitive firms that offer better products or services. The consequences of skill
deficiency is incompetent and substandard products and services (Cascio, 2015). The company’s

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profits go down due to this skill deficiency and also there is a lot of inefficiency in an
organization that has skill deficient employees. The human resource department may spend a lot
of resources and time in training these employees to meet the required skills level and
competencies. This is a cost implication to the organization (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, and
Wright, 2017).

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References
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Brewster, C. and Hegewisch, A. eds., 2017. Policy and practice in european human resource
management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield survey. Taylor & Francis.
Cascio, W.F., 2015. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management:
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.