2010

Human Resource Management

Changing expectation of employees

in 21st century
Tomorrow’s Employee Expectations
We know that workers need rising living standards over their lifetimes, a
balance between the demands of work and family, and workplaces that are
safe and fair.

Rohan Kumar Sinha

BBA-MBA

Lovely School of Management

 Content
1. Acknowledgement

2. Introduction

3. Evolution

4. My Work

5. 21st Century Human Resource Management

 Major Influencing Factors

 Futuristic Vision

6. Literature Review

7. Findings

8. Conclusion

10. References

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 Acknowledgement

The satisfaction and delight that accompanies the completion of any task would be
incomplete without mentioning the people who made it possible with their constant guidance
and encouragement which put the finishing touch to all the efforts with success.

I Rohan Kumar Sinha extend my intense gratitude and respect to my course instructor for
providing a learning platform. I express my deep sense of gratitude and sincere thanks to her
for her valuable guidance.

I would like to thanks my seniors, who helped me thoroughly for shaping out things well in
order.

Rohan Kumar Sinha

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Introduction:

Human Resource Management has come to be recognized as an inherent part of management,

which is concerned with the human resources of an organization. Its objective is the
maintenance of better human relations in the organization by the development, application
and evaluation of policies, procedures and programmes relating to human resources to
optimize their contribution towards the realization of organizational objectives.

In other words, HRM is concerned with getting better results with the collaboration of people.
It is an integral but distinctive part of management, concerned with people at work and their
relationships within the enterprise. HRM helps in attaining maximum individual
development, desirable working relationship between employees and employers, employees
and employees, and effective modeling of human resources as contrasted with physical
resources. It is the recruitment, selection, development, utilization, compensation and
motivation of human resources by the organization.

Evolution:

The early part of the century saw a concern for improved efficiency through careful design of
work. During the middle part of the century emphasis shifted to the employee's productivity.
Recent decades have focused on increased concern for the quality of working life, total
quality management and worker's participation in management. These three phases may be
termed as welfare, development and empowerment.

21st Century Human Resource Management: Major

Influencing Factors:

In the 21st century HRM will be influenced by following factors, which will work as various
issues affecting its strategy:

Size of the workforce.

Rising employees' expectations

Drastic changes in the technology as well as Life-style changes.

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 Composition of workforce.

New skills required.

Environmental challenges.

Lean and mean organizations.

Impact of new economic policy.

Political ideology of the Government.

Downsizing and rightsizing of the organizations.

Culture prevailing in the organization etc.

21st Century Human Resource Management:

Futuristic Vision

On the basis of the various issues and challenges the following suggestions will be of much
help to the philosophy of HRM with regard to its futuristic vision:

1. There should be a properly defined recruitment policy in the organization that should give
its focus on professional aspect and merit based selection.

2. In every decision-making process there should be given proper weightage to the aspect that
employees are involved wherever possible. It will ultimately lead to sense of team spirit,
team-work and inter-team collaboration.

3. Opportunity and comprehensive framework should be provided for full expression of

employees' talents and manifest potentialities.

4. Networking skills of the organizations should be developed internally and externally as

well as horizontally and vertically.

5. For performance appraisal of the employee’s emphasis should be given to 360 degree
feedback which is based on the review by superiors, peers, subordinates as well as self-
review.

6. 360 degree feedback will further lead to increased focus on customer services, creating of
highly involved workforce, decreased hierarchies, avoiding discrimination and biases and
identifying performance threshold.

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7. More emphasis should be given to Total Quality Management. TQM will cover all
employees at all levels; it will conform to customer's needs and expectations; it will ensure
effective utilization of resources and will lead towards continuous improvement in all spheres
and activities of the organization.

8. There should be focus on job rotation so that vision and knowledge of the employees are
broadened as well as potentialities of the employees are increased for future job prospects.

9. For proper utilization of manpower in the organization the concept of six sigma of
improving productivity should be intermingled in the HRM strategy.

10. The capacities of the employees should be assessed through potential appraisal for
performing new roles and responsibilities. It should not be confined to organizational aspects
only but the environmental changes of political, economic and social considerations should
also be taken into account.

11. The career of the employees should be planned in such a way that individualizing process
and socializing process come together for fusion process and career planning should
constitute the part of human resource planning.

Human Resource Management should be linked with strategic goals and objectives in order
to improve business performance and develop organizational cultures that foster innovation
and flexibility. All the above futuristic visions coupled with strategic goals and objectives
should be based on 3 H's of Heart, Head and Hand i.e., we should feel by Heart, think by
Head and implement by Hand.

Employers Seek a Variety of Skills

It is not only employees who have expectation regarding future jobs, the employers also have
some expectations regarding future employees, they are-

1. Basic Skills: The academic basics of reading, writing, and computation are needed in jobs
of all kinds. Reading skills are essential as most employees increasingly work with
information on computer terminals, forms, charts, instructions, manuals, and other
information displays. Computation skills are needed to organize data for analysis and
problem solving. Writing is an essential part of communications, conveying guidance to
others, and in establishing a permanent base of information.

2. Technical Skills: Computer skills are well on their way to becoming baseline requirements
for many jobs. Workers use a growing array of advanced information, telecommunications,
and manufacturing technologies, as employers turn to technology to boost productivity and
efficiency, and to deliver services to customers in new ways. In 1986, business spending on
information technology represented 25 percent of total business equipment investment. By
1996, information technology’s share had risen to 45 percent. For some industries - such as
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communications, insurance, and investment brokerages - information technology constitutes
over three-quarters of all equipment investment. Forty-two percent of production and
nonsupervisory employees in manufacturing and service establishments now use computers.
Moreover, information technology changes rapidly, requiring workers to frequently upgrade
their skills for competency in successive generations of technology.

3. Organizational Skills: New systems of management and organization, as well as

employee – customer interactions, require a portfolio of skills in addition to academic and
technical skills. These include communication skills, analytical skills, problem-solving and
creative thinking, interpersonal skills, the ability to negotiate and influence, and self-
management. More than half of non-managerial employees participated in regularly
scheduled meetings to discuss work-related problems, indicating the need for these skills.

4. Company Specific Skills: New technology, market changes, and competition drive
companies to innovate, constantly upgrade products and services, and focus on continuous
improvement of work processes. As a result, employees must frequently acquire new
knowledge and skills specifically relevant to the company's products and services, and their
production processes or service delivery modes.

Literature Review
Prof R.K Gupta (2005) emphasized on the impact of technology
and globalization on work force
In this article, the author describes the impact of technology change and effect of changing
globalization on the work force. Today’s organization demand that manpower should be
stress less and ready to work within any environment. They want that the prospective
employees of 21st century should not be only emphasis on facilities and salaries; they should
change themselves according to the changing environment.

Deborah DeMay (2005) emphasized on the failure of succession

planning
In this article, the author depicts the quality and process of succession planning also he
describes that why the succession planning is not successful till now. It also describes the
high performer and high potential employees. They need to change their traditional approach
of succession planning to modern approach of succession planning, so that the failure rate can
be decreased.

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U.S. Department of Commerce (1999) emphasized on the
education and flexibility of employees
In this article, the U S Dept of Commerce describes the quality and need of better education
to the existing employees as well as to the prospective employees. The education should be
based on the demand of the job requirement which can make the employees more flexible to
fit in any job that requires in the current and future era. In this article the author also gives the
importance to skills, training, and, shifts in organization and management.

Ron Lloyd (2004) emphasized on the tomorrow’s employee

expectations
In this article Ron Lloyd describes that it is not only that organization demand the expertise
and advance employees, it is their responsibility too to provide the employees with customise
reward programs. The proper monitoring of the employees should also be there, so that it
helps in moulding the employees with respect to 21st century.

Frieda Reitman (2008) emphasized on the changing expectation of

employees regarding there career
In this article Frieda Reitman describes that in today scenario the employee seeks the job not
because of monitory value but more because of career growth and life goals. Employees are
more willing to work in those organizations which provide career enabling program and skill
development programs etc.

Kathryn Yeaton (2008) emphasized on the generation Y

employees
In this article Kathryn describes the new approach to recruit new generation employees, who
have more expectations and need more flexibility in their job. He also gave some technical
steps that should be followed in the organization so that it would help in motivating the
employees.

Sean P Doran (2006) emphasized on the change of management in

current corporate arena

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In this article Sean describes that in today scenario the management should change constantly
so that it helps in regular improvement as it directly effects the expectation of employees
which is indirectly related to the customers. He also gave some step to be followed to
enhance the performance result of the organization.

Patrick Mirza (1988) emphasized on raising expectation

In this article Patrick emphasized on the management role in determining the expectation of
employees. He describes that management should consider the employees value rather than
compensation system. If unreasonable expectation created then employees will also become
dissatisfied and final may leave that organization.

Findings
After analysing different view points of these authors, I found that management and
employees expectation are directly related to each other. As the corporate sector is changing,
the expectation is also increasing day by day. In present scenario, most of the employees are
not concern only with their compensation package but more with their career path, skill
developments and personal recognization in their job.

Conclusion
After going through the term paper, I have came to know, that the employees are changing
their expectation from their job not only due to inflation but also due to the security of job,
self recognization and self actualization etc. The employees demand more facilities rather
than more salary in their job. None of the organizations whether in India or abroad can retain
their employees on the basis of compensation plan or bonus/incentives plans. So, concluding
this term paper in my views that in present scenario the employees are demanding more
facilities and securities, so the management should have to ready for more expectation of
employees.

References
www.transformationsolutions.net/.../2008-
29%2021st%20Century%20Succession%20Planning.pdf

www.monitortalent.com/.../Monitor_Eamonn_Kelly_on_Work.pdf

www.sunlife.ca/static/canada/Customer%20Solutions/.../pdf/chapter2.pdf

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www.expertscolumn.com/.../human-resource-management-nature-scope-objectives-
and-function

www.fresnounified.org/.../21st%20Century%20Skills%20for%2021st%20Century%20Jobs
.pdf

Articles:

Enabling the new careers of the 21st century

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=1626525761&SrchMode=1&sid=9&Fmt=3&VInst=P
ROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1273433096&clientId=129893

Recruiting and Managing the 'Why?' Generation: Gen Y

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=2&did=1465982671&SrchMode=1&sid=9&Fmt=4&VInst=P
ROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1273433096&clientId=129893

21st Century Manager Imperatives

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=8&did=1024907441&SrchMode=1&sid=9&Fmt=3&VInst=P
ROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1273433096&clientId=129893

Raising expectations
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=7&did=419936171&SrchMode=1&sid=10&Fmt=3&VInst=P
ROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1273433172&clientId=129893

Lessons in Loyalty
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=392921&SrchMode=1&sid=11&Fmt=6&VInst=PRO
D&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1273433480&clientId=129893

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