Human Resource in UK and China - Essay Example

HUMAN RESOURCE IN UK AND CHINA Human Resource in UK and China Introduction: Human Resource is the general framework in an organization that develop the knowledge, abilities and skills of the individual personnel as well as the whole organization. It is basically develops opportunities for training and career development of the employees. It seeks to identify performance management, key employees, planning and achieve an overall organization development. Human Resource exists to develop the most optimum and efficient workforce for the organization and developed every individual employee to make them achieve their work goals (Heathfield, 2014). The Human Resource plays a vital role for the organization’s achievement of sustainability. Sustainability includes every aspect such as economic, social and environmental considerations. It pervades aspects that are crucial for the simultaneous delivery of positive results for the people, the environment and for the sake of business profit. Human Resource management includes overall organizational process, manage changes, and culture cultivation for the development and implementation of sustainability strategies (SHRM, 2011). The field of the Human Resource is a very wide field of academic and practice discipline. As defined, HRD is the process for unleashing and developing the human expertise through personnel training and development and the whole progress of the organization for improved performance. Its concern is in the dynamic issues for the individual and organizational changes. One of its functions is to capture the essence of the training and development of personnel. In the 21st century, new trends in the field of HRD for personnel training and development are introduced every now and then (Swanson and Holton, 2001) The current trend for today’s career development has significantly gone global. Across the country workers are steadily increasing and most of the countries today welcome foreigners to work on their land. The integration of diverse cultures in the various fields of profession encourages the individuals to venture on foreign lands. International collaborations for the career and development have instituted ways to make the career development across borders easy, accessible and fast. In choosing the best career to take nowadays, decisions must be based on the current trends of the career development in consideration of the global and local environments. The fields that fit in today’s generation are those that offer lasting growth and continuous developments. They must not just be in the field of profession but also in the total development of the person. The NHRD of UK fosters the national workforce development and initiates conceptualization in the HR of UK. For more than 10 years, the government concentrated on the up-skilling of their workforce and focused their development in the variety of initiatives that effected their understanding and provision of HR Development in UK. The government took part in the shaping of the NHRD while having consultative and stakeholder-based view of HRD. The government views the HRD as a big factor for the economic progress and fosters the competence of their workforce in all sectors (Lee, 2004). In China, the HRD fully materialized after China entered into the WTO in December 2001. As the 21st century begins, the globalization effected long term influence to the general HRD. China, in their move for globalization, recognizes their need to seize opportunities to promote their HRD and create reformation initiatives that can contribute and maintain their progress of the national economy (Jincheng, L., n.d). National Context UK The HR is the agency that foresees the labor market of the nation. In the UK, the labor market in the latest poll has increasing values. The number of employment in the private and public sectors greatly improved alongside with the confidence level of the manufacturing sector. Meanwhile, there is also a rise in the labour demand based on the survey of the LMO. The high vacancy is due to the difficulty of filling up with highly skilled employees. Based on latest survey of LMO, the current most demanded positions are for those skilled workers. Challenges in the recruitment process are the lack of applicants. There is now a shortage of highly qualified individuals that create a deep impact in the many vacancies in most of the work. The tightness in the labor markets are for chosen sectors that demands for highly skilled individuals (CIPD, 2014). The supply and demand in the labor market greatly impacts the HRD strategic formation. It is the HR that dutifully strategizes the organization’s approaches to set balance in the demand for labor, the availability of specific skills, expertise, and knowledge. The UK labor forces in 2014 accounts of 32.7 Million workers. The demand for labour in the market is affected by the wage rate, demand for the products, productivity of labor, and substitutes. The wage rate is greatly affected by various reasons such as human capital differences, formal education, and the skills. Some controversial issues may include discrimination, gender, and the national minimum wage. It is the government that can influence the wage rate by setting a national minimum wage. The national minimum wage introduction in UK in 1997affected also the wages of the female population. With the increase of the technological change and the formation of the new economy, there is an increase in the skilled worker’s productivity. The globalization has also instituted an increase in the skilled sector and produces a decline in the unskilled workers. However, it is the HRD that invests in the human capital development. Their strategies set forth the productivity of the general workforce via training, education and additional of resources. The firms capitalize on this human capital development so that there would be an increase in the skilled workers (Economics Online). In UK, the neo-liberal reformations of the government in the 1980s and 1990s opened up the BBC for competition with private sectors while introducing varied practices in the private sector. With such moves, there was a manifold effect in the employment. The company let go of the traditional hiring method. There was an increase in the short terms working contracts for people. With the competition of programmes, producers adopted a guarded approach that helps them in their costing and budgeting while at the same time, it helps them cover up for the demand of personnel during peak season or when there are projects available. There is also now an ethical contention of flexible working practices in UK. In this way, the work organizations are lifted from their moral responsibility to their employees. The death of the long term employment in the UK organizations tragically affected the morality of the citizens declining their citizenship behaviors. The companies must be the organizations that must harness the moral order o society and not just to make money for the social benefit that would just be entirely theirs (Sagepub, nd). China Over the past years, Chinas economic reforms affected its labor market transformation of a market-driven system has taken over China. The urban and rural segregations of economy paved way to the better understanding of the Labor market reformation issues. In the 1949, when the Communist Party of china became powerful, there was zero or static mobility between the two worlds. In 1970, the economic reformations erupted in China where the agricultural sector increased in the rural areas. The major reformation of China in their employment and labor market happened in 1980. Even still in the communist regime, Chinese labor market started its mobility in the 1980s. There were jobs that became available and the government responded with encouragement to its people (Meng,X. 2012). There are many companies in China the now pays higher wages and delivers better condition for their employees as compared with the drastic environment before. The labor laws that evolved in 2008 greatly helped the workers to gain contractual rights. Companies are competing for talents in the labour market and encourage them to stay longer in the company by increasing salary every year. The HR alone cannot manage the labor market of China. However, they work hand in hand with the government and private sectors to deal with the increasing segmented labor market of China. Companies take the lead in their implementations of HR strategies to help their bottom lines, produce quality talents and recruit the best candidates for their positions. The management of the organizations expects the HR to be their proactive business partners. They must respond with agility and speed towards the fast changing environment and circumstances especially when there is a new market involved. There is at utmost challenge in the context of HR in China due to the profound differences in the culture and also the fast socio economic shifts every now and then (Chu and Colombo, 2014). Government Interventions The interventions of the state in the HRD policies are universal and common to many nations around the world. The government may intervene directly or softly. The direct intervention encompasses laws and regulations for HRM that the government instituted. The soft or normative interventions on the other hand, are done through initiatives of the government in the promotion of management behaviors and HRM practices. It must be noted that the state interventions are vital in the shaping of the HRD practices. In UK, the local government interventions in the HR greatly affected the development of the HRD of the country. After the government re-organization in UK during 1972, the government required the HR to continually review their working practices. As such, the last Workplace employment Relations Survey of UK revealed that the HR specialist role in the public sector changed more radically in the public sector than the private sector. The HR are required to attract talents and to develop their employment practices to promote deeper commitment of employees in their jobs. The traditional forms of HR practices were greatly challenged and are now facing reformation. There is now a trend in the local government of UK to direct the daily operational burdens to the line managers. Thus, the front line HR takes a higher role. However, the changes in the views of the HR functions have affected their efficiency in some ways. There is now a reduced emphasis on the organizational approach to achieve organization justice over their demonstration of legal compliances (Harris, nd). In China, the government intervened in the HRD to address the vast skill gaps and the lack n management competencies in order for China to meet the demands of their economic growth. The autocratic form of government of China has greater freedom in intervening in various levels of the agencies. There are two main goals in the government’s intervention in china. Primarily, it sets for the facilitation of the establishment of the harmonious employment relations and lead the enterprises for harmonious society. Secondly, it seeks to combat the severe problem of lack of skill workers in China that directly affects the competitiveness of the nation. Through the intervention of the state, there is an immediate raising of the level of the craft skills, standards for professionals and the management competencies. There were various state led HRD initiatives and legislative regulations that directs, coerce and seek for the voluntary and cooperative manners of the various institutions in China. One of their promulgated regulations include the “trial Regulation of enterprise Supernnuation’ done in the year 2004 and the “provisional Regulation on Enterprise Supernnuation Fund Management Agency Qualification Accreditation” released in 2005. There is also the “Regulation on Talent Market Management” in 2002 which allows the employment agencies of foreigners to enter the Chinese market in the provision of services (Cooke, 2013). Employees The coverage of employees and their rights cover a wide range of topics. In UK, the employee rights have been established a long time ago. There are updates every now and then as based on the innovative initiatives of the HR practices along the years. The major legislative subtopics included under the employee section of the HR covers but are not limited to the following (Knowhow NonProfit, 2014): Regulations for Working hours – this is to ensure that the employee does not work beyond the legal maximum hours. This also stipulates the leave, time offs and the breaks of the employees Pay – The pay is the central goal of every employee. There is a standard minimum wage set by the national government for wage positioning purposes Health and safety – the employees deserved to be safe and healthy in their workplace The employment law in UK are derived from three sources which are: 1. The common Law – This law forms the legal and regular basis of the relationship between the employer and the employee. Upon employment of the employee, there is a required contract of employment that needs to be in writing where both parties are free to stipulate their agreement based on the coverage of the regulations of the law. There are also statutory employment protection rights that govern the process regardless of the contract. The law also governs the liabilities of the employer to their employees and their liabilities during accidents. 2. Statute – The employment protection legislation has been promulgated in UK since the early 1970s. These laws are further supplemented with common law throughout time. Some of the statutory laws already followed includes: Equal Pay Act; Sex Discrimination Act; Disability Discrimination; Trade Union and Labour Relations Act; Race Relations Act;, Health and Safety at Work; Employment Relations; and so forth. Parental rights – these are the rights associated with maternity, paternity and other leaves for the dependents Discrimination – the employees have the right against discrimination Flexible working requests Equality Act 2010 Information and Consultation of Employee Regulations 3.The European Law – Whereby the UK laws failed to implement properly the EC Treaty obligations, the European Law covers the employees in various aspects of concerns such as employee’s rights, equal pay, discrimination and others. The European Court of Justice serves as the final arbiter for the matters of legislation in Europe (Tim-Russell, nd). At the turn of the new era, China is now exerting every effort in making their employment law applicable for globalization for the expansion of their skyrocketing economy. The employment regulations in China underwent many significant changes, with their Labor law promulgated in the year 1994 and later on the Labor Contract Law on 2008. Specifically, the HR employment legislations applied in China include: Terms of Employment- China has three terms for employment: definite, the indefinite and the piecemeal. Piecemeal is a type of compensation system where the employees are paid for actions performed that are not on the basis of working time. Wages – The minimum wage in China is set on the municipal and provincial level with standards of measurement by hourly and monthly. Labor Protections – The work-related injury insurance system is provided by the HR in China which covers the medical expenses of the employees while they are in their work. Working Conditions – In China, the general description of the conditions in work adheres to the China Labor Laws. It is important that employees are informed of the hazards included in their works. Other conditions that employees should be notified also includes warning notices, fines, penalties, punishments, hygienic work condition, health, safety and so forth. Working hours, Leave and Rest Periods – The HR in China complies with the regulating laws for the required number of hours, the rest and leave periods, and the holidays that are provided to the employees. Social Insurance – Both the employers and the employees are required to contribute to insurance funds administered by the provincial and municipal government. There are many more terms related to employees and their rights in the context of China’s HR. There are additional addenda to the contracts that may depend on the employers. There are already many benefits that China provides to their employees. The transformation of the economy of china has led to the evolution of the labor laws with foundational framework for workforce progression and the labor protections (Wang, 2012). References: Chu, Alan and Colombo, Lawrena. (2014). ‘people Change: Ainging your talent strategy to China Business Strategy”. PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP. CIPD: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Developmen.t (2014). Labour Market Outlook 2014. Cooke, F. (2013). “Human Resource Management in China: New trends and practices”. Routledge. NY: New York. Economics Online. (2014). “The Labour Market”. Economics Online Ltd. Accessible from http://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Competitive_markets/The_labour_market.html Harris, L. (nd).”The Changing Nature of the HR function in UK local Government and its role as employee champion”. Nottingham Business School. Heathfield, Susan. (2014). “What is Human Resource Development (HRD)?”. About.com. Jincheng, L. (n.d). “China’s Human Resources Development and Public Sector Reform Facing Economic Globalization”. Institute of Administrative Science. Ministry of Personnel Peoples Republic of China. Ming, Xen. (2012). “Labor Market Outcomes and Reforms in China”. Journal of Economic Perspective. Vol 26 No 4. Pp 75-102. Lee, Monica. (2004). “National Human Resource Development in the United ingdom. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 6 (3),. Pp 334-345. Sagepub. (nd). “Labor Market Context”. Accessible from http://www.sagepub.com/wilton/The%20Labour%20Market%20Context.pdf SHRM Foundation. (2011) “SHRM’S Role in Corporate Social and Environmental Sustainability”. SHRM Foundation. USA: Alexandria, VA. PDF. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/about/foundation/products/documents/4-12%20csr% 20report%20final %20for%20web.pdf Swanson, R. and Holton, E. (2001). Foundations of Human Resource Development. Berrett- Koehler Publishers. Tim-Russell. (nd). “Guide to UK Employment Law”. PDF. Accessed at http://www.tim-russell.co.uk/upimages/employment%20guide.pdf Wang, Alice Shelor. (2012). “China: Globalizing in China in 2012”. Fisher & Phillips LLP. Accessible through http://www.mondaq.com/x/166714/Employee+ Rights/Globalizing+in+China+in+2012 Read More