2 major challenges for HRM (See attachments)

Two major challenges for HRM
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Introduction
Companies, through their Human Resource Offices, have a mandate of navigating through the changing global economy to recruit, select and train workers they need in their journey. Most of these companies face different challenges in their HR offices due to the changing nature of their work, and the desire to have better workers in the future. As a result HRM managers are always required to be ahead of their game, by putting into understanding various shifts in their operations like their future demographic, societal shifts and technological shifts, for purposes of preparing adequately. There are many challenges that are usually faced by Human Resource departments, and only two have been discussed in this paper.
HRM Challenge of Adapting to a rapidly changing worker profile
The demographic changes that have been witnessed both in the developed and developing nations have put enormous pressure on the private sector and the government to start and implement innovative solutions to integrate, retain and educate the population in the labor force.
More women are predicted to pour into the labor force in the coming years. Part-time workers and temporary workers are now a permanent issue that most organizations are dealing with currently. Organizations have therefore started to deal with a new type of employees who have diverse needs. Further, issues of cultural diversity and multi-generational labor force lead to a challenge of managing people in corporations, and this will be the case in the next ten years.

The aging population is posing a great danger and challenges to most companies around the globe. On the one hand, those employees who are experienced and skilled are retiring and leaving their workstations leading to gap that is undesirable. On the other hand, most employees more so those in US firms and other nations that are industrialized, plan to continue working past their age of retirement.
Most of these old workers desire to continue earning because of limited or zero benefits from the government. HR, however, will be required to provide more lucrative forms of incentives to keep such members out of the labor force. They will also need to assess the different training capabilities and skills that the old generation will require for them to perform to their optimum level. Such older workers may need to be trained in the areas of technology, which are often dynamic, and this will help them to feel part of the workforce and not alienated by their colleagues who are young.
Babyboomers may be persuaded to stay in their areas of work for longer periods, but they usually leave after few years, and this makes organizations feel vulnerable. Companies will be mandated to transfer knowledge and experience to the young generations when they begin working. If demand becomes increasingly high compared to supply for particular positions, HRM will be forced to rethink how they will put junior workers in superior positions that need experience and more tenure, they will also be forced to know the kind of training that will be needed by the junior workers before they start working.
Preparing the youth for different positions in an organization often comes with different challenges. In regions with massive rates of unemployment, there are chances that the youth may desire to quit completely from the labor force, and this will lead to a generation that is lost. Meanwhile, the imparted education and skills of workers ought to be relevant and usable by employers. The HRM has a general challenge in ensuring the integration of knowledge learned in schools and the practices required at the work place. They will therefore need to provide solutions, which will reform their participants who are willing to work with them so that they can be ready and relevant for work.
On the issue of women, it is clear that most organizations currently have challenges to maximize their potential. The women are not well represented in most top corporations around the globe. Only 13 companies among the 500 large companies by revenue around the globe had CEO’s who were female in the year 2012. This constituted a mere margin of 2.6%. Nine of the female CEO’s were found in the US, a region that had 16.9% of women who were in the board seats among the Fortune 500 companies in the year 2013. In other regions like Spain, Greece and Portugal the percentage of women in different senior positions is relatively low.
The main reason provided by most HR departments on the low rates of women workers is that most of them are never fully reliable as they often take offs to attend to their families. However, every one female among four graduates’ women in the US is currently childless, and most of these women are found to be in their forties. The lack of women representatives in most big corporations can be because of a minimal number of role models, who often help women to desire more advancement and compete with their male counterparts without fear. Another problem that affects women from joining higher ranks is that most of them feel that the positions are dominantly left for men.
The idea of adapting into a changing work profile that is challenging is vital for companies, as they will be required to equip themselves with necessary tools that they will use in the event of dealing with their employees. Conversely, the issues that pertain to female employees are currently embraced by most politicians, and this will see a change and overall shift on the employment capabilities of women in different organizations.
This challenge on HR is important because they need to keep both the old, young and female on the loop while dealing with recruitment, selection and retention of employees in their organizations. These are high-potential groups that need to be made use of in organizations; they should be motivated to ensure their continual participation in the provision of different services to their companies. The Human Resource department can solve such challenges by engaging with different mentors in the industry, who will also need to be involved in different projects and provisions that they desire to give to the old, young and female participants.
More broadly, HR has a mandate of providing the needs of their workers hence the need to understand them and their positions before delegating different duties. The HR department will also be required to meet the demands of their workers through promotions and other benefits that are always necessary for employees. The department will require increased knowledge and skill in dealing with their new form of workers because the idea of “one size fit all” will not work properly when providing different skills and incentives. Past incentives will also not be relevant for the present generation because of the changes that have been witnessed internationally.
The challenge of understanding the subtleties of workers’ qualifications
The overall idea and definition of work continue to change every other day. This makes it a necessity for employers to make changes to their operations to satisfy their employees and clients in the long run. The various skills that are usually required by workers to deal with the dynamic world are never readily available in the schooling system. Bartram (2009) reported that the particular skills that are currently provided by different institutions do not match the required skills at the work place, and such instances are seen to cause serious obstacles in the future.
The HRM department is mandated by all organizations to ensure a match between the job specification and the skills acquired by an employee, provisions that are always a challenge. Such scenarios often make it hard for various HR offices to assess the qualifications of applicants as required. A more complicated factor that is also evident is the zero level of standardization in the education system, and this is mostly common when making global considerations. When businesses expand they always desire to hire more workers, who might come from other regions around the globe. The need to ensure clear scrutiny of applications by HR becomes even more important. It is vital to note that there are disparities between different nations, and these disparities also exist between regions and institutions.
HR has a mandate of understanding such disparities so that they can be able to match their needs with the provisions in the market. Understanding the disparities will also help the HR to recruit carefully and only use labor that is vital for the organization in question. HR will be required to get in tune with other departments in their organizations, and this will help them to collaborate with different functions of the organization that are vital for recruitment and hiring of new employees. The interactions with different functions of the organization will be an important step in understanding the skills and qualifications needed by the organization, as this will help them to hire people who will be able to execute their duties as required.
The low birth rates in the US have led to a decline in population, and this is a serious problem to companies that still require manpower to continue their operations. Education reforms that are currently stagnant pose a great danger to most companies as HR fears for shortages in particular skills in the future. Afiouni and Schuler (2014) reveal that there are recruiting challenges facing roles related to engineering because of their complexity.
The desire and ability to handle different complex situation coupled with strategic vision, have been cited as being some of the skills that are currently hard to find when looking for senior executives. This is the reason behind vacant strategic roles, which often are later filled with individuals who have minimal skills and experiences in those roles. For other smaller roles below the management level, HR has found out that most of their workers lack creativity, and soft skills that are important when dealing with clients.
Advanced soft skills are currently lacking in different parts of Asia Pacific, and this has caused many concerns in many organizations who desire rapid expansion in the operations. Such companies have had to streamline their HR to provide new skills outside the region, and this often becomes expensive for companies when they make losses. Limited levels of creativity are a greater challenge, and often give the HR more challenges when they decided to look for new employees for their organizations.
In some emerging markets it has been found out that most of their graduate population is unemployable, and this makes it hard for companies to deal with twin shortages of technical skills and soft skills in their organizations. HR needs to make use of the multi-faceted approach, in dealing with the issues of shortages in skills and manpower, and they involve taking a role that is proactive when looking for different qualifications from the labor market.
HR can solve such a challenge by ensuring a clear relationship and dialogue between different institutions and the government. The department will need to push for reforms in the education sector so that different skills that are provided can match with their provisions. The education sector will need to be told to provide courses that address contemporary issues on business strategies. Such collaboration will be important as it will equip the future workforce with necessary skills that are relevant with their roles in the job market. Through the HR department, organizations can provide and influence the courses that are being taught in schools, for purposes of ensuring creative education solutions.
The HR department through their organizations can also foster partnerships with different universities with the aim of providing vocational skills training. Global Talent Track, which is an Indian education and training company for example, has been operating under this collaboration that is often done between different stakeholders. The company receives funding from Cisco Systems, Helion Ventures and Intel Capital and seeks to provide more than 500,000 students with vocational skills that are often crucial in the working environment.
Another company called The National Skills Development Corporation operates in India by providing skills that are needed in the job market. The company through their HR provides materials and tutors to different institutions, where they teach the student on different matters that pertain to the workplace. An important question has however been raised during such platforms as to the people who responsible of instilling vocational knowledge to the students before they enter the job market (Patel, 2010).
The HR can also eliminate such a challenge by working with their companies, and providing international training systems that are geared towards teaching students various IT skills that are necessary in the work place. A company that provides such services in India is Vivek Wadwha, and has managed to offer IT education lessons to more than 100,000 students from the region. They operate with the desire of providing vital information that is needed by students before they join the job market.

Conclusion
The HR department is often crucial in any organization as it manages the people. Due to technological advancements and other technical changes around the globe, companies face different challenges that are always left for the HR departments. The department works in conjunction with other organizational functions to provide solutions that might provide better workforce that are relevant to the organization in question. The HRM department is important in ensuring that all employees can perform their functions with minimal supervision. With the current changes in HRM, it is vital that employees, executives and managers understand the challenges that are always faced by today’s HRM department.

References
Afiouni, F., Ruël, H. & Schuler, R., 2014. HRM in the Middle East: toward a greater understanding. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(2), p.133-143.
Bartram, T., Stanton, P. & Thomas, K., 2009. Good morning Vietnam: new challenges for HRM. Management Research News, 32, p.891-904.
Patel, P.C. & Cardon, M.S., 2010. Adopting HRM practices and their effectiveness in small firms facing product-market competition. Human Resource Management, 49(2), p.265-290.