Introduction:

Good job design is significant in ensuring that employees are fully engaged in their best productivity at the advantage of the company. It is the responsibility of the human resource department to ensure that the structures in place favor the company policies in achieving its goals and objectives. As the competition increases every day rising the demand for better services, the companies are forced to upgrade their systems to remain competitive. This is through workforce planning to ensure that human resources are reactive to the demands of the external environment and keep them manageable.  This report is of a pilot project undertaken the CERA human resource department on developing work plan policies that are in line with the company’s goals and objectives. The study evaluated if the present policies are relevant to the changing environment the company is facing and if any changes could be made to make the company’s work plan better in relation to improved customer service.

Background of the issue

Since CERA Company started, it put little emphasis on the human resource and evaluating its work plan policies. Luckily, for the company, its growth has been manageable and has retained its customers despite the increasing completion in the market. With the hiring of a new human resource manager Israel, the company has shifted a lot its efforts to the human resource department. The human resource manager undertook a study to evaluate the current work plan policies of the company and compare it relative to the competitive companies offering similar policies. The study was a road map to implement innovation and creativity and align them with the company’s prospects in the next five years. The study involved several stages.

Methodology

The procedure included collecting data, analyzing it and using the information gathered to recommend the required changes in the company’s work plan. Below were the steps involved.

• Stage 1: external data on the potential demand in the Sydney city and expanding on the region markets was collected.
• Stage 2: a workshop with the company’s management was held to translate the collected demand numbers into staffing
• Stage 3: the inventory of the numbers skills and demographics in the current staffing was taken
• Stage 4: analyzing the collected data and its implications were analyzed.

The study used a combinational of expert judgment and statistical methods to consider on the labor demand of the work in the CERA’S civil engineering and planning departments. The data was used to create a five-year projection of staffing. The implications of the data were analyzed and they included expanding the company in other region.  The decision was reached to through a developed staffing analysis of the staffing flows from the data collected. Analysis of the collected data was to act as guidance in implementing new work plan policies that integrated innovation and creativity within the human resource system aligned with the company goals and objectives

Findings

The study found a correlation between work plan and innovative performance. The study used historical demand pattern to collect the data analyzed.  These data was used to project how the industry spent on infrastructure projects. This was inclusive of two geographical regions considered in the study. The staffing demands for the CERA in the civil engineering and planning divisions were as indicated. The senior engineers 5:7, engineers 5:8, graduate engineers 2:5, senior planner 1:1 and planer 1:1 where the ratios represented are current to projections for the five years. The findings also compared the results obtained from the markets and those obtained the company.

Discussion of the findings

There is a need for the employees to become a bit smarter in issues involving environmental engineering capability. Having a good job design is directly related to improved productivity. A good job designs includes the following dimensions (Hunzicker, 2010).

• Variety of the skills -A good job design must constitute a range of different activities that require the employees to engage different skills and talents.
• Identity of the task – task identify reveals the degree under which a the work should be completed identifying various pieces into which the work is divided into
• Significance of the task it measures how relevance is the job and the impact it creates for the company customers, other organizations and the external environment
• Autonomy- defines the degree under which the job provides substantial freedom concerning planning of the work and determining the procedures used to carry out the planned work. It encourages employees to be independent and concentrate with the accomplishing the assigned tasks effectively
• Feedback- a through feedback will provide immediate and clear information about the work done to evaluate the required job results.

Considering the above characteristics while designing a job work plan will provide important support to integrate the creativity and innovative approach to the work done. CERA Company was conduction its first workforce plan in since its establishment and evaluation of the current work plan was a good starting point to develop a more effective work plan that that considered the emerging changes ion the market (Humphrey, Nahrgang, & Morgeson, 2007).. 

Diversity in the work environment also enhances creativity and innovation. To foster an innovative approach for CERA, the management must bringing multicultural diversity in its work plan. This enhances the level of involvement and engagement across the employees. To create an environment that encourages creativity, the work plan must also create a suitable climate by considering supportive works and supportive supervision. Creating an interesting and challenging job plan wills encourage the employees to put their maximum efforts to the desired results at the absence of external control factors (fostering, 2013).

Conclusions

It is apparent that a designing an effective work plan is very significant for CERA to integrate its desired creativity and innovative approach. However, creating the right attitude towards the employees is part of the job design that cannot be ignored in every company that seeks to expand to edge out competition. The research was crucial in identifying key areas that require improvement and application of the necessary characteristics of a good job design to ensure the company achieves its set goals and objectives. It is the responsibility of human resource management to implement a good job design to improve job satisfaction, improve quality of the work force while reducing or solving employee related problems.

Recommendations

In recommendations, all the programs created by CERA Company must adhere to the job design to integrate innovation creativity, as it is the core goal and objective of the study. In addition, feedback obtained through from the implementation of the work plan should be reviewed regularly and any recommended changes adjusted. This will ensure the company keeps track of the developments for both the internal or external factors, which can favor it from other competitors. Lastly, The Company should also consider diversifying its work force to encourage creativity and innovation.  Multicultural employee relationships create a perfect environment as ideas are shared on improvements that the company can make.

References:

Hunzicker, J. (2010). Characteristics of Effective Professional Development: A Checklist. Online Submission.

Campion, M. A., Medsker, G. J., & Higgs, A. C. (1993). Relations between work group characteristics and effectiveness: Implications for designing effective work groups. Personnel psychology, 46(4), 823-847.

Strickland, T., Collins, T., & Director, G. (2010). What Works? General Principles, Characteristics, and Examples of Effective Programs

Humphrey, S. E., Nahrgang, J. D., & Morgeson, F. P. (2007). Integrating motivational, social, and contextual work design features: a meta-analytic summary and theoretical extension of the work design literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(5), 1332.

 Fostering creativity and innovation (2013). Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/58509_Nahavandi_Chapter_7_proof.pdf    on 18^th April 2016.

Brian, N., Jie S., John C. and Monga, M( 2014) the international journal of human resource management: human resource diversity management practices in the Australian manufacturing sector. Vol (25). Sydney: Australia