Changing Face of Work in Australia

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Changing Face of Work in Australia

In the organisation, human resource management is one of the most crucial function which is concerned with management of people within the company. This process includes activities or functions including recruitment, selection, imparting training and development, induction and orientation of employees, performance appraisal, compensation, employee relations and motivation etc. In the success of organisation, human resource management department is the major contributor as it is in a significant position 'to influence customers, organisational results and the shareholder value' (Human Resource Management, (2018). The performance of an organisation is positively impacted by high performance HRM by maximising abilities and skills of employees, empowering and motivating them to act and perform.

In today's competitive business environment, there are various changes takes place including environmental, technological, socio-demographic changes etc. These changes influences the employment, productivity and income inequality. As the work environment nature changing constantly, some new trends have come forth at team, individual and organisational levels. Manpower is now more diverse demographically than ever and aged employees stand for a epochal subset of working population (Beddington and et. al., (2012). Increasing complexity of tasks and advancement in technology have given rise to much interdisciplinary and virtual teams. Moreover, the interest in multinational companies has grown as many business entities seek to enhance overseas operations. If society is acceptive to these changes and adapt with the new technology quickly, then it can provide benefit to workforce as well as organisation. Due to technological, environmental and socio-demographic trends, the workforce and nature of work keep changing.

In recent years, many companies have confronted public scrutiny over alleged practices at workplace and the way they treat their employees. For example: In string of global firms accused of unsafe and unfair work conditions, Amazon is the one with suggestions of considerable time pressures, abusive supervision style, high work demands, excessive monitoring and unstable work arrangements. In rapid technological advancements, consumer demands and globalization are the forces contributed to this (Dziegielewski & Holliman, (2019).

A New Landscape of Employment

The rapid pace of change, new technologies, globalization, desire for high work control, industrial shifts and automation have seen developments in work types in which the people of Australia are engaged. Gig economy which is characterised by temporary, short term work engagements is emerged constantly and technology facilitate this progression by administering platforms for work contracting like AirTasker and Uber. When this has been occurring, industries such as retail sector have also changed. As the utilisation of internet is much prevalent, the industry is reshaping by the demand of consumers for online shopping. The advancement in technology helps as well as hinder the working life. The technological change has the potential to make the work easier, de-enrich job roles, increase demands and work intensity and decrease wages (The changing nature of work, (2019).

Apart from this, organisations use technology to enhance working conditions by automation of day to day tasks and enables workforce to emphasise more on creative, stimulating and meaningful tasks. Advanced technology helps firm in improving its recruitment procedure by introducing new methods of hiring employees. Moreover, it supports in growth and development of employees within organisation by providing them with effective training programmes. It also helps human resource managers in doing proper workforce planning as with the helps of technology, they enable to easily determine the manpower gap within firm and hire right number of people at right time and place. The employees also get benefited from the adoption of automation as this helps them in learning new knowledge and skills that ultimately supports in their future career growth (Healy & Link, (2012). As the economy changing continuously at global level and increasing technological disruption is experience, the kind of job opportunities accessible to people of Australia will also keep change. Casualization of labour force and trend of non standard work is growing continuously. Today, more people want to work in casual working hours and many companies heavily rely on casual manpower, yet often the candidates they ideally recruit wants permanent work arrangements (Lawrence, Richards & Lyons, (2013).

Worker Vulnerability and Exploitation

Changing work nature and the way it is performed and organised has pose various challenges. This may have enhanced flexibility and control in labour market, but also maximise the risk of collective exploitation of other work force, specifically those who born overseas and are young. Casual work, labour hire, fixed-term contracts, self-employment and freelance work develop an accrued risk for vulnerability, exploitative work arrangementsand exposure to unhealthy work conditions. Today, organisations are seeking to cut overhead cost through outsourcing employees and transfer responsibility and risk. This enable companies to employ labour, set rosters along with minimum notice and remove them with no reasons provided.

In Australia, the work practices of Amazon in context to its fulfilment centres have been point out for making unprecedented utilisation of labour hire arrangements in 2017. In this, some corporate functions and senior administration roles allegedly outsourced. It is convenient for companies to use labour hire providers to avoid ongoing responsibilities to workforce. For instance: if a firm experience sudden shift in market that consequence in declining goods and services demands, then it becomes easy for it to dismiss large number of workers without outcome (McGorry, Bates & Birchwood, (2013). Employment by using labour hire firms can create adverse results for employees. For instance: lack of fair treatment, trouble in accessing leave and entitlements, excessive concerns regarding work performance and job insecurity feelings. Some people put much efforts to avoid possible shift cuts. Tasks of these employees can also be lowly, providing no development of skill. Therefore, these may lack opportunities to obtain on-the-job skills and knowledge that adversely impacts on their future employment prospects.

For Australian workers, the utilisation of labour hire is not a single challenge. Young employees are also assailable to possible abuse and unfair treatment as they often lack confidence and skills to raise problems they face at work in fear of adverse outcomes. For instance: McDonald's was accused for over reliance on teenage employees because of their lower cost. It roiling out employees as they get an adult wage in the age of 21.

In 21^st century, Human resource management plays very crucial role within organisation (Ulm, Mate, Dalley & Nichols, (2013). It is a multidisciplinary function that draws ideas and theories from distinct areas like psychology, sociology, management and economics. hard and soft approaches are used by organisations for managing their employees. The soft approach emphasize on improving communication between employee and employer, developing leadership skills of personal and motivating them. The hard approach includes creation of strategiesin order to manage and control human beings within firm. the human resource manager requires to ensure that their workforce is skilled and developed. Management of work force in each organisation is different and it completely rely on the ability of manager. it is necessary that the administration has to be well versed advancement in Technologies and changing environmentif it wants to accomplish competitive advantage in 21st century.

Human resource management is a strategic approach and its effectiveness allows workforce to contribute productively and effectively in accomplishment of organisational goals. Human resource's role has been evolving and the shift to human resources from personnal was a part of movement to understand value of workforce as the resource of company (Williams, P. (2013). Dave Ulrich administers a clear platfirm to next generation of human resource with HR champions. A multifaceted approach is described by him to deliveringhuman resource services that mitigate the needs of both employee as well as employer and positions human resource as an important contributor to success of organisation.

There are some challenges that human resource management face in 21st century. Attracting and selecting the most appropriate candidate is one of the challenge that human resource management of organisations in America face. It is not easy to find the best candidateas it is the process in which each candidate is different from other in one or another sense. According to the own perceptions of manager, they will make decisions which increases the chances of biasness (Pachauri and et. al., (2014). So in 21st century, it is necessary for managers to understand importance of high quality workforce within company and higher highly skilled and competent candidate within firm. The another challenge is ethics and values of business as with the changing structure and culture of work, consideration of ethics and values is highly required as it decides the sustainability of company. Maintaining ethics and values within firm is very challenging for human resource manager. So, manager is required to ensure that ethics and values are appropriately followed in the company by all its employees.

Also read :- Management Information Systems And Security

CONCLUSION

As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that with the change in technology and business environment, the nature of work is also changing. Human resource management department plays very crucial role in success of a company. It is responsible for various functions such as workforce planning, recruitment, job design, engagement and retention of employees etc. Advancements in technology provides various opportunities to businesses as well as employees. Use of labour hire creates a big challenge in front of Australian employees. This makes the young workers assailable abuse and unfair treatment. To get more details about online assignment help ask our experts.

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