Professional Documents
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DOWNSIZING UNIVERSITY
STAFF
HRMT 20024
Assessment Task 2
T215
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report aims at developing a human resource management
plan of our university. It finds the factors which influence the
academic and administrative staff of the university. It also aims
at finding the key attributes which determine the effects of
downsizing in the university. It also enlists the advantages and
disadvantages of downsizing and makes recommendations on
how to cope up with the shortcomings of the current policy
adopted by the university authorities. The recommendations
are based on the current educational trends in Australia. Based
on those trends I have recommended few dos and donts
which could be followed while designing the new human
resource management policies.
S0275247
Divyansh Ojha
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HRMT 20024
Assessment Task 2
T215
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2
INTRODUCTION:................................................................................................... 3
HR Planning Functions.......................................................................................... 7
Advantages of Downsizing.............................................................................9
5.2
Disadvantages of Downsizing......................................................................10
RECOMMENDATIONS.......................................................................................... 11
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................... 12
REFERENCES LIST............................................................................................... 13
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Divyansh Ojha
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T215
1 INTRODUCTION:
Recent years have witnessed changing trends in demand for
various courses in Australia affecting the labor profile for the
university staff. This has resulted in unwanted staff count in few
courses while a glitch in others. Measures taken to control the
staff count further pipelined skilled and experienced staff to
voluntary retirement. A risk of losing the much needed
experienced staff arose while the less competent staff stayed. On
the other hand targeted redundancies left the employees with job
insecurity, solemnizing their work and creating an apathetic work
environment. This type of downsizing can result in damage to the
universitys reputation which can affect the student count in long
run. While voluntary redundancy gave the experienced staff to
leave the organization for a better one along with a fair
compensation for the same. A detailed study on the type of
downsizing has to be done for the current staff requirement, and
their effects on the organization in long run. The factors which are
influencing the employees must be observed and kept in mind
while planning for and layoffs.
Due to failure of both the policies to meet the required staff
count, a new policy must be projected which considers all the
factors that influence the staff such as the qualification,
experience in current working arena, health status, family needs,
cost of training new employees and employment cost. In addition
to this individuals decision to leave the institution and actual
requirement of the person must be kept in mind.
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Divyansh Ojha
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HRMT 20024
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T215
Divyansh Ojha
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T215
Motivator factors
Achievement
Advancement
Recognition
Responsibility
Work itself
Mean
4.4
4.3
2.79
4
4.2
SD
0.4
0.63
0.5
0.39
0.5
Hygiene factors
Relationships
University
Legislation
Salary
Work Condition
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Mean
3.7
SD
0.47
3.4
0.66
2.87
4
10.55
0.39
Divyansh Ojha
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HRMT 20024
Assessment Task 2
T215
Based on a five point Likert-type scale with responses ranging from very
dissatisfied (1) to very satisfied (5), Academic staff provided the following
mean satisfaction scores with the job motivator and hygiene factors:
achievement4.4; advancement, 4.3; recognition, 2.79; responsibility, 4.0;
work itself, 4.2; Relationship, 3.7; University Legislation, 3.4; salary, 2.74;
and working conditions, 2.87 (Table 2)
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Divyansh Ojha
Page | 6
HRMT 20024
Assessment Task 2
T215
3 HR PLANNING FUNCTIONS
The HR planning functions aims to express the goals of an
organization and keeping those goals in mind, matches the
competency of the employees to meet those goals. It links the
human resource management with the strategies of the
organization. In this situation, Human Resource Planning aims to
provide competent staff meeting the requirements of each
academic department. Furthermore, it must be designed to
provide a secure environment to the staff. The process aims at
forecasting the future demand of staff in each department
depending upon the then current trends of student interest in the
course. It aims at the delivery of demanded number and quality of
employees and deploying them to the required departments
according to the strategic objectives of the organization.
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Divyansh Ojha
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HRMT 20024
Assessment Task 2
T215
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Divyansh Ojha
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HRMT 20024
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T215
Age
Gro
up
Stude
nts
2012
Populat
ion
Students
2020 2030
Incre
ase
20122020
11,98
1
11,99
0
6,142
Incre
ase
20122030
61,93
9
48,16
6
9,325
Stud
ent
%
15242,98 1,458,98 16.7
254,9 304,9
19
5
3
66
24
20274,07 1,624,17 16.9
286,0 322,2
24
2
2
62
38
2565,833 1,694,66 3.9
71,97 75,15
29
5
5
8
3058,494 3,144,61 1.9
71,31 77,60 12,82 19,11
39
0
4
4
0
0
+40 44,077 10,499,6 0.4
51,09 61,95 7,106 17,87
87
3
0
3
Tota 685,4 18,422, 3.7
735,4 841,8 49,94 156,4
l
61
117
10
73
9
12
This table data is taken from Australian Bureau of Statistics
population projections, based on 2011 census data (as published
in November 2013)
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OF
DOWNSIZING
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OF
DOWNSIZING
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5 RECOMMENDATIONS
Considering the advantages and disadvantages of downsizing in
the university, the decision makers must consider all these factors
while making any downsizing related judgment. Also, the
university must abstain from sudden or big bang downsizing
which would result in nothing but chaos among the staff
members. To reduce the oversupply of administrative staff, a long
term strategy must be designed and the staff members must be
regularly informed about the policies being generated for the
same. The reductions performed must consider all the factors
listed that affect the labor profile. An examination must be
conducted for the academic staff to qualify. The members who do
not qualify the exam could be considered as the possible
candidate for the layoff. But this must not be the only criteria for
downsizing. Also the experience and skilled staff must not be
released as the cost incurred to hire skilled staff later would be
high. The needs of the staff members post-downsizing must be
taken care of. They must be provide support and counselling to
ensure that they are not fearful to lose their job.
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6 CONCLUSION
To move an organization to a desired direction various reforms
and policies are needed to be followed. Downsizing is an
important part of these policies in this case. But before arriving at
the decision of downsizing, the university authorities must
analyze all the pros and cons of the process. Also if the cons
overpower the pros then this procedure must be ignored.
Furthermore, downsizing must not negatively affect the
environment of the university. Also the human resource
management plan must constantly evolve considering the
changing requirements of the labor profile.
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REFERENCES LIST
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