Human resources and job design

The objective of a human resources strategy is to manage labor and design jobs so people
are effectively and efficiently utilized. Labor planning is determining staffing policies that deal with
employment, work schedules, and work rules.
Employment stability deals with the number of employees maintained by an organization
at any given time. There are two very basic policies for dealing with stability: (1) follow demand
exactly (keeps direct labor costs tied to production but incur other costs); (2) hold employment
constant (maintains a trained workforce and keeps hiring, termination, and unemployment cost to a
minimum).
Many organizations have strict job classifications and work rules that specify who can do
what, when they can do it, and under what conditions they can do it, often as a result of union
pressure. Job design specifies the tasks that constitute a job for an individual or a group. Job
enlargement is the grouping of a variety of tasks about the same skill level, horizontal enlargement.
Job rotation is a system in which an employee is moved from one specialized job to another. Job
enrichment is a method of giving an employee more responsibility that includes some of the planning
and control necessary for job accomplishment, vertical expansion.
A popular extension of job enrichment, employee empowerment is the practice of
enriching jobs so employees accept responsibility for a variety of decisions normally associated with
staff specialists. Empowering employees helps them take ownership of their jobs so they have a
personal interest in improving performance. Many world-class organizations have adopted teams to
foster mutual trust and commitment, and provide the core job characteristics. One team concept of
particular note is the self-directed team: a group of empowered individuals working together to reach
a common goal.
The operations manager is interested in building a good interface between human and
machine. Studies of this interface are known as ergonomics. Ergonomics mean the study of work.
Method analysis focuses on how a task is accomplished. Whether controlling a machine or making or
assembling components, how task is done makes a difference in performance, safety, and quality.
Using knowledge from ergonomics and methods analysis, methods engineers are charged with
ensuring that quality and quantity standards are achieved efficiently and safely.
Flow diagrams are schematics used to investigate movement of people or material. Process
charts use symbols to help us understand the movement of people or material. Activity charts are
used to study and improve the utilization of an operator and a machine or some combination of
operators and machine. Body movement is analyzed by an operations chart, that is designed to show
economy of motion by pointing out wasted motion and idle time.
A visual workplace uses low-cost visual devices to share information quickly and
accurately. Well-designed displays are graphs root out confusion and replace difficult-to-understand
printouts and paperwork. All visual systems should focus on improvement, because almost always
has motivational benefits.
Labor standards are the amount of time required to perform a job or a part of a job. Every
firm has labor standards, although they may vary from those established via informal methods to
those established by professionals. Only when accurate labor standards exist can management know
how what its labor requirements are, what its costs should be, and what constitutes a fair days work.