Workforce Planning Recruitment Task 2 Sample Assignment

Workforce Planning Recruitment, and Selection – Task 2

The police department just announced major cuts to overtime and extra hours due to a memo that was released to the press that indicated many offers made more annually then the mayor. Many officers who currently work overtime have come to rely on all the extra hours and are worried about financial hardship if they lose this valuable overtime pay. This has created conflict among city leaders and the officers. The conflict must be successfully managed to foster a productive environment free from conflict.

Three conflicts between management and the officers has emerged as a result of the reduced overtime pay. The first conflict that has emerged is the lack of communication among management and the officers. City leaders have ordered the immediate reduction of all overtime hours but did not communicate this to the officers before the orders were given. The officers did not have time to prepare for the change and loss of extra pay which contributed to the communication breakdown. This conflict would be prevented if city leaders would have communicated the change to the officers and give them time to prepare for the change.

The second conflict that has emerged is the bullying by the union. The union is threatening to take action if the city does not rethink the possibility. The union does not have the legal right to strike but are threatening to call in sick and cause work stoppage. This bullying could create a safety risk if officers do not respond to calls because they are creating work stoppage. Once the bullying starts, it further breaks down communication and creates an atmosphere where city leaders do not want to work with the union to create a solution on both sides.

The third conflict that has emerged is that the policy is perceived unfair. The salary was released for certain officers which showed they made more money than the mayor. As a result of the release, the police department is cutting hours. It is perceived to be unfair because if the salary was not released, the mayor would not have cut the hours of those who have worked tirelessly to support the mayor’s initiatives of more patrols in higher crime areas. These conflicts will create short-term and long-term problems for the city.

The two short-term outcomes if the conflict is not resolved is that officers will stop responding to calls or call-in sick which will create safety risk across the city. The department is already short officers and having a mass call-in will result in reduced patrols and extended wait times for service calls. This action will endanger life, property, and civil rest if it is not resolved. The second short-term outcome would be that several officers may choose to search for employment at other departments which could create further shortages. This conflict can’t be allowed to continue because of the tremendous safety risk.

Every conflict also comes with long-term risks. Two long-term risks have been identified if the conflict is not resolved. The first long-term risk is that new officers will not be properly trained by the senior officers resulting in a loss of productivity, knowledge, and moral. The department will not be able to recruit future officers if new officers are not properly trained to correctly do the job. The second long-term risk if the conflict is not resolved would be the reputation that the department will receive making it difficult to recruit new hires and fill future open positions. This conflict should not be allowed to continue because of the damaging long-term and short-term effects on the department for both sides of the conflict.

There are many actions to resolve this conflict as quickly as possible. The first possible action would be to meet with union leaders to identify possible solutions to reduce overtime over-time and come up with a mutual solution. The first step to resolving this would be to stop enforcing the overtime ban until the union and the city can come up with an amicable solution. The second possible action to resolve this conflict would be to take volunteers to stop overtime immediately and communicate with the remaining officers to slowly reduce the amount of overtime giving the officers time to adjust their budgets to meet their needs. The third possible action to resolve this conflict would be to offer additional pay incentives for officers to train new officers. This will ensure that new officers are given quality training and are prepared for the job which will ensure an adequate labor supply while reducing overtime.

There are many components to work culture that prevent negative conflict. One way to prevent negative conflict is having a work culture that has strong management. If the department has a strong leadership culture, they could have prevented the conflict from occurring. Hiring the correct leaders and having strong leadership in place will reduce negative conflict. The second way to prevent negative conflict is to have a fair grievance process. If employees can voice their concerns and have the company listen to and address the concerns, negative conflict will be reduced. Having a fair grievance process lets employees know there is a formal process for complains and investigations and will give employees instructions on how to file the complaints. Employees will feel more valued if the company cares about their concerns which will reduce negative conflict.

The job description for police officers does not contain any requirements for handling work place conflict. I would like to add the following requirements to the job description:

• Ability to work with multiple personalities to complete a common goal
• Ability to view conflicts objectively and resolve independently

By adding these lines to the job description, the department should be able to recruit, select, and hire people who can handle work place conflict. In addition to the above requirements, the following situational interview questions will be added:

• Tell me about a time that you disagreed with a supervisor and what steps did you take to resolve the disagreement?
• You are working with a co-worker who is consistently surfing the internet and not working. You have been assigned additional workload and are falling behind because your partner is not assisting. What steps do you take to resolve this conflict?
• Your company has developed a policy that you do not agree with. Many of your coworkers have become disgruntled and refuse to follow the new policy because they disagree with it. What do you tell your co-workers in regards to the new policies?

The questions listed above will help the department determine if a candidate has the ability to deal with conflict. The combination of the new requirements and interview questions should help foster a positive work culture and select those candidates that can effectively deal with conflict.

Now that we have identified steps to reduce and resolve work place conflict, we need to develop a plan to measure the improvement in employee relations in the police department. To effectively analyze if employee relations is improving, the company must first look at the number of grievances filled last year compared to the number of grievances filled this year. If the number of grievances go down, it indicates that employee relations are improving. The second item to look at and determine if employee relations is improving would be the causes of grievances. If the department is still receiving many grievances for the same cause, then employee relations is not improving. The department should look at what is causing each grievance and take steps to correct the cause The total cause of each grievance will help determine if employee relations are improving or if further steps are needed to improve employee relations. The steps outlines in this report should help the department foster a positive work culture with excellent employee relations.