TASK: 1

1)
INTRODUCTION
Professional workforce planning is basically a process of planning, forecasting and analyzing the
supply and demand factors related to workforce, together with assessing gaps, identifying
targets, and forming the right kind of talent management strategies to make sure that an
organization possesses the appropriate individuals who can serve well and play a part in
fulfilment of the organizational requirements.
Role of Government towards Workforce Management
In any country, a guaranteed and sustainable competitive advantage originates from the country’s
natural and human resources. The key strategic methods of attaining competitive advantage
comprise of financial cutting overhead and costs, natural resources, technological and innovation
capabilities. Such a type of dynamic measures has throughout the time been successful in terms
of development of a competitive edge or niche. While the fact cannot be denied that human
resource training and management has always played a pivotal part in the success and
competitiveness of developed countries, the importance of its role has been ignored in the
developing countries. A significant number of businesses have made human resource to appear
as a company’s commodity and the individuals belonging to company as dispensable.
Managers in the company who focus on attainment of short-term objectives, lack the ability to
realize that the only way in which they can secure company’s competitive advantage is through
having a competent, well trained and highly organized human resource team.
It can not be denied that the strategic planners and development in Oman pay a strong heed
towards the importance that is held by human resource department and the way their contribution
towards training and developing the workforce adds value to organization. From the very
beginning, it has been repetitively highlighted that in Oman, the most crucial resource involves
the national human resource team. Taking into account this level of significance, the Omani
government has empowered and established a range of public institutions which include High
Committee for Vocational Training, Labour and Vocational Training, Ministry of Social Affairs,
and the recently formed Omanization follow-up Committee to look after the overall Omanization
process. This has been backed by a number of different Omanization schemes together with
incentives as an effort towards replacement of the large workforce in the country together with
making sure that a skilled and well-qualified workforce participates in the prosperity and
economic development of the country.
Therefore, a High Committee entrusted with the responsibility of Vocational Training has been
involved for issuing a decision to fix Omanization percentages for the varying employment areas
in the country. The underlying objective of the committee is promotion of training and
development related activities of the Omani Nationals to let them replace the expatriates in other
private sector related establishments. This was supported by a wide range of Omanization
incentives and schemes and involved a compensation plan for the private sector firms in
exchange of the allowances and salaries that were payable to Omanies in the course of their
training period. Hence, the human resource department has tremendously been backed by the
government and this has improved organizations in qualitative aspect.
Role of Employers
Employers of an organization play a very important part in terms of the development of
workforce and the way it operates and serves in an organization. In Oman, this aspect is
considered significantly important as well. The management is carried out by undertaking
several different steps. These include provision of real time feedback to employees so that they
are actively aware of what is expected from them and the way they should operate. Then comes
envisioning the bigger picture and making sure that employees in the organization view that big
picture as well so that it benefits everyone in the longer run. Employers should work in close
coordination with rest of the workforce and ask them to pitch in their contributions so that they
feel an inclusive part of an organization. All of the rights associated with employees should be
satisfied and they shouldn’t be made to feel as if they are overburdened because that will impact
their potential. Carrefour is extremely mindful of making sure that the higher management takes
the needs of its employees very seriously and make them work as per the commitment that has
been done with them in advance to make sure that employees do not get frustrated or disinterred
from the job that they are performing, and they continue to serve the company with full
determination and devotion.
In Oman there also exists a mobility culture where employees aren’t restricted to their role only
but they are given the opportunity to experience other roles as well so that they do not feel as if
they are working in a monotonous work environment and their learning curve is stagnant in the
organization.
Role of Trade Unions
A trade union is basically a combination of labor, workers, and employees entrusted with the
responsibility of accomplishing their demands with the sole purpose of achieving reasonable
work environment while being in the premises of business. It in its true essence is the
amalgamation of employees for fulfilling the needs of various different levels of employees with
the purpose of achieving organizational objectives in their respective fields which include salary
or wages together with working conditions in a business firm.
In Oman such trade unions play a very important role in terms of tackling the problems
associated with laborers. The problems faced by individuals vary in their nature and can range
from unfair working rules, pay concerns, unlimited working hours, etc.
The workers union is a representation of different employees who serve in organization under
their respective employers. Through the union, all of the communication amongst employee’s
demand and the employer him/herself take place. Such a type of trade unions are also responsible
for maintenance of reasonable relations between the workers and management. These unions are
also given the authority of undertaking disciplinary actions against individuals who misbehave
together with making sure that a sound and peaceful environment is established, and everyone is
working in harmony with rest of the individuals.
In carrefour, mentioned below are the areas that are under trade union’s charge.
 Provision of sound working conditions.
 Taking care of employee wages and salaries.
 Maintenance of discipline
 Formulation of personal policies
 Working for employee welfare
All of them are highly coordinated and the management makes sure that everyone complies to
the policies formulated for success of each of these areas.
2)
WORKFORCE PLANNING
This is the process that involves making sure that an organization achieves success both in the
present as well as in the future together with having access to human capital that it requires in
terms of performing its tasks in an efficient and effective manner. Workplace planning
incorporates identification of current and future needs together with exploration of the most
appropriate methodologies to retain and recruit individuals. There also exists an element of
continuous analysis of implementation of appropriate measures and workforce effectiveness.
These include development and learning initiatives for making sure that the workforce is
satisfied and efficient.
Significance
Planning of this sort is imperative as it is closely linked to the organization and makes sure that
the strategies are aligned in such a way that organizational objectives are achieved, and the
vision of the company is attained in the longer run.
Effect upon Absence
Absence of workforce planning effects the organization significantly. This primarily is because
of the reason that in its presence, everyone performs their tasks as per the rules and regulations
that are stipulated during the planning process and hence an overall decorum and discipline of
organization is maintained.

3)
SUCCESSION PLANNING
This basically is a strategy that involves passing the leadership roles which most often involves
the ownership of a company and its transfer to either a single employee or group of employees.
Succession planning is also referred to as replacement planning and it makes sure that businesses
continue to run in a sound manner even after a company’s important people embark upon newer
opportunities, or if they retire or pass away.
CONTINGENCY PLANNING
Contingency planning is a course of action which is primarily designed to aid an organization so
that it can structure its responses in such a way that they are effective for a significant natured
future event or circumstances that have the probability of occurring.
The plan is also recognized by the name “Plan B” as it can be brought into usage if the
expectations that were formed initially aren’t appropriately achieved.
The benefit associated with such a type of planning is the fact that a company is always prepared
for unforeseen circumstances and can respond to such situations instantly and effectively.
RISKS OF POOR WORKFORCE PLANNING
There are several risks associated with a poor workforce planning. These are as follows
 Lack of satisfaction amongst individuals serving in the organization.
 Waste of resources at organizational level.
 Losing competitive advantage to other competitors.
 Increased percentage of employee turnover.
ROLE OF SUCCESSION & CONTINGENCY PLANNING IN MITIGATING RISK
Such a type of planning plays an extremely important role towards mitigation of risks as the
companies remained prepared for any sorts of unforeseen circumstances.
Differentiate between the main types of contractual terms in contracts. - Explain the five
different types of contractual terms and the differences between them.
TYPES OF CONTRACTUAL TERMS IN THE CONTRACT
Following are the different types of contractual terms.
 Conditions
 Warranties
 Innominate terms
Condition basically is the main foundation of the contract. It states the different obligations
affiliated with each of the party and they task that they are entrusted with.
Warranty is a part of the contract which is more closely related to a promise that is initiated by
one party and a condition then comes into play which is agreed by both of the parties.
Innominate term is basically a term that neither falls under condition nor warranty umbrella. It
comes into play when parties tend to look for a recourse due the failure of the opposite party to
fulfil the associated obligations as per the innominate term.
TASK: 2

1)
PLACEMENT IN COMPETITIVE LABOR MARKETS
Organizations basically form various different types of strategies in order to position themselves
in the competitive labor market. Such strategies are subject to conduction of several different
types of analysis. The major types of analysis that are conducted are as follows.
 Competitor Analysis
 Organizational Positioning
 Employers of choice and employer branding
Loose & Tight Labor Market Conditions
Tight Labor Market
Such a type of labor market is very closely related to the labor market that exists in modern day
and age. This arises when there are a very few number of candidates that can accommodate the
demand of a company. Such a type of situation arises in the areas where the labor turnover trend
is considerably high.
Loose Labor Market
This is a type of labor market that points out towards the condition where there exists a
considerable number of unemployed or underemployed labor chunk compared to the job
opportunities that are available in the market. This again points out towards the unevenness of
labor supply and demand.
Higgs Model & Workforce
Higgs model is highly renowned and has issued four major organizational positions in the
competitive labor environment. The categorization that is done in this model is something that
plays a part in identification of the type of employees that are required.
Employer of cash is the one that treats employees very strictly and forms an expectation with
them to work for very long hours, even above their schedules. However, the overall
compensation package is reasonably good.
Employer of Values is the one whose overall compensatory package is lower, but it is rewarding
due to the nature of the job. Example of such a category includes charity companies.
Employer of churn is the one that does not treat its employees well and doesn’t pay them either
and hence the turnover rate for such a category is significantly high. It is very hard for such
organizations to keep their employees satisfied.

2)
IMPORTANCE OF TIGHT & LOOSE LABOR MARKETS
Loose and tight labor markets are important to be analyzed as this is a very sound indicator of
how markets operate in their true essence. The number of jobs available in the market and being
aware of the circumstances is extremely important as it lets people understand whether the
market is in deficit or surplus of jobs and accordingly actions are carried out to make sure that
more and more people are employed in case the market is tight and lesser employees are
employed when the market is loose because of enhanced levels of unemployment.
During the time of pandemic when the entire world closed and everything was put at a halt,
that’s when the economy started declining and most of the companies started laying off their
workers. That was basically the loose labor market condition and hence actions and measures
were conducted accordingly.
3)
WORKFORCE PLANNING PROCESS
This is regarded as one of the core business processes which involves alignment of variating
organizational needs together with the people strategy. This is referred to as one of the most
effective strategies that an organization can indulge into. This method needs not to be
complicated and can be transformed to match the maturity and size of an organization. It can
lead to provision of industry and market intelligence to aid organizations attention on a wide
variety of issues and challenges and motivate them for initiatives to render support for
establishment of long-term business objectives.
Following are the different stages of workforce planning process.
 Understand the organization and its environment.
 Analyze the present and potential workforce.
 Determine the requirement of future workforce.
 Identify the gaps in workforce against the needs that will arise in the future.
 Take necessary actions to adjust shortages, surplus or any other such development.
 Evaluate and monitor actions.
The tools that can be used for analysis can be various. Understanding of organizational
environment is done through PESTLE analysis or Porters five forces. Moreover, SWOT analysis
can be used for identification of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the
organization which can then be used in different stages such as evaluation of actions and so on.
4)
Retaining competent individuals in an organization is an extremely important task because
employees are the backbone of an organization, and they are the ones who make it. Following
are some of the ways of doing that.
 Organizations that promote flexibility are the ones that have a high chance of retaining
employees because employees feel comfortable working in an environment of that sort.
 Another way to retain employees is through offering them perks and privileges so that
they become motivated enough to work even harder and serve the organization in a
transparent manner.
 Establishment of a sound company culture is another major component that adds towards
the factor of retaining employees.
 Companies that focus on enhancing the learning curve of their employees are the ones
that succeed in retaining them.
 Breaking the ice in an appropriate manner together with provision of a sound onboarding
experience is what makes the employees satisfied as well.

While the aforementioned techniques are imperative towards retaining employees, there are
certain advantages and disadvantages associated with some of them. In case the employees
become used to of getting bonuses, perks and privileges then they set the overall bar really high
and expect that the company will continue to offer them even upon the minutest of contributions.
Moreover, giving immense level of flexibility is something that can at times pose to be
immensely dangerous for the organization.
Carrefour makes sure that its employees feel satisfied enough and has an employee feedback
loop that it organizes to make sure that the reasonable employee insights are taken into
consideration, and they are served accordingly.
5)
TALENT POOLS
A talent pool basically is a detailed database of the individuals who have applied for a role in an
organization and are currently labelled as potential candidates. These involve mostly the highly
qualified lot and are the ones who showed interest in a certain way towards joining the
organization.
Following are the different types of talent pools that organizations usually possess.
 The ones that are used to of working extremely hard.
 The ones that are intelligent and work smart instead of hard.
 The ones that have creative mindset and tend to find innovative solutions to problems.
 The ones that ae highly passionate.
Approaches
The different approaches that can be employed by an organization include advertising the vacant
positions through various social and print media platforms so that more and more people become
aware of the requirement and go for applying accordingly. Moreover, they should set out the job
description and criteria in a highly pronounced manner so that everything is void of confusion.
To attract a good set of individuals, organizations also at times market their perks and privileges
so that individuals are more attracted towards the role as well as the benefits that it offers.
As per the aforementioned explanation, most of the approaches work in several circumstances.
However, the ones that are expected to be presented based on the circumstances is that of
specifying pay package and highlighting benefits in advance. This is something that is subject to
the circumstances and hence a firm commitment from the start isn’t feasible enough.
6)
DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION
The concept of diversity is basically the presence of different point of views and cultures in a
particular area. Equity on the other hand is a process of making sure that programs and processes
are impartial, provide equal possible outcomes for everyone and are fair. Inclusion involves
making sure that people observe a sense of connection with the workplace environment.
Significance of Diversity
The significance of diversity cannot be denied as it lets organizations save themselves from the
monotony that prevails in the market. If an organization ends up having all of the people that
think alike, then it won’t be beneficial for the company in the longer run as they will pitch in
same types of ideas and will have a stagnant set of ideas.
HR’s contributions towards diversity
Human resource department being the backbone of a company, plays an imperative role towards
employee recruitment. Hence, it is their responsibility that they focus on the fact that everyone
who is recruited, possesses a certain degree of diversity so that organization is not restricted to a
single set of thoughts but covers a broader horizon.
7)
TYPES OF CONTRACTS
There are three major types of employment contracts.
 Permanent employment contracts
 Fixed term employment contracts
 Casual employment contracts
Permanent contract is the type that applies to employees who perform their tasks at regular
working hours and are compensated for that in terms of an hourly package. The contracts
continue to be formed until or unless they are terminated by either of the parties which include
the employer or the employee.
Fixed term are the type of contracts that have a pre-stipulated end date. This can either be one
year or six months. Such a type of contract is usually considered when people look for jobs that
provide maternity leaves or involve staffing a bigger project.
Casual contracts are the ones that are deemed appropriate for certain scenarios where it is
expected that individual commits to working with another person but the surety in terms of hours
or compensation isn’t specified.

TASK: 3

Choose 2-3 recruitment methods and explain their strengths and weaknesses. - Choose 2-3
selection methods and explain their strengths and weaknesses.
RECRUITMENT METHODS
Following are the two most popular types of recruitment methods.
Post Internally
This category involves digging deeper within the organization to look for employees who can fill
in the vacant position before looking out for others outside the company. Moreover, in this type,
advertisements and requirements are posted on the company website so that HR department can
undertake rest of the necessary procedures.
Post on Job portals or career sites
Posting the vacancies on the job portals or career sites is another very efficient technique of
making announcements about the jobs. Most of the people continually visit these sites in search
of vacancies and apply directly through the sites as they consider them more authentic.
Strengths and Weaknesses of recruitment method
The strengths associated with such recruitment procedures is that it increases the overall reach
and makes sure that everyone can apply. However, certain weaknesses associated with the
process include that it can result in scam behaviour.
SELECTION METHODS
Following are the two major selection procedures
Referrals
In this scenario, people go for referrals from people who are already working in the organization
or the referrals that come through the people who are known by the employees who work in a
particular organization.
Internships
Another major selection procedure is through internships. In this case people are first hired as
internees and their performance is then evaluated. They then are selected permanently based on
their recruitment.
Strengths and Weaknesses of selection method
The strengths associated with aforementioned procedures are that they result in proper
assessment of individuals and hiring people that are known to the organization. The weaknesses
on the other hand are the fact that employees are selected straight away and their actual
competence isn’t assessed due to courtesy.
2)
Key Turnover
The turnover trends in an organization are subject mainly to the treatment that they are given.
Organizations that take care of their employees and provide them their due rights are the ones
that succeed in the longer run and their employee turnover rate is lower. On the other hand, those
that lack provision of these basic rights, face serious setback as they end up losing most of their
trained employees.
Retention Trends
Most of the organizations expend serious efforts towards retaining their employees as they invest
money and resources to employees and hence demand that their employees stick with them for a
longer duration of time.
The trends that are observed include that organizations with suitable work environment and that
offer their employees bonuses and packages are the ones that usually succeed in retaining their
employees and the reversed scenario leads to turnovers.
Carrefour treats its employees in an extremely effective manner. This primarily is because of
their appropriate employee retention strategy. They make sure that employees are given their due
rights together with bonuses and appreciation.
3)
DYSFUNCTIONAL TURNOVER
Such a type of turnover is defined as something that leads to divergence between the optimal
balance that an organization holds for costs related to turnover and the ones that are affiliated
with customer retention.
The direct costs associated with such a type of turnover are the training costs as well as the
resources expended together with time in searching for a new suitable candidate.
Indirect costs on the other hand include the costs such as the setback that an organization faces
by losing the skillset of the individual who previously was a part of the organization.
4)
Explain the concept of onboarding. - Include some discussion on elements that make is effective.
- Define the benefits of onboarding on employees + employers.
ONBOARDING
This basically is a process where all of the new hires are centered in the organization. It
incorporates all of the activities that let new employees complete the initial newly hired
employee orientation process together with information about the organization, its structure,
vision, mission, culture and values.
Organizations can make their onboarding process effective by making sure that a separate team
is designated for the incoming individuals who play a part in breaking the ice and making the
new hires familiar with the organizational culture. Moreover, they can succeed by exhibiting
more of the organizational culture to new hires since the start.
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