Work force Up-skilling

Organisations usually view its work force as their driving force. The work force is believed to be the determinant of how far the company will go in terms of achieving its objectives. Organisations usually formulate strategies aimed at upskilling this workforce. This is usually done through methods aimed at improving the skill possessed by its workers. Organisations usually formulate strategies, which are aimed at achieving their workforce level objectives (Argyris, 1976p. 34-56). Since the organisations are required to try and create a team that possess high skills the process of coming up with a workforce of higher skill need not be universally accepted. The companies are supposed to adopt a way of moving towards higher skill that fits its requirements (Terry, 1960p. 104-109). This method of creating a workforce of higher skill should be formulated the best way possible an organisation can manage considering its requirement in terms of organizational strategy (Torbert, W. 2004p. 41-42). Workforce structure. Work force in organisations is usually composed of two categories depending on the type of workers. These categories are: – (i) Skilled workers (ii) Unskilled workers Skilled workers refers to workers of organisations who are believed to possess qualities such as possession of a certain level of good education in their field of specialisation. The Skilled workers are also believed to have acquired experience in their fields of specialisation. Skilled workers are required to have other features that enable them to be termed as efficient in their duties. Examples of these features include good communication skills and also interpersonal skills which aid incase one has to work in a group. Skilled workers are also termed as having broad level of general knowledge which is a factor in efficiency in their duties. Examples of skilled workers include Mechanical engineers, doctors, management accountants, finance officers and also civil engineers. Unskilled workers are workers in organisations who do not need to have any educational (formal) background. These workers need not have any experience to get jobs in an organisation. Unskilled workers are believed to have no skill for the jobs they carry out for organisations. These are the workers in an organisation who are believed to be at the bottom under the consideration of the level of qualifications. Most of the employees who are unskilled in organisations include cleaners and also loaders in stores. According to statistical data in the UK the skilled workers usually get the task of seeking employment easy. This is because most of the employment vacancies available are skilled occupations. It has been found that out of every 1,000 skilled job seekers, 75% end up succeeding. The statistical data has also revealed that the organisations in the UK give better working conditions to the skilled employees. It has been found that this preference in terms of better working conditions to skilled workers is usually an attempt by the organisation to maintain skilled teams in their organisation. This is not the case with unskilled workers. These workers find it hard to get good working conditions in organisations (Bass, & Avolio1995p. 100-123). The reason deducted for this occurrence is the fact that unskilled workers are readily available and incase their turnover tends to be high, there is no actual loss to the organisation. Human resource management refers to the process of handling matters concerning work force in an organisation. Each organisation usually has a department overseeing the efficiency of its work force. The human resource management is done by application of various models such as the goal Management Model. This human resource management model emphasizes on the need for organisations to handle their human resource in a manner likely to lead to the goal achievement. In the even of workforce upskilling a company should create a team of higher skill through assessment of the company’s goals. The organisations should use strategies likely to incorporate the needs of the organisation in terms of employee level of skills. The organisation should apply a strategy based on the level of skills required in achieving given goals. Another example of these models is the Culture change Model this is a model in human resource management which emphasizes that organisation changes their culture (House, 2004p. 23-31), and therefore the employees / workers should be upskilled to match the changes. Kurt Levin developed this model. Open systems Model is another model, which emphasizes that the human resource in an organisation should be managed as per the open system concept. This concept views systems as units that exchange requirements. The model argues that in employee upskilling the organisations should be able to get new employees from outside but not just develop the existing workers (Lowman, 2002p. 54-61). This model gives an organization option of acquiring workers of higher skills. All the three models described above show that there is no generally accepted way of upskilling an organisation workforce. The models suggest that an organisation should adopt a movement, which will be in agreement with the events at the organisation. For example when the organisation is faced with a change in its organizational culture, Lewin’s human resource management model should be adopted. When an organisation finds out that it cannot get the level of skill in the current workforce the open system human resource management model should be adopted, or just develop the existing workers to the level required, a characteristic of the Path Goal leadership model. Organisations usually emphasise on employee development in the attempt to reach a higher skilled work force. Employee development refers to the process in which employees of an organisation are involved in training in the organisation. Employee development involves a programme whereby the employees participate in their own will, the employees schedule their learning hours, the content to be learned is usually extra of what the job training requires and the workers select the content to learn without the influence of the organisations. Most companies in the UK emphasize on employee development since it is believed to give higher skilled employee workforce. Some of the companies in the UK, which emphasize on employee development, include Siemens UK and also Roll Royce Cars. These companies give a given level of provision in terms of sponsorship for employee training in the employee. The personal development theory in employee development argues that workers should be in a position to enhance the programme of employee development. The workers are required to be willing and interested in developing as employees of a given organisation. The employee motivation theory argues that the organisations should put efforts in the process of employee development. The organisations efforts should be in the form of programmes likely to boost the morale of employees (Stacey, 1992p. 31-39). The Benziger theory also provides directions on the employee development programmes in an organisation. In the process of employee development the organisations can create programmes bearing in mind that workforce usually consist of skilled and unskilled workers. The organisations should create programmes likely to give formal education, experience, skills and also general knowledge to the unskilled workforce. This is likely going to improve the skill of employee team hence likelihood of a success towards organizational strategy. The organisations should create programmes which will enable the skilled workforce improve their efficiency and also make them acquire certain level of vital attributes such as confidence and self-initiative (Warneka, 2006p. 23-29). Employee development should be structured in a way likely to make the organizational strategy give desired results. The employee development should be done in a way likely to put all the levels of the work force at a higher level of skill (Burns, 1978p. 65-71). Organisations should not copy the programmes adopted by their competitors or other comparable organisations. Copying of employee development programmes would not help organisations in the process of up-skilling its workforce since it might not suit the organisation. The organisations should structure these programmes as per their workforce requirement bearing in mind that the best workforce is that which is at a higher level in terms of suitability to a specific organization. Conclusion. Organizations should try as much as possible to avoid the perception that, workforce up-skilling is standardised (Heifetz, 1994p. 12-19). Organizations should formulate organizational strategies aimed at effective teams’ suited to the needs of specific company. The above is only possible if the right human resource models are applied and practiced.