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Your Employment Activities
Must Address the Manpower Needs of Your Organization

As an employer, it is normal that you are concerned about getting good value from people in return for the salaries you are paying.

You will also want to ensure that the terms and conditions are right.

Use recruitment strategy to identify the needs of your organization in terms of the expertise and skills and the number of new workers having such knowledge and skills.
(The photo on this page is by Tobias Higbie)

Interested Parties
Employment is the concern of various interested parties.

Work is the means by which people earn their living. They want to know whether they can find jobs based on their qualification, experience, skills and personality.

Organizations want to recruit the right people to help achieve their objectives, to generate revenue.

They want to know whether people having the right knowledge and skills are available in the job market.

Educational institutions must produce an adequate supply of human resource of the right quality in order to help organizations and governments achieve their respective objectives. Time is of the essence in producing quality human resource.

The government of the day, whether at federal or state level, is very much concerned with every aspect of this matter.

It must enact laws and formulate policies that create jobs. It must ensure that the quality of education keeps improving continuously.

They must provide the necessary physical, financial and legal infrastructure so that new courses and skills training are made available in response to new development in technology, and new needs of corporate entities and individuals.

As an organization, keep abreast of government policies on this matter. Decisions of the courts have important bearings on working conditions, terms and conditions.

Get to know these, too.

Terms and Conditions of Appointment
The letter of offer must state the main terms and conditions.

If You Are a Worker

• Terms and conditions not specified in the offer may bind you. This depends on the words used in the appointment letter.
  
• The provisions in your organization's Human Resource Handbook may form part of the terms and conditions.
• It can also happen that any amendment to the Handbook will also modify the terms and conditions stated in your appointment letter.
• There are implied terms that are binding.

As an Employer,

• You can specify that contents of the Handbook form part of the terms and conditions.
  
• You can lose your advantage as "an employer of choice" if you make the terms and conditions of appointment burdensome.
  

Types of Appointment
Job security is disappearing fast.

Government jobs offer security of tenure. However, when governments privatize identified government agencies, job security is lost.

The appointment letter may contain terms that makes the job appear as not permanent in nature. Words used include "temporary in nature", "casual work", and so on.

If you are appointed as a "temporary" worker, check the wordings of the terms and conditions stated in your appointment letter.

A temporary job may in fact amount to a permanent one, especially when the service continues indefinitely.

Another form of temporary jobs are jobs with fixed objectives and fixed commencement and end dates. These are normally offered by way of fixed-term contracts.

In the private sector, you may have a secure job if the job is stated as permanent. The appointment letter usually indicates the status of the position.

The best guarantee for a secure job is to do it well at all times in accordance with the terms and conditions of appointment and the requirements of the organization.

Fixed Term Contract and Renewal
Chief executive officers are usually appointed on fixed-term contracts. Other senior executives may also work under similar arrangement.

A fixed-term contract must have a commencement date and an end date. Specifying an end date makes it very clear that it will run for a definite period.

The contract can also end on the non-occurrence of a specified event such as not achieving the stated financial target.

What happens when a fixed-term contract is renewed?
A fixed-term contract usually provides that it is renewable, that is, there is an option for renewal.

If your organization keeps on renewing the contract, it acquires some form of permanency.

You may want to specify that a fixed-term contract executed between your organization and a worker is renewable subject to certain conditions.

Such contracts may state that there will be a break between the two fixed-term contracts.

Some organizations believe that this action breaks the employment contract. Thus, the service will not acquire permanent status.

Some people including legal experts counter-argue that this clause does NOT break the contract at all.

But the argument is not over.

The better option?
Do NOT to enter any option to renew in the current fixed-term contract. And allow the contract to run out. This is what fixed-term contract really means.

Whether or not your organization wants the employee to continue is treated as an entirely separate matter to consider. A certain time must pass before there is a decision whether to offer the ex-employee another fixed-term contract.

The "ex-employee" may re-apply to work in the same capacity. But it does not mean that you must offer him or her a new contract of employment.

Disadvantages
A fixed-term contract of employment has its disadvantages. One of these is that the employee is free to go at any time or after the contract has run its course.

If this happens, you face the risk of losing a good employee.

But if you really want the worker to remain, then you can offer him or her another contract before the current one runs out.

It can happen that you can only terminate the fixed-term contract for cause. This is despite the existence of the clause that you can give notice of termination.

Human Resource Staffing Decisions
Must Take All Relevant Recruitment Factors
Into Consideration.
Do It Right The First Time!

These include:

• Job Title
  
• Salary and Job Grade
  
• Job location
  
• Vacation leave
  
• Job function, duties and responsibilities
  
• Mandatory holidays
  
• Superannuation
  

Legislation sometimes imposes fundament terms. Industrial courts' decisions may also intrude into the work domain.

Implied terms include the worker's duty to take due care in the performance of his or her duties, to be faithful to the organization, and to follow reasonable instructions from the employer.

Organizations have the implied duty to provide work to their people, to pay them their salaries, and to take proper care of their safety.

Employment Legislation
Management, particularly HR people and senior executives must get to know and understand important provisions of employment legislation.

It is also necessary for workers to know such laws.

Your country's legislation may specify the minimum terms and conditions of service.

As a worker, check the contents of your appointment letter whether the legal provisions are included. Do so before you accept the appointment, especially if you are offered a fixed-term contract.

The legal provisions shall apply to you provided you fall within the specified category either based on grade level or salary paid or both.

Such provisions can supercede the terms and condition of your appointment where the offer is less favorable than what the law provides for. Employment covers a lot of other matters that you need to know.


Other Labor Laws
Legislation is intended to address the unequal bargaining power between workers and organizations.

Usually these give more protection for workers although it may also specify that organizations are permitted to do certain things within the confine of the law.

Organizations can prevent costly litigation by strictly adhering to the provisions of the relevant legislation.

Your HR Manager can help you to ensure that this is done.

You can also educate your line managers on the requirements on employment laws and other relevant legislation.

Women, Young Persons and Children
If you are a female worker, there are legislation that affords protection and confer specific benefits. These include prohibition on working on late night shifts and under hazardous conditions, and job security when they take time off to have children.

There are laws that prohibit discrimination against women in the workplace.

Young persons and children are only allowed to work subject to very strict conditions.

Your Needs and Those of Your Employer
As an employee, there are certain qualities required of you to perform the job to the satisfaction of your organization.

A "best fit" is required between the qualities that you possess, your organization rewards system, and its human resource policies.

When you are doing a job that you have always wanted, and that your employer is giving rewards based on the fulfillment of what it wants you to achieve is good for your career development.

This can improve your motivation and productivity which, in turn, improves productivity of your organization.

A reasonable organization will see your important contribution as a capable worker. You are fulfilling more than the requirement of the job.

You may feel that this paints a rosy picture. It may not happen all the time especially during turbulent times.

Strategic human resource management is intended to bring about the best fit between people management and the outcomes that organizations want to achieve.

Your task does not end with the appointment of the new employees to fill important positions. First, as a manager or a supervisor, you need to ensure their continued motivation to work well, and secondly, you need to ensure that they do not leave your organization.

Take pride in carrying out your job well, thereby achieving your job objectives as well as the objectives of your organization.

Charles Dickens wrote:

"Whatever I tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; whatever I have devoted myself to I have devoted myself completely."