Question:
Discuss the distance between the HRD and the low skilled laborer?
Answer:
Introduction
The report here deals with a case study where the local council for the purpose of finding out the requirement of the lunch supervisor in the primary school carried out an investigation. The local council asked the university to help them in carrying out the investigation and the result of this particular investigation is that it has identified certain number of training needs the lunch supervisors require. Apart from finding out the training needs the investigation that has been carried out also found out certain barriers as well, that could act as a road blocker in fulfilling the training needs. In this particular case study, or rather the particular case study, on which the report is based, is depended on the interview that has taken between the project manager of the study and the university who has conducted the research or the investigation. The result of this particular investigation was that it is being found out that the unskilled laborers and the groups of unskilled laborers do not have a full access to the HRD. The group of the unskilled laborers had a limited access to HRD or to the Human Resource Department.
Case Study Analysis
The case here deals with the investigation that has been carried out by the local council in the primary schools; and the result of this investigation was that it has been found out that most of the schools do not have trained lunch supervisor and even though there are facilities for training as well. It is true that there are some schools that have the opportunity of providing training to the supervisor but then again the facilities that are there are really very patchy as well. According to the case study although the lunch supervisor lack any kind of training, the teachers are provided four years training along with five trainings a day (Purushothaman and Ilamathian 2015). Thus, most of the students in these primary schools depend largely on the lunch supervisors. According to this particular investigation of six hours, the students spend at least 1.5 hours with the supervisors. The supervisors not only lack training but at the same time the supervisors also lack qualification as well and therefore they carry out their task of communicating with the children through actions like blowing the whistle or shouting at them, if at all the supervisors had any kind of training then that is being treated as an ad hoc (Wills, Danesi and Kapetanaki 2015).
The case study reflects on the fact that the organization has the requirement of the trained lunch supervisor since the schools want that the supervisors should give more time to the students and at the same time should play with them. Among few requirements this is one of the major requirements but there are certain problems that could act as a hindrance in the path of fulfilling this requirement. There are many problems which act as a hindrance and of all those problems one of the most important problem is that the job of the lunch supervisor is an undervalued job. The job is not only undervalued by the children, head teacher or by the teachers, the lunch supervisors themselves undervalue their jobs.
The teachers and the head teachers at times make a complaint about the lunch supervisor stating that most of the time few lunch supervisors do not report the teachers at the lunch time. The behavioral problem that is there among the lunch supervisors is there because most of the most of teachers and the head teachers do not respect the position of the lunch supervisors (Rana and Ardichvili 2015). Therefore, the lunch supervisors too under value their job and they do not consider that there are any need for any kind of training at all. The lunch supervisors do not try to understand that if they lack training they will not be able to work as a team, and thus the behavioral problem will remain and at the same time that will also affect the relationship that is there between the teacher and the lunch supervisor.
According to the scholars the role of the HRD is very important here, because the strategies that are being adopted by this particular department helps in motivating the human resource working for the organization and at the same time it also help in elevating the self esteem of the supervisor working for the schools. The tasks of the Human Resource Management are different from the job carried out by the Human Resource Department because the HRD is more focused on the development of the organization (Mitaru 2015). The work of the HRD is development oriented and not maintenance oriented; therefore the HRD is not a static department rather it is a dynamic department that is constantly adopting with the fast growing and the ever changing environment. The competencies of human resource is required for the growth of the organization, therefore it is important that the personnel policies that are being adopted by this particular department should make sure that they keep a pace with the morale and at the same time should be able to elevate the motivation of the employees as well (Leyland 2015). The strategies that should be adopted by the HRD of this particular institute should also make sure that they keep up with the high morale of the individual and it will only increase the motivation of the employees working for the organization.
Most of the lunch supervisors work in the primary schools during the lunch time and for a span of around 4 hours. The supervisors are paid on the basis of number of hours they have carried on their works and most of the schools offer a price of around 6 to 7.5 pounds to the supervisors (Hargrove, Becker and Hargrove 2015). Therefore, as the case study points out, most of the supervisor treats the job as a part time job and the payment that is being made to them is so low that there is a lack of self esteem and that is there even among the lunch supervisors. Therefore, the HRD had to keep these factors in mind when they are planning or rather adopting new strategies for the organization or for the school.
The economic factors therefore, play a very important role in the decision making process. The HRD is greatly influence by the economic condition of the organization, in this case study; it is greatly influenced by the HRD. Therefore, within the limited economic resources it becomes a challenge for the HRD to recruit the best talent in the industry (Sangale and Webster 2015).
The rules and the regulations that are being set by the schools also influence the decision making process of the HRD (Curran et al. 2015). There are many schools that do not have any written rules where it is mentioned that proper training should be provided to the lunch supervisor moreover they are also not being made aware of the fact that training is required for their job (Day et al. 2015). Therefore, as it is seen in this case the HRD would face difficulty in bringing changes in the institution and since many of the supervisors are working for the primary schools, for more than 20 years or so, they will feel that training is not required for the job that is being carried out by them. They will feel that the experience they had earned by working in the institute for a long period of time is enough for carrying out the job responsibility that they are carrying out and it is again another important factor that will influence the decision making strategies and policies of the organization.
Moreover the primary schools that are being discussed in case study have tight budgets and most of the budget that the school has is used in attracting the teachers who provide education to the pupil. Therefore, the organization, or rather the primary schools could not use the economic resources to attract the lunch supervisor to work for them. Therefore, most of the times most of the lunch supervisors opt for part time jobs, so that they could earn extra money, and could at least live a better life (Powell, Woodfield and Nevill 2015). The part time jobs are beneficial for the lunchtime supervisors but it is not at all beneficial for the HRD or for the HRM because they could not find the supervisors at the time of training, since the supervisors could not find any time for receiving the training (Cho and Zachmeier 2015).
Organizational politics again is one of the most important problems that are being faced by the management of an organization or the HRD of an organization (Adderley et al 2015). In the primary schools as well the power politics could be a problem for the HRD or the HRM. It is important to address the darker side of the organization and this is one of the most important tasks that are being carried out the HRD and the HRM of the organization. In every organization there is an engagement between the powers and the interests (Ahmad 2016).
The another most important problem with the lunch supervisors are, that most of the lunch supervisors are not educated enough and therefore they fail to understand the need to have a training. Thus, in this case also the HRD or the HRM of the primary school faces a problem as they could not provide adequate training to the lunch supervisors (Holman and Axtell 2015). The qualification of the lunch supervisors are not even and some of the lunch supervisors have joined the job without completing their graduation. Thus, the lack of education of the people working in this position is also a very big problem that the HRD may face, while implementing the provision of providing training to the lunch supervisors in the primary schools.
Conclusion
The training of the lunch supervisor requires because the students spend most of the time with the lunch supervisors. The supervisors are responsible for teaching the students about the table manners and also in taking care of the students, to see that they do not get hurt while playing or even while having their lunch. Therefore, adequate training should be given to them so that they had a polite yet an authoritative command over the children. The children should not only fear them but at the same time should have the most pleasant moment with these supervisors. Thus, it can be concluded that to provide the lunch supervisors with adequate trainings the HRD or the HRM of the primary schools have to overcome certain barriers and overcoming these barriers is really very important and therefore the HRD should try to overcome it and provide adequate training to these supervisors; this will lead to the development of the supervisors and also to the development of the primary schools as well.
Recommendation
- The head teachers and the teachers should respect the lunch supervisors and their jobs, since most of the time most of children are with them. Moreover, if the teachers and the head teachers value their jobs then only the student will also provide respect to them and at the same time they too will respect the job that they are into.
- The salary given to the lunch supervisors should be increased, so that the lunch supervisors do not have to go for any part time job. If the lunch supervisors spend most of the time in the primary school and do not have any hurry for any part time job then they too will be motivated to carry on with their job and will also go for the training as well. The HRD should make sure that the lunch supervisors are receiving a decent salary even if the school is being provided with a tight budget.
- There should be a counseling of the lunch supervisor, and they should be made aware of the fact that the training is required for their own benefit, so that they could carry on with their work with ease as well as with respect, which they will receive not only from the teachers but from the students as well.
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