Workforce Action Plan for Mi-ORG: Retention and Diversity

Introduction: Workforce Challenges Facing Mi-ORG

Today, the American workforce faces multiple challenges — most especially identifying viable strategies for maintaining normal business operations during an ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic and managing its economic fallout. Other significant trends are also already affecting businesses of all sizes and types, including fundamental shifts in the demographic composition of the workforce and a wide array of technological innovations that are changing the way enterprises operate. Against this backdrop, it is clear that human resource managers must develop timely workforce action plans to help guide their organizations moving forward.

Located in Boston, Massachusetts, Mi-ORG is a management consulting firm that uses innovative solutions to assist client organizations in becoming more efficient and effective in achieving their objectives (Mi-ORG company overview, 2021). The purpose of this project is to use a systematic review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature to identify existing constraints to workforce development in general and at Mi-ORG in particular. As the research that follows will show, Mi-ORG needs to provide employees at all levels with appropriate incentives that promote improved morale and heightened loyalty, and must take concrete steps now to plan for the company's workforce development needs in the future.

Employee Retention and Succession Planning

The high costs of recruiting new employees are well documented, and it is clearly in the company's best interests to use the most cost-effective retention strategies possible. To its credit, Mi-ORG recognizes this need and currently provides its employees with a number of valuable perquisites, including (a) long-term employment arrangements, (b) internal promotions, (c) tuition reimbursement programs, and (d) flexible work schedule options (Mi-ORG company overview, 2021). Despite these generous offerings, the company has still experienced an inordinate amount of turnover in recent months due in large part to increases in the number of retirees, increased demand for consultants elsewhere, and a shaky economy.

Taken together, these trends underscore the need for Mi-ORG to systematically reevaluate its current workforce action plan in order to identify new strategies that can reduce their adverse impact. The recommendations provided by Duboff and Heaton (2009) are appropriate for this purpose: "The first step to creating an integrated employee retention plan is to establish principles for the analysis and implementation" (p. 10). The following principles provide a useful framework for developing, implementing, and administering an employee retention plan for Mi-ORG:

A significant number of experienced employees have retired recently, and many more are expected to retire in the foreseeable future — representing a loss of invaluable tacit organizational knowledge as well as the long-term relationships these retirees have built with clients and colleagues. Fortunately, many of the recent retirements were known well in advance, allowing Mi-ORG time to conduct the requisite selection interviews. Nevertheless, it is essential for the company to conduct ongoing succession planning to ensure that the best available candidates are identified and recruited in time to allow for some overlap with the departing incumbent.

An important consideration in succession planning is the need to look ahead by at least one year, and in some cases even further. The Society for Human Resource Management advises that "Succession planning is a focused process for keeping talent in the pipeline. It is generally a 12- to 36-month process of preparation, not pre-selection" (Engaging in succession planning, 2021, para. 3). Moreover, even though all organizations are unique in some respects, virtually all of them can benefit from thoughtful succession planning by building the talent and expertise required for future success. The Society for Human Resource Management further emphasizes that succession planning is essential for companies of all sizes, noting that "Succession planning can be of great value to smaller organizations that have fewer resources available for knowledge management programs and the formal, structured development of employees" (Engaging in succession planning, 2021, para. 5).

Some of the more compelling reasons for Mi-ORG to engage in timely succession planning include the following:

Mi-ORG's top management must face the reality that certain institutional attitudes have inhibited the company's commitment to inclusive practices. A telling example can be found in the behavior of one senior white male member of a selection committee who insisted on more interviews while complaining that "All we've seen thus far are women" (An average day at Mi-ORG, 2021, p. 4). This is not to say that the company's recruitment processes are inherently biased, but it does suggest a general consensus among Mi-ORG's top leadership that there is some benefit to perpetuating a "good old boy" network. Consequently, Mi-ORG needs support from its human resource services to ensure that the company's top leadership team is truly representative of its workforce.

While the Covid-19 pandemic continues to have a profound impact on American businesses in unexpected ways, several broader demographic trends will also affect how employees interact with their organizations and perform their daily routines. The following demographic forces are projected to have the greatest impact on organizations in the near and foreseeable future:

In addition, politically based priorities can have a significant impact on which strategic relationships are most important at any given time (Trends that impact the workforce, 2021, p. 3). Furthermore, Mi-ORG's web task management system appears to be creating far more problems than it solves. One manager observed that daily use of the system required clearing a "deluge of daily messages," and that being "subscribed to notifications for several projects outside of your direct supervision" caused important emails to be missed (An average day at Mi-ORG, 2021, p. 3).

Inclusion, Diversity, and Cultural Awareness

Although Mi-ORG's top leadership team is not exclusively comprised of older white males, they appear to account for a majority of the company's executives at present. A number of these senior executives are scheduled for retirement in the foreseeable future, which may change this composition over time. At present, however, there appears to be a glaring need for formal encouragement to use elements of diversity to develop and enhance Mi-ORG's products and services (Larcker & Tayan, 2020). The current diversity reflected in the company's job profiles may have resulted primarily from responses to legal mandates rather than from enlightened leadership that genuinely embraces an inclusive corporate culture (Dobbin & Kaley, 2018). As one practitioner notes, "Inclusion is a concept that is closely related to diversity, however some researchers believe a key distinction to be that management of diversity can be legally mandated, whereas inclusion is the result of purposeful planning and action on the part of an organization" (Diversity and inclusion, 2021, p. 5).

One viable and cost-effective solution would be to include diversity and inclusion as performance goals within Mi-ORG's existing performance review processes. The addition of these goals would reinforce the importance of these efforts for all employees. As one practitioner points out, "Internally focused, Mi-ORG supports its employees with individualized attention and merit-based advancement [through] frequent performance reviews, long-term employment considerations, internal promotions, tuition reimbursement programs, and flexible work schedule options" (Mi-ORG company overview, 2021, p. 1). Because performance reviews are already regarded at all levels as an integral part of the company's human resource strategy, embedding diversity and inclusion goals within them is a natural and appropriate mechanism for promoting these values throughout the workforce.

Mi-ORG's workforce appears diverse with respect to minority representation relative to the broader American population, but it remains unclear what career paths are available to these minority members. Regardless of the origins of the company's lack of an inclusive mindset, it is apparent that Mi-ORG needs to embrace inclusion in practice rather than in the abstract, and take the steps necessary to develop and sustain a corporate culture that makes this a genuine priority. As one practitioner advises:

Organizational culture is the pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, and that have worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to these problems. (Organizational culture, 2021, p. 2)

The employee profiles of the company indicate that while its workforce largely mirrors the current demographic composition of the American population — with minority representation at all levels — Mi-ORG's top leadership team requires additional minority representation. The corporate culture appears to value diversity only to the extent required by law, rather than recognizing the multiple benefits that accrue to a truly diverse workforce. The company seems to have paid lip service only to developing and maintaining an inclusive corporate culture, a constraint that will likely have serious implications in the future.

Moreover, the company appears to lack a sufficient number of junior consultants in its current pipeline to replace the number of expected retirees, and grooming new junior consultants for these positions requires a substantial investment of time — a luxury Mi-ORG cannot afford to delay. Although the company has taken steps to identify skill gaps, it remains unclear what specific actions are being taken to address those gaps.

Mi-ORG currently maintains corporate operations on three continents and continues to seek additional foreign markets. Increasing cultural awareness among its workforce is therefore both timely and valuable. Evidence-based strategies are available to increase cultural awareness throughout the company, as outlined in the table below.

Source: Adapted from Practices to increase cultural awareness in the workplace (2017)