Human Resource Management

Human Resource Planning In New Era of Importing Labor

Introduction

A fundamental element in an organization's ability to compete is the ability to attract, retain, and develop a workforce that possesses the technical knowledge and skills needed to compete in an increasingly global marketplace. The increase in competition compels the countries to focus on qualified labor along with cost reduction (McLaughlan, 2002). Therefore, it is deemed necessary for nations like U.S. to concentrate on programs established to induct foreign workers. This leads to various consequences. This paper aims to discuss the human resource planning in new era of importing labor by answering the various aspects.

Discussion

Question 1

Foreign workers are a vital source of competitive advantage for U.S. firms in certain industries. This is due to the fact that foreign labor in some countries such as China is relatively cheap to afford. The pool of foreign workers in less developed countries proves to be more beneficial for U.S in terms of costs. The limitations of U.S. workers arise when it becomes difficult for companies to fill high-level positions for which no local workers are available. This can be due to various reasons such as lack of expertise, low number of qualified workers, and other factors.

Question 2

To eliminate the gap between high-level positions and available workers, U.S. has determined to launch the H-1B Visa program. The H-1B visas created a controversial scenario in the U.S. job market where some people resided with the policy and others protested against it (Zavodny, 2003). The people in favor were mostly the private sector corporations such as Microsoft, which believed that the number of visas should be increased due to the resultant jobs created as a consequence of approving the applications. In some industries such as computer programming and nursing, there is a chronic shortage of qualified people. This results in demand for more visas. However, there are many people arguing to reduce the number of visas to protect the U.S. jobs. This contradicts with the agenda of employers lobbying for raising the limit of these visas.

Question 3

It is essential for the government and businesses to maintain a considerable balance between the foreign and domestic workers. This should be done on both levels like short and long term. This can be done by the means of estimating and forecasting the amount of workers present within the country suitable for high-level openings and identifying the ...