Executive Summary
Strategic resourcing, which involves matching human resources to the organization’s strategic and organizational needs and guaranteeing those resources are fully utilized, is a crucial part of strategic human resource management. Strategic resourcing assures that the company effectively recruits, retains, and hires the staff it needs. Strategic resourcing strategies aim to find the workforce that best fits the organization’s needs and has the necessary skills, knowledge, and capacities. This tactic guarantees that a business gains a competitive edge over its rivals by hiring more workers that are qualified. This strategy seeks to attract new employees through better opportunities, incentives, and the promotion of a genuine corporate culture. The organization’s overall strategy and the primary directions the organization is headed must be considered in strategic resourcing plans.
Businesses and the people and groups that make them up can achieve mutually beneficial goals with impactful employee tactical resourcing. Employees are crucial resources for an organization’s success, and their use, management, and evaluation must align with their importance to continue adding value. To successfully manage this asset, businesses that want to manage their workforce strategically must put in place the right policies and procedures (Armstrong, 2020). Organizations should anticipate highly beneficial outcomes from understanding and correctly implementing strategic resourcing strategies, typically interpreted as achieving worthwhile goals and successful results.
Strategic Resourcing Strategy
In 1997, Telkom Kenya established the wholly owned subsidiary of Safaricom. In May 2000, Vodafone Group PLC of the United Kingdom acquired a 40% stake in the business and management responsibilities (Achieng & Gitonga, 2020). Nairobi, Kenya, serves as the home base for the publicly traded Kenyan mobile network operator Safaricom PLC. It is the largest telecommunications provider in the country and one of the most profitable companies in East and Central Africa. The business deals in consumer electronics, e-commerce, cloud storage, data, music streaming, mobile telephony, mobile money transfer, and fiber optics.
It is most famous for being the birthplace of MPESA, a mobile banking SMS service. Safaricom, which as of June 30, 2019, had an estimated user base of 33.1 million, controls about 63.5 percent of the Kenyan market (Achieng & Gitonga, 2020). Safaricom was ranked the best employer in Africa and 67th overall on the Forbes Global 200 list of the world’s best employers. In the annual Brighter Monday Best 100 Companies to Work for a survey conducted in March 2018, career experts and job seekers ranked Safaricom as the best company to work for in Kenya. As of June 30, 2019, Safaricom employed over 6,185 people (Armstrong, 2020). To ensure that customers across the nation can access its goods and services, Safaricom has an extensive network of dealerships. The group wants to foster an environment where everyone can succeed, regardless of gender, disability, race, or age. It has placed a high priority on attracting, keeping, and developing diverse talent.
The Impact of Changing Employment Markets
The need to improve understanding of national and international employee sourcing is becoming more and more critical as economies and societies become interdependent. To successfully find employees, Safaricom PLC must face, adjust to, benefit from, and defend itself against what is occurring in the world around it. The organization must take into account a wide range of functional changes to employ, teach, maintain, and stabilize a workforce frequently dispersed across several countries with various cultural identities. The organization has implemented policies to support employee dedication, commitment, and skill development to realize better its vision of changing lives (Achieng & Gitonga, 2020). Regardless of race, it offers all staff members’ distinct career paths through individual growth plans and performance reviews to support workers in advancing their careers. Additionally, it has improved leaders’ knowledge of compensation mechanisms, helped them become better coaches and mentors, and given them more competitive pay compared to other companies in the sector.
When hiring new employees, the human resources departments of Safaricom PLC must change the way they think and act to account for cultural differences, gender, foreign laws, and technological advancements. In the financial year 2019/2020, there were 2,278 permanent male employees compared to 2,237 permanent female employees, demonstrating the firm’s commitment to maintaining a gender-sensitive workforce (Achieng & Gitonga, 2020). Social norms, employment and tax laws, and cultural practices impact the national and international sources of employees at the organization. The need for new local talent must be filled, new talent must be developed, and the organization’s ability to enter new markets will depend on its capacity to find qualified workers.
Despite having a gender-sensitive workforce, Safaricom PLC had a disparity in the number of male and female employees holding senior positions; among the executive leadership, there were 64 percent men and 36 percent women. There were 65 percent men and 35 percent women in senior management positions (Armstrong, 2020). The country strives to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 5, which calls for gender equality and empowering all women and girls. Still, the native culture does not reasonably believe that women can propel the organizational agenda, as proved by those possessing top roles.
Government policies and technological advancements are two examples of the macro-environmental factors influencing the job market. Technological developments may affect employment rates depending on a number of factors. Depending on the industry, some industrial endeavors that once required workers to operate factory lines may now be able to substitute computer-operated machines for workers. This might result in a significant reduction in the number of workers needed by a business. The need for specific levels of employees in office settings has been replaced by certain machine automation advancements, which has an impact on overall employment.
The corporate values of the company might have an effect on the employment rate. For instance, if prospective employees read negative press about how the business treats its employees, it may influence the hiring process and the kind of applicants one can find. If people do not feel valued or are not motivated to work for a firm, it could affect employment in two ways: either they might leave for other opportunities, or the company’s output might fall, forcing a business to make layoffs.
Resourcing and Talent Management Strategies
Investing in a company’s employees, which is its most valuable resource, is known as talent management. Employers can accomplish this by looking for candidates with in-demand skill sets, providing ongoing learning and development opportunities, rewarding devoted team members, and elevating them within the organization. Implementing a variety of techniques and strategies is part of employee resourcing strategies. Employers use these techniques throughout the organizational resourcing process in a way that helps them achieve the main strategic goals and objectives of the company. At the organization, the four main facets of employee resourcing strategies are hiring, selecting, keeping employees, and firing (Achieng & Gitonga, 2020). These actions may occur singly or in tandem throughout the employee resourcing process.
A successful business should implement comprehensive strategies to increase and maintain organizational effectiveness through improved hiring, retaining, developing, and benefiting from people with the necessary credentials and skills. The above allows the organization to meet current and future business needs and is seen as a subset of talent management, which includes strategic resourcing. The strategies used by Safaricom PLC for managing talent include talent identification, planning, mentoring and coaching initiatives, training and evaluation programs, talent development, and talent retention.
Safaricom PLC has promoted women’s empowerment and capacity building through career fairs, inspired talks, preparation, career development, guidance, and mentoring programs that adhere to the seven UN Women Empowerment Principles. More than 50 women have all received training as part of the Safaricom Women in Leadership Programme to help and mentor other women as they advance in their careers (Achieng & Gitonga, 2020). The guiding principles for performance improvement at the firm are based on the notion that all employees possess skills and should grow and develop to the fullest extent possible. Increasing its employability index has given its employees a head start on the future. The 70:20:10 learning strategy of the reskilling and upskilling programs adhere to cultivating and embedding the appropriate mindset, skillsets, and toolkits to promote a community of lifelong learners. Employee education is primarily provided through Safaricom Business School, the company’s comprehensive eLearning platform.
Coaching oversight has improved employees’ capacity to make contracts with coaches. They can better prepare for coaching now that their coaching strategy is more organized. These tactics have given the company crucial knowledge and tactics for organizational development and change. Additionally, it has helped the organization locate the brightest workers who might one day fill leadership positions. At the corporation, talent acquisition aims to find and concentrate on quality workers while ensuring that formation and growth strategies align with the company’s mission and vision, resulting in the success and sustainability of the enterprise.
Impact of Resourcing Strategy
An employee resourcing strategy’s primary goal is to find workers with the necessary skills, knowledge, experience, and potential for further training to fill labor needs. Employee resourcing methods are designed to offer the right people and skills to complement the current organizational structure (Rödder et al., 2018). These strategies are linked to particular abilities and ways of behaving, and they describe how these elements can be used to fulfill the objectives of the company. The primary activity in which resourcing strategies are developed needs to be the recruitment and selection of sufficiently matched employees to satisfy the firm’s needs (Achieng & Gitonga, 2020). Linking policies, practices, and human resources to strategic goals is the ultimate goal of developing and implementing a resourcing strategy.
By preventing discrimination in hiring practices and ensuring that everyone has an equal chance regarding resources, the firm has conformed to all relevant laws and ethical standards. No matter their gender, ethnicity, disability, religious beliefs, age, thought style, or any other feature, people can thrive in the environment the company has created. In order to achieve organizational excellence by luring, keeping, and developing diverse talent, the company has prioritized sexual identity and mental impairment equality. This provides information on how to create related products and services that satisfy consumer needs.
The corporate strategy of Safaricom places a strong emphasis on the inclusion of people with disabilities, and the business works hard to provide opportunities for employment for them. The firm is bound by the ten principles of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and has agreed to end stigma and discrimination in the workplace by signing the Disability Charter for Reform. By 2025, Safaricom wants 5% of its workforce to comprise individuals with disabilities (Musambai & Mukanzi, 2018). The number of workers with impairments has more than doubled over the past four years, and there has been an increase in the variety of disabilities.
The firm has widened the scope of its onboarding to include physical and less obvious intellectual and cognitive disabilities. There were 129 employees with disabilities in 2029, or 2.3% of the workforce (Musambai & Mukanzi, 2018). To ensure the physical security of its employees, Safaricom PLC has put in place occupational health and safety (OSH) measures, including strict security measures at all of its locations. Unconscious bias training and fundamental sign language instruction for both line managers and employees are among the programs that the organization has implemented to foster an inclusive and healthy work environment. Additionally, it has provided specially designed business resources such as technology and assistive devices, an environment that is physically accessible, specialized evacuation equipment, and ongoing training.
How Safaricom PLC Undertake Long and Short-Term Talent Planning
Planning, sourcing, evaluating, hiring, and onboarding-qualified candidates into appropriate positions within the organization are all parts of the process of luring and recruiting top talent. It covers all hiring forms for full-time, part-time, and contract jobs. No business can expect to advance or expand unless it has the necessary personnel to perform vital corporate tasks. Their abilities and efforts help companies stay a step ahead of the competition. Talent planning also includes assessing future company requirements and selecting the best people resources (Wagner & Walstad, 2018). The main components of talent planning are the development of an organization into the employer of choice, value enhancement, hire employees plans, plan of the company, adaptability plans, talent development, and employee learning and innovation. Through talent planning, all organization members at different levels must be allowed to develop their talents and skills.
Skilled workers are outsourced when a specialized skill is needed for a one-time project or more assistance is required. They are not paid directly by the company because they work independently or through vendors. Their onboarding and training period is condensed due to their time-based contract. Long-term acquisition, on the other hand, is a continuous process in which personnel is frequently and sporadically hired in large numbers (Achieng & Gitonga, 2020). The company often provides thorough onboarding and training because it wants to keep these workers and achieve worthwhile objectives. They get employee perks like insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off.
Safaricom PLC organizes training and development programs to guarantee that human resources can improve their skills and talents. It is a reality that crucial staff retention is critical to any organization’s long-term health and performance. Safaricom PLC has ensured that workers are respected, which is the foundation of employee retention, by ensuring excellent long and short-term personnel planning. Other methods used by the firm in terms of talent planning include personnel recognition, awards, training, mentoring, and career development. The company suggests that the technological and managerial abilities, efficiency, and well-being of its workforce, as well as the business culture and governance frameworks that promote creativity and compliance, are vital to its long-term success.
The agile leaders at Safaricom PLC support the company’s transition and transformation. One of the essential qualities an agile leader must possess is the capacity to mentor, inspire, and hold people accountable. The coaching and mentorship program offers a focused and personalized method for accelerating people’s professional and personal development in line with business goals. In 2019, the firm registered 22,452 coaching hours with 110 certified, licensed coaches mentoring 45 mentees. In addition, due to the line manager toolkit program, 85% of line managers now know how to coach for the best outcomes (Achieng & Gitonga, 2020). By 2020, Safaricom PLC intends to spend KSh 273 million on employee development.
Employee Turnover
The number of personnel leaving and joining a company over a specific period is referred to as employee turnover, known as employee depletion. Smith discusses various elements, such as a higher salary, a better benefits package, and more autonomy, that may influence an employee’s choice to leave a company. Businesses that adopt tactics to reduce staff turnover profit from business continuity and superior succession planning. One method may involve but is not limited to conducting an employee satisfaction survey to gauge the level of staff satisfaction and work evaluation. The organization has broadened its diversity efforts, provided equal education and professional development opportunities, and developed special incentive programs for each employee. Enterprises that devote time and effort in estimating or analyzing employee retention rates are likely to gain important data that will allow business owners to develop innovative retention tactics for consistently keeping employees (Basnyat & Clarence, 2019). Examples of such information include offering an overall estimate of recruiting budgets and strengthening areas that departing employees identify as the company’s major weaknesses, among others.
Recommendations for Employee Retention
Safaricom PLC should ensure that employee salaries and benefits are competitive to increase employee retention. Offering employees competitive wages as well as additional benefits and allowances will help them feel appreciated by the company, which will boost their morale and increase the likelihood that they will stick around for a while. The organization should ensure that it provides workplace flexibility to its workers, such as a compressed workweek, flexi-time alternatives, and telecommuting (Johara et al., 2019). Flexible work arrangements will benefit employees by enhancing their work-life balance. They are therefore more inclined to stay at the company longer because they are more motivated to work there. The 70% of staff that have the option to work from home, including the 80% of call center employees, should benefit from the above.
To offer guidance and serve as a source of advice for new employees in the company, the firm should provide coaching and mentoring programs for its employees by partnering new hires with mentors. One advantage of mentoring programs is the potential for increased productivity, commitment to the company, and job satisfaction, all of which will improve employee retention. Every employee wants to feel appreciated for their work, so the firm should have formal recognition and incentive programs. Employee retention will improve when one express gratitude to the personnel and explain how their efforts benefit the company. When one does this, staff members will feel valued, and their morale will rise. In order to improve employee skills and productivity at work, the corporation should expand its employee training and development programs. Employees are better appreciated by the company through increased benefits and rewards when they are productive because the company tends to value them more when they are productive because it does not want to lose them.
References
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Armstrong, M. (2020). Armstrong’s handbook of strategic human resource management: Improve business performance through strategic people management, (7th edition). Kogan Page.
Basnyat, S., & Clarence, L., C. (2019). Employees’ perceptions on the relationship between human resource management practices and employee turnover. Employee Relations: The International Journal, 42(2), 453-470. Web.
Johara, F., Yahya, S., & Tehseen, S. (2019). Employee retention, market orientation, and organizational performance – An empirical study. International Academic Journal of Business Management, 06(01), 314-325. Web.
Musambai, M., & Mukanzi, D. (2018). Influence of career management on employee retention in mobile telecommunication companies in Kenya; A case of Safaricom Public Limited Company (PLC). International Journal of Multidisciplinary and Current Research, 6(5), 1104-1109. Web.
Rödder, M., Frank, L., Kirschner, D., Neef, M., & Adam, M. (2018). Energibus4home – Sustainable energy resourcing in low-energy buildings. Energy, 159, 638-647. Web.
Wagner, J., & Walstad, W. (2018). The effects of financial education on short-term and long-term financial behaviors. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 53(1), 234-259. Web.