To satisfy their current and future business needs, companies must understand how many employees they will require for their operations and what kind of individuals they will need. In this sense, the basic idea behind workforce planning is to align the firm’s need for labor with the availability of labor over time (Armstrong & Tayler, 2020). Strategic workforce planning (SWP) is the process of considering the possibilities and difficulties that a company’s employees may encounter as economic climate shifts and economic cycles deepen (Sparkman, 2018). It aims to outline how the labor structure of the company should adapt as these market circumstances change and the firm grows (Sparkman, 2018). In this situation, the team will rely on SWP to analyze the service desk supervisor position, and the first step in this process will be to analyze the overall job market conditions, trends, and patterns for this job.
Then, it is vital to mention that job analysis will be divided into several parts. While performing job analysis, the team will have to collect job-related data. In this situation, managers will collect two sets of data and seek job descriptions and job specifications. A job description will be used to advertise a position to attract candidates and involve information regarding job title, location, job summary, reporting, working conditions, and job duties (Review Machine, 2020). In this situation, the job title is the service desk supervisor for a full-time job at IBC Bank. The location is San Antonio, Texas, and the department, to the manager to which the employee will be reporting, is the service desk. Aside from the given descriptions, job functions can be listed. In the job position under analysis, the functions might involve the assessment of issues, carrying out complicated installations of computer software, schedule creation, and others. This allows the candidates to grasp the routine tasks in the position.
Job summary along with listed responsibilities and condition is as follows: All Service Desk Technician I and II workers will report to the Service Desk Supervisor, who will oversee incidents and concerns. Additionally, the person in this position will be in charge of assuring quality control for Service Desk workers, which will involve checking timesheets, training for inbound call responses, and one-on-one performance reviews. For issues and demands, root cause assessment will be carried out, and detailed information will be sent to the service desk manager as appropriate for progression.
The following step revolves around job specification, which is a written statement of educational qualifications and expertise. It involves experience, training, and skills and helps candidates understand whether they fit the criteria or not (Review Machine, 2020). The team will give detailed information about the requirements for the position of service desk supervisor. For instance, active learning, active listening, complicated problem solving, teamwork, critical reasoning, instruction, judgment and decision making, supervision, and time management are some of the skills needed for the given job position. As for the educational background, among the required qualifications are a high school diploma, GED, and higher education qualifications, such as an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, with a Technical Certification in the work-related field being acceptable.
Upon meeting with coworkers in this position and asking them if anything was missing in the job posting or if they would add anything to the position, several key moments were identified. The coworker in this position states that while soft skills were mentioned, hard skills were not present in the job posting. From their personal experience, they outlined several hard skills that would be essential to the given position. Among such skills are IT skills since the position of service desk supervisor entails technical support. In this situation, front-end programming might be useful in addition to a knowledge base and software and hardware expertise. Moreover, the team member stated that it is necessary to mention workplace hazards and conditions. For example, it might be useful to clarify the room temperature, whether there is noise in the workplace, and hazards that involve electricity. This way, the candidates will be able to assess the information given to them and come to a conclusion about whether they are ready to move to another round and reach out to the HR manager.
Hence, in order to study the service desk supervisor position, the team will rely on SWP, and the first stage in this process will be to examine the general employment market circumstances, trends, and patterns for this position. The job analysis will then be broken into numerous components, which must be mentioned. The team will need to gather work-related data while doing job analysis. Managers will gather two kinds of information in this case, including job descriptions and job specifications. A post will be advertised using a job description to draw in applications. The next stage involves creating a written description of educational credentials and professional experience called a job specification. It includes expertise, education, and abilities and aids applicants in determining if they meet the requirements. Upon having a conversation with a coworker, it was found that while the general information, such as a job title, location, job summary, reporting, job duties, skills, and qualifications, were mentioned, some aspects were not present. Among these are hard skills, workplace conditions, and hazards.
References
Armstrong, M., & Tayler, S. (2020). Chapter 27: Workforce planning. In Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice (15th ed.). Kogan Page. Available in the Trident Online Library, Skillsoft database.
Review Machine. (2020). Job analysis, job description, and job specification [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Sparkman, R. (2018). Chapter 1: Strategic workforce planning. In Strategic workforce planning: Developing optimized talent strategies for future growth. Kogan Page. ISBN: 9780749482015. Available in the Trident Online Library.