Narrow Results

This paper presents the results of a survey of international recruitment of social workers and social care workers into the United Kingdom. The literature on international recruitment, especially in relation to social care workers, is extremely sparse. Reviews conducted by the authors for the UK Department of Health did not find any definitive answer to the question of the numbers at present in the UK workforce, their movement between jobs, and their length of stay in the UK. The present study is based on qualitative interviews with three senior managers, four human resources managers, one employment agency manager, one senior social services inspector and three inspectors and three staff from the voluntary and private sectors. The interviews confirmed some of the major benefits associated with international recruitment: a reduction in vacancy rates; filling gaps in key shortage areas; improved sickness records; and once training has been provided the standards of care have improved. In addition, recruitment from overseas has the effect of creating a more diverse staff mix through the appointment of people with more varied experience and experiences. There may also be cost benefits associated with the reduction in costs of employing agency staff. The challenges involved are: having an ethical recruitment policy; the transferability of qualifications and skill sets, and cultural expectations and differences. Employers need to recognize that higher levels of induction are needed in order to meet the unique local knowledge requirements of an overseas candidate. Generally however, there are very few problems, and employers recruiting from overseas find that any problems that exist diminish with each round of recruitment, that is, as employers learn from their previous mistakes. Nevertheless, international recruitment is only a short term strategy, and, alone, does not solve the fundamental domestic problems that lead to the shortages in the first place.

Military veterans bring many unique and desirable traits to the workforce, including self-insight, experience, and sound judgment. Through their service in the American military branches, veterans have experience in heightened leadership roles in high stress and high stakes environments that shape their personalities, leadership skills, and behaviours. Because of this experience, veterans often demonstrate wisdom as they apply self-awareness and judgment through different ranks and roles in their service to the country. Hiring these experienced and seasoned workers to the benefit of businesses can be part of the solution in addressing the current labour shortage. Research is warranted in seeking to understand why veterans experience difficulties in their transition from the military into their business careers in higher numbers compared to the general population. The misinformation and misconceptions about hiring veterans are depriving businesses of a talented and unique population that can bring more wisdom to their workforce.

In this paper, the single machine total weighted completion time scheduling problem is studied. The jobs have nonzero release time and processing time increases during the production due to the effect of deterioration on the machine. An operator sets up the machine and manually loads the job in the machine and unloads it at the end of the working time. The setup time and the removal time are influenced by the ability of the worker due to his work experience and learning capacity. Heuristic algorithms are proposed to solve the scheduling problem, and their efficiency is evaluated on a wide benchmark.

Management of human resources is a critical decision that organisations especially the small enterprises make after a lot of deliberation and careful analysis. The book addresses several issues and challenges that SMEs and start-ups face during the management of their workforce. This introductory chapter aims to set the premise of this discussion and shares the basic understanding of these issues and challenges, letting the readers know what they can expect from the rest of the book. The chapter also illustrates through real world images the involvement of human resources in the small business and the impact it has on their overall outcomes.