Altman, R. (2020). “Moving the Needle” with Limited Resources. Workforce Solutions Review, 11(3), 31–34 “Moving the Needle” with Limited Resources.: EBSCOhost (wwu.edu)

This article was written by Robert Altman, the founder and CEO of Peopleserv, a software services company, has frequently authored on business and technology and co-authored six books on Business Process Management (BPM). He is also on the faculty of the Human Capital Analytics and Technology (HCAT) program at NYU. In his article, Altman discusses the challenges and costs associated with HR technology particularly in the era of COVID-19. When surveyed, 60% of companies said they were cutting costs or ceasing altogether, investments in HR technology. Altman also discusses why HR data management is important and possible solutions for the complex and expensive nature of it during challenging times. 

Baum, T., Mooney, S. K. K., Robinson, R. N. S., & Solnet, D. (2020). COVID-19’s impact on the hospitality workforce – new crisis or amplification of the norm? International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 32(9), 2813–2829. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/10.1108/IJCHM-04-2020-0314

Baum_etal_IJCHM_2020_COVID_19s_impact_on_the_hospitality_workforce.pdf (strath.ac.uk)

In this article, the authors examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hospitality workforce. The implications of how political leaders view a massive workforce which by nature often sits on a precarious nature due to the structures of the industry and business models. The authors also discuss the impacts lockdowns have made and how the industry has not only tried to retain the workforce but how part of the workforce may never return and how that has fundamentally changed lives, often, in a damaging manner. The article also discusses the vulnerability of the workforce and businesses due lack of legal recourse, job security, non-standard work forms and a host of other issues that normally plague the industry.

Jones, M., Versace, V., Lyle, D., & Walsh, S. (2021). Return of the unexpected: Rural Workforce Recruitment and retention in the era of Covid‐19. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 29(5), 612–616. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajr.12817 

In this article the authors discuss the effect the Covid-19 pandemic is having on the health care workforce in rural Australia. Recent population trends have shown more Australians are moving to rural environments to try and avoid urban population density. These trends have led to concern from health officials whether rural healthcare systems can handle a new influx of possible patients due to Covid-19 infection and hospitalization. This article further dives into the aspects of rural healthcare, specifically the attraction of new employees to help staff health clinics. They draw on many aspects of employee attraction including; community involvement, governmental employment programs, and telehealth opportunities in rural environments. 

This article, although from Australia, is relevant to the same problem we are facing here in the United States and even in Washington State. Many rural hospitals in the eastern half of our state are facing staffing shortages due to limited staff pre-pandemic, employees fired after vaccine mandates, or employees unable to work due to covid infection. 

Liebman, A. K., Seda, C. H., & Galván, A. R. (2021). Farmworkers and COVID-19: Community-Based Partnerships to Address Health and Safety. American Journal of Public Health, 111(8), 1456–1458. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/10.2105/ajph.2021.306323

The authors of “Farmworkers and COVID-19: Community-Based Partnerships to Address Health and Safety” use data from The National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) to show when COVID-19 first spread throughout the U.S. the majority of farm workers could not adjust to the rapid changes COVID-19 brought in regards-to the workplace. A majority of farm workers in the U.S. lack basic resources like insurance and employer-provided housing. However, some new coalitions for farm workers developed during COVID-19 and in states like California and Maine farm workers were able to get health and financial support in order to continue working.

Fortunately, the pandemic has had some positive impacts on issues farm workers have had struggles with historically. Proper housing, transportation, financial resources, health care, and other issues are all being highlighted by the pandemic’s effect. For example, a positive impact the article states is “farm employers feared COVID-19–related labor shortages and public response to outbreaks, both of which could cause large-scale disruption of farm operations. Community health centers and health departments, in doing outreach during the early weeks of the pandemic, discovered that some employers were less reluctant to partner than they were before the pandemic; other employers were eager to have health authorities assist them in determining the best manner to protect their workers from infection” (Liebman, Seda, Galván, 2021, Para. 7). These issues have finally gotten attention from government officials and now these new coalitions can better help farm workers stay safe and keep food on the table. 

Parker, L. D. (2020). The COVID-19 office in transition: cost, efficiency and the social responsibility business case. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 33(8),1943–1967.https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/10.1108/AAAJ-06-2020-4609

Lee Parker critically evaluates how the Covid-19 pandemic has conceivably had the most significant impact on human life compared to previous global pandemics, especially in the workplace. Parker highlights how businesses have had to re-engineer and adapt to the fast-changing regulations of health officials and political powers. The article discusses actions that some companies have already taken to comply with OH&S guidelines while keeping cost, efficiency, and social responsibility. Covid-19 has induced community health, social and economic difficulties, but Parker talks about how companies are altering their workspaces to keep and attract new employees. This article is well thought out and calls attention to the everchanging pandemic and how companies are evolving to meet the regulations set by numerous powers.

Rogers, B. Q., O’Brien, K. I., Harkins, D. L., Mitchell, T. G., & O’Neil, D. A. (2021). COVID-19 and OD: Unplanned Disruption and the Opportunity for Planned Talent Development. Organization Development Review, 53(2), 61–67. COVID-19 and OD: Unplanned Disruption and the Opportunity for Planned Talen…: EBSCOhost (wwu.edu)

In the article the authors consider how dramatic changes in the work environment can affect employee and organizational performance, how recruitment, onboarding, training, and expansion present challenges that must be addressed for sustainability. They look into how talent development principals can enhance organizational development practices and what that means for organizations. This article also discusses the impacts COVID-19 has made on the lives of various workforces and discusses how implementing targeted changes and improvements to the business structure can improve work performance of current workers and lead to better recruitment efforts on the part of management. Finally, the authors offer the reader a perspective of how organizational culture, values and taking a holistic look at the human element can positively impact the resilience and adaptability of not only the business but the workforce.  

Keller, S. B., Ralston, P. M., & LeMay, S. A. (2020, December). EBSCOhost Research Platform: EBSCO. EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | www.ebsco.com. Retrieved February 2, 2022, from https://www.ebsco.com/products/ebscohost-research-platform 

In this article written by Scott Keller, Peter Ralston, and Stephen LeMay, they discuss the positive outcome of Emotional Intelligence training amongst managers in the workplace. They stress the importance for supply chain managers to be able to connect on a psychologically emotional level with employees, in order to connect with them on a more personal level in hopes of being able to produce positive outcomes even during challenging times. Furthermore, this article evaluates the emotional intelligence of a multitude of managers; they find that very few have received some to any training to become more emotionally intelligent, with leadership training being the most common. The article also gets into why emotional intelligence is so important during stressful situations like the current pandemic. Additionally, they look critically at how the EI (emotional intelligence) of certain managers and employees was a selling point to outside customers and new hires. They went on to discuss how businesses that have managers and employees that have high levels of EI help drastically with employee retention in the workplace. Overall, this article provides lots of valuable information on the importance of learning and applying emotional intelligence in the workplace and the multitude of benefits that arise from doing so.

Urch, C. E., & George, A. J. (2020). Let’s stop talking about covid-safe and covid-secure—it’s covid-mitigated. BMJ, m3616. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3616

This article from, Catherine Urch, addresses how businesses should begin to address covid in the future. Urch contrasts the phrases “covid-secure” and “covid-safe” and how these statements are misleading. Both statements, currently being used by many businesses, are an overestimation of the control of covid infection in the workplace and the virality of the disease. Both statements make the employee believe that they will not contract covid in these environments, which is most likely not the truth. Urch presents a new statement businesses may use: “covid-mitigated.” This shows employees that the business in question is taking steps to reduce the possibility of infection but cannot guarantee that you will not contract covid in a workplace setting. Urch also states that the possibility of using computer algorithms to plan and assess risk could be a tool that businesses may use.

          This article is relevant to the attraction and retention of employees. Showing prospective employees that a business is attempting to prevent covid infection and provide a safe work environment will make the workplace more enticing. As for current employees, a business may prevent infections that would cause their work force size to be reduced periodically for quarantine procedures. 

Management 311: Operations Management

Levi Wallace

Steven Beck

Heikki Haatanen

Ethan Hickey

Chase Traylor