U.S. Department of Interior’s Human Capital Management Mission, Essay Example

Human capital is the most important factor in production as it comprises of the workforce that strive to achieve the desired goal. This is therefore a resource that needs to be managed in the best way possible so as to determine and increase the level of productivity, reduce any chances of having undesired results, budget for various things that could be needed in the future by the workers and have an overall effect on the organization as a whole. The whole concept here is therefore to have a SWOT analysis of the workforce which implies that the aspects under examination are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the human capital. The results of the analysis could then used while making decisions that are strategic.

A good illustration is The U.S. Department of Interior (2009) which is the main agency in America that deals with conservation. The department has a wide array of responsibilities that are related to the environment. The most recognizable effort goes to the employees whose skills, energy and commitment has everything to do with successfully achieving the mission of the Department. The department develops a strategic plan where the sub-sections they call bureaus create a framework that affect all of them so that they can state their goals to achieve the overall departmental mission. This major responsibility of the department is that it’s the agency for land management in the Nation. The bureaus of the department which are eight therefore come together and form four mission components to help in achieving the overall mission.

The four components that are used as a vehicle to get to the main goal of the department are; resource protection, resource use, recreation and serving communities. Resource protection is aimed at conserving, restoring, sustaining and protecting the resources controlled by the department. Resource use on the other hand is geared towards ensuring that these resources are put into the right use in a way that is cost friendly and considering the economy of the nation. The other mission component is recreation and the main objective here is to see to it that the resources at disposal are enjoyed to the maximum. The fourth goal is serving communities and is aimed at meeting a great extent of duty to their customers who come from its surroundings.

The strategic plan has met the common qualities of a good goal according to Top Achievement (2007) which states that it should be S.M.A.R.T. SMART in this case meaning that the goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. It is specific in that it is aiming at 18 end-outcomes and 67 intermediate outcome goals, measurable where the agency’s success is assessed and employees’ performance. The figures have not been exaggerated hence achievable and the strategic plan is a five-year long-term program which makes it time bound.

Having looked at the strategic plan and how it has been well placed, there is however another side where we get to evaluate the two main challenges that are noted as critical leverage for achieving their strategic goals. These challenges are the internal factors and the external factors that are seen to affect the abilities of the personnel and the limit and state of the demand for the services offered. The personnel’s efforts are foreseen to be limited by aging infrastructure, safety of the public, increase in urbanization and information technology expectations and business practices that are in order. These challenges are seen to directly influence the main mission goal and that’s why the current personnel is required to improve and upgrade its abilities in the areas that may be critical. This therefore means that there will have to be a new way of recruiting, training and analyzing the performance skills of new employees so that they can be well equipped to successfully execute the strategic plan.

The other challenges that are faced narrow down to the different mission components. For instance, one of the objectives if resource protection is to sustain biological communities which is accompanied by constraints such as habitat fragmentation, corollary landscape measures, urban expansion and increased use of public lands and resources. There is also a species known as invasive species that is considered as a challenge because it endangers the other species. These challenges have a direct effect to the overall goal and that is why the department needs to collaborate with a workforce that have the ability to design new solutions that are set to solve problems in a diverse way. The identified skills that prove to be important to a workforce that that is trying to be diverse are team building, collaborative negotiation and alternative dispute resolution. This goes down the recruitment process again where these crucial abilities must be considered during this process so as to effectively find, strengthen and hone these abilities.

Another illustration is the mission component that deals with making their facilities safe for use either by the community at large or by the employees. Here the aspect of aging infrastructure is brought up again because facilities like the Indian schools, visitor centers and historic structures are very old. These facilities need to be brought to good condition and this is done by identifying the department’s projects with the highest priority and then make a five-year plan of construction and maintenance. To manage these facilities successfully requires special skills that are conversant with both old and new technology, things needed for that purpose and practices of the management.

The other thing that needs to be determined is how best to maintain the required skills because the facility management workforce is seen to be getting old and increasing the rate in which they get to their retirement rate. This can be tackled by setting up a way of determining the professional qualifications by issuing certificates as incentives and enhanced measures of performance for the staff in charge of managing facilities.

In conclusion, it is important for any organization to empower its workforce so that they can effectively achieve the desired goals. The Guild Associates (2009) describes a six-step program which includes defining company rules, defining competencies, enabling self assessments, providing development tools and  rewarding and recognition. This program is meant to develop the workforce and increase their involvement and enthusiasm as they work hence better results.

References

Guild Associate.(2009) Maximizing employee performance. Retrieved on October 6, 2009 from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Maximizing+e

Top Achievement.1998-2007. Creating S.M.A.R.T goals. Retrieved on October 6, 2009 from http://www.topachievement.com/smart.html

U.S, Department of the Interior. Retrieved on October 6, 2009 from http://www.doi.gov/pfm/human_cap_plan/pdf/section1.pdf