Evaluation of Department of Homeland Security Management Research Paper

Evaluation of Department of Homeland Security Management - Research Paper Example It will be noted that the human capital strategic planning is in place to ensure that processes concerning human resource planning such as hiring, pay programs, and retention are undertaken through a more holistic model that provides an integration into the larger strategic plan of any organization for which it works (U.S. Executive Office of the President, 2004). Consequently, it can be said that this inclusion process ensures a more compact human resource planning program. The second component of the agency’s human resource system that can be analyzed is the rate of emphasis that the agency places on internal hiring. Hiring is a very important aspect of all human resource management roles as it sets the tone for the human resource base of an organization to be established. Consequently, the actual structures of the human resource base of an agency, including the weaknesses and strengths of the agency depend largely on the mechanisms that take place during the hiring process. As a part of the homeland security’s human resource management policy, preference is always given to internal employees from lower ranks whose competencies and experience permit for them to occupy vacant positions that exist on top of their hierarchy (U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2004). This does not mean, however, that no room is created for external hiring, but that this is minimized until the time when internal placements have been exhausted. In effect, the most likely position to hire from outside the organization is in very low divisions. Finally, the agency has a locality and special rate supplements in relation to retention that is used as a major human resource planning policy to ensure the retention of a diversified workforce. With a labeling of locality and a special rate, the commonest idea that comes to mind is that this form of rates is different from the generalized rates used by all other governmental agencies a nd institutions (Schwemle, 2004). In the case of homeland security, this provision has been made to ensure a form of motivation that would guarantee that there are employees who would want to put up specialized roles and work with the agency for long, so as to be beneficiaries of the rate. Imperatively, the locality and special rate supplements in relation to retention is an internal mechanism, together with the internal hiring process to ensure that there is an absolute retention among the labor force of the agency. Implications of Human Resource Workforce The three components of human resource planning discussed above come with three major implications, which could all be summed up in a common terminology known as increased productivity. This is because the inclusion of an external agency in hiring ensures fairness and adherence to state principles, which brings about a highly credible hiring process that is devoid of all forms of biases (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2003b ). Once this is achieved, productivity can be guaranteed because the issue of putting square pegs in round holes will be done away with, thereby, ensuring that people are placed at positions where they can perform to their utmost best.