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The workforce management model conceptualised for the effective management of the construction workforce was subjected to expert scrutiny to determine the suitability and applicability of the identified practices and their attributed variables to the construction industry. In achieving this, a Delphi approach was adopted using experts from construction organisations in South Africa. These experts comprised workforce management personnel and construction professionals in senior management positions. The data were analysed using appropriate statistical tools such as interquartile deviation, Kendell’s coefficient of concordance, and chi square to determine consensus among these experts. After a two-round Delphi, the seven constructs proposed in the conceptualised workforce management model were adjudged to be important and worthy of adoption by construction organisations seeking to improve workforce management in the current fourth industrial revolution era.

Voluntary non-financial reporting aims at fairly reporting a firm’s non-financial performance. In particular, integrated reporting (IR) displays in a single report the contribution of different forms of capital to the firm’s value creation. Drawing on both legitimacy and voluntary disclosure theory, the main purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which a company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance affects the content and semantic properties of intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) found in IRs.

To test theoretical hypotheses, content and tone analysis is used to assess the disclosure strategy associated with ICD, whereas a regression analysis tests the variation in semantic properties of ICD according to firms’ ESG performance. A total of 79 reports by European listed firms from 2011 to 2016 were downloaded via the Integrated Reporting Emerging Practice Examples Database and analyzed.

Results show that ESG performance contributing more to optimistic ICD tone is governance, although in mixed ways. Integrating vision and strategy positively contributes to ICD tone, whereas information on poor treatment of shareholders’ rights tends to be manipulated and associated with an optimistic tone of the ICD. Moreover, eco-efficient product innovation and healthy and safe job conditions play a positive role in enhancing optimistic ICD tone.

This chapter contributes to the current literature on voluntary disclosure by introducing new evidence on the disclosure strategy in IR. By analyzing the effect of the single dimensions of ESG performance on ICD tone, this study extends respectively ESG literature.

This study aims to investigate the impact of the 2013 privatization of Nigeria’s energy sector on the technical performance of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) and its workforce.

This study used a questionnaire-based approach, and 196 participants were randomly selected. Analytical tools included standard deviation, Spearman rank correlation and regression analysis.

Before privatization, the energy sector, managed by the power holding company of Nigeria, suffered from inefficiencies in fault detection, response and billing. However, privatization improved resource utilization, replaced outdated transformers and increased operational efficiency. However, in spite of these improvements, BEDC faces challenges, including unstable voltage generation and inadequate staff welfare. This study also highlighted a lack of experience among the trained workforce in emerging electricity technologies such as the smart grid.

This study’s focus on BEDC may limit its generalizability to other energy companies. It does not delve into energy sector privatization’s broader economic and policy implications.

The positive outcomes of privatization, such as improved resource utilization and infrastructure investment, emphasize the potential benefits of private ownership and management. However, voltage generation stability and staff welfare challenges call for targeted interventions. Recommendations include investing in voltage generation enhancement, smart grid infrastructure and implementing measures to enhance employee well-being through benefit plans.

Energy sector enhancements hold positive social implications, uplifting living standards and bolstering electricity access for households and businesses.

This study contributes unique insights into privatization’s effects on BEDC, offering perspectives on preprivatization challenges and advancements. Practical recommendations aid BEDC and policymakers in boosting electricity distribution firms’ performance within the privatization context.

More and more, the leaders of business functions are turning for competitive insights to the massive data they can now capture. But to date, human resources departments have lagged behind the efforts of marketing, IT, CRM and other functions. The purpose of this article is to show how executives can start using data to measure and improve HR's contributions to business performance.

The article identifies six analytical tools that HR can use to connect HR efforts to business performance. Survey results underscore the value of an analytical approach while revealing that many HR departments are heavily focused on internal measures rather than business outcomes. Each analytical tool is exemplified through case studies. A model is presented to suggest how executives can get started by focusing on five key areas.

Leading companies are using six analytical tools to improve the connection between HR investments and business returns: employee databases; segmentation of talent; targeted investments; customization of the employee value proposition; long‐term workforce planning; and talent supply chains.

As the case studies reveal, the tools identified here can help HR leaders actively shape their organization's future – managing talent and directing programs toward the long‐term needs of the business. Survey data shows that most companies increasingly seek to use analytics for long‐term advantage, and the model presented here can help HR executives take the first critical steps.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the participation of women in companies with financial performance. However, this relationship does not arise directly. The authors argue that the participation of women in the company’s staff has a positive effect on the creation of work-life balance (WLB) practices, due to women have traditionally assumed family responsibilities, and subsequently these practices positively affect financial performance. WLB practices are a tool to balance employees’ professional and personal goals.

This study aims to determine whether WLB practices mediate in the relationship between female participation in the workforce and financial performance on large companies listed in the Spanish Stock Exchange Index during the period from 2008 to 2013.

The main finding is that female participation in the workforce positively affects to the availability of WLB practices, but WLB practices are not a mediator to increase financial performance.

The study is a new contribution for academics and practitioners, since the WLB has a role of moderating variable; and the positive joint effect of female participation and WLB practices is tested over the company’s outcomes, instead of over the individual employee behaviour like in previous literature. In addition, this effect is studied in a country with economic recession where corporate WLB practices have increased in the last decade.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of employer-sponsored workforce training on employee productivity in the Australian transport and logistics industry. It challenges the quantitative notion of the ratio of input–output per labour hour as the single most important measure of productivity.

The study utilised a mixed-method approach, involving online and on-site survey questionnaires and on-site semi-structured interviews of employers, employees and students within the industry. Survey questionnaires were administered to Vocational Education and Training (VET) learners to determine the dimensions of productivity gains, while qualitative interviews were conducted specifically to capture employers’ perceptions and expectations of the benefits of training.

Results show that the relationship between employer-sponsored training and workforce productivity is multi-dimensional where, ideally, all essential dimensions must be fulfilled to effectively achieve sustainable productivity level. One dimension is the quantitative measure of increased performance as an outcome of enhanced knowledge, skills and competencies. Another relates to the increased self-confidence, job satisfaction and pride. The third dimension is the cost savings that come with increasing employees’ overall awareness and appreciation of occupational health and safety. The results show that, aside from the dominant theories on training and labour productivity, the perception of the benefits of training on workplace productivity is not merely limited to the conventional understanding of productivity as a simplistic relationship between resource inputs and tangible outputs.

Firms should consider redefining the benefits of training to include employee well-being and individual contribution to common team and organisational goals. Organisations therefore should broaden the notion of productivity to incorporate intangible benefits.

The use of multi-method approach to investigate the views and perceptions of employees, employers and trainers about the productivity benefits of training and key concerns and challenges for the industry.

Maintaining user-focused integrated team working in complex care is one of the demands made of UK health and social care (H&SC) organisations who need employees that are resilient, resilience being the ability to persevere and thrive in the face of exposure to adverse situations (Rogerson and Ermes, 2008, p. 1). Grant and Kinman (2012) write that resilience is a complex and multi-dimensional construct that is underexplored in social care team work. The purpose of this paper is to capture the views of managers in H&SC to explore the making of resilient teams, identify factors that influence team performance and inform organisational workforce development strategy.

A general inductive approach (Silverman, 2011) was applied. Five focus groups were facilitated (n=40) each with eight participants all of whom were leaders and managers of teams in H&SC, working in the integrated care context in the UK.

Findings indicate that further investment in strategies and resources to sustain and educate employees who work in teams and further research into how organisational systems can facilitate this learning positively may contribute to resilient teams and performance improvement. The authors note specifically that H&SC organisations make a distinction between the two most prevalent team types and structures of multi-disciplinary and inter-professional and plan more targeted workforce development for individual and team learning for resiliency within these team structures. In doing so organisations may gain further advantages such as improved team performance in problematic care situations.

Data captured are self-reported perceptions of H&SC managers. Participant responses in the focus group situation may have been those expected rather than those actually modelled in the realities of team work practice (Tanggaard, 2008). Further, in the sample all participants were engaged in a higher education programme and it is possible participants may have been more engaged with their practice and thinking more critically about the research questions than those not currently undertaking postgraduate study (Ng et al., 2014). Nor were the researchers able to observe the participants in team work practice over time or during critical care delivery incidents.

The preliminary link made here between multi-disciplinary and inter-professional team type, and their different stress points and subsequent workforce intervention, contributes to the theory of resilient teams. This provides organisations with a foundation for the focus of workplace learning and training around resilience. H&SC practitioner views presented offer a greater understanding of team work processes, together with a target for planning workforce development strategy to sustain resilience in team working.

This preliminary research found that participants in H&SC valued the team as a very important vehicle for building and sustaining resilience when dealing with complex H&SC situations. The capitalisation on the distinction in team type and individual working practices between those of interprofessional and multidisciplinary teams and the model of team learning, may have important consequences for building resilience in H&SC teams. These findings may be significant for workforce educators seeking to develop and build effective practice tools to sustain team working.

The paper proposes a new workforce effectiveness metric that is a sophisticated evolution of a pre-existing overall labour effectiveness (OLE) indicator. The KPI, named revised OLE (ROLE), provides a structured methodology to measure in a holistic way the losses relating to labour, maintaining some formal similitude to the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)

A new structure of losses is proposed to overcome the drawbacks and the difficulties that usually affect the data collection stage, referring to directly measurable quantities or, when this is not the case, suggesting a viable method to quantify the loss. Besides, this approach facilitates the comprehension of labour-related issues, suggesting potential countermeasures. The novel ROLE indicator has been defined, based on this new structure, to evaluate the labour effectiveness in batch process industries. A real case study is provided, which explains the methodology and illustrates the capability of the corresponding KPI.

The present work analyses the labour performance indexes available in literature, with the aim of evidencing those aspects that can be properly observed and quantified and, at the same time, categorizing them to identify their possible drawbacks. A new structure of losses is derived, with respect to four different categories, which may help to measure the losses themselves more effectively

The paper investigates some important KPIs dealing with labour performance and individuates some significant drawbacks. Then it suggests a new, inclusive structure of losses and a modified KPI that not only measures effectiveness but also allows to identify viable countermeasures.

The purpose of the paper is to show that, though essential, the achievement of business‐oriented performance outcomes has obscured the importance of employee wellbeing at work, which is a neglected area of inquiry within the field of human resource management. Instead the emphasis typically placed on the business case for HRM suggests a one‐sided focus on organisational outcomes at the expense of employees. With this in mind, this paper seeks to examine the effects of HRM practices on employee wellbeing and performance.

Data were collected from a public sector (local government) organisation to identify the link between HRM practices, employee wellbeing at work, and performance. A preliminary staff survey of employees provides a brief overview of the link between HRM practices, employee wellbeing at work and performance.

HRM practices adopted have a significant impact on employee wellbeing at work and tend to be more positive than negative. Overall a consistent result in the study was that management relationship behaviour in the form of support and development of trust, promoted employee wellbeing at work amongst workers. In general, the findings will prove helpful to human resource practitioners, management, policy makers and business practice.

HRM practices that help to maximise employee wellbeing at work are not necessarily the same as those that make up “high performance” HR practices. Moreover, the promotion of wellbeing at work is not likely to be a result of the HRM practices but can be linked to line management leadership and relationships.

The importance of management relationships, support and employees' trust was found to predict wellbeing at work. The decision by management to embrace the business case for employee wellbeing at work is likely to complement more conventional methods of improving employee attitudes and productivity, which in turn can enhance organisational effectiveness and decision making.

This paper builds on existing work within HRM and provides a framework for establishing the linkage between HRM practices, employee wellbeing at work and performance in the public sector that it is suggested could improve individual and organisational outcomes through enhanced efficiency and productivity.

The premise is that organizations that are successful in the future, will develop and implement strategies that are based on the economic realities of the roots of the entity, but understands the economic realities of which they currently compete; an additional premise is that organizational strategies must be designed within the context of the “real delivery time” environment.