- What are the primary functions of the Human Resource (HR) department within an organization?
- How does the HR department contribute to achieving the goals and objectives of a company?
- What are the main responsibilities of an HR manager in a retail industry like B&M?
INTRODUCTION
There are different departments in an organisation such as operation, human resource, finance and sales department which performs different functions from each other in order to achieve desired goals and objectives. Among such departments, the roles and responsibilities of Human Resource department are discussed under this report. The manager of HR department plays a valuable role in fulfilling the requirements of Human Resource in an organisation. The present assignment is based on B&M which is a retail industry deals in providing wide range of grocery products to the people of United Kingdom. The project explaining the purpose and functions of HRM along with different approaches of recruitment and selection in addition with their strengths and weaknesses. The importance of employee relation and contribution of various HRM practices in achieving productivity and profitability of company are also discussed under this report. The government legislations related with employment has been also covered under this report (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
TASK 1
P1: Functions and purpose of Human Resource Management
Human resource management plays an important role as compared to other departments of an organisation in achieving desired goals and objectives through providing skilled and knowledgeable workforce to an organisation. Their roles start from the recruitment process and continues till the employees gives maximum contribution in achieving desired target of an organisation. It means HR management are wholly liable to develop the personality of employees and makes them more effective through adopting various HRM practices in order to give profitable outcome to company. HRM of B&M performs different functions which are as follows:
Recruitment and selection: The roles and responsibilities of HR starts with recruiting skilled and qualified candidates for an organisation with an expectation of gaining maximum support from them in achieving competitive advantage. Recruitment can be done through inviting qualified candidates to apply for the vacant job position offered by an organisation. After passing all recruitment process, selection is the final stage in which an appointment letter has been given to candidates (Flamholtz, 2012). In recruitment process, invitation are made to the eligible candidates to show their interest and apply for vacant job position. Recruitment process includes invitation, interviews, group discussion etc. Thus if candidates passed such stages then the next stage is selection in which the job offer letter is given to selected candidates through giving them job offer letter.
Orientation: It is a practice which is done with an aim of maintains good relation with new candidates and defined company's vision, mission and objectives towards them with the purpose of motivating them to work hard and perform their roles and responsibilities in profitable manner.
Creating healthy work environment: Collecting feedbacks and asking suggestions will bring motivation and self-confidence among employees of B&M due to which the working environment will be healthier. Supporting employees at every step help manager in creating good atmosphere at workplace.
Managing employee relation: HR managers of B&M are held responsible to conduct some interactive programs with the purpose of establishing good relations with new employees so as to gain maximum support from them in near future.
Training and development: It is such a HRM practices which is essential for HR management to adopt on regular basis in order to enhance the potential and capabilities of employees of B&M so as to achieve maximum possible result (Huselid and Becker, 2011).
P2: Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection
Recruitment and selection are two important activities which are done after each other. At first, recruitment process can be done through inviting eligible candidates to apply for the vacant job position offered by an organisation and after passing all stages of recruitment process, the HR Manager make selections on the basis of their performance in recruitment process and their qualification. Both are further described as under:
Recruitment: It is the process of inviting skilled and qualified candidates through giving an advertisement on newspapers, pamphlets, company's website etc. in order to attract large number of applicants. There are mainly two approaches of recruitment which are as follows along with their strengths and weaknesses:
Internal approach: It is the process of identifying more skilled and knowledgeable employees among existing ones and provides them opportunity to get higher position in company (Renwick, Redman and Maguire, 2013). It can be done in the form of promotion, extension of services etc. It has some strengths and weaknesses too which are as follows:
Strengths |
Weaknesses |
· Promoted employees are very much aware of the working environment thus takes minimum to adjust. · It requires less training due to having experience of work. · Already having good relation with co-workers due to which healthy environment are take place.
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· No changes in working procedure due to restrictions on entry of new candidates having new and innovative ideas. · Dissatisfaction among non-promoted employees which can cause conflicts as well.
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External approach: It is an effective method of recruitment in which the invitation has been given outside of an organisation rather than inviting existing employees to apply for the vacant job position offered by an organisation. Such invitation can given through publishing advertisement on Newspapers, company's official website, recommendation of existing employees etc. It has also some strength and weaknesses which are given as below:
Strengths |
Weaknesses |
· Entrance of new ideas and innovation which help organisation in achieving competitive advantage. · Having lots of application due to which HR manger find no difficulties in recruiting skilled and qualified candidates. · New candidates are more confident and energy to do any task. |
· It is lengthy process due to which the business operation may disturbed for longer period of time. · It increases cost of company through investing amount in advertisement. · Lack of support from existing employees.
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Selection: It is the final stage at which HR manager has giving legal employability to new candidates who are successfully passing recruitment process through giving job offer to them. It includes two methods which include:
Systematic: It is considered as a systematic process of selecting best candidates thus must required to follow by B&M. It includes some steps which includes job analysis, person specification, job description, short listing, selecting, offer letter, joining date of new workers. Such steps should be followed in order to select an effective one.
Unsystematic: In this, no procedure and systems are followed as HR manager randomly selected CV from number of applicant's documents and on the basis of which candidates has been selected (Boxall and Purcell, 2011).
TASK 2
P3: Benefits of HRM practices for both employee and employer
HRM Practices: It is such a practice which is more helpful in enhancing the performance of employees due to which their contribution to company also increased. Therefore, it is an effective method of managing workforce in an appropriate manner. The main objective of adopting HRM practices is to establish a flexible, more open and caring management model which will bring motivation among employees. Such HRM practices include Training, learning and development programs, performance appraisal, rewarding system etc. Their benefits to employee and employer are briefly discussed under the below:
HRM practices |
Benefits to employees |
Benefits to employers |
Training and development |
It helps employees in maximising their actual skills and capabilities due to which they can perform delegated work in an effective and efficient manner. It increases morale and satisfaction level as well due to which their commitment with company also strong. |
It also brings advantages to employers as well in different ways such as increasing productivity, required less supervision, proper utilisation of resources, decreases in number of accidents and errors etc. Getting maximum contribution by employees will help employer in making suitable plans and policies. |
Employee performance management and monitoring |
It helps in employees in providing actual requirements and needs at workplace to the employers due to which the chances of fulfilling them will be high. It also helps employees in getting recognition among large number of employees which increases their reputation in company. |
It helps employers in identifying the high and low skilled workers due to which HR manager gives more focus on improving the performance of low-skilled workers. Employees enjoy greater autonomy. Conflicts and issues among employees are less due to which employers are able to focus on important matters. |
Payment and reward management |
It helps employees in increasing their standard of living which maximises the interest and working behaviour of employees. It will also help employees in gaining recognition in an organisation. |
It help employers to retain experienced employees for longer period of time and gain maximum support and commitment from them fir future. It will overall increase the performance of an organisation. |
Flexible working options |
Providing the working hours according to their willingness of employees help in increasing satisfaction level as well as morale. In order to minimise employee turnover, HR manager of B&M should required to provide different options such as working from home, job sharing, annual hours systems etc. which can make positive impact on the performance of employees as well. |
It helps employers to gain maximum support from employees which strong the position of company in market. Du to allotting time to employees for performing business activities, the efficiency in work will also be improved. |
P4: Effectiveness of different human resource management practices
HRM practices brings more profitable result to company as it helps in developing employee's performance due to which they can contribute maximum in achieving desired goals and objectives. Such HRM practices include training, learning and development programs, performance management and monitoring, rewards and payment and flexible working options. Therefore, it is important for B&M to implement such practices within an organisation so as to reduce employee turnover and increment in amount of profits. All such HRM practices are briefly discussed under below along with their effectiveness:
Training and development: B&M is retail organisation which deals in providing wide variety of grocery products. The company has employed large number of employees which gives valuable support in achieving desired aim and objectives (Flamholtz, 2012). Therefore, the company mainly focuses on reducing employee's turnover and increases sales figure and it can be possible when the company have attained skilled ad experienced workforce. For this, HR manager need to conduct training programs which includes on-the-job and off-the-job for their employees so as to enhance their performance which in result increase in profit and productivity.
Employee performance management and monitoring; HR managers of B&M are liable to properly analyse the performance of employees through comparing the actual with desired performance. This will help manager in identifying the high and low-skilled workers due to which they give more concentrate on improving the weak areas of low skilled employees. Identifying the deviations and correcting them within limited period of time will help employees in increasing their performance level due to which they gives full efforts in helping company in achieving huge profits and productivity.
Payment and reward management: Rewarding employees on the basis of their past performance will help in boosting their performance due to which the company can able to get enough support and contribution from them in achieving high profitability and productivity. Money is an important factor which motivates employees to work hard thus such payment and rewarding systems will maximises the interest and working behaviour of customers (Hobfoll, 2011).
Flexible working options: B&M has employed large number of employees having different nature and cultures. Therefore, HR manager should require to identify their willingness of doing allotted task and accordingly make an effective decisions and policies. For example, some employees are willing to work from home or at night shifts whereas some employees show more interest to work at day shift. Therefore, proper allotment of time should be done in order to increase their morale and satisfaction level. All such help company in achieving huge profits as well as high productivity.
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TASK 3
P5: Importance of employee relation in respect to influencing HRM decision making
Employee relation: It refers to establishing healthy relation with the human resource through providing help in resolving problems and issues that may arise at workplace. Maintaining a good relation with employees strong the loyalty and commitment with an organisation due to which they can get employee's services for longer period of time. Apart from this, there are various advantages as well which can be received by B&M in order to maintain healthy relation with employees:
- It helps in avoiding exploitation and discrimination among employees on the basis of their position attained in an organisation.
- Getting maximum support from employees in order to achieve desired aim and objectives.
- It builds strong image in market due to which the company can receive maximum number of applicants for the job offered by an organisation.
- Establishing healthy atmosphere in working environment which makes positive impact on the performance of employees (Manroop, Singh and Ezzedeen, 2014).
- Delegation of roles and responsibilities among employees becomes easy for management of company.
- Getting valuable suggestions and ideas from employees who help management in making an effective decisions and planning for the betterment of an organisation.
Therefore, it is must fir HR manager to build good relationship with employees which in results getting maximum possible outcomes. It can be done through creating an effective platform where the managers and employees can easily communicate and discuss about important matter with each other.
Employee relation act, 2000: Such act states that the management of company are required to make healthy relation with their employees through giving them healthy atmosphere at workplace.
Employee grievance policy: The main objective of such policy is to resolve issues or problems arises among the employees due to certain situations. It enables management to make an effective plans and policies which reduces the chances of conflicts and maintain healthy environment at workplace.
P6: Key components of employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision making
An organisation in which the country they are operated their business functions need to followed their government laws and legislations related with employment in order to avoid any penalties and fines. Such employment legislation has been formed with an aim of protecting employees from any exploitation and discrimination. Therefore, it is important for B&M to implement such acts within an organisation in order to maximise the level of performance of their employees. Such employment legislation includes different acts which are as follows:
Equality Act, 2010: According to this act, the manager of B&M should required to give treatment to all employees equally and should not be differentiated on the basis of their race, culture, religion and other characteristics. For example, during recruitment process, female candidates has given less priority as the manager thinks that they are less capable of doing work as compared to make candidates (Song and et. al., 2010).
Working time regulation Act, 1998: According to this act, HR manager are not allowed to force employees to work more than the standard working hours. Such act also directs management to give free time to their workers during working hours in order to reduce their stress and tension due to heavy workload.
Health and safety act, 1974: This act states that maintaining employee's health will bring profitable outcome to company thus need to provide them healthy and risk free environment at work place due to which the employees of B&M are not indulge in any accidents or hazards which can affect their healthy in adverse manner.
Data protection act, 1999: It is an act which is formulated by government for the betterment of an organisation. Such act states that the manager should required to keep all crucial information about customers; suppliers, investors etc. with themselves only with the help of modern IT systems such as management information system (MIS) so that such information should be not leaked by their rivals (Functions of HRM, 2018).
Minimum wages act, 1998: It is an act which determines the minimum amount of wages the employer is liable to pay to their workers for the services they provide to company. Such act direct employer to pay fair amount of remuneration to employees who are attaining legal employability of company. Therefore, it is essential for B&M to adopt such act in an organisation for the welfare of their employees.
TASK 4
P7: Application of Human Resource Management practices in work-related context
Human resource is an important factor which play an important role in achieving growth and success of an organisation. Therefore, HR manager need to focus on adopting an effective HRM practices in working environment so as to resolve all issues and difficulties face by workers during performing allotted roles and responsibilities. B&M is a retailer organisation which deals in offering wide variety of grocery products in the United kingdom. Thus, to expand its business the company need to apply an effective HRM practices which are explained as under:
Planning of manpower required: It is essential for an organisation to have adequate human resources in order to perform different business activities in more effective and efficient manner. If any shortage of manpower are found then HR manager need to adopt recruitment and selection process through which they can acquired skilled and knowledgeable candidates for their company.
Decision making: With the help of using Management Information System (MIS), the managers are able to make an effective decisions and plans for the betterment of an organisation through giving adequate support to their employees in performing allotted task (Vörösmarty and et. al., 2010).
Development and training of employees: It is important for every organisation to attained motivated employees which help in bringing profitable outcomes in near future. Therefore, HR managers of B&M need to conduct training and development programs for their employees so as to enhance their skills and knowledge about different fields of work.
Maintaining quality of business products: B&M deals in providing varieties of grocery products thus it is more important to have such goods in good quality in order to maximise the level of satisfaction of customers. Adopting an effective and advanced technology will help company in maximising the wastage of resources as well as cost of products thus help company in providing grocery product at an affordable prices to the customers. It will help in retaining loyal customers for longer period of time (Human resource management, 2017).
Five HRM functional activities:
Planning: It includes the actions taken by HR manager for the betterment of employees after considering their needs and requirements at workplace. This will increases capabilities of employees due to which they are able to contribute more in achieving desired goals and objectives.
Job analysis and work design: Organising working structure and allocation of roles and duties to employees by HR manager help in maximising their satisfaction level.
Recruitment and selection: Recruitment is the process of giving invitation to eligible candidates to apply for the vacant job offered by company. After clearing all stages of recruitment, candidates are selected through giving them job offer letter. Such all activities are performed by HR Manager.
Training and development: Conduction of training programs by HRM manager within an organisation on regular basis help in increasing capabilities and potential of employees so that maximum support are received by them in achieving desired target within given time frame.
Compensation: Providing rewards and compensation to employees b y HR managers helps in bringing motivation and self-confidence among employees which in results getting maximum output from them.
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CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above project report that Human resource department plays an important role as compared to other departments of an organisation as it help company in attaining skilled and knowledgeable employees who are more capable in giving maximum effort in achieving desired goals and objectives. Different HRM practices should require to be adopted by management in order to bring motivation and maximising the efficiency in work of employees. Maintaining good relation with employees is also must which in results increasing profits of company.
REFERENCES
- Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014.Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
- Boxall, P. and Purcell, J., 2011.Strategy and human resource management. Palgrave Macmillan
- Flamholtz, E.G., 2012.Human resource accounting: Advances in concepts, methods and applications. Springer Science & Business Media.
- Flamholtz, E.G., 2012.Human resource accounting: Advances in concepts, methods and applications. Springer Science & Business Media.
- Hobfoll, S.E., 2011. Conservation of resource caravans and engaged settings.Journal of occupational and organizational psychology.84(1). pp.116-122.
- Huselid, M.A. and Becker, B.E., 2011. Bridging micro and macro domains: Workforce differentiation and strategic human resource management.
- Manroop, L., Singh, P. and Ezzedeen, S., 2014. Human Resource Systems and Ethical Climates: A ResourceÂBased Perspective.Human resource management.53(5). pp.795-816.
- Renwick, D.W., Redman, T. and Maguire, S., 2013. Green human resource management: A review and research agenda.International Journal of Management Reviews,15(1), pp.1-14.