Managing HR

This report aims at understanding human resource management (HRM) perspective by determining forms of human resources from two different companies and then comparing their advantages and disadvantages within HRM. In the later part of report, an essay is constructed to explain development in employer and employee relations and explain the engagement of a number of line managers in organizational strategic goals.

ASSIGNMENT 1

TASK 1

Types of HRM of Two Different Organizations

In this point, two different organizations are considered with respect to their individual HRM type which they have adopted within their structure. OLC Europe’s became the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and was founded in 1869 (Wei, 2006). The firm is now operating over 1100 locations across the world with more than 157, 000 staff members around the world. It is shown as to how OLC Europe’s has applied The Guest Model into its HRM and it is explained as under:

1: The Guest Model of HRM

OLC Europe’s can use this model and put importance on the logical sequence of 6 elements of HRM such as strategy, outcomes, policies, behavioral outcomes, performance and financial results (Eisele and et.al, 2013). Through this, firm’s financial results can be majorly dependent on how its employees perform in organization, which in turn becomes the result of action-oriented staff behavior in firm. Behavioral results are the ultimate outcomes related with commitments of staff members, their quality as well as flexibility, which can be experienced as influencing precipices of HR. These are needed to be in accordance with HR strategies that are aligned invariably with firm’s strategies (Pulakos, 2009).

Another company can be taken as Unilever which is called as an Anglo-Dutch consumer goods multination firm having headquartered in England. Firm’s line of products to be offered is food and beverages, cleaning agent and personal care products. It is also known as the globe’s third biggest company in 2012 measured by revenue. Being a consumer goods firm, Unilever has considered using Fombrun Model of HRM which is known to put importance on 4 chief functions of human resource and explains its interrelatedness with firm (Amos and et.al, 2009). These 4 functions are Selection, Appraisal, Rewards, and HRD. This model is also popular for being incomplete since it mainly considers only these 4 HR components and thereby, Unlived also takes into account using of The Guest Model of HRM for the purpose of overcoming certain gaps in the other model. This model is explained as under:

2: The Fombrun Model of HRM

Advantages and Disadvantages of Models

Advantages of the Guest Model

• It is considered to be much better to other models for the reason that it can cover almost all features of a company’s HR (Human Resource Management. 2013).
• It also connects strategies of HRM with perspective of finance in terms of HR practices of a firm which also aids in attaining competitive strength.

Disadvantages of the Guest Model

• The model requires effective tuning of HR practices with those of strategies of a firm and this is an expensive task as well as time consuming.
• This model becomes non-feasible to be used in certain situations of human resource management of an organization (Kleiner, 2000).

Advantages of the Fombrun Model

• It can aid a company in the task of understanding human resource management flow which can effectively become basis to form a stronger HR relation perspective.
• This model is simple in understanding and a tiny company can simply use this model within practices of HR (Ordiz and et,al, 2003).

Disadvantages of the Fombrun Model

• The model has ignored most contingency as well as other environmental factors that affect HR operations.
• A company may tend to bear costs while obtaining least return against it for using such a model (Richard and Johnson, 2001).

TASK 2: ESSAY

When an employer selects a new employee, he may not be just brining a new worker in workforce, but also initiating a novel relationship with employee. Just because they all work with each other, they vitally create relations. Thus, organizing such relations becomes important for business to achieve success, as healthy relations can result into higher commitment from workers which also boosts their productivity (Christensen and Hughes, 2002). To garner these advantages, there exists a requirement to comprehend a number of distinctions between HRM and personnel management. Such a comprehension of distinctions is known to provide firm with better people relationships which will only help organization to accomplish business efficiency in various operations.

Personnel management is called as a good way of organizing individuals in a firm, whereas HRM is responsible to focus on acquisition, motivation, maintenance and development of manpower in firm. An employer is required to be aware of ways that aid in integrating these two phrases in order to attain efficiency through the means of a merged approach of facing workforce in firm. An employer tends to suppose management of individuals as a kind of input of individuals that aids to attain set objectives of company (Lummus, 2003). Conversely, he can also presume HRM as another kind of input of workforce as resources that are precious and significance of accomplishing set objectives of company.

These two phrases as well as their main distinctions that relates to Storey’s 27 Differences are required to be comprehended properly by an employer in order to merger all functions concerned organizing human resources with personnel management and can be focused towards accomplishment of total HRM objectives and goals. This will only aid workforce in developing their own competencies as well as skills and thereby create relations with their superiors (Armstong, 2008).

Line managers are known to acquire major engagement in the accomplishment of strategies of firm as well as creating and sustaining quality manpower in company. The line manager’s role is concerned with developing and boosting an appropriate climate at workplace that have to be helpful for learning. It encompasses encouragement of positive behavior with respect to learning in firm. He is also believed to encourage personnel or team members to carry out responsibilities that relates with organizing their own tasks for personal learning and development (Afiouni, 2013). The provision is known to encompass managing meetings with workforce that include similar individuals with same experience, and developing job rotation plans along with some systems of that promote mentoring and coaching.
Hence, a line manager is known to carry out a strategic action in attaining goals and objectives of firm by creating sound quality manpower through non-stop learning in company. He can train staff members and also establish some new skills as well as competencies within them to the degree where they can become capable of providing sound effort the attainment of strategic goals of organization while acquiring their personal working qualities enhanced as well as competitive. He can also take into account performance criterion along with systems related with rewards for workforce to boost their motivation as well as their performance in order to achieve their personal goals and objectives while attaining organizational ones.

In such a way, line managers are known to play a crucial part in boosting quality of employees while attaining strategic organizational goals and objectives.

ASSIGNMENT 2

TASK 1

2.1Flexibility Model Application

Flexibility is a kind of skills that aids in adjusting under various uncertain conditions. The flexibility concept has significantly argued that there can be a growing trend for firms to seek various forms flexibility related with operations and functions. The model is associated with a company which is flexible that considers applying strategies related with multi-tasking, flextime, labor rotations, production and delivery flexibility (Claus, 2003). There are two basic forms of workers as explained in model that are found in a firm namely Core and Peripheral workers. Former ones are called as permanent ones and are liable to gain full range of benefits along with their job security. They are accountable to considering key operations of company.

Peripheral workers are often split into basic three groups in terms of workers that are involved with low skills plus routine work, contingent employees working on jobs with high skills, and low-skills plus low pay contract staff members offered by different agencies for jobs of cleaning, catering and routine security task etc. Thus, while taking into account recruitment as well as selection in the firm OLC Europe for those of core and peripheral employees, it is suggested that firm examines the need of jobs and relating duties that will aid in deciding as to what type of jobs are required to attain desired outcomes of organization (O'Connor, 2004).

2.2Types of flexibility Developed by OLC Europe

Three main types of flexibility which can be developed by OLC Europe for the purpose of encouraging better HRM in firm are disused as under:

1.Organizational Flexibility – Such a type of flexibility is related to bringing short term frequent changes at the workplace. They are related to operational tasks of the firm. They also have some or the other thing in common with that of mixture, quality as well as quantity of different activities, but the ones which do not negatively influence the relations between business and the environment that it operates in. Over the years, this approach has proved to be very good for the company (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2008). This can be supported through example that it helped the management to make sure that their activities do not have any kind of negative impact on the environment as well as surroundings that the firm operates in.

2.Structural Flexibility: It is related to ability of management of the company to make changes in organizational structures and communication processes as well as systems to developments in the surroundings. For authorities at OLC Europe such flexibility is very important because of reason that through it their long term survival in the market can be ensured (Soliman and Spooner, 2000).

2.3 Use of Flexible work practices from both employee and employer’s perspective

From the perspectives and viewpoints of both the members of workforce and the management, flexible working hours and practices are of great use. This can be supported through fact that it would enable both of them to not only give their best for the company, but also contribute in great numbers to organizational goals and objectives. Management at OLC Europe must comprehend the fact that by following practices of flexible working hours can they make the employees to improve their productivity as well as performance (Boud and Garrick, 2012). Through such an approach, they can also help giving a work-life (personal and professional life) balance to the staff. This way their quality of life can be improved in a significant manner. Thus, productivity, performance as well as efficiency of the employees can be accentuated by a big margin. Also the burden on employer or the authorities would decrease, as they would have the option to monitor and supervise their employees in a very close and strict way.

2.4 Impact of changes in labor market on flexible working practices

In the past some years, the labor market in UK has evolved and changed by a great margin, because of which the concept of flexible working hours has been impacted by a great margin (Cartwright, 2005). One of the biggest changes can be seen in terms that trade unions and their operations have declined by great numbers in the last some years. Due to de-industrialization, the trade unions have all but vanished. In comparison to the earlier times, due to such a development, now the employees are free from any kind of tight boundation and rules and regulations. Due to this very reason, concept of flexible working hours and practices has improved. The government policies also have changed dramatically, like the Equality Act and other regulations regarding pay and compensation in the country. Due to this very reason the labor market also has changed considerably, thus impacting the flexible working practices adopted by firms in the country (Stroud and Fairbrother, 2008). As population of the country has increased by great margin in the past some years, it may not be wrong to say that the dependency ratio also has sky rocketed and that too in great numbers.

3.1 Different forms of discrimination that happen at the workplace

There are various forms of discrimination which can be found on workplace and they are discussed with regards to OLC Europe as under:

Age Discrimination – This practice is specifically protected by law. In OLC Europe age discrimination can be found when a more qualified young teacher is discriminated for providing a higher post just to provide the same post to an older teacher in the organization. This kind of discrimination is called as age discrimination (Amos and et.al, 2009).

Gender Discrimination – In this, discrimination can be done with respect to genders. For example, a female teacher is not given a chance to give lecture to a class full of male students.

Religious Discrimination – Religious discrimination is done with respect to religion of an individual. It is unlawful when OLC Europe may advertize job posts for those individuals that follow Christianity.

3.2 Practical Implications of Equal Opportunities Legislation for a company

Every organization should encourage equality of opportunity because it helps in ensuring that the employees are not discriminated (Wei, 2006). It ensures fair and just working environment in the business. Organizations like OLC Europe believe in commitment to equal opportunities and it ensures that the behaviour & actions of its employees is committed to offer opportunities to one and all. The organization ensures treatment of employees fairly before designing of any policies and all policies are communicated to them, so that they can contribute positively towards the goals of the company. The Equal Pay Act is such an example of the practical implications of providing equal opportunities to employees.

3.3 Approaches to Managing Equal Opportunities and Diversity

There are two approaches to managing equal opportunities and managing diversity. They are internal and external forces that drive management of these two (Sohal, 2001). External forces such as social fairness, government legislations, human and ethical rights etc tend to drive management of equal opportunities, whereas internal forces like organizational structure and culture tend to drive diversity of workforce within the organization. OLC Europe should consider these two factors in order to manage equal opportunities and diversity of workforce within the organization (Punnett, 2012).

4.2 Approaches to Managing Employee Welfare in OLC Europe

There are two schemes to employee welfare which OLC Europe must consider in human resource management. These schemes are discussed as under:

Statutory Welfare Schemes – This scheme require OLC Europe to provide employees with a number of facilities related with regular or daily activities such as drinking water, sitting facilities, first aid appliances, canteen facilities, lighting, washing places, changing and rest rooms etc (Stroud and Fairbrother, 2008).

Non-Statutory Welfare Schemes – This involve facilities to employees like personal health care, flextime working, employee assistance program, harassment policy, maternity and adoption leave, employee referral scheme etc. All these schemes will help employees of OLC Europe to improve their standards of living and enhance their performance at workplace.

4.1 METHODS OF PERFRORMNACE MANAGEMENT

OLC Europe needs to consider various methods of performance management and they are as follows:

Management by objectives- it means that the objectives have to be achieved by the management effectively. It requires the OLC Europe managers to set the standards for the employees to perform their task. The benefits of rewards can be given to employees according to the set standards of quality of the work they have performed (Lummus, 2003).

360-degree feedback- through this method the human resource of OLC Europe will enquire for the feedback or evaluation of the particular employee to know their performance from their line managers. In this method interviews will be taken of individual to know their performance.

Perceiving actual performance- it means that the actual performance needs to be perceived so that it helps in achieving the overall objectives (Ken, 2001). The actual performance of the employees will be justified and he will be awarded accordingly.

Through these methods it will be easy to understand the performance management of different employees and to know their performance accordingly.

4.3 Implications of safety & health legislation on human resources

The health and safety legislations are related with keeping the employees safe from the risky working environment of the company (Kleiner, 2000). The employees of OLC Europe needs to make certain legislation or rules for the safety and health conditions for the workers. This act is made for the safety of the workers and they should be protected from any hazard. The health and safety conditions should be properly fulfilled by the organisations so that their workers remain protected where they are working.

Various legislations are implied or made so that the workers of any organisation get protected by any violation. Various code of conduct is formulated to reserve the rights and responsibilities of the employees of the organisation (Garrick, 2012). The human resources of any organisation needs should be fulfilled so that they achieve the targets of the company effectively and efficiently. Safety conditions should be fulfilled by the enterprise so that their workers remain effective and work to achieve organisational goals.

4.4 Impact of topical issue on human resource practices in the organization

There is a positive impact of employee relations on the human resource practices of OLC Europe. There should be proper relations between employees of the organisation to have effective human resource practice in the company. There should be proper coordination between personal management and human resource management to work effectively (Hall,L. M. and Hall, 2003). Personal management helps in effective relations between all the employees of the organisation. Human resource management means that all the resource of the organisation needs to be managed properly. The overall development of the organisation gives a good impact if there is a proper relation between employees.

CONCLUSION

From the above study it can be concluded that managing the human resources is not an easy task which has to be performed by management of an organization, because of reason that there are several aspects which have to be kept in mind by the authorities. Two assignments in the report have covered major topics of human resource management that will help the learner in understanding effective development recruitment and selection process of an organization which is also very cost effective. Various issues regarding human resource management have also been discussed to understand implications of regulations related with discrimination at workplace.

REFERENCES

• Afiouni, F., 2013. Human capital management: a new name for HRM. International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital.
• Amos, T. and et.al., 2009. Human Resource Management. Juta and Company.
• Armstong, M., 2008. Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action. 4th ed. Kogan Page Publishers.
• Boud,D. and Garrick, J., 2012. Understanding Learning at Work. Routledge.
• Cartwright, S., 2005. Human Resource Management. Mittal Publications.
• Christensen, A. and Hughes, J.M., 2002. HRM and Universalism: Is there one best way? International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality.
• Claus, L., 2003. Similarities and Differences in Human Resource Management in the European Union. Thunderbird International Business Review.

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