HRM in the London Olympic games

The London 2012 Games is organized by two main bodies – The London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). The Olympic Delivery Authority is funded by government and authority to develop and build new venues and infrastructures for Olympic Games and long term after 2012. LOCOG is funded by private sector which is responsible for preparing and performing 2012 Games.

In this report examines different types of HR issues in ODA and LOCOG. Here discuss about the traditional view of personal management and new approach of Human Resources Management and discuss the effectiveness of principles and procedures for monitoring employees. This report thoroughly examined how LOCOG, a privately funded body and ODA as a public body, handle certain HR issues comparative to the best practice.

Background

The LOCOG (London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games) is funded by private sector. It is responsible for performing the games. They are planning to employ around 100,000 people on the Games with 3,000 staff, 70,000 volunteers and many of contractors by 2012 Opening Ceremony. It is mainly responsible for performing Memorable Games in 2012. And it is also responsible for recruiting, selecting and training staff and volunteers and supervision of the four year Cultural Olympiad leading up to the Games.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is funded by government and it is mainly responsible to build and develop locations and infrastructure for the Olympic Games and using for long-term. Currently more than 10,000 workers work in Olympic park and Athletes’ village. The employees of the ODA cover a wide area of skills such as planning and project management, transport management and community liaison.

CLM Consortium is the Delivery partner of the Olympic Delivery Authority. It is owned by CH2M Hill, Laing O’Rourke and Mace. CLM Consortium is working on behalf of the ODA by managing programmes of the constructing of places and infrastructures for 2012 Games. Mainly it performs project management for the ODA.

Tasks

1.1 Because of the competitive environment in the open economy, Human Resource Management has become the most important factor for the efficiency of organization. Human Resources management arise from the Personal management. The difference between personal management and HR management can be discussed as theoretical. Personnel Management has more administrative environment background. Personal Management deal with Payroll, comply with law of employment, supervise related administration tasks. But Human resource management is managing workforce in the organization to achieve main objectives of the organization.

When recognised the difference between the Human Resource Management and the personal Management, HRM can describe broadly in scope than Personal Management. Human Resource Management is supposed to incorporate and develop the personal Management, while focusing on creation and development of team works to achieve organizational goals. The personal management uses a unitary method while HRM uses Pluralist method. The Personnel Management deals with the selection, recruitment, job description and work load of the employees.

When notice the relationship between employees and the management, can recognize Personnel Management involve for monitoring, supervising and controlling while HRM focus on nurturing and facilitating with relationship.

1.2 The role of the HR director of ODA must parallel with the changing needs of ODA. ODA is more adaptive, strong, easy change with trend and customer-oriented. The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is the government body which is building places and infrastructures for the Games. As the Human Resource Director of ODA, HR Director needs to guide and manage the human resource services, policies and procedures and programmes for the whole organization. The key areas have to be directed by the HR director can discuss as follows.

Recruiting new staff for the ODA

Performance management and improvement systems

Growth of the organization

Employment and obedience with regulatory bodies

Training and Development

Documentation

Development of Policies

Facilitation of company-wide committee

Administration of compensation and benefits

Employee safety, Health and welfare

The Human Resources Director initiates HR Practices which provide high performance culture, quality, efficiency and Values, achievement of goals and the recruitment and continuing development of a greater workforce in The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). The HR director directs implementation of services, policies and programmes over his staff. HR Director has to report to the CEO of Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and assists and instructs the company managers regarding Human Resource issues in the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA).

1.3 Responsibility for Human Resource Functions rests with every manager in an organization (Weather et al, 1985; Weather and Davis, 1989). HRM is a responsibility of every manager in an organization. Even when a Human Resource department is created within the organization, a dual responsibility exists among operating managers and human resource experts. Individual managers involve in planning, selection, orientation, training, development, compensation and other personnel activities.

Line managers find implementation of HR Practices at the operative level difficult and show lack of enthusiasm with their responsibilities. Though, line managers have become accountable for the implementation of HRM and therefore, their performance is serious for effectiveness of HRM of the Olympic Delivery Authority.

The Line managers are highly skilled people. Now they are involving with needs of employees which create the better working environment in the organization. They have capabilities to support to the employees with many challenging circumstances they have to go through, as an example if an employee couldn’t meet his targets at that time line manager would have regular intervals to decide what they have to do and fix a new target to achieve.

Front line manager have to set clear prospects with his employees in terms of what they have to be delivered and how they are going to be delivered estimated products. Then front line manager has to be involved with leading the performance appraisals and approved personal development plans. After agreeing with personnel development plans, line managers must observe the weaknesses of their subordinates and identify the way of bridging the gap via training. The line managers should be able to identify the range of learning and development involvements which existing to them. The Line managers also responsible for effective provision of coaching and guidance and increase the satisfaction of employees, motivation and employee’s commitment, if the front line manager wants to be a really effective line manager; he has to identify his responsibility as a sponsor of his employees’ learning and development.

2.1 Human Resource Planning (HRP) is the process of determining future employee needs and deciding steps or strategies to achieve those needs for the purpose of accomplishing organizational goals and objectives.

The institute of personnel management (UK – currently known as Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development) has defined HRP as “HRP is a process which more systematic and continuous to analyze and organize the necessities of the human resource that need to be changed conditions and developed rules and regulations suitable for long term effectiveness of the organization. Because of HR costs and forecasts both affected by long term cooperate plans, HRP is an important part of cooperate planning and budgeting procedures. (Armstrong, 1992, p. 289)

Information required in HRP process are information regarding future demand for HR and information regarding future HR supply.

Information regarding future HR demand is;

Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is considering about talented, enthusiastic and dedicated employees work within a greater range of job roles. Therefore, there is a high demand for skilled and unskilled people for those from the five London boroughs nearest the Olympic Park.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is accountable for building and developing places and infrastructures Olympic Games and use after 2012. Therefore, their strategic plan also decides future HR need for this project.

Expected number of retirement, resignations, deaths and terminations from this project.

Information regarding external factors such as economic, social and political forces prevailing in London.

ODA has developed a strategy to outline how it will create new jobs.

Information regarding HR supply is;

Information of current HR in ODA

There are more job opportunities to support for building of Olympic Park. The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has Varity of job opportunities in Professional, Admin, Management, Technical, Information Technology and trades/operation level available in the Olympic Park.

II Information required for possible replacements.

The Olympic Delivery Authority’s Jobs Skills Stocks has obtained thousands of people for different types of jobs in Olympic Park. The aim of the ODA is offering more jobs up to 7% of the on-site labor force in construction for people who are unemployed previously.

There are five steps involved in HRP process.

Forecast future demand for HR. ODA has forecasted that the three major Stratford-based projects alone – the Olympic Park, Olympic Village and Stratford City development – will create around 30,000 jobs over the course of the construction period.

Estimate future HR supply of ODA It can be anticipated by observing building and construction industry.

Compare forecasted demand with estimated supply.

Decide strategies to be taken to bridge the gap between future HR supply and demand.

Assess the HRP effort of ODA.

2.2 Structured process for recruitment in LOCOG

The London 2012 Organizing Committee (LOCOG) is planning to employ around 100,000 people on the Games with 3,000 staff, 70,000 volunteers and many of contractors by 2012 Opening Ceremony.

As the biggest post-war campaign in the UK, LOCOG is waiting for self-motivated, talented and dedicated people who represent the diversity of London and UK to spread on greater range of volunteer roles. A person who selected to volunteer at the event will be known as Games Maker.

LOCOG recruit employees in various ways. They allow applying apprentices, people with disabilities, school leavers and via a LOCOG technology internship program.

Structure for Recruitment Process in ODA

The Olympic Delivery Authority is planning to provide job opportunities for more than 10,000 people in a hard time for construction Industry while seeking to meet commitments to safety, employing, training and developing local people and trainees.

A Job agent service, in cooperation with five Host Boroughs and Job Centre plus which match the job opportunities in Olympic Park with candidates who are living local areas and elsewhere in the UK,

The National Skills Academy for Construction is funded by The Skills Funding Agency and the London Development Agency. This organizes training programmes within range of suppliers which is including Thames House Training Centre other than a Plant Training Centre for people to grow their skills that need to be success on the Olympic Park and endure their career development while they are working.

A guarantee to another 250 traineeships to be created in the Olympic Park and Athlete’s Village including the specific necessities to take on trainees in future contracts.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) collects and publishes figures on the Olympic Park workforce which is collect through the enrolment process to ensure transparency regarding the workforce.

The workers in Olympic Park and Village have to be spent at least five days over the period of measurement applied.

They are counting local workers only in the Olympic Park and Village who are giving permanent address in one of the five Host Boroughs.

Before a person categorized as a resident there The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) doesn’t have a minimum time period for the residency. Many of public authorities such as Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, Local Taxation and Valuation using this agreement,

London 2012 is a Game for everyone, so they encourage to employment opportunities regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability.

Recruitment methods that can be used

Simple word of mouth

Job posting and bidding

Skill inventories and management inventories

Intranet

Succession plan

Employee referral (internal and external)

Walk ins and write ins

Educational institutes

Employment agencies

Professional institutes

Advertising

2.3 Interview as a selection technique

Selection interview is a face to face, oral and observational evaluation method of appraising an applicant’s acceptability with regard to a certain job. The interview creates on in-depth conversation between a prospective employer and an applicant for the purpose of deciding whether the applicant is the most appropriate person to fill the vacancy being considered.

Interviewing has some distinct advantages over other alternative methods of selection. It gives the interviewer with an opportunity to assess the candidate in terms of self presentation, verbal abilities and behavioural characteristics such as way of talking, manners and sociability. Interviews can be adapted to various types of employees such as managerial, technical, clerical, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled employees. It can fill information gaps and enable to clarify questionable responses.

There are some disadvantages relating to method of interview. Errors associated with interviewer’s use of inappropriate standards are one of the disadvantages of this method. Those errors are Halo effect, personnel prejudice, pseudo-scientific premises and over-emphasise on one criterion.

There can be problems with interviewee. One major error is inability of interview to listen. Also the interviewee attempts to behave in a pretended manner which is socially desirable. Normal interviewee attending an interview is nervous and fearful resulting in that he / she is not in a position to use his/her real skills, knowledge and attitudes to face the interview successfully.

Alternative selection methods that can be used are application evaluation, background investigation of prospective candidates and conducting an assessment centers to identify the best candidates

2.4 To be selected for LOCOG Technology internship program, they use some frequently asked questions. There web site shows what is expected by LOCOG team. It is a structured process of selection. As an example for the question of “how do I qualify for LOCOG technology team?” would expect an answer of set of qualifications specifically mentioned for each post.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is the government body which is responsible for building and developing the places and infrastructure for the Games use after 2012. Therefore, they select the most appropriate candidates for the authority via apprentice programs, construction contacts, support organizations and offering job opportunities that related to construction and direct employment for women with contractors in the Olympic Park. ODA has a relatively unstructured mode of selection rather than LOCOG.

3.1 There are five steps involved in pay management process. They are job evaluation, pay survey, job pricing, adjustment of individual pays and finally monitoring and update the pay system.

Job evaluation is a subjective process. It is a systematic method to determine the comparative values of jobs which are available within an organization. This is a proper and methodical comparison of jobs to regulate the value of one job comparative to another job and ultimately grade in salaries and wages hierarchy (Dessler, 2005)

The purpose of job evaluation is to ensure that base pay of a job possess a good degree of relative equity. Under job evaluation, personnel traits of employees are not taken in to consideration

There are five steps in job evaluation process.

Appointment of a job evaluation committee.

It is better to do job evaluation through a committee, specifically set up for the purpose consisting of persons who are more knowledgeable about the jobs.

Examine job analysis information

To examine job analysis information, there must be distinctly prepared job description and job specification for each of the jobs available in the organization.

Decide the method of job evaluation.

There are four methods of job evaluation.

Job ranking

Job grading

Factor comparison

Point system

However, it was identified that the best method is the point system. Otherwise factor comparison method can be decided to use as the alternative method of job evaluation.

Evaluation

This step involves evaluating all the jobs available within the organization

Rank the jobs according to relative importance

After job evaluation, it is possible to ascertain relative worth of each job. According to the relative worth, all the jobs must be put in order of importance. They must be ranked according to the importance of the job. In fact, it is possible to build a hierarchy of jobs arranged by relative importance. After this ranking, financial values should be introduced.

Factors of determining the pay are,

Government / Legal requirement

Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is a public body which is in control to build new places permanently and temporarily, works on present sports places, planning and implementation of transport infrastructures and facilities to help the Games, renovating the Olympic Park enduring after the Games. Mainly ODA has to make sure the new standards of project for sustainable development. Therefore, ODA must structure its pay system accordance with acts and ordinances of wages and salaries imposed by the government.

Trade Unions

Influence of trade unions to determine wages and salaries by controlling labour supply is a frequently seen fact. Trade unions use their power in order to increase wages and salaries by engaging in collective bargaining with employers’ representatives.

Cost of Living

Increase in cost of living may affect to increase wages and salaries. Cost of living of employees is measured by basing on a price index and then wages and salaries are adjusted according to changes of the price index.

Demand and supply for labor

Demand for labor of a certain job and supply of labor for that job influence on determining the wage or salaries of that job.

Productivity

Ratio between input and output is productivity. When productivity increases, organizations may give higher pays to its employees.

Financial ability

Organization’s financial ability to pay is a major determinant of wages and salaries.

Competitive pays

The ODA offers competitive market salaries complemented by a performance-related bonus.

3.2 Rewards (Compensation/remuneration) include wages & salaries, incentives and welfare facilities.

Pay management is the HRM function that deals with development, implementation, and maintenance of a base pay system that is fair. It is the aggregate of all the activities involved in developing, implementing and maintaining a fair base system.

It needs to decide whether competency based pay instead of job based pay is applied or not. Job evaluation and other steps of pay management focus on a job based pay not a competency based pay. Competency based pay is pay given to the degree of competency the employee has when the employees competencies increase, pay given to him/her increases. Job based pay is a pay given to the value of the job done by the employee. Mathis and Jackson (2000, p.421-2) describe: “paying for competencies rewards employees who are more versatile and have continued to develop their competencies. In knowledge based pay (KBP) or skilled based pay (SBP) systems, employ staff at a base level of pay and receive increases as they learn to do other jobs or gain other skills and therefore become more valuable to the employer”

Aswathappa (2007, p.300) defines: “In the skill based pay system, an employee is paid on the basis of number of jobs he or she is capable of doing or on the depth of his or her knowledge. In traditional system, the employees are given salary or wage base on their jobs held.

Traditional system means job based pay system. Skill based system has some advantages. It will motivate employees to acquire additional skills which may reduce boredom and monotony. Then increased satisfaction occurs. Increased skills become useful to the organization. It will increase employee flexibility (having employees to do different jobs and transferability). It may increase effectiveness of work teams.

There are disadvantages also. It increases cost of pay as employee increases their competencies. Requests for giving promotions from employees may increase. If employees or trade unions propose a skill based pay system to be introduced in an organization that is following a job based pay system.

3.3 Motivation is one of the strategic objectives of HRM. Motivation refers to the extent to which employees are willing to exert the necessary effort to perform their jobs well. Pay management ensures that pays received by employees meet absolute equity, relative internal equity and relative external equity. Sound management of incentives ensures increasing employee motivation so as to improve job performance.

ODA is using these rewards and benefits in order to motivate their employees. They provide competitive market salaries, performance related bonuses, pension, ensure employee wellbeing, season ticket loans and gym memberships. When we consider two factor theory of Fredrick Hurzburg, these incentives can be classified in to both hygiene factors and Motivators. Salaries and wages, bonuses, pensions loans can be identified as hygiene factors and ensuring employees’ wellbeing and gym memberships are examples for motivators.

3.4

Establish objectives for each job and compare and monitor performance based on those objectives

HRM of ODA must develop proper job descriptions and job specification for each job and frequently monitor them and ensure that they are up to the standard.

Continuously allocate them in to a series of training programs in order to ensure their productivity.

Frequently evaluating the performance of their employees.

Creating a learning culture in London 2012.

Implementing open door system and consider employee ideas in decision making.

4.1 ODA is expecting a highly skilled work force for building the stage of London 2012 Games will provide workers in London and UK unprecedented access to new jobs and career opportunities. This will leave a highly skilled workforce that can not only help deliver the Games, but one that is going to have satisfying and sustainable careers in construction after 2012. One of the key responsibilities of ODA is to convert the Olympic Park for long-term use after the Games. Therefore they can absorb some of skilled staff in to permanent cadre and allow them to maintain it in the long run. After 2012, ODA wishes to absorb other skilled employees to government jobs in construction side or provide job opportunities in the private sector.

The LOCOG is responsible for performing the games. It is mainly responsible for performing Memorable Games in 2012. And it is also responsible for recruiting, selecting and training staff and volunteers and supervision of the four year Cultural Olympiad leading up to the Games.

4.2 Selection criteria for declaring redundancy of employee

In UK the number of redundancies rises in the course of credit Crunch, mostly in construction and finance sectors. In this project redundancies occur when finish the construction of London 2012 and when some jobs are no longer needed for Olympic delivery Authority (ODA). The effect of the economic slowdown is established by less job opportunities.

The selection criteria that going to be used by the employer should be identified clearly and exactly, It is usually contain of persons who carry out same jobs in a specific department, who works at a related site or whose work is expected to do so.

Selection Criteria have to be based on objectives which including,

Length of service period

Attendance

Records of Disciplinary

Qualifications

Competencies and Skills

Work Experience

Performance

‘Last in, First out’ (LIFO) is not a suitable selection method for selection criteria, because the workers with less service are to be younger employees.

Tribunals happy with point system which is scoring to each employees compared with related criteria. Scoring should be performed by two or more independent managers who know all employees in the London 2012.The scores should added together and give total of them to each employee.

Sometime following reasons may unfair for selection of employees for redundancy and employees can claim under Unfair Dismissal or relevant Laws.

Membership of the Trade Union

Reasons related to pregnancy or maternity

Sexual orientation

Marital status

Race or Skin Color

Disability

When selection is completed the employees who selected for redundancy should be notified by in writing. The London 2012 offer to employees to leaving the London 2012 to maintain their self-confidence and support them to find another job,