Human resource management within KFC

It is very difficult to define ‘Human Management Resources’. This term basically work with in two different approach. It is used to explain the body of management movements covered in books as a one way and other way it is a term equally and extensively used to contribute meticulous loom to the managing persons which is obviously diverse from the first aspect i.e. of ‘personnel management’.

Armstrong, 2007

Aims of HRM:

The main and the primary aim of the human resource management is to achieve the sucsess in organization by the pople. According to Ulrich and Lake (1990), ‘HRM systems can be the roots of organizational potentialities that allow firm to learn and capitalize on new chances.’

Armstrong, 2007

Task 1

Introduction – How well did your manager manages your stress?

The basic and the important task of the Human Resource Management is to manage the employees and get the work done properly by satisfying the employees by giving them bonus or some kind of awards if they are working good for the company and in short we can say that company should give rewards to the employees which are working hard and should give something in returns to the employees so they will be more interested in the working of the company. Basically the topic says that how manager manage your stress. That clearly means that manager is the person who is answerable to the head persons for the work and task been performed. Thus manager is the person who will manage everything and make sure that the work is been done on time and with the perfection. Thus manager manage stress by giving him/her extra complements about the work and will give a good feedback to the head persons which will give rise to the extra bonus and rewards to the particular person.

Atkinson, William. Electric Light & Power, Vol. 82.

Zofi, Yael Sara, For the Continuing Care Professional, Vol. 58

Ross, Judith A., Harvard Management Update, Apr2009.

Specific HR Strategies:

The specific HR strategies set out what the organization intends to do in areas such as:

Continuous improvement – Providing for continuous and focused incremental innovation sustained over a period of time.

Talent management – How exactly the firm intends to ‘win the war of talent’.

Resourcing – Retaining and attracting high-quality people.

Knowledge management – Capturing, creating, sharing, acquiring and using instruction to improve the performance and learning.

Reward – There should be a perfect goal of the organization that what organization need to do in the longterm implement and develop the reward policies, processes and practices will help the further accomplishments of the business objectives and needs of stakeholders.

Learning and developing – The employees should be encouraged to develop and learn by providing them such an environment.

Employee relations – Determine the aim of the organization about the basic requirement that they want to achieve i.e. which they want to get it done and what are the needs that are to be distorted in the traditions in which the business runs its connection with employees and their trade unions.

Susman. Broker Magazine, Jun/Jul2004.

Miller, Jeffrey. Insurance Advocate, 3/10/2008.

Lacey, Holda. Travel Trade Gazette UK & Ireland, 6/10/2005.

Bolton, Brian. Personnel Psychology, Spring80, Vol. 33.

Let us take an example to understand it more clearly; here we will focus on the current stress management system employed by KFC and its analysis. KFC hasn’t employed any particular system to monitor stresses of their employees but they are compliant to the local labor and health safety law. This permits them to discount their stress management system. As compliance with those laws make them to stop doing any unethical and unlawful activities.

There are other issues which are also related to stress management this things are not part of any law but these are the management practice by the KFC authority. These are presented below:

• Employees are allowed to take leave in case of stress related physical disorders and this leave are on payment.

• In case of burglary or something unwanted on the work place which can cause stress on their employees mind they send them to leave on payment.

• They solve other minor stress related issues by counseling the problem and supporting morally or physically whichever is needed or both (varies to demand of the situation).

As these topics indicate that they are protected by the law mentions above which gives a substantial protection against stress. And this also allows KFC to maintain good level of satisfaction. In spite of not having a proper stress management system but complying with these laws control the stress at workplaces.

How well did your manager manage your stress?

The manager is a person in the job unit who takes all my stress away as when I have a stress of going college he is the person who manages my job properly and give me an alternative way. The manager is a person whom you can directly approach and who is answerable to the employees and the head authorities as well. Manager at the market place has all the authority to do but he always does the thing which will give the maximum benefit to the company and will give up maximum to the organization as if organization gets good profit than obviously that manager will get a reward out of it and will probably get a promotion as well. The manager is a person who manages the employees stress at the work place as well.

There are so many kind of stress seen at the work place like too much work, sometimes have to work overtime, sometime the target is very high to achieve. Thus this are the ways to be taken into consideration by the manager at the workplace as the manager wants to decrease the stress of the employee on the workplace. The stress is reduced by the manager to get the accuracy in the work and to get the things done with perfection. The stress on the employee makes the employee to work less and because of this the work done will never be perfect because while doing the work attention is very necessary to be kept in doing things properly. The manager manage the stress and give bonus or rewards to the employees at times so that the employees are happy and do the work with which the company gets the best work done and because of that again the employees will be eligible to get the bonus out of it.

Stress is the most common word in today’s life as plenty of people like us great effort at get their work life balanced. This is a so called fact that stress has sometimes a contrary effect on the employee’s commitment to work, staff turnover, staff work and productivity, attendance levels, as well as on customer satisfaction and organizational image and reputation.

Manager’s job is to manage the things going in the business and manage the whole staff and also supervise the whole floor to get the perfect accuracy in work. The people are sometime told to work more to get the work done but due to that also the employee feel stressed because of the hard professional life so this is to be taken into control to avoid the problems taking place in the future in the business unit.

Middleton, Gemma. Accountancy Ireland, Apr2008.

Donaldson-Feilder, Emma, Strategic HR Review, 2008.

Noer, David. BusinessWeek Online, 7/27/2009.

Urwin, Tony. Occupational Health, Aug2006.

Guld, Michael. Supervision, Oct2008.

Some of the present information about KFC regarding Stress Management is as follows:

1) There are stressors which are common in nature as other organizations. These stressors mainly transfuse the stress into the employees of KFC.

2) Among those stressors some of them very highly influence some varies from moderate to low degree influence. Other insignificant stressors are not considered for the simplicity if the model.

3) There are also existing relations between the stressors which increase the complexity of the model. As task demand highly influence the role demand of a job and both of them are a stressor of KFC so this interdependence also plays a great role in determining the stress.

4) Level of Stress:

a) High – High level of stress has been created by the task demand, temperature of the kitchen and nationality. It is seen in the survey that all the respondents give emphasis on the task demand as it puts a lot of pressure on them. Temperature is an issue when it is a rush time and kitchen are very busy at that time some of employees feel stress working in the kitchen and nationality plays a part as many of the migrant people work in KFC and in this study 2 of them are surveyed and it is found that there tolerance level to bear the stress is quite low than the British employees.

b) Moderate – Among Moderate level of influencer role demand space and sex of the employees are prominent. As role demand can create confusion which leads to the work place stress it is marked as moderate level of stressors for KFC’s case and outcome of the survey and observation also supports this classification. Sex has been classified as moderate level of stressors as it is seen that male employees are more vulnerable to stress than the female employees. And also space is a factor which can create stress employees can feel suffocating working in a congested space.

c) Low – Noise and age are the two low level stressors. Age is an issue which can influence the level of stress in KFC’s work place. Employees with lesser age like teen feel much stress than middle aged employees. And noise plays a very little role in altering the level of stress at existing workplace.

Conclusion:

From the above all discussion we can clearly conclude that there are basically four aspect of four kinds of stress that is to be controlled by the manager at the work place when the employees are stressed by work, mentally, physically, behavioral and cognitive. The stress is to be control to keep the business running smooth and perfect. Thus in short we can say that the stress factor is always to be kept in control by the manager for the smooth working of the organisation and the employees should have the bonus and rewards at times so that the employee’s remains stress free while working and do the maximum they can do. Thus this are all the aspect which is been controlled by the manager on the work place and keep the business running smoothly and accurately as well.

Task 3

Introduction – Defination of HR Scorecard:

The measurement tool of measuring the performance and the offering of the human resource management practices to the financial performance of the organization is known as HR Scorecard. Bryan E. Becker Mark A. was the developer of HR Scorecard, which was presented in the books by Huselid and Dave Ulrich. The HR Scorecard basically keeps a eye on the human resource management practices as a strategic asset and provides a perfect road map of six steps which is designed to help the organizations integrate human resource systems with organizational strategy.

Becker, Huselid and Ulrich, 2001.

Rhodes, Jo; Walsh, Paul, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Jun2008.

The 7 Stages in using HR Scorecard approach:

There are basically seven steps which covers the HR Scorecard approach to get the strategic results oriented in the HR Systems.

Defining the Business Strategy:

The HR system starts from the basic decision called the business strategy, which will figure out the business plans of the business unit according to which the business is going to run and in accordance to which the task will be taking place.

Outline the Company’s Value Chain:

To calculate the Value chain of the company and to achieve the business goals of the company the business should be basically engaged in certain strategically required activities. To achieve the goals and everything which is been decided by the business to achieve can be very much useful with the ‘value chain analysis’.

Identifying the Strategically required Organizational Outcomes:

There are strategic goals that are to be achieved by any of the organization and to identify the strategic goals perfectly and go accordingly is the organizational outcomes. Every company must produce critical, strategically relevant outcomes if it is to achieve its strategy.

Identifying the required workforce competencies and behaviors:

There are some of the HR experts, who refer to the required, and the necessary workforce competencies and behaviors like these as HR deliverables. The behaviors and the competencies such as working proactively, courteous behavior, personal accountability, commitment and motivation produce strategically relevant organizational outcomes, and thereby drive organizational performance.

Identify the Strategically relevant HR Systems Policies:

If it comes to the mind of the HR manager and he/she knows that how actually what is required from the employees competencies and the behaviors are than he or she can turn to the task of identifying the HR activities and policies that will help to produce tese competencies and behaviors.

Design the HR Scorecard Measurement system:

After getting the outcomes from the strategic role done and after completion of the final strategically required organizational outcomes and the employee competencies and behaviors, and specific HR system policies and activities the question is how exactly we should measure them all. And thus for this reason the HR scorecard is proved to be very crucial in this kind of measurement process.

Periodically Evaluate the Measurement System:

There are no such assumptions which should take place like the HR Scorecard’s diffirent propotion and attachment will always stay the same. In fact reducing grievances is not having the assumed affect on raising morale.

Desseler, 2005.

Walker, Garrett, Human Resource Management, Winter2001

Hagood, Wesley O., Public Personnel Management, Winter2002

Becker, Ulrich, Dave. Harvard Business School Press Books, Jan2001

Human Resources Department Management Report, Jan2003.

Benefits of HR Scorecard:

Basically in the construction taking place for HR Scorecard, avoid the temptation to merely “fill in the boxes.” The key questions for this are like what would you like this tool to do for you? Or, in another way we can say like how would you like managers outside of HR to think about your measures? Thus we believe that the scorecard will offer the following benefits:

It reinforces the refinemnt between the HR deliverables and the HR doables. The deliverables which influences the strategy implementation and the doables which does not.

It enables you to create value and control costs. The work of HR is always to keep a cost under control and at the same time serving in the strategic role means that HR must also create the value. Thus the HR scorecard is usefull to human resource managers to efficient balance those two goals.

It assesses HR’s contribution to strategy implementation and, ultimately, to the “bottom line.” The performance which is measured should be provided to the Chief HR Officer with the answer of the questions. The HR’s contribution in the firms performance is the cumulative effect of the scorecard’s HR deliverable measure should provide that answer.

It lets HR professionals effectively manage their strategic responsibilities. The HR Scorecard clearly gives the full view of the performance to the HR managers and with this they can focus that how exactly their decision affect to the successful implementation of the firm’s strategy.

It encourages flexibility and change. The basic problem of the performance measurement is that they become institutionalized and actually inhibit change. In fact one criticism of management by measurement is that people become skilled at achieving the required numbers in the old system and are reluctant to change their management approach when shifting conditions demand it.

Becker, Brian E, Richard W., Harvard Business School Press Books, Jan 01, 2005.

Ulrich, Dave. Human Resource Management, Fall97.

Singh, Kuldeep. IIMB Management Review (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore), Jun2005.

Here, we will take an example of Tesco; we will see how the Tesco is following the various strategies to sustain its employees as well as the customers. Let us see the activity plans in Tesco;

Provides tools for highly structured monitoring and evaluation of training & development:

Specific – define actually what needs to do.

Measurable – has a object that can be measured contrary.

Achievable – is possible within the trainee’s current role, skills and experience.

Realistic – is achievable within the time and resources available.

Time framed – has a clear deadline.

Tesco also uses a method – 360-degree appraisal.

All stake holders have contact with the employee, assess the person’s performance and give feedback.

For e.g.: a store departmental manager may get feedback from their manager, other dept managers, the HR department and their team.

Helps to identify areas that may require further development.

Tesco does casuall approach – asking the employees to write down:

3 things that they are good &

3 things where they could do better.

Managers and trainees hold:

Formal four weekly review sessions.

A weekly informal review session.

Conclusion:

The HR scorecard has particularly seven stages and in which all the HR scorecard is maintained from the planning stage till the final sales. The HR scorecard is very necessary to get the exact figure and to get the exact outcome of the business unit. It gives the clear picture of the business and from which the HR manager can see that how accurately the business is going and find out all the details out of that. The scorecard maintained does not carry the exact outcomes but it gives the relevant outcome with which the HR manager can know that how the business in running and what need the changes and about the perfection of the business and the performance of the different employees as well. The employee’s contribution is also recorded in the HR Scorecard. HR scorecard gives the details of the employees in detail about their progress and their work efficiency and also how much they are been paid. Thus in short we can say that the HR Scorecard gives the every important detail about the employees of the company and also gives up the progress and the contribution of the employees.