Human Resource Planning and Development in Kerry Foods

Introduction

HRM is the staffing functions of the management process. Or, the policies and practices needed to carry out the “people” or human resource aspects of a management position, including recruiting, screening, training, rewarding, and appraising.

“Human Resource Management is the term increasingly used to refer to the philosophy, policies, procedures, and practices related to the management is particularly concerned with all the activities that contribute to successfully” (Ronald R. Sims, 2002)

Kerry Food is my selected organization for this subject. Kerry food Group today is a world leader in food ingredients and flavours serving the food and beverage industry and a leading supplier of added value brands and customer branded foods to the Irish and UK markets. Headquartered in Tralee, Ireland, the Group employs over 20,000 people throughout its manufacturing, sales, technology and application centres across Europe, North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Asian Markets. (http://www.kerrygroup.com/about_us_index.asp)

In this assignment I am going to investigate how HRM contributes to Kerry Food organisational goals through identification of three key HRM activities also how the objectives of three activities were achieved by effective management of Human resource at Kerry food? To justify this I will also use two HRM models and then go on to identify two HR planning and one HR development method and also would critically evaluate its effectiveness in achieving by organizational objectives. Lastly, i will critically review the performance of HR at Kerry food and will provide my own suggestions to advance the performance.

Contribution of Human Resource Management to achieve Kerry Food goals

Edwin Flippo defies HRM as “planning, organizing, directing, controlling of procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organizational and social objectives are achieved.”

Three key HRM activities

Recruitment & Selection

Training & Development

Employee Relations

Achievement of objectives by the effective management of HRM

Recruitment & Selection

Based on information collected from job analysis the company prepares advertisements and publishes them in the news papers. This is recruitment. A number of applications are received after the advertisement is published, interviews are conducted and the right employee is selected thus recruitment and selection are yet another important area of HRM.

Kerry’s corporate mission relies on the Group’s absolute commitment to being a leader in its various markets through technological creativity, product quality, superior customer service and the wholehearted commitment of each employee. Therefore, the Group’s ambitious corporate development strategy requires recruiting the best people to manage the business and provide the wide-ranging capabilities necessary to sustain growth on long-term basisThe recruitment and selection process of Kerry Food programme provides exceptional opportunities for individuals with ambition, vision and a commitment to excellence in a dynamic business environment.

Achievement of objective

The process of achieving this objective at Kerry food include: human resource planning (HRP), this has to do with describing the jobs available, person specification and contractual matters. Formulating and implementing plans to meet requirements, advertising the vacancy in daily news papers and company website, applications are carefully reviewed with everybody given equal opportunity selection is made with regard to the number and type of people we believe fit the job description and satisfy the person specification requirements.

Training & Development

Every employee goes under training program which helps him/her to put up a better performance on the job. Training program is also conducted for existing staff that have a lot of experience. This is called refresher training. Training and development is one area were the company spends a huge amount. Gray and Smiltzer (1989) said, once a worker joins an organization, then it would be useful to train and develop the person in order to maximize his/her human resource potential. They note that due to the ever increasing competition among present day organization, companies need to have more sophisticated employees. Kerry food recruit into many disciplines including finance, information technology, manufacturing, engineering, technical, quality assurance, commercial (marketing and sales), human resources, process development and product development. They will be given opportunities to develop managerial skills and achievements will be recognised through early career progression. To achieve this Kerry food organised seasonal staff training to all employee to uplift the staff motivation.

Achievement of objective

Aims of training and development training is teaching employees new skills that are relevant to their current job position or refreshing the skills that they already possess. So in this changing environment it is very necessary to enhance or polish the skills of the work force according to the changing environment. Human resource management in the Kerry food aims can be summarised in few points as following:

Increase the productivity of the organization

Decrease the need for supervision

Training and development as a motivation as well as financial gain

Reduced employee turnover

Employee’s relations

“The employee relationship contains an economic component, the exchange of work for the payment but also includes a sociological dimension centered around the power and authority” (Wedderburn, 1986).

HR in Kerry Food is maintaining co-ordinal relations with the union members and the top level management groups. This will help the organization to prevent strikes, lockouts and ensure smooth working in the company. Kerry Food always makes the employees involve in decision making process and give plenty of opportunity to the worker to involve in the management decision which is of their concerned.

Achievement of objectives

At Kerry food great efforts have been taken to make sure that there is love and affection among all and sundry within and outside the work environment. The interest and the concerns of workers are of great importance to the organization. The key factors are: industrial relation i.e managing and maintaining formal and informal relation with trade union, work council and business enhancement forum, employee involvement and participation, communication is a key factor and everybody is carried along because at Kerry food we are “colleagues”. Therefore, information of interest when created is transmitted to employee.

HRM Models

Harvard model

The other founding fathers of HRM were Harvard school of beer et al (1984) who developed what boxall (1992) calls the ‘Harvard framework’. This framework is based on the belief that the problems of historical personnel management can only be solved ‘when general managers develop a viewpoint of how they wish to see employees involved in and developed by the enterprise, and of what HRM is likely to remain a set of independent activities, each guided by its own practice tradition’.

Beer and his colleagues believed that ‘Today, many pressures are demanding a broader, more comprehensive and more strategic perspective with regard to the organization’s human resources’. These pressures have created a need for a ‘longer-term perspective in managing people and consideration of people as potential assets rather than merely a variable cost’. They were the first to underline the HRM tenet that HRM belongs to line managers. They also stated that ‘Human resource management involves all the management decisions and action that affect the nature of the relationship between the organization and its employees – its human resources’.

The Harvard model is followed to some extent by Kerry Food in exceptional manner, the HR manages the successful recruitment and selection techniques, they Organises staff training, Puts policies and procedures in place to deal with employment matters and Provides third-party support to resolve employee disputes.

The Guest approach model

Boxall cites Keenoy (1990) notes that Guest’s approach is to define Strategic HRM as a distinct management style in employment relations. Boxall (1992) states that Guest (1991) recognises that the four HRM outcomes specified in the Harvard model ( commitment, competence, congruence and cost effectiveness) constitute an ‘implicit theory’ and goes on to construct his own theory of HRM as a ‘particular approach’ to labour management . This interpretation of HRM is made possible by the fact that the Harvard framework contains both analytical and prescriptive elements. Boxall (1992) describes the notions of stakeholders, situational factors, strategy choice and levels as all being analytical. The specification of desirable outcomes is viewed as being basically prescriptive. The Guest approach has led to work that explores the likely origins of this model and the extent to which the data suggests it is practised (Guest 1990, 1991). The strength of the approach is that it takes the implicit Harvard theory and expresses it as a clearer, more carefully constructed set of theoretical propositions, which can be tested. Unfortunately as Boxall (1992) suggests Guest’s approach may fall into the trap of criticising practitioners for not conforming to an image academics have chosen for them. The guest model is moderately applied in Kerry food organisation. They provide an overview for an organisation looking at setting up a team to deliver a project, Roadmaps for teams, Coaching for team leaders which makes for an effective team, Optimising team and organisational performance which Measures team effectiveness Rewarding team results.

HR planning and development method of Kerry Food

Vetter (1967) defined human resource planning as the process by which management determines how the organization should move from its current manpower position to its desired position. The part of human resource management (HRM) which specifically deals with training and development of the employees.HRD would include training an individual after he/she is first hired, providing opportunities to learn new skills, distributing resources which are beneficial for the employee’s tasks, and any other developmental activities.

Forecasting

The most important function of business is probably forecasting. A forecast is a starting point for planning. The objective of forecasting is to reduce risk in decision making. In business, forecasts are the basis for capacity planning, production and inventory planning, manpower planning, planning for sales and market share, financial planning and budgeting, planning for research and development, and top management’s strategic planning.

In Kerry Food forecasts are needed for marketing, production, purchasing, manpower, and financial planning. The top management of Kerry group use forecast for capital expenditures. More specifically, production planners need forecasts in order to i. schedule production activities, ii. Order materials, iii. Establish inventory levels, and iv. Plan shipments. As soon as the kerry group makes sure that it has enough capacity, the production plan is developed. if the company does not have enough capacity, it will require planning and budgeting decisions for capital spending for capacity expansion.

Job Evaluation

Job evaluation is the process of systematically determining a relative internal value of a job in an organization. In all cases the idea is to evaluate the job, not the person doing it. Job evaluation- is the process of determining the work of one job relation to that of the other jobs in a company so that a fair and equitable wage and salary system can be established. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_evaluation)

The Kerry food organisation practices job evaluation technique from lower management to upper management in consultation with HR department. They always ensure that all staff are rewarded fairly, also they respects the principles of equal pay for work of equal value. The Group’s ambitious corporate development strategy requires recruiting the best people to manage the business and provide the wide-ranging capabilities necessary to sustain growth on a long-term basis. The recruitment programme provides exceptional opportunities for internal staff as well as other individuals with ambition, vision and a commitment to excellence in a dynamic business environment.

Multi skill Training

Multi Skill employees have a number of different skills, enabling them to do more than one kind of work. The employee in Kerry group who hold multiple skills get chances to work in different department. A staff who is responsible for data base management sometimes work in operation sector. Through which they get to learn different things and when in short of staff multiple skill employee can work on any other department which is good for organization. So one of the objectives of Kerry HR is development of a more adaptable, multi-skilled workforce, capable of moving with the times when required.

Critically evaluation of effective HRP & HRD methods to meet Kerry Group objectives

The major strength of the Kerry Group is procurement. Procurement allows Kerry to use available global resources in specialty ingredients, seasonings, coating systems, sweet ingredients, nutritional systems, and specialty proteins; by doing this they are able to acquire the highest-quality raw materials. Another Strength of Kerry is technological development. Through technological development Kerry is able to develop flavours and gain an advantage over the competition. Kerry gains this technological advantage through research and development and acquisitions. The objective has been achieved by it’s proper HR management. The evidence of this is Kerry began as the smallest of six agricultural co-ops, a position that was soon to change. As Kerry began growing they developed some key values in the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis that are the backbone for the success of the Kerry Group. In 1993, the Kerry Group became a leading supplier to the greater Europe snack food and food processing industries. In 1994, Kerry Group acquired DCA, a company that specialized in the manufacturing of food ingredients for the baking, food processing, and food services industry. Because DCA had operations in five countries it made Kerry Group a world leader in the food ingredients business. The pleasant relationship between management and employee is appreciable, which is the result of successful organisation. The employee is always regarded as assets in successful organization and Kerry group is not far away they provide effective training and development programme for staff through which they learn the innovative skills and tactics for the achievement of organization and their personal goals. Lastly, the proper duo relationship between management and staff is the result of organisation success so the Kerry has grown to become one of the largest and most technologically advanced manufacturers of ingredients and flavours in the world. 

Indication of HR performance in Kerry Food

There are various method of monitoring HR performance, In Kerry food they monitor through many different method here i m discussing two method i.e performance appraisal and reward system.

Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal has traditionally been viewed by industrial/organisational psychologists as a measurement problem. Indeed, a quick review of its historic roots shows that early research on performance appraisal has focused on such issues as scale development, scale formats, reducing test and rater bias, and the like (Austin & Villianova, 1992;Edwards, 1975; Guildford, 1954; Landy & Farr, 1980, 1983). To date, much of the research on performance appraisal can be described as a search for better, more accurate, and more cost-effective techniques for measuring job performance. A Kerry food organization adopts the performance appraisal technique for betterment of their staff.

Reward system

Reward is an operational concept for describing the positive value an individual ascribes to an object, behavioral act or an internal physical state. Natural rewards include those that are necessary for the survival of species, such as eating, drinking, sex, and fighting. Secondary rewards derive their value from the primary reward, and include shelter, money, pleasant touch, beauty, music, etc. Many organizations have remuneration policies that are periodically reviewed. They take into account a number of factors including ensuring that the best employees are retained and not lost to competitors, ensuring that good performance is aptly rewarded and the best candidates are attracted through the recruitment process. Kerry food organizations also has the reward system which helps it to enhanced performance, as it perfectly understands all stakeholders. Subsequently, those involved can see the impact of their performance and equality of the scheme. Kerry group reward system also supports the corporate objectives and integrates into other parts of HR strategy. Kerry group reward system is measured in both quantities and qualitative terms.

Suggestion to improve HR performance of Kerry food

Managing resourceful humans requires a constant balancing between meeting the human aspirations of the people and meeting the strategic and financial needs of the business. (Derek, et al, 2008).

Continous training and development practice of the workforce should be adopted by the HRM.

Human resource management should always try to do more of engaging and involving the workforce in any decisions as this will increase stability and the retention rate will continue to rise.

Human resource function should be managed and developed along side with the overall strategy to established the best fit between Kerry food, it’s employees and its environment.

Kerry food should make the performance appraisal of employees a frequent practice rather than periodicals.

Promotion of organizational needs should vary with crucial function of human resource management. The organization needs people human assets. People appreciate day by day with experience and are extremely valuable assets in an organization.

The HR policy of Kerry food should be reviewed on a regular basis to accommodate for any contingent environmental changes. Also the health and safety procedures should be improved upon so that the accident rate can further be reduced.

Last but not the least, Kerry food should focus on employee feedback, motivation and development of employee for their own bright and prosperous future.

Conclusion

Human resource management has a role to play in the continuity and longevity of Kerry groups. The success of an organization depends largely on the kind of human resource management (HRM) approach it adopted. The effective management of human resources of any organization will also determine how other resources of the organizations are effectively and efficiently managed. Human resource is the key department for every organization. Increasing importance has been placed on the role of managing the work force today.

In this assignment, i have identified three key Human resource management activities of Kerry food organization; i have also justified how the objective of these activities is achieved by effective management of human resource referring to two model of Human resource management. I have identifies three Human resource planning and development methods of Kerry food and evaluated the effectiveness to meet their objectives. Finally, i critically reviewed human resource performance of Kerry industry is currently indicated and monitored and suggested ways to improve their performance.

Based on my findings, i will agree with human resource management scholars that one of the practice organizations cannot do without is human resource management. This is because the success of every organization depends upon the satisfaction of organizational needs and employees needs; individual has the objective of enhancing their personal growth. Organizations also need employees for fulfilment of organization’s objectives. Therefore, there is an element of mutuality, so they both need each other for the fulfilment of their objectives.