Strategic and Coherent approaches to Human resources management

Traditionally HRM has been considered as the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organizations most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. Earlier the terms “human resource management” and “human resources” (HR) have largely replaced the term “personnel management” as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. This means that earlier HRM was not something different but it was only the personnel management which has taken the view of human resource management in the modern context.

HRM is a more strategic and proactive form whereas personnel management is a reactive format. The personnel management tasks are developed in HRM, personnel management has functions which are conventional and methodical whereas HRM deals with innovative ideas and ardent and dedicated implementation. Personnel management has evolved from being an independent function of the company to human recourses management which is an integral part of the company

But these traditional expressions are becoming less common for the theoretical discipline. The theoretical discipline is based primarily on the assumption that employees are individuals with varying goals and needs, and as such should not be thought of as basic business resources, such as trucks and filing cabinets. The field takes a positive view of workers, assuming that virtually all wish to contribute to the enterprise productively, and that the main obstacles to their endeavors are lack of knowledge, insufficient training, and failures of process.

The concept of HRM emerged in the 1980s during the times of Thatcherism and Reaganomics. Formevrly personnel management was just another department which was mainly concerned about the errands and paper works of the company, but from the 1980s personnel devcvelopment has evolved to become the one of the most important department in an organization. The traditional view of personnel management was that of to see if all the employees were fine i.e. the personndel department just had to over see if the employees of the other department were content of their requirements, it has developed to a department which not only see that all needs are met but plays a major role in appointing employees, analyzing the performance of employees and appraisals as well.

1b) A human resources officer in a company is the person who innovates, advocates and implements policies and strategizes the work force effectively and adequately within the company. Employmentds and recruiting-Work with hiring manager to develop ideal candidate criteria collaborate with private headhunters and peruse job boards to find employees, attract qualified employees and match them to jobs, coordinate relocation.

Labor and employee relations-Serve as liaisons between employees and management negotiate with unions over contracts and grievances, resolve disputes, direct employee health and safety programs.

Training and Development-Organize and conduct new employee orientation, provide ongoing education for staff, determine what training is necessary, and design materials and workshops for presentations.

Job Analysis-Identify and documdent job duties and requirements and their relative importance, use data to develop training materials and methods, determine compensation; develop job titles and descriptions and application materials.

Benefits and Compensation-Prepare benefits and salary packages, ensure benefits fit the needs of empdloyees, design performance reviews, establish bonus and stock options plans develop pay structure, serve as liaisons between company, employees, and insurance carriers.

1C) Thr hrm is responsible for the well being of the employees in the department. The mental and physic well being of employees is monitored by the hr department any discrepancies in the line departments happen wich are against the company policies, the hrm has to take over the situation and solve it, in a way the line departments are to move under the consent of the hr department. The biggest hazard on the way of hrm is to advise and guide the line mangers in in their task of supporting the officers to achieve the desired target.Front line managers can also be given suggestions to improve their man mangment skills by giving the enough time to carryout their jobs

Satisfying payments and perks can be added for their well being

Support from the other departments and higher authorities

Give them training on onterpersonnel skills and man management etc.

Various responsibilities and duties of line managers are:-

Line managers and supervisors are responsible for promoting and enforcing a work environment of dignity. They must take every action necessary to prevent and stop inappropriate behavior. Line managers and supervisors are obliged to make it clear that such behavior will not be tolerated and act promptly when incidents come to their attention.

Line managers and supervisors are expected to communicate clearly and periodically to their staff members that:

Their Center has a policy on harassment;

The policy is taken very seriously; and

The Center is prepared to take disciplinary action against staff members who violate the policy – up to and including termination of employment.

2a) The human resources plannining process is strategizing the company for getting of good employees , proper and full utilization of their capabilities and having the ability to retain the best employees in the company

According to book of HR Planning by D.K Bhattacharya

the process is classified into four major categories :

Investigation : SWOT analysis can be done to find the exact need, whether the firm has thecapacity to fulfill the requirement within them or should they be brought in from outside the firm .

Forecasting: The internal sources are basically from witin the company where the job is given to people who are competent and are already in the company.

Planning and control of manpower

Utilization this is analysed in terms of the success rate achieved fom the productivity of the employee in terms of quantity and quality. Quantitatively they can be analysed in terms of their efficiency in the work they have done and how much it has been usefull to the firm.

2b) HR planning process begins with considering the organisational objectives and strategies.

Then, both internal and external assessments of HR needs and supply sources must be done and forecast developed.

External:

Government influences

Economic Conditions

Hr department has to collvect the required information keeping the terms and policies of the organization with its long term objectives and the business in consideration it has to provide feed back on the situation by keeping a wach on the situation carried out and company planning and manpower scheduling and placements has to be carried out effectively

The kind of hardware reuired for the task

The informarion required can be collected from the line managers,supervisors senior skleed technicians like foreman and from consultants and agencies

Selection.

Retention.

Staffing levels.

Retirement and

Redundancy.

Sklls of the person emploued in the fiels like his time of expertise in the field the ceertificats of trainins he had his physical traits exzmination which are essential for adequate excellence in work.

Workforce composition

Internal:

Auditing jobs and skills

Organisational capabilities inventory

2c) The word interview means ‘in conversation with a purpose’, the objective of interview is exchanging views with the subject and the interviewer and motivating the subject. This can be on the basis of the curriculum vitae submitted and on a general basis. Information regarding the candidate his various experiences in the field et the interviewer can brief the candidate on the company norms and polices and finally motivating the candidates to join the organization the role of the hr department is to conduct the intial round interview and escalate the individuals short listed

The different types of interviews can be classified as

Personal characteristics

reflect an individual’s personality and can be important to success on the job.

Stress intervies is usually done where the canadiate is pressurized and its usually for job which has to be done under pressure, so unfavourable conitins like loud and fifing questions are showered and at times provoking the canadiate using profaneity or asking un etical questions to analyse the emotional stablility of the canadiate

The issue of hiring for “fit” versus skills

Beliefs differ among HR managers about whether they should hire persons with the best job-specific skills rather than those who best “fit” into the organization.

Indirect interview is where the candidate is free to talk and be fine nd relaxed so as t get a an idea of the knowledge of the candidate in an eco friendly atmosphere

Direct planned interview is the method of asking simple straight forward question to make sure if the candidate is suitable .

The patterned interview which is conducted to analyse the emotional and pshyicological capacities, attitude and aptitiude and their level of responsiblites and amovitvaton factors ets

2d) Best practice means finding the most useful method for working in an organisation and implementing it for the best outcome of the business.

A selection procedure is any measure, combination of measures, or procedures used as a basis for an employment decision. This is a continous process as the hr department has to be aware and updated of the current methods and currents status of the company and its market potentials as well as its competitors. Best practice can be carried out from ones own experiences and from others and setting a benchmark within the organization or outside the organization

Equality pay act1970

Equality pay act states that irrespective of the the gender equal has to be given to man and woman for the same job under the same conditions

All these documents and the processes which develop these documents, which support the referral and selection of candidates, must clearly contain only job-related criteria. The documents become part of the overall documentation supporting selection procedures used.

3a) Different factors that determine the job evaluation areThe nature of the jobs.

this can be done by thce hr department effectively only if the hrd know wht the the job of the person was what was the target of the job this can be understood by accessing the track record of the employee

The level of toughness or easiness of the jobs is evaluated

The number of jobs available in the same position

The opinion of the edsmployees concerning the job.

The views of the representatives of the emplooyees regarding the job

Givig appropriate training to the people in charge of job evaluation

Getting the correct and proper job profile done.

Strategising the employement with all the above mentioned factors required training of employess has tobe taken nto concern and the the related cost of employing the required employees.

Job evaluators often assess jobs based on these factors:

Training level or qualifications requirements

Knowledge and skills requirements

Complexity of tasks

Interaction with various levels of the organization

Problem-solving and independent judgment

A more systematic and scientific method of job evaluation is the factor comparison method. Tshough it is the most complex method of all, it is consistent and appreciable. Under this method, instsdead of ranking complete jobs, each job is ranked according to a series of factors. These factors include mental effort, physical effort, skill needed, supervisory responsibility, working conditions and other relevant factors (for instance, know-how, problem solving abilities, accoucntability, etc.). Pay will be assigned in this method by comparing the weights of the factors required for each job, i.e., the present wages paid for key jobs may be divided among the factors weighed by importance (the most important factor, for instance, mental effort, receives the highest weight). In other words, wages are asssigned to the job in comparison to its ranking on each job factor.

Factor that determine the pay of an employee are

Filling the right position. The candiadate should be appropriate for the job

Skills and qualifications. The level of education and the range of his skills are evaluated.

Expected performance. The level of performance expected should be achieved consistenly.

Accountability. The person or the individual is accountable for the the implementation of the task bestowed on him

The ‘going rate’. The consistencey level is monitered

Responsibility. Level of responsibility is moniterd by how effective he was in cas of taking and implementies responsibilities given

3b)

Rewarding an employee varies from company to company and the rewards vary as well.

Pay- Basic compensation employee receives usually in form of wage or salary. Pay is a significant factor in the performance management

Incentives- Rewards designed to encourage and reimburse employees for effort beyond normal performance expectations. It includes:

Bonuses

Sales commissions

Profit sharing plans

Job or Position- based on the skills / knowledge and experience that the job/ positions demands. Often adopted by large organisations(NHS). Equity is important.

Personal Contribution- individuals makes within a job-their performance. Adopted in smaller organisations where each person as a distinctive job description.

Stock/share options

Production bonus plan

Benefits – Rewards available to employees or group of employees as a part of organisational membership.

The SMART Criteria:-These criteria should be used when designing and evaluating programs. Programs should be:

Specific. A line of sight should be maintained between rewards and actions.

Meaningful. The achievements rewarded should provide an important return on investment to both the performer and the organization.

Achievable. The employee’s or group’s goals should be within the reach of the performers.

Reliable. The program should operate according to its principles and purpose.

Timely. The recognition/rewards should be provided frequently enough to make performers ffeel valued for their efforts.

Disability Discrimination Act (1995)

Sex discrimination act of 1975

The reward system hep the employee betterment of multiple aspect of his personality, personal life and social life.

They can be classified as:

Social development: an employee being promoted from an officer level to a managerial level gets to acquaint and interact with new people in higher levels of hierarchy there by giving a high esteem to the personality of the person

Economic development: the person becomes economically stronger which helps him in betterment of standard of life like owning a house or any asset which gets the person a feeling of security and keeps him motivated.

Career growth and dfevelopment: after all the hard work and effort the person has put and gets rewards like a promotion or increments and incentives there is is development and recognition in the individuals career graph as well.

3c) HK Managers ranked Financial reward as the most important work-related motivator, followed by Advancement, Challenging work and Job security. (US managers: Challenging work, Advancement, Financial reward and Job security; Australia managers: same as US)

(Ref: Org. Beh. – Southeast Asian Perspectives by R.I. Westwood, p.295,)

HK Managers ranked Financial reward as the most important work-related motivator, followed by Advancement, Challenging work and Job security. (US managers: Challenging work, Advancement, Financial reward and Job security; Australia managers: same as US)

Rewards offered by the company

How about the reward actually offered by the companies? A 1996 survey by IHRM (as reported by Hong Kong Economic Daily 96/Nov/15, p.C1) showed how Hong Kong companies reward their staff.

Reward    

Senior Staff                 

Junior/Middle Staff

Basic Salary             

70.2%*

76%

Bonus

14.3%                           

10.6%

Allowance

2.6%

3%

Retirement Fund/Pension

5.4%

6.3%

Housing 

4.9%

1.8%

Medical Insurance

1.5%

1.9%

Educational 

0.2%

0%

Others  

0.8%                             

0.5%

3d) Performance measures best serve an organization when they are understandable, broadly applicable, uniformly interpreted, and economic to apply .This helps the company have a constant and suited set of employees which helps the company in setting and attaining long term goals.

Performance measures support managerial decision-making by providing useful information regarding:

how efficient and effective are the company’s processes and the individuals implementing them

if product or service improvements are necessary

if the company’s customers and stakeholders are satisfied

if the company is meeting its stated goals

Position of the job is evaluated in any levels of hierarchy . rewards depend on the influence of the partivular position of the job and the person for the set target of the organisation

Nature of the job is taken in to concern as how complex the work is or how difficult is the taget to be achieved.

Posts in this category are dedicated to discussing the leading practices of companies that successfully use performance measures to drive organizational alignment and opderational performance

Skills of the individual re taken into concern ,on how smoothly has the task being handled and implemented the level of experise is accounted for.

Strengths: attributes pf the person or company that is helpful to achieving the objective.

Weaknesses: attributes of the person o fcompany that is harmful to achieving the objective.

Opportunities: external conditions that is helpful to achieving the objective(s).

Threats: external condit ions which could do damage to the objective(s).

The individual contribution is the major factor . the input of the employees and level of resposiblity and sharpness in the task with level of excellence expertise andconsistency

4a)

Exit procedures exist in every organization. And it can vary form one to another but the leagal implications of exit are same when the exit procedures of ASDA and Iceland where compared it was found they follow almost the same policies.

There are two ways of exit from acompany

When a person resigns for himself and

When a person is terminated

As part of a company’s evaluation and control program, they quantifiably monitor important characteristics of the company’s products and services and the performance of the individuals and processes creating them.Grounds of termination can can be lawful, unlawful and wrongful unfair and justified dismissal.

There is justified dismissal which is the allegation against the employee was found to be true and hence dismissed some of them are

Wrongful dismissal in wrongful dismissal it can be be fair or unfair the factor taken into concern is whether there was breach in the contract between employee and employer

Terminaation of the employfment happens when therm term of employment is oever other than dismissal

Resignation by the employee. An employee can leave the compay adhering by the facts mentioned in the contract between the person and the company at the time of employment.

Retirement. Termination of employment happens whe the employee has reached his maximum age limit of working as per gonernment norms.

Termination of contract. Emplooyment is seized when the contract period ends between the person and ccompany. This is seen in the onstruction industry according to the need and duration of projects engineers are hired and every project will haave a different need .so enginseers differ. termination of contract in between can be mutual or will be bound to legal inquisitions.

The procedure of an employ exit in both asda and Iceland are same except in Iceland be a smaller organization employee rentetion is stressed in case of ice land they prefer is to ave a consistent set of employees

4b) I go in favor of ICELAND as this organistation maintains its quality and provides value for money.

It gives cheap and best we can have full week meal for one time a day in just £7 . No other company provides this with a quality standard.

Value for money is achieved and customer remains happy. Good will of organisation continues. Thats why ICELAND has become market leader in UK.