Sunday, March 29, 2015

Pearson BTEC Level 5 HND Diploma in Business - Human Resource Management - assignment



Pearson BTEC Level 5 HND Diploma in Business
Unit 21: Human Resource Management

   
Introduction
Human resource management has become more important factor for consideration in an organisation. HRM has come with new procedures which will affect the organisational goals and the employees of the organisation as a whole. In the history managing people in an organisation was called as ‘Personnel management’ and it was just a flat theory on controlling people. With the time it has been changed to Human Resource management or Human capital management, which is more flexible and more organized as well. As HRM has shown it’s affect on organisational goals and development and also employee controlling, it has now become a vital part in every organisation.

1.1            Distinguish between personnel management and human resource management
According to Mathis and Jackson (2005), a traditional approach to Personnel management is managing people in an organisation. Human resource management can be considered system that manages people and their strength is a modern approach. Personnel Management focuses on employee administration, benefit and employee relations. Human resource management system focuses development, train, and retain of employees in an organisation.  Personnel management considers people as an input for achieving goals. Human resource management considers people as an important and valuable resource for achieving a desired output. Under personnel management jobs are designed on the division of the labour and when it comes to human resource management the jobs are designed to promote team work and team building.

According to Dessler (2010) Human Resource Management, a company that practices personnel management does not like to spend money on training and development but in human resource management, the money spent on training and development is considered as an investment. The decisions that are being made inside a company that practices personnel management are sole decisions of its top management but in an organisation that practices Human resource management, they value the suggestions of the employees of the organisation. And all the people in the organisation are given authorities to make decision in their levels of management. Personnel management always tries to keep an increased production without caring much about the employees. But human resource management focuses on employee satisfaction, efficiency and effective and the well being of the employees as well as the production.
Shown below is a chart that shows the difference between personnel management and HRM,

Description: http://www.virbusgame.eu/virbus/mediawiki/images/8/8b/Hr_management.png
Figure: Difference between HRM and Personnel management
Source: http://www.virbusgame.eu/virbus/mediawiki/images/8/8b/Hr_management.png
According to Horler, the CEO of ScottishPower, "Our people are at the heart of our success".  This means that he truly considers the human resource as his success key. Out of the five 5Ms which are,
According to Resnick (2013), Men or the human capital considered to be the most important part of an organisation as men can react on different situation and they are unpredictable. Therefore it is essential to have a system to manage, motivate and maintain people in the organisation in order to keep it running smoothly and to make sure the organisational goals are being achieved at the same time.
According to McDonald (2013), the responsibilities of line managers can be listed as below,
1         Employee engagement
2         Performance appraisal
3         Disciplining Employees
4         Performance related pay

1.      According to Slayor Academy (2010), line managers supervise their employees to take the approach of employee engagement, is the most important factor. The culture in a team is created by the line manager. Managers who focus on the negative aspects of the employee's performance, or to micromanage their employees only seek to raise their status, create detached and dissatisfied employees. But line managers who care about employees and react positively on their performances and focus on their employees’ strengths and freedom of speech will get more encouraged and motivated employees.

2.      Performance Appraisal are architect-ed by HR professionals and are being practiced by line managers of HRM. Performance is monitored and evaluated by the line managers and the feedback is given to the employee directly in one to one meeting at appraisal meetings.
3.      Disciplining Employees – discipline is the behaviour expected from an employee inside the organisation. The expected behaviour is informed to the employees in expressed and implied terms and the behaviour is monitored by line managers. If there has been any breach of the expressed or implied terms in discipline, the line managers will be taking actions to correct them.

4.      When it comes to performance related pay, the line managers are responsible for deciding the performance levels and the deserved pay of an employee. Line managers should make sure that the above average performing employees should get paid more. And the pay should be fair depending on the load of work and the quality of work of an employee. And not be biased or discriminatory.

According to www.legislation.gov.uk (2014)  , There are 9 laws and regulations in the UK. Those are,
1.      Sex Discrimination Act (1975/1995/1997).
2.      Race Relations Act (1992 – amended 2000)

This law is to protect men and women from any discrimination on their gender or marital status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic, and national origin in the fields of employment and as in education and public functions as well.

3.      Equal Pay Act (1970)

This is an act which stops favourable treatment or pay for men and women in professional environments.

4.      Disability Discrimination Act (1995 –amended 2005)

This law has prohibited discriminating people on the grounds of their disabilities in the fields of employment and as in education and public functions as well.

5.      Employment Equality Act (Sexual Orientation,Religion and Belief) (2003; Equality Act - 2010)

Like the Race relations act, this act also defines that there shall not be any discriminations in any organisation for people on their race, gender or disability.

6.      Employment Act (2008)

This act is to make provisions for resolutions that needs to be applied in case of any occurrences of disputes between employer and the employee.

7.      Work and Families Act (2006)

This is an act made to help employees to balance their work and family lives without much problems. This act defines the maternity leaves and payments, introducing new rights for fathers such as paternity leaves, making flexible working times etc.

8.      Data Protection Act (1998)

Mainly defines how the data should be gathered, stored, transferred and destroyed inside organizations and on individuals.

9.      Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974)
This act makes sure that the criminal convictions are ignored after a rehabilitation period so that people would not have a dark mark in their whole life for a minor offense came across.

2.1 Analyse the reasons for human resource planning in organisations


According to Price (2000), a simple definition to human resource planning is making sure that the right amount of qualified people are working in the right place and in the right time in-order to make sure that the organisational goals are achieved.
For an example if there are 10 machines and 10 people working on them, and if the company is going to but another 5 machines, the Human resource planners will make sure that another 5 trained people will be there to work on the new machines when they arrive, but not before it is too early or after it is too late so that there will be production loss or time lost.



2.2 Outline the stages involved in planning human resource requirements


Shown below is a graph that simplifies the human resource planning process.
Description: http://webfidel.free.fr/maich/fig42.gif
                                    Figure 2: human resource planning process
                                    Source: http://webfidel.free.fr/maich/ch04.htm

According to Dessler (2010)  the first step is to assess and make an inventory of existing man power in the organisation. Then the human resource planners have to forecast the future demand and supply of human resources. There are several expertise methods to forecast the man power demands and supplies in the future. And then the planners have to take actions to fill the imbalances in the areas that were assessed.

2.3 Compare the recruitment and selection process in two organisations


The two companies taken for evaluation are TESCO UK and ASDA. And their recruitment and selection process is briefly stated below. The steps involved in this process of TESCO are,
  • Identify Vacancy
  • Develop Position Description
  • Develop Recruitment Plan
  • Select Search Committee
  • Implement Recruitment Plan
  • Review Applicants Short List
  • Conduct Interviews
  • Select Hire
  • Finalize Recruitment


Shown below is a sample advertisement of Tesco.

Description: http://legacy.businesscasestudies.co.uk/company_images/132/323/12150206223.jpg
                                    Figure: sample advertisement of Tesco
                                    Source : Case 2- Recruitment and Selection at Tesco

The process of recruitment and selection in Tesco is as below,

Description: http://legacy.businesscasestudies.co.uk/company_images/132/323/12150206321.jpg
Figure : Recruitment and selection in Tesco
Source : Case 2- Recruitment and Selection at Tesco

According to Case 2- Recruitment and Selection at Tesco After all the applications are received or the deadline for applications is met the candidates who are short listed will be called for interviews. In those interviews, recruitment team will select the best person from all the applicants and hire.
Once that decision is made, the applicant will be notified that they have been selected and will be given all the appointment letters to start their employment. After that the decision will be reviewed depending on the feedback which the recruitment team will receive and will be used to make the future recruitments better.
The other organisation I have selected, ASDA, uses pretty much the same recruitment method with few differences.
Description: Asda 18 Diagram 1
Figure : Recruitment and selection in ASDA
Source : Case 1- Recruitment and Selection ASDA

The differences are that ASDA offers a four week induction period for the newly selected employees. And the other difference is that they do not send out emails to the candidate who gets eliminated in the screening process.

2.4 Evaluate the effectiveness of the recruitment and selection techniques in two organisations


According to Raymond,A. (2004), When it comes to the effectiveness of the process, the process which was more close to the ideal process shall be the one which is more effective. So in the first steps of identifying vacancies the small company has a benefit as it does have many employees and therefore the forecasting of Human resource needs can be easily done and accurate.
But in the process of making job description and job specification the larger company which has more employees and experts can perform more and be more accurate.
And also in the sections of selecting recruitment methods, the larger company as more options as internal and external while the small company will have to stick to external recruitment as the number of employees is very low.
However we can say that the recruitment process in the larger company will be more effective and accurate over the small company we talked about as they have the privilege to do an ideal recruitment.

3.1 Assess the link between motivational theory and reward


According to BPP Learning Media (2010), “Motivation is the process by which the behaviour of an individual is influenced by others, through their power to offer or withhold satisfaction of the individual’s needs and goals”. According to that definition, motivation can be defined as a process of influencing the people in and to achieve the goals and objectives of the .
And the other factor, reward, is something that employees may receive depending on their performance. Reward can be a financial incentive, or that can be non financial as well. Non financial rewards are promotions, recognition, achievement and praise.
According to Learning Media (2010), There are several theories about motivation invented by Human resource experts.
 In Herzberg’s theory he mentions that there two factors that motivates people. Those are hygiene factors and motivation factors. The motivations include recognition, working environment, working conditions, challenging work etc. hygiene factors are the ones that de-motivates people such as pay and compensation.
According to Maslow’s motivational theory there are levels of motivation that people need in their lives.
Description: http://i.poweredtemplates.com/i/dg/01/289/ppt-diagram-chart-b.jpg
Figure : Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
Source : www.google.com/images

According to Dale M (2004), Managers, who follow the Maslow’s theory, try to make their subordinates motivated by giving them more attractive work, more opportunities for self actualization.
Moreover we can say that there’s a direct link between reward and motivation. Basically the more rewards and employee gets, the more motivated he will be. Therefore rewarding system is a good way to make the employees motivated which will at the end help the to achieve its goals.

3.2 Evaluate the process of job evaluation and other factors determining pay


According to Armstrong, (2006), “Job evaluation is a systematic process for defining the relative worth or size of jobs within an organisation in order to create internal relativities.” In simple language job evaluation includes gathering all the information related to a specific job position, analyzing them and recording the information for future references.
The main advantage or the objective of the job evaluation is to determine the pay structures or salary scales.
Description: http://www.headscratchingnotes.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Picture4.png
Figure : Job evaluation Methods
Source : www.google.com/images

As shown above there are many ways and methods to evaluate the jobs. However it is done, the final outcome of the job evaluation will be to make decision on fair salary payments, improve the job design, redesign the jobs, changes in duties and responsibilities of the person who carries out the job. 
As Dale M (2004), mentiones, other factors that determine pay can be vary from one to another. The pay is a compensation for work, and that can be influenced by various factors and it creates some difference between the roles and the organisations. Those factors can be stated as below,
1.      Size of the organisation,
2.      Seniority,
3.      Skills and experience,
4.      Industry sector,
5.      Profitability of the organisation,
6.      Employee performance

3.3 Assess the effectiveness of reward systems in different contexts
Bratton and Gold (2003) define a reward system as “The mix of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards provided by the employer. It also consists of the integrated policies, processes, practices and administrative procedures for implementing the system within the framework of the human resources (HR) strategy and the total organisational system”.
There are basically two types of rewards. Those are,
·         Extrinsic rewards
·         Intrinsic rewards

Extrinsic rewards are the financial intensives the employees are given for their performance. Those are,
·         Bonuses
·         Salary increments
·         Gifts
·         Commissions
·         Target bonuses

Intrinsic rewards are the non financial rewards given to employees for their performance. Those are,
·         Good feedback
·         Praise
·         Recognition
·         Promotions
·         Seniority
·         Trust
·         More responsibilities
·         Authority
As per Raymond (2004), reward systems are implemented as a very positive strategy of motivation. Rewards has to given for not only performance, but attendance, loyalty, quality of work, group work, confidence, and leadership. When the employees are rewarded they become motivated and they will try to make their performance even better. And when the employees receive the deserved recognition and reward, it will help the to retain the employees in the rewards will also help to reduce the labour turnover in and also, the salary increments can be the most important reward an employee may receive for his performance. When they are treated fairly and in a justifiable way, they will not have any disputes with the management and will try to improve their performance to get better rewards in the future.

3.4 Examine the methods organisations use to monitor employee performance


According to Price (2000), monitoring and evaluating the performance is vital part in rewarding and recognizing high performing employees. Since the performance and reward is directly linked, the monitoring of performance has to not bias and has to be accurate. Organisations use different protocols to monitor the performances of their employees. Those can be stated as,
·         Self-Evaluation

Self evaluation is when the employee is asked to evaluate his own performance in pre defined categories. The employee is given a form to fill, most of multiple choice questions, which will help the management to understand the knowledge level of the employee and the quality standards. In this if the management can identify the training needs of the employee; the management will take actions to arrange training session to fulfill their training needs. In this method the employee has to honest about his knowledge in order for the final outcome to be accurate.

·         360 degree Evaluation

Description: http://www.usp-d.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/360-Degree-Feedback_1_en.png

Figure : 360 degree performance evaluation
Source : www.google.com/images
As shown in the graph, 360 degree performance monitoring involves for parties apart of the employee. Those are the direct reports, peers, customers and his subordinates/ superiors. They will be asked to monitor and give feedback on the employee’s performance. This method is the most widely used method to monitor the performance of employees. This method will be more accurate as there will be 4 parties evaluating one person. Therefore the probability of getting false information is less. This can be considered as the best performance monitoring method.
·         Checklists

In this method, a manager or the person who is appointed to evaluate the employee will get a form with checklists and will tick them according to the performance of the employee. This method can be very fast as it will be just a form with questions and the manager who knows well about the employee can fill the form quickly. Shown below is an example for a checklist form,
Description: http://www.whatmakesagoodleader.com/image-files/appraisal-graphic-1-copy.gif
Figure : Checklist form
Source : www.google.com/images

4.1 Identify the reasons for cessation of employment with an organisation.


Cessation of employment can be simply defined as either the employee leaving the organisation for his personal reasons or the organisation terminating the employment for any reason.
When it comes to employees willing resigning from work, the reason, most of the time if de-motivation. Heathfield (2010), who is an HR expert, mentions 10 reasons why people leave companies. Those are,
1.      Relationship with boss
2.      Bored and unchallenged by the work itself
3.      Relationships with co-workers
4.      Opportunities to use skills and abilities
5.      Contribution of work to the ’s business goals
6.      Autonomy and independence
7.      Meaningfulness of job
8.      ’s financial stability
9.      Overall corporate culture
10.  Management’s recognition of employee job performance
And there are the reasons for the company to terminate the employees from their work. Heathfield (2010), presents top five reasons why the people are being terminated in s. Those are,
1.      An employee lacks integrity and you have caught him or her in repeated lies or underhanded actions.
2.      The employee can’t do the job.
3.      The employee demonstrates that he/she doesn’t fit the company’s culture
4.      The employee fails to keep commitments. 
5.      The employee behaves unethically and ignores the company code of conduct.

4.2 Describe the employment exit procedures used by two Organisations


According to the hand book “Exit procedure” published in NHS Shetland website (2014), exit procedure in NHS Shetland involves 4 steps. Those are,
·         Processing resignation
·         Exit interviews
·         Reference requests
·         Review
As per the regulations mentioned in “Exit Procedure” by NHS Shetland, Once a resignation is submitted, the HR department will process it and will confirm the last working day to the employee. And his line managers will also be notified and if there is any unfinished work to be done, the line manager will be taking responsibility of them to allocate them to another person.
Then there will an exit interview to inquire why the employee has decided to leave and the information will be used to improve the organisation if there’s anything that needs change.
Liner managers will provide personal reference to the employees if they wish to get reference from the company when they are applying for new positions.
And finally the managers and the HR department will review the policy of exit and will make any changes if they identify any needs.
And the other company, Pizza hut, uses a very simple exit procedure. The employee has to give 2 weeks’ notice to the line manager. The manager will try to identify the reasons of the resignation and will try to retain the employee by making a positive idea.

4.3 Consider the impact of the legal and regulatory framework on employment cessation arrangements

According to UK Government Legislation (2014), cessation of employment is directly impacted by laws and regulatory frameworks in the UK. The job security is assured by the laws. This means that no employee will be terminated from employment without any fair reason. If anything like that happens the employee has the right to take legal actions against the employer.
And the other is that, any kinds of discriminations regarding the gender, race, nationality or ethnic are prohibited inside the company. No employee can be dismissed or terminated owing to his gender, race, ethnicity, nationality or colour.
And also no employees can be terminated owing to any physical conditions like being disabled or pregnant or any kind of those.
There are laws and acts for the company to support and pay pension to the employees when the employees are retired.
Conclusion

The core processes of Human resource management have been taken in to consideration and have been evaluated. The difference between personnel management and human resource management, human resource management’s contribution to organisational goals, responsibilities of Human resource departments in organisations have been mentioned with examples. And also, the motivational theories and its applications, employee performance evaluation and exit procedures of different organisations have also been compared and contrasted. And the legal framework in UK and how it affects organizations in different scenarios has been discussed. After all the facts that has been considered, it vividly depicts that the Human Resource management is a vital part/ process in any organisation for it’s growth and success.





References
Armstrong, M. (2003), A handbook of human resource management practice,9th ed.         USA:Kogan Page Publishers. p361-365
Banfield, P (2008), Introduction to Human Resource Management, Oxford: University      Press.p83-84
Dale M (2004), Manager's guide to recruitment and selection, 2nd ed, USA: Kogan Page   Publishers. p1-2.
NHS Shetland, (2013), The Exit procedure, (Online), Available from:            http://www.shb.scot.nhs.uk/board/policies/hr-ExitProcedure.pdf [Accessed on       9/5/2014]
Gunnigle, P (2006), Human Resource Management in Ireland, 3rd ed, Cork: Gillmacmilian.          p109.
Mathis, R L., and Jackson, J H. (2005) Human Resource Management, Thomson   South-Western, (2005)
Price, A (2000), Principles of human resource management: an active learning approach.  London, Wiley-Blackwell, p152
Raymond,A. (2004), Fundamentals of human resource management. London: McGraw-Hill,        p72-75.
Recruitment in Tesco, (2014), (Online), Available from: www.tesco-careers.com/home/recruitment,   [Accessed on 9/5/2014]
Simon, D. Cambridge University, (2007), the legal framework of employment relations, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge
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UK Government Legislation (2014), (Online), Available from: www.legislation.gov.uk, (Online), [Accessed on 9/5/2014]
           

www.asda.jobs/,(2014), (Online), Available from: http://www.asda.jobs/[Accessed on 9/5/2014]