Table of Contents
Introduction
Part
1.1 Explain Guest’s model of HRM
1.2 Differences between Story’s definition of HRM, Personnel and IR practices
1.3 Implications for line managers and employees of developing a strategic approach
Part 2
2.1 How a model of flexibility might be applied in practice
2.2 Types of flexibility which may be developed by ABC Company
2.3 Use of flexible working practices from employee and employer perspectives
2.4 The impact that changes in the labour market have had on flexible working practice
M1 and M2
D1
Part 3
3.1 Forms of discrimination that can take place in the workplace
3.2 Practical implications of equal opportunities legislations for ABC Company
3.3 Compare the approaches to managing equal opportunities and managing diversity
Part 4
4.1 Compare the different methods of performance management
4.2 Approaches to the practice of managing employee welfare in the ABC Company
4.3 Implications of health and safety legislation on human resource practice
4.4 The impact of work life balance in ABC Company
M3
D2 and D3
Conclusion
References
The assignment will
focus on discussing the strategic human resource management process in an
organisation and how different aspects of the human resource management can
impact the organisation and its practices. The assignment will contain four main
tasks and sub tasks will be included in each of the tasks. In the first task
the use of Guest’s model of HRM in ABC Company, the development of strategic
HRM systems and that’s impact of line managers and employees will be discussed.
In the second part, the model of flexibility in the ABC Company and how a
flexible working environment can be developed in the ABC Company will be
discussed. And then in the third part, the forms of discrimination in different
organisations and the practical implications of the equal opportunities
legislation will be investigated. In the last part, the performance management
systems and how the health and safety of the employees are important to the
organisation will be presented.
The Guest’s model of
HRM was introduced in 1987 by David Guest was focused on differentiating
between the traditional personnel management and the strategic HRM approach. The
Guest’s model describes that the human resource management of the organisation
should not be compliance based but should be commitment based. The Guest’s
model focuses more on the personal development and singular concentration of
the practices for getting the contribution of all the employees for meeting the
objectives of the organisation (Raymond¸ 2004).
According to the
Guest’s model of HRM, the ABC Company can apply the human resource management
practices in different aspects of the organisation. The parts of the management
according to the Guest’s model will be,
·
HRM practices
·
HR outcomes
·
Behavioural
outcomes
·
Performance
outcomes
·
Financial
outcomes
The HRM practices of
the ABC organisation will include hiring the employees to the organisation to
match the demand of the employees. This will be done according to the standards
HRM practices of recruitment and selection. And then providing training for the
employees will be required. As the ABC Company is working IT sector, the
training will be on IT. Then the employees will be compensated according to the
results of their appraisals. The HR outcomes of the ABC will be commitment of
the employees, quality and flexibility of working. The behavioural outcomes
will include motivation among the employees and the cooperation for work. The
performance outcomes will be productivity, innovation, quality and higher
turnover. The financial outcomes caused by the HRM strategy will be profits and
return on investment.
The Storey’s idea of
HRM describes that the HRM activities of an organisation are strategic and
coherent approaches that are taken to manage the people sources in the
organisation in both individually and collectively. The objective of the
strategy is to get the maximum contribution from the employees for growth of
the organisation achieving the objectives. The Hard HRM has been described as managing
the people in a way to gain the maximum commitment and achieve a competitive
advantage. And the Soft HRM has been described as treating employees as values
source for the organisation and getting a quality work outcome from them (Price, 2000).
HRM
aspect
|
Personnel
and IR
|
HRM
|
Rules
|
Clear rules devised
|
Rules are flexible and productivity
concerned
|
Contract
|
Expressed contract with formal writing
that include job description and boundaries
|
Going beyond the contractual
responsibilities and commitment is concerned
|
Management
|
Employees are monitored and supervised
|
Less supervision and nurturing
|
Management actions
|
Procedure based
|
Business need based
|
Key relations
|
Labour management approach
|
Mutual relationships with flexibility
|
Leadership
|
Transactional leadership model
|
Transformational leadership used
|
Strategic plan
|
Marginal focused
|
Centrally focused
|
Communication
|
Hierarchical (indirect)
|
Direct
|
Figure 1: the differences between the Personnel and
IR and the HRM approach of strategic management
Source: author created
With the HRM practices
being integrated in the strategic plan of ABC Company, they will be able to
increase the willingness of their employees to work towards the organisation
and help the organisation to achieve the organisational objectives with higher
efficiency.
There will be lots
implications for both line managers and the employees when a strategic HRM
approach is being developed in the ABC organisation. Out of those, the line
managers will be having more responsibilities and added tasks for achieving the
strategic development and the employees will need to prepare themselves and
adapt to the HRM practices in ABC Company.
The liner managers of
ABC will need to take responsibility of planning, resourcing and retaining the
employees. They will need to assess the HRM requirement/ demand of the
organisation and make arrangements to fill the organisation with skilful
employees. And they will need to learn about the motivational theories and
practice them in the organisation (Parker, 2010). The managers will also have to be flexible and
arrange the HR needs of the organisation. The leadership styles of the managers
will be impacted as they will need to adapt the suitable leadership models. And
with the changes, the work done by the line managers will be increased.
For the employees, when
the HRM practices are strategized, the job security will be increased, the
remuneration will be increased and they will receive incentives and bonuses for
their performance. Their performance will also be increased and they will be
more effective and efficient in their jobs.
The flexibility in
organisations such as ABC Company is important for getting the contribution of
the employees. The flexibility of work refers to the flexibleness of working
times, working environment and how an employee is working. The common methods
of flexible working include flexi hour’s concepts, work from home, and wok from
distance locations (Thomson and Mabey, 2011).
These models of flexi
working can easily be applied in the ABC Company. As the ABC Company is IT
based organisation, when the employees are provided internet connections and
computers, they can work from home or from another remote location. One method
of developing the work from home concept is allocating a task or work to complete.
In that way a manager of a supervisor will allocate a certain amount of work
from a project to an employee and the employee will be able to work from home
and complete the task. Another method is shift working where an employee can be
allowed to work their shift from home using teleconferencing or internet (Beardwell and Gold, 2009).
As the ABC Company is
providing services to the banks worldwide which are in different time zones, their
services will be required 24 hours a day. Therefore the employees will find it
hard to come to the workplace in the odd working hours. In those cases, the ABC
Company can allow the employees to work from home after providing the necessary
equipment (Case study, 2015).
And when the employees
have to travel to different locations may be some other countries for work
purposes, the ABC Company can allow the employees to work from distance
locations using mobile telecommunication, internet based working and using
laptop computers to do the tasks they have been given. With that the employees
will be able to work from any location and the flexibility will be higher as
there are no uniforms and dress codes when working from distance locations.
This will increase the convenience of the work and the employees will be
satisfied with the ABC Company’s procedures.
Another flexible
working method that can be developed in the ABC Company is the flexi hour
working. With that application, the employees will not have a strict time to
start work and a strict time to report work. They will be given a time period
and within that time period they have to complete their shift or finish their
tasks. For an example in the ABC Company the employees can be allowed to finish
their 8 hours shift somewhere between 6am to 8pm.
From the perspectives
of the employees, the employees always look forward for flexible working
options when it is impossible for them to report to work or when it is
impossible to arrive to the office at the right time. Therefore the benefits of
the flexi hours are mostly taken by the employees. The flexible working
opportunities increase the quality and human rights towards a working
environment where the employees are values and treated as assets for the
company. There are employees who are studying while working and those employees
can receive part time working or irregular working shifts in the ABC Company (Torrington¸ 2008). This helps the employees to finish their education
while getting a professional experience. And the employees who are going to
college can receive unpaid holidays when there are exams and college terms. In
that way, the employees are benefited and the organisational doesn’t incur
costs from that.
From the perspectives
of the employer, the flexible working has benefits for the employer. When all
the employees have to report to work on time, the administration activity costs
are higher and the employer has to bear the space costs for all the employees,
but with concepts such as remote working, the administration, supervision and
space costs are reduced. And when some employees are working irregular hours,
the company can cover 24 hours a day operations without extra effort (Briscoe,
2009).
The change in the labour markets is inevitable and those changes are required for the development of the workforce in the labour market. And these different types of changes and trends in the labour market have impacted the flexible working in different ways. The development of the technology and ICT systems and the increased number of graduates in the labour market has caused the major changes (Briscoe¸ 2009). One of the most common trends in the new labour market is that the undergraduates are working as interns and trainees while finishing their education. And as a result at the end of their education programme, they become graduates with several years of experience in the field. This is most widely seen in the ICT industry in which the ABC Company works. When there are many undergraduates working, they need to be offered flexi hour working, part time work and remote work. As they are studying, they may not be able work according to the regular working hours and may need unpaid leaves for exams etc. therefore they need to be offered the flexible working from the company. And as the mothers and father who have children are working, they also need time for their children’s activities such as school. For those, the flexi hour working and work from home are options that need to be offered (Elkins¸ 2007).
The different perspectives and methods of human resource management are important for achieving the different purposes of the organisations. For example there are organisation established on a short term basis for doing projects which involves innovation and a large degree of flexibility and there are organisations which are doing long term processes which need to be done on structured procedures. Therefore the perspectives such as the personnel management are important for hierarchical and long term oriented projects while the flexible HRM is appropriate for innovative processes. The flexibility can be developed through the HRM perspectives. With the HRM approach over the personnel management, the employees are given the opportunities to work on flexible schedules and from different locations such as work sites and from home as applicable since the objective is to finish the projects within the deadlines.
Within the organisation I work, there are different strategies of HRM are used and flexibility options have also been developed. For example in the organisation we have been given the opportunity to report work on flexi hours concept where we need to report to work anytime in between 7am to 8.30am and then finish the shift for 8 hours. This is very important for people who have transport issues and the home responsibilities. The different perspectives of the management have been useful in developing the flexible working strategies.
Discrimination in workplaces or in any other public environments can have different types and forms and the discrimination will be based in different attributes of people (Simon¸ 2007).
Gender based discrimination is a common form of discrimination in the working environments. In that, the females or the males are treated in different manners and some rules are imposed on either male employees or female employees. For an example some organisations have made it mandatory for the female employees to wear make up all the time as a part of their dress code. Another ‘gender discrimination is offering different remuneration packages depending on their gender. For an example a male and a female who have same level of qualifications and skills may receive different packages because of their gender (Simon¸ 2007). And age discrimination is another form of discrimination that can occur in organisations. Some organisations do not like to recruit employees who are older than a certain age limit or younger than a certain age limit. And disability discrimination could occur when the organisation refuse to recruit disabled employees even if they are able to perform the jobs with disabilities.
The equal opportunities legislation can bring about both positive and negative implications to the organisations due to the regulations and rules it has provided. According to the equal opportunities legislation, the ABC Company needs to make sure that their strategic Human Resource Management policies and guidelines are created in ways that promote the rights of the disabled people for employment and has no opportunities of discriminations in the organisation. They need to audit the HRM policies and guidelines due to those requirements. This causes extra financial implications for them as they either have to recruit more HR employees for the purpose or have to consult an external agency. Either way it increases the costs of the HRM activities (Simon¸ 2007).
Another implication of the equal opportunities legislation on the recruitment process of the ABC Company is that the ABC Company has to recruit the employees regardless of their physical conditions, nationality, religion, age, or gender if they have required qualifications (Armstrong¸ 2003). And due to the equal opportunities legislation, the organisation should be ready for legal implications because if someone complains that they have not been treated fairly (e.g. in recruitment), they need to keep the documents and explanations why they have taken such steps. Therefore it again increases the administration costs and workload (Torrington, 2008).
It is important to develop the approaches for managing equal opportunities and managing diversity in the organisation for better performance and ethical human resource management practices in the organisation. As a method of protecting diversity and equal opportunities in the recruitment process, the advertisements of the vacancies are published in different media types so that a large audience of employees is captured and a higher diversity can be expected in the pool of candidates. And in the recruitment procedure, the employees from different nationalities, religions, ages and genders are treated fairly and the recruitment decisions are purely based on the qualifications and the skills of the employees. This will help to increase the level of equality in the organisation (Elkins¸ 2007).
And when the employees are promoted to senior positions such as line managers and senior managers, it can be suggested to not discriminate and promote inequality by offering the opportunities for employees depending on their gender. In organisations male employees tend to get more promotion opportunities in the higher management levels, which is a promotion of inequality. Therefore equality should be reinforced using those approaches (Macey¸ 2008). The flexible working and the work home working opportunities can be another approach that can be taken to promote the level of equality among the employees in ABC Company.
The performance management is an activity where the work performance of the employees are monitored, supervised, evaluated and then presented to them in order to identify the gaps of the performance and identify the training needs of the employees. And the performance evaluations are also used to determine the amount of the bonuses and incentives that will be received to an employee in the ABC Company (Gerhart¸ 2007). As the ABC Company is an ICT related working company and has most of its employees working in the ICT sector the talent spotting method will be one of the performance management methods that will be successful for the ABC Company. With the talent spotting technique, the exceptional talents of the employees, the significant contributions from the employees to the organisation are identified and then they are given encouragement and development opportunities (Thomson and Mabey, 2011).
Another performance management system will be the performance evaluations where the performance of an employee is measured by his line manager, the colleagues, a subordinate and a customer of the organisation. And then the feedback is received about the employee performance, those information are used to determine the training needs of the employee and given training. With that the employee will be able to increase his contribution as their skills and knowledge will be increased after the training programme and the performance gap will be reduced.
One of the most common approaches that are available in organisations and an approach that ABC Computers can take is forming an employee relationship team inside the HR department. The employee relationship management team will be responsible for making contacts with the employee and providing solutions for the welfare requests are complaints raised by the employees which are related to general working environment. For an example the problems in the working environment, high heat, too cold work stations, slow computers, the quality of washrooms are some of the general welfare needs that can be addressed by the HR employee relationship management team. They will help to provide a better working environment for the employees and hear to their complaints about the general work.
Another method of developing the employee welfare for the ABC Company is offering free medical insurance schemes for the employees of the organisation. The ABC Company will need to buy a corporate insurance package for the company and then the employees can be offered free medical insurance for themselves and the immediate family members. There will be an initial cost for this welfare programme and the outcomes of the programme will also be higher as the employees will be highly motivated. And the costs that could occur to the organisation due to an employee being sick, will be covered by the insurance which will be beneficial to the organisation as well.
As an organisation being operated under the UK government, the health and safety regulation will be applied to the practices of the ABC Company and that will cause a range of implications to the organisation. And the implications will be positive from the employee perspective as well. As an organisation which has more than 15 employees, the ABC Company needs to develop their own risk assessment document for the organisation and it should be displayed at the organisation premise for reference of all the employees including new and old employees (Lepak et al, 2011). The risk assessment is a document which has identified all the risks and hazards that are available in the organisation premise are identified by a health and safety officer and then advices have been given to avoid the danger of the risks. For an example the electricity leakage problems and how to be safe from that, operating the large machines such as the AC and building lifts are hazardous, are mentioned in that risk assessment. This will help to increase the safety of the employee and the organisation (Elkins¸ 2007).
And according to the health and safety act of 1974, the employer is responsible for providing and a safe and healthy environment for the employees to work. If an employee gets in to an accident or an injury while performing his/ her job, the organisation will be responsible for the incident and they can be fined for violation of the rules. This will cause both financial and legal implications (Simon¸ 2007).
The work life balance has been concept that was valued by many human resource management experts and most of the organisation gave consideration for. Balancing the work and personal life of the employees is important due to many reasons. The employees are doing their jobs to earn their living and spend for their families. When the work life balance is lost, the employees will most of the time be working more hours at the office and they will miss their responsibilities as a family members. For an example is a father is working long hours all day and has not time to spend time with his children, the work life balance is lost. The loss of wok life balance is one of the major reasons for demotivation and frustration of them. And when the work life is not balanced, the employees will fail perform their responsibilities both at their homes and at the office (Torrington¸ 2008).
Due to reasons such as high work load, job security, higher authority and responsibilities will make the employees work more hours at the office. As the work life unbalance causes bad performance, frustration about work, tardiness, and lack of motivation, the work life balance should be promoted at the workplace (Morrow and McElroy, 2003).
The impacts of the equal opportunities have impacted on the organisation and the employees as well. With the equal opportunity strategies, the employees in the organisation have been able to perform and receive reward and recognition as their performance is the only measurement of evaluating them and other attributes such as gender, age and nationalities are not taken in to account. And the people from different backgrounds have been able to get employed in the organisation due to the equal opportunities.
As an employee from the HRM department, there are different methods of approaches that can be taken to manage the equal opportunities. The employees can be evaluated using the different performance evaluating tools which do not consider other aspects of the employees than their work performance. And when recruiting the employees, the employees from different origins and cultures can be recruited to provide them equal opportunities. And then the people who have physical disabilities and still qualified and able for work in the organisation should not be eliminated due to their disabilities. Those employees will also be treated equally when they apply for the positions in the organisation. Allowing the internal employees to develop their career in the organisation will also be another practice that can be done in the organisation for showing the equal opportunity application.
The Guest’s model of HRM has been applied to the ABC Company and the difference between the personnel management and HRM was identified. The flexible working, the importance, the concept of the flexible working and how the flexible working can be developed in the ABC Company has been stated. And the perspectives of flexible working from employee and employer vision has been analysed. The discrimination among the employees and among the employer employees has been analysed and different forms of discrimination was identified. The implications of the changing labour market on the flexible working have been identified. The impacts of the equal opportunities legislation were also identified. In the last part, the welfare of the employees and the impact of the health and safety of the employees in ABC Company were discussed.
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