Human resource management is very challenging work for a manager in today’s world as employees have different assumptions, attitude, psychology and ambitions or aims in life. It is concerned with people in management and is refers to policy, procedure, framework, philosophy and practices followed by company to manage people (Mathias & Jackson, 2010). Every company is made of people and so it is important for company to develop their skills, motivate them and ensure high level of commitment from them to achieve organizational objective. Human resource main job is to empower employees in organization which includes training employees for their relevant positions, sharing vision and common goals with employees and sharing profits and benefits between both management and employees.
In today’s world, due to immense competition, there is a lot of competition to get right person on right job and so company has to maintain their human resource well to meet globalization and industrialization challenges in business. Companies’ might have technology and capital to meet market challenges, but it is the human resource that makes these things successful. Organizations that can acquire, motivate and retain outstanding workers will grow and be effective and efficient and vice versa (Noe, Hollenback, Gerhart & Wright, 2009).
In this assignment, author will discuss human resource management in detail in with different aspects like how it is different from personnel management, way organizational purposes are achieved through functions of human resource management, responsibilities of line manager in HRM and ways in which legal and regulatory framework impact HRM. Author will also discuss employee recruitment in detail with in depth information on reasons as to why Hr planning is done in organization, stages of planning HR requirements, comparing recruitment and selection process in two organizations and evaluating the effectiveness of these processes. Author will include detailed information on rewarding employees as a tool to motivate and retain them, comparing them with various motivational theories, assessing their effectiveness and ways to monitor employees. At the end author will provide a conclusion after discussing methods of cessation of employees, reasons for the same and will discuss procedures and legal framework for cessation.
Personnel management and human resource management are interlinked with each other. Personnel management is a traditional approach of managing people in organization which mainly includes functions of labor relations, employee welfare and personnel administration. Whereas human resource is an extended and modernized form in which besides personnel management other functions like their recruitment, growth, motivation and retention are included (Durai, 2010).
The main differences between human resource management and personnel management are discussed below.
TESCO is a company with high commitment model that offers training and development to employees. Their logo “every little helps” is extended from customers to employees as well, as a commitment to them. TESCO received an award as one of “Britain’s Top employers” for 2013 which itself shows the success of HR. It has a workforce of 530000 people working in 12 markets worldwide. As a seven point successful strategy for growth, TESCO aims to develop leaders and a more diverse talent pool as a part to achieve more growth of firm as one of them. “Building a better TESCO” is plan adopted by company to grow in UK market through series of improvement for customers (TESCO PLC. (2014).
Figure 1: TESCO employee
Source: http://www.tescoplc.com/index.asp?pageid=12
To achieve these results, TESCO HR has adopted various policies like employee growth through training and development, rewards and recognition and motivation. TESCO HR has developed TESCO academy which provides opportunity to its employees to study further. For employee work life balance, TESCO provides its employees with flexible working hours and discounted gym membership. Rewards are offered in terms of company shares, staff discount, competitive salaries and reduced health care benefits. To retain employees, company has introduced life style break, career break and pension scheme. Lifestyle and carrier break allows an employee to return to work after taking a long leave from 4 weeks to 5 years. Thus employee feels safe and motivated at TESCO which is its unique HR strategy and achievement. Thus TESCO HR is flexible and plan strategies as per the employee satisfaction survey and needs and are successful in retaining & motivating its employees thereby helping achieve organizational goals.
HR department of TESCO carries varied functions like strategic management, recruitment and selection, retention, training and development and assessment of circumstances which leads to TESCO’s success. HR managers are responsible to carry out functions mentioned above. But this cannot be done alone by HR managers; they have to work with line managers. These line managers are the one who is direct reporting authority for teams and is responsible for those teams to higher level management. At TESCO, line managers are responsible for ensuring staff performance by improving their performance through on the job training, setting realistic and achievable targets and communicating the same along with action plan, deadlines and resources available, reviewing regular progress of employees and providing support and motivating employees to achieve their objectives and goals (CIPD, 2012). At TESCO, besides these goals, concerned line managers are also involved in interviewing candidates after internal assessment is done to see if the candidate fits the job requirements.
Thus, it can be said that line managers are involved in all functions of HRM related to their respective teams and are equally answerable to management for their team performance which keeps them on toe in all process from recruiting its team staff to motivating and assessing their performance.
“Code of ethics” is guideline set by TESCO management to abide with ethical conduct for all employees in its organization and to work as per laws, regulations and government rules. In this “code of ethics”, TESCO has mentioned that all business should be carried out only as per laws and regulations of that country. Employees are also not allowed to undertake illegal activity either done for himself or for company. For supporting and making its employees understand legal framework of their country of origin, TESCO has developed a “Legal department” which provides assistance on such matters (TESCO, 2014).
HR policy is regulated by HRM which covers various works like pay, equality, discrimination, contractual terms and condition and employment rights and responsibilities; all as per government regulation. The regulatory frameworks followed by TESCO are
As discusses above, human resource planning is inevitable for large organizations to meet its future requirement and strategic goal. Looking at TESCO case study given above, human resource planning requirement is assessed as below:
HR planning process includes five steps given below.
2.3 RECRUITMENT & SELECTION AT TESCO & ARCADIA
Recruitment and selection is a process of attracting new candidates for the job and choosing the right one. A detailed recruitment and selection policy is available with the HR department of a firm which is to be followed by concerned employees while hiring (Murphy, 2011). A comparison is done on recruitment and selection of TESCO and Arcadia, one of UK’s largest fashion retailers.
2.4 EFFECTIVESS OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS
The effectiveness of recruitment and selection process is not only dependent on the number of applications received and vacancies filled, but is also dependent on factors like cost involved, time taken for such recruitment, performance of new candidate on job, job satisfaction and pay (Becker, Huselid & Beatty, 2009). Evaluation of recruitment and selection process of above discussed two companies is as below.
3. MOTIVATION, RETENTION & REWARD
3.1 MOTIVATONAL THEORY & REWARD
Motivation is a main source through which company can keep its employees working enthusiastically. Employees can be motivated through reward systems like increase in pay, appreciation of work, advancement opportunity and sense of enjoyment and fulfillment of life goals. There are various motivational theories like
Source: http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/conation/maslow.html
All these motivational theories are linked to reward provided by company in one or other way. Taylor’s theory is seen TESCO in form of pay rise and bonus it provides to its employees. Mayo and Maslow’s theory are inclined towards employee satisfaction and includes more than just financial rewards. Reward system at TESCO includes the following:
3.2 EVALAUTION OF PROCESS OF JOB EVALUATION & OTHER FACTORS DETERMINING PAY
The process of determination of relative value and size of jobs in an organization so that a base for deciding on job grade and pay structure, salary and qualification required can be created, is known as job evaluation. Job evaluation is very important as to an organization as it gives a clear picture of various job positions held in company and helps in appropriate staffing. Job evaluation process helps in determination of job hierarchy in organization, which is deciding on the level of hierarchy where a job fits, determining pay scale for a particular hierarchy or job role and finally helps in knowing the employee traits required for particular job (Francis, 2014). Other factors determining pay include size of organization, employee work experience, industry in which company works and its environment, organization profitability and employee performance. These factors determining pay are considered as they directly affect employees’ motivation, retention and organization image in industry (Hastings & Armstrong, 2005).
3.3 ASSESSMENT OF REWARD SYSTEM OF ASDA
ASDA is a supermarket chain in UK with 525 stores and 175000 employees. ASDA refers to its employees as colleagues which are a unique way to keep its employees motivated.
Source: http://www.reward-guide.co.uk/hubs/flexiblebenefits/case-study-asda-s-total-reward-package
ASDA have been awarded as one of the Top Employers in the UK for 2014 which is given to recognize employers with highest standards of employee engagement, support and respect. ASDA has online system for employees, where they can see benefits they are given by ASDA. To motivate its employees ASDA has a comprehensive reward system in form of both formal and informal awards.
The result of such reward schemes has been exceptional. Around 68856 employees of ASDAS have received such reward while 41828 employees are identified and recognized as “unique” due to exceptional work performance. Recently ASDA gave a bonus up to £320 to 143000 employees and ‘super bonus’ of up to £500 to 14000 employees (Paterson, 2014). These bonus pay and recognition clearly show motivation of employees through reward system.
3.4 MONITORING EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE AT MCDONALDS UK
Employee performance is measured in a number of ways to ensure that they do their duties well and achieve the targets set for them. At McDonalds, restaurant manager is the one responsible in monitoring employee’s performance. This is done in following ways.
From this it can be seen that McDonalds implements a clear goal on staff time and performance expected from them, conducts a half yearly review to monitor employee performance, use benchmarks for employees and frequent checking on staff on the job.
4. CESSATION OF EMPLOYMENT
4.1 REASONS FOR CESSATION OF EMPLOYMENT
Employee may voluntarily leave an organization or organization may terminate employees depending on situations. The reasons for cessation may include:
4.2 EMPLOYMENT EXIT PROCEDURES FOR TESCO & ASDA
Both TESCO & ASDA has similar exit procedure once an employee resigns from company as they are very concerned about staff turnover percentages. In retail market, there is constant demand for efficient employees and so it is important for them to know reasons for employee leaving in spite of providing so many facilities.
4.3 IMPACT OF LEGAL & REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
Contract of employment is a very important document as it frames rules and regulations and defines terms for employment between employer and employee. In UK, such contracts are derived from
Various laws offer different coverage to employee depending on tenure of work. An employer cannot terminate an employee without proper reasons and should abide by legal framework. As per common law in UK, contracts employment contracts can be terminated by either of party to such contract however it has given special rights to employee to not get dismissed unfairly. The statue law includes employment rights act 1996, employment act 2002, employment relations act 2004, trade union and labor relations act and transfer and undertaking regulation act 2006 (UK Legislation, 2014).
So it becomes very important for employer to see that they abide to legal and regulatory framework provided by these laws. In case they are found not following these frameworks, they can be charged with heavy financial penalty or may have to stop operations in such country as decided by court of law.
CONCLUSION
Thus from above discussion it can be concluded that HRM is a very lengthy and detailed process which is bound not only by company policies and regulations , but also by legal framework and regulations of that country. By discussing case study of TESCO and ASDA, it can be understood that employee motivation and reward system is closely linked with each other. It can be said that human resource planning is required for company to achieve its organizational objectives and understand employees better. Recruitment and selection process of company decides its staff’s competency and efficiency which is visible in comparison of TESCO and Arcadia recruitment and selection process. Reward system is very effective in an organization and should be carried out as per needs and after a thorough analysis of company’s capacity.
Monitoring employee performance gives company a chance to see how employees are doing their job, if there is a need to make changes in training for employees or employee itself are not capable to perform job. Regular monitoring ensures company targets are achieved on time and within the resources available. Even cessation of employment is not a simple term and is bided by lots of regulatory framework which company has to abide with. Lots of confusion can be sorted out while preparing letter of employment which covers laws, rules and regulations of company.
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