Human Resource Management: Purpose, Functions, and Opportunities

This report covers topics such as purpose and functions of HRM, planning and sourcing of workforce in the company, strength and weakness of methods of recruitment and selection, learning and development opportunities for staff, and rewards and benefits offered by the company.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
Activity 1 ....................................................................................................................................3
LO 1 ............................................................................................................................................3
Purpose and functions of HRM .........................................................................................3
Planning and resourcing of workforce in the company......................................................4
Strength and weakness of approaches to recruitment and selection-.................................5
Activity 2 ....................................................................................................................................6
LO 4.............................................................................................................................................6
C) Six competency based questions...................................................................................6
D) Rationale of the questions.............................................................................................6
E) Short listing the applications for the job........................................................................7
Activity 3 ....................................................................................................................................7
LO 2 ............................................................................................................................................7
Learning and development opportunities for staff.............................................................7
Rewards and benefits by the company...............................................................................8
Activity 4 ..................................................................................................................................10
LO 3 .........................................................................................................................................10
A) Employee relations......................................................................................................10
B) Key elements of UK employment legislation and influence on HR decision making 11
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management is the process of recruiting, selecting, inducting employees,
providing orientation, imparting training and development, appraising the performance of
employees, deciding compensation and providing benefits, motivating employees, maintaining
proper relations with employees. This report covers topics such as purpose and functions of
HRM, planning and sourcing of workforce in the company, strength and weakness of methods
of recruitment and selection. CV, personal description, rationale of the questions, learning and
development opportunities for the company and rewards and benefits that the company offers
to their employees. Employee relations and key elements of UK legislation has also been
covered in this report.
Activity 1
LO 1
Purpose and functions of HRM
The department of human resource of the company is concerned with hiring,
motivating and maintaining the employees of the company. There are two types of functions
of HRM that is managerial and operative (Ren, Tang and Jackson, 2018).
Managerial Function-
Planning-
This aspect is concerned with the calculation of employees and determine their
suitability which will help the company to achieve their goals. This allows them to prepare
their employees for future goals and objectives.
Organizing-
HR department of LV distributes the work according to the skills and potential of the
employees so that they can achieve their goals and objectives.
Directing-

HR department of LV gives them a direction to pursue at every level. It also includes
aspect such as motivation so that the employees of the company contributes more and helps in
achieving the goals of the company.
Controlling-
This measure is considered as evaluation method for the employees. HR department of
the company evaluates the performance of the employees according to the task and if they find
any errors in the process then they will take measures of control (Tweedie and et.al., 2019).
Operative Functions-
Recruitment or Hiring-
HR department of LV hires those candidates which are eligible according to their
nature of work and which can help them achieve their goals.
Analysis and design of Job-
Designing the job includes the role of task, responsibilities and duties whereas analysis
of job highlights all the areas such as qualification, skill, work, experience which is demanded
by the company and the position of the job (Armstrong, Landers and Collmus, 2016).
Training and Development-
This aspect is concerned with helping the employees and evolve them by gaining skills
and more knowledge than the already possess which will help them to work according to their
potential and help the company to attain their goals and objectives (Boon and et.al., 2019).
Administration of Salary-
HR of LV has to keep a record of things such as incentives, bonus, compensation and
their salary as they are all related with the functioning of job.
Planning and resourcing of workforce in the company
Planning of workforce refers to the process which helps companies such as LV to
ensure that the company has access to current and future requirement for human capital so that
they can perform in an effective manner. This aspect helps the company to analyze the method
which is more cost effective and help them to recruit and retain the suitable candidates. It
works on the approach of identifying the needs of personnel on both current and future basis.
This aspect is also concerned with the evaluation of workforce of this program which helps the
company to figure out the necessary measures such as development and learning of employees
so that they can ensure that employees of the company work in an efficient manner. Planning

and resourcing of employees helps LV to align the aspect in the direction of objectives of the
business. LV anticipate the needs of employees, design of organization, training plan of staff
and development of goals. If the company has designed this aspect successfully then they will
be able to meet their goals which will help them to gain long term profitability in the market.
Planning and resourcing of employees will help the company to identify the gaps involved in
specific areas such as surplus and deficiencies. Planning also helps the company to come up
with a solution in many ways such as training and developing the skills of their employees and
design the structure of the company in a better way which will keep the employees satisfied.
This will help them to gain their trust and in return they will contribute more of their efforts
for the benefit of the company (Crawshaw, Budhwar and Davis, 2017.).
Strength and weakness of approaches to recruitment and selection-
Telephonic Interview-
Strength-
Covers wide area-
LV has the scope of gaining the benefit of wide coverage on the basis of geographical
factors. This method states that everyone is using or connected on this type of medium such as
mobile phones, landline etc. Other than this they also have the scope to gain more access with
some information such as directories. This method allows the HR of the company to take
interview over phone and assess the skills of employees that if or not he or she is suitable
according to the criteria of work or is eligible to face the next round of interview.
Time and Cost Effective-
This aspect helps the company to save the cost in the process of selection and
recruitment if it is compared to other available methods. Other than this it helps to obtain
results in a more fast way as compared to other methods because in some other methods
people take time to respond or some of them does not respond at all.
Weakness-
Connection-
HR of LV thinks that it is hard for them to judge the character and personality of
candidates. They feel this because they are not able to make a connection with them on phone
as they cannot assess their expressions during the response of an question which disrupts them
to know that if or not candidate is telling the truth.

Face to Face interview-
Strength-
This method helps the HR of LV to gather and assess the things which are important
during the interview such as body language, their personality and what are their interests
according to the work. This method helps them to generate the information which is more
accurate as the candidate has less chances of faking anything. Other than this method allows
the HR of the company to have full control in order to assess their strength and weaknesses
(Knies and et.al., 2017).
Weakness-
This method is considered as a costly method as it takes more people to conduct an
interview which takes more time and effort of the people. Overall these factors make this
method costly over other methods. Apart from this the company has to rely on the skills and
talent of the interviewer as they are the ones who will assess them and collect the rightful
information. It can be biased if the HR of the company works in unethical manner.
Activity 2
LO 4

Personal specification
Skills required- A person must have the excellent communication and Presentation skills,
both written and verbal.
Strong organizational skills
Excellent Skills regarding IT skills such as word processing, spreadsheet and PowerPoint.
A person have good numeracy skills
Ability to do work under pressure as well as follows the strict guidelines rule and at the same
time prioritizes the work.
Problem solving – A person must be good within the problem solving skills as whenever any
conflicts arises he or she can easily solve the problems.
Time management skills- must have time management skills as they know the value of time as
it assists to work while meeting deadlines, attend the meeting on time and many more.
Also, have strong organizational skills.
Maintain as well as build the strong relationship with the team members and peers so that task
provided to them can be completed on time and also there is a good flow of provided
information as well as effective workload management (Pan, 2015)
Effective within handling in internal as well as external contacts by screening and receiving
post, emails and phone calls to assist the overall efficiency of the operation of the business.
Attainment- A graduation degree within Human resource
Knowledge-A knowledge regarding PowerPoint, Word Excel, Microsoft Office
Relevant experiences- Have minimum experience of 1 year within the Human resource
department.
Disposition- Ability to work within independently as well as within the groups.
Capacity and willingness to be flexible.
Within the job application 1 the person have the skills such as Quick learner as skills to learn
new systems. Proficiency within more productive as well as paced working environment. Also
have the excellent communication skills. Having the experience about the operation of the
office ,arranged meeting on time as well as communicated with the clients. Within the job
application 2

the person have to maintain the office system as well as efficiently deal with paper flow. I
will consider as the second job application as person have the experience regarding travel and
accommodation for conferences and visits. Have experience about the prepare papers as well
as creating the spreadsheets on the excel to produce graphs and track performance. Education
qualification is RSA typing level 1,2 and 3 as well as short course regarding the Microsoft
office products. Also, have the experience regarding the personal secretary. Specialist within
the administrative support ,also have the excellent communication skills,soft-spoken. Person
have the strong excellent IT knowledge skills such as Word,PowerPoint and Excel. The person
is having a PA to the commercial director. Also, able to maintain the dairy of the Director as
well as prepares the paper as needed. Person of the Job application 3 is expert within the dairy
management also uses the Microsoft office but finds that Job application 2 is more
appropriate.
C) Six competency based questions
1) Give information about yourself and how you would be a good PA for the company?
2) Tell me about the experience when you had to deal with the client and what was the result
of that situation?
3) How many times you have been successful while assisting the co workers of the company?
4) Which task was the most challenging that you had to face at your previous workplace?
5) How are you when you had to multitask and how easily you can handle this situation?
6) Reason behind your level of confidence and how do you keep up with motivation?
D) Rationale of the questions
Questions which is asked first by the interviewer helps to gather the information about
the personal life of the candidate and abilities which will be helpful to the company in
simplifying their work. After this question second one focuses on knowing the experience of
the employee that how much time he has worked and in which company they have worked.
This will help the company to analyze that whether or not they will be able to work and deal
with the clients of the company so that they can retain them for a long period of time.
Question which comes next states that how effective the candidate has been when they had to
give assistance to their workers and whether or not they have been successful in that. After
that next question will help them to gather the information that if or not they can face the

challenges and work with the right skills and abilities required by the company at that time.
Fifth question helps to know that if the candidate has worked in a situation where they had to
multitask because they are looking for that so that as it helps them to save their time and effort
and control the activities in a better way. Sixth and the last question was to know about the
confidence of the employee and how motivated they are as it will help other people to keep
motivated (Meijerink and et.al., 2018).
E) Short listing the applications for the job
HR of LV has selected a CV for the position of personal assistance. The interviewer
found the candidate to be eligible for the job. Interviewer felt that the candidate was motivated
for the job and while answering he was confident which will make it easy for him to deal with
clients. The interviewer found those skills which impressed him as he has all the qualities and
skills to manage and communicate effectively (Al Ariss and Sidani, 2016).
Activity 3
LO 2
Learning and development opportunities for staff
Offerings by the company-
Companies such as LV provides them with opportunities to evolve and develop their
skills so that they can work more efficiently and effectively towards achieving the goals for
the company. LV uses various methods to implement this aspect such as topics on business,
webinars. These programs will help the employees of the company to learn new methods and
strategies which will help them to bring creative and innovative methods for the company.
Work and explore new platforms-
These areas and platform will help the company to change their way of providing
training to their employees. For instance LV is using platforms such as Ted Talks and
LinkedIn to make the thought process of the employees more creative. The slightest advantage
this aspect has is to use these programs at anytime and anyplace.
Collaborative Working-
This method states that candidates must form up a team together according to the task
they have been allotted by the company. This method states that employees must put their
efforts jointly and work together in order to complete the task efficiently and effectively. This

will them to gain more perspective. LV believes that employees of the company will gain the
insight of teamwork and value the thought process of other candidates. This will also help
them to avoid getting into a conflict and manage the work between them according to their
experience of work so that they can work in more rightful manner without committing errors
in work (Herrera and de las Heras-Rosas, 2020).
Feedback-
Employees of LV ask for the feedback in order to analyse the gaps in their
performance so that they can work on the selective areas which needs more attention. This will
help them to save their time and efforts and puts all the focus in a selective area. This will help
them to work on accomplishing the task without making errors in work.
Mentoring-
HR of LV provides training to new employees in the company by taking the help of
some people who possess the knowledge in specific areas and are experts in their respective
fields. These people train the new employees by sharing their past experiences and practice
which has helped them to come into this position. They provide them with information which
is useful for them. They help them to make their vision better by working and improving on
the gaps which are affecting their performance. Mentoring is beneficial for both the employees
as well as the employees of the company. This method allows LV to put their employees in
other departments so that they can obtain some knowledge in those areas. There are two
methods by which company can successfully implement this tool in their organization.
Directive- This aspect puts the limit on employees on getting into one specific department and
learn all the things from that department (Haddock-Millar, Sanyal and Müller-Camen, 2016).
Non Directive- This method does not impose any type of limit which means that employees
can learn on their own and get into different department which is not linked with the area of
their primary focus. Apart from this candidates has to follow a set of rules that is to listen and
observe the patterns of work of experts of respective fields.
Rewards and benefits by the company
Health insurance coverage-
HR of LV provides the employees with this plan for those people who work 30 hours a
week. Apart from this they have also covered up some of the employees who work for part
time are also covered in this plan.

Paid Holidays-
It is not mandatory or a guideline set by the government still LV makes sure that
employees who are part of their team for long are provided with this benefit. They also offer
them extra pay if they are willing to work overtime.
Pay Raises-
In order to keep up with inflation and keep them satisfied LV offers them with this
benefit. There are many ways in which the company offers benefits to their employees. They
encourage their employees to work more and earn more on commission which will help the
employees and the company both to earn more. HR of LV motivates their personnel to earn
more on this aspect.
Severance Pay-
LV cannot afford to provide this benefit for all of the employees which is the reason
why they offer it to some of them. LV checks their budget and according to that they avail this
benefit for some people in the company.
Breaks and Flexible Schedules-
In order to attract the candidates which matches up the criteria of work of the company
they offer them a flexible schedule which allows them to take break on their own so that they
can rest and work with fresh mind. Company also offers them with the benefit of meals when
they are in meeting with a client.
College Debt Assistance-
This aspect is rising among students which is the reason why companies such as LV is
offering their employees with the benefit of repayment or giving them some assistance in this
matter. There are no laws for this but in order to retain and gaining the trust of employees they
are helping their employees to boost or kick start their career (Carbery and Cross, 2018).
Hazard Pay-
Employees who are working for LV and is operating on field on day to day basis to
sell the policy of insurance is provided with this benefit. So that employees can work care free
and go work in those areas which are not safe because they know that they are being looked
after by the company.

Activity 4
LO 3
A) Employee relations
This aspect is concerned with the relationship between employees and the employers
of the company. If the company has managed the program and level of employee relations
then they will be able to provide them with fair amount of treatment on a consistent basis to all
of the employees who are part of a team so that the employees of the company can be loyal to
them (Longoni Luzzini and Guerci, 2018).
Analyze and critically evaluates the importance of effective employee relations
Individuals cannot take decisions alone-
Employees of LV needs guidance in order to take a decision. Before taking a decision
they evaluate the pros and cons of the aspect and share their opinion with the upper level and
if the relation between both of them is good then they will be able to take a decision which is
beneficial for both.
Sharing the task-
In order to increase the revenue and meeting up with more targets LV shares the work
among their employees so that they can target more audience and work effectively. If they
relations between them are good then they will be able to divide the work otherwise it will
create conflicts between them (Marler and Parry, 2016).
Communicate effectively-
It is important for the company to manage the level of employee relations as it helps
them to communicate with each other in a better way. This will help LV to come out with
solutions to their problems and address them in a better way which is important for the
company (Korff, Biemann and Voelpel, 2017).
Embraces Equality-
Employee relations helps to increase the level of equality in the organization.
Employers treat everyone with fair treatment on a consistent basis. This help LV to make their
environment of work better for all so that the employees of the company can turn out to be
more productive and be work more which will help the company to grow in the market.
Motivating the employees-

In order to keep them motivated they need to use right type of strategies so that they
can be successful in gaining the trust of employees and retain them for a long period of time.
This will help them at every level as they will remain encouraged among work and this will
also help them to maintain the relation between each other (Tang and et.al., 2018).
Reduction in Conflicts-
If the employee relations in LV is good then there will be less chances of arising of
conflict in the company. This will help the employees of the company to focus on other areas
and take better decisions which will help them to improve in those areas in which they are
lacking.
B) Key elements of UK employment legislation and influence on HR decision making
There are many laws and regulations which are imposed by the government so that and which
affects the decision of HR of the company at the time of recruitment, selection etc.
Race-
This act is considered as one of the most earliest to establish in UK which addresses
the issues which are related to discrimination on the basis of race. This has led to banned the
government of UK to promote these factors on their ground. HR of LV has to keep these
things in mind at the time of interview and does not take any action which leads to this issue.
Sex Discrimination Act 1975-
This act helps to stop the increase in amount of discrimination on the basis of
gender and any issues which relates to harassment. HR of LV does not support any kind of
issues which leads to discrimination they judge every employee on the basis of their
performance and if anything such as harassment comes into their observation they take strict
actions for those people.
Equal Pay 2010-
This act ensures that no amount of mistreatment and unfair decisions are taken in the
company. This act reduces all of the issues which are related to unfair treatment of employees.
HR of the company treats everyone equally and has set their pay check according to the
experience, knowledge, skills and abilities they possess which is according to the guidelines of
act (Tung, 2016).
Heath and Safety Act 1974-

This Act is concerned with providing the employees which helps to protect the
employees on the basis of health, safety and offers them welfare. Companies such as LV
works under the guideline set by the government of UK. It is necessary for them to address
these issues as they have their operations in UK. Employers of LV protect the welfare which is
provided to them so that they can promote their company in a better way (Wilkinson, Redman
and Dundon, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above studies it has been concluded that LV needs to follow the rules and
guidelines which are covered under the legislation of UK so that they can promote their
company in a better way. They need to maintain the relation with their employees so that they
can communicate with them effectively and take better decisions for the company so that they
can focus on achieving their goals. They need to provide them with the programs for learning
and development so that they can evolve the skills and abilities of their employees. In order to
retain their employees they provide their employees with many benefits such as health
insurance coverage, paid holidays etc.

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