Human Resource Management: A Literature Review

This assignment requires a comprehensive literature review on the topic of human resource management. Students are expected to analyze various aspects of HRM, including equal pay legislation, flexible working arrangements, trade union involvement, workplace health promotion, discrimination, employee welfare, and occupational safety policies. The review should draw upon academic journal articles and reputable online sources to provide a critical analysis of current trends and challenges in the field of HRM.

Resourcing the Organisation
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 1..................................................................................................................................3
Labour market trends....................................................................................................................3
Developments...............................................................................................................................5
Question 2........................................................................................................................................6
Evaluate the key features of the resourcing strategies.................................................................6
Steps taken for ensuring how future skills are met......................................................................7
Explain company is positioned strategically................................................................................7
Question 3........................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
Resourcing the organization deals with management and handling the resources within
the business. These resources include manpower, infrastructure, funds, etc. It is important that
resources must be used in an effective manner. The purpose of this report is to analyse labour
market trend and the impact on recruitment and retaining process of the organization. It also
evaluates key features of the resourcing strategies that the companies should establish. At last,
the report will end in identifying how the company is positioned strategically. It is expected that
study will be able to achieve its goals and objectives (Conley, 2014).
QUESTION 1
Labour market trends
Different types of labour market affect the recruitment and retaining practices of the
company. These trends can be discussed in the following manner:
Technical fields will be in high demand – Currently, companies have become so much technical
and they are running on very complex business processes. In order to run those processes, they
will need those technical experts who are highly skilled and expertize (Cooper and Baird, 2015).
For instance Heygo Inc. also offers very complex range of digital services to the customers. They
are into communication, networking, media-programming and in several business areas. For
every field they will need technical experts who are capable of dealing all the issues in an
effective manner.
UK Labour market is struggling to find more technical and skilled employees for the
companies. Hence, there is a need of another revolution in the labour market. There is a need to
redress the balance and produce highly skilled and technical individuals (Goetzel and et. al.,
2014).
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Employment growth – The above graph shows the employment growth by sectors.
Private sector services along with the segments such as accommodation and restaurant are
expected to create jobs at the fastest rate of any sector in the economy for the next five years.
The utilities sector produced jobs at the highest rate between the period of 2010- 2013, however
it is not expected to continue in the future also. Job growth in the utilities is expected to slow
down from 8013% in 2010-2013 to 1.29% in 2014-2019, hence this will impact the business
activities of Heygo Inc. The agriculture and forestry sector will share the biggest part of the
global market and it will continue to impart jobs over the next five years (Guest, 2011).
Employers want an all in one employee – In the present context, companies’ wants to see more
out their employees. They expect a complete package in an individual when they decide to hire
them. Employers think about the needs of the future and the certain skills which are necessary in
the workers. For example Heygo! Inc. will look for candidates who are highly technical and are
capable of fitting into any kind of role. They should be affluent in use of several tools and
technique, virtual teamwork and the ability to solve the problems in a creative and non-
traditional manner (Hagelskamp and Hughes, 2014).
Generation Z will bring changes at the workplace – This generation holds out of the box
thinking and use multiple channels to find the solution for a specific issue. They do not feel the
need to wait for direction or any kind of instructions. They also do not measure the productivity
by remaining constrained to certain extent. Hence Heygo! Inc. can face issues in maintaining the
balance between workforce of generation x and generation z (Krings and et. al., 2014).
Inflation rate – Increasing inflation rate is also another factor which puts an impact on the
recruitment and retention practices of the company. Public sector pay restraint and affordability
are the two factors given by the employers for not being able to meet the Bank of England’s
inflation rate target of 2%. Further, some other reason was no recruitment and retention pressure,
the National Minimum Wage and the low rate of inflation or cost of living (Lagat, Mutai and
Kosgey, 2014).
Developments
Different types of developments might change the situation:
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Youth unemployment – Factor of youth unemployment will always remain a point of
concern for the organization like Heygo! Inc. There are many aspects which contribute towards
unemployment such as mismatch in skills, unpaid internships, graduates working in part time
jobs etc. Employers are of the belief that graduates in the present environment are not thinking
about the jobs in the future. It is causing them not to have the skills essential for the jobs
available. In Latin America, the male unemployment remains significantly lower as compared to
female unemployment. In the year 2015, there were 1.85 million unemployed people in UK.
Hence it can be said that issue of youth unemployment highly affect retention and retaining
policies of the company (Mirabile and et. al., 2014).
Eurozone crisis – The European debt crisis is a multi-year debt crisis that has been taking
place in the European Union since the end of 2009. Several Eurozone member states such as
Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Cyprus etc were unable to repay their debt to the government.
Hence, this factors impact on the globalization of Heygo! Inc. Company is having presence in
several international markets. In this situation Eurozone crisis develops several problems related
to human resources, marketing, manufacturing etc in the member states (Armstrong and Taylor,
2014).
Economic factors– The labour market in Europe is increasingly affected by economic
and political turmoil. The recovery remains uneven and fragile. Modest economic growth was
seen during the second half of the 2012 and the early 2014 is also fading. Several Eurozone
countries are facing the slowdown. The recent disorder in the financial market can create
complication in the task of bringing unemployment back to the pre-crisis rates (Bajdor and
Grabara, 2014).
QUESTION 2
Evaluate the key features of the resourcing strategies
There are many key features of a successful resourcing strategy for an organization.
Fundraising - One of the key aspects of resourcing is to ensure long term sustainability
of the business. This involves developing a realistic fundraising strategy. It sets out how the
company will intend to finance its future projects and services in order to meet needs of the
clients. Under this strategy, current sources of funding for the business along with the details of
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each funding stream are identified. The sources of finance are also discovered for instance
whether company will arrange from debt or equity financing (Berman and et. al., 2015). The
funds are to be derived from sustainable and long term sources. It is evident that in order to
manage all the business resources, company will require capital. Hence, the financial strategy is
needed to be strong and effective.
Best recruitment approach – Company is required to make use of best recruitment
approach in order to recruit and retain the best team for its business. For instance Heygo! Inc. is a
leading provider of internet services and maintains a very long network. It also operates at the
global level. In that context, the organization is required to appoint a highly skilled and technical
workforce which can assists in deriving competitive edges. The recruitment approach must be
best in the industry. Focus should be laid on recruiting experienced individuals. However young
generation people can also be appointed because these individuals holds out of the box thinking
and are capable of finding the solution for a specific issue (Boselie, 2014).
Divestment - This strategy involves reduction of some kind of asset in order to fulfil
financial, ethical or political objectives. It also includes sales of an existing business by a
company and on the whole it can be said that it is the opposite of investment. For instance
Heygo! Inc. divested large part of its stake in Chinese online giant Alibaba. It will help the
company to focus on the best what it does. It can generate funds for the business because it is
selling one of its operations in exchange for cash. It may also help in eliminating a division
which is under-performing or which is even failing (Collings, 2014).
Acquisition - It is a strategy under which the company acquires or buys most if not all of
the target company’s ownership stakes in order to take the control of the target company. Heygo!
Inc spent more than $1 billion in order to acquire the blogging company Falldown. It is a part of
the company’s growth and resourcing strategy. This will strengthen the position of the company
in the market and make its position very strong. Further, it will also render many competitive
advantages (Czarzasty, Gajewska and Mrozowicki, 2014).
Steps taken for ensuring how future skills are met
Heygo! Inc can adopt different types of steps in order to meet future skills. At present
company is looking for skilled people but there are a shortage of skilled people. The steps are as
follows:
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Effective training and development – It is the most essential requirement to be fulfilled.
It is evident that firm requires technical individuals who can make their internet services top
class. In that case, proper training should be imparted to the existing employees as well as the
new recruits. Training will enhance their performance and identify gaps in their working. Focus
should paid on improving their weaknesses. If they have the required potential in a particular
skills then they should be well developed in those areas. Training will not only increase their
productivity but will also increase the company’s productivity. Higher sales and profitability can
be ultimate results (Djabatey, 2012).
More sophisticated HR practices - Corporation can also focus on maintaining more
sophisticated recruitment and retention practices. It means employees can be recruited through
more effectual methods. Different types of technical tests and written examination can be taken
in order to judge their skills. Practical examination can be performed in order to identify their
respective potential. It has been noticed that many new recruits leave in two to three days of
working. This generally occurs due to ineffectiveness in recruitment practices, hence appropriate
steps are to be taken in this regard (Itika, 2011).
Maintaining a professional environment – Another thing which can be performed is to
maintain a highly professional working environment. It can attract attention of the employees. A
formal procedure is to be followed throughout the organization. There is a need to develop an
atmosphere where people can learn and practice knowledge management. If knowledge is
shared, then it is expected that all people will be fulfilling their responsibilities in the
professional manner (Adams and et. al., 2002).
Explain company is positioned strategically
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Employer branding is commonly used to describe a company’s reputation as an employer
as opposed to its more general corporate brand reputation. The concept has become widely
accepted by the global management community. It reflects the image of the organization. It
describes the key stakeholders in the market and certifies that it is a great place to work for the
employees. The activities of employer branding are concerned with attraction, retention and
engagement initiatives. There can be many key strategies related to employer branding and these
are as follows:
Concise and clear – The Company’s mission, vision and values are to be clearly defined.
It should flow through the employer branding communications. There should be high amount of
integration between all the three. The mission and vision are to be something which can be very
inspirational for the employees. They should feel proud to be associated with a brand which is
capable of delivering great business results.
Effective workforce planning – Another thing to perform is to make effective plans
regarding availability of human resources. Company should make sure that it has adequate
workforce which is capable of giving high competitive edge in front of the competitors. The
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employees should be high in numbers and all of them must be motivated towards achieving goals
and objectives of the business (Conley, 2014).
Performance management – For the purpose of motivation it is important to manage the
performance of the workers. If their performance is measured and feedbacks are given to them
then it will assure great amount of transparency. Certain parameters for judging the performance
can be established. Rewards, recognition and promotion are great components of the
performance management. If these are given for employee’s efforts then they will feel motivated
to work harder. High level of dedication and commitment can be seen from them. This will
impact sales and profitability of the company (Cooper and Baird, 2015).
QUESTION 3
Employer of choice means an organization that is a great place to work. It means the
company has laid so much focus on creating an environment where employees want to work and
learn. For instance, Starbucks has been a desired working place for many people. This company
has been taken into consideration as it is the American coffee company. It is one of the best and
top most coffee houses of the world. They have become a beacon for coffee lover every time.
One of the major reasons being its best company can be counted by their genuine services, an
inviting atmosphere and a superb cup of coffee all the time. The company is operating their
stores in 23,450 locations worldwide which ensure that it is one of the best coffee shops all
around the world. There could be many reasons why the people would want to work there:
Employee centred corporate culture – First major reason identified is the presence of
employee centred culture at the Starbucks. The culture plays an important role in the recruitment
and retention of people in the organization. Many young generation people desire to work at the
Starbucks because it highly promotes its employees. High focus is given on training and
development activities and in that regard, the brand has opened different academies where the
people are trained and prepared for the future. It also assists in developing a long term career for
them (Guest, 2011).
Good brand image – Another reason why people want to work in the coffee chain is the
presence of a good brand image. It has a brand identity which highly values its employees. It
gives a strong feeling of association and offers a surety that they are at the right place. Starbucks
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is a well-established global brand and gives high competition to Google, Apple, etc in terms of
branding (Hagelskamp and Hughes, 2014).
Innovation – Innovation is a great aspect of Starbucks. It is reflected in their strategies
and approaches. For the purpose of marketing, company adopts traditional as well as modern
methods. Currently, its presence can be seen on different social media platforms such as
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and many other areas. Without innovation, it is impossible to
survive in the dynamic business environment.
Corporate social responsibility – Starbucks is also widely known for implementing a
wide range of corporate social responsibility activities. It has become role model for many
corporations. Since the foundation the brand has placed top priority on serving the local
communities. It spends at least 2% of the profits to diverse community service programs. The
existing employees also take a time apart to serve the underprivileged people all year the round
(Krings and et. al., 2014).
Strong product research – It has been seen that Starbucks has always remain ahead of its
competitors in terms of product research and development. There are many other chains also but
this brand connects greatly with the people. It is because of the great product taste and quality. It
makes the branding stronger. For instance, the coffee products of the company are made up of
natural coffee beans. These beans are very organic and appear great in taste (Mirabile and et. al.,
2014).
Career opportunities – The career opportunities at the Starbucks are very wide and
effective. For instance, an online interactive education platform has been established where the
employees can learn everything. They can take on course on work related subjects such as
leaderships, foreign languages and many others. It encourages its employees to tell what they
want to learn in a bottom up manner. Feedbacks are also taken about their educational needs.
Hence, it is a great sign of working culture (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
Staff motivation: Motivation is considered as a most important factor within the any
organization. Starbucks is the top most brands of American coffee houses due to their quality of
services as well as taste associated with it. It is also known as the best coffee and espresso drink
centre. They use highest quality for their Arabica coffee as the base which makes their products
more popular. One of the major reasons behind the popular services of the company is their
employees or staff members. They are the key resources of their increasing profit margin. Most
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of the people wants to become employer of choice over there and wants to work with them.
Starbucks know that business is always dependant on the customer requirements and satisfaction.
It can be easily attained by providing higher employee satisfaction and motivation. In order to
make their staff members happy there are several initiatives taken by the company. The company
is presented as one of the great examples in terms of motivating employees. Manager of
company treat all their employees as partner and support them in each step. All their workers co-
work with each other and gives all of them higher support. They apply equity theory for staff
motivation through which workers feels like they are working in a lively and enthusiastic
environment (Boselie, 2014). It is considered as a highest motivation factor as it creates a sense
of belongings and leads to the employee satisfaction. There are several other benefits provided to
all the workers such as medical benefit, pay would have a certain increase for senior employees
of the company, proper training to effectively deal with customers. Further, Starbucks provide
intrinsic as well as extrinsic rewards to all their employees in terms of monetary or non-monetary
benefits. When customers are satisfied with the quality of services, they would feel quite
confident and motivated as wel (Collings, 2014).
From the overall above analysis, it has found that Starbucks is one of the desired working
places for majority of people due their appropriate marketing management as well as high brand
image. There are several career opportunities associated with company due to which majority of
people can get desired profile. Further, company provides high staff motivation due to which
they are able to serve high quality services to their customers and easily able to enhance the
satisfaction level of customers as well as staff members (Czarzasty, Gajewska and Mrozowicki,
2014).
CONCLUSION
In the above whole study conclude that main key features of successful resourcing
strategies are Fundraising, Divestment and Acquisition. In addition to this, Heygo! Inc. have
taken several steps for meeting out their future skills such as Effective training and development,
More sophisticated HR practices as well as by maintaining the professional working
environment. Further, this study also suggested that whether the company is positioned
strategically or not. It is highly associated with the employer branding which reflects the image
of the organization. The last section of the study presented that most of the people wants to
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become the employer of choice due to Employee centred corporate culture, higher staff
motivation, good brand image as well as CSR.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014.Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice.Kogan Page Publishers.
Bajdor, P. and Grabara, I., 2014. The Role of Information System Flows in Fulfilling Customers’
Individual Orders.Journal of Studies in Social Sciences.7(2).
Berman, E. M. and et. al., 2015. Human resource management in public service: Paradoxes,
processes, and problems.Sage Publications.
Boselie, P., 2014. Strategic human resource management: A balanced approach.Tata McGraw-
Hill Education.
Collings, D. G., 2014. Integrating global mobility and global talent management: Exploring the
challenges and strategic opportunities. Journal of World Business.49(2). pp. 253-261.
Conley, H., 2014. Trade unions, equal pay and the law in the UK.Economic and Industrial
Democracy.35(2). pp. 309-323.
Cooper, R. and Baird, M., 2015. Bringing the “right to request” flexible working arrangements to
life: from policies to practices. Employee Relations.37(5). pp. 568-581.
Czarzasty, J., Gajewska, K. and Mrozowicki, A., 2014. Institutions and Strategies: Trends and
Obstacles to Recruiting Workers into Trade Unions in Poland. British Journal of
Industrial Relations.52(1).pp.112-135.
Goetzel, R. Z. and et. al., 2014. Do workplace health promotion (wellness) programs
work?.Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.56(9). pp. 927-934.
Guest, D. E., 2011. Human resource management and performance: still searching for some
answers. Human Resource Management Journal.21(1). pp. 3-13.
Hagelskamp, C. and Hughes, D. L., 2014. Workplace discrimination predicting racial/ethnic
socialization across African American, Latino, and Chinese families.Cultural Diversity and
Ethnic Minority Psychology.20(4).pp. 550.
Krings, F. and et. al., 2014. Selective incivility: Immigrant groups experience subtle workplace
discrimination at different rates. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority
Psychology.20(4).pp. 491.
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