Human Resource Management: A Comprehensive Study of HRM Practices in British Gas

This study delves into the core principles and practices of Human Resource Management (HRM), examining its purpose, functions, and application within the context of the British Gas organization. It explores various HRM practices, including workforce planning, recruitment and selection, employee relations, and the impact of employment legislation on HRM decision-making. The study analyzes the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising British Gas's profit and productivity, highlighting the importance of employee relations in influencing HRM decisions. Through specific examples and case studies, the study provides a comprehensive understanding of HRM practices and their significance in achieving organizational goals.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1 & LO2: (Task 1)......................................................................................................................1
P1: Explain the purpose and functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing an organization...........................................................................................................1
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
.....................................................................................................................................................5
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organization for both the
employer and employee...............................................................................................................9
P4. Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising British Gas’s
profit and productivity...............................................................................................................10
LO3 & LO4 (Task 02)...................................................................................................................11
P5 Analyze the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-
making.......................................................................................................................................11
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision-making.........................................................................................................................12
P7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific
examples....................................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Comparison between Personnel and HRM......................................................................2
Figure 2: Functions of HRM............................................................................................................3
Figure 3: Steps in workforce planning.............................................................................................4
Figure 4: Major strategic roles of the manager................................................................................5
Figure 5: Recruitment methods.......................................................................................................6
Figure 6: illustration on employment relations..............................................................................11

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Strengths and weaknesses of the recruitment methods.....................................................7
Table 2: Job description.................................................................................................................14
Table 3: Person specification.........................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
It is very well known thing nowadays that employee of every organisation must be treated as an
assets because they are the people who put their efforts to make an organisation better in terms of
production, productivity and rank so their benefits and everything should be prioritized and this
way the HR or the Human Resource came into existence as it concerns with every aspect of
Human in the organisation. Here this study gives the idea about the essentials of the human
resource in order to make individual as well as organisational development and for this purpose
the British Gas organisation is selected as the case study.
LO1 & LO2: (Task 1)
P1: Explain the purpose and functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing
an organization.
HRM meaning and definition
Human resource management is a system which relates with the planning, developing and
administrating the various policies of the Human Assets in the organisation. It deals with the
effective utilization of available human resource to achieve individual and organisational
objectives (Marchington et al, 2016).
Purpose of HRM
 It works to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of individuals as well as
organisational.
 It boosts the positive and harmonious relations at workplace by following the effective
HR practices which are bind by the Labour Law.
 It facilitates the employment life cycle which includes from hiring to leaving the
organisation (Cascio, 2018).
Concepts of HRM
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Figure 1: Comparison between Personnel and HRM
 Traditional concept – the traditional concept was only focused on the personnel functions
like only with their hiring and firing system with the salary and other issues. It was more
an employer centric approach.
 Modern concept – it is the actual concept of HRM and it relates with the relations and
development of individuals such as team building, development program.
Approaches of HRM
 Best practice approach – it offers better commitment with extreme motivation and
focuses on various HR policies like reward system.
 Best fit approach – it offers competitive benefit with the applicability of the reward
system which matches with the organisational policies.
Models of HRM
 Hard HRM – in this model more focus is given on the needs of the organisational
workforce and other requirements. It is known as short term modification in employee’s
existence.
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 Soft HRM – in soft HRM model employees are treated as valuable assets and all the
motivation and reward system are applied to encourage them (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
Functions of HRM
Figure 2: Functions of HRM
HRM functions are mainly divided into two categories;
Operative functions such as;
 Recruitment – it is the process of attracting the candidates from the pool of the talent.
 Training & Development – it is the process to identify the training needs and designing
the appropriate training and development program.
 Compensation – designing the remuneration for every kind of job is really important
function of HRM.
 Performance appraisals – this function enables HRM to use the performance management
to offer appropriate reward system to motivate the workforce.
Managerial functions such as;
 Planning – it is the process of making the blue print of every activity in advance.
 Organising – the allocation of the all available resources takes place in this function of
HRM.
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 Directing – it is the process of giving support and providing way to perform the job
effectively.
 Controlling – it is very important function to monitor or to control so the gap between
desired and actual can be identified.
Workforce planning
Figure 3: Steps in workforce planning
Workforce planning is the process of forecasting the requirements of the organisation in terms of
Human Resource to meet its goal and objectives (Marchington et al, 2016). Workforce planning
is very important function of HRM as it enables the organisation to take the Human Assets in the
organisation so the company can increase its production capacity with highly skilled people.
Roles of HRM
4

Figure 4: Major strategic roles of the manager
 In British Gas organisation its Human Resource Department keeps very vital part as it
forecast the requirement and meets those requirements through workforce planning.
 In this organisation HRM plays important role to maintain effective working conditions.
 The HRM department is very much responsible in British Gas organisation in terms of
taking strategic decision regarding workforce.
 Training & development, performance appraisals and remuneration management are the
other major roles and responsibility of the HRM in British Gas Corporation.
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
Recruitment and selection
Recruitment is the process of attracting the right people for the right kind of job these candidates
are the most skilled and helps to achieve organisational goal on the other hand selection is a
negative process to remove the unsuitable candidates (Costen, 2012).
Advantages
 It boosts right people at right place and right position
 It helps in profit maximization
 It helps to have highly skilled workforce
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 Selection removes unsuitable candidates
Methods of recruitment & selection
Figure 5: Recruitment methods
There are three main recruitment approaches that are used;
 Internal – it recruits the candidates internally and also by the reference of the existing
working employees. Transfers, promotion, reference and job rotation is the main sources
of internal recruitment.
 External – this method finds the candidates from the outside the company such as
advertisement, employee exchange, educational institutes and etc (McGraw, 2013).
 Third party – these are the placement agencies which recruits the candidate for the
company.
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Table 1: Strengths and weaknesses of the recruitment methods
Methods Strengths Weakness Evaluation Critical
evaluation
Internal  Recruitment
process takes less
time through this
method.
 Does not require
deep training.
 References make
work easy.
 Build commitment
and healthy
relations.
 Less risk
involved.
 Promotes
frustration as
not
promoted.
 May lead
discriminatio
n
 It minimizes
the
opportunity
to hire fresh
and new
talent.
Internal
approach is
very good as it
promotes the
commitment
level and builds
strong relations
between the
employer and
employee and
also it really
cost effective as
less training
and cost
involved in this
process.
Internal methods
are good in
terms of
relationship
building but for
the same reason
it can be the big
issue for the
frustration of the
not promoted
employee and
company can be
infamous for the
discrimination
issues.
External  Increased
innovation and
ideas.
 It helps to
promote brand.
 Pool of talent can
be available.
 It helps high
productivity.
 More time
required.
 More finance
involved.
 More risk is
involved.
External
method of
recruitment
gives the new
blood to the
company and
gives new
dimension or
direction to
move as the
new people
with various
ideas and
innovative
thoughts can
With the more
cost
involvement of
the recruitment
the external
methods also
requires much
finance to
design the good
training and
recruitment
program and for
head hunting
much
remuneration is
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move company
to the top ranks.
needed to offer.
Third
party
 Less time involves
 It decreases the
burden of HRM
department.
 Increases
employee
association.
 High fees
involved.
 It not
guarantees
about the
talent.
 Fear from
fraud cases
(Cascio,
2018).
Some of the
organisations
are not that
much capable
to hire good
candidates due
to less time or
due to less
knowledge so
in that situation
third party
method is really
beneficial to
opt.
These kinds of
recruitment
agencies are
reliable at the
great level as so
many fraud
cases can be
seen as they
charging the
higher amount
and also not
providing the
required skilled
candidates.
Three part
assessment
or
interview
(selection)
 It helps in
complete
assessment.
 It removes the
unsuitable
candidates.
 It helps to
recognize the
skilled talent.
 It creates
difficulty
sometimes to
assess.
 Sometimes
talented
candidates
also can be
assessed
negatively.
As some skills
such as
adapting to
change,
motivation and
building
relations with
people is the
really much
required in the
candidates so
the assessment
selection
method helps to
overall
assessment of
the candidate.
Many
assessment
criteria hamper
the quality of
candidates and
also sometimes
the small
amount of
favouritism can
affect the entire
assessment.
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The British Gas uses the all methods of recruitment in a very effective manner to hire the right
candidate at the right place at the right time.
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organization for both the employer
and employee.
The HRM has many trends or practices which are really beneficial for both employee and
employer here some discussion is made about those HRM practices as HRM always approaches
to maintain the good Human Resource at the organisation.
Flexible organisation and flexible working options
It is very important aspect or practice of HRM as it promotes the working efficiency of the
employee. At the British Gas the flexibility working options is followed by its HRM to promote
growth because this enables employee to work with more efforts and hence promotes their
productivity as well as the increased productivity enables increased production at the
organisational level (Alfes et al, 2013).
Effective Training and Development scheme
The British Gas offers its staff the employability and skill program which helps to improve the
skills of the employee and also the development of the employer in terms of strategic
management programme. This program is designed as two bucket program and allows choosing
the specialisation. This program works for both existing and new hired people and beneficial for
both employee and employer in terms of overall development.
Effective appraisal and reward system
An effective appraisal system helps employees and employer to recognizing the talent and the
program and ideas to motivate that talent. The intrinsic and extrinsic reward system makes the
high level of satisfaction to the employee and that is why they work efficiently this leads towards
increased productivity and production (Giauque et al, 2013).
The all HRM practices make the employee more efficient and this way it promotes
organisational growth which is the development of employer in the British Gas organisation.
9

P4. Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising British Gas’s profit
and productivity.
The British Gas is very known organisation which always supports the positive relations between
employee and employer So all the HRM practices is really essential for increasing the profit and
productivity of the British Gas.
If the HRM practices are effectively used and applied within the organisation, it always decrease
the turnover rate of employees and lower turnover rate always benefits such as profit and
productivity of the organisation. If the more efficient workforce works in the organisation and
the retention rate is high the productivity and profit get increased. HRM maintains the
performance of the employee and thus all the good performances are recognized and it is used in
order to enhance the quality and environment of the workplace (Lamba and Choudhary, 2013). If
internal people are satisfied with their work in terms of reward system and performance system
they work with their extreme level and hence they contribute towards increased productivity and
profit.
So from the above discussion it can be said that the effective HRM practices such as Training &
Development, Reward system, performance management and flexibility working options
supports the employee in their personal as well as professional development and their skills goes
towards the highly rated, this way they feel satisfied and efficient to perform their job which
gives result as increased profit and productivity at individual as well as organisational level at
British Gas (Zibarras and Coan, 2015).
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LO3 & LO4 (Task 02)
P5 Analyze the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-
making.
Employment relations
Figure 6: illustration on employment relations
The bonding which is shared by the employees at the workplace makes sense for the growth of
the organization as it is the most important aspect of human. The healthy and positive
employment relations always moves the organization towards the development and that is why it
becomes essential to maintain the cordial and effective employment relations at the workplace
for the HRM. There are some strategies which can be beneficial to improve the positive
employment relations.
 Effective communication – it is very important and effective strategy to promote the
healthy and positive employment relation as through the effective communication
employee and employer feel free to express their view and it makes them allow to
communicate their issues or good experiences and that all collectively helps to maintain
healthy employment relations (Awadh and Alyahya, 2013).
 Motivational techniques – the effective motivational techniques are always helpful to
maintain the healthy employment relations. The best fit approach uses the right kind of
motivation technique for the right people and this appropriateness make the employee
more sensible for the organization and promotes the positive employment relations.
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 Employability and development opportunities – the British Gas always applies the
employability and opportunity for the development this kind of program allows employee
to feel the more belongingness and that is why they work with more efforts and will
power and hence it improves the better employment relations (Cascio, 2018).
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision-making.
Employment legislation
The government of any country wants to promote its economy through the developing the organizations
and that is why the government made the labor legislation to create the positive work environment; it
enables the employee to work with their respect and capability so the British gas also applies and follow
the employment legislation in effective manner from hiring to leaving.
Key elements of the employment legislation and their impact
 Equality Act 2010 – this act enables the employer to provide equal opportunity to the employee
in any terms such as employment opportunity, working conditions opportunity and etc. so British
Gas also the HRM department uses the effective way to apply the Equality act as they provide
equal opportunity to every one for the job without making partiality on the basis of age, gender,
race and demography (Atkinson and Storey, 2016).
 Working Hours and Wages Act – these acts are designed to provide the good and exact
working hours to the employees so no organization can take advantage of employee’s availability
on unfair basis. The fair wage act offer the employee to get the fair amount as remuneration for
their hard work and their job so no unfair practices can be done regarding the remuneration thing.
The British Gas offers the sufficient and appropriate remuneration to its every employee
according to the wage act.
 Working conditions – the act which provides the details about the working condition of the
working place come under this part of industrial law which is defined the workplace safety and
security while the employee is working (Millán et al, 2013). It is very important for any
organization to apply this workplace safety law as the employee should not be hampered because
of the bad working conditions as it is the most important thing the British Gas organization takes
complete care about this and that is why all the facility regarding the safety are applies by the
organization
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 Employee protection – this kind of legislation provides protection to the employee from any
kind of danger such as sexual harassment of female employee. It is very shameful and bad issues
which can be take place so for the women protection these legislations made. In British Gas
organization strict actions such as termination is given if any person is find involved in this kind
of issue.
P7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific
examples.
Recruitment
As it is discussed that the recruitment procedure is the process to attract the right kind of
candidate for the job and make the organization more efficient to achieve its goals and selection
is the process of removing the unsuitable candidates. As the technology is developing day by day
so British Gas organization uses the various advanced forms of recruitment which are discussed
here;
Advertising – the British Gas uses the advertisement method in every form such as online and
news paper advertisement so every kind of audience or candidates can apply for the job and grab
the opportunities.
 Social media advertisement recruiting
 Through email
 Mobile recruiting
Application – the British Gas organization usually invites the application form for the various
post through media that can be online as well offline.
Promotions – the British Gas uses the promotions to recruit internally to promote the healthy
relations and commitment level of its existing employees.
Selection process
The three part assessment is used to assess the capability of the candidate and this can be done
through the various interviews. For the almost half of the day is taken of the candidate to assess
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him/her for the selection process (Bryson et al, 2013). After the 14 days the result is given to the
candidate. The criteria of this assessment are the life skills and the core competencies.
For the effective recruitment it is the duty of HRM to design the appropriate job description and
specification and it is considered very important role of the HR.
The specimen of the job description and the job specification is given here;
Job description provides the statement in written for what an organization is finding to perform a
particular job.
Table 2: Job description
Job Title :- Team Leader HR
Reporting to :- HR Manager
Job Purpose: - the job purpose of a team leader is to guide and support the team in every possible way so
they can feel motivated and enthusiastic to perform their given job on timely basis. This job also demands
the skill to identify the gap or the highly skilled workforce for helping HR.
Job duties & Responsibilities :-
 Helping to the team members and guiding them.
 To maintain all the task and records of team members.
 To help the HR Manager in recruiting and selection.
 Communicate the aims, plans, policies etc.
 Framing strong policies to achieve the goals.
 Monitoring and controlling the activities.
Person specification for the particular job is defined as the statement of individual’s quality or
abilities or skills which are required to specify job.
Table 3: Person specification
Job Title :- Team Leader HR
Required Knowledge : -
 Knowledge of the core HR concepts is must
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 Current and future performance requirements and trends
 Knowledge of the policies and regulations
Experience :-
 Performing in group
 Leading a team
 Experience in recruitment and other HR functions
Skills :-
The person should be able to perform in a team and lead to the entire team in a way that the team can
work with more efficiency to achieve their and organizational goals.
Performance and rewards
Monitoring the performance of the employee is very important as it enables HRM to design the
reward system for the blue color and white color employees.
Financial and non financial reward
Financial rewards are the rewards which are monetary such as the blue color employee feel
happy with it and the non financial is non monetary reward which is mainly designed to white
color employee.
Intrinsic and extrinsic reward
Intrinsic rewards are the rewards which create internal happiness or motivation to the employee
it can be recognition or some card or wishing card and the extrinsic reward is concerned with the
monetary benefits.
CONCLUSION
As HRM concerns with every aspect of Human within the organization the various issues such as
recruitment, training, performance management and reward system are defined in this study
which is really helpful to understand the HRM in practices. As the technology changes these all
aspects of Human Resource Management is also getting advancement and that is why online
recruitment and employment relations are now considered at the utmost thing. So overall it can
be said that this study is really helpful to give essentials of HRM in detail.
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REFERENCES
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Giauque, D., Anderfuhren-Biget, S. and Varone, F., 2013. HRM practices, intrinsic motivators,
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pp.407-423.
Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R. and Kynighou, A., 2016. Human resource
management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.
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McGraw, P., 2013. Recruitment and selection. na, p.205.
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Zibarras, L.D. and Coan, P., 2015. HRM practices used to promote pro-environmental behavior:
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