Factors to Consider in Human Resource Planning

This research project discusses the internal and external factors involved in human resource planning, the skills required by employees, methods of employee motivation, and strategies for obtaining employee cooperation. It also explores how employee performance is measured and managed. The case study focuses on Morrison's, a UK supermarket.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Internal and external factors to consider when planning the human resource requirements. 1
P2 Describe how the skills that employees require to carry out jobs in an organisation ..........3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3 Outline how organisations motivate its employees...............................................................4
P4 Explain how organisations obtain the cooperation of their employees................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5 Explain how employee performance is measured and managed. ........................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
.........................................................................................................................................................8
.........................................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
In this current time period, human resource management plays important role in every
organisation for managing and controlling all employees in appropriate manner. HR department
of business plays several functions such as it helps to recruit and select applicable and suitable
candidates for an specific job profile in an selected company. As well as on the time provides
proper training to them so they can learn and improve working performance as well. This
research project will be discussing about internal and external factors which required in the
human resource planning process (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). In the addition of this,
necessary employees skills and capabilities will be defining in appropriate manner. Moreover,
how the organisation motivate its employees then several methods and techniques also will be
describing. In the context of organisation, Morrison’s has been chosen it is an supermarket of
UK, it dealing all kind of home products and goods.
TASK 1
P1 Internal and external factors to consider when planning the human resource requirements
Internal Planning Factors
Planning Factors: These are the factors that relate to what is already happening inside the
business. This includes how the organisation is changing to cope with new methods of working
or new demands made on it, such as the introduction of technology or new products or services.
It is also a way of considering the new skills that will be needed in the future and those that the
existing staffs already have. The gap between the skills already present and those that are needed
can be measured (Berman and et.al., 2012).
Organisational needs: The workforce needs to be able to adapt to changes. Demand for
products and services will affect the number of people needed in certain roles. Businesses can
look to move into new markets – this could mean abroad and staff needing new skills such as
languages. More staff may be needed in distribution if the business grows. Technological change
can also affect the internal working arrangements – machinery leads to redundancies, new
training may be needed etc. (Internet shopping and self-scan checkouts) Outsourcing production
to cheaper countries.
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Skills requirements: Assessing the skills of the current workforce is an essential part of
human resources planning as it enables a business to build up a profile of the training, experience
and qualifications that employees already have. This is very important whether the business is
capital intensive or labour intensive ( Bloom and Van Reenen, 2011). As the nature and type of
work changes within an organisation, so do the skills requirements. An organisation must
measure the skills levels of its workforce in order to plan for the future – appraisals, awards,
certificates etc.
Illustration 1: Human resource management, 2017
(Source-Human resource management, 2017 )
Workforce profiles: This means that a manager can view and monitor the types of
employee working for the business. They usually include details such as age, gender, ethnicity
and availability. Knowing ages can help you plan for the future and also ensures that you fulfill
any legislation requirements. Large gaps in ages can cause problems so this allows you to
combat this. Profiling the qualifications and training of your workforce allows a business to
make use of any special skills staff members have.
Businesses operate in an external environment in which as well as competition from
rivals businesses have to take account of legal, political, social and economic influences.
A SLEPT(Social, Legal, Economic, Political, Technological) analysis is often carried out
by business planners which enables them to develop more informed strategies (i.e. long term
plans).
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 Social: Relate to change is society and social structures. Changes in the structure of the
population, and in consumer lifestyles and behaviour affect buying patterns.
 Legal: Relate to changes in laws and regulations. Businesses must be careful to keep
within the law and to anticipate ways in which changes in laws will affect the way they
must behave (Boxall and Purcell, 2011).
 Political: Relate to ways in which changes in government and government policy can
influence business.
 Economical: Relate to changes in the wider economy. A growing economy provides
greater opportunities for businesses to make profits, so businesses welcome rising living
standards.
P2 Describe how the skills that employees require to carry out jobs in an organisation
There are several ways through which the business firm can identify the required skills.
Some of these processes are by assessing the desired skills set, skills audit, skills transferability,
skills acquisition and by determining the impact of technology. To begin with, a skills audit is a
procedure that is used to identify the skill gaps in an organisation. In other words, it is a review
of employees’ existing skills against the skills that they will need both now and in the future. It
can help to identify existing skills, which additional skills they may need to carry out a role more
effectively and to develop overall knowledge as well. Through this process, a company
investigates what skills their employees have and from this, identify whether certain individuals
need to develop their skills and how. A business might also assess the existing skills which an
employee has and thus find out whether these skills match new organisational objectives. In
many cases, some employees may already have the necessary skills, but may not be using them.
As such, the business concerned, can transfer an employee to a different department where their
skills might be more useful. Therefore, in this situation, the Morrison’s might use these existing
employees instead of employing new external staff. This process is known as skills
transferability (Bratton and Gold, 2012).
In short, without the information from a skills audit, an organisation will not know where
to improve. Another advantage of the skills audit is that, it enables future training and
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development to be better targeted. The business will be aware of which aspects need further
consideration and thus improve, based on the results of the skills audit. Also, as a result, the
employers will already know which skills they lack and thus better define their recruitment
criteria to address this shortage and this is more likely to result in the most appropriate candidate
being employed. Moving on, nowadays, technology is changing the way people work and this
has had a significant impact on the number of employees that organisations need to employ, their
resources and level of technical expertise required. As technology is evolving at a fast pace,
employees with a high technological expertise have an advantage over those who do not.
Changes do not always mean fewer employees in Morrisons, but simply that there are changes to
the skills required (CHUANG and Liao, 2010).
TASK 2
P3 Outline how organisations motivate its employees.
Introduction: Within all businesses it is important to ensure all staff is motivated and
performing to the best of their ability. Motivation is defined to be the type of work ethic that
ensures employees are interested and committed to the job role they are in and work to meet the
necessary targets of the organisation. Motivation is usually controlled and stimulated through
internal and external factors. Motivated over all perform better, which ensure the company is
running to the best of ability (Guest, 2011).
Performance related pay – This type of motivational method allows for a successful,
hard-working employ to receive a benefit for their motivational attitude and extended dedication
to an organisation. For example, within Morrisons specifically, if an employee was to sell 40%
more stock than expected and show a positive attitude whilst doing so this company is likely to
reward them with cash related bonus alongside their monthly check. This will encourage other
employees to become self-motivated to reach the standard required for this bonus.
Corporate clothing – Many companies may not realise the full benefit of corporate
clothing. Having a specific dress code and uniform for a job will affect the performance of an
employee greatly. Just like school when a person has a specific uniform it will automatically put
them in the mind-set that they are going to work at which they will have responsibilities and
tasks to perform throughout the day. Having this type of work attitude will influence a person to
perform to the standard required and expected from their employer overall motivating them.
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Within Morrisons all staff have the same uniform and dress code representing the colours of the
company (Harzing and Pinnington, 2010).
Maternity leave – Though it is the law to have maternity leave for parents, a generous
one will motivate staff greatly. Though the employees within Morrisons may not specifically be
planning on having children they have the security of a generous maternity leave to use to their
benefit. Having this benefit in place also results in employees within the organisation feeling as
though their cares about them, which may give them the motivation to perform to the best of
their ability for the soul purpose of the fact that they enjoy their work and appreciate their
employer.
Employee share schemes – Morrisons, even though it is a large organisation and well
known market leader, does offer its employees a share scheme and opportunity to purchase the
right to own a small percentage of its business. This is a very successful way to motivate staff,
the reason for this is quite simple.
P4 Explain how organisations obtain the cooperation of their employees.
It will explain how Morrisons get their employees to co-operate through contracts of
employment and employee involvement techniques. The contract of employment is made
between employer and employee and a salary is agreed in return for duties. The most contracts of
employment are written statements received only after two months of work (Jiang and et.al.,
2012).
Contractual Entitlements: This lets the Morrisons and the employee know what is
expected from one another. This includes the wages, holiday pay, sick pay, the hours of work,
disciplinary rules and pension schemes.
Employee and employer rights: This is express and implied terms. Express terms are
written in the contract, i.e. 28 days holiday/annum and implied terms are not written in the
contract because these should already be known, i.e. the employer will provide a safe place to
work and the employee will be honest and loyal.
Types of employment contract: There are different types of employment contracts
offered by Matthew Boulton Morrisons such as : permanent, temporary, casual, full-time, part-
time, zero hours, annual hours, fractional, term time-only, self employed.
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Disciplinary procedures: These are a set of guidelines and rules that are given to
Matthew Boulton Morrisons’ employees so that they can be aware of the consequences if rules
are not followed.
Grievance procedures: A grievance procedure is a process that helps employees brings
something of concern to their employer’s attention (Lengnick-HallBeck and Lengnick-Hall,
2011).
TASK 3
P5 Explain how employee performance is measured and managed.
Many businesses including Morrisons will monitor its employee’s performance to ensure
they are working to the best of the ability. By monitoring their staff it will enable the company to
see the skill sets they may be lacking within their organisation and the type of solutions that may
resolve this, such as re-training and recruitment. Performance measurement is defined to be the
regular observation of the outcomes and results of a specific scenario. This process generally
produces reliable data at which can be used to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of a
business (Wright and McMahan, 2011). Performance management can be compared to this in a
way at which it is producing the same result, as to weather a specific scenario (in this case
employees) is achieving to the standard required. The process of performance management
however is the communication between a manger and employee that can occur regularly
throughout the year to discuss strategies, potential accomplishments and the needed requirements
to improve the running of the business. Performance Measurement within Morrisons There are
many ways at which Morrisons measures the performance of employees, such as performance
indicators. This type of measurement is specifically dedicated to how an employee is working
and their current accomplishment. For example the sales team within Morrisons will have
performance indicators with regards to their sales.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned this research project it has been concluded that, human
resource management played significant role in every organisation. Because it helps to managed
and control on all employees of firm. In the addition of this, HRM affected by several internal
and external factors, that has been defined in appropriate manner.
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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.
Berman, E. M., and et.al., 2012. Human resource management in public service: Paradoxes,
processes, and problems. Sage.
Bloom, N. and Van Reenen, J., 2011. Human resource management and productivity. Handbook
of labor economics. 4. pp.1697-1767.
Boxall, P. and Purcell, J., 2011. Strategy and human resource management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave
Macmillan.
CHUANG, C. H. and Liao, H. U. I., 2010. Strategic human resource management in service
context: Taking care of business by taking care of employees and customers. Personnel
psychology. 63(1). pp.153-196.
Guest, D. E., 2011. Human resource management and performance: still searching for some
answers. Human resource management journal. 21(1). pp.3-13.
Harzing, A. W. and Pinnington, A. eds., 2010. International human resource management. Sage.
Jiang, K., and et.al., 2012. How does human resource management influence organizational
outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Academy of
management Journal. 55(6). pp.1264-1294.
Lengnick-Hall, C. A., Beck, T. E. and Lengnick-Hall, M. L., 2011. Developing a capacity for
organizational resilience through strategic human resource management. Human
Resource Management Review. 21(3). pp.243-255.
Wright, P. M. and McMahan, G. C., 2011. Exploring human capital: putting ‘human’back into
strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Journal. 21(2).
pp.93-104.
Online
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Human Resources Management (HRM), 2017. [Online]. Available through: <http://amp-
vaccinology.org/human-resources-management-hrm>. [Accessed on 23rd August 2017]
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