UK Employment Law and HRM Practices

This assignment delves into UK employment law, examining relevant legislation such as the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and Working Time Regulations 1998. It further explores contemporary Human Resource Management (HRM) practices in the UK, including work-life balance initiatives, employee development programs, and the integration of sustainability principles into HRM strategies. The analysis draws upon provided academic sources and practical insights to shed light on the evolving landscape of employment law and HRM within the UK.

Running Head: HRM 1
Human Resource Management

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Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................................3
HR functions in a contemporary business environment:.............................................................................3
Planning related to Human Resource management:...................................................................................5
HR planning and Policies:........................................................................................................................5
HR practices and management of performance:.........................................................................................7
Influence of employment Legislation on HR practices:................................................................................9
Pay & wages:...........................................................................................................................................9
Contracted working times:......................................................................................................................9
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................................10
References:................................................................................................................................................11
Introduction:
Human resource management in organization mainly focuses on the matters related to employees
such as recruiting, managing, and directing the people who work within the organization. Human

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Resource management mainly deals with the issues related to compensation, performance of the
management, development of organization, safety of employees, employment rights, wellness,
benefits, employee motivation, training and others. In other words, HRM department play
strategic role in managing the people and also the workplace culture and environment (Guest,
1999; Wright & McMahan, 2011). If HRM departments work effectively then it greatly
contributes to the success of the company.
This paper discusses the people management issues faced by the GTR, how GTR can implement
a sustainable HR planning, development activity which must be employed by GTR, and
provisions related to employment legislation. Lastly, paper is concluded with brief conclusion
which also contains the recommendations for the GTR.
HR functions in a contemporary business environment:
GTR facing various issues related to employees management, but two most severe issues faced
by GTR are stated below and this section also state that how HR department can proactively
manage that issue:
Pay Roll Issue: responsibility related to payroll system falls between the remits of the account
and human resource department, and this department commonly face the issues of accurate
payment to the staff. It is the duty of organization to maintain the satisfaction level of employees
related to their wages and remuneration. GTR is facing the issue related to wages and because of
this issue employees can even opt for strike. This will adversely affect the profit as well as
reputation of the company.
For the purpose of maintaining the morale and prevent the future problems related to payroll, it is
necessary that HR department must consider following things while dealing with the issues:

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 HR professionals must ensure that they are paying competitive pay rates for the purpose
of attracting and retaining the right talent in the organization. For this purpose they can
compare their rates with the rates published in surveys and rates paid by their competitors
in the market.
 HR department must consider the legal provisions while deciding their payroll system
and managing the compensation programs. For the purpose of being competitive with
external environment it is necessary that payment made to employees must be equal
within the organization. Usually, company pays more too high performers as compared to
others which create pay difference between the employees within the organization and
disturbs the satisfaction level of employees (Ruhland, 2015).
Growing burden of Work: Another issue faced by organization, while managing the people at
workplace is maintaining the work life balance of employees in the organization. Excess
workload is the issue which is faced by the employees and it makes the situation worst in this
economic challenging environment. GTR is also facing this issue by introducing the scheme of
DOO and train drivers are not ready to opt for this scheme, as they argued it will cause
disruption in their work life balance.
Work life balance is considered as an approach which ensures that time of the employees must
be efficiently split between the work and other important aspects of their lives. HR department
can resolve this issue effectively by suing following methods:
 HR department must conduct training and development process in the organization, and
such training and development program must include Personal Effectiveness,
management of time, finding the perfect balance of life, approach which is mindful in

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nature, and program which helps in managing the work and time balance. GTR can also
achieve this balance by providing proper training and development to their employees
regarding the DOO scheme (Heathfield, 2016).
 HR department can also arrange some health and family programs which help the
employees and workers in arranging their priorities and maintain the balance in their
work and personal life.
 HR department of GTR must opts tools which help the drivers of the company in
reducing their burden of work.
Planning related to Human Resource management:
There are number of definitions of sustainability and many experts define the role of human
resource department in achieving the sustainability. Business which is sustainable is ready to
face the challenges coming in future and it also deals effectively with the internal issues faced by
the organization. It cannot be considered as practice which is related to risk management, but it is
considered as an approach which helps in managing the employees, products, and process of the
organization. Organization which ensures sustainability approach easily adopt the changes
occurred in external and internal environment. Sustainable HR planning ensures quick adaptation
of changes and also helps in resolving organizational issues (CreativeHRM, n.d.).
HR planning and Policies:
For the purpose of ensuring the continuous growth it is necessary to frame effective sustainable
HR planning process in the organization. It is also necessary that HR department redesign its
plans and policies on continuous basis, especially those policies which are related to performance
management, training and development, rewards and recognition, payroll policies, and selection
process.

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The main aims of HR planning process is to ensure that policies and procedures designed by HR
department is to ensure sustainability in organization and second purpose is to ensure that factors
which are related to sustainability are introduced in the competencies of both individual and
organization, teams, and plans and goals of department (Schroeder, 2012).
There is strong evidence which states that implementation of effective sustainable HR planning
process significantly affect the motivation level of employees and development and retaining of
staff. This can be understood through example, Novo Nordisk, a high-value CSR pharmaceutical
company situated in Denmark include their values in action program which aligns their business
objectives with the principles of sustainable development and this result in reduction in turnover
of staff by 5%. International study related to practitioners of Human resource is conducted by
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) shows that CSR practices are very important
employee morale (50%), loyalty (41%), retention (29%), recruitment of top employees (25%)
and productivity (12%) (SHRM, 2007).
Compensation and management program is the important tool of strategic HR planning and it is
the central to the HR function. In this program HR must ensure that accurate performance
standards and expectations are set, and must monitor the results related to performance
objectives. GTR can adopt this program and introduced this in organization for the purpose of
resolving payroll disputes with the train drivers. This program includes the policies and
procedures related to total reward and recognition program which includes the base salary, pay
related to incentive, long term incentives, and other monetary and non-monetary recognition
benefits. Such practices must be aligned with the CSR values and strategy of organization.

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Other tool which can be used by the human resource practitioners is changes made in corporate
culture, management process, and team building. These changes must be done on time to time
basis as per the changes occurred in external environment (Government of Canada, 2009;
Weinreb, 2012).
HR practices and management of performance:
It must be noted that even one underperforming employee of the company can result in short
falling of company’s potential. Therefore, it is the priority of HR department in organization to
identify the underperformance of employees and reason behind that underperformance, but
improving the performance of employees is not an easy task. Number of activities is present
which help in improving the performance of employees. This section states the development
activity through which GTR can increase the performance of their employees.
It is necessary to identify the reason because of which employees are underperforming, as
sometimes the problem would be lack of resources or may be employees are not properly trained.
However, it might be possible outside factors are also influencing the employees and distracting
them from their work. It might be possible that interest of the employee conflict with the goals of
the company or lack of motivation. No matter, what the reason is it is necessary to find the issue
for solving it. For the purpose of identifying the reason, it is necessary that management clearly
communicate with the employees. Mangers must make it easy for underperforming employee to
communicate the barriers which result in underperformance, so that manager and HR department
can remove those barriers. If manger clearly and openly communicates with the employee then
it will also encourage the team to communicate every issue and concentrate on their work. Clear
and effective communication is the key which helps in improving the relationship between
employees and organization. In case of GTR, there is lack of clear and effective communication

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between the trade unions and management which lead to strike in the organization nad such
adverse effect on GTR operations.
Effective communication also leads in positive work environment because employees are
intimidated with the superiors and share their problems with them. It helps in creating the work
culture under which employees can share their ideas, issues, and opinions with their superiors
because of which it becomes easy to solve the issues at initial level. Providing positive
environment for employees in the organization helps in achieving the goals of the organization
(Smither, London & Reilly, 2005).
Other important tool which enhances the performance of the employee is the effective training
and development programs. From start, it is necessary to provide proper training to the
employees as it informs the employees about their actions and how efficiently they can perform
their actions. Once the process of training and development program is completed then it helps
the employees in contributing their best performance and unique ideas for the success of the
organization. However, it is important for HR department to ensure that training and
development program is not the onetime thing, which means training must be provided on time
to time basis for adopting the changes occurred in external and internal environment. It must be
noted that, ongoing training is the only way through which performance of the employees can be
improved on continuous basis (HR bartender, 2016).
Influence of employment Legislation on HR practices:
Pay & wages:
Workers in UK aged 16 years or over the age of 16 years are legally entitled to a national
minimum hourly wage, and such wage does not depend on the location of the work, size of the

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business, and occupation of the worker. It also includes the casual laborers, agency workers,
home workers, etc. The minimum age of worker in UK is depends on the age of the worker and
apprenticeship. Minimum wages of workers in UK are set in the National Minimum Wage Act
1988, and workers has right to receive a minimum gross hourly wage. Rates set by Act are
usually increased on annual basis and these rates are set on the basis of recommendations of the
Low Pay Commission. Currently minimum wage rate for workers in UK are £7.50 per hour for
workers aged over 25, £7.05 per hour for workers aged 21 to 24 and £5.60 per hour for workers
aged 18 to 20.
All the employees of the organization have right to get paid for the work they have done, and
they also has right to get the pay if they are willing to work but their employer is not able to
provide work to them, unless contract signed by worker contain any other provisions. The ways
through which wages of the employees are paid completely depend on the employment contract
provisions signed by the employee. Therefore, it is necessary that employment contract signed
by worker must state the rate of remuneration and method of calculation (McGrath & Clark,
n.d.).
Contracted working times:
Maximum working hours are stated by the Working Time Regulations 1998, and as per this Act
employers must consider all the reasonable steps for the purpose of ensuring that workers of the
organization must not work more than an average of 48 hours in each week. This average is
taken over a reference period of 17 weeks (which is extended to 26 weeks for certain workers). It
is the duty of employer to maintain the records for the period of two years.
Other provision related to maximum working hours is Opt-out agreements, and as per this
agreement workers can opt out of the weekly limit of 48 hours by signing the agreement. This

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agreement gives right to the worker to terminate the same by giving notice for 3 months. This
agreement must be entered into voluntarily and it is not lawful to victimize or dismiss a worker
for not signing the agreement (Rusell, n.d.).
Conclusion:
After considering the above facts, it is clear that effective working of human resource department
is very necessary for managing the people. It is the only department which play strategic role in
managing the people and also the workplace culture and environment. Issues faced by GTR can
be considered as clear failure of the HR department in managing the employees and resolve the
issues. As sated above, underperforming employee of the company can result in short falling of
company’s potential. Therefore, it is the priority of HR department in organization to identify the
underperformance of employees and reason behind that underperformance.
It is recommended to GTR that they must establish effective communication system in their
organization which helps the organization in creating positive environment and solve the issue
faced by employees at initial stage in the organization. For solving these issues GTR can
introduce Compensation and management program, which is considered as important tool of
strategic HR planning and it is the central to the HR function. GTR can also introduce various
training and development programs.

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References:
Clark, K. & McGrath, P. Employment and employee benefits in UK (England and Wales):
overview. Available at: https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/7-503-4973?
transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true&bhcp=1. Accessed on 2nd
November 2017.
Creative HRM. HR Goals and Objectives: Sustainable Business and Organization. Available at:
http://www.creativehrm.com/hr-gos-sustainability.html. Accessed on 2nd November 2017.
Government of Canada, (2009). Human Resources for Sustainability. Available at:
https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/csr-rse.nsf/eng/h_rs00552.html#step6. Accessed on 2nd November
2017.
Guest, D. (1999). Human resource management - the workers' verdict. Human resource
management Journal, Volume 9 (3), Pp 5–25.
Heathfield, S. (2016). Work-Life Balance. Available at: https://www.thebalance.com/work-life-
balance-1918292. Accessed on 2nd November 2017.
HR bartender, (2016). 10 Activities that Encourage Employees to Take the Lead in Their
Development. Available at: https://www.hrbartender.com/2016/career-development/10-
activities-encourage-employee-development/. Accessed on 2nd November 2017.
National Minimum Wage Act, 1998
Ruhland, T. (2015). 5 Common Problems With Payroll Management. Available at:
http://blog.accuchex.com/5-common-problems-with-payroll-management. Accessed on 2nd
November 2017.
Rusell, T. A guide to uk employment law. Available at:
http://www.tim-russell.co.uk/upimages/employment%20guide.pdf. Accessed on 2nd November
2017.
Schroeder, H. (2012). The Importance of Human Resource Management in Strategic
Sustainability: An Art and Science Perspective. Journal of Environmental Sustainability, Volume
2 (2), Pp- 75-81.
Smither, J. London, M. & Reilly, R. (2005). Does performance improve following multisource
feedback? A theoretical model, meta-analysis, and review of empirical findings. Journal of
Personnel psychology, Volume 58 (1), Pp 33–66.

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Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). (2007). 2007 Corporate Social
Responsibility: United States, Australia, India, China, Canada, Mexico and Brazil: A Pilot
Study. Virginia, US: Author.
Weinreb, E. (2012). When sustainability meets human resources. Available at:
https://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/07/22/when-sustainability-meets-human-resources.
Accessed on 2nd November 2017.
Working Time Regulations 1998.
Wright, P. & McMahan, G. (2011). Exploring human capital: putting ‘human’ back into strategic
human resource management. Human resource management Journal, Volume 21 (2), Pp 93-104.