Factors to Consider in Human Resource Planning

This research project discusses the internal and external factors to consider when planning human resource requirements. It also outlines how organizations motivate employees and explains how employee performance is measured and managed. The chosen organization for this research is Morrisons, 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 ...........2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3 Outline how organisations motivate its employees...............................................................3
P4 Explain how organisations obtain the cooperation of their employees................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
P5 Explain how employee performance is measured and managed. ........................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
.........................................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
In this current scenario, human resources plays important role in every organisation
because they helps to complete the organisational tasks and achieve long and short term goals
and objectives as well. In the addition of this, human resource management essential for every
business firm for managing and handling them in appropriate manner. This research project will
be discussing about internal and external factors which will assist in planning to the human
resource requirements of an organisation (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Moreover, outline of
organisations motivates its employees will be explaining. Also will be identify how employees
performance is measured and managed in appropriate manner. In this research assignment
Morrison’s has chosen, it is an supermarket of UK.
TASK 1
P1 Internal and external factors to consider when planning the human resource requirements
My chosen organisation – Morrisons
The business I will be evaluating throughout unit 16 is Morrisons. This company has over
500,000+ colleagues worldwide as well as 7,817 stores. This company also averagely generates
69.7 billion in profit yearly. This store is known worldwide in big cities such as China, India,
Poland and more. The key competitors involved in the supermarket industry are Morison’s,
Sainsbury’s, Lidl, Asda and the Co-op. Finally, the aims and objectives Morrisons have are
defined to be:
 offering customers the best value for money and the most competitive prices
 meeting the needs of customers by constantly seeking, and acting on, their opinions
regarding innovation, product quality, choice, store facilities and service
 providing shareholders with progressive returns on their investment improving
profitability through investment in efficient stores and distribution depots, in productivity
improvements and in new technology (Boxall and Purcell, 2011).
 developing the talents of its people through sound management and training practices,
while rewarding them fairly with equal opportunities for all
 working closely with suppliers to build long term business relationships based on strict
quality and price criteria
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 participating in the formulation of national food industry policies on key issues such as
health, nutrition, hygiene, safety and animal welfare
 supporting the well-being of the community and the protection of the environment.
Human Resource Management There are many ways at which human resource
management (HRM for short) can be defined as. The human resource department deals generally
with recruitment and training, however the management of HR tends to be defined as the process
of planning future HR duties. For example, this department will have to anticipate future job
needs that may arise and be prepared to assist in fulfilling these necessities. Overall, Human
Resource Management mainly focuses on planning long/short term strategies that will assist in
the management of the employees involved in an organisation like Morrisons, weather that be
future training or recruitment (Bratton and Gold, 2012).
P2 Describe how the skills that employees require to carry out jobs in an organisation
Illustration 1: Human resource management, 2017
(Source- Human resource management, 2017)
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
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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 (Guest, 2011).
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
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 (Jiang and et.al., 2012).
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.
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%
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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.
Pension schemes – This type of will motivate staff specifically aware of their financial
stability after work. This type of reward may not appeal to everyone, such as young 17-19 year
old working within Morrisons who may not be considering a pension scheme during this
proportion of their life. However, people in their late 20s/30’s may begin considering and
planning for their future with regards to finance. Having a pension scheme is very important to
many people in this age bracket, especially one with many benefits. By a company offering one
on general will motivate staff to work to the best of ability so that they can enjoy a possible
indulgent life during retirement. Morrisons particularly has an award winning pension scheme
which will allow for their staff to be greatly motivated.
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.
Within Morrisons all staff have the same uniform and dress code representing the colours of the
company.
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.
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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 (Wright and
McMahan, 2011).
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.
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 (Harzing and Pinnington, 2010).
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 (Berman and et.al., 2012). Performance management can be compared to this in a way
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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. The benefit to Morrisons when using this type of performance
measurement method is that they are able to visually see their current highest ranking sales staff
and those lacking in accomplishment. This can result in the company potentially rewarding those
who achieving and working hard, and re-train those who are not. By doing this, it will overall
improve the quality of their staff thus improving the business. Goal theory is another
performance measurement that Morrisons uses (Lengnick-Hall, Beck and Lengnick-Hall, 2011).
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned this research project it has been concluded that, human
resource management played important role in every kid of business firm. Because it assist to
managed and controlled all employees in appropriate manner. So they could complete their
decided tasks and targets with effective outcomes.
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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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Will AI Replace 'Human' In Human Resource Management?, 2016. [Online] Available through:
<http://businessworld.in/article/Will-AI-Replace-Human-In-Human-Resource-
Management-/18-07-2017-122360/>. [Accessed on 18th August 2017]
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