Introduction to People Management

This document provides an introduction to people management, discussing contemporary issues faced by line management, the knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed to be an effective people manager, and the role of HR in performance management. It also includes case studies and examples from real-life companies.

Introduction to people
management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Discuss the contemporary issues faced by line management when it comes to people
management............................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
Explain knowledge, skills and behaviours are needed to be an effective people manager....3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
Discuss HR process underpin and support management when it comes to effective
performance management......................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
References:.......................................................................................................................................8
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
In today’s 21st century managing people has become the most important function of the Human
resource department of an organisation as the human resource is considered as the most valuable
resource of an organisation (Nandhini and Vimala, 2020). Human resource management is a task
where the line manager of an organisation conducts various activities to ensure there is an
effective workflow in an organisation and organisation is able to provide their employees a
healthy working environment for the effective and efficient performance. But organisations are
facing many contemporary issues regarding managing the people that are discussed in the
following report in context of Marks and Spencer and other real life companies. But also outlines
the skills knowledge and behaviour that is needed to become an effective people manager.
Moreover in the end report highlights the process of performance management to understand and
support the management of an organisation.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Discuss the contemporary issues faced by line management when it comes to people
management
The human resource in the today's Era is considered as the lifeblood of the organisation as there
is huge difference in the functioning of the HR department of the organisation when compared
with traditional HR department (Ahmed, 2020). The changes in the job market, customer
demands, compliance issues and laws have forced the front line manager to develop the
strategies effectively in managing the people of the organisation. Managing people in today's
business environment is not a plain boat to sail. The line manager and management face several
contemporary issues when it comes to workforce management. Therefore it is very essential to
understand those contemporary issues regarding the human resource in order to utilise the
valuable resource of the organisation for its best advantage. Some of contemporary issues that
are faced by the real life organisations of UK are discussed below:
 The gig economy: one of the major contemporary issues that are faced by top
organisations of UK like Marks and Spencer is the shortage of talented people in an
organisation. The talented people with their expertise skills are leaving the organisation
in order to start there freelance work. The change in the lifestyle of the people giving
1

them a desire to work in flexibility and comfort by b getting their own potential clients
through freelancing. This is becoming an issue for the companies like Marks and Spencer
in maintaining their workforce and retaining them for long run. There is the lack of best
talent in the in-house position of the big organisations (Shet, 2020).
 Lack of leadership and communication: The due to the covid-19 situation which gave
the rights to the work from home trend in the various organisations all around the world
has created the contemporary issue of lack of leadership and communication between the
line management and the people of an organisation thereby giving rise to the conflicts
and disputes. For example the National Health Service face the major issue in the
leadership and communication with their employees and managing their performance due
to the work-from-home criteria. The recent trend of working from home has really
created the issue among various other organisations of UK regarding the mismanagement
and this communication between the employees and their HR related to the payment,
appraisals, monitoring performance, leaves etc.
 Innovation and automation: the technology is changing rapidly which is giving rise to
innovation and automation in the big organisations especially among the online retailers.
Amazon one of the biggest online shopping retail store is facing an issue in managing the
people due to rapid change in company’s technology (Booyens, Motala and Ngandu,
2020). As when the new technology implements in an organisation functions and
operations the line manager is required to to train and develop their employees as per that
technology for the productive performance. For this the line manager of Amazon and
facing the contemporary issue in preparing itself in order to train the employees of an
organisation regarding the new technology which is getting really complex with fast and
speedy innovation and automation.
 Changing laws and regulatory: getting updated and compliant with the legal laws and
regulatory issues was always the primary duty of the line manager of an organisation. But
in the today's contemporary world the legal laws and regulatory for the employment is
developing or changing constantly which means the human resource management of an
organisation requires to be on the top for all the changes related to the health,
employment contract, daily wage etc. For instance Tesco one of the largest retail
supermarket Store based in UK is facing the this contemporary issue of changing and
2

evolving loss as company once caught into the jeopardy due to not updated with evolving
law. As with the digitalization there is regular updating in the privacy laws related to the
employees training data if the line manager lacks any new regulation all of the company
is exposed to the penalties, lawsuits or public scrutiny. Also with international business
the company’s line management is required to aware of changing laws in different
countries too.
TASK 2
Explain knowledge, skills and behaviours are needed to be an effective people manager
The emergence of new contemporary challenges and the responsibility in order to tackle and
manage the workforce of the current business environment an effective people manager requires
the significant set of skills (Joy, 2020). The line manager of the Marks and Spencer will need
some kinds of knowledge behaviour and the skills to become an effective people manager that
are discussed below which will help him in effective communication and team building in order
accomplish the objective and goals of the organisation.
 Basic knowledge of employment laws and regulatory: knowledge is the power. The line
manager of the Marks and Spencer must possess the knowledge regarding the laws and
regulatory which is beneficial for the employees and the organisation in order to avoid
any kind of actions like lawsuit or penalties. To become an effective people manager the
line manager must have the knowledge about upcoming regulatory or any changes or
development in the existing laws so that company can implement it in its management
and legal reforms. The line manager should also have knowledge of CSR and ethics
policies.
 Knowledge of HRM software: In the modern business environment every organisations
are using the HRM software in order to store and excess the information of their
employees regarding their payroll, personal information, performance and appraisals etc.
Therefore it is very important for the line manager of Marks and Spencer to have
adequate theoretical and practical knowledge of uses of HRM software in an organisation
in order to analyse the performance of their employees and manage each and every data
regarding the work force which will help the manager in effective management of the
workforce.
3

 Communication skills: One of the most basic and key skill that every manager should
have to become an effective people manager is the communication skills. Because it is
very essential for the manager to pass on a very clear and a formal message to their
employees for the successful accomplishment of a task (Lee and Ahn, 2020). The line
manager of the Marks and Spencer should know how to communicate with their
employees in order to ensure there is a unified workforce with no miscommunication.
Possessing good communication skills benefits the organisation and a line manager in
easy management of their workforce as there is equal flow of information between the
employee and the organisation whether it is a formal or informal written or verbal
communication.
 Organisational skills: Only duty of human resource manager is not recruiting, training or
staffing employees the HR manager must know how to manage the people for which the
manager must have an organisation skills to become the effective people manager.
Therefore, it is important for the HR manager of the Marks and Spencer to have the
organisational skills in order to organise the development plans, employee relations, and
training programs. HR has lots of paperwork for which outstanding organisational skills
is must in order to file each document of the employee systematically in a proper order.
The line manager must have the excellent organisational skills in order to handle the
multiple tasks simultaneously.
 Honest and trust: To become an effective people manager the line manager of Marks and
Spencer must reflect honest and trustworthy behaviour towards their employees so that
the employees of an organisation feel safe and secure while sharing their opinions
feelings to them (Abu-Nahel and et. al., 2020). Relation the trust is a very important
factor therefore it is very important for effective people manager to show their employees
that the trust them and be honest to them in providing them advice. Effective people
manager should also be honest to the employees regarding the feedbacks, appraisal and
their performance so that the employee can grow and develop. Hence, being honest and
truthful is an important aspect that every people manager should reflect in their behaviour
and gesture to become effective people manager.
4

TASK 3
Discuss HR process underpin and support management when it comes to effective performance
management
Performance management is one of the function that line manager of an organisation play in
order to evaluate that set up activities and output given by the employee is meeting the objectives
and the goals of the organisation in an effective manner (Greer, 2021). Performance management
is all about leadership interpersonal relationship a structured and the constructive feedback and
teamwork. In the Modern business environment many big companies have installed the
performance management software’s into their systems to analyse and evaluate the performance
of employees and organisation. There are various key performance indicators that are used by the
effective people manager in the performance management process. Performance management
process is the HRM process that underpin supports the management when there is a requirement
of effective performance management. The steps of HR performance management process are
discussed below:
Figure 1: Performance management model, 2020
(Source: Performance management model, 2020)
 Plan: In the performance management first stage the organisation plants a smart
objective for the employees that will help them in achieving one or more organisations
goal. The planning process also includes the development of the personal development
5

plan. In the planning phase the line manager reviews the employee’s job description with
the work plan and the organisational objectives for the strategic planning (Hristov and et.
al., 2021).
 Coach: The second stage of the performance management process is the coaching phase
where the employees are trained and coached regarding the concern and issues related to
the performance so that are not repeated and can be improved for the accomplishment of
further objectives of the organisation. In this phase the line manager monitors the day-to-
day activities of the employees for their performance management.
 Evaluate: The third stage of the performance management process is the evaluation of
performance of the employee and the objectives that are been accomplished during the
period of a time. The line manager tracks the performance measures the progress of the
employee according to the personal development plan identify various errors and delays.
In this stage the employees are given their feedback regarding the performance according
to the customer’s feedback by meeting them personally.
 Reward: The last stage of the performance management process is the reward stage
where the supervisor of the line manager of the Marks and Spencer will provide their
employees the rewards and the appraisal as per their outstanding performance in
achieving the goals and objective of an organisation and completing the smart objective
within the time frame. This process is mainly carried out at the end of the year for which
a particular ceremony is organised by the organisation (Rao and et. al., 2020).
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report on managing the people that in today's modern world
where there are hundreds of contemporary issues that are faced by the line management of the
big and the small companies is very important to implement the effective and efficient people
management strategies in the organisation for productive and profitable performance of the most
valuable resource of the organisation that is the human resource. For the managing the people of
an organisation it is very important for the line manager of an organisation to have good
communication skills with the adequate knowledge about the HRM policies and subject to
become an effective people manager. In order to retain the employees for the long-term in an
6

organisation the performance management is the most effective technique and tool that will help
in appraising and rewarding the employees for their better performance and accomplishment of
company's smart objectives.
7

References:
Books and Journals
Abu-Nahel, Z.O and et. al., 2020. Human Resource Flexibility and Its Relationship to Improving
the Quality of Services.
Ahmed, S., 2020. Human Resource Management Practices as an Antecedent of Employee
Performance. Business, Management and Economics Research. 6(10). pp.152-160.
Booyens, I., Motala, S. and Ngandu, S., 2020. Tourism innovation and sustainability:
implications for skills development in South Africa. In Sustainable Human Resource
Management in Tourism (pp. 77-92). Springer, Cham.
Greer, C.R., 2021. Strategic human resource management. Pearson Custom Publishing.
Hristov, I and et. al., 2021. The role of the environmental dimension in the Performance
Management System: A systematic review and conceptual framework. Journal of
Cleaner Production, p.126075.
Joy, H., 2020. Stress management and employee performance. European Journal of Human
Resource Management Studies.
Lee, D. and Ahn, C., 2020. Industrial human resource management optimization based on skills
and characteristics. Computers & Industrial Engineering. 144. p.106463.
Nandhini, B.R. and Vimala, B.S., 2020. 21. IMPERATIVE ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES. International Review of
Business and Economics. 4. pp.124-129.
Rao, M and et. al., 2020. Evolution of Performance Management Systems and the Impact on
Organization’s Approach: A Statistical Perspective. International Journal of
Management. 11(5).
Shet, S.V., 2020. Strategic talent management–contemporary issues in international
context. Human Resource Development International. 23(1). pp.98-102.
8