Strategic Human Resource Management

This assignment delves into the relationship between strategic human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational performance. It requires students to critically analyze relevant research literature, exploring various HRM strategies, their impact on different business outcomes, and the factors influencing this connection. The analysis should encompass concepts like soft regulation, sectoral differences in HRM applications, ethical considerations, and the role of HRM intensity in small businesses.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................3
P1: The role and aim of HRM relevant for workforce planning and resourcing in
organisation............................................................................................................................3
P2: Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection............4
TASK 2......................................................................................................................................6
P3: Profit of different HRM practices for employee and employer ......................................6
P4: HRM practices effectuality in terms of productivity and profitability ...........................8
TASK 3....................................................................................................................................10
P5: Employees relations importance in order to influence decision-making of HRM........10
P6: The key elements of employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision-making
..............................................................................................................................................11
TASK 4....................................................................................................................................12
P7: The application of HRM practices in a work-related context........................................12
CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
All field has obtained advancement for the reason to meet the requirements of time.
Through its systematic methodology, the management has now become an art. An innovative
management type which is prevailing and spreading in the business firms is human resource
management. A company cannot build a good team of professionals at the workplace without
having an effective human resource management. Here, the report is briefing about the key
functions and role played by the HR manager in the recruitment, selection and proper
management of manpower in the company. Several HRM practices and their implications at
the workplace is also defined to measure its benefits for the Canary Wharf firm. The paper is
also illustrating elements of employees’ legislation together with its impact on HRM decision
making and practices.
TASK 1
P1: The role and aim of HRM relevant for workforce planning and resourcing in organisation
HRM basically refers to managing people and their specific task within an organization.
Many authors and scholars had tried to define human resource management in different
words and ways, however, it basically describes that how to manage employees in the firm.
As per the view of Decenzo and Robbins (1988), HRM deals with the people conception in
business management. Another definition by Mathis & Jackson (2003), human resource
management is a formal system which is designed to ensure optimum utilization of human
talent in order to achieve organisational objectives. Thus, HRM can be defined as a
systematic process of procuring, developing and maintaining available limited skilled
workforce so that the human resource is effectively and efficiently utilised for achieving
organisational goals (Auer and Cazes, 2003).
It's the employee who carry out several work activities in an organization. The major
role of HR manager is that managing people in a proper way so that they can work very
efficiently to perform such type of activities. Therefore, HRM mainly deals with several
activities that directly relates to the employees such as hiring and recruiting, performance
management, compensation, training and development, safety, wellness, goodness, employee
motivation, dispute resolution and communication (Wilthagen and Tros, 2004). In this way,
HR professionals work as a consultant for managers in the organisation advising them how to
plan an action to managing people as enterprise resources and how to utilize them for
achieving organisational goals (Benjamin, 2017).

In addition to this, it can be said that there are diverse approaches which need to be
employed by experts for better HRM practices. Hard and soft human resource practice allows
to have better opportunities so that long term sustainability can be accomplished. In hard and
soft approach, management treats their employees as resource of their business and source of
their competitive advantage respectively. It has been noticed that soft approach allows to
have better long term workforce planning and it is mainly dependent over two way
communication. Along with this, hard approach is more suitable for short term changes and
in this minimal communication is being interpreted into account.
The organisational purpose of the HRM is to recognise its contribution for
organisational effectiveness. The functional objective is to maintain the contribution of HRM
activities as per the organisation’s needs. The major responsibilities of HRM is consist of
well analysis of job function and staffing, well utilization of work force, appraisal and reward
system for the best performance of their employees and development of workers or proper
maintainance of work. Moreover, HRM provide the necessary tools, techniques, and methods
which helps to create a favourable and positive business environment for innovation and
employee development (Bernardin, 2002).
P2: Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection
Recruitment is the simple and most effective function of HRM and that directly relates
to the functioning of organisation and their effective planning as well. This process is directly
refers to the approach of selecting skilled employees for particular organisation. The firm
must be able to select enough emplyees who have the required abilities and competence
which are required to carry out the particular job’s responsibilities (Tekleab and Taylor,
2003). An effective employee selection procedure defines the effectiveness of recruiting
process which helps the organization to achieve its objectives. The recruitment process is
associated with other personnel management functions such as performance evaluation,
compensation management, employee relations, training and development (Bianca, 2016).
The recruitment process is a systematic approach which begins with the knowledge of
vacancy in the organisation and finishes after the appointment has been made. Recruitment
process has several stages like; find vacancy in a firm, prepare a perfect job description,
advertising that vacancy, make a perfect strategy to manage response, short-listing of job
applicants, conducting interviews and making final decision to select a skilled candidate for
firm (Blyton and Turnbull, 2004).

Basically, there are two main sources of recruitment available to the organisation –
internal recruitment and external recruitment. Internal recruitment sources are associated with
filling up the vacancy from candidates within the organisation which include promotions,
transfers, employee referrals, former employees, retrenched employees, compassionate
appointments etc (Practical Approaches to Recruitment and Selection, 2017). External
sources of recruitment refers to the hiring candidates from outside the organisation to fill job
openings such as employment agencies, executive search firms, college recruitment,
professional associations, labour unions, competitors and other firms, internet and media
sources etc (Recruitment Methods: Approaches to Selection, 2017). There are various
benefits and shortcomings associated with internal and external sources of recruitment which
are listed below. Hence, it is clear that both factors are well suited for firm and selection
varies for different condition and job recruitments(Bruce, 2013).
Recruitment
Source
Internal recruitment External recruitment
Strengths  Better assessment of abilities
 Motivation for good
performance
 Increased morale of promote
 Successive promotions are
encouraged
 Quicker and lower cost of the
process
 People are familiar with the
organisation culture
 Cheaper and faster if desired
candidate profile is available
due to less requirement of
training
 Discourage internal politics
 Bring new insight, knowledge
and new perspective
Weaknesses  Less morale for employees
who do not get promotion
opportunity
 Political struggling for
promotions
 Morale issues for internal
candidate who missed the
opportunity for promotion
 Longer and more expensive
process

 Harmful inbreeding restricts
the number of suitable
applicants
TASK 2
P3: Profit of different HRM practices for employee and employer
Different HRM exercises are carried out by the Human Resource Department of the
organisation to manage employees in order to effectively achieve the organizational
objectives. Some of those practices include training and development, job design and
performance management. Designing of job is the process of structuring all the data related to
the specific task and according to that job related data as well as skills can be analysed
(Evans, Pucik and Barsoux, 2002). The performance management group mainly helps in
positive acknowledgement of staff workers efforts by rewarding the same. It starts with well
define process of worker's role and this will help to achieve the organisation's objectives and
also find responsibilities as well. This process mainly observed the performance of the
working of each employees and also provides the feedback to the employees to ensuring their
path in achieving organisational objectives. Learning is a process and an effective training is
a major aspect of skill development (Martin, Whiting and Jackson, 2010). There are many
benefits of these different HRM practices to both employer and employees as explained in the
following table:
HRM
Practices
Benefits for employer Benefits for employees
Job design  Employer are able to clearly
define the number of hours and
skills required to carry out the
job
 It helps employer to prepare
optimum work and rest schedule
 Employees are able to assess
their own skills for performing
different tasks as per the job
requirement
 Employees may not need to
perform repetitive tasks
Performance
management
 Performance management
helps to enhance organisation’s
effectiveness and efficiency for
 Employees’
productivity enhances as an
effective performance

achieving goals due to
employees’ activities are aligned
towards organisation’s goals.
 It produces useful
measurements which are used to
set performance benchmarks and
standards to compare
employee’s outcome based on
performance.
management helps to direct their
efforts towards the completion of
objective.
 Employees feel motivated as
performance management helps
to ensure that they are treated
equally in the organization on the
basis of performance
Learning,
development
and training
 Employers are benefitted
from the skilled and better
developed workforce as
productivity is increased.
 Highly satisfied and
motivated employees help to
reduce employee turnover and
amend faithfulness towards the
administration.
 Day-to-day training
programs and seminar enhance
the image of the firm as well as
skills and ability of the
employees which helps the
employer to recruit higher
talented candidates in
recruitment process as well.
 Skilled staff helps to deliver
improved level of service quality
and customer service which
ultimately benefitted for the
 Employee development
activities helps the employees to
updated with latest skills and
knowledge requirements in the
dynamic nature of industries and
businesses.
 Training sessions majorly
helps to the employees to share
their point of views with other
staff members and learn different
key skills to manage the task in
different environments.
 Trainings and seminars helps
to enhance the abiliy and skills of
the employees and improves their
job satisfaction and also increase
their motivation level.
 Employees gain new skills
which are helpful for future use
and career progression at
individual level.

organisation to achieve better
position in global competitive
market.
P4: HRM practices effectuality in terms of productivity and profitability
The successfulness of Canary Wharf firm in achieving goals would depend on the
effectualness of above expressed HRM activities. The basic structure of the organisation’s
human resource management is determined by these HRM practices. In order to achieve set
target of the organisation, management must followed effective procedure. Majorly
development and set training programs helps to improve the ability of employees as well as
improve the production rate of organisation (Mayhew, 2017). The enhanced and improved
productivity level will results in incrementing the profitability level of the organisation. The
impressive job design helps to clearly set the responsibilities of workers. Moreover,
employees feels comfortable with their job and also easily carried out their responsibilities as
well. Hence, the improvement in motivation and planned strategies simply enhanced the
productivity and profitability of the firm (Mirror, 2002). In addition to this, it can be said that
learning and development activities arrangement is one of key motive behind HRM
application. It allows to have effective development of employees so that long term
opportunities can be accomplished effectively. Training programs are effectively arranged as
per standards so that learning and development aspects can be advanced in desired manner.
Along with this, amount of training and development opportunities that employee
receive is directly and optimistic related with the overall execution of the organisation.
Canary Wharf intends to gain a sustainable competitive advantage through provide learning
opportunities for their employees. If employees would receive continuous training, they will
learn new things for improving the quality of the products and services of the company. In
this way, trained and skilled workforce will enhance the productivity and profitability of the
firm (Mondy and Martocchio, 2016).
Additionally, for an accounting section performance management is very major factor
that gives boost to accountability. Performance management is an effective tool for realizing
organisational objectives and also it helps to integrate objectives of firm as well as it ensures
to drive all the activities to achieve a single objective of the organisation (Stavrou and
Brewster, 2005). This procedures also helps to improve communication skills and also
increase the ability to understand their own task and role as well. Self-assessment also helps

to improve employee’s retention, performance and fidelity (Perritt, 2006). Along with this, it
has been noticed that flexible working aspects is also one of critical aspect which allows to
advance the overall values. With a help of flexibility model the issues can be overcome and
lead business firm operations to impressive level of success.
1. Flexible working and their options:- The broad extent of flexible working are
majorly content by employers in which ermployees work very efficiently and part time
working also come in the category of flexibility as well(Auer and Cazes, 2003). Large
organization also offers more flexibility towards the work and provide part time working for
some employees(Wilthagen and Tros, 2004). Flexible working charts for human resource
management which are given below:
Image 1: Types of flexible working arrangements offered by employers(%)
Image 2: Areas of statutory provision where employers operate a policy or practice that goes
beyond the statutory minimum(%)
Image 3: Main grounds on which employers have turned down flexible working requests(%)
2. Learning and development: There are several types of role and purposes for that
particular function and this term is mainly used in the HR department of the
organization(Datta, Guthrie and Wright, 2005). Learning and development strategy
extremely aligned with the needs of the business as well. Learning and development is
the major factor for the growth of the organization as well.
Image 4: The size of the L&D function, by size of organization
Image 5: Which three learning and development practices most commonly used and most effective?

Image 6: Proportion of L&D activity delivered face to face, through learning technologies and a
combination of both now and in year’s of time
TASK 3
P5: Employees relations importance in order to influence decision-making of HRM
Employee relations refer to HRM practices that deal with minimising and resolving
issues concerning people at the work place. Maintaining strong employee relations is
essential for organizational success as it is pre-requisite for employee satisfaction which
results in high productivity (Shepherd and Mathews, 2000). Healthy employee relations
depends upon a number of factors such as employees commitment and involvement level,
healthy and safe work environment, employee motivation and its rewards, well suitable
communication system. Employee’s better relations indirectly helps the organisation as well
as other staff members to enjoy the services and increase effectiveness and motivated or
productive employees (Rainbird, Fuller and Munro, 2004).
Good employee relation implies that the organisation has employees which feel positive
about their job, and feel excited to work for the organization. However, there may be
circumstances where organization’s management of employee relations do not succeed as
intended. In addition to this, employee's relation negatively affected by the behaviour of them
likely when employee not behave as per the set norms of the behaviour (Rubinstein and
Kochan, 2001). There are various forms of indiscipline such as behaviour changes,
absenteeism, frequent complaints, and slow performance. Indiscipline case directly affects
management to achieve the set target goals of the firm because behaviour of employees is all
matter in such cases. Additionally, management is required to take necessary steps to ensure
discipline at workplace so that employee relations can be improved (Allen, 2001).
There are various other concerns which also affect employee relations at workplace
likewise their major expectations from their management to provide better environment and
healthy working environment, proper appraisal and incentives as well as participation in the
decision-making process. In addition to this, all these factors affect employee's relations with
their management and this is an effective approach to manage a disciplinary culture in the
firm as well(Boning, Ichniowski and Shaw 2007). Following are the suggestions to improve
employee relations:
 HRM should ensure that managers treat emp

 loyees in just and fair manner while avoiding employee favouritism.
 Competitive pay should be offered to employees and salaries should be fairly paid
according to individual’s skills and competencies.
 Employees should be assigned greater responsibilities and training opportunities for
keep their interest live and makes the job more challenging.
 Employees should be encouraged to provide feedback so that management are aware
of their concerns and views about company’s decisions (Coyle‐Shapiro and Kessler,
2000).
 Management should ensure to have friendly working atmosphere so that employee
feel comfortable with the management.
 Employees’ good work and efforts should be recognised, appreciated and rewarded to
boost their morale and increase commitment (Sels and et.al., 2006).
 Continuous communication with employees is essential to keep them updated about
company’s policies, procedures and decisions. Well-informed employees are pre-
requisite to make effective decisions as they will be more motivated and productive
(Coz, 2000).
P6: The key elements of employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision-making
The HRM decision making at Canary Wharf firm is significantly affected by
employment legislations of the UK government. Moreover, various rules and regulations
govern in relation to the employers and employee relationship(Datta, Guthrie and Wright,
2005). The key elements of these legislations that impacts the HRM decision-making are –
 The Employment Rights Act, 1999 and 2003 – As according to its name it provides an
effective right like minimum wages, terms and conditions of work and pay statements or
more (Gould-Williams, 2003).
 The Equal Pay Act, 1970 – ensures equal treatment of women and men with respect to
pay for doing the same type of work at similar rank.
 The Working Time Directive, 1999 – This act make sures that maximum hours of
working are 48 and manage 4 week holiday (Jacobsson, 2004).

 Disability Discrimination Act, 1994 – ensures non-discrimination due to disability so
that disable person should not be treated less favourably.
 The National Minimum Wage Act, 1998 – laws related to minimum wage which is
increased each year with respect to increased cost of living (Paauwe, 2009).
 Sex Discrimination Act, 1975 – Protection of employees against gender
discrimination in cases of selection of employees or promotion of employees (Laursen,
2002).
Above mentioned legislations of employment mainly affects several functions of HRM
like paydays, salary, working hours, overtime working, leave management, dispute
resolution, sexual harassment, employee termination, payment deductions, and record
keeping. HRM decisions under these factors should be made in accordance with the
appropriate laws. The particular organisation has a small business and which relates to the
labour-intensive that is directly connected to the employers organisation and trade union
(Lengnick-Hall and et.al., 2009). Therefore, HRM decision making are impacted by several
issues with lacking working hours, and health and safety at work. Minimum wage ensures
fair payment of the hourly or monthly wage of employees. Overtime is simply means that
employee work for extra hours beyond their regular work and in this case employee must
paid extra for their compensatory work. Various laws in relation to the migrant workers ,
which necessary legal restrictions must be followed by the firm(O’Fallon and Butterfield,
2005).
TASK 4
P7: The application of HRM practices in a work-related context
Job description for a Nurse Position
Nurses plays a vital role in a medical profession which includes doctors, specialists and
therapists or social workers as well. Nurses are the main contact point to the family of
patients and patients as well. They work with other team members to provide the patient
comfort and are responsible for the patients’ emotional care and medical needs. The primary
role of Nurses is to provide nursing care for patients who are taking medical facilities in the
hospital. Nurses play a vital role on improvement of patient's life and gaining trust and
confidence of patients so because of that they improve patient's life as well. Typical duties for
the job of Nurse includes following: Assess and plan the requirements of nursing care

 Observe and record patients’ medical condition Write and keep records of the patient’s medical progress Provide emotional support to patients and their relatives Monitor and administer medication and prescribed drugs Take samples, pulses, temperatures and blood pressures of patients Assist with medical tests and evaluation Deliver pre- and post-operation care Organise workloads and supervise junior staff in carrying out their responsibilities Mentor nursing student and guide them for training
 Plan discharge of the patients from the hospital
Person specification document for a Nurse Position
UK has their different standard in Nursing sector in which the candidate must pre-
registered the nursing programme and also completed that programme. Additionally. He/she
also registered with Nursing ang Midwifery council as well. A degree in relevant subjects
including biomedical science, human biology, life and medical sciences, physiology,
psychology or social work is essential. Other requirements are described below:
Skills: Followings are the list of essential skills for a typical Nurse position: Gaining trust and effective ability to communicate with all type of people like diverse
people; Sensibility, sympathy, and emotional flexibleness which is required for helping those
people who are in critical situations ; Flexibility to deals with several type of people as well as in any condition; Team working, organisational and social care management skills.
Work Experience: Work experience majorly conducted that pre-entry work experience is not
important but have an experience in relation to that work is must needed like as a care worker
or any type of similar work.
Interview questions for a Nurse position

Interviewers ask different types of questions to determine the personality of employee and to
judge whether the candidate will be a good fit for the nursing position in the firm. What made you choose nursing as a career? Why do you want to join this particular organisation? What challenges you find being a nurse? How would you handle a patient who is severely suffering from pain? How would you handle a family who is displeased with the patient care?
CONCLUSION
The above report concludes that a tremendous role is played by the human resource
management in a company. The HR manager deals with several aspects both in favour of
organisation and employees. The HR manager perform a link in between employees and top
management to ensure fulfilment of staff personal needs and achievement of business
objectives. Also, the HRM holds an important position in the firms’ structure. The
responsibility of right candidate selection for the right time and right post is completely lies
on the HR manager. In this regards, he/she is also liable to check the performance benchmark
of the candidates and arrange interview panel for their selection. Thus, the HR manager
contributes valuable efforts in the long-run of business and prove more creative and needed
field in the overall effective management of the organisation than any other.
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