Challenges Faced by HR in Westonwich District Council

This report discusses the challenges faced by the HR team in Westonwich District Council, including operational issues, management challenges, and job security concerns. It also provides recommendations for addressing these challenges and improving the work environment.

Westonwich District
Council

INTRODUCTION
Westonwich District Council or WDC is an organisation that serves local people residing
in rural areas with governmental services. They work for people residing in small towns and
villages of England. The organisation is purely focused on providing governmental services,
some of them are like collecting taxes, planning for infrastructural development, promoting
tourism and etc. The council even acts as tourist attraction and attracts a large number of
population, it is managed by an approx of 250 people who organises the process in a well
manner. To manage organisation, there is a team of HR that looks to management(Arnáez and et.
al., 2016). It even faces several challenges like all other bodies for instance regarding
reattainment of employees, their satisfaction, their pay, management issues, work related
conflicts, job security and others.
The report underneath is focused on challenges and hurdles that HR and team faces in an
organisation, particularly in context to Westonwich District Council, taking into light cost, pay
and benefits, job satisfaction, management of workforce by council and others. The confidential
survey was conducted in an organisation by administrator in which 81% of employees
participated which gave light on key issues faced by employees. It is also discussed as to how
such key contemporary issues and areas of concern can be addressed and rectified in
international and domestic organisations and what would be the ethical practices adopted by
human resource manager to work in that direction.
The HR team of Westonwich District Council is a small team with a group of four people
consisting of manager, an administrator and two officers who manages and deals with issues.
There are several issues faced by team which showed their areas of lacking like not recruiting
vacant places of employees at a priority.
AREAS OF CONCERN
From the survey conducted key challenges that can be seen are categorised as:
Theme 1 Operational Issues
Several employees face an issue coming early for work in morning due to distance and
transportation issues(Bhuvaneswari and Rajasekar, 2017). Facing this some of them are satisfied
and enjoy rewards that they get on better completion and execution of any work assigned top

them. Their are several employees who are less satisfied because they are not performing their
tasks properly and are doing repeated tasks every day. This brings lack of interest. Due to
challenges faced by employees in organisation and not satisfied with the work quality and its
variety, several employees are actively seeking alternative employment offers side by side. Due
to this focus on working condition is diverted.
Theme 2 Management
Employees with different mindsets are hard to manage and in same way, a less amount of
people are satisfied with the appreciation they get for work they have performed. People are
demotivated without appreciation, which can be mistake on part of both sides. Sometimes
employees face issues when they are not listened for the issues they face and same are not
worked upon(Bilan and et. al., 2020). At times employees are not feeling safe due to bias and
mistreatment conducted with women and freshers. Several employees feel that their work and
personality is not valued and respected that may lead to stress. Due to increase in workload and
reduction in pay mental tension has erupted which is making employee's life stressful.
Theme 3 Job Security
As employees work for earning their livelihood and feeding their families. When
employees are devoid of satisfaction and trust as to for how much time they are in organisation, a
feeling of insecurity develops which results in lack in efficiency. When employees are supported
by their colleagues a feeling of mutual understanding and trust develops. This results in a
familiar environment and better work performance. Several people are detained unnecessarily
and new recruitment is reducing which creates pressure on existing employees and also leads to
decrease in trust in job stability. Organisation deprived of equality and diversity practices
reduces retention of employees(Budiyantara, 2017). When training and development
programmes are inadequate in organisation, job stability is highly questioned. When rate of
liberty employed to employees is less continuing job in such critical conditions becomes hard.
A lot of challenges are sorted out when managing team of an organisation is well
equipped and follow relevant tactics to overcome issues lingering in working environment. It is
common that an organisation that has number of employees having different mindsets face lot of
differences which has to be tackled and settled down to maintain decorum and healthy
environment by team which is prescribed for the work which is HR team. All these key metrics
faced by several employees in an organisation creates a hurdle in performing and giving good

parameters of work quality. HR team can work in this direction to reduce annual turnover of
employees and enhance work quality. HR team is considered responsible for creating a familiar
work environment in an organisation so that both employees and organisation are benefited.
KEY ISSUES
There is a list of issues that HR team of Westonwich District Council faces in managing
employees and keeping a healthy work environment. But several are the key issues which are
importantly required to be addressed and sorted out.
Pay and Benefits Employees need benefits and pay as it affects the overall health and
their future conditions as well. In accordance to the confidential survey conducted by
administration, 21% of employees have mentioned that they are satisfied with the pay and
benefits provided to them. Among these 21% employees who says they are satisfied, none of
them were highly satisfied(Doyé, 2016). This arises in organisation due to less efficient
management by HR team. As employees need good and timely pay to sustain and earn their
livelihood and when their arises a delay in same, it becomes an issue and employees lack
motivation to work efficiently. This being a key element is taken under consideration so
that productivity of organisation is not hampered. When employees are paid well it is easy to
retain talent and build a goodwill in market regarding the work environment. When mental
health of main workforce i.e. employees is unwell it will affect business and make organisation
suffer in competitive terms as well. Candidates prior to joining an enterprise also seeks in
looking to compensation and benefit plans given by company. issues To intensify loyalty of
employees and maintain high attendance of employees, it becomes essential to spend on
managing pay and benefit plans. It is seen that this can be expensive and affect budget of
enterprise but it would give high returns in coming future times.
Management by Council HR team is considered to be a department that works for
resolving petty and major issues both. They are considered to be the one who understands and
resolves conflicts and if they are unable to do so then a critical situation arises that hampers the
control in work place(Gärtner, 2018). In an organisation where a number of employees are
working, it becomes very significant to resolve issues like satisfaction with working conditions,
level of authority, essence in physical work environment and others. When employees work in a
balanced surroundings, they are able to work will full efficiency thus completing targets and
goals on pre determined time. It is required to take this point in consideration apart from other

key metrics as solving such challenges can identify vulnerable things prevailing which can
increase working conditions and increase reputation in market surrounding. When such critical
problems are left unevaluated and non rectified, managers are devoid of reaching to lower levels
and getting information of weak points lingering. HR team acts as problem solving authority and
if it fails in doing so that will affect mental and physical health of employees.
HRM Internationally and Locally Human Resource Management whether in local
market or international market performs a framework of actions and plans that endeavours to
meet targets and goals existing in organisation in a more appropriate manner. An efficient
management leads in accomplishing competitory reward in relevant industry(Hallée, Taskin and
Vincent, 2018). The future of HR is diverse as it performs wide variety of functions and with
time their functions are getting more diverse.
List of functions includes recruitment of employees, hiring candidates, providing
training, developing employee performance, creation of a safe and harmless work culture,
managing disciplinary human activities, handling benefits and pay to employees, correctly
handling company's culture and secularism, developing and improving employer-employee
relations, resolving work place conflicts, building policies, evaluating performance, promotional
events and so on. In all kinds of enterprises whether large scale or medium scale or small scale
enterprises persists with a need of HR management to organise and solve grievances of
employers.
HR who deals in managing employees locally and internationally has multifarious,
different cultural and mutuality. Choosing this global plan of attack can relieve HR related issues
as they are well known to different methods of approaches to deal with people. The HR team
working internationally have knowledge of labour laws, tax benefits, compensatory benefits,
training practices of different mindsets of employees(Mamman and et. al., 2018). As every
culture have different mindset and every country has different working conditions. Such
organisations where HR team is globally present human resource management, it becomes easy
to transfer and shift their operations in other country as well. Even achieving of management
goals and smoothly performing the operations will become easy.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The key measures evaluated above in regards to Westonwich District Council survey
conducted has to be rectified and evaluated as they are necessary metrics that is needed to be

addressed to bring consistency in work enterprise. Suggested recommendations that can be
advised to HR team being a HR which could help organisation in catering efficiency.
Pay and Benefits As rewards and pay play an essential part in performance abilities of
employees as these can be monetary as well appreciatory. Problems like less pay, delayed pay,
no appreciation and so on are to be faced. When a problem is communicated,HR is required to
check job profile whether issues arisen is relevant or not(Martini and et. al., 2017). Then further
it is checked from the related department. It is mandatory to be discussed from employee and one
on one meeting be conducted between. HR is required to sort out this problem at priority because
pay and rewards affect performance of employees. For this HR manager needs to regularly
evaluate and cross check with accounts department. HR manager should have personal
knowledge of evaluation of performance capabilities of employees and in turn providing rewards
and appreciations. This will make him well versed with having knowledge of compensation and
rewards to be paid. Problems when needed to be examined will be having a simpler and clear
perception and would be easy to find solutions and worked upon.
After prioritising and focusing on problems mentioned by employee, and the problem
comes out to be genuine after finding out the root cause of it. Decisions are required to be made
in context to the facts available regarding issue and then divide them within HR team. If a
problem is similar to that of previous one then process can be similar but if issues are different,
then process required for resolving challenge needs to be performed from a fresh outlook. All the
possibilities and outcomes are to be kept in view so that neither organisation nor employee is
under suffering(Purwandari and Pamungkas, 2016). If still problem persists and lingers then a
consultant is required to be hired.
Management by Council Management needs to rectify and solve issues arising amidst to
employees because it is significant to evaluate original idea behind the issues. Team can call for
a timely meeting to discuss the common problems and rectify then and there. For personal issues,
employees should be free to visit HR and discuss their issues. A line manger should be appointed
that tries to resolve problems at lower level. A level of trust is required to be build which reduces
situation of hurdles and challenges. Problem solving measures of any and every problem are
more or less same. Firstly problems like work pressure, lack of understanding, unfavourable
work culture are needed to be kept at precedence, whenever they are acknowledged and after
that problems have to be focused rather than keeping them aside and indulging in other works.

Sometimes the hurdles and challenges mentioned might be illogical and can hamper working
progress if action is to taken. The in depth knowledge of problem faced by employee is to be
known then worked on. After that problem is examined, particular decisions are made as to what
can be solution of problem(WU, XU and JIAO, 2017). The solution is then broke and divided in
procedure of its resolution. All available possibilities has to be taken into consideration that is
how would the solution affect employee and organisation both. Profit motive of both the parties
are to be well observed so that future discrepancies are reduced. In end feedback is necessary
whether or not resolution is apt. If not a consultant is required to be hired who can properly
evaluate and study it.
CONCLUSION
All in all it can be concluded from above mentioned report on HR policies of Westonwich
District Council that an organisation needs to have effective control over the employees. HR
mangers are recognised as an important element in making or breaking the programmes, targets
and objectives by top management. It can also be seen that HR team performs a wide variety of
functions which help the organisation in smooth running. The team holds itself the potential to
build reputation of organisation and resolve various petty and large issues that employees face
with colleagues or with management. HR selects the best talent and adopts several tactics that
can help them to retain employees. All this helps organisation in achieving their goals. Their
were many problems faced by employees in the survey conducted by Westonwich District
Council wherein there were many problems. From that some of the problems were major which
would affect the performance of organisation. Also it has been enlightened that which are the key
areas of concern from the metrics provided, and why they have been chosen and what measures
can be taken rectify them and deal with such mechanisms. To develop healthy culture,
executable strategies and policies are to be implemented that modifies changes. There are several
challenges that HR face and from above report it can be concluded that how some of those
challenges can be worked upon and rectified so that a familiar and healthy environment is
present in organisation.
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