Working with and Leading People

This report focuses on managing human resources in the footwear industry, including the recruitment and selection process, leadership skills and attributes, and ways to motivate staff. It also highlights the impact of legal, ethical, and regulatory considerations on the recruitment process.

Working with and Leading
people

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Documentation to select and recruit new members of staff..................................................1
1.2 Impact of legal, ethical and regulatory consideration to the recruitment and selection
process.........................................................................................................................................3
1.3 Taking part in the selection process......................................................................................4
3.2 Selecting appropriate candidate............................................................................................5
1.4 Possible reasons for ineffective and unfair recruitment practices and own contribution in
making it clean............................................................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Skills and attributes needed for leadership............................................................................6
2.2 Difference between leadership and management..................................................................7
2.3 Leadership style of different situation...................................................................................7
2.4 Ways of motivating staffs in order to accomplish objectives...............................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Benefits of working in team for Skechers.............................................................................9
3.3 Effectiveness of team at Skechers in achieving goals of organisation..................................9
TASK 4 ........................................................................................................................................10
4.1 Factors involved in planning the monitoring and assessment of work performance..........10
4.2 Assessment of development needs of employees...............................................................10
4.3 Success of assessment process............................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In every company, one of the most important task is human resource management. It
includes procedures of selecting, recruiting and training individuals as per the demand of firm. It
is the procedure using which companies chooses best talents from the pool of candidates
available to them. It also undertakes all the legal considerations that are associated with selecting
and recruiting people (Albrech, 2011). HR managers must ensure that each person gets equal
opportunity for getting selected for any particular task. Leaders have the responsibility of
motivating people under them. Skechers is one of the leading footwear companies in world. It is
headquartered in Manhatten beach California and was found in the year 1992. This report
focuses on managing human resources in the footwear industry. It also highlights the ways in
which leaders can assist workers by applying team culture and performance appraisal process.
Report also showcases the training needs as well as rewards which are important for maximising
productivity of staff members.
TASK 1
1.1 Documentation to select and recruit new members of staff
In the footwear industry store managers have a very crucial role in managing products
and services for the company. It becomes more important for the firm in this industry to select
most appropriate store managers. In order to do so documenting the whole procedure is highly
important. There are basically two kinds of documentation: Job description: The post is for the store manager-Hove (Franchise). It is a full time Job.
The duty of the Job includes that they have to effectively manage all the products that is
present in the store. They have most crucial role in maintaining the demand and supply
chain for the store so that product of the company is available to the people at the time
they need. They have the role of convincing people as well as interacting with
individuals so as to understand their needs and convey it to the senior officials of the
company. Feedback collecting is also the role of the person sitting at this post (Appiah,
Poku and Bamfo, 2013). He must have the quality of leading and motivation individuals
so as to lead his group.
 Person specification: People applying for this job must have an excellent communicative
skills as well as they must have the power of convincing customers so that are able to sell
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more products of the company. He or she must have evaluation power so as to understand
the demand of the market and hence maintaining the supply chain. Person applying for
this post must have completed his study up to the graduation level and the people who
have received higher marks in English will be preferred over the others.
Table below helps to understand the two in a better way:
Job Description
Organisation Name Skechers
Job Designation Store Manager
Location Hove U.K.
Reporting Sales Manager
Roles and Responsibilities  To maintain the products at the store. To ensure workers grievances are
solved To maintain demand and supply chain
Working Hours 9:30am to 6:00pm
Salary 22,000 Pound per month
Working Facilities Working in A.C. Store.

Job Specification
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Qualification  Candidate need to be graduated in any
stream Master’s degree and practical
application of theory is required for post.
Experience  Candidate has to have experience of more than 2 years
in this field.Have experience of managing products.
Area of Expertise A person has to have good communication skills Excellent knowledge about distribution channels. Grievance handling Problem solving
Other Qualities  Candidate must have excellent time management skills Negotiations capabilities are needed.
1.2 Impact of legal, ethical and regulatory consideration to the recruitment and selection process
Selection of any employee must be done after citing all the laws and rules that are
applicable in HRM practices. The laws that are made by the government of England is to safer
guard the interest of the workers as it ensures that there must not be any kind of discrimination in
the process of selecting employees especially on the basis of colour, caste, creed, sex, religion or
race. Interviews must not include objectionable or private questions (Aravamudhan and
Krishnaveni, 2015). Job offering and wage settlement must on only be on the basis of abilities
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and skills of the worker. Males and Females must be given equal amount of work. One of the
basic requirement of any selection and hiring process is that it must be highly transparent. It is
important for the organisations to ensure that there must not be any people present in the
selection panel that have blood relation with individuals that have applied for the post. One of
the most important task is checking the background of the appliers like if they have any kind of
criminal records or not. They must ensure equal opportunities to the people coming from distinct
cultures.
Some of the specific laws is as follows:
 The Equality Act 2010
 Fixed Term Employment
 Sex Discrimination Act 1975
 Equal Pay Act 1970
1.3 Taking part in the selection process
In the selection process there are various process that needs to be done so as to select
perfect candidate for the firm. These steps checks that all the regulations and policies have been
checked while recruiting a people. The stages and processes that are involved in the selection
procedure are as follows: Invitation of applicants: It is essential for the firm to generate notification for the job
description so that appropriate candidate can apply for the post. Application must include
all the basic details related to himself as well as qualification he has gained. It also
includes experience declaration (Bratton and Gold, 2012). Screening of candidates: After the applications has been received there must be proper
screening of candidates details. Screening is effective when there are large amount of
applications being received. One candidate is being shortlisted after screening details of
applicants.
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 Personal interview: A panel of company is set up for this job. The role of this panel is to
understand the effectiveness of the candidate by evaluating communication and problem
solving skills. They also understands the behaviour of the employee (Costen, 2012).
There are various steps that specifies store managers role:
 They assist HR team in providing the requirements of the store.
 Store managers assists HR managers in selecting most perfect employee for the firm.
 They helps in preparing the questionnaire for the interview purpose.
3.2 Selecting appropriate candidate
There are several things that are checked while selecting an employee over the other.
Since HR manager can only select one applicant from the whole process, so, there must be a
proper guideline so as to reach to a final goal of recruiting a person (Daley, 2012). Conflicts
resolving and goal setting must be in following ways: Ideas: First idea from all team members must be taken so as to choose the best one. These
ideas may be regarding the guidelines that are needed to be set in various situations. Support: Each member must support his choice with effective reasons so that common
understanding could be developed.
 Conflict resolution: Any conflict must be resolved by having long conversation with each
other on the topic.
Here, A has been selected over B even when both of them have same amount of skills
and knowledge this is because of the following reason:
 A has larger amount of practical knowledge over B.
 A has effective decision making power which helps in resolving various issues arisen at
the workplace.
 A has more ethical approach towards doing any work which is important for adding value
to the firm's product.
 A seems to be more positive about commencing with this job (Doyle and Locke, 2014).
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These all things have been deduced by all the members of the panel that too after rigorous
discussion. First the voting was conducted and then evaluations of the prose and cons related
with employee ability has been discussed.
1.4 Possible reasons for ineffective and unfair recruitment practices and own contribution in
making it clean.
It is the fact that that inspite of making several rules and regulation for the whole
selection and recruitment procedures there is sometimes ineffective and unfair recruitment. There
are probable many reasons why this happens. As a HR personnel it is one of the most important
task to check that whole process remains clearer. This can be done by safely monitoring the
whole process and must define the each benchmark that is to be used for passing candidates from
each steps (Fine, 2012). Rules for getting selected must be well communicated with the
candidates before the start of the process. One of the most important reason for unfair selection
procedure is that there is a possibility that any candidate have some blood relation with any of
the panel members. This can be eliminated by pre checking of the background of the candidate.
Whole process of selection must be video graphed so that there must be complete transparency in
selecting a candidate over other. Evaluation of performance level must be done with the help of
any kind of test. Channelisation of whole process is necessary.
TASK 2
2.1 Skills and attributes needed for leadership
Leadership is a quality that must be present in every individual and is based on the skills
and attributes he or she posses. Leaders are responsible for taking their firm to the new heights
which is only possible if their preset targets are achieved on time that too in effective manner.
Some of the skills and attributes are as follows:
 Excellent Communicator: Leaders need to be able to communicate with each employee.
This is necessary to clarifying what company wants from their employees. If he is an able
communicator then he will be able to understand the personal and professional need of
the staffs (Fong and et. al., 2011). It also helps in removing confusions from the minds of
the people.
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 Motivator: A leaders must be able to motivate its employee that too from time to time.
Motivation helps in increasing the confidence level of the employees which helps in
aligning with the standards that company wants from them. It is also important for
increasing the productivity of the firm.
 Responsible: Leaders must be able to take responsibilities in various arisen situations.
They must be able to take ownership of the task. They have to make decisions and
undertake the responsibility of ensuring that it gets completed on time (Guest, 2011).
 Positivity: Leaders must face every situation with the positive attitude. It helps them in
resolving the problem in a better way by applying better set of ideas in the whole process.
Positivity of the leader also brings positive environment to the workplace.
2.2 Difference between leadership and management
Management is often misunderstood as leadership but they are completely different traits
and plays essential role in growth of the organisation. The role and difference between the two is
illustrated by following points:
Leadership Management
Leadership is a process that takes use of tools,
techniques and concepts so as to influence
staffs and providing them path for achieving
business objectives and goals.
Managing every activity of the enterprise is
one of the major responsibility of management.
Leadership is a concept that is having narrow
scope than management.
Management is a much more wider concept
with respect to leadership.
Prime focus of leadership has to be
understanding the needs of the staffs and the
workplace.
Management generally focuses on the structure
of the company rather than on employees.
Leadership has a responsibility of innovating
new approaches or ideas so as to tackle any
situation.
Management has a role of administering the
arise situations.
When the approach is original then only
leadership concept gets applied.
Management is more often working under the
preset guidelines.
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2.3 Leadership style of different situation.
Situations inside the firm gets arisen while operating business procedures. They follow
different kind of styles of leadership which varies from leader to leader (Hendry, 2012). The
culture prevailing inside the firm always influences the approach of leadership. They alters it for
maximising the results. There are following types of leadership:
 Teamwork leadership: Woking as a team has several benefits one of the most primary
requirement of organisation that it fulfils is that it reduces the chances of getting an error
in the outcome. Leaders must be able to coordinate tier team so as to get optimum results.
To be able to work as a team member helps in increasing the effectiveness of the
employee and hence overall productivity of the firm.
 Autocratic leadership: This is a type of leadership that is followed by the leaders when
there is a mess in the operational procedures. In this subordinates are not included in the
decision making process. They only act as controller.
 Free-rein leadership: In this type of leadership leaders have little role in decision making
process and workers have been provided with the authority of taking decisions as per the
requirement of the situation.
 Participatory leadership: As stated by the name this leadership style leaders includes
subordinates in the decision making process.
2.4 Ways of motivating staffs in order to accomplish objectives.
Motivated employees always works with a better approach which helps in increasing the
productivity of the firm. It is the responsibility of the leader to motivate staffs. There are several
ways in which company ca motivate its employees:
 Clear vision: Firm must communicate clear vision of the firm to their staffs so that they
must know for what they are working. It also assist in reducing confusion in the minds of
the people regarding their responsibilities. Conflicts between employer and workers is
also resolved using this.
 Proper training: Programs for development has to be conducted on regular basis which
includes skill development training.
 Rewards and appraisals: There must be time appraisals of the performance delivered by
workers and accordingly rewards also needed to be distributed. It helps in increasing the
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confidence level of the employees and also helps in employee satisfaction (Kehoe and
Wright, 2013).
 Participatory approach: Leaders must take the help of their subordinates for the process
of decision making. Their participation in the whole process increases their self
motivational level and hence they understand themselves as an important member of the
firm.
TASK 3
3.1 Benefits of working in team for Skechers.
In the age of global competition it has become more important for the firms to
incorporate the culture of working as a team. This is due to the fact that there are several benefits
of working as a team (Kenny, 2011). This not only reduces the burden on single individual but
helps in increasing the knowledge and skill of each worker since they can learn from each other.
Final result can be accomplished in a better manner. Some of the benefits of working as a team
can be understood b these points:
 Foster creativity: When an individual starts working as a team then he starts to share his
ideas to other where get to know the effectiveness of its. They learn new approaches
where they can apply innovative techniques by applying creativity.
 Build Trust: There are larger number of employees that are working together and hence
feelings of trust can be created in between them. This assists in achieving business
objectives in a proper manner. Developing trust helps to reduce the possibility of conflict
that may arise in future. This also makes the environment of the firm more positive and
friendly.
 Encouraging risk handling ability: Working in teams increases the ability of the worker to
manage risk and hence increasing their outputs (Knowles, Holton and Swanson, 2014).
 Increases innovations: When large number of minds works on the same problem then
some new innovative idea generates which is important for the growth of the firm.
 Provide better solutions to problems: Working in a team assist in giving thousand
solutions to any problem and one can choose the best possible solution out of it.
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3.3 Effectiveness of team at Skechers in achieving goals of organisation.
In the above mentioned report the benefits of working as a team is clearly illustrated. One
of the major pros that is with working as a team is that it brings effectiveness in the process that
helps to achieve task in a better way. Proper training of team assists in achieving targets in
scheduled way (McGraw, 2013). Since it increases the skills of the employees hence they can
achieve personal and professional development. Working as a team increases the usage of
resources in a such a manner that it can ensure sustainable development of the firm. It reduces
the cost of operations since the whole working mechanism becomes effective. It also assist in
reducing the chances of failure as there are multiple minds that are working for doing a task
(What is the difference between leader and manager?. 2017). In the footwear industry from
production to selling of the products helps in achieving their motives in a better way.
TASK 4
4.1 Factors involved in planning the monitoring and assessment of work performance.
Assessing of work performance is essential that too on regular basis. This helps in
enhancing the performance of each worker in their future (Mendenhall, 2012). This kind of
assessment helps in providing feedbacks to each worker so that they can work upon them. It also
assists in choosing the best training . Planning in assessment and monitoring is important. Some
of the benefits of monitoring are as follows:
 It helps in performance appraisals as appraisal cycle roles of each employee needs to be
transparent.
 It also assist in finding top performer in the cycle.
 On completion of appraisal cycle rewards and awards has to be given.
Factors considered while planning the assessment and monitoring is as follows:
 Goals and Objectives: On the basis of firm's goals and objectives individual needs will be
set up. Individual target need to be aligned with the goal of the firm.
 Feasibility: Goals and objectives has to be clear and must be achievable.
 Measurable: Targets and objectives that is set by the company needs to be measurable.
Rating needs to be done on the basis of performance and also assist in categorising
employees as per their performance.
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 Organisation structure: Performance appraisal system must be based on the structure of
the firm. It differs from vertical to horizontal structure. In this hierarchy team leaders can
evaluate their goals (Ployhart and Weekley, 2014).
4.2 Assessment of development needs of employees.
Certain things that has to be included in developmental plan is as follows:
 Effective goals: Top management must plan effective goals and objectives for every
worker which must be truly on the basis of skills he has.
Communication: It is important to incorporate transparent communication in order to
achieve better results. It helps in assigning task and motivating them to follows certain
task.
 Support: Basic support such as advice and resources must be given to employee for
enhancing their performance.
 Feedback: Assessment is done for giving feedback so that they can identify their own
performance (Searle and Billsberry, 2011).
 Training: Some training must be given to each worker so as to enhance their skills.
 Monitoring: It helps in deciding the package which may help in their growth.
4.3 Success of assessment process
Certain questions needs to be answered in order to evaluate the success of any process:
 Is purpose of assessment is clear: For achieving goals purpose of assessment has to be
clear and well communicated.
 Is method that has been used is valid: Effectiveness of the method must be ensured to get
authenticated outcomes (Shackleton, 2015).
 Is assessment bias free: Any assessment as to be bias free so as to get perfect results.
 Feedbacks: Feeds has to be conveyed to each employees.
 Transparency: Assessment must be transparent in order to have faith on them.
CONCLUSION
From the above based report it can be deduced that human resource management is
crucial for the firm. Its the role of the leader to motivate their employees. HRM must be capable
of selecting and recruiting best possible talent as per the company needs. Companies uses
various approaches to hire any candidate and proper rules and regulations are followed so as to
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make the process effective and transparent. Inside a firm team culture has higher benefits as it
increases various skills and knowledge of the employees as well as reduces the complexity of the
work which helps in increasing the productivity of the firm.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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practices of small and medium enterprises: Evidence from Ghana. Global Advanced
Research Journal of Management and Business Studies. 2(3). pp.175-188.
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Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Costen, W.M., 2012. Recruitment and Selection. The Encyclopedia of Human Resource
Management: Short Entries. pp.379-387.
Daley, D.M., 2012. Strategic human resources management. Public Personnel Management.
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Doyle, D. and Locke, G., 2014. Lacking Leaders: The Challenges of Principal Recruitment,
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Fong, C.Y., and et. al., 2011. HRM practices and knowledge sharing: an empirical study.
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Hendry, C., 2012. Human resource management. Routledge.
Kehoe, R.R. and Wright, P.M., 2013. The impact of high-performance human resource practices
on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management. 39(2). pp.366-391.
Kenny, M., 2011. Gender and institutions of political recruitment: candidate selection in post-
devolution Scotland. In Gender, Politics and Institutions (pp. 21-41). Palgrave
Macmillan UK.
Knowles, M.S., Holton III, E.F. and Swanson, R.A., 2014. The adult learner: The definitive
classic in adult education and human resource development. Routledge.
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McGraw, P., 2013. Recruitment and selection. na, p.205.
Mendenhall, M.E. ed., 2012. Global leadership: Research, practice, and development.
Routledge.
Ployhart, R.E. and Weekley, J.A., 2014. Recruitment and selection in global organizations. The
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Searle, R.H. and Billsberry, J., 2011. The development and destruction of organizational trust
during recruitment and selection. Trust and human resource management, pp.67-86.
Shackleton, V., 2015. Recruitment and Selection. Elements of Applied Psychology. p.153.
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What is the difference between leader and manager?. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/what-is-the-
difference-between-management-and-leadership/>./ [Accessed on 20th November 2017].
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