ATHE L7 Strategic Human Resources (HR) Management Report

This report examines strategic human resource management (HRM) within the context of EasiClean Plc, a company expanding its product lines and global presence. It explores the impact of organizational structure and culture on HRM strategies, emphasizing workforce aptitude and leadership. The report highlights the importance of financial resources in recruitment, retention, and performance-based rewards. It also delves into factors affecting HR management, including economic circumstances and government legislation. Furthermore, the report analyzes different strategic HRM models, such as the Harvard and Guest models, and evaluates the contribution of HRM in achieving organizational strategic plans. It considers key elements and factors in developing HRM strategies, including internal and external influences, and potential barriers to implementation. The report concludes with a proposed HRM strategy for EasiClean, addressing organizational objectives and potential challenges.

ATHE L7 Extended Diploma in Management
Strategic Human
Resources (HR)
Management
Assignment

Table of Content
Preamble ................................................................................................................................................. 4
Task 1 ...................................................................................................................................................... 5
AC 1.1 Effect of structure and culture of organisation on HR management strategies ...................... 5
AC 1.2 Importance of financial resources in the creation of a HR management strategy .................. 6
1D1 Factors affecting human resource management in a named organisation ................................... 8
Task 2 .................................................................................................................................................... 11
M1 Impact of government legislation on HR management strategies .............................................. 11
Task 3 .................................................................................................................................................... 13
AC 2.1 Analysis of different strategic HR management models ...................................................... 13
AC 2.2 Contribution of HR management in achievement of organisation’s strategic plans ............ 16
2M1 Evaluation of different models of preparing strategic HRM plans for EasiClean .................... 18
Task 4 .................................................................................................................................................... 22
AC 3.1 Considerations while preparing Human Resource Management (HRM) strategies ............. 22
AC 3.2 Evaluate the key elements of a Human Resource Management (HRM) strategy ................ 23
3M1 Impact of internal and external factors on elements of HRM strategies .................................. 24
3D1 Evaluation of the model used by an organisation in the development of its HR strategy ......... 26
Task 5 .................................................................................................................................................... 29
AC 4.1 HR management strategy for an organisation of choice ....................................................... 29
AC 4.2 HRM Strategy supporting the achievement of organisational/business objectives .............. 32
4D1 Potential barriers to the implementation of HRM strategy ....................................................... 33
References ............................................................................................................................................. 35

Table of Figures
Figure 1 The Harvard Framework Model ............................................................................................. 14
Figure 2 Guest’s Model of HRM .......................................................................................................... 15
Figure 3 Five Maturity Levels (Courtesy: (Curtis, et al., 1995) ........................................................... 18
Figure 4 Factors of Human Capital (Courtesy: Prescient) .................................................................... 20
Figure 5 Top-down and Bottom-up Model to HRM (Courtesy: Smartsheet) ....................................... 21

Preamble
Human Resource (HR) management strategy mentions the methods and techniques that lift
organisations to attain objectives with the help of better strategizing and planning of functions. The
organisation develops its culture and values to deal with the problems caused by employees due to
several reasons, such as, belonging to different cultures or having different set of beliefs and values.
When an organisation builds its culture and values, it seeks to control behaviour of employees to ease
the achievement of strategic goals – define what is normal and acceptable versus what is unacceptable
and punitive to protect the larger interests of the organisation. In addition to controlling of the behaviour,
HR management also seek to nurture and groom organisation’s talent to prepare future leadership and
ensure continuity, so the senior leadership of the organisation stays focused on building other business-
related strategies.
Organisation advised for the purpose of this assignment is EasiClean Plc (‘EasiClean’ or
‘Company’). EasiClean has been producing soaps and detergents for more than a ten decades and now
considering moving into products like beauty products, baby wipes, and tissue papers to target 15 new
countries seeking organic and inorganic growth. For this purpose, Company intends to acquire potential
businesses to leverage the market presence of less famous but established local brands in those
countries. Management of the Company seeks to develop and adopt strategic HR management practices
so the business growth could be strengthened, and the ambitions could be materialised swiftly.
This report will cover the impact and importance of structure and culture in an organisation,
importance of financial resources for HR management and the factors that affect HR management
within the organisation. Also included would be the topics that must be considered while developing
HR strategies, critical factors, and other barriers. Final part of this report would address the ways and
means on overcoming the problems and bottlenecks using a variety of suitable approaches with merits
and demerits of each being mentioned.

Task 1
AC 1.1 Effect of structure and culture of organisation on HR management strategies
The HR management of the organisation are responsible to develop best strategies; however,
the structure and the culture of organisation affects its HR strategies in several ways as discussed
hereunder:
Workforce aptitude: It highlights the capabilities and skills of the employees that are present
in the organisation’s workforce. To highlight and polish these abilities of employees, the organisation’s
HR management initiates a variety of programmes, through which employees can be trained for a
variety of tasks. In this way the employees learn about the job and increase their productivity; for
example, many organisations have a time period for employee training and during this time employees
are taught and explained about the job in order to increase the employees' skills and make them
understand the job well. Keeping EasiClean in perspective, the Company will need to identify key
members of the workforce for education and training to enhance their knowledge for practical
operations once it launches its growth strategy in 15 countries and opens-up different product lines.
Company leadership: Leaders are the backbone of organisation. It is up to the leaders to be
visionary and grow the business or let the organisation drift towards decline with their myopic vision.
Organisation’s workforce implements the decisions of management which are curated to them with
careful HR planning. Single wrong decision can be detrimental to the entire organisation; therefore, it
is important for any organisation to select a leader who has all the necessary skills. The leadership of
an organisation develops strategies keeping in view the structure and culture of that organisation and
how the change must be managed when required. The management of EasiClean should start developing
succession plans considering new growth ambitions.
Size and structure: Different types of structure exist in today’s organisations, e.g. flat
structure, matrix structure, network structure, etc. There is no “one size fits all” structure that could be

considered the best for all organisations hence the organisation must build structure that caters to its
strategic HR needs in most suitable manner while ensuring that two-way communication between HR
and employees does not lag when it comes to managing the changes in the organisation. Considering
the multi-fold growth ambitions of EasiClean, the Company is advised to keep the structure simple,
direct yet efficient hence ‘flat structure’ would be the most suitable one so that HR management is able
to engage workforce to manage their capabilities to materialise S.M.A.R.T. goals and also allow them
to participate in the decision-making process.
Complexity of operations: Managing HR is less complex when it pursues unified HR strategy
applicable to entire organisation without being selective, however, when organisations grow beyond the
borders then complexities get onboard hence HR management must accommodate unique requirements.
For example, HR management must develop a separate set of HR policies to remain in compliance of
local laws and regulations of another country. It is essential for the development of an organisation to
provide its employees with all the information about the geographical areas for the expansion of their
business activities. EasiClean has good experience of managing the operations locally, however, their
global plans would add greater complexity in the manner they conduct business; therefore, their
previous HR managements strategies would require a complete overhaul.
AC 1.2 Importance of financial resources in the creation of a HR management strategy
HR management faces multitude of issues like analysing work requirements to design jobs,
plan workforce, train and develop staff for future management/leadership of the organisation, manage
the performance of workforce to ensure optimal productivity and handle legal issues. Managing these
aspects require financial resources which are detailed in following section of this report:
Recruitment and fulfilment of workforce requirements (pre-hire costs): One of the main
HR functions is to recruit workforce at various levels including the top-most managers to the lowest-
level, e.g. production labour. Searching and recruiting right person for the job is embodies upfront costs
because finding correct person is critical to ensure the success of organisation’s functional requirements.

According to Glassdoor, average employer in the UK spends £3,000 and 27.5 days1 while hiring
seasoned leaders and managers goes up significantly. HR departments incur these costs and spend time
because hiring a wrong person for the job, could cost ten times more to the organisation than upfront
costs during in screening, selecting, and hiring most suitable person. Lack of financial resources poses
the direct risk for HR recruitment process.
Costs associated with workforce retention (post-hire costs): Committing financial resources
at the time of recruitment is not just the one-time upfront cost, but organisations must constantly stay
competitive while offering remuneration, perks, and benefits to the workforce for retaining them. High
performing talented employees are more likely to seek better paying jobs with higher career growth
when their organisation fails to compensate them at-par with the market. To generate well-built human
resource management strategy, attainability of enough reserves is the most important prerequisite.
Through this, any organisation can easily manage all the salaries paid to employees directly or
indirectly. Low pay for employees affects their performance and it discourages workers. This causes
brain-drain loss to the organisation when experienced and skilled workforce decides to leave hence it is
important to ensure that appropriate financial resources are budgeted so workforce is paid according to
their performance work. This requires input from Accounting/Finance department to provide necessary
information so the HR management could draw best possible paygrades/salary structures for setting-up
effective compensation schemes.
Performance based rewards and ex-gratia pay: When HR management has clarity about the
sufficiency of funds available to reward the best performing employees from the workforce, they can
design effective performance reward schemes commonly known as ‘bonus’. Such programmes
comprehensively cover one-time bonuses and annual pay rise/increments and this method is a proven
way of improving employee performance and motivation. These programmes aim to highlight
employees' abilities, knowledge, and draw attention towards work by rewarding them accordingly.
Setting up performance reward program is not possible when organisation.
1 Glassdoor UK https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/employers/blog/calculate-cost-per-hire/

Attracting and retaining talent: Through financial resources HR experts create best
compensation structure to attract and retain talented workforce from the market. For this purpose, HR
management formulates a policy and structure that reflects various pay grades and based on the
performance of the employees and to what extent it is possible and necessary to increase the salary of
each employee. Consequently, the HR manager will be able to select well talented and competent
employees under this strategy. This is a step towards selecting the best employees for the company to
move forward which can be effective in favour of the company. Better pay and hard work always
polishes the performance and ability of the employees and keeps the employees focused on their work.
It also promotes company and production. This is a special way for HR managers to force employees
to work hard and perform well by paying more.
Magnify attainability of workforce: Through the enough availability of financial resources,
an organisation can improve its strategy of recruitment process and can easily select skilled and talented
workers in workforce. All those workers who are efficient and productive if they receive higher wages
then they work happily, and the recruitment process also becomes easier. This process counts the
competent people in the company who attach personal growth with the growth of organisation. The
organisation’s better pay keeps employees on their toes, making it possible for the company to recover
training and other expenses via improved performance and output of the workforce. It is usually an
effective strategy of human resource experts to develop a highly qualified and capable workforce who
understand the company's purpose, quality, system, vision and work for the company. Through this
process, the HR manager will face fewer obstacles when hiring new employees.
1D1 Factors affecting human resource management in a named organisation
HR management is the backbone of inter-organisational relationships and the play a pivotal
role in general development. Based on research, HR practices of EasiClean were found to be influenced
by following factors:

Economic circumstances: In times of economic distress, it is normal for organisations to halt
hiring and consider laying off redundant workforce due to curtailment in operations. Mitigating against
economic risks is not possible has it is a systematic risk that applies to everyone equally, however,
business continuity plans should be in placed to minimise the negative impacts of economic shocks.
EasiClean has considered global expansion in times when the COVID-19 pandemic is at its peak,
organisations have laid-off staff due to prolonged locked-downs and businesses have lots millions of
Pounds Sterling in revenues. HR strategy of EasiClean seem inclined towards slowing down the pace
of new hires until positive news arrive relating to COVID-19 vaccines.
Process integration and technological upgrades: EasiClean’s growth strategy of launching
operations into multiple countries, acquisition of new subsidiaries across 15 countries, and adding new
products in portfolio would push EasiClean towards process integration, synergies, and requirement to
upgrade existing technological systems to support global operations. HR strategy of EasiClean
identified that factors would result in redundancies hence rightsizing shall be required. The policy
update circulated by the HR team acknowledged their responsibility of managing the change with
responsibility towards organisation and maintaining a fair balance towards the workforce. While the
policy update pursuant to global growth plans is a right step but the fears of losing job is natural which
could add demoralisation of workforce hence HR will have to continue programmes that to maintain
positive two-way communication with workforce so they remain motivated to embrace the change and
comfort those who are likely to be laid-off.
Accommodation of new legislation for disabled employees: The new regulations relating to
employment of workforce with disabilities came into force last year. It seeks to bring improvements in
grey areas that existed in previous regulations and government aims to enhance the welfare, fair
treatment and equality of rights for the people with disabilities. HR staff creates the same duties, rules
and regulations for all people with disabilities. In every way, these people are equal to all other
employees. Therefore, security authorities and government legislation provide all kinds of protection
for these individuals. It is essential for the survival of the company that all individuals be given equal
rights whether they are disabled or not. The HR strategy of EasiClean included specification of jobs

that designed for people with disability so they can work comfortably and feel contributing members of
the society.
HR policies and plans: HR policies and plans supplement the long-term HR strategies
providing all necessary details to achieve HR goals, ensure smooth day-to-day operations, and
chalking out the detailed guidance for workforce. EasiClean’s global growth strategy
influenced the HR strategy revisions to incorporate skills required to materialise new plans and
the acquire target skillset either via training programmes (see ‘Learning & Development’
below) or otherwise via hiring.
Learning and development: The new HR strategy of EasiClean included analysis of
target skills and existing gaps. HR management decided to develop policies and programmes to
train the workforce in order to equip them with target skills, knowledge, and attitude during change.
The training programmes included plans to arrange learning workshops internally and externally. This
approach would assist HR management of EasiClean to provide career paths to the workforce while
meeting the challenges posed by growth strategies pursued by the management.
Search and selection of required talent: The main purpose of recruitment is to add
qualified employees to the workforce. And after recruitment, the most capable employees are selected
from all the manpower. Through this process, the most capable employees become part of the
workforce, which also increases the company's performance and growth prospects. The human resource
managers use the company's financial resources for this purpose. The process also ensures that only
competent and capable people have recruited to avoid training and other expenses.

Task 2
M1 Impact of government legislation on HR management strategies
Government legislations affect the HR strategies in many ways. HR manager must ensure that
policies and plans developed by his team are in full compliance with the relevant legislations, rules and
regulations enacted by government. HR management strategy of EasiClean is impacted by government
legislations in following ways:
General Data Protection regulation (GDPR) of 2018 (also known as ‘Data Protection Act
2018’): European Union (EU) enacted GDPR to regulate consumer privacy and data protection in the
EU and European Economic Area (EEA) with framework to impose hefty penalties on non-compliant
businesses and organisations. The GDPR provided legal support to the Regulators to impose penalties
on organisation as high as €20 million or up to 4% of the annual global revenue of the non-compliant
entities. In 2019 alone, top three biggest fines were imposed on British Airways (€204.6 million),
Marriott International Inc., (€110.4 million), and Google (€50 million).Google (€50 million) Source:
(GDPR Enforcement Tracker, 2020). EasiClean would require amendments accommodate the
provisions relating to compliance with GDPR such as maintenance of accurate records of the people
employed in workforce for a required retention period and make it available to various government
organisations upon request. GDPR also require organisations to exercise utmost care when it comes to
collecting, processing, and using the data relating to individuals in EU and EEA.
Health and Safety Act 1974 (also known as ‘HASAWA’): Lays down a wide range of duties
on employers to protect ‘health, safety, and welfare’ of all the employees and all other associated
individuals including temporary workers, clients, and visitors entering the premises of the employer.
As EasiClean deals with a lot of chemical1s during manufacturing process, they must ensure that health
and safety of workers is ensured all the times to remain in full compliance of regulations under
HASAWA to avoid penalties and attracting negative publicity especially at a time when the Company
is pursuing aggressive growth strategies.

Wages Act 1986: This government legislation protects the rights of workforce to get wages
according to their work and all additional hours worked must be paid in prescribed manner. EasiClean
will have to ensure that the wages determined for workforce reflects the nature of work and overtime is
paid for overtime.
The Equality Act of 2010: This Act comprehensively covers aspects ranging from the
protection of rights of people with ‘protected characteristics’ to hiring of disabled persons and ensuring
of equal pay based on skills and ability rather than some other trait. ‘Protected characteristics’ include
factors like age, disability, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, etc. The Act bars discriminatory
treatment of people with protected characteristics and safeguards their rights to equal access to
education and employment. Specifically, employers are required to make necessary interview
arrangements to accommodate and only ask limited enquiries about health of disabled persons during
recruitment process. It also binds employers to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to accommodate the
special needs of disabled persons so they are not put to a significant disadvantage. Furthermore, the Act
blocks grounds on which a disabled person could be dismissed due to redundancy but merely chosen
based on his/her disability rather than under a fair selection process that is applied to all employees
alike. Lastly, the Act also requires employers to ensure equality of salaries and wages which should be
assigned according to individual’s skills and ability instead being decided on based on gender.
EasiClean will have to monitor the compliance vigorously on an ongoing basis and implement policies
that ensure people are hired based on their knowledge, skills, and ability; and every member of
workforce is treated fairly without discrimination.