Aviva Plc.'s HRM: Recruitment, Selection, and Employee Relations

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Aviva Plc.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 0
LO1.................................................................................................................................................0
COMPANY OVERVIEW................................................................................................................0
FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT.................................................................0
SCOPE OF HR FUNCTIONS AT AVIVA PLC...................................................................................2
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION 3
LO2.................................................................................................................................................5
BENEFITS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FOR AVIVA PLC AND ITS EMPLOYEES..........5
UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DIFFERENT HRM PRACTICES IN AVIVA PLC IN
TERMS OF RAISING ORGANISATIONAL PROFIT AND PRODUCTIVITY.........................................5
LO3.................................................................................................................................................7
THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONS IN RESPECT TO INFLUENCING HRM DECISION-
MAKING..................................................................................................................................... 7
KEY AREAS OF EMPLOYEE LEGISLATION WITHIN WHICH THE AVIVA MUST WORK...................8
LO4............................................................................................................................................... 11
JOB SPECIFICATION FOR THE ROLE OF DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER AT AVIVA PLC..........11
CV............................................................................................................................................. 12
INTERVIEW NOTE SHEET..........................................................................................................14
JOB OFFER LETTER FOR DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER AT AVIVA PLC.................................16
EVALUATION OF PROCESS AND RATIONALE FOR CONDUCTING APPROPRIATE HR PRACTICES
................................................................................................................................................. 17
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 18
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................19

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is one of the core functions of every business organisation. The
management of the human resource is very essential as well as critical for the large business
organisations as they have to manage the diversified workforce. Thus, the purpose of the
different HR functions and some important roles and responsibilities of the HR functions will be
discussed in this report it the context of the ‘Aviva Plc’ a leading insurance service provider in
the UK. The different approaches to workforce planning and development, recruitment and
selection, performance management, training and reward system followed in Aviva will be
analysed and assessed. Moreover, the approaches and effectiveness of employee engagement and
employee relations will be analysed along with the practices of flexible working practice and
employer of choice (Noe et al., 2017). The internal and external factors affecting decision-
making in HRM as well as the key areas of employment legislation will be analysed. At last, the
key HRM practices are discussed and applied in the work-related context of the Aviva Plc. This
report will provide a complete overview of the different aspects of HRM and HRM practices
adopted in the Aviva Plc.

LO1
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Aviva Plc is a UK based multinational insurance company headquartered in London. The
company was founded in the year 2000. It is the largest general insurer as well as a leading life
insurance and pension provider across the UK. The company has around 33 million customers in
around 16 countries across the world. The company offers insurance and savings products to
enable customers to protect their valuable things in life. Currently, there are around more than
30000 employees working in across different locations. The company manages the diversified
workforce with employees across 16 countries from all kinds of cultures, backgrounds, beliefs
and wide-ranging global diversity programmes (AV, 2019).
FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
An organization consists of various departments that work in collaboration with each other.
These different departments help the organization in achieving the business objective of the
organization. The people of the organization are a very important asset to the organization.
Companies that are able to manage the employees of the organization are only going to succeed.
The Human Resource department has the role and responsibility to manage the employees. The
department has various functions such as staffing, managing etc. The Human Resource
Department of Aviva is doing a good job (Boxall and Purcell, 2011). The company had achieved
success due to the efforts of employees of the company. The managers are keeping the
employees motivated and providing a positive and productive working environment for the
employees. The function of the human resource department of Aviva can be divided into two
major functions, managerial and operative function. The managerial function includes;
Planning – planning is one of the important functions of the human resource department of an
organization. Planning includes identifying the number of employees is needed to achieve the
organizational goals and objectives. The HRM planning helps the management to analyze the
current number of employees and future need of the organization. The HRM of Aviva carries out
the task of making HRM planning. The organization has a sufficient number of skilled
employees that are capable of performing the assigned job and responsibilities.

Organizing – Organization of the employees and task is also a very important role of HRM. The
managers assign the task to each employee according to the skills and ability of the employees.
The managers of Aviva manage and organize the employees and task and make sure that the
employees are able to achieve the task (Boxall and Purcell, 2011).
Directing – The human resource department has the responsibility of directing the motivating
the employees towards contributing and achieving the organizational goals. The HRM of Aviva
is responsible for making the employees work in the direction of achieving maximum
productivity. The HRM manager should define the role and responsibility of each employee.
Then the employees should be assigned task according to the skills of the particular employee.
Controlling – The HRM has the responsibility of controlling the employees. After planning,
organizing and directing human resource management has to check the employee’s performance.
If the employees are not able to achieve the assigned task then controlling measures are applied.
The HRM has the responsibility of motivating the employees for achieving the given task and
goals. The operative functions of HRM are as follows;
Recruiting and Hiring– recruiting and hiring is one of the main tasks of the HRM of an
organization. The Hiring managers are tasked with bringing the required pool of skilled and
talented candidates who will help the organization in achieving the business goal of the
organization. The HRM of Aviva is regularly involved in conducting and recruitment activities
so that the organization does not suffer from the lack of skilled workers (Noe et al., 2017).
Job Analysis and Design – The HRM has the responsibility of describing the requirements such
as qualification, skill, and work experience for a job. The HRM describe the task, duty and
responsibility of each job of the organization. The HRM of Aviva has the responsibility to
analyze the job requirements and assign the job to only those employees who are capable to
complete the task (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
Performance Appraisal – The HRM of an organization has the responsibility of assessing the
performance of employees. The HRM should keep a record of performance of each employee.
The employees who are high performers should be given rewards. This reward will motivate the
employee for performing well at the job. The HRM of Aviva always tries to provide necessary
rewards to deserving employees.

Training and Development – The skilled employee of an organization is the most important
asset for an organization. HRM has the responsibility to arrange training and development
activities. The success of an organization depends on the skill and talent of the employees. The
HRM of Aviva believes that a skilled workforce is important for taking on the competition.
Training and development prepare the employees for taking higher roles and responsibilities
(Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
Salary Administration – The HRM also determines the pay and compensation for different job
roles. The HRM also decide the incentives, bonus, benefits associated with a job function. The
HRM of Aviva decides the salary associated with each job. The organization gives a salary to
each employee.
Employee Welfare – For keeping the employee's motivation and achieve the highest level of
productivity the HRM takes care of various facility and benefits provided to the employee. The
employee of Aviva receives various benefits such as personal insurance, medical insurance etc.
The HRM of the company is responsible for providing benefits to the employee (Bratton and
Gold, 2017).
Maintenance – The HRM of the employees tries to minimize employee turnover. The
department helps the organization in retaining the best performing employees. The HRM of
Aviva helps and motivates the employees. The organization has adapted various employee
friendly policies.
SCOPE OF HR FUNCTIONS AT AVIVA PLC
The HR department of an organization has various roles and responsibilities. The HRM involves
a wide range of activities related to manpower planning. The scope of HRM involves;
 Personnel aspect: Personal aspect of HRM is concerned with recruitment, selection,
manpower planning, training and development, layoffs, promotion, incentives,
productivity etc.
 Welfare aspect: Welfare aspect of HRM is concerned with activities related to the
welfare of the employee. Welfare aspect deals with working condition and amenities such
as housing, transport, education, health and safety, medical assistance and recreational
facilities (Purce, 2014).

 Industrial relations aspect: This aspect of HRM deals with industries relations. It
covers the union relations, joint consultation, grievance and disciplinary procedures etc.
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO RECRUITMENT
AND SELECTION
Recruitment is the process of finding the best-qualified candidate from within or outside of the
organization. Recruitment and selection are one of the most important responsibilities of the
human resource department. The HR department of Aviva uses different approaches to
recruitment and selection of employee. Aviva uses two types of recruitment approach. The
company uses both internal recruitment and external recruitment (Caldwell et al., 2011).
Internal Recruitment
The internal recruitment process involves the recruitment of existing employee of the
organization for a new role. An employee on the basis of skill and knowledge and experience can
be promoted or transferred to the new job role. Internal recruitment at Aviva is generally used for
hiring the top level employees.
Strength – The strength of internal recruitment is that the company can save time and cost on
hiring and training of employees. There is no need for induction training when internal hiring is
done. The employees also get the chance for promotion. The employees fell motivated and are
more productive. The recruitment of candidates involves less number of steps (Caldwell et al.,
2011).
Weakness – The main weakness of internal recruitment is that new employees are not hired it
can lead to a decrease in workforce diversity. Internal recruitment also reduces the innovation
activities at the organization.
External Recruitment
The process of recruiting and selection of employees from outside the organization is called
external recruitment. External recruitment at Aviva is done to recruit lower level employees.
External recruitment can be done by various methods;

Online job boards – The recruitment of candidates through online job boards involves the
creation of job notice and putting it on online job board. The recruiter seeks to attract the desired
candidate by putting the information such as skills, qualification. etc. The advantage of using
online job board is that it is cost effective, use of technology help in managing the recruitment
cycle effectively, the vacancy can be advertised at the global level, the technique can handle a
high volume of applications. The disadvantage is that the company can receive a large number of
inappropriate applications (Caldwell et al., 2011).
Social Media and Websites – The job requirement is advertised through the use of social media
sites. The job requirement can also be advertised on the company carrier page. The use of social
media and websites give access to unlimited contacts.
Job fair and events – In this type of recruitment, the HR managers use job fairs and events like
campus placements. The job fair can be organized by the government or by any college. The
company gets a chance to meet a lot of candidates.
Referrals – Referrals is a recruitment process in which the candidates are referred through a
personal network of employees. The company can get high-quality candidates. The employees
hired by referral have better retention rates. The disadvantage associated with the referral is that
the company gets a limited pool of candidates (Shaghaghi at al., 2011).
Recruiting Agencies – The Company can use third party recruitment sources like recruiting
agencies. Through the use of recruiting agencies the company is able to get the pre-screened and
pre- referenced candidates.
Strength: The external recruitment helps the company in finding the best candidates for the job.
Through external recruitment, the managers get chance to recruit from the open market. The
process brings new and diverse employees in the company. Aviva utilizes external recruitment
for hiring skilled employees.
Weakness: The main disadvantage of external recruitment is that the process is costly and time-
consuming. Also, the bigger risk is involved with this process. The external recruitment involves
various stages making the recruitment process long and time-consuming task (Cameron, 2017).

LO2
BENEFITS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FOR AVIVA PLC AND ITS
EMPLOYEES
Benefits for employer
 The HRM helps in reducing the rate of employee turnover
 The HRM manager help in minimizing the conflicts between the employees
 Providing rewards to employees keeps the employees motivated. An effective HRM
practice can result in better employee satisfaction.
 The HRM helps in creating a positive working environment. The employees are more
productive and motivated to work in a positive workplace.
 The training and development help the employees as it helps in gaining new skills and
knowledge (Lamba and Choudhary, 2013).
Benefits to employees
 The HRM helps the employees in achieving a high level of productivity. The employee’s
performance is enhanced.
 The HRM of an organization helps the employees in adopting positive work behaviour.
 HRM helps the employees in gaining skills and knowledge
 An effective HRM policy helps in increasing employee satisfaction.
UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DIFFERENT HRM PRACTICES IN
AVIVA PLC IN TERMS OF RAISING ORGANISATIONAL PROFIT AND
PRODUCTIVITY
Workplace Planning: The HRM of Aviva Plc. has the role of ensuring the organization has a
sufficient number of employees. The HRM analyses the current and future requirement of human
capital for achieving organizational business goals. The HRM of an organization must know
about the availability of talented employees. These employees help the organization in achieving
the business objective of the organization (Cascio, 2015).
Recruitment and Selection: The recruitment and selection is the process of selecting the best
talent among a pool of candidates for a job role. The process involves sourcing, screening, and

selecting the right candidate for the job. The HRM of Aviva Plc. selects the best skilled and
talented candidate for the role of the organization. The selected employees are able to achieve a
higher level of productivity and performance (Shaghaghi et al., 2011).
Development and Training: Aviva believes that employees are the most important asset of an
organization. Aviva uses different training and development program that helps the employees to
improve skills and ability to perform their job. Aviva gives continuous training and development
opportunity for the employees. The employee gets the opportunity to enhance their skills
and knowledge. The employees also get the chance of promotions for higher job roles at the
organization.
Performance Management: Aviva regularly analyses the performance of employees. The
employees are made aware of their performance and feedback is provided for improvement. The
employees are graded on the basis of their performance. The HRM of Aviva Plc. uses
appropriate approach to performance management. Each employee is graded on the basis of their
performance.
Reward System: The reward system is used for giving rewards to high performing employees.
A reward system motivates employees to work with higher productivity. There are various ways
through which the employee of Aviva Plc. receives rewards for their exceptional performance.
The company gives financial rewards in the form of salary increments, bonus, and incentives.
The employees should not feel that they are not compensated for their extra efforts at the
workplace.

LO3
THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONS IN RESPECT TO INFLUENCING
HRM DECISION-MAKING
The number of internal and external factors influences the HRM decisions at the Aviva Plc.
External factors are those could not be directly controlled by the company while, the external
factors are those on which an organisation have direct control (TS, 2018).
EXTERNAL FACTORS
Government regulations: the legislation of the state and federal government are the major
factors that affects the HRM decisions within the company. the company has to comply with the
government laws to operate legally.
Company’s location: the geographic location of an organisation has a great impact on HRM
decisions and strategies of a company. The HR managers need to determine whether the labour
should be sourced from within the region or outside.
Availability of labour: to find a skilled, talented and trustworthy employee is the big challenge
for the HR professionals. There are different factors that affect the availability of labour such as
the unemployment rate in the region, literacy rate as well as availability of qualified and skilled
workers (Vaiman et al., 2012).
INTERNAL FACTORS
Organisation growth: HR decisions are also affected by the growth rate of the company. of the
company is planning for expansion and aggressive growth, the HR managers are required to
perform vibrant recruitment and staffing (Cartwright and Cooper, 2014).
Use of technology: technology is increasingly used within the different fields and areas of
business. By employing advanced technology the company can advance at different HRM
practices.

Employee relations: employee relations are the most important internal factor that affects the
HRM decisions within Aviva Plc. Employee relations could be defined as organisational efforts
towards developing and maintaining a good relationship with the workforce. Aviva renders great
emphasis on developing a healthy relationship with the employees to develop morale and trust
among the employees (TS, 2018).
Employee engagement: employee engagement could be defined as an extent to which the
workforce at the organisation is committed to their organisational goals, values and objectives
and are encouraged to contribute to the organisational success (Karrers, 2017).
Developing and maintaining employee relations is pre-requisite for the success and growth of an
organisation. A healthy employee relation enables to create higher motivation, efficiency and
productivity among the workforce that in return results in increasing sales and performance of
the overall organisation. In order to build better employee relations, the Aviva plc can adopt the
concept of employer of choice and flexible-working practices. Through this, the company allows
the employees to work whenever and wherever they want that encourages a positive work-life
balance among the employees. through adopting the concept of employer of choice the company
can create a positive work culture and retain maximum employees (Manzoor, 2012).
KEY AREAS OF EMPLOYEE LEGISLATION WITHIN WHICH THE AVIVA MUST
WORK
There are several rules and regulations that must be followed by an organization. These laws and
regulation can affect the working of human resource management within Aviva Plc. Some of the
key areas of legislation are;
Equality act (2010): The equality act states that there should not be any discrimination against
anyone in terms of age, sex, race, marriage, religion, disability and civil partnership. The act
stops any type of discrimination. Aviva Plc. believes in equality among the employees of the
company. The company discourages any type of discrimination at the organization.
General Data Protection Regulation Act 2018: According to the general data protection act,
every company is required to protect and save data of every individual. Therefore Aviva Plc.
must protect the data of employees and customers. The company is using the latest cloud storage