Effective People Management: Issues, Skills, and HR Support

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of people management, focusing on contemporary challenges faced by line managers, particularly within the hospitality sector, using InterContinental Hotels (IHG) as a case study. It explores the evolving landscape of employee management, highlighting issues such as adapting to innovation, promoting equality and diversity, and managing performance in a dynamic environment. The report outlines the essential knowledge, skills, and behavioral traits required for effective people management, emphasizing the crucial role of HR processes in supporting performance management. Key HR activities such as setting clear goals, communication, performance monitoring, maintaining employee satisfaction, designing rewards, providing feedback, and developing training plans are discussed. The report underscores the collaborative relationship between management and HR in achieving organizational objectives while ensuring employee satisfaction and efficient operations, ultimately providing a comprehensive overview of the critical aspects of people management.

Introduction to People
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
What are the contemporary issues faced by line managers when it comes to people
management................................................................................................................................3
Explain the knowledge, behaviour and skills needed to be an effective people manager..........4
What HR process support the management in case of effective performance management......6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The people are the important part of any organisation. The effective people management
needs the support of HR department with relation to other managers. With the changing
economic conditions, fluctuating job market, gap in supply and demand of skill has changed the
scenario drastically (Banfield, Kay and Royles, 2018). The focus of any organisation is to
maintain and retain talent. The aim of this study is to highlight the qualities needed to be an
effective HR manger with focus on the contemporary issues that are faced by the line managers
in managing people. The InterContinental Hotels (IHG) hotel is selected to highlight its
practices in managing employees. The IHG is multinational hospitality organisation with
headquarters in UK. The goal is to identify the issues and suggest the way to increase the
performance of employees in this regard.
MAIN BODY
What are the contemporary issues faced by line managers when it comes to people management.
The line manger is a person who acts as the mediator between employees and higher
management of organisation. The line manger is one who supervise the operations and
employees simultaneously. As the hospitality sector is most affected with this COVID pandemic
largely. There are various issues which existed and affected the performance of employees.
Some of the main issues faced by the line managers are as follows; Changing model of managing employees : The traditional model so existed whose focus
was a slow and reactive approach was more of bureaucratic kind of approach. With the
disruptions and changing demand of time the Strategic practice gained light. The
Strategic practice focus on developing the partnership with employees and customers. It
is focused on creating the operational and short term goals to achieve the larger goal.
The approach used by the mangers to nurture the employees largely now is collaborative
and commitment strategy (Chang and Teng, 2017). Adapting to innovation : The pandemic so existed had given a large shift in strategy and
structure of the hospitality sector. The working patterns have gained a complete new
picture. But the employees are still hesitant to fully accept that change. The line mangers
are loaded with making the employees friendly with changing working structure. The

ICH Hotel staff members also faced the problem during early time of pandemic to adapt
to virtual meetings and trainings programmes. Promoting equality and diversity : As the hospitality sector is composed of the diverse
workforce. Being in hospitality sector the guest severed are also of diverse background. It
is need to maintain the equality in serving the varied customer need and employee need.
The ICH line mangers are responsible for maintaining equality in workforce and does not
follow any discrimination while dealing with workforce. It is tough to deal with the
diverse workforce. Managing and leading performance : The ICH line mangers are trying hard to maintain
the performance level of employees. With continuous operations in hospitality sector it is
hard to maintain and review the operation and employees simultaneously. Earlier with the
season peak time of marriages and festivities it was really tough to manage. At this
pandemic time the measurement of performance is hard for managers. As the basis for
performance goals and objectives is not easy to set. The leading and guidance of the the
employees in right direction have to maintained for increasing their motivation level.
 Personal development of employees : The disruption created with the COVID is owing
to cause of dissatisfaction in the workforce. As in time of lock down it was tough to
design and devise the career path of employees. The employees were burdened with the
fear of job insecurity and job loss. To manage this virtually and address their
development need to satisfy them was not an easy task for line mangers. The ICH hotel
line managers also faced problem while devising growth strategies of employees during
early time of pandemic.
The people management is not an important task in any organisation. The line mangers needs
support of HR department also to address this. No one was prepared for this pandemic and when
it arrived and stayed for so long the practices and role of line mangers and HR mangers have
changed to completely (Horng and et. al., 2017) .
Explain the knowledge, behaviour and skills needed to be an effective people manager.
The HR manger is one who is responsible for the effective management of human assets
of the organisation. The HR department makes the smooth functioning of operations in the
organisation. To be an effective HR manger one need to possess following knowledge, skills and
behaviour;

KNOWLEDGE
 The organisational knowledge needs to be possess by an person strongly. The specific
knowledge of the industry and organisation details which includes such as subsidiaries,
services and products information etc. needs to be known to the person. The knowledge of the International HRM needs to be familiar with. The culture, language
related information should be known to people manger. As the case of ICH Hotel, is an
multinational hotel while hiring of HR mangers the selection team will focus on strong
international knowledge.
 Knowledge of HR practices needs to familiar with the person. As the main operation area
is HR the specific knowledge related to this domain needs to be known by the person. Related knowledge of labour laws should be well versed with the person. The partial
subject matter related law knowledge should be known to person.
Skills Interpersonal skills : The effective communication and listening skills should be the
competency of Great HR person. As the person engaged in HR needs to have constant
interactions with employees for this purpose the interpersonal skills is required. Budgeting skills : The HR person is responsible for designing the pay rolls and devising
related compensation. The financial knowledge of budget needs to be present in an
individual. Organisation skills : The effective HR manger is pro at managing and organising various
activities related to the development and maintenance of employees. The ICH mangers
are trained in such a way that they are specialised and pro at managing various things. Problem solving skills : The person needs to have the great analytical skills. The people
manager acts as counsellor and coach at same time to address the personal problem of the
employees. Change management skill :The HR person acts as the liaison between the management
and employees. The HR acts at same time the change leader in the organisation. Strategic thinking : The person should be able to think strategically from dual perspective
i.e employer and employee. As the HR is link pin between employee and management.
The person should be able to think strategically(Jung and Yoon, 2016).

 Empathetic skill : The HR performs various functions from managing to leading people
to provide guidance to them. The great people manager needs to have empathetic skills as
there main area is dealing with people (Kim and et. al., 2018). The understanding of
human behaviour is necessary skill while dealing with people. Leadership skills : The HR person needs to have the guiding skills. The human resource
is related with the interacting and leading the people. Therefore, the people manager
needs to have leadership skills.
Behaviour Ethical : The requisite person in HR needs to be ethical and morally responsible. It is
common aspect that the person needs to posses the ethical behaviour is a reflection of
socially responsible person (Liu, 2019). The ICH Hotels focus on hiring morally
responsible and ethical person who is accountable for the actions so done. Fair and clear : The person should be transparent and clear while making any decision.
The fairness should be present while making any decision. The HR is responsible for
rewarding the benefits they need to be fair and just while making decision.
 Personal credibility : The person should have that charm and credibility that the person
gets the things done right way. The person needs to have the quality to be an effective
people manager.
Following are the specific qualities and behaviour set of an HR person. The right skill set needs
to be there to be an effective HR manager.
What HR process support the management in case of effective performance management.
The performance management is related with managing and evaluating the performance
of an employee (Rajagopalan and Srivastava, 2018). The HR department helps largely the
management to monitor the performance of people in organisation efficiently and effectively.
Following are the various HR activities that help the management in monitoring performance
effectively; Setting clear goals and objectives : The base of the effective performance management is
setting clear goals. The goals and objectives so set for each job is done with help of HR
manger. The ICH management takes the help of HR's largely while designing the goals of
performance criteria.

 Communication : The HR is being used by the management for communicating the goals
and objectives so set for monitoring the performance. The management is burdened with
other activities also. The ICH Hotel HR department makes it an easy task to
communicate to employees about the performance criteria. Monitoring the performance : The HR solely is responsible for conducting the
performance management system. The ICH Hotel human resource department helps the
management in supervising the whole system efficiently. The HR team sets out the whole
programme deadline. Maintaining the employee satisfaction level : After the completion of performance
system the management dwells into results and reports. With help of HR the management
justifies the results. The HR helps in maintaining the satisfaction and motivation level of
employees by providing them coaching and counselling so required. The ICH Hotel HR
managers after the conducting the system communicate with employees and take their
inputs (Rose , 2018). Designing Rewards and compensation package : The HR team helps the management in
devising the right compensation package and rewards, incentives for the good
performers(Trapp, Voigt and Brem, 2018). The ICH Hotel people managers design the
pay packages with compensations to reward them on there performance level. Constant Feedback : The management is helped by the HR team to give and justify the
employees feedback on their performance. The people manager helps the manager in
giving proper feedback to the employees and address their grievances and queries so
related.
 Developing the training plans, providing coaching and counselling : The employees
who are in need of training and development. The HR department helps the management
in mapping out the effective training and development programmes for the growth of
employees. The dissatisfied employees are provided with the coaching and counselling.
The ICH management is helped by the people mangers to an great extent in providing
coaching and developing the training plans.
The management is helped out largely by HR department in carrying out effective performance
system. At each stage the management and HR works collaboratively to design and implement
performance system effectively and efficiently(Starr-Glass, 2019). The ICH Hotel has a

competent HR team that carries out this effectively and helps the management in achieving their
objectives while maintaining employee satisfaction.
CONCLUSION
The right skills set needs to be possessed by an person to be an effective HR manager.
The HR department is an important department of any organisation. The organisation success is
owned to its employees efforts and performance. The line managers are an integral part of
management that helps in achieving the organisational objectives with focus on satisfaction of
employees and efficient operations. The line mangers play major role in managing the
performance of employees. For effective performance system the support of HR is required by
the management.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Chang, J.H. and Teng, C.C., 2017. Intrinsic or extrinsic motivations for hospitality employees’
creativity: The moderating role of organization-level regulatory focus. International
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Horng, J.S. and et. al., 2017. From innovation to sustainability: Sustainability innovations of eco-
friendly hotels in Taiwan. International Journal of Hospitality Management, .63., pp.44-
52.
Jung, H.S. and Yoon, H.H., 2016. What does work meaning to hospitality employees? The
effects of meaningful work on employees’ organizational commitment: The mediating
role of job engagement. International Journal of Hospitality Management, .53., pp.59-68.
Kim, H.L. and et. al., 2018. The effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employee
well-being in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management.
Liu, Y., 2019. Introduction: International talent management research–a multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary approach. In Research Handbook of International Talent Management.
Edward Elgar Publishing.
Rajagopalan, J. and Srivastava, P.K., 2018. Introduction of a new metric “Project Health
Index”(PHI) to successfully manage IT projects. Journal of Organizational Change
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M.(2018) Reward Management: A Practical Introduction, 2nd edn, London: Kogan
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Starr-Glass, D., 2019. The Culture of Management and the Management of Culture: An
Introduction. In Management Science (pp. 49-74). Springer, Cham.
Trapp, M., Voigt, K.I. and Brem, A., 2018. Business models for corporate innovation
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