Costa Coffee's HR Department: Roles, Responsibilities, and Challenges

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Executive summary
The HR management team generally recruit, hire and select people for the vacant post of the
organisation. This study deals with different roles and responsibilities of the HR department of
Costa Coffee. It also focuses upon different recruitment and selection approaches, training and
development programs and performance management that are managed by the HR department.
The various advantages and disadvantages that are associated with the HR function have been
discussed in the second part of the study.
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
1. Overview of the company............................................................................................................4
2. Explanation and assessments of functions, purpose and responsibilities of HRM......................4
2.1. Purpose of HR.......................................................................................................................4
2.2. Key roles and responsibilities of HR....................................................................................5
2.3. Functions of HR....................................................................................................................5
3. Assessment of the approach to workforce planning of Costa Coffee..........................................6
3.1. Recruitment and selection.....................................................................................................6
3.2. Training and development....................................................................................................6
3.3. Performance and reward system...........................................................................................7
4. Effectiveness of key aspects of employee relations management...............................................7
4.1. Approach to an effectiveness of employee relations and employee relations and employee
engagement..................................................................................................................................7
4.2. Flexible working practices....................................................................................................8
5. Internal and external factors affecting decision-making.............................................................9
5.1 Internal factors affecting Human Resource Management decision-making..........................9
5.2 External factors affecting Human Resource Management decision-making.......................11
6. Key aspects of employee relations management and employment legislation.........................11
7. Application of HRM practices in a work-related context 300...................................................11
An evaluation of the process and the rationale for conducting appropriate HR practices.........17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................19
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Introduction
The term HR refers to duty of the HR department of the Cost Coffee to identify and analyze the
requirements of the manpower and make a plan in order to accomplish it (Cohen, 2017). The
present study deals with the different roles and responsibilities of the HR department of Costa
Coffee and their functions. It also highlights different recruitment and selection approaches,
training and development program and performance management that are managed by the HR
department. The second part of the study deals with various advantages and disadvantages that
are associated with the HR functions.
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1. Overview of the company
Costa Coffee is a British multinational organisation coffeehouse. Headquarter of Costa Coffee is
in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. Costa family (Costa.co.uk. 2019) established the company in the
year 1971. At the initial stage, the company offers roasted coffee. As time flies, in the present
time the company has more than 2000 outlets in the UK across 31 countries. CEO of the
company is Dominic Paul. Yearly revenue of the company is around £1.167 billion. There are
various ranges of products that is offered by the Costa Coffee are Coffee, tea, sandwiches, snacks
and soft-drinks etc.
2. Explanation and assessments of functions, purpose and responsibilities of HRM
2.1. Purpose of HR
The term HR refers to Human Resource. It is the duty of the HR department of the Cost Coffee
to identify and analyze the requirements and make a plan in order to accomplish it. There are
various purposes for the HR department of Costa Coffee, which includes the following:
● Select the workers and provide them with proper training so that they can easily able to
recognise Costa Coffee’s objectives.
● Track the performance of the employees and make a report on that. After completion of
the analysis, it is the responsibility of the HR of the organisation to send that report to the
individual branch heads (Cascio and Boudreau, 2016).
● Motivate the employees at every stage, so that they can work hard. It will help Costa
Coffee to enhance the productivity rate.
● Maintain a good relationship within the workplace with everyone so that they cannot
hesitate to ask anything
● Maintain the salary of the employees, manage the leave emails of the employees, and
maintain legal laws, rules, and regulations that are associated with Costa Coffee.
● Make a friendly business practice and motivate employees to work hard to fulfil the
business objectives.
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2.2. Key roles and responsibilities of HR
HR plays a significant role in the business sector in order to enhance the whole growth of
business. Apart from that, there are various duties of the HR department of Costa Coffee include:
● Change all management related projects within Costa Coffee, it is the responsibility of
HR to incorporate a leadership skill in the business organization.
● HR also monitors the performance of the employees, check whether the employees are
satisfied with the offered salary package or with the job environment (Armstrong and
Taylor, 2014).
● Take an interview of the applicants and check whether their qualification and knowledge
are appropriate or meet the job requirements.
● Make a proper workforce planning for executing the hiring process of the Costa Coffee;
manage an entrance test or aptitude test for the employees, background data verification
of the employees.
● There are many more roles of HR in Costa Coffee includes evaluating health safety
program, manage and store all the data regarding the accidents, make a government
report for a safety inspection.
2.3. Functions of HR
There are two functions of HR in Costa Coffee are operative and another one is managerial
function. Again, managerial functions are divided into five different segments are Planning,
Organising, Staffing, Directing and Controlling. Apart from that, there are many more functions
of the HR department of the Costa Coffee includes;
Proper training and development: After selecting the employees from several interview round,
the HR manager of Costa Coffee, provide all the newcomers with proper training and
development program. This process helps the workers of Costa Coffee to understand various
roles and responsibilities and their functions within the organisation. Apart from that, the HR
manager of Costa Coffee also provides them with the norms, rules and goals of the organisation.
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Compensation Handling: HR department of any company is necessary in order to compensate
the salary of the employees. The HR manager of Costa Coffee handles the salary of the
employees. Apart from that, there are many more functions that are associated with the
compensation handling includes, the HR manager verifies whether the employee get their salary
on time or not, manage a competitive salary range, medical and dental insurance and many more.
Maintain proper relationship with the employees: Responsibility of the HR manager of any
organisation to maintain a friendly relationship with all the workers of the company (Stone and
Deadrick, 2015). In the case of Costa Coffee, the HR manager maintains a proper relationship
with the employees. Due to that reason, if the employees encounter any problems during
working, they directly inform it to the HR manager. Maintaining a good relationship with the
employees helps Costa Coffee to enhance the overall growth as well as productivity.
Manage the legal responsibilities: Legal responsibilities refer to the mental capacity of the
employee, working hours, basic salary and many more. In the case of Costa Coffee, the HR
manager informs all the employees about the legal responsibilities, aims and objectives of the
company etc., which helps the employees of the organisation to understand the basic roles and
responsibility.
3. Assessment of the approach to workforce planning of Costa Coffee
3.1. Recruitment and selection
There are various roles and responsibilities of the HR department of Costa Coffee. In the
recruitment and selection process the HR manager of the company select the employees for the
vacant post (Ekwoaba et al., 2015). There are various rounds, in this particular process are
aptitude test, face to face interview, technical interview, screening round etc. The HR manager of
the Costa Coffee recruits and selects the applicants in a strategic manner.
3.2. Training and development
Training and development process is the second step that comes after recruitment and selection
(Ingham and Ulrich, 2016). It is the responsibility of the management team of the organisation to
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provide all the newcomers with proper training. The HR manager of Costa Coffee provides all
the employees with proper training so that they can understand the business objectives, roles,
their functions and many more.
3.3. Performance and reward system
After completion of the training and development program, it is the duty of the HR manager of
the company to track the day-to-day work of the employees (Buckingham and Goodall, 2015). In
the case of Costa Coffee, after training and development program the HR manager of the
organisation analyze and record the day-to-day work of the employees. After analyzing the
report, HR manager of Costa Coffee send the whole report to the individual departmental head.
After analyzing, the whole report HR management of the Costa Coffee provide the employees
reward. Based on the performance if the HR manager of the organisation provides the employees
with rewards, it helps the employees to work hard and motivate them to work hard. It helps
Costa Coffee to enhance their business growth as well as productivity.
4. Effectiveness of key aspects of employee relations management
4.1. Approach to an effectiveness of employee relations and employee relations and
employee engagement
Employee relation means the interaction of different employees within the organisation (Berman
et al., 2019). During interaction with the employees, it is the duty of the management team of the
company to maintain a good relationship with each employee. In the case of Costa Coffee, the
Human Resource manager maintains a good relationship with every employee. A positive as well
as friendly behaviour with the employee motivates them to work hard. There are various reasons
for maintaining a good relationship with the employees. Employees are the basic building blocks
of the organisation.
There are various advantages of the proper relationship management are;
● It helps the HR management team of Costa Coffee to understand the situation of the
employees.
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● Effective relationship helps to build trust and respect between the HR and the workers of
Costa Coffee.
● In Costa Coffee, when the HR manager is unable to take any critical decisions, at that
time the employee helps them in decision taking.
There are some disadvantages of relationship management include:
● There is no proper tool of the company to track and record the performance of the
employees (Marqués-Iturria et al., 2015). As a result, the HR manager of the company
fails to analyze whether the employee works efficiently or not. It affects the overall
performance and productivity of Costa Coffee.
● Sometimes, the management team of the organisation monitor every activity of the
employees, starting from the system tracking to each movement. It creates trust issues.
Employees are not able to trust their company, as a result the overall performance of the
employee’s decreases. It affects the business growth of Costa Coffee.
One type of payment and reward system
There are various types of reward programs and payment methods used by Costa Coffee and one
method is analysed here:
Variable Pay and reward system: Reward system offered by the management team of Costa
Coffee is in-group based on their performance. There are various forms of variable pay include
bonus, one-time awards, stock options and many more (Lo et al, 2015). In this particular
scenario, the management team of Costa Coffee track the daily performance of the employees
and make a report on that. After completion of each month according to the performance, HR
management team of Costa Coffee provides the most efficient workers with reward. It helps the
employees to work hard and motivate them in order to accomplish the business objectives.
4.2. Flexible working practices
Most important aspects of HR management is flexible working practices. The Human resource
techniques consider the change in demographics in the organisation (Raziq and Maulabakhsh,
2015). In Costa Coffee, there are generally two types of employees. One is who are recently
joined or recruited and is old workers with highly efficient. Flexible working practice in HRM
includes the flexibility of the workers in Costa Coffee. In the case of Costa Coffee, the HR
department offers various modes of working practices. In the case, if the employee of Costa
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Coffee is unable to come to the office because of some reason, then work from home facility is
provided by the company so that the employees can able to complete their jobs from home.
Benefits of flexible working practices:
There are various advantages or benefits of the flexible working practices are,
● It helps the employees to complete his/her task from home. It does not affect the
productivity of Costa Coffee.
● A flexible workforce also allows the employees to make a productive workforce (Momin
and Mishra, 2015). In the case of Costa Coffee, the management team provides huge
flexibility so that they can meet the needs of the family, able to enjoy their own life,
personal obligations and many more.
There are some benefits of flexible working practices, are teamwork high employee satisfaction
and annual profit.
5. Internal and external factors affecting decision-making
5.1. Internal factors affecting Human Resource Management decision-making
Internal environment of the organisation refers to the forces that are present within the
organisation. In the case of Costa Coffee, internal environment refers to the;
Leadership: Here the term owners refer to the people who are invested in Costa Coffee. In some
cases, the owner may be an individual, sometimes; it may be a group of people. On the other
hand, board of director refers to the government who select the stakeholders or who generally
take care of the management department of Costa Coffee.
In the case, if the Costa Coffee encounters any problem during taking any management related
decisions, at that time the leaders of the company help the subordinates to take proper career
decisions, help in bonuses and incentives, daily management meetings, professional guidance
and many more.
Work culture: In the case of Costa Coffee, the work atmosphere or culture is positive. If the
work environment of the organisation is positive, it helps employees to work hard and fulfil the
objective of the organisation. In the case of Costa Coffee, the management team tries to maintain
a positive work ambience, which helps the employees of the organisation to work, hard which
helps to develop the overall business growth. If the work culture is positive, it helps the
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employees to work hard, it helps Costa Coffee to accomplish the business objectives of the
company.
Performance of the employees: Employee plays an important role in the business organisation.
In the case of Costa Coffee, employees work hard in order to achieve the business objectives.
Generally, employees of Costa Coffee connect the entire department. If the employees do the
assigned task on time, then it will help to develop the business growth. There are various
functions of employee in Costa Coffee are:
● Perform own task on time
● Protect confidential information
● Obey all the organisational rules and regulations
Performance of employees of Costa Coffee can improves productivity of the company that can
help to take decisions regarding the growth strategies, sales and profit of the company.
Organisational Structure and Human Resource policies
If the organisational structure is developed well then the communication, job allocation will be
performed properly. A good communication structure helps the management team of Costa
Coffee to work without any problems. Moreover, the HR department of Costa Coffee recruit
employees based on their merit and provide them with proper training so that they can
understand the organisational objectives.
Communication
Communication within the Costa Coffee is smooth. As a result, the communication is
transparent. In the case, if the employees encounter any problem at the time of dealing with the
management operation, the employees can directly communicate with the manager of the Costa
Coffee. There is no such communication hierarchy followed within Costa Coffee. It helps to
enhance the business growth of Costa Coffee.
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5.2. External factors affecting Human Resource Management decision-making
Government Regulations
Government Acts and regulations are changing every day, in order to survive Costa Coffee for a
long; it is the responsibility of the management team to circulate all government rules among all
the employees of the company.
Economic Conditions
The economic condition completely depends on rise of global development. In the case of Costa
Coffee there are various aspects that are associated with the economic condition of the company
includes investment portfolio, government rules and regulations and many more.
Competitors
For any organisation, the company must check the position of the competitor. In the case of
Costa Coffee, the management and IT department analyze the market status and set the price, in
order to increase the overall sales of the Costa Coffee.
6. Key aspects of employee relations management and employment legislation
Employment legislation means law. Moreover, the term is applied to everyone within the
organisation.
Equal Pay: It comes under labour rights concept. The act was enacted in 1963. This act was
associated with “Fair Labour Standards” in order to oppose workers from paying salaries, which
are unequally associated with gender (Erne and Imboden, 2015).
Working hours: It comes under Factories act. This was enacted in 1948. It states that the
employees cannot work for more than 48 hours. Alternatively, cannot work 9 hours a day.
Minimum Wage: It refers to the refusal of workers by retaining the employee that is completely
depends on the minimum monthly salary.
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