HR Management at Mother London: Capital, Practices, and Legislation

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the HR practices implemented at Mother London, a leading advertising agency. It explores how HR practices support various forms of capital, including organizational, human, and social capital. The report evaluates these practices through the lens of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) theory, examining training and development, performance management, and reward systems. Furthermore, it highlights key legislation and areas of consideration in recruitment and selection processes, particularly focusing on the differences between the UK and US contexts. The analysis includes a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of Mother London's HR approaches and their impact on employee motivation, performance, and overall business success. The report concludes with a synthesis of the key findings and recommendations for future HR strategies.

Mother London

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Explain the role of HR practices in supporting the different forms of capital.......................1
Evaluate the HR practices with the theoretical perspectives of SHRM.................................3
Illustrate with examples key legislation and areas for consideration in recruitment and
selection..................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is an important function of an organisation without which
the organisation may face difficulties in doing their daily activities and operations. Human
resource management is the process of managing and utilising the workforce in an effective
manner for attaining the desired organisational objectives and goals. The taken firm in this
assignment report is Mother London which is the largest advertising agency of London having
headquarter in London, United Kingdom. The company is providing employment to 280 people
and has around 40 clients including high level brands. This report will explain the role of HR
practices to support the various types of capital along with the HR practices which are
implemented at Mother with theoretical perspectives of SHRM. This report will further discuss
the key legislation and areas which must be considered by Mother in their recruitment and
selection which can influence the firm in a country.
MAIN BODY
Explain the role of HR practices in supporting the different forms of capital
Human resource is very essential for any organisation in order to develop more in the
market. The HR practices are associated with the different rules and regulations of the operations
and activities according to the ethical laws. HR managers must needs to properly understand
their practices and roles for taking strategic decision in order to effectively manage their human
resources or workforce for achieving the desired organisational goals (Armstrong and Taylor,
2014). The HR practices such as recruitment and selection, performance appraisals and keeping
of information associated with the workforce are done by the HR manager or department for
retaining the potential employees. The HR managers are providing their full support to the
various capital types by developing and implementing suitable strategies and policies for the
development of organisation and its employees. These practices are very essential to use the
human resources in an optimum manner so that the firm can achieve better efficiency in carrying
out their task and operations. Some of the HR practices which are used by Mother London is
positively effecting the different types of capital as discussed below:
Organisational capital: It is the procedures, structure and processes which indicates the
basic principles adopted by the Mother London. Performance appraisals are enhancing the
potential and efficiency of the workforce at a huge level in an effective manner (Moorcock,
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2016). Such type of appraisals are supporting the workers of organisation and also these
appraisal system has enhanced the hierarchy of organisations. The HR practices such as
recruitment and selection of Mother London is providing valuable and potential employees to the
organisation through which the employees feels very motivated and are ready to take tough tasks
for accomplishing their goals and objectives. Even the staff of the firm is rotated on the pre-
given space for building relationship with more people and to contribute their shared efforts for
the development of organisation.
Human Capital: It is a less tangible concept but contributes heavily in the success and
development of the organisation. Human capital is referred to the required skills and capabilities
of employees for bringing the efficiencies in the operations of firm (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
These skills can be further improved by providing seminars, training, development sessions to
the employees. HR managers of Mother London are selecting suitable candidates for their
organisations in order to get success in the market. The management of Mother London has
adopted People-Centric approach for hiring best staff among the pool. Also they are providing
training and development sessions to workers for enhancing their skills and knowledge. Whereas
recruitment provides the potential staff having the necessary skills and knowledge for the
position in the organisation.
Social capital: It is also an intangible concept which is associated with social
relationships of individuals with other individuals. The desires of such individuals is to work
with or for the people in their social network for getting mutual benefits to each other.
Individuals with high social capital knows various influential and powerful persons in their
industry and can contributes more in the development of organisation than the people with small
network (Briscoe, Tarique and Schuler, 2012). The principle adopted for values and culture at
Mother London is called Holy Trinity' which is contributing towards the success of firm. The
role of HR practice such as recruitment and selection, performance appraisals etc. of Mother
London has bring social inspiration in the workers of organisation for achieving the goals and
objectives in an efficient manner. Also these practices are supporting the managers to resolve
various issues and problems of employees.
Also the HR practices are increasing the creativity and accountability of the employees
towards the assigned work. The recruitment process of Mother London has provided skilful and
best employees to firm. The company has adopted people centric approach for getting the
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success in their industry through which the firm is empowering their employees. This approach
is helpful in providing performance management training to managers and for boosting the
participation of employees in the activities of the firm by increasing motivation and confidence
of employees. This approach has enhanced the performance and efficiency of the organisation.
The main drawback of recruitment approach adopted by the Mother London is the lack of
proper resources like budget, planning, strategies for the recruitment process. Apart from these,
The pre-planning stage of Mother London to decide the recruitment method such as internal,
external with the various sources in order to provide perspective for recruitment is also a major
concern for this approach.
Evaluate the HR practices with the theoretical perspectives of SHRM
The HR practices of Mother London includes, management of resources, appraisals on
performance and providing training and development. These practices must be implemented
utilised in an efficient manner for attaining the predetermined goals and objectives of the firm in
an effective way. In Mother London, the scope of change must be determined in the recruitment
and training procedure for evaluating the implemented HR practices. The theoretical perspective
of SHRM of Mother London will be analysed along with the evaluation of various HR activities
as discussed below:
Training & development: It is the mixture of different informal and formal opportunities
for enhancing the learning and skills of the employees of an organisation. Fir this, a budget will
be set initially to determine the requirements of cost for organising training and development
sessions (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013). Training and development of Mother London is
interlinked with the business and HR strategies for achieving the goals and target of the selected
firm. This interconnection between training and development program and business strategy is
done for increasing the customer base of the firm to generate maximum profit and revenue. For
achieving these objective of increasing customer base, the firm is focusing on enhancing the
communication and interaction skills of their employees along with the personality in order to
communicate with the existing and potential customers in an effective manner. Also, Mother
London is offering rewards and benefits to the workforce based on their performance and
efficiency of activities done. As a result of which the potential and accountability of the
workforce or workers has increased rapidly for attaining the desired goals and targets of the
Mother London in an efficient manner. The structure of Mother London is varying with the
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hierarchical position from top level authorities to middle and lower level authorities. The firm is
emphasising on increasing the skills, efficiency, potential, learning and knowledge of the junior
staff for meeting the expected outcomes. So, the Mother London has integrated these
opportunities with the strategies of business in order to attract and retain maximum number of
customers towards the products and services of the firm. For this successful integration, The firm
has developed and implemented several policies and strategies for their employees such as
incentives, appraisals and various other monetary and non-monetary benefits based on their
performance.
Performance management and rewards: This is an annual system for appraising the
performance to be carried out by the line manager of Mother London. This involves discussion
of the past period performance and change into the rewards system (Crook And et. al., 2011).
Such changes in paying the salaries has to be approved by the line manager of Mother London.
In this business, top level personnel linked these appraisals and rewards with performance and
actual efforts of an employee's. This is the part of HR strategies of Mother London. Business
strategies of this organisation is termed as business accomplishment tools which involves the
acquiring customer at the higher and optimized level. For such acquisition, HR Dept. of the
Mother London has given training to their workforce to gain the business attractiveness. Mother
London's has both interlink between their business and HR strategies.
Theoretical perspective of SHRM: It focus on the Fit approach which is based on two fit
forms, one is external fit on the basis of vertical integration. It states that the strategies of
business must fit with the demands of HR strategy. Other is the internal fit. Internal fit is based
on horizontal integration which states that the both of the Business and HR strategy must be fit
jointly for making a coherent whole for applying consistently (Dubos, 2017). Main strength of
such model is that it provides the simplified framework for showing the mutual geared for
producing the required performance on the basis of selection, appraisal, development, rewards
and other monetary benefits.
Selection: Successful experience of the teamwork and sociable, co-operative personality,
rather than the independent thinker who likes the working alone.
Appraisal: It generally based on contribution of the team and support of others, rather
than the individual outstanding performance.
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Reward: It basically based on team performance and contribution, rather than individual
efforts and performance.
Illustrate with examples key legislation and areas for consideration in recruitment and selection
Mother London is a advertising agency having multiple offices in UK, US,Canada and
Argentina. The recruitment and selection process of firm is different for different places due to
the difference in the attitude and behaviour of people of various places. The recruitment process
of Mother London in US also varies due to cultural and behavioural difference in the people.
Also the rules and laws of US are not same as in UK. The US has different laws such as Equal
Pay Act of 1963, Civil Rights Act of 1991 etc. which must be followed by the company during
the recruitment process (Guest, 2011). The Employment act, 1946 is focused on fair employment
of workers in the companies. Civil Rights Act, 1991 was formed for the equal treatment of
employees and to provide their civil rights while working in the company. These laws were
formed to provide the employees with their rights and opportunity to grow in their personal and
professional life. This law has enhanced the motivation and encouragement in the employees of
Mother London. Also the Equal Pay Act, 1963 emphasise on paying equal wages and rewards to
the employees for motivating and encouraging their confidence. The Occupational Safety and
Health Act, 1970 of US provides the safety and health condition to the employees for ensuring
the safety of workers in doing their work. Also the Family and Medical Leave Act, 1993
provides the leaves to the employees for spending time with their families and to take leave for
medical cases. These US laws can effect the operations and employees of firm if not followed
properly.
There are several drawbacks of laws of UK which are negatively influencing the business
and employees turnover of company (Jiang and et. al., 2012). Due to this, Mother London
realised that US is suitable for the company to decrease the employees turnover and to increase
the performance of firm. Also the firm has made several changes in their strategies and HR
policies to provide the rewards and compensation to employees on the basis of performance for
achieving the desired long and short term goals of firm.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above discussed report that HR practices must be
determined by the Managers in order to assist their workforce. Also with the help of these
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practices, management can provide training and development programs, incentives and rewards
on the basis of performance. The HR practices support the various capital like social,
organisational and human capital in the growth and success of the Mother London. The change
in legislation and areas also effects the selected firm in the recruitment and selection process.
Mother London can decrease the employees turnover by entering into the US market.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Briscoe, D., Tarique, I. and Schuler, R., 2012. International human resource management:
Policies and practices for multinational enterprises. Routledge.
Budhwar, P.S. and Debrah, Y.A. Eds., 2013. Human resource management in developing
countries. Routledge.
Crook, T.R. And et. al., 2011. Does human capital matter? A meta-analysis of the relationship
between human capital and firm performance. Journal of applied psychology. 96(3).
p.443.
Dubos, R., 2017. Social capital: Theory and research. Routledge.
Guest, D.E., 2011. Human resource management and performance: still searching for some
answers. Human resource management journal. 21(1). pp.3-13.
Jiang, K. and et. al., 2012. How does human resource management influence organizational
outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Academy of
management Journal. 55(6). pp.1264-1294.
Moorcock, M., 2016. Mother London. Hachette UK.
Online
People-Centric Performance Management, 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.saba.com/blog/making-the-case-for-people-centric-performance-
management>
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