Analysis of HRM Practices and Employment Legislation in the UK

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Human Resources Management

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................................... 3
Task1 You are required to explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in
terms of resourcing an organisation with talent and sills appropriate to fulfil business objectives
.............................................................................................................................................................................. 4
P1 In your report explain to the HR Director the purpose and the functions of HRM,
applicable to workforce planning resourcing an organisation.........................................................4
P2 Explain to the HR Director, the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches to
recruitment and selection.......................................................................................................................... 7
Task 2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management in an
organisation.................................................................................................................................................... 11
P3 Explain to your HR Director the benefits of different HRM practices within the firm for
both the employer and employee.......................................................................................................... 11
P4 You should also evaluate the effectiveness of the different HRM practices in terms of
raising organisational profit and productivity...................................................................................14
Task 3 Analyse internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management decision
making, including employment legislation..............................................................................................17
P5 In your report, analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing
HRM decision making............................................................................................................................. 17
P6 For your HD Director, identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact
it has upon HRM decision-making....................................................................................................... 19
Task 4 You need to apply HRM practices in a work related context................................................21
P7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work related context that you might be
familiar with so you can use specific industry examples.................................................................21
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................... 23
References....................................................................................................................................................... 24
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Introduction
The purpose of Human Resource Management in any organisation is to conduct the HR
practices and effectively implement HR strategies so that business objectives could be
achieved. The scope of HRM is to search and recruit such talents that can help to maintain
such environment which proved to be responsible for growth and development. Every
organisation requires a working force to run the business. HRM is responsible for providing
this force maintaining it for a long run. There are many key elements of HRM that must be
implemented wisely. HRM helps in bringing profit to the business by taking care of most
important asset of ‘Human Resource’.
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Task1 You are required to explain the purpose and scope of Human
Resource Management in terms of resourcing an organisation with talent
and sills appropriate to fulfil business objectives
P1 In your report explain to the HR Director the purpose and the functions of
HRM, applicable to workforce planning resourcing an organisation.
Human Resource Management (HRM)-
Human Resource Management is responsible to increase the efficiency of the employees so
that they can help the organisation to achieve the best results in the competitive world. It is
also meant to provide an organisation with skilled employees so that they could efficiently
use their talent in achieving the goals (Noe et al, 2017).
Scope of strategic HRM-
Figure 1: Scope of HRM (Bratton and Gold, 2017)
The scope of HRM is quite wide. It is best explained through the following given points-
Employees hiring- HRM has to ensure that organisation is well equipped with skilled and
talented employees. HRM also makes sure that employees hired must possess right qualities
to achieve the business objectives.
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HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Remuneration- It refers to the process of giving payment to the employees in return to the
services they offered in the organisation. It is the core responsibility of HR department to
give accurate wages so that employees get satisfied without any problem to the organisation.
Employee motivation- It is a very vital nature of HRM. Employees need to be motivated so
that they do not lose their interest in the work assigned to them. For this purpose, HRM
continuously motivates its employees through different factors like rewards, bonus,
excursions, recognition and many more. Motivate ignites enthusiasm among employees,
which is an important factor of achieving business objectives.
Employee maintenance- No organisation ever wants to lose its valued employees. It is
therefore, HRM takes necessary steps to see that employees are well satisfied within an
organisation.
Industrial relation- Through this function of HRM, it establishes good relations among
employees, employer and the state in which it works. Industrial relations must be very
effective in all aspects so that employer and employees both feel comfortable in each other’s
company.
Prospects of employees- HRM is responsible for overall development of the employees. It
plays an important role of inculcating necessary skills in employees that proved to be fruitful
in future for them and organisation as well.
Thus, in the summary it can be concluded that HRM is a vital part of an organisation that
plays crucial role of achieving company’s roles. It is also responsible for growth and
development in all the aspects.
Hard and Soft HRM approaches for planning and resourcing in BARCLAYS-
Broadly speaking, there can be two approaches of HRM- hard and soft. Both are different in
their own. At BARCLAYS, it is quite possible that HRM has to use aspects of both
depending upon the situation. The key features of hard and soft HRM are explained as below-
Hard HRM-
In this approach, the employees are just treated as resource of the organisation. The employer
lays full focus on strategic planning like what resources are required, how to achieve
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objectives and the cost required for it. In this approach, employees are just needed hired to
fulfil the purpose and then can be fired. Some of its key points are-
 Less communication from top to bottom
 Less wages are provided
 Very little delegation of authorities
 Adoption of autocratic style of leadership (Wilton, 2016)
Soft HRM-
Here the employees are regarded as one of the most important assets of the organisation.
Thus, they are treated with respect and their needs are taken care of. They are motivated
timely with recognition, awards and such other factors. Its key features are-
 Maintains long workforce planning
 Strong flow of communication
 Attractive wages with additional advantages like bonus and other rewards
 Employees are motivated to take responsibility
 Democratic leadership style is adopted
Within BARCLAYS, it depends upon the situation about adopting hard or soft HRM. The
hard HRM results in less successful recruitment as decision power remains in the hands of
senior managers only. Acting too soft by BARCLAY’s manager can also prove to be risky as
it will cost more in motivating employees. Thus, it is the skill of the HR department to wisely
use these approaches so that BARCLAYS and employees both could be satisfied.
Thus, it can be concluded that it is the tendency of the manager to use right approach so that
business could be flourished without restricting anyone. If any business has right stream of
skills and talents, it can be achieve a great height and can give tough competition in the
market.
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P2 Explain to the HR Director, the strengths and weaknesses of the different
approaches to recruitment and selection
There could be many approaches to recruitment and selection. They are-
o In-house- internal recruitment and through employees’ reference
o Advertisement
o Employment agencies
o Through social media
o Online web portal
o Conducting various proficiency tests
Some of the strengths and weaknesses of above mentioned approaches are explained as
below-
Online web portal-
Many of the organisations display vacancies on its ‘notice board’ of website. It is one of the
convenient methods of recruiting used these days (Nikolaou, 2014).
Strengths-
o It is very cost convenient.
o It is easy to handle and operate.
o Best technologies used help to maintain the whole process.
o It is globally spread.
o Can be used to display information about organisation.
o As it involves use of technology, huge data received can be maintained and managed
easily.
Weaknesses-
o Might have chances of receiving fake data with multiple records.
o If technology is not maintained or updated regularly, it may spoil the organisation’s
name.
o Can act as source of discrimination for those, who are not much familiar with
computer usage.
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Employment agencies-
These are the private companies that provide placements to the applicants.
Strengths-
o Target applicant can be found through these agencies.
o Good speed of response is observed.
o High quality staff is expected.
o Many persons are enrolling themselves to these agencies.
o Staff of the agencies help to a large extent.
o No need to publicly display vital information.
Weaknesses-
o Agencies might sometimes use organisation’s profile without their knowledge.
o Sometimes candidates are not friendly with the involvement of agencies.
o It can be costly. 20% of applicant’s salary is taken as fee by these agencies.
Advertisement-
Advertisements have been one of the widely used concepts of recruitment and selection.
Strengths-
o Communicates vacancy’s details in positive way.
o Right message is spread through it.
o If used in enhancive way, can let others apply for it who not so wish to.
o Has a fixed amount for displaying the advertisement.
o Some journals may offer online presence too.
Weaknesses-
o Sometimes proved to be of high cost and no surety of returning money.
o It is a slow process.
o It can be limited source as may attract only those who read that particular journal.
There are many benefits and shortcomings associated with internal and external recruitment.
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Internal recruitment- when vacancy is filled from within organisation itself.
Benefits-
o Cost effective and a quick process.
o People are already familiar with the culture and structure of the organisation.
o Can be act as motivational factor- they get promotion.
o Organisation is also familiar with the skills and capabilities of employees (Gerxhani
and Koster, 2015).
Shortcomings—
o Applicants can be limited.
o Does not involve any new idea from outsource.
o May dishearten employees who could not avail the opportunity.
o Immediately creates new vacancy.
External recruitment-
Vacancies are filled through external resources.
Benefits-
o New ideas are innovated through outside people.
o There is huge pool of applicants among which best has to be chosen.
o Good range of experience can be seen.
Shortcomings-
o It is a longer process.
o It can be proved out to be expensive as it schedules for meetings, interviews etc.
o Selection process may not prove out to be perfect in order to choose right candidate.
As Human Resource Assistant of BARCLAYS, I have observed recruitment and selection of
one of the employees. The approach to selection that was chosen at that time was Cognitive
Ability Tests. Through this test, one can judge the applicants on the basis of reasoning,
numerical abilities, logic power and reading capabilities. All these are important traits of
employee to be selected for organisation like BARCLAYS.
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Benefits-
o Can be a good option in terms of costs when tests are to be conducted on large scale.
o Lessen burden on management.
o Can give criteria of job performance.
Shortcomings-
o It may be time consuming.
o Can be very expensive sometimes if high techniques are used (Mahmood, 2015).
Thus, it can be said that purpose of HRM is to make sure that organisations are spaced with
skilled and talented workforce that is willing to help the organisation in all the ways and help
it to attain the goals and objectives.
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Task 2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource
Management in an organisation
P3 Explain to your HR Director the benefits of different HRM practices within
the firm for both the employer and employee
There have been many HRM practices. These are explained through the following image-
Figure 2: HRM practices (Vanhala and Ritala, 2016)
 Analysing and design of work-
HRM has to work on designing the work within an organisation and analysing and
delegating it to the employees according to their skills and performance. It is an
important task as employees are given role in way of completing the tasks.
 HR planning-
In this practice, HRM makes sure that planning is done in an effective way so as to
make optimal use of resources available within Canary Wharf firm. The accurate and
precise use of resources can make huge profits for the firm.
 Recruiting-
HRM has to make sure that right candidate is posted at the right time so that he/she
can help in the best way in achieving business goals.
 Selection-
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Various tests are conducted by HRM to make sure that best person is given the job
application.
 Training and development-
The job of HRM does not end at recruiting only, but it has to provide training and
arrange for various development programs for the employees so that they can update
their skills and knowledge (Kadiresan et al, 2015).
 Compensation-
HRM has to be very careful of satisfying the employees with their various needs
especially in monetary terms.
 Performance management-
HRM has to keep an eye on the performance of the employees and award them with
suitable rewards as a motivational factor.
 Employee relations-
HRM is responsible for maintaining healthy relations with employees and the
employer and the industry in which it operates.
There is no doubt that these HRM practices have benefitted both employer and employees in
many ways. It is best explained through the following table-
HRM practice Benefits to employees Benefits to Canary Wharf
firm
Analysis and design of
work
Employees get clear with
their role and duties.
It can be regarded as the first
step in achieving the
objectives.
HR planning It helps them to grow further. The resources of the firm can
be used firmly.
Recruiting They tend to be at right
place.
It helps to search talents and
skilled workforce.
Selection Many benefits along with
salary can be acquired.
It helps to provide an
important asset to the firm.
Training and development Their skills and capabilities
can be enhanced.
More skilled workforce is
acquired that helps to profit
the firm in many ways.
Compensation They feel satisfied and It helps to maintain healthy
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