Human Resource Management Practices and Effectiveness at LV Insurance

This report examines Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at LV, a UK-based financial services company. It explores the functions and purposes of HRM, including HR planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, employee compensation, and employee relations. The report analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of internal and external recruitment approaches, highlighting how HRM functions provide talent and skills aligned with business objectives. It details the benefits of HRM practices, such as innovative selection processes, training and development programs, highlighting employee performance, and reward systems. The effectiveness of these practices, including efficient recruitment, low employee turnover, improved employee motivation, and a flexible workplace, are also discussed. The report also covers the importance of employee relations in HRM decision-making and the impact of employment legislation. Finally, it provides applications of HRM practices in a work-related context.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P 1 Function and purpose of HRM..............................................................................................1
P 2 Different selection and recruitment approach strengths and weakness.................................2
M 1 Ways in which functions of HRM can provide talent and skills that are appropriate to
fulfil business objectives..............................................................................................................3
M 2 Evaluate strength and weakness of selection and recruitment approaches..........................3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................3
P 3 Benefits for HRM practise.....................................................................................................3
P 4 Effectiveness of HRM practise..............................................................................................5
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
P 5 Importance of employee relation in influencing HRM decision making..............................7
P 6 Elements of employment legislation and impact it has on HRM decision making...............8
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................10
P 7 Applications of HRM practise in work related context.......................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management(HRM) is an strategic approach towards management of
human resources in the organization. HRM also involve various development activities
associated with the effectiveness and development of human resources in organization. In this
report LV is taken as an organization. LV is a society in UK that was established in the year
1843. LV conducts operations in finance, life insurance and insurance, pensions and investment
sector. LV has the 14 corporate offices across the UK that also involve recruitment of more then
5500 staff members. Various purpose and functions involved in HRM practices will be
summarised in this report. Various strengths and weaknesses associated with the approaches
related to the recruitment and selection of human resources in organisation. Various benefits also
specifies for both employer and employee’s from the HRM practices. Impact of HRM practices
over productivity of organisation has also specified in this report. Influence of employee
relationship in HRM decision making has also specified in this report. Various legislation related
to the employee’s has also stated in this report. HRM practices in work related context has also
reported.
LO 1
P 1 Function and purpose of HRM
Human resource management is one of the most important process of an organization that helps
in developing plans, administrative policies etc. within an organization. Main purpose of HRM
within a company is to use organization’s human resource in an appropriate manner in order to
increase overall profitability of an organization (Blom and et.al., 2018). Within an organization
like LV, HRM have few important purposes, for example: improve human resource or
employee’s efficiency as well as effectiveness, human resource development, and maintain
effective relationship between employer and employees.
There are many HRM functions that can help an organization like LV to achieve their main aim,
goals and objectives. Some of the main HRM functions within LV are as follows:
HR planning: It is one of the most important function of HRM i.e. to manage their workforce.
LV is an insurance company that provides financial services (Budhwar and et.al., 2019).
Effective workforce is one of the main things which is required by them to be managed and
maintained in order to increase profitability of the organization. HRM helps LV to increase
overall performance as well as effectiveness of their workforce.
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Recruitment and selection: HRM need to recruit and select employees in order to maintain
human resource within LV. HRM at LV need to hire effective and efficient human resource so
that all the other business functions of the organization can be carried out in an efficient manner.
Training and development: Training and development of employees is one of the most
important function of human resource management within LV. This helps them to enhance
overall performance of their employees. LV focuses on continuous development of their
employees by providing them with required training so that they can enhance their employee’s
knowledge and skills.
Employee compensation: LV focuses on providing their employees compensation as per the
market demand and competition (Chiang, Lemański and Birtch, 2017). They provide appropriate
compensation packages to their employees I order to increase their job satisfaction and
motivation level.
Employee relation: HR department of LV also focus on reviewing as well as monitoring their
employees overall performance at workplace.
Employee performance management: One of the most important function of HRM within LV
is to maintain employee and employer relationship in order to increase overall employees’
performance and satisfaction.
P 2 Different selection and recruitment approach strengths and weakness
Human resource department of LV uses both internal and external approaches of recruitment and
selection. Both the approaches have their own strengths and weaknesses:
Internal approach: In this approach employees are recruited internally i.e. in this either
employees are transferred from one department to other in order to fill vacant positions or uses
existing employee referrals to fill vacant positions within the organization.
Strengths: this recruitment can be completed within a short duration of time. Risk of hiring
unqualified employees reduces (Cooke and et.al.,2019). In fact, chances of hiring skilled as well
as qualified employees increases in this process. It can also be said that it is an effective process
both in terms of cost and time.
Weaknesses: Employees who are not promoted or chosen for the vacant designations can get
demotivated and sometimes it can give rise to discrimination. It also limits opportunities for
hiring employees with new and innovative ideas.
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External approach: In this approach employees are recruited externally through job
advertisements on both online and offline channels (Crawshaw, Budhwar, and Davis, 2017). It is
quite time-consuming process but it brings out good outcomes for the organization most of the
times.
Strengths: this process helps LV to recruit new and innovative employees who can help their
organization to achieve new goals and objectives. This process helps them to promote their brand
externally. Huge pool of applicants is available for them. With the help of this approach LV can
enhance their overall productivity as well.
Weaknesses: It is quite time and cost consuming approach. There is high risk that unfitted or
unqualified employees can be hired with the help of this approach.
M 1 Ways in which functions of HRM can provide talent and skills that are appropriate to fulfil
business objectives
HRM in LV conducts various training and development initiatives for improving the
work efficiency by enhancing various skills of employee’s. Training and development play the
crucial role in providing growth opportunities not just internally but also externally as well.
M 2 Evaluate strength and weakness of selection and recruitment approaches
Various approaches use by HRM in LV such as personal interview, group discussion and
Q&A carry the various strengths and weaknesses as follows.
Strength:
 Enable the HRM to analyse the skills and knowledge of candidates.
 Well sufficient to meet the organization requirements by providing the productive human
resources.
Weakness:
 Many times the cost of recruitment goes out of the organization budget.
 Dynamics of candidates are not tasted sufficiently in all the processes.
LO 2
P 3 Benefits for HRM practise
Practices associated with growth of human resources in organization and also to
fulfil the need of organization attached with various designations in organization are specifies as
HRM practices. HRM of LV maximise the role and responsibilities of human resource
management by enabling various practices that are as follows.
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Innovative Selection Process: HRM of LV use an approach of innovative selection process.
This practice involve various stages involve in the selection process such as Q&A session,
personal questioner, group discussion round and personal interviews (Farndale, Mayrhofer, and
Brewster, 2019). All such stages capable the HRM to taste the knowledge and skills of
candidates based on the requirements attached with the various job roles in company.
Benefits:
 Right candidate get selected based on the requirements of different designations.
 Management get the productive operations even from the new entrants.
 Also support the effective corporate culture.
Training and Development: HRM of LV follow the practice of conducting various training and
development programs for all the designations in the organization. Training and development
involve training related to the IT, motivation and confidence building sessions, skills
development and knowledge sharing. All such trainings resulted into improved efficiency of
employee’s at different job roles in company.
Benefits:
 Enable the human resources to improve the various skills and also to learn new skills that
also enhances the productivity of employee’s.
 Employer also get benefits as the improved efficiency and productivity of employee’s
also resulted into improved profitability for the organization.
 Enhanced productivity enable the management to cope up with the expectation s of the
consumer's more effectively that also causes to improved consumer's trust for the
organization.
 Training and development improve the confidence level of employee’s as the employee
get to learn and expand the knowledge that also resulted into improved motivation level
of employee’s.
Highlight Performance: The HRM in LV follow the practice to highlight the productive and
effective performances in the organization by the employee’s (Fu and et.al., 2018). For
highlighting the employee performance the HRM give excellence certificate in front of all
employee’s of the organization. Highlighting performance also play the crucial role in the
employee motivation as the employee’s get motivated to achieve better productivity and
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performance standard from te efforts. Highlighting performance is an effective approach to
embrace the employee’s productivity and performance.
Benefits:
 Employee’s get motivated to improve the productivity and efficiency standards.
 Highlighting performance is a good way to improve the confidence level of human
resources in organization.
Reward System: HRM in LV follow the practices to give rewards for the productive
performances in the organization (Fu and et.al., 2018). HRM give rewards in the form of various
performance bonus, performance based incentives, promotions and in other manner that
effectively reward the best performances of the organization. Reward systems work effectively
for improving the confidence and motivation level of employee’s.
Benefits of reward system:
 Effectively improve the employee motivation and performance to improve the better
productivity and efficiency.
 Promotions involved in the reward system enable the employer and management to
designate productive and efficient employee over the higher positions in the organization.
 Reward system positively work for the employee turnover in context to the organization
as the employee’s can easily witness the growth associated with the position inn the
organization.
 Sustainable employee base improve the organization hierarchy and it also reduces the
training and development cost involved fir the new employee’s.
P 4 Effectiveness of HRM practise
Various practices of HRM in LV such as reward system, highlighting performance and
others involve various effectiveness in the organization that are summarised as follows.
Efficient recruitment and selection: Recruitment and selection process of HRM enable the
HRM to taste various skills and knowledge of candidates that effectively enable the HRM to
cope up with the requirements attach with different designations of the organization (Guerci,
Longoni and Luzzini, 2016). Recruitment and selection process involve group discussion
sessions as well that effectively analyse the personality ant attitude of candidates.
Low employee turnover: Various HRM practices such as reward system, highlight performance
resulted into low employee turnover for the organization as the management could effectively
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sustain the employee’s for the longer period. Low employee turnover also enable the
management to achieve higher turnover for the organization and also to improve the profitability
as the organisation don't need to conduct specific training to improve the work efficiency for the
new entrant.
Improved employee motivation: Promotion, productive bonus and performance based incentive
involved in the work practices of reward system and highlighting performance of HRM motivate
effectively to human resources of the organisation to achieve better productivity from the
working practices. Motivated human resources brings several growth and development
opportunities for the organization and management.
Building flexible work place: HRM practices such as innovative selection process and training
and development enable the management to create a flexible work place in the organization
(Järlström, Saru and Vanhala, 2018). Training and development play the crucial role as it enable
the employee’s to enhance and expand the knowledge and skills that enable the human resources
to cope up with any challenges during the operation. Learning new skills also motivate the
employee’s to try new operations associated with the organization. It also improves the
effectiveness of decision-making of management as the management get more productive
rewards from the performances of employee’s that also bring more trust and confidence between
employee’s and senior management in the organization.
Improve growth opportunities: HRM practices such as reward system that effectively
strengthen the growth opportunities for the employee’s in the internal organization structure.
Productive employee’s get the chance to promote at the higher designations in the organisation
based on the performance (Johansen and Sowa, 2019). Highlighting performance also improve
the employee’s goodwill not just internally but it also improves the employee image externally as
well that also bring more employment and development opportunities to the productive human
resources of the organization.
HRM in LV follow various practices to improve the motivation and productivity of
employee’s. All such practices of HRM enable the management to owner the productive
employee’s of the organization.
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LO 3
P 5 Importance of employee relation in influencing HRM decision making
HRM decision-making involve various decisions in respect to the human resources
involved in various activities related to the internal operational structure of the organization.
Relationship with the human resources of the organization potentially impact over decision-
making of HRM. Positive relationship between employee's and HRM give scope to growth and
development in respect to the employee's of the organisation (Korff, Biemann and Voelpel,
2017). HRM also favour the employee's if they carry the favourable relationship with HRM in
respect to promotions, incentives and many other aspects. Good employee relationship with
HRM improve the involvement of HRM in solving employee issues and grievances that take
lesser time to get resolve the issue. Appart from involvement of HRM in solving employee
grievances the HRM also involve in various promotion and growth related decisions for
employee's in the organization. The promotion of employee's depends on various aspects that
involve productivity, efficiency, performance and other factors that also involve discipline. HRM
keep the good eye over discipline of every employee in the organization. So if the employee
maintain the healthy relationship with HRM it will effectively influence the growth and
promotion related decision-making in organization. Employee relationship also put huge impact
over training and development related decisions. As the healthy relationship between HRM and
employee's will enable the HRM to ascertain the various changing needs of the finance sector
and based on the changing needs and demands HRM can conduct the most suitable training and
induction program with the guidance of employee's. Relationship also impact over HRM
decision-making related to the improvements in existing training and development programs.
Relationship between employee's and HRM improves the work place or work culture of
the company. If the HRM and human resources carry the healthy relationship then the
employee's can convey the various changing needs related to the resource management. Good
relationship positively impact over HRM in bringing new resources in the organization structure
to cope up with the changing needs and demands of the sector (Paauwe and Farndale, 2017).
HRM in organization also conduct various activities to improve the employee's moral and work
culture. Good relationship with employee's also attract the HRM for conducting various sessions
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in the mid to improve the work culture of the organization such activities involve conducting
various games sessions and other activities.
P 6 Elements of employment legislation and impact it has on HRM decision making
HRM decision-making in corporate organizations potentially impacted with various
aspects and employee legislations in UK also put a potential impacts over such decision-making.
Various legislations that play a crucial role in decision-making of HRM are as follows.
Sex Discrimination Act 1975: Sex Discrimination Act 1975 opposes the discrimination at work
place in context to gender discrimination. This act provide the equal employment and growth
opportunities to all the human resources on the basis of skill and knowledge irrespective of the
gender (.Reiche, Lee and Quintanilla, 2018). HRM needs to entertain the regulation attached
with the act while conducting interviews . HRM also need to keep an eye in the organization as
is there any discrimination is engaging on the basis of the gender and also HRM need to engage
in taking suitable actions if someone seems to follow the misconduct.
Working time directive: Work time directive 2003 influenced the HRM decision-making in
relation to setting the working hours for the employee's in the organisation. This act opposes the
regulation of working only for 8 hour a day which comprises by 48 hours in a week and HRM
needs to implement this while setting up the working hour of employee's. This act also influence
the HRM decision-making related to the granting of leaves. As this act specifies that every
employee has the right to have 4 weeks as the holidays in the entire year so the hrm needs to
cope up this regulations in taking decisions related to the leaves of employee's.
Employment Act 2008: Employment Act 2008 enable the HRM to take decision-making in
respect of solving issues and grievances of employee's in the organization. The act also address
the HRM decision-making in context to the minimum wage rate. This act is more focussed
towards improving the corporate culture with effective measures for solving various employee
issues.
Equal play Act 1970: Equal Pay Act 1970 enable the HRM decision-making to make equal
treatment for all the genders for wage rate and salary structure of employee's. This act promote
equality in the organization in respect to the salary and wage rate. Equality in pay set the healthy
corporate culture in the organization. Influence of this act is also over the HRM decision-making
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related to the promotions as in case of promotions every employee must get the same hike in the
salary irrespective of the gender.
National minimum wage rate: National minimum wage rate promoted the minimum amount an
employee must earn in favour to the employment (Rothenberg, Hull and Tang, 2017). This act
influence the HRM decision-making in respect of taking the salary decisions for all the
employee's in the organization. This act guides that the employee must earn a minimum wage
rate of £ 1524. HRM needs to implement the minimum amount described in the wage rate as a
salary of employee.
Data Protection: To enhance the security of various data in the organization the government of
UK has implemented the data protection act 2018. This act enables the HRM department in
organisation to not reveal the personal information of employee's to anyone. While conducting
interviews for selecting employee's for various positions in the organisation HRM also take
various information of the candidate to know about the academic and personal background of the
candidate. This act enable the HRM to take satisfactory decisions for keeping all the records or
data related to the employee safe.
Race relation Act: To address the racial discrimination based on the caste, religion, colour and
religion the government in UK has implemented the Race Relation Act 1965. This act enables
the HRM to take suitable decisions for maintaining the healthy work culture in the organization
that can effectively opposes the racism in organizations. In case of disrespecting any regulation
implemented in this act the HRM needs to take decision-making for suitable actions against the
discrimination.
Work and Families Act: Work and Families Act 2006 enable the HRM to take various
decisions related to the provisions and statutory right to leave and pay in respect to the birth of
children or adoption of children. This act entitles the employee's to take annual leaves. This act
also influence the HRM decision-making in respect to the salary increment of various employee's
in the LV organisation.
Disability Discrimination Act: For opposing the discrimination on the basis of disability the
government has implemented the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The HRM of LV needs to
implement the regulations granted in this act while taking the decisions related to the promotions
and recruitment of employee's.
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LO 4
P 7 Applications of HRM practise in work related context
Person Specification
Person Specification
Job Title : Personal Assistant
Essential Attributes:
 Provide high level of Personal Assistance
 Ability to meet deadlines
 Management skills
 Well efficient with computer and technology
Desired Attributes:
 Keen towards time management
 Professional attitude towards work
 Dynamic personality for managing work
 Work management
 Anger management
Physical Characteristics
 Healthy
Qualification:
 Graduate / Post Graduate (Any stream)
Previous Experience:
Must consist the experience of minimum 2 years in management field or in PA.
General Intelligence:
 Well efficient with computer and technology
 Reasoning skills
Special Attributes:
 Sensible
 Professional
 Effective listening skill
 Keen towards time and work management
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