Contemporary Issues in Human Resource Management: HR6056GN Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of contemporary issues in Human Resource Management (HRM), using Unilever as a case study. It begins by identifying and discussing key challenges faced by HRM, such as change management, leadership, training and development, innovation, and recruitment. The report then evaluates HRM practices against emerging trends, including feedback culture, performance management systems, digital rewarding, artificial intelligence, part-time employment, and online employee engagement. Furthermore, it includes a job description and personal specification for a marketing manager role, along with an evaluation of performance management and people development approaches. The report concludes by synthesizing the key findings and offering insights into effective HRM strategies. The report is designed to address the learning outcomes of the HR6056GN module, demonstrating a systematic understanding of HRM issues and challenges, evaluating HRM practices, designing job descriptions, and critically evaluating performance management approaches. It presents information and communicates effectively in a wide range of situations.

ISSUES IN HUMAN
RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................2
Issues and Challenges in Human Resource Management...........................................................2
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................4
Human Resource management Practices against Emerging Trends............................................4
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................6
Job Description............................................................................................................................6
Personal Specification.................................................................................................................7
LO4..................................................................................................................................................8
LO 5.................................................................................................................................................9
Approaches for performance management and people development..........................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
1

INTRODUCTION
Human resources are the group of person which forms the business organisation to
achieve objectives of the organization and increase the performance by doing various activities
in the business effectively (Narula and Chaudhary, 2018). It is very essential for business
organisation to analyse all the factors which helps employee to increase their potential to achieve
objectives of the company effectively. There are different types of issues which are faced in
managing human resource in business organisation which can impact the performance of
organisation negatively. This report has detailed study on human resource management of
Unilever which is multinational consumer goods organisation to its customers effectively. Report
discusses different practices which human resource manager adopt to attain emerging trends of
the market. There is description of different methods and approaches which helps HRM of
Unilever to become more effective and discussion of different types of communication is also
provided in this report.
LO 1
Issues and Challenges in Human Resource Management
There are many issues and challenge which are faced by human resource manager in
managing organisation to achieve objectives effectively. It is very essential for Unilever to
analyse all the issues and challenges to provide effective understanding of all the factors to
support HR department of organisation. This also helps to formulate effective strategies and
policies according the legal factors to reduce threats of government intervention in business
activities.
Change Management
It is very difficult for human resource department to analyse all the change in the external
environment and increase its potential to adopt the change in the company to increase potential
to compete in the market effectively (Weerakoon, 2016). Change management is very essential
in multinational company as Unilever is operating in different market in the work which
increases the risk of change management effectively. Human resource managers are ineffective
in analysing the market trends and motivating their employees to accept the change in their
organisation effectively. Unilever is also having many ineffective employees which decrease the
2

potential of the company to improve its organisational culture and reduce the efficiency to
achieve core competency effectively.
Leadership
Leadership is very essential aspect of any business which helps to influence their
workforce to become potential and motivate others to increase performance effectively. Unilever
is not able to develop potential leaders which reduce the efficiency of workforce to increase
compete in the market. Effective leadership also provides better guidance to all the employees.
However, human resource management is ineffective to formulate proper leadership style and
increase profit margins effectively (Becker and Smidt, 2016). Due to lack of proper information
HR department of Unilever is unable to develop leadership planning and analyse the skills and
knowledge of employees for next leader in the organisation.
Training and Development
Training and development is very essential in any organisation as it helps to increase the
skills and knowledge of employees according to requirement. This also helps to increase the
interpersonal skills and employees to develop better morale and increase core value of the
business organisation effectively. Unilever has ineffective human resource managers which are
unable to analyse all the needs and wants to increase their efficiency to attain are competency
effectively. As it is very essential for Unilever to increase the customer engagement with better
skills and satisfy customers and make them loyal to the company for same products and increase
the sales and profit margins. It is difficult for the company to integrate all the employees who
have different attitude, beliefs, personal values in building healthy working environment and
training them effectively. As company is operating in different countries there are many
communication barriers and educational differences which increases the diversity of the
company.
Implementing Innovation
Innovation is the process of upgrade the current products and services to gain better
efficiency in business organisation. Innovation also helps to increase the potential of business
organisation to attain core competency and increase the efficiency to increase the profit margins
effectively. As the technology in the global market is constantly changing and it is very essential
for business to understand all the technological factors to design better innovative technology to
increase potential of human resource management efficiently. As Unilever is not able to collect
3

all the data of their employees which reduces efficiency to make effective decisions and reduces
the quality of products and services.
Recruitment
One of the major issue which human resource management faces is recruitment of
potential candidates in the organisation to increase the performance and gain better output.
Unilever is not having better strategies to attract more talented candidates for increasing their
potential and gaining better skills (Boselie, Van Harten and Veld, 2019). As recruitment of new
candidates increases the cost of company that also impact the profit margins to achieve
objectives of the business effectively. Hiring new talents is both positive and negative for the
company as new talents will motivate the exiting employees to increase their performance and
develop better skills and knowledge effectively. However there Are also chances that new
employees can impact the healthy working environment to using manipulation and politics in the
organisation which can reduce the performance of the company negatively.
LO 2
Human Resource management Practices against Emerging Trends
Increase in the demand of customers and high completion in the market human resource
department is responsible to manage all the factors and develop effective strategies and attain all
the emerging trends in the market. This also helps to increase the potential of the company to
comp0ete in the market and attain core competency effectively. HR managers of Unilever have
the motive to understand all the changes in the internal business environment to gain better
movement to achieve objectives effectively.
Feedback Culture
Due to increase in the market demand of the customers human resource managers uses
feedback technique to continuously understand the factors which influence employees of the
organisation. it is very essential for business to retain all the employees by developing better
working environment with regular feedback and effective strategies (Voegtlin and Greenwood,
2016). Human resource management also helps to increase the potential of organisation by
increasing the performance of all the employees according to their respective departments
effectively. Regular feedback also reduces the cost due to avoidance of errors in the organisation
to achieve objectives faster.
4

Performance Management Systems
Job satisfaction has become very essential factor to retain employees and increase their
efficiency. Human resource management is using this practice to increase the performance of
employee. With the help of effective performance management techniques human resource
managers can increase the performance of organisation improve the quality of decision making
effectively. There are many factors which also help the company like better information system
to record the performance of employees in regular interval to examine and evaluate the
performance of the company effectively. This also helps the organisation to increase the growth
opportunities of the organisation and gain better profit margins.
Digital rewarding
Increase in the rise of technology has also helped human resource management to
develop better reward and recognition system which helps to motivate employees in the
organisation effectively (Xiao and et.al., 2019). There are many factors which also0 he.lps the
organisation to motivate their employees but with the support of effective technology
information of each employee can be examined and justified rewards can be provided to them.
With the use of different social media platform human resource managers can appreciate the
employees to increase their relations with the company and make them loyal to the company
effectively.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence in human resource management is the emerging trends which
organisations can helps to increase their performance and attain core competence. As artificial
intelligence is one of the most effective as it reduces the errors to reduce the cost of the
organisation effectively.
Part Time Employment
Part time employment is also one of the emerging trends in the developed countries
which helps business organisation to increase their profit margins with more workforce. As many
retail store recruit and employee part time workers as their wages are low and they have the
potential to learn and increase the potential of the company effectively. Part time employment
also helps to support business objectives for the short period of time and increase the innovation
of the business effectively.
Online Employee Engagement
5

This is the trend which help the human resource managers to develop effective job
description and effective understanding about all the skills and knowledge which company needs
to fulfil their requirements to achieve objectives. With the help of online employee assessment
which also helps the company to be aware of all the emerging trends in the market so the
company can be prepared effectively.
LO 3
Job Description
Job description is the detailed information of all the duties and roles which the candidate
has to do after joining the business. Responsibilities are described according the job profile to
increase the efficiency of business organisation effectively.
Job Title- Marketing Manager
Purpose- The main purpose of marketing manager is to manage all the marketing activities of
the business and analyse trends to formulate effective strategies which helps company to
compete in market. Marketing manager also has the purpose to develop effective promotional
campaigns to increase sales and develop effective products and services of Unilever to increase
profit margins effectively.
Duties-
 Marketing manager has the responsibilities to develop and train their marketing team to
increase sales of company.
 Analyse the performance of team members and develop effective strategies to achieve
objectives effectively (Daniels and et.al., 2017).
 Marketing manager have the duty to conduct market research which helps to understand
the customer taste and preferences to develop better quality products and services and
increase customer satisfaction effectively.
 Record all the sales information and set objectives which increase the potential of the
company to compete in the market effectively.
 To increase the customer engagement with providing better service to increase the profit
margins of the company effectively.
Skills-
 Minimum Bachelor’s Degree in marketing.
6

 Should have field experience.
 Public speaking
 Communication skills
 Interpersonal skills
 Knowledge of finance and budget control.
 Team work management
Personal Specification
Person specification is the detailed information about the candidates which company
needs in order to increase the potential. This also has all the information personal experience,
knowledge. This detailed format also helps to increase the efficiency of which are required in the
job description (Caldwel, 2018). This helps the business to increase the recruitment process to
attract better candidates and achieve objectives.
Personal Specification- marketing manager
Skills
 Need to pay attention to all the information which can be used later to make decisions.
 An effective communication skill which helps to increase the potential for business by
providing better information clear and better form.
 Marketing manager also has to be self motivated and should also needs to be positive in
the personal and professional life to increase the productivity of marketing team
effectively.
Experience
 Experience in handling changing environment to increase the efficiency of the marketing
team and gain better opportunity to grow effectively(Bagdadli and Gianecchini, 2019).
 Experience in understanding all the employee
Desirable skills
 Statistical skills which helps to develop budget and allocate finance for marketing
activities.
7

LO4
Information and communication is one of the most important parameter on which further
goals of company goodwill, strong cooperation and high operational efficiency to reach larger
goals are set. Uniliver being one of the most highly advance company in bringing various
innovative products, high quality customer satisfaction service through various online websites
and shopping portals maintain strong communication among all departmental services. Human
resources department which is highly responsible in maintaining strong commitment among al
employees, keenly addressing various horizons of working parameters through which higher
targets are attained. Strong communication among all levels of employees motivate them to keep
profound positive impact on working horizons where research explains Uniliver uses latest
advanced technology networking systems to communicate with each other. Unliiver human
resource departments is highly advanced to keep all employees working in company under one
fragment for encouraging various potentialities through which higher gaols can be targeted.
Portals and information systems are working under all communicative chains among employees
under HR department which are functionally inclined with latest models of business creativity.
These channels of communications enable in serving various business goals, programming varios
networking channels under dynamic changing environment which enables company to structure
its resources impact fully for long term positive productive decisions (Hänninen and Karjaluoto,
2017).
These communication channels and parameters not only enable in building strong faster
sharing of relevant communication, leveraging best resources and technology becomes a
foremost asset for company to reach higher profit margins in continuous period of time. With
varied business activities and expansion of services among products globally the human resource
department highly focuses towards leveraging best employees who are advanced skilled,
technology friendly. These tasks of enabling strong committed workforce is under HR
department which is under continuous evolution to develop an innovative business framework
which is not only highly adaptive to changes and fast communicative cooperation among each
other. These factors enable in building strong communication among HR department employees
and functional abilities being leveraged highly strong. The parameters under the department
enable Uniliver in forming strong company whose goals are highly diversified with large
8

operations being extended on global chains, with various websites and functional chains to serve
customers rapidly. Uniliver human resource department uses latest technology and networking
metrics to bring employees under one focal point and in delivering the various set targets through
which higher potential targets are determined for larger profitability gaols diversified into
various business segments (Bui, 2019).
Human resources are highly functional and strong in communication channels among all
employees who are working for business gaols with varied business segments goals and
operations are instantly programmed with continuous goal towards leveraging high advanced
cooperation and business goals through which higher goodwill is attained. These forces and
factors of communication are the asset of human resource department which enables in
construction of strong cooperative chains, keenly organizing various s fundamental key aspects
through which higher creative designs aee built within chain. Human resources has strong
functional targets in building strong committed workforce where the roles and duties are highly
segmented into various departments which are monitored under supervision of HR department.
There are various key factors and functional chains which builds the overall functional ability
among employees with high training, potentiality development upon which Uniliver goals are set
for high profitability and goodwill attainment. These factors enable in construction of
communicable chains among employees by keenly addressing various working fundamental key
decisions and communicating under dynamic chains and situations where all employees can be
connected under one portal and networking channel. These communicative chains are highly
advanced and strong in raising the ser benchmarks among company business goals (Berezan,
Yoo, M. and Christodoulidou, 2016).
LO 5
Approaches for performance management and people development
Performance management helps in the better analysis of the human and technology
related aspect where the employees that are working for the organisation are continuously
monitored so that the work done by employees can be taken into consideration daily and
effectively (Ahmed and et.al., 2016). People management also works in similar dimensions
where the There are various strategies that can be used for this task but the best strategies that
Unilever can utilise and implement in their workplace for better monitoring of employees are:
9

Communication of performance objectives: It is necessary to make people that are working in
the organisation aware of the intended objectives and the performance management plans that
can help in better management of employee and also make them aware of the various
performance standards that are required to be achieved in order to manage the performance in a
better manner. In Unilever as well, employees are clearly communicated the basis on which their
performance will be evaluated and this helps the employees in understanding their objectives
clearly (Gerrish, 2016). Unilever employees can work towards improving their performance right
from the initial point where they can effectively monitor the standards that they are achieving
and further contribute in the better management by HR as well who evaluates the performance of
the employees.
Employee Engagement: One of the most effective techniques of people management is to ensure
that the employees of the company feel engaged and participated in each and every activity that
they engage in the organisations. When the employees feel that they are respected and heard,
their performance will increase significantly along with enhancement in the loyalty and
motivation as well. At Unilever as well, this tactic of engaging employees in all the relevant
decisions and supports can be used so that the employees are able to ascertain and ensure that
their opinions hold a place in the organisation’s decision making and they can influence an entire
decision as well sometimes.
Performance Management Software: The performance management software is the best
strategy that can be used where the company can streamline all of its performance management
strategies that are currently in use and it can also garner the use of techniques such as 360 degree
performance review etc. (DeNisi and Murphy, 2017). Overall, the software integrates all the
aspects of the performance of an employee where they can successfully try to track the
performance of an employee along with the feedbacks as well. Unilever can use this technique to
effectively manage their employees where they can identify the performance level of their
employees along with the identification of the problems that they might be facing.
Rewards and recognition for people management: Rewards and recognition is one of the most
motivating and morale boosting activity that a company can implement for their employees. The
expectation of rewards and recognition against better performance can significantly improve the
existing performance and make employees extremely motivated to complete their jobs in a better
manner trying to achieve the performance standards as quickly as possible (Mone, London and
10

Mone, 2018). At Unilever as well, using rewards and recognitions can prove to be an effective
activity where the employees who are rewarded can create example before other fellow
employees and this can create a productive work environment where everyone works towards
completion of the tasks in a better manner.
Peer Reviews: This technique despite being a bit informal is most effective in developing correct
estimation of the capabilities of the employees where the management can acknowledge the true
character and performance of employees through their peers. This technique can be used by
Unilever but only with extreme caution so that no unethical practices are encouraged and
influenced.
Therefore, the above performance management and people management techniques are
extremely effective in increasing the performance standards of the employees and also tracking
their performance on a regular basis so as to develop appropriate measures that are to be taken in
order to ensure better performance management.
CONCLUSION
This report concludes that it is very essential to understand all the issues of human
resource management to increase the performance of the organisation and attain core
competency in the market effectively. Report helped to understand the importance of different
approaches in the market to attain emerging trends of human resource management practices
effectively. With the help of job description and person specification this report analysed that it
is very essential for business to match all the skills and knowledge of person to formulate
effective job description and increase opportunity to attract potential employees in the business
organisation. Performance management is the best approach in human resource management and
with the help of effective information and communication human resources could increase
efficiency to develop effective strategies to attaining business growth effectively.
11

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Ahmed, T.M., and et.al., 2016, May. Studying the effectiveness of application performance
management (APM) tools for detecting performance regressions for web applications: an
experience report. In 2016 IEEE/ACM 13th Working Conference on Mining Software
Repositories (MSR) (pp. 1-12). IEEE.
Bagdadli, S. and Gianecchini, M., 2019. Organizational career management practices and
objective career success: A systematic review and framework. Human Resource
Management Review. 29(3). pp.353-370.
Becker, K. and Smidt, M., 2016. A risk perspective on human resource management: A review
and directions for future research. Human Resource Management Review. 26(2). pp.149-
165.
Berezan, O., Yoo, M. and Christodoulidou, N., 2016. The impact of communication channels on
communication style and information quality for hotel loyalty programs. Journal of
Hospitality and Tourism Technology.
Boselie, P., Van Harten, J. and Veld, M., 2019. A human resource management review on public
management and public administration research: stop right there… before we go any
further…. Public Management Review. pp.1-18.
Bui, T.L., 2019. Internal communication in the digital workplace: digital communication
channels and employee engagement.
Caldwell, C., 2018. Strategic Human Resource Management: Why it Matters. Strategic Human
Resource Management. pp.1-12.
Daniels, S.R and et.al., 2017. Collective assessment of the human resources management field:
Meta-analytic needs and theory development prospects for the future. Human Resource
Management Review. 27(1). pp.8-25.
DeNisi, A.S. and Murphy, K.R., 2017. Performance appraisal and performance management:
100 years of progress?. Journal of Applied Psychology. 102(3). p.421.
Gerrish, E., 2016. The impact of performance management on performance in public
organizations: A meta‐analysis. Public Administration Review. 76(1). pp.48-66.
Hänninen, N. and Karjaluoto, H., 2017. The effect of marketing communication on business
relationship loyalty. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
Krishnan, T.N. and Scullion, H., 2017. Talent management and dynamic view of talent in small
and medium enterprises. Human Resource Management Review. 27(3). pp.431-441.
Mone, E.M., London, M. and Mone, E.M., 2018. Employee engagement through effective
performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.
Narula, N. and Chaudhary, N., 2018. Human Resource Management as Entrepreneurial Tool: A
Literature Review. Amity Journal of Entrepreneurship.
Voegtlin, C. and Greenwood, M., 2016. Corporate social responsibility and human resource
management: A systematic review and conceptual analysis. Human Resource
Management Review. 26(3). pp.181-197.
Weerakoon, R.K., 2016. Human resource management in sports: A critical review of its
importance and pertaining issues. Physical Culture and Sport. Studies and
Research. 69(1). pp.15-21.
12

Xiao, M and et.al., 2019. To what extent is corporate social responsibility part of human resource
management in the Chinese context? A review of literature and future research
directions. Human Resource Management Review. p.100726.
13