Human Resource Management Report

This report delves into the various functions of Human Resource Management (HRM) at British Gas, highlighting the importance of effective employee management in achieving organizational goals. It covers key areas such as recruitment, training, performance evaluation, and the legal framework governing HR practices. The report also compares HRM practices with those of EDF Energy and discusses motivational theories in relation to employee rewards at Virgin Media. Additionally, it examines the employee exit procedures at Chicken Master, emphasizing the significance of adhering to legal regulations in HRM.

Human resource management
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................8
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................8
1.1 Differentiate between personnel management and HRM..........................................................8
1.2 Functions of HRM in British Gas..............................................................................................9
1.3 Roles and responsibilities of line manager in BG to support HR management functions.........9
1.4 Legal and regulatory framework of HRM...............................................................................10
TASK 2...............................................................................................................................................11
2.1 Analysing the reasons for human resource planning...............................................................11
2.2 Outlining the stages involved in planning human resource requirements...............................11
2.3 Compare recruitment and selection process in British Gas and EDF Energy.........................12
2.4 Evaluation recruitment and selection techniques with the EDF Energy..................................12
TASK 3...............................................................................................................................................13
3.1 Assess the link between motivational theory and reward at Virgin Media..............................13
3.2 Evaluate the process of job evaluation and other factors that determine pay at Virgin Media13
3.3 Assess the effectiveness of reward system in Virgin Media....................................................14
3.4 Examine the methods to monitor employee performance at Virgin Media.............................14
TASK 4...............................................................................................................................................14
4.1 Reasons behind Faisal’s termination in Chicken Master.........................................................14
4.2 Employee exit procedure in Chicken Master and its competitor.............................................15
4.3 Legal framework on employees cessation arrangements........................................................15
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................16
References..........................................................................................................................................17
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INTRODUCTION
Looking at the present age of globalization, businesses are facing high level of competitive
pressure from the rival firms. Thus, it becomes essential for the organization to manage effectively
their employees and achieve desired goals. Human Resource Management (HRM) is regarded as the
process of managing business personnel by formulating various policies and procedures. It
comprises recruitment and selection, organizing training, performance evaluation, rewarding,
motivation and cessation of the workers.
Present assignment explores the study of HRM for the success of British Gas (BS). It is
UK's largest energy provider organization which supplies energy to wide range of customers. HRM
provide assistance to BG to have skilled workforce so that it can deliver best services to the
customers. In the present report, the role and significance of HRM and its various functions will be
identified for company's success. Moreover, necessary legislation and regulatory requirement, HR
planning and job evaluation will be discussed. Further, the importance of motivational theories to
motivate the workers of Virgin Media will be described. In the end, employee termination and exit
procedures will be explained in Chicken Master.
TASK 1
1.1 Differentiate between personnel management and HRM
Difference basis Personnel management in EDF Energy HRM in British Gas
Meaning EDF energy adopts personnel
management (PM) to manage their
manpower and its relation with the
organization through framing strict
employment policies. Its objective is to
decline labour cost of the company.
BG adopts HRM to assure
maximum utilization of the
workers to achieve set desired
goals and targets (Armstrong
and Taylor, 2014).
Approach It is a traditional approach of managing
human resources by EDF Energy.
It is a modern approach of
workforce management.
Manpower EDF Energy considers their workforce as
machines or tools.
BG considers manpower as
important assets which are also
called human capital (Park and
Shaw, 2013).
Basis of pay Job evaluation is the basis of workers
salary in EDF Energy (Chung and Liao,
2010).
Performance evaluation is the
basis of workers pay structure.
Leadership In EDF Energy. managers use
transactional leadership style to manager
employees.
BG's management make use of
transformational leadership
style to manage their
workforce.
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Communication Indirect communication exists in the EDF
Energy. In this, subordinates are not
allowed to directly communicate with the
top management authority (Hendry,
2012).
BG use direct communication
to manage their workers.
Work design EDF Energy use division of labour to
design work.
IN BG, work is performed in
teams and groups.
Decision-making
process
Its decision-making process is slow. Quick or immediate decisions
can be taken by BG (Scullion
and Collings, 2011).
1.2 Functions of HRM in British Gas
British Gas HR manager is liable to perform following functions to fulfil his or her job
responsibilities, enumerated below:
Recruitment and selection: One of the most important functions of BG's HR department is
recruit highly suitable candidate among all the applicants. For this purpose, HR manager has to
assess the ability and competency of the person by knowing their education qualifications,
professional experience and by conducting interviews and tests (Guest, 2011). Hiring talented
worker will be able to provide best services to the consumers, which in turn, help to achieve target
goals.
Training: BG's HR professional is also liable to conduct training sessions to enhance their
staff skills, knowledge and talent so that they can perform more effectively. Training and
development programme provide benefits to enhance workers efficiency and competencies
(Managing the Human resource in 21st Century, 2009). As a result, they will be able to deliver
highly effective services to the customers.
Employee motivation: It is obvious that motivated people work more effectively as compare
to other people. Thus, an essential charge that BG's HR professional carry out is to motivate their
employees (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). This promotes workers efficiency to a maximum level
and as a result, their productivity and performance can be extremely improved.
Performance evaluation: HR department of BG also evaluate and examine that how workers
are performing their duties and responsibility. They use various techniques and tools to analyse their
personnel productivity and take decisions to mitigate adverse performance (Ordiz and et,al., 2003).
It assists HR to take better decisions to enhance employees performance, which in turn, helps to
accomplish targets easily.
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1.3 Roles and responsibilities of line manager in BG to support HR management functions
Line managers are the persons to whom employees can report directly and line manager will
report all these information to the upper level management. With reference to British Gas, line
manager plays an crucial role in the process of human resource management, especially in the
recruitment process. In case, when line manager needs more employees than existing labourers than
he will initially inform to the HR department to hire more workers. Further, he also plays an vital
role in the hiring process as he takes interview of the applicants to find out the most capable worker
(Chung and Liao, 2010). Along with this, after hiring candidate, he is responsible to conduct
training session or manage training and development programme to enhance workers skills and
capabilities. Through getting appropriate knowledge of the work, employees can perform much
better and which will make an effective contribution towards attainment of targets.
Besides this, line manger owes duty to regularly monitor workers performance and inform to
the BG’s HR departments, if any employee needs special training or incentives as well. By this,
firm will be able to enhance their personnel efficiency to a great extent (Armstrong and Taylor,
2014). While, on the other hand, employee will be benefited by reaching to the desired destination
in the British Gas. Line manager maintains regular communication with the HR manager and
workers. He perform daily functions like monitoring of the progress, quality assurance, measuring
operational performance, dealing with the customers, allocating work and duties and manage
operational cost as well.
1.4 Legal and regulatory framework of HRM
There are several laws and regulations which British Gas needs to follow while managing
their workforce. The major aim of the legislations is to assure staff welfare in all the organizations.
For instance, Equality Act, Sex Discrimination Act, 1997, Race Relation Act, 1992, Equal Pay Act
1970, Disability Discrimination Act, 2005 etc. are some of the laws which BG follows to effectively
manage their workers. As per the Equality Act, it provides equal opportunities to all the workers in
recruitment and selection, training, performance evaluation, rewarding etc (Carmeli and
Schaubroeck, 2005). The other discrimination legislatory framework’s objective is to stop
discrimination practices from the workplace on the basis of disability, age, sex, racial, nationality,
religious, colour etc. Equal Pay Act entails that BG must provide equal salary to all the workers
regardless any biasness.
Along with this, BG is als abided by the workers Safety and Security legislation in which it
is liable to provide hazard-free working environment to the employees to assure their health safety
(Health and safety legislations, 2014). Further, as per European Working Time Directive, it cannot
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take employees services above the restricted limits mentioned in the act. Besides this, national
minimum wages impose liability on BG to provide minimum salary to the workforce. While, as per
Data Protection Act, 1998, workers are liable to protect BG’s confidential information and not to
share with others (Bulgurcu, Cavusoglu and Benbasat, 2010). Work and Family Act provide
assistance to the employees to maintain balance between their professional and private life.
TASK 2
2.1 Analysing the reasons for human resource planning
Human resource planning is the process of estimating future manpower need of the company
to carry out daily business functions and activities. British Gas aims at maintaining competitive
position in the energy sector. Thus, HR planning plays an inevitable role as it helps to recruit
qualitative labour force that has great skills and expertise knowledge of the work. Through this, BG
will be able to deliver best value products and services to their customers (Beardwell and Claydon,
2007). By identifying the potential need of human resource, it can hire skilled and talented people
among all the applicants.
Moreover, after selection, it also provides high level of training to the personnel to provide
expertise knowledge about the new technologies and tools. Further, it is a energy supplier company
hence, needs talented and experienced engineers. Its HR planning process helps to recruit those
engineers who are extremely experienced and need less training (Scullion and Collings, 2011).
Thus, through this, cost effective services can be acquired. Henceforth, it becomes clear that BG’s
HR planning process enable business unit to maintain quality standard and generate larger yield.
2.2 Outlining the stages involved in planning human resource requirements
British gas HR planning process comprises several stages to gain competitive advantages over
the competitors. The aim of the process is to determine potential human capital need and fulfil it by
recruiting required number of people from internal as well as external sources. The stages of the HR
planning process in British Gas are enumerated below:
Forecasting the demand: At the first stage, BG’s HR department predict potential staffing
need. It is determined by managerial estimates, projection, vacancy evaluation and simulation etc
(Boxall and Purcell, 2011). In this stage, it identify that how many more workers will be needed in
different departments to carry out daily business functions smoothly.
Forecasting the supply: After estimating the demand, BG’s HR professional predict labour
supply. Internal supply is estimated by worker flows and current availabilities in various
departments. While, external supply is forecasted through analysis of labour market and Markov
analysis.
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Determine shortage or surplus: In this stage, British Gas identifies the difference between
demand and supply to assess that whether there will be a shortage or surplus (Hendry, 2012).
Through this, HR division take decisions to mitigate the shortage of labours by hiring required
number of personnel.
2.3 Compare recruitment and selection process in British Gas and EDF Energy
British Gas: It advertises the vacant places in websites or newspapers and ask for online
application and leave application to HR office. After this, company’s recruitment team match
applicants skills and experience with the job criteria and if find suitable, than such candidates are
called for a telephonic interview or interview at central assessment centres. In the interview,
candidate’s technical knowledge, role play, presentation skills, confidence and work based
knowledge are examined (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013). In the session of interview, candidates have
to bring their ID proof, address proof, driving license etc. After this, successful candidates are
informed to join British Gas whereas unsuccessful candidates information is update in data base so
that they can called in future for other job vacancies.
EDF Energy: In the initial stage, candidates have to apply online to the company. Thereafter,
its recruitment team match applicant’s skills and suitable candidates are called for interview. It
mostly prefer face to face interview, in which EDF Energy’s interviewers asks applicants about their
future goals and some work based questions (Jackson and Mathis, 2010). After this, candidate who
found successful will be informed to join the organization while unsuccessful candidates need to
ask for feedback copies. EDF Energy takes only the web application of the unsuccessful applicants.
2.4 Evaluation recruitment and selection techniques with the EDF Energy
Both British Gas and EDF Energy are aims to recruit best technical expertise such as engineers,
technicians and other outstanding and dynamic workers. Both the organizations use high
technology to save time and cost. As explained earlier, that BG and EDF energy greatly prefer web
applications from the candidates rather than traditional way of recruiting. Both the firms’
recruitment teams sort people who look eligible for the existing job vacancy (Seibert, Wang and
Courtright, 2011). But still, while conducting interview, BG use telephone interview or central
assessment procedures which are comparatively more effective way of hiring than EDF Energy as it
conduct face to face interview. BG has skilled interviewers who check for applicants’ ability,
aptitude, previous experience in the energy sector and behavioural aspect. Thereafter, an individual
who identified the most talented person are informed to join the organization. From the above
evaluation, it is clear that although, the recruitment and selection procedures is similar in both the
BG and EDF Energy. But still, there are few differences which indicate that the hiring process is
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comparatively more effective in BG.
TASK 3
3.1 Assess the link between motivational theory and reward at Virgin Media
As per the scenario, Virgin Media was established by the merger of NTL and Virgin Mobile. It
provides numerous services like broadband, TV, mobile, phones and other home phone services to
the customers. Motivation plays a major role in Virgin Media to enhance their employees’ efficiency
and thereby satisfying customer expectations (Seibert, Wang and Courtright, 2011). Moreover, there
is a direct relationship between motivational theory and reward system as better reward promotes
high level of motivation among personnel or vice-versa.
According to Maslow’s hierarchy, Virgin Media can motivate their personnel by satisfying
their physiological, safety, belonging, esteem and self-actualization need. High salary, workplace
safety and security, promotion, achievement, reputation, personal growth etc. helps to encourage
workers to put their best efforts towards attainment of Virgin Media’s targets (Boxall and Purcell,
2011). While, as per Herzberg theory, firm can increase employees efficiency by increasing
satisfaction factors such as good salary, safe workplace, incentives, bonus, commissions etc. While
factors which lead to decline motivation needs to be controlled like strict implementation of policies
and practices, supervision etc. By motivating the personnel, Virgin Media can increase their
workers efficiency and reach to targets easily.
3.2 Evaluate the process of job evaluation and other factors that determine pay at Virgin Media
Job evaluation is the process of examining worth of the work to decide pay structure for
different kind of jobs at Virgin Media. The process begins with job analysis and ends when value of
the work is ascertained, enumerated here as under:
 At the initial stage, job description and specification are done by job evaluation committee
to examine required skills, experience, knowledge and talent to carry out job duties
(Budhwar and Debrah, 2013)..
 After this, manager gives rank to different kind of jobs in the order of highest to lowest.
 After assigning rank, Virgin Media decide high salary for such jobs which required more
skills and experience as compares to other.
On the contrary to this, Virgin Media does not take into consideration the complexity and
hazard of the work (Ordiz and et,al., 2003). However, it has a great effect on workers satisfaction
and productivity. Higher the level of complexity declines motivation aspect and which in turn, lead
to increase dissatisfaction among workers. Thus, it can be recommended to the Virgin Media to
consider complexity, employee capability and working hazardous while deciding workers salary.
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