Human Resource Management Report

This report delves into the critical functions of Human Resource Management (HRM) within organizations, particularly focusing on the case study of 'Say it with Chocolate.' It discusses the purpose and functions of HRM, the responsibilities of HR officers, and the strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment methods. The report also highlights the significance of employee relations, the impact of HRM practices on productivity and profitability, and the importance of adhering to employment legislation. Through detailed analysis and case studies, the report emphasizes the essential role of HRM in fostering a productive and engaged workforce.

Human Resource Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1a Purpose and functions of HRM...........................................................................................3
1c Strengths and weakness of different recruitment methods...................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
P7 2a Application of HRM practice..........................................................................................8
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
P3 3a Advantages of HRM practice of both employee and employer..................................11
P4 3c Effectiveness of HRM practice in terms of productivity and profitability...................13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................14
P5 4a Significance of employee relation.................................................................................14
P6 4d Main elements of employee legislation and their impact on HRM decision making. .17
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20

INTRODUCTION
Business organisations have various departments. These enterprises need different
divisions because if they will allot all the work to a single department then it will result in
mismanagement (Human Resource Management Review, 2017). Human resource is a wing of
organisations that is responsible for managing employees of the company (Albrech, 2011). The
recruit workers and do all the activities which is directly connected to employees like their
promotion, provide training to them, solve their problems etc. ‘Say it with Chocolate’ is known
for selling tailor made chocolate greeting cards. They are present in every part of UK and this
company is facing issues like high employee’s turnover and poor selection method. This report
will discuss about purpose of human resources management along with the function which is
perform by HR division. There are different recruitment methods and they will be discussed in
this assignment. The benefits of HRM to employer and employee will also become part of this
file. Human resource practice made a huge impact on profitability and productivity of the
company, this point will be explained in the report by considering case of Microsoft. Employee
relation and various legislations relating to employment will get cover under this file.
TASK 1
1a Purpose and functions of HRM
Significance of HR division is rapidly growing in this business era because companies now
understand that if they will not recruit right person for a job profile then organisation will never
succeed on attaining their set targets because employees do those work which cannot be done by
machine. Say it with Chocolate’ is a small organization based in North Yorkshire, which
provides tailor-made chocolate-based greetings cards and present across the UK. The business
comprises a chocolate production team, finance and marketing team and a packaging and
distribution section. There is also a small team of staff who design and create the more specialist
gift orders. The owner of the business is a master chocolatier, who, whilst excellent at creating
innovative chocolate flavours and inspired designs, has no experience of employing an ever-
increasing workforce. As the organization has grown staff turnover has increased and
Feedback from long standing customers indicates that the quality of some items is not as high as
it used to be.
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. They make strategies and they understand the needs of customers. ‘Say it with Chocolate’ is
facing various issues but the most important is increasing employee turnover. Role of HR
division is important in resolving this issue (Anderson, 2013). Therefore, it is much required for
HR department of ‘Say it with Chocolate’ to develop strategies through which they reduce
employee turnover. This can be done through many ways like making favourable policies. One
of effective policy that can be made by this organisation is “Awarding three best employees in a
month with monitory”. This can help other staff members who have not met their targets can be
filled with motivation. This can be game changer for ‘Say it with Chocolate’ which may aid
them in hitting their targets.
The main purpose of existence of HR division is to recruitment best candidates for the
company. If a company will not hire appropriate number and quality of human resource then
they cannot perform any task in effective manner. ‘Say it with Chocolate’ has high employee
turnover because they are not selecting those candidates who are fit for a position. HR team in
the organisation is made by hiring right people in the organisation and it can be considered as the
main purpose of this HR division. If this function of the organisation is performed in appropriate
manner then company can achieve their set targets and expand their business at global level.
Selecting the function which is done by HR wing is to make the policies for the organisation and
communicate it to all the employees of the firm. They do not only construct policies, they also
assist company in following various legislation which is made by government. Management of
‘Say it with Chocolate’ do not have time to focus on this issue because it is not directly
connected to the revenue of company so they give this responsibility to HR team. This division
make sure that every employee follows the rules which are made by government along with
organisational policy (Armstrong, 2011). Achieving this purpose results in saving millions of
pounds for the company which they may have to pay in the name of a fine.
HR team has to do another important function which is related to training and
development of employees. They find training requirements of employees and then arrange their
training sessions accordingly. ‘Say it with Chocolate’ is failing to provide proper training to the
employees so most of them are leaving organisation because they do not see career growth. If
workers get training then their productivity enhances which ultimately help company in earning
more profits. Looking at the performance of employees in every quarter at workstation can be
helpful for HR manager of ‘Say it with Chocolate’ to develop effective training and development
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programmes. This can help company in enhancing skills and knowledge of staff members which
can directly decrease high turnover rate of employees. It can be said that a motivated staff helps a
company to grow in much effective way. Therefore, it is required for ‘Say it with Chocolate’ to
develop a proper training schedule through which staff members get filled with full of
enthusiasm. With the help of this, ‘Say it with Chocolate’ may start hitting their targets.
1b Responsibility of HR officer
HR office is an important post in every organisation because this person is responsible for
managing all the workers who are working in the firm. In the case of ‘Say it with Chocolate’, HR
officer first have to change recruitment procedure because it is not working for company and HR
officer is responsible for recruiting best man for a job. An important role of manager is to resolve
issues, like related to salary, of employees so they do not leave the organisation and employee
retention ratio of company improves in less time period (Bamberger, Biron and Meshoulam,
2014). It is the responsibility of HR officer to work as a bridge between both sides i.e. workers
and employers. In present scenario, ‘Say it with Chocolate’ is failing to hire correct candidates
and this why new employees are not clearing test of company. HR officer is accountable for
telling management that they have to make changes in the process of selection. Maths and
English are not the right criteria for recruitment and HR officer is accountable for this changing
this ineffective procedure of selection by giving proposal of a new process to the management of
company. It can be said that a simple face to face interview can help an interviewer to understand
the behaviour & capabilities of the interviewee after looking at the qualification of applicants in
order to select the right candidate. Interviewer might ask some questions related to psychology.
Therefore, HR officer of ‘Say it with Chocolate’ can adopt this type of strategy as a new process
under recruitment and selection process.
1c Strengths and weakness of different recruitment methods
If employee turnover ratio in a country is increasing that there can be many reasons
behind it. At ‘Say it with Chocolate’, the reason is that company is failing to select right people
and this is why new employees are failing to pass the test which is taken by company after
completion of probation period. It became vital for this ‘Say it with Chocolate’ to decrease the
high turnover of employee because it started affecting their reputation at marketplace. It also
impacted upon whole productivity of this company.
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Merits and demerits of present selection procedure
This company is currently using methods like interview and assessment test of English
and methods at the time of hiring a person. An important thing about the first part of selection
procedure is that every candidate has to earn at-least 50% mark in both subject i.e. English and
Maths. If they clear the test then next part is interview which is done in an informal style. The
strength of these method is that it helps company is finding those candidates who have basic
knowledge about common language like English and their intellectual power can also be checked
by assessing the marks they get in the maths test (Bloom and Van Reenen, 2011). Maths is a
subject which assist company in checking the whether the applicant possess basic common
sense.
Beside this, informal interview allow company to check that whether the claim which
candidate in making those his/her degrees is true or not. ‘Say it with Chocolate’ do not only need
people who are good in Maths and English, they also want employees who can support company
in resolving the issues related to poor quality of products and service. Anther merit of this
method is that it helps in understand the person who may work in the organisation in upcoming
time. Nature and thinking of every person differ and one cannot find it by taking a test. Informal
communication does not put an extra pressure on the candidate which can normally be found in
formal interview where most of the time interviewee fails to express himself/herself.
Weakness of assessment test is that it does not cover important part i.e. psychological
tests. Psychological tests are typically, but not necessarily, a series of tasks or problems that the
respondent has to solve. Psychological tests can strongly resemble questionnaires, which are also
designed to measure unobserved constructs, but differ in that psychological tests ask for a
respondent's maximum performance whereas a questionnaire asks for the respondent's typical
performance.[2] A useful psychological test must be both valid (i.e., there is evidence to support
the specified interpretation of the test results[3]) and reliable (i.e., internally consistent or give
consistent results over time, across raters, etc.).
It is important that people who are equal on the measured construct also have an equal
probability of answering the test items accurately .[4] For example, an item on a mathematics
test could be "In a soccer match two players get a red card; how many players are left in the
end?"; however, this item also requires knowledge of soccer to be answered correctly, not just
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mathematical ability. Group membership can also influence the chance of correctly answering
items (differential item functioning). Often tests are constructed for a specific population, and
this should be taken into account when administering tests. If a test is invariant to some group
difference (e.g. gender) in one population (e.g. England) it does not automatically mean that it is
also invariant in another population (e.g. Japan).
Psychological assessment is similar to psychological testing but usually involves a more
comprehensive assessment of the individual. Psychological assessment is a process that involves
checking the integration of information from multiple sources, such as tests of normal and
abnormal personality, tests of ability or intelligence, tests of interests or attitudes, as well as
information from personal interviews.
‘Say it with Chocolate’ need those people in the firm who can handle pressure and at the same
time they have ability to become expert in their field. Informal interview also has many
weaknesses like sometime it interviews has to convince a potential candidate to join the
organisation but because of his/her informal approach, other person does not think that company
is serious about their business (What is human resource management? 2017). Another issue with
informal interview is that interviewer may forget to ask some very important questions to
interviewee because he/she does not a process to follow. Missing key question always happen in
informal interview and it ultimately make whole procedure very weak (CHUANG and Liao,
2011).
As mentioned earlier, psychological testing is an effect approach because it helps in
understanding whole personality and attitude of a person which cannot be analysed by taking test
of subjects like Maths and English. Reference is another important and effective method of
selection which allows company to start and use formal interview in a right manner. If a person
is suggesting someone for a post then he/she must have basic idea about work and skills which is
present in the referred person. This approach may have some issues like candidate fail to
properly present himself/herself but it may provide right employee to the company who can work
in the company from a long period of time. On the other hand, this selection process has also
impacted upon ‘Say it with Chocolate’ and they started facing distinctive issues on a regular
basis which raised their expenditures. Candidate who got failed in the exam may not give a good
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review of the company to their relatives or friends. This can affect reputation of company in
society.
1d Improvement in current selection method
Present method of recruitment can be improved by adding a psychological test and
organising a formal interview in which interviewers can have some informal communication
with employees so they do not feel unnecessary pressure at the present themselves in properly.
They also have to opt for options like campus placement and reduce dependency on present tests
(Farndale, Scullion and Sparrow, 2011). With the help of this, ‘Say it with Chocolate’ can
directly see decrease the high employee turnover rate. Management of this organisation can also
take in use of democratic style where they may ask for suggestions from existing employees or
seniors that what changes are required through which candidates can work at workstation for a
longer period of time.
Job role:
Marketing executive: In order to get the job of marketing executive at ‘Say it with
Chocolate’, individual needs to have proper communication and intellectual skills. Under this,
maths test will not help out much because job profile is related where person will directly
communicate with others and develop strategies through which company can gain many
competitive advantages at marketplace.
TASK 2
P7 2a Application of HRM practice
''Say it with Chocolate'' want to hire a marketing executive in the organisation and HR
team have to make arrange for the whole procedure.
Person Specification for receptionist
Post Details
Department --- Administration
Job title --- Receptionist
Skills
Requirement
Ability to book meeting and
Essential/Desirable Measurements
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greet clients as this is essential
for Receptionist to grab the
attention of clients
Essential Measured by taking a written
test and interview
Ability to manage calls and
keep reception area clean. This
will be an essential
requirement as proper
coordination help top
management to design their
working plans accordingly
Essential Interview and evaluation of
application form
Manage post & couriers and
follow other instruction of
Administration manager. This
is essential because
mismanagement at reception
desk leads to loss in future
Desirable Aptitude and integrity test is
conducted to ascertain their
credibilities
Knowledge
Requirement
Knowledge about
administration paperwork and
company's work
Essential/Desirable
Essential
Measurements
Probe at interview and test
Understand the importance of
confidentiality
Essential Written test and interview
Required to have knowledge
about key computer software's
which aid in day to day
functioning of organisational
Essential Take software based test to
ascertain competency
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activities
Experience
Requirement Essential/Desirable Measurements
3 year working experience in
busy working environment
Essential Review application form and
test
Experience of working at
reception (at-least 5 years)
Desirable Interview and application form
Qualifications
Requirement Essential/Desirable Measurements
1 year diploma in customer
service management
Essential From application form and
written test
Grade C or above in GCSE
English
Desirable Investigation at interview and
evaluation application form
Other
Requirement Essential/Desirable Measurement/s
Commitment to attend training
events
Essential Application form and group
interview
Take care of allotted stuff Desirable Oral test
2b ‘'Say it with Chocolate'' have to find various options for this post and they cannot find
right pool of talent without adopting right medium of advertising. Although there is various
medium which a company can adopt like print advertising, Broadcasting, digit advertising etc.
The method which is best suitable for this organisation and nature of post is to advertise this post
in local newspaper. This will be beneficial for organisation as this cost efficient. In terms of
nature of job, advantage associated with newspaper advertisement is to select local candidate
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which persist same kind of behaviour and able to provide adequate amount of time to in handling
of different activities of organisation.
Advantages and disadvantages of the previous methods of advertising jobs in the organization
Say it with chocolate is rapidly expanding organisation which provides products and
services within the UK. The major issues which are faced by the owner of organisation are
related to high rate of staff turnover. Due to having less experience in employing new candidates,
lack of talent arises in organisation which negatively impacts their business activities.
The process which is used till date in Say it with chocolate for appointing new employees is
about circulation of job vacancies on the jobs board outside of main site. Along with this main
disadvantage, many other benefits are associated with this method which are defined below:
Advantages
Job Boards is time saving method which helps to attract local talent. This will be
beneficial for Say it with chocolate to easily hire desired number of employees as per the
requirements.
It also aid in saving lots of cost which are incurred in the process of advertisement of jobs
on various other platforms. This method is beneficial for Say it with chocolate as help to
save money which can be further used in the organisation to improve their productivity.
Disadvantages
Job Boards not help to attract talented candidates due to having limited reach.
Application of this method is basic reason behind the decrement in the quality aspects of
their different chocolate offerings.
Difficulty to employ suitable candidates at the time of requirement which impacts
negatively upon productivity of an organisation as they are unable to appoint sufficient
workforce in the time of requirement. One the negative impact which is observed by this
organisation due to adoption of this method is that employees are not able to pass their
probation period within organisation due to lack of skills.
Application of the method of job boards has limited access due to which organisation
unable to employ candidates having new skills. This is the basic cause behind ever-
increasing staff turnover rate within organisation.
Interview Questions
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