Human Resource Management Report for Thomas Cook Company

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) within the service industry, specifically focusing on the travel and tourism company, Thomas Cook. The report begins by explaining the importance, role, and purpose of HRM, emphasizing its significance in enhancing workforce efficiency and performance, particularly in customer-facing roles. It then delves into developing and justifying a human resource plan, outlining steps such as situational and internal analysis, demand and supply forecasting, and the creation of HR strategies. The report further investigates the current state of employment relations, examining aspects like empowerment, communication, and training within Thomas Cook. It also identifies and discusses various employment laws impacting HRM, including those related to discrimination, wages, holiday entitlement, and health and safety. The report concludes by identifying a job title within Thomas Cook, providing a detailed job description and person specification, and comparing the selection process. Finally, the contribution of training and development functions is assessed, offering a holistic view of HRM practices and their impact on organizational success.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
IN
SERVICE INDUSTRY
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Explaining the importance, role and purpose of human resource management....................3
1.2 Developing and justifying the plan of human resource.........................................................4
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Investigating and assessing the current state of employment relations.................................5
2.2 Identify various employment laws affect the human resource management.........................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Identifying the job title in Thomas Cook and discussing its job description and person
specification.................................................................................................................................7
3.2 Comparing the selection process...........................................................................................9
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................11
4.1 Examining and assessing the contribution of training and development function..............11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
Human resource management (HRM) is important function that help organization in
improving the efficiency and performance of its manpower. HRM is important function that help
entity in appointing and developing human resources so they more valuable to business. It
involve range of functions like, recruitment, selection, training and development, managing
wages, resolving disputes, evaluating performance etc (Head and Alford, 2015). In this report,
various aspect of HRM in service industry will be studied with reference to Thomas Cook. It is
renowned travel and tourism company that provide air travel services, package holidays, cruise
lines, hotel and resort etc. In this report, learning will be shown regarding role of HR
management in cited company (Thomas Cook, 2016). Further, discussion about the impact of
present employment laws on HR management in UK will be done. Also, the assessment of
present state of employment relations in Thomas Cook will be provided.
TASK 1
1.1 Explaining the importance, role and purpose of human resource management.
Human resource management is very important specially for hospitality industry.
Customer and quality are the main focus for the hospitality industry. In the business of tour and
travels industry human elements are the major part for their success. Many employees are in a
direct contact with the customers (Andreeva and Kianto, 2012). The services which are offered
by the company is linked with the attitudes and skills of an employees. So, it is important to train
the staff properly which can be done by the management of human resource.
The human resource management plays a important role in the success of the company. The
major roles are:
1. Training and development – The role of human resource management of Thomas Cook
is to provide proper training to their employees. It will help them to increase their
knowledge. It may be used in satisfying their customers by providing them services
according to their requirement (Beloglazov, Abawajy and Buyya, 2012).
2. Performance evaluation – The human resource management has the role to evaluate the
performance of their employees. It will help the manager of Thomas Cook to organise
the training programmes.
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3. Maintain records – The role of human resource management is to maintain the records of
employees performance. It helps to decide the pay and rewards for employees according
to their performance in Thomas Cook (Dezsö and Ross, 2012).
4. Allowances – The manager of Thomas Cook provide the allowances to their employees.
All the expenses of scout who is appointed for the customers may get the allowances of
transportation and other expenses to them.
The purpose of human resource management is to build a compatible workforce (Human
Resource Management. 2016). It will help in giving maximum contribution in Thomas Cook.
Human resource management knows the capacity of the employees according to that they
provide them training. It may enhance the productivity in the company. The rewards which the
employees are getting may maximise their motivation level (Gardner, Gino and Staats, 2012). It
will directly link with their performance. The performance of the employees will be more
effective. If the employees are motivated and trained then the overall performance of the
company will increase. By this way, the customers will be more satisfy and also the company
may achieve their objectives and goals easily.
1.2 Developing and justifying the plan of human resource.
To develop and justify the human resource plan, the following steps may be followed:
1. Situational analysis – The first step of human resource is to analyse the situation at the
workplace of Thomas cook. It may analysed that the rate of turnover of employees are
increasing day by day because of dissatisfaction (Hanks, 2015). The analysed situation
will help to know the problem occurs in the workplace and plan the human resource
accordingly.
2. Internal analysis – The next step in developing the human resource plan is to do the
internal analysis in the workplace of Thomas Cook. It may analysed that the training
given to the employees is not appropriate to motivate them. This step help them to
organise the training programmes according to the needs of the employees.
3. Demand forecasting – As the absenteeism, rate of turnover, resignations, retirements etc.
are increasing (Harris and McCaffer, 2013). The manager of Thomas Cook should
organise the training programmes for the existing employees and also know the abilities
and analyse the job. With the help of job analysing the human resource manager forecast
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the demand of employees. The manager may use techniques for demand forecasting, such
as managerial judgement and Delphi technique. This will help them to know the exact
amount of staff needed in the workplace.
4. Supply forecasting – The availability of the employees at Thomas Cook may be analysed
by forecasting the supply. This may contain internal and external sources. In internal
sources, we may be identify the total no. of retirement, transfers and promotion of
employees. In external source, we may be identify the available labour at market place
and the new recruitments for the company (Andreeva and Kianto, 2012).
5. Develop HR strategies – The HR (Human resource) strategies will be made after
knowing the demand and supply forecasting of employees in Thomas Cook. The manager
make some alterations in their strategies as situation required. According to the
employees need the manager make training programmes. The manager develop the
strategies which are beneficial for both (Beloglazov, Abawajy and Buyya, 2012).
TASK 2
2.1 Investigating and assessing the current state of employment relations.
The relationship between the employees and the employers are known as employment
relationship. A good relationship between the employees and the employers is very important for
the success of the company (Dezsö and Ross, 2012). The various points which are used to
investigate the current state of employment relations are as follow:
1. Empowerment – The human resource manager of Thomas Cook gives some power
related to particular task to their employees which helps them in making decisions. The
employees will motivate by getting empower from their supervisors. It will increase the
overall company's performance (frederick herzberg motivational theory, 2016).
2. Mistrust – Today, the managers has no trust on their employees. This will results giving
them less information to them about the company. The supervisors are worried about
leaking their information to other companies (Gardner, Gino and Staats, 2012).
3. Diversity – The human resource manager gives the opportunity to diversified people for
the employment. The equal pay and rewards are given to the male and female employees
at workplace of Thomas Cook.
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4. Open communication – In Thomas Cook there may be an open communication between
the supervisor and the employees. The employees may share their problems with their
supervisors related to the workplace. The supervisor may help them in solving the
problems.
5. Flexibility – Flexibility may appear in the workplace of Thomas Cook. The manager
may built the strategies and the training programmes according to the need and capability
of the employees (Hanks, 2015).
6. Listen to employees – If the employees of Thomas Cook comes with some new ideas,
then the manager may take decisions after listening their ideas. They give opportunity to
their employees for their creative ideas which may be implement in tours and travels
company.
7. Training and development – If the employees may not perform according to the job
requirement then the employees may be discuss with their supervisor. The supervisor will
provide them direction or giving them some training (Harri and McCaffer, 2013).
Training programmes will enhance the knowledge of the existing employees.
2.2 Identify various employment laws affect the human resource management.
Following are the various employment laws which affect the human resource management. They
are:
1. Discrimination Laws - The anti discrimination comes in Equality Act 2010. This act
says about that there is no discrimination between nationality, colour, gender, religion. In
this Act, the employees may not be fire or hire according to any discrimination. Equal
Pay Act of 1970, Race Relations Act 1976 and Disability Discrimination Act 1995 are
also includes in this Act (Head and Alford, 2015).
2. Wage and Hour - The National Minimum Wage Act of 1998 may be established for the
fair pay to the employees. Under this Act, the manager of Thomas Cook may liable to
pay accurate according to the age of employees who is less than age of 21 and the
employees of above age 21 pay according to their performance of their employees. The
amount also paid for the overtime work in the company (Hislop, 2013).
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3. Holiday Entitlement – In Working Time Regulations of 1998 the employees of Thomas
Cook may take the paid leave of 5.6 weeks annually. This Act gives protection of their
job to the employees.
4. Freedom to Join and Form Unions – The employees of Thomas Cook have freedom to
join and form the unions with their colleagues at the workplace (Kircher and Jain, 2013).
The working conditions may be improved from the help of this Act.
5. Health and Safety Act 1974: It is important act laid down by the Parliament of UK. The
main concern of this act is to assure that health and safety of workers is maintained by
the employer. The purpose of this act is to prevent physical exploitation of employees.
This act assures that employees of Thomas Cook get safe and healthy work environment
(Andreev and Kianto, 2012). It is duty of management of entity to reduce risk of
physical harm of employees while working in premises of Thomas Cook. For this aspect,
safety devices must be installed, employees must be provided with disaster management
training etc.
TASK 3
3.1 Identifying the job title in Thomas Cook and discussing its job description and person
specification
The term job description generally, regards to the wide and well defined statement that
contains the details of particular kind of job. It is further involve details of different task,
responsibilities of job post, reporting relationship, qualification and abilities required by the
individuals in specific job etc (Stahl and et.al., 2012). In addition to this, it provide information
about the salary and benefits that will be offered to employee. The job description play
important role in Thomas Cook as it serve as guide and provide knowledge to employee about is
expected from them. The main aim of preparing job description is that it provide information
about the roles and responsibilities of employee while providing services in cited entity. It can be
further understood with reference to following example (Wickens and et.al., 2015). Such as,
Thomas Cook is hiring travel agent that will help in preparing tour packages etc. The job
description is as follows:
Thomas Cook
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Company Name: Thomas Cook
Address: 555, Peterborough.
Phone Number: 11110000
Website: www.thomascook.com
Title: Tour Operator
Report to: Manager
Summary of position
Planning and coordinating the functions needed to prepare a holiday package.
To assure customers get best experience and get value for the money paid.
Duties and Responsibilities:
 To organize and prepare the holiday tours and packages.
 To help entity in determining the price of tour package.
 To provide information about price, destinations that will be covered and facilities that
will be provided.
 To determine the number of holidays to sell each season.
 To assure best selection of resorts, accommodation and travel facility for customers
taking holiday package.
 To conform the names of customers with selected resorts/airlines.
 To market the holiday package using various marketing channels.
Job specification can be referred as statement of the important elements of job class
involving a summary of the task to be executed, basic duties and responsibilities and the least
qualification and skills needed to execute the important task of the job (O'Riordan, 2014). The
job specification for tour operator can be explained as follows:
Job Specification
Qualification: MBA in travel and tourism management
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Diploma in marketing
Experience: Worked as travel agent in Expedia for 2 years.
Areas of expertise:
Marketing the tour
Sales experience
Knowledge of various tourism destinations
Capable of understanding the needs and preferences of customers.
Skills:
Ability to develop interpersonal relationship
Strong communication skills
Ability to negotiate with suppliers
Efficiency in marketing the tour packages
Sound decision making skills
3.2 Comparing the selection process
The different service organization use different selection procedure for managing their
human inventory (Myers, 2013). This can be further understood with the help of comparison of
selection process of Thompson and Thomas Cook company.
Process Thomson Thomas Cook
Inviting job applications The entity use traditional
methods like, ad in newspapers
etc to encourage individuals to
apply for vacant post (Vale,
2013).
The organization use
advertisement on social sites,
job portals, campus interviews
etc.
Preliminary screening Thomson does not do
preliminary screening.
In this step, Thomas Cook
reject the application of
candidates not matching the
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criteria of job due to lack of
skill, education or experience
etc (Hislop, 2013).
Employment test The company conducts
aptitude test only.
It compare the efficiency and
sustainability of potential
candidate on various aspect, by
conducting psychometric test.
Personal interview Those qualified in employment
test are called for personal
interview (Ubben, Hughes and
Norris, 2015). The normal
questions are asked to judge
the confidence of candidate.
The panel of interviewers
consisting of Hr manger, top
executive and tour manger will
take interview where the
questions related to tourism
industry, qualification and
personal background are asked
(Naff, Riccucci and Freyss,
2013).
Reference check To shorten the selection
process, this step is skipped by
entity (Myers, 2013).
To check the authenticity and
credibility of candidate,
background check is done
before final selection
Final selection The individual giving best
performance in interview is
directly selected for vacant
post. The candidate is provided
with job agreement having
conditions and other details of
job.
The individuals eligible after
reference check process are
selected. Candidate is provided
with employment letter having
details about position, salary,
company policy etc (Hanks,
2015).
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Concluding the above, comparison it can be stated that Thomas Cook is using more
effective selection style. The company use modern ways like social media for inviting job
application which is cost effective approach. Further, questions related to industry are asked,
which assures that selected candidate match the benchmarks of the industry (Naff, Riccucci and
Freyss, 2013). The psychometric test enable company to select candidate by judging its
numerical, verbal, diagrammatic reasoning, situational judgment etc. In addition to this aspect,
company select the employees only after doing proper reference check. This will prevent, entity
in avoiding the selection on fraud or incompetent candidate and thus prevent from future loss.
On the contrast, Thompson does not do background check due to which it may appoint wrong or
fraudulent candidates (O'Riordan, 2014).
TASK 4
4.1 Examining and assessing the contribution of training and development function.
The function of training and development will contribute a lot in Thomas Cook. The contribution
made by T&D functions are: Increased productivity – The companies productivity will increased with the help of
training and development programme. The programme of training and development helps
employees to learn new knowledge (Prior and et.al., 2012). It will increase the skills of
the employees. Therefore, this function will help Thomas Cook in achieving it's
objectives and the success in market to compete with their competitors. Less supervision – If the employees are well trained, then they required less supervision
from the supervisors. The time of supervision will be saved by giving training to the
employees. The supervisor may be put their focus on some other activities which is saved
in supervision (Sallis, 2014). Training programmes gives confidence to the employees for
the better performance at workplace of Thomas Cook. The lack of training programme
increase the time of supervision of the supervisor. Job satisfaction – The training and development programme will give the job satisfaction
to the employees. Employees may able to do work more effectively by attaining training
programme in Thomas Cook. This will be give a positive attitude towards the work and
also the rate of turnover and absenteeism will be decreased (Stahl and et.al., 2012).
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 Skills development – Employees skills will enhance with the training programme given
to the employees in regular basis. The manager of Thomas Cook gives the training to
their employees which helps them in operating the latest technologies. Stay ahead of competitors – The training and development programmes also contribute
to be stable in the market. If the employees of Thomas Cook are advanced according to
the trends then the company may able to compete their rivals (Ubben, Hughes and Norris,
2015). The employees are capable enough to know the weakness of their competitors.
The employees may be easily convince their customers. Identify the weakness and skill gaps – Continuous training programmes helps to identify
the skill gaps in the existing employees. This may help the manager of Thomas Cook to
organise the training programmes for the employees. After identify and organise, the
manager train the employees on a particular field (Vale, 2013). Opportunity for promotion - Employees will get the opportunity for promotion by
increasing the knowledge. Their knowledge of the employees will increase with the help
of training programmes given by the manager of Thomas Cook. Employees will
promoted to the next level in the company which also increase the level of motivation
(Wickens and et.al., 2015). Attracting new talent – The training programmes will contribute in attracting not only
the existing employees but also the new talent. The new employees may attract by
attaining the training programmes. Training programme is a major point that the people
are searching for in their job profile. Frequencies – The training and development programme not only help the employees for
the short term but also help in the long term (Wood and et.al., 2012). The manager
always gives the training to the employees on a particular area in which they may
working in Thomas Cook.
CONCLUSION
Summing up the entire report, it can be stated that human resource management is
important function that help in improving the productivity and performance of employees. The
service industry is maximum growing industry at present. However, at present it is facing issues
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like employee turnover due to lengthy working hours etc. With the help of human resource
function , the competent and skilled employees can be retained within organization. There are
many employment laws like, anti discrimination, equality act, health and safety that must be
followed by Thomas Cook to assure smooth functioning and maintain the interest of employees.
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