Human Resource Management Practices at Liverpool Victoria Insurance

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HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................1
P1 Describing the purpose and function of HRM applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing at Liverpool Victoria............................................................................................1
M1: Identify and explain the HR functions to fulfil business objectives...............................3
P2 Describing different approaches to recruitment and selection including its strengths and
weaknesses.............................................................................................................................3
M2: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses approaches to recruitment and selection..........5
D1: Critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of approaches to recruitment and
selection..................................................................................................................................1
TASK 2......................................................................................................................................1
P3 Evaluating different benefits of Human resource practices within firm for both
employee and employer.........................................................................................................1
P4, D2 Evaluating effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of increasing business
productivity and profitability.................................................................................................2
M3: Explore different methods used in HRM practices........................................................3
D2: Evaluate the HRM practices and their application..........................................................3
TASK 3......................................................................................................................................1
P5 Analysing importance of employee relationship management in respect to influence on
HRM decision making...........................................................................................................1
P6 Key elements of employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision making........1
M4: Identify the key aspects of employee relations management and employment
legislations..............................................................................................................................2
TASK 4......................................................................................................................................1
P7 Application of HRM practices in a work related context.................................................1
M5: Provide a rationale for the application of specific HRM................................................2
D3: Critically evaluate employee relations and the application of HRM practices that
inform and influence decision-making in an organisational context.....................................2
CONLUSION.............................................................................................................................3

REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company Limited provides insurance products and services for
cars, travel, buildings, and home contents. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is
based in Bournemouth, UK. The report will cover the purpose and function of HRM
applicable to workforce planning and resourcing at Liverpool Victoria including different
approaches to recruitment and selection including its strengths and weaknesses. It will also
demonstrate different benefits of Human resource practices within firm for both employee
and employer. In addition, effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of increasing
business productivity and profitability and importance of employee relationship management
in respect to influence on HRM decision making will be discussed in this report. Finally, the
report will cover key elements of employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision
making and application of HRM practices in a work related context effectively.
TASK 1
P1 Describing the purpose and function of HRM applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing at Liverpool Victoria
Human resource management is crucial for Liverpool Victoria insurance company in order to
develop strategies, policies and plans that help to administer various programs related to
improvement and development. In this regards, HR management must have effective control
over organisational activities for the proper utilisation of human resources to produce quality
outcomes and results in terms of profitability and productivity (Bartlett, Johnson and
Schneider, 2016). It will also provide assistant in effective management of employee
relations. The purpose of HRM within business is given below:
 It helps to ensure proper improvement and development of available resources within
firm to enhance its effectiveness.
 It also helps to manage effective relationship between management and employees.
 HRM activities are focused on improving individual and overall performance.
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HRM FUNCTIONS
It can be said that the purpose and functions of HRM helps business to improve its overall
performance. In addition, technology advancement plays a crucial role in HR activities to
make work easier and effective.
HR planning: Strategies and planning are managed by HR management in order to increase
both business and employee skills, knowledge and abilities to perform operations. The
planning helps to control different functions to improve overall performance of business.
Job analysis and work design: HRM perform different functions to evaluate and measure
future requirements of business so that they can manage job analysis to design work for
workers. It helps employees to understand their roles according to their knowledge and skills
in different departments.
Recruitment and selection: It is one of the major functions performed by HR management
in order to recruit quality workers for the job (Bloom, Sadun and Van Reenen, 2015 ). This
function helps to increase effectiveness of operational activities to deliver effective results in
terms of services.
Training and development: This function is performed by business in a regular time period
to enhance knowledge, skills and abilities of workers. It helps to evaluate their strengths and
weaknesses towards their work so that they can improve their working style and behaviour.
Employee relations: Employee relationship management is a key for business success that
HR management is responsible for managing effective relationship between employers and
employees to increase overall performance. It helps to improve and develop their motivation
and loyalty towards firm.
THE HARD AND SOFT MODELS OF HRM
Hard HR management treat employees as a simple resource in order to create a powerful link
with corporate strategies and plans. The key feature includes minimum wages and
communication, appraisals, changes in recruitment process and autocratic style of leadership.
However, soft HR management treat employees as important resource for firm to enhance
competitive advantage. The key feature includes flat structure, effective communication,
performance and democratic style of leadership.
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The ‘Best Fit’ approach VS ‘Best Practice’
The best fit approach describes that strategies and plans of HR management and business
must be aligned to make them suitable for different situation and circumstances. Management
needs to make changes in technology, structure and behaviour according to the environment.
In addition, the best practice model says that different organisational activitiesmust be
managed well by HR management to support accomplishment of competitive advantage.
M1: Identify and explain the HR functions to fulfil business objectives
Human resource management plays vital function within the organisation so that quality of
the performance can be improved. The functions of HRM are conducted in respect of
achieving the goals and objectives of Liverpool Victoria. The HR manager of Liverpool
Victoria plays functions which are related to identify the workplace requirement in the
business and according to that they organise recruitment and selection process. The HR
department of Liverpool Victoria also focus on the performance of the employees so that
further need of professional training and development can be analysed (Bloom et al, 2015).
The HR manager of Liverpool Victoria short lists the candidate as per their requirement and
takes their interview for further selection. HR function is also related to manage the
interpersonal relationship between the employees of Liverpool Victoria. On the basis of the
employee’s performance and contribution some benefits in the form of rewards and bonus are
offered by the manager to the employees. The increased motivation level of employees helps
the Liverpool Victoria to achieve their quality improvement goals and objectives.
P2 Describing different approaches to recruitment and selection including its strengths and
weaknesses
Human resource management should be effective to accomplish vision, mission, goals and
objectives of Liverpool Victoria. In this regards, approaches to recruitment and selection will
help management to select appropriate and best candidate for the job (Paşaoğlu, 2015).
Internal and external are two effective approaches of recruitment and selection available for
business to hire employees.
Internal approach
In this approach, management of business recruit employees internally within working
environment. The approach is effective that there are a lot of strategies available for HR
management to recruit workers internally (Mondy, 2015). For example, the management can
transfer an employee to fill the vacant post according to the required skills and knowledge.
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Promotion is also a source from which the vacant post could be filled. This can be done
through referrals provided by other employees or information and suggestions provided by
existing employees effectively.
Figure 1 Internal source of recruitment and selection
Strengths and weaknesses: The major strength of this approach is that management can
save their time and cost of recruiting employees externally. There is also no risk of recruiting
unqualified or unskilled worker for the job. On the other hand, the approach can also
demotivate other employees working within firm and decrease their morale and satisfaction
towards job.
External approach
External approach provides a lot of source to management in order to recruit and hire best
candidate for the job. In this regards, the management can advertise the vacant post and
mention criteria so that they can acquire number of choices available to them. The process is
effective that it also helps to promote business externally and bring new blood within firm to
operate effectively (Taylor, 2015). This will help to produce some quality results and will
enhance effectiveness of operations.
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Figure 2: External source of recruitment and selection
Strengths and weaknesses: There are number of options available for management to select
the best and appropriate candidate to fill the vacant post. In addition, it helps to ensure the
development and growth of operations. On the other hand, the approach has some
weaknesses such as it requires time and cost for different activities including interviews and
scheduling procedures.
M2: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses approaches to recruitment and selection
As per the analysis it is identified that Liverpool Victoria is currently using internal and
external recruitment sources. Internal recruitment source help the organisation to give growth
opportunity to their existing employees. Internal recruitment is effective source through
which current employees of Liverpool Victoria will get motivated to enhance their efforts for
achieving the business performance and this method is cost effective and saves time also. On
the other side, internal recruitment method will reduce the chances for organisation to hire the
new employees for the vacant post so that they will get fresh talented candidate (Bolman and
Deal, 2017). External approach is effective on the basis of the increased skills of Liverpool
Victoria by appointing new talent for their business.
Addition to this, external method is time consuming as it require new process for recruitment
and selection and also require cost for implementing the plan. Apart from this, interview
method is used as the selection process under which interviewer will take the face to face
interview of the candidate which helps them to analyse that person confidence level along
with the communication skill. Interview method is effective but the weakness of this method
is related to the disappointment from the person who is not confident and due to this qualified
employee is also neglected.
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D1: Critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of approaches to recruitment and
selection
Internal recruitment approach requires a short time period that existing workers is well
known to management and they can save time for the process of interview. It can easily
create discrimination and politics within workplace and reduce opportunities to hire young,
fresh and skilled employees for the job.
In the external recruitment approach there are several benefits for an organisation to recruit
and hire employees externally such as it helps to bring new blood, fresh and skilled employee
within firm. In addition, financial department affected by this that it is a cost and time
consuming process effectively (Paşaoğlu, 2015).
The management is responsible for preparing a job analysis, advertisement for vacancy,
response management, interview process and selection of right candidate for the job to
increase chances of recruiting a skilled and knowledgeable person.
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TASK 2
P3 Evaluating different benefits of Human resource practices within firm for both employee
and employer
It can be said that there are several benefits of HRM practices for employees and employers
effectively. It helps to manage effective relationship between them so that effectiveness of
operational activities can be increased to produce quality results in terms of services provided
by Liverpool Victoria.
HRM practices are not only helps business to improve its performance but also provide
strength to employees and employers working relationship. HR management is able to
provide job satisfaction and motivation to both employers and employees through effective
practices of HR management activities. This helps to improve and develop performance level
which is beneficial for business (Maylor, Blackmon and Huemann, 2016). In this context,
management is able to conduct several training and development programs for them to
improve their motivation and commitment towards job. Employers are responsible for
focusing on these activities so that they can motivate and encourage employees to work hard
and achieve their individual goals and targets.
With the help of HRM practices effective strategies and plans could be managed by
management in order to provide strengthen to work force. This will engage them in several
operational activities so that they can provide their valuable contribution for business
effectively.
In addition, the major benefit of practicing HRM activities is that it helps employers to reduce
employee’s turnover to enhance their satisfaction and working style effectiveness.HR
management is also responsible for managing effective relationship between employers and
employees to increase overall performance which can be done by effective HRM practices. It
helps to improve and develop their motivation and loyalty towards firm. It will also improve
communication process between employees and employers so that strategies could be
discussed well to accomplish targets (Tripathi, Gautam and Lal, 2017). HRM practices are
also applicable for the process of recruitment and selection that it will help to bring new
blood, fresh and skilled employee within firm to ensure the development and growth of
operations.
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P4, D2 Evaluating effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of increasing business
productivity and profitability
HRM practices helps to enhance satisfaction, commitment, positive attitude and abilities of
employees to manage their individual work which provides benefits to firm in terms of
productivity and profitability. It is approach that is helpful in improving and developing
overall performance of both employees and business to achieve goals and objectives
(Heldman, 2018). The best practice of HRM includes training and development, recruitment
and selection, employee benefits, compensation, termination and compliance, incentives and
rewards and transparency effectively. These activities should be managed well by
management to ensure proper growth and development of business to enhance profits.
HRM practices provide values to employees so that they can give their best to perform well
in tasks. It helps to enhance production effectiveness and increase quality of services
provided by firm to consumers. A HRM practice not only helps to increase profitability and
productivity but also control budget of different departmental activities to enhance growth
opportunities. There are some factors related to HRM practices which must be considered by
HR management to ensure profits and productivity of business.
Training and development: It helps to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses towards their
work so that they can improve their working style and behaviour. This function is performed
by business in a regular time period to enhance knowledge, skills and abilities of workers.
Employee self-service: In this, employees make effective use of resources available within
firm such as technology and techniques in order to complete their tasks individually (Udall,
2017).This helps to save time of management of to monitor activities.
Recruitment: Recruitment helps management to select appropriate and best candidate for the
job. Internal and external are two effective approaches of recruitment and selection from
which they are able to increase effectiveness of operational activities.
Time and attendance: There are some techniques such as SM, ADP and HCM from which
the management is able to manage working hours of employees. In addition employee’s
attendance can be accessed through electronic biometric system to ensure proper hours of
workers towards their job (Peltier, 2016).
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M3: Explore different methods used in HRM practices
The HRM unit of Liverpool Victoria focus on enhancing the employee’s performance so that
productivity of organisation can be improved. Training and development, performance
appraisal, working flexibility and rewards are the HRM practices that can be used by the HR
manager of Liverpool Victoria through which they can enhance the performance and working
efficiency level of their existing employees (Tripathi et al, 2017). Liverpool Victoria can
organise the training sessions for their employees after analysing their lacking areas and try to
improve their skills for their professional and personal development. On the basis of their
performance the motivation benefits can also be provided so that job satisfaction can be
provided to them. Bonus, salary increment, rewards (monetary and non-monetary) is the
motivational benefits which will help the organisation to enhance the employee’s
performance and productivity.
D2: Evaluate the HRM practices and their application
HRM practices ensure that employees and employers are valuable for business in order to
enhance their commitment for the job. It also helps in legal matters including activities such
as anti-discrimination, harassment and employment safety and security. Thus, it can be said
that HRM practices are effective for both employees and employers in order to provide
satisfaction, commitment, positive attitude and abilities to manage their individual work
effectively.
The Liverpool Victoria organisation HR manager monitor the performance level of every
employee once in a two week so that problems, issues and lacking areas related to the
employees can be analysed (Bolman and Deal, 2017). After analysing these factors the
manager organise the training session for those employees whose skills require to be
developed as per the organisation requirement. One expert professional will be hired for the
training session and further meeting will be arranged with the person. The session will
discuss the problems related to the employees of Liverpool Victoria through which
employees can learn many aspects of the personal and professional development. As per their
development further rewards on yearly basis will also be provided for their motivation.
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