Effective HRM Strategies: A Case Study of Liverpool Victoria Insurance

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes Liverpool Victoria's HRM.

Human
Resour
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Manag
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Table of Contents
Introduction:..........................................................................................................................................3
Task 1: Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management within an organisation such
as Liverpool Victoria in terms of resourcing an organisation with talent and skills appropriate to fulfil
business objectives................................................................................................................................4
HR Functions:.....................................................................................................................................4
Best Fit and Best Practice Approaches:.............................................................................................5
Hard and Soft HRM Models:..............................................................................................................6
Recruitment Approaches:..................................................................................................................6
Task 2: Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management in an
organisation such as Victoria Liverpool...............................................................................................10
Task 3: Analyse the internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management decision
making including employment legislation...........................................................................................17
Employee Relations:........................................................................................................................18
Employee Legislation and its impact:..............................................................................................19
Action Points:..................................................................................................................................20
Task 4: Apply Human Resources Management practices in a work related context using Victoria
Liverpool as an example......................................................................................................................21
Conclusion:..........................................................................................................................................26
References:..........................................................................................................................................27
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Introduction
During present times, the competition in the business world has grown immense and
therefore the primary motive of the organisations is not limited to making profits and
generating revenue. In addition to the profits, the organisation in the present times needs to
understand the importance of sustainability. Therefore in order to achieve the sustainability in
the organisation, it is imperative for the organisations to have effective human resource
management. The human resource management is responsible for managing effectively the
different organisation’s resources and hence ensures increased productivity and effectiveness
in the organisation. The following assignment is based on the human resource management
and the importance of its various practices for the Liverpool Victoria. Liverpool Victoria is
UK’s largest and most trusted insurance company which has more than 5 million customers.
The company provides varied kind of services and products to its customers ranging from car
insurance, home, pet insurance, retirement solutions and life insurance services.
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Task 1: Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management within an
organisation such as Liverpool Victoria in terms of resourcing an organisation with
talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business objectives.
The process of managing the activities of the workforce of the organisation and exercising
control on them is referred to as Human Resource Management (Bratton & Gold, 2012). In
addition to this, according to experts human resource management is also defined as the
process that consists of the workforce selection, providing them with proper training, giving
them appraisals and looking after their issues, health, equality and their relations with the
organisation’s management (Business Dictionary, 2019). Therefore, combining these two, it
can be said that human resource management is the process that deals with the management
of the organisation’s resources in an effective manner in order to achieve organisational goals
and objectives. Liverpool Victoria is a large organisation and therefore the primary purpose
for which the human resource management exists within the organisation is the increased
efficiency and productivity as a result of providing employees with motivation, training and
job satisfaction.
HR Functions:
The HR management at Liverpool Victoria performs the various functions so as to help the
organisation in the effective achievement of the organisational goals and objectives. The
main functions perform by the HR management at Liverpool Victoria are explained as
follows:
 Aligning business objectives and HR strategy: It is one of the most important functions
that is being performed by the HR management at Liverpool Victoria. The HR
management is responsible for HR planning and HR strategy which involves achieving
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organisational objectives by forecasting the future needs of the resources of the
organisation (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).
 Job Analysis: Job Analysis is another important function that is being performed by the
effective HR management at Liverpool Victoria (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). It involves
the process of identifying the most suitable skills required by the organisation so as to
achieve the goals of the organisation and the recruitment of the candidates with the
desired skills.
 Attracting the best candidates through recruitment and selection: Another major
function that gets performed by the human resource management is attracting the best
candidates for the job and selecting the most appropriate candidate among them with the
desired skills so as to achieve organisational goals.
 Training: The human resource management at Liverpool Victoria is also responsible for
providing training to employees so as to increase the organisational productivity as well
as efficiency by providing knowledge as well as improving the skills of the employees
(Bratton & Gold, 2012). This increases the competency of the employees.
 Rewards: The primary assets for the Liverpool Victoria are its employees and therefore
the organisation values its employees. In order to provide them job satisfaction and retain
them for longer periods, the organisation provides employees with various rewards and
compensation based on their performance so as to encourage the employees to increase
their efficiency and hence productivity (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).
 Performance Management: This function is also important and therefore is being
performed by the human resource management at Liverpool Victoria. Performance
management involves the process of monitoring the performance of the employees so as
to know the weak points and improve them and hence add to the organisational
productivity (Bratton & Gold, 2012).
 Employee Relations: Employee Relations is yet another important function of human
resource management. In order to provide job satisfaction to their employees and make
them happy with their jobs, the organisation believes in maintaining strong professional
relations with their employees (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).
Best Fit and Best Practice Approaches:
Liverpool Victoria makes use of both best fit and best practice approaches so as to increase
the effectiveness of the organisation. The best practice approaches are used by the
organisation in order to increase the performance of the organisation on the whole as they are
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mainly focused on high performance (Bach & Edwards, 2013). In addition to this, the use of
the best practice approaches by the organisation also results in the increased organisational
effectiveness as it helps the organisation in identifying the factors that results in high
performance by recruiting and selecting the best suitable candidate, training them and by
providing them with proper appraisals and rewards. In the similar way, the best fit approaches
of HRM are also used by the Liverpool Victoria so as to increase the effectiveness of the
various organisational strategies (Bach & Edwards, 2013). The main focus of the best fit
approaches remain on providing the solution to the most urgent requirements of the
organisation. By making use of the best fit approach, Liverpool Victoria performs various
HRM functions such as selection of the candidates, their performance management and
providing them rewards. Liverpool Victoria identifies the most suitable method of providing
employees with rewards with the help of best fit approaches.
Hard and Soft HRM Models:
Hard HRM: The Hard HRM model practised at Liverpool Victoria considers the employees
of the organisation as the main resource of the organisation so as to achieve the
organisational goals (Torrington, et. al., 2011). Therefore, the main focus of the Hard HRM
model is on the recruitment and selection of the most appropriate candidate by analysing the
skills required in them.
Soft HRM: Contrary to Hard HRM, Soft HRM practised at Liverpool Victoria considers
employees as it’s most important and valuable assets and therefore ensures that all their
personal and professional needs are fulfilled so as to provide them job satisfaction
(Torrington, et. al., 2011). They consider their employees as their main resource which makes
it possible for the organisation to achieve organisational objectives and hence believes in
providing employees with rewards and compensation as per their performance.
Recruitment Approaches:
Both internal source approaches as well as external source approaches is used by Liverpool
Victoria.
Internal Recruitment: The process of recruiting the employees in the organisation for the
vacant posts from within the already employed persons in the organisation is referred to as
the internal recruitment. Internal recruitment can be made through promotions, employee
referrals etc (Thompson, 2018).
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Promotion: One of the best methods of recruiting employees from within the organisation
used by Liverpool Victoria is promoting the existent employee with additional
responsibilities and increases salary and designation up gradation (Thompson, 2018).
Advantages:
 The employee is already working within the organisation and hence is familiar with the
working style as well as the policies of the organisation.
 Promoting employees from within the organisation provides motivation to employees to
perform better.
Disadvantages:
 Promotions create a feeling of dissatisfaction among employees who expect promotion
but do not get the one.
 Filling one vacant post creates another.
Employee Referrals: Another method of internal recruitment used by Liverpool Victoria is
employee referrals. The organisation makes use of the referrals from the existent employees
so as to fill the vacant organisational positions (Thompson, 2018).
Advantages:
 Less time is involved.
 Less cost is involved.
Disadvantages:
 The organisation does have a limited option of candidates to select from.
Advertising Vacant position to employees: Another method through which recruitment can
be made internally is advertising vacant position to employees through internal channels so as
to give them a chance to prove themselves and work harder (Thompson, 2018).
Advantages:
 It results in better and improved employee performance.
 Takes less time
Disadvantages:
 Number of candidates for the post is limited.
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External Recruitment: The process of recruitment used by Liverpool Victoria so as to
recruit candidates for the vacant posts from outside the organisation is referred to as the
external recruitment.
Online Website: Externally candidates get recruited by Liverpool Victoria by posting job
advertisements online on the company’s website. The interested candidates turn to the
advertisements and fill up the form for applying for the vacant position (Thompson, 2018).
Advantages:
 Wide variety of skilled candidates is available to recruit from.
 More innovative and fresh candidates are available.
Disadvantages:
 The time involved in recruiting candidates is quite more.
Recruitment Agencies: Liverpool Victoria also recruits candidate through recruitment and
placement agencies.
Advantages:
 The more skilled and specialised candidates are available with the help of recruitment
agencies.
Disadvantages:
 The process of recruitment through placement and recruitment agencies is quite complex
as well as time consuming.
Schools, colleges, universities: This is another method of external recruitment where
colleges and universities allow companies to get fresh and skilled candidates for their vacant
positions (Thompson, 2018).
Advantages:
 Fresh and innovative candidates.
Disadvantages:
 Cost and time involved is much.
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Selection Approaches: Reliability and validity are the main approaches of selection used by
Liverpool Victoria.
Reliability: Reliability may be defined as the method of selection where the results of the
tests remain consistent and therefore does not change with the time and place (Dessler, 2013).
Advantages:
 New techniques are not adopted and therefore it consumes less time and cost.
Disadvantages:
 There is change in reliability as per the nature and requirements of the job.
Validity: Validity may be defined as the method of selection where the most of the
organisational expectations are met (Dessler, 2013).
Advantages:
 The candidates selected have the right skills.
Disadvantages:
 Time consuming and more cost are involved.
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Task 2: Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management
in an organisation such as Victoria Liverpool.
Speaker Notes: According to the above slide, the different practices of human resource
management practised at Liverpool Victoria helps the organisation in increasing the
effectiveness of the organisation and hence the organisational productivity and profitability.
The various practices such as training, learning and development as well as the performance
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management and reward management motivate the employees at Liverpool to perform better
and therefore adds to the organisational effectiveness. The effectiveness of the different HRM
practices can be understood from the coming slides.
Speaker Notes: The above slide explains the effectiveness of providing training, learning as
well as development programs to employees of Liverpool Victoria. Training and
development is considered to be one of the most important as well as crucial functions of
HRM. Training and development programs not only increase the knowledge of the
employees but also improve their skills and make them more competent and hence they can
achieve organisational goals in much effective manner. Therefore, it helps the organisation in
increasing the organisational effectiveness and hence leads to increased organisational
productivity.
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Speaker Notes: The above slide explains the various different types of training and
development programs that are provided by Liverpool organisation to its employees.
Liverpool provides on the job training to its new employees where they learn by actually
doing the work (Govaerts, 2013). In addition to this, the formal training is also provided by
Liverpool to its employees in the form of apprentice training so as to provide them
knowledge of the job and improve their skills. Liverpool also provides informal training and
training to employees with the help of audio visual clips. In addition to all this, for managers,
Liverpool organises training programs in the form of events and seminars so as to provide
them off-the job training.
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