Assessment 1: Managing and Co-ordinating the Human Resources Function

This report delves into the core responsibilities of Human Resource (HR) functions, emphasizing their crucial role in achieving organizational objectives such as profitability and productivity. It explores the evolution of HR in contemporary organizations, highlighting the significance of staffing, employee development, and performance management. The report outlines two distinct approaches to delivering HR objectives, focusing on boosting employee morale through various strategies like appreciation, care, and effective incentive programs. It also examines how HR functions vary across different sectors and organizational sizes, contrasting public and private sectors, as well as small and large businesses. Furthermore, the report analyzes two major change management theories and their practical applications, alongside methods for evaluating HR's contribution to organizational success. The report concludes by detailing HR practices that lead to positive organizational outcomes, providing a comprehensive overview of HR's multifaceted role in modern business environments.

Managing and Co-ordinating
the Human Resources
Function

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Assessment.......................................................................................................................................1
1) Main organizational objectives that HR functions is responsible for and how these
functions have been evolved in the contemporary organisations...........................................1
2) Two different ways HR objectives can be delivered in an Organisation and how HR
functions vary in different sectors of different sizes..............................................................3
3) Two major theories of change management and their usage and evaluation.....................5
4) Criteria as well as the methods for evaluating HR functions contribution.......................7
5) HR practices positive organizational outcomes.................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource functions are the responsibilities of the human resource manager that
fall in the three major areas i.e. staffing, benefits and employee compensation. The functions of
human resource also include defining and designing of work. The main purpose of human
resource is to increase the profitability as well as the productivity for an organisation by making
the effective use of employees of an organisation. Organisations are mainly concerned with cost
effectiveness and productivity in managing the human resources. In any organisation,
management of human resource forms an important part, proper management of human resource
helps in achieving the objectives of an organisation in an effective way and also it results in the
smooth functioning of an organisation(Brewster and Hegewisch., 2017). This report discusses
about the main organizational objectives of HR functions and how these HR functions are
evolving in the contemporary organizations. This report also discusses about the two change
management theories and their use. Along with this, discussions about the functions of HR in
different sectors of different sizes will also be done.
Assessment
1) Main organizational objectives that HR functions is responsible for and how these functions
have been evolved in the contemporary organisations.
There are the various objectives the an organization wants to achieve like profitability,
competitive advantage, brand value, increase in customers base, productivity etc all these
objectives can be fulfilled only with the help of effective and efficient human resource available
in the organization. Human resource the key elements in achieving the organisations central
objectives. The main organisational objectives that the HR department is required to deliver are
mentioned below:-Fulfilling Staffing needs: As every organisation needs employees for
carrying out organisation initiatives, so organisations depend on the HR personal to assist with
right and proper staffing for an organisation. Human resource experts use various techniques and
trends like forming a job description, job titles, proper pay scales, proper departmentation etc.
organisation mostly depend on the human resource experts for selecting of the new employees
for an organisation as they make screening of the new applicants and only recommend the
qualified applicants for the interview(Wehrmeyer., 2017). Without the help of the human
resource department, managers would have to perform all the staffing functions for an
organisation as also have to manage the performance of the employees in reaching the
1

organizational objectives. HR department fulfills the staffing needs by developing a proper
human resource planning and also fulfills the staffing needs by the process of recruitment,
selection and and proper placement of the employees in the organisation. HR department also
provides training an development programs which helps in fulfilling future staffing needs
Improving organizational culture: Human resource teams work for building the balance in the
employees required within the organisation and helps in driving the organisations culture with
focus groups.They helps in sustaining the proper organizational culture inside the organisation as
the HR teams conduct surveys and collect data and after that focus on the key issues and
concerns and provide solutions to these issues. This helps in maintaining proper organizational
culture within the organisation as the employees will be happy. This sets a positive vibe within
the organisation.
Pays and Benefits: Pays and benefits can be taken in two ways, one as organisations invests
these HR costs for staff operations and another is the investments in the employees of an
organisation. But both the ways are been administered by the human resource in order to make
the employees perform their jobs(Fee and McGrath-Champ., 2017). Without these pays and
benefits, employees would not work for an organisation and will not be satisfied as well. So, it is
the duty of HR department to make sure that each employee gets money for the hard work they
are doing for the company.
Employee development: Employee development is beneficial for any organisation, if employees
are viewed as capital, then it is the function of HR to provide them opportunities for growth,
learning, training and to guide them for their development. This HR function will make a big
contribution for an organisation.
Performance Management: Information systems of the HR provide a data to the HR experts
which is used by HR experts in decision making. Management can make the reviews of the
results of employees and will decide what changes are required to be made, what are the areas of
improvements so as to increase the performance of an employees within the organisation.
Without this function companies will not be able to improve the performance of employees in an
2

organisation for example HR can update the salary of employees in one system, helps applicant
tracking and resume management, payrolls, training records, performance development plans
and also helps in planning related to succession planning in future .
Evolvement of HR Function
Human resource functions have been evolving in recent years. But this Human resource
evolution have helped the contemporary organisations in reaching the organizational goals.
Nowadays, contemporary organisations are making use of HR functions to achieve it goals by
applying different approaches to resolve employees issues. and make effective and efficient use
of the human resources within the organisation(Hughes and Weisbrod., 2016). The 21st century
brought the changes in the economic conditions around the world which led to the need of HR to
take up additional responsibilities. Now, HR are participating in decisions making in companies
that would help in the growth of a business. Now, HR are often sharing the seats with the
management for performing different management activities like; to determine downsize,
recruitment, retention of employees, outsourcing etc. Now, HR are helping the contemporary
organisations to determine overall direction as HR experts keep on focusing on developing the
organizational capabilities by using different strategies of employee development and employee
engagements in order to achieve the organizational objectives(Rao., 2014). HR are emerging
with the developments in the new technologies which have introduced new way of operating
business across the world. This has expanded the HR functions at broader level and have
increased their scope across the world but also there has been technological developments which
has brought the challenges to the HR experts and they need to change in order to adapt the
changes and overcome the man power challenges.
HR should be professionally responsible, should posses ethical leadership qualities, HR
should be fair and just towards the employees
2) Two different ways HR objectives can be delivered in an Organisation and how HR functions
vary in different sectors of different sizes
A human resource departments may have number of objectives within the organisation.
The Two different ways by which a Human Resource objective can be delivered within the
organisation are as follows:
3

1. Boosting Employee Morale: Employee morale is the important objective for HR team as it
improves the performance of the employees within the organisation. This objective can be
delivered by the HR department by:-
 Give employees reason to believe, that they are part of something bigger than they
believe. At the point of selection, know the employees about the vision of organisation,
what an organisation is all about and what it wants to achieve. This will motivate the
employees about the job to be performed within the organisation this will boost the
employees morale(Kekäle., 2015).
 Appreciation: when a employees does something good, HR expert should appreciate it
performance. An individuals and the teams who receives good feedback from it leaders
will surely increase the morale. Appreciation will further will perpetuate the employees
to go beyond and increase their their performance level in the organisation.
 Show care for employees: Hr department should care about the employees, which boots
their morale. This can be done sending gifts to the employees, recognizing employees
birthdays, anniversaries etc. when people are been taken care of and are loved by the
organisation, this will boost the employees morale to higher level and this will give them
more than imagination.
 Effective incentive Program: Creating an effective incentive program will improve the
employees morale. Incentive provided by the organisation] for the performance given by
the employees will boost the employees morale. Incentive can be both monetary and non-
monetary. The employees feels that their work has been noticed by the company and are
been awarded for their performance this will improve the employees morale at higher
level.
 Have Fun: It is the best way to increase the employees morale, sometime employees get
tiered of their schedules, so HR experts should arrange fun activities within the
organisation which will release the employees mental pressure and will boost their
morale for performing the future jobs.
Training and development: Training and development is the best way of delivering HR
objectives. Training programs will increase the skills and knowledge of the employees in their
particular jobs in organization this will increase the performance of the employees in the
4

organization and helps in achieving HR objectives. Development programs will over all develop
the employees in the organization which helps in achieving HR objectives.
Human resource functions varies in different sectors as the different sectors have
different organisation structure and different goals so these functions also vary accordingly. HR
functions in the public sectors have increased in the recent years. Human resource experts have
to set a collaboration between different public services and also have to deliver most cost
effective services in order to succeed. Human resource experts have to identify the effective
ways of improving work(Ardlie and Guigó., 2017). The human resource functions is to provide
different organizational development strategies for improving the performance of employees
within the public sectors.
Framework:Human resource in public sectors are working with complicated framework
as compared to the private sectors.
Challenges: HR in public sectors have to face the challenges of merged services and cultural
mismatches in different areas, while as HR in private sectors have to face the challenges in single
organisation.
On the basis of size the difference lies between small business and large business.
Office space and employee number:HR has to deal with the office space and employee number
to the number of customers to the production levels depends upon the size of an organisation.
Specific Role: In small businesses, HR professionals are likely be given other roles in the
company besides managing human resources but this is not in case with large business. In the
small business, roles and responsibilities of HR may overlap for getting a job done but in large
organisations the role and responsibilities are preassigned to the HR professionals for example a
HR in small business can even be a manager but this is not in case of large businesses.
Resources:Availability of the resources in small and large businesses is another difference based
up on the size of an organisation, so there is a limit to the HR department in terms of training,
policies, pays scales, team building etc a HR has to be creative when there is a extended program
in order to build employees and also to encourage the growth within the employees but in large
businesses HR officials are provided with the abundant resources and also they have range of
options available.
Recruitment process:Another difference is based on the recruitment process, a large companies
allot the a good amount of funds to HR department for the requirement process which is used by
5

the HR for checking background of potential employees, can go multiple interviews, can go for
broad recruitment process but in case of small businesses recruitment process is the major time
as well as the cost for them.
HR functions in large businesses:
3) Two major theories of change management and their usage and evaluation
The two major theories of change management are as follows:-
a) Kotter's 8 step model of change: This theory of change was given by John Kotter in 1996,
he is a renowned change expert. He introduced 8 step model of change in his nook called
“leading change”. This 8 step model includes, first step is creating sense of urgency, 2nd step is
forming a team, 3rd step is developing vision and strategies, 4th step is communicating the vision,
5th is empower action, 6th is create short term wins, 7th is don't let up and 8th is make change stick.
This theory can be used and evaluated as
1) By creating an urgency- This can be done by various ways like identifying the potential
threats which will effect the organizational performance in future. The opportunities that are
available for an organisation that will result in the change in an organisation and also request the
support and involvements of the people in the industry(Panic, Cvijic and Petrovic., 2016).
2) To bring a change in the organisation- an organisation should form a change coalition who
will work as team and this will help in enhancing the change in the organisation, if there is any
weakness in such teams, that weakness should be rectified and make the team focus on the
change.
3) Vision and Mission: Organisations vision and mission statements can influence individuals
for accepting a change.
4)Communication: By communicating the employees about the change in their vision that too
convincingly can help in implementing the change in the organisation(John Kotter’s Change
Model, 2016).
5) Managing organizational structure: what ever the obstacles comes in between change
should be eradicated, and also ensure that the organizational structure and the process is well
aligned at a place.
6) Setting Objectives: by setting a short term objectives for employees and after achieving
them, employees feel satisfied over their achievements and also reward the employees for their
6

contribution this will help the employees accept the change. An organisation should set up short
term goals instead of long term goals which will foster the change in the organisation.
7) Appreciation: An individuals should be appreciated at each level of change and their stories
of success should be analyzed for the further improvements(Raineri., 2017).
8) Sharing Success stories: During the change the success stories of change should be discussed
which will enhance the change and also make sure that the change becomes a integral part of the
organisation. An organisation should support their change leaders for implementing the change
in the organisation.
Figure (1John Kotter’s Change Model)
Source: (John Kotter’s Change Model,2016)
7

McKinney 7S change model: This model was developed by Robert Waterman and Tom Peters
in 1980. It is a powerful tool for analyzing the change that takes place inside the organisation. It
has also got 7 key elements that helps in determining the organizational success. These 7
elements are divided in two elements Hard elements that are in direct control of the management
and another is soft element which is less tangible and are difficult to assess. These can be helpful
to an organisation as
 Hard Elements: It includes strategies, it is a plan or a map by which the organisation
wants to achieve the profitability, success, competitive advantage over others. It is the
most important for any organisation to formulate a successful strategies. Another is the
organizational structure, an organisation should have the best organizational structure or
the pattern. It also includes the system i.e. the daily activities of an organisation in order
to complete the daily assigned tasks(Alcalde-Rabanal and et.al., 2017). The tasks
assigned to the employees should be definite not to hard nor too easy.
 Soft Elements: As soft elements are difficult to be defined because of its intangibility
and these elements are mostly governed by the culture. But these elements are also
important just as the hard elements so the organisation should focus on them equally as
these elements also contribute to the success of an organisation. These includes shared
values, the core values of an employees like subordinates goal within an organisation
that should get reflected in the organizational culture which proves beneficial for the
organisation, another is style, it is the type of a leadership style adopted in the
organisation and this have the influence on the employees of an organisation and this
effects the organizational performance. Staffing, it is another element i.e. the capabilities
of the employees within the organisation, an organisation has to choose the required
number of employees within the organisation . Last element is skills i.e. is the skills
required to perform a particular job in the organisation.
This model can be implemented when there is need for change or when employees are
not performing up to the mark. It can also be implemented to analyze the current situation of the
employee in the organization. Understanding future state of employees , creating a 7S model
review for the future state and then comparing future framework with the current state.
8

4) Criteria as well as the methods for evaluating HR functions contribution
HR functions contribute to the organizational success, as HR helps in hiring the right
person for the right job, decides the right salary packages for each employee, measure the
employee performance, HR resolve the conflicts in the organization.
There are various methods and criteria available for HR functions contribution in an
organisation. Some of them are mentioned as :
 Analytical Approach: A human resource have to make cost benefit analysis which is
also called utility analysis. This helps in making the evaluations in economic terms,
which helps in decision makings(Chelladurai and Kerwin., 2017). Many HR functions are
been evaluated with the help of utility analysis such as recruitment, training, appraisals
and even turnovers. Utility analysis predicts the quantitative means of evaluating the HR
functions but this process is time consuming and is challenging task to perform.
 Quantitative and Qualitative methods: A number of quantitative methods are available
to evaluate the HR functions i.e. calculation of cost of the work in an organisation, cost of
absenteeism, turnover costs, cost of per hiring of an employee, expenses of HR, training
costs etc. another is the qualitative methods like improvement of employees performance
after training, reduction in the absenteeism, boosting the employee morale, optimum use
of employees within the organisation etc. These both qualitative and quantitative methods
helps in evaluating the HR functions contribution in the organisation.
 Balanced Score Card methods: This method consists of four dimensions like Financial,
customers service, internal process of businesses and the last is capacities of growth and
developments. In order to evaluate the performance of HR functions a manager need to
find out the performance indicators within these four dimensions, like how a HR is
contributing towards the long term as well as short term financial performance of an
organisation, second is that how does a customer perceive an organisation .i.e. a quality
of service offered to a customer, third is HR functions contribution towards the
production as well as operational statistics and the last is the potential of human resource
to learn and grow within the organization.
 Bench marking: Bench marking is the effective tool for the evaluation of the HR
functions in an organization. It involves the learning of HR and also adopting the best
practices carrying out its HR functions(López-Torres and Prior., 2016). This can be done
9

by comparing the HR functions of an organisation with its competitors available in the
business. This sets a bench mark for the HR functions within an organisation but by
comparing its performances with other organizations. It involves the study about the
practices that other organisation follows and then comparing that study with practices of
HR functions. This helps in evaluation of the HR functions of an organisation. But this
will also the HR to learns various practices from the other organisation and also adopt
their practices which will improve the performance of the HR within the organization.
This involves:
1. Identification of various HR practices that can be bench marked
2. Establishing of the team to handle all activities of bench marking
3. Taking up the organization that has to make comparison with.
4. After the comparison collect the data from the comparisons
5. After collections of data team needs to analyse and make interpretation of the data
6. Next step is make the report on the data interpretation and analysis made by the team
7. The last step is to develop an action plans in for improvements if needed.
There are many criteria such as knowledge, goals, result, consideration for evaluating
human resource functions in organization. The main function of HR is recruitment and selection,
so that, firm hire and selecting the candidate on the basis of skills, goals, result and
consideration. In order to that, on the basis of consideration, firm select individual according to
policy and laws of business. On the other hand, company also recruit candidate on the basis of
their qualification and skills. If selected candidate is skilled and qualified according goals of
company, so that firm easily hire this person who is contributing in achieving objectives of
organization.
5) HR practices positive organizational outcomes
The main purpose of Human resource management is to improve performance of
individual and company. It is important for increasing competitive advantages and noted the
significance of many human resource practices necessary to obtain this advantage by effective
workforce. HR practices to three dimensions such as financial, organizational and employee
outcomes. Human resources practices helps in increasing productivity and performance of
organizations (Hughes and Weisbrod, eds., 2016). There are many practices of human resource
management such as safe, healthy and happy workplace, open book management style,
10