People Management: Contemporary Challenges, Skills, and HR Processes

This report provides an in-depth analysis of people management, addressing contemporary issues faced by line management, such as discriminatory performance evaluations and substandard employee wellbeing. It highlights the knowledge, skills, and behaviors essential for effective people managers, including decision-making and leadership skills. The report further examines HR processes that underpin and support effective performance management, such as performance management reviews and 360-degree appraisals, offering recommendations for improvement. The report emphasizes the importance of HR processes in creating a conducive environment for employee growth and organizational success. The report includes an introduction, a discussion of contemporary issues, skills required, HR processes, and a conclusion.

Introduction to People
Management

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Contemporary Issues face line management faces when it comes to People Management............3
Discriminatory evaluation of efficiency......................................................................................3
Substandard wellbeing and healthcare of workers.......................................................................4
Knowledge Skills and Behaviours needed to be an effective people manager...............................5
Decision making skills.................................................................................................................5
Leadership skills..........................................................................................................................5
What HR process underpin and support management when it comes to effective performance
management?...................................................................................................................................6
Performance Management Review..............................................................................................6
360 Degree Appraisal...................................................................................................................8
Recommendations............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
People management is defined by the set of activities associated with the human resources of an
organisation controlling and managing the acquisition, development and retention of effective
talents and skills along with motivating and guiding people towards achieving common
organisational goals. People management deals with the work procedures, behavior, job
engagement and individual growth of people associated with the organisation (Writer, 2019).
The key components of people management are to create, comprehend, communicate,
collaborate and confront. The five effective people management skills are trust generation,
motivation, empathy, appreciation and learning. The line management can overcome various
challenges faced while managing people by effective coordination with the HR management and
administration. Efficient performance management systems integrating various upgraded
software tools into the system ensures effective functioning of the people as well as the business
as a whole. In the following report, two contemporary issues that have been faced by the line
management while managing people, have been illustrated and highlighted. The report also
covers two amongst many knowledges, skills and behaviours that are required in order to
become an effective people manager. Furthermore, the report focuses on the several HR
processes and support management that are needed while managing performance effectively.
Contemporary Issues face line management faces when it comes to People Management
Discriminatory evaluation of efficiency
Performance appraisal would be considered by the Labour Research Department (LRD) also as
biggest frontline concern across sophisticated working environments. It makes the argument that
the form of segments and sub which is now achievable due to systemic transition and susceptible
across all forms of discrimination and prejudice has become progressively oppressive and
isolationist, exacerbated (Cipd.co.uk., 2016). CIPD research reveals that methods of performance
evaluation are susceptible towards line manager impairment. This entails racial and ethnic
prejudices, and also considerations like whether individuals are personally liked by their
supervisor, or if they were recruited or suggested by themselves. Line manager prejudices may
have an effect on the salaries of employees if an organization uses delighted performance
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bonuses. It can contribute to discrepancies in salaries. This threat has been noted by the Equality
and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), finding performance-related compensation another
risky activity that can contribute to pay discrimination (Equalityhumanrights.com., n.d.). The
Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) recently presented an illustration about how
efficiency improvement can be unequal. PCS effectively fought against such a performance
measurement scheme of 'forced distribution' imposed throughout all levels of government. PCS
analysis, and also experiments obtained by it, reported that the framework was particularly
undesirable and contributed to great discrepancies in results depending on sex, maturity, rank
and operating habits, specifically with respect to impairment and nationality." Dr Steve French,
whose conducted PCS study provided line manager discrimination also as rationale for the
prejudice (Cappelli, 2016). Several government entities like NHS faced such an issue of
discrimination.
Substandard wellbeing and healthcare of workers
The CIPD argued that the most important way to promote healthier work environments as well
as potentially prevent unhealthy circumstances tends to be effective line management including
positive relationships (Cipd.co.uk., 2018). Therefore, it is worrying that even more analysis
within the CIPD recently revealed that almost 50% of companies believe that the value of well-
being would be implemented by line managers. Only as additional dimension, style of
management is the 2nd most frequent source of emotional exhaustion, following workforces.
Education becomes a genuine issue everywhere, with so many companies just not offering the
resources to help employees experiencing health challenges to their senior managers. For
instance, 25% of companies that support line managers’ principal accountability regarding
absence management (short or long-term) have not educated properly themselves for absence
management, as well as a comparable proportion of companies do not provide themselves with
assistance to provide it. There is a significant deficiency of preparation for managers regarding
treating and assisting workers with psychological distress. The number of entities supplying
managers through guidance to help health care professionals is increasing, but still low (only
40%). This is disappointing, considering the paucity of preparation, that certain amount of
companies (30%) indicated that managers became capable of holding critical discussions as well
as signposting workers to expert assistance if appropriate (Cipd.co.uk., 2018). Both for the
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employee as well as the top management, such preparation is important, as coping through health
and disease problems may be detrimental also to the management team and the employee unless
the managers possess the expertise, trust as well as strength to argue with problems successfully.
RioTinto, the metal and mining organization often faced these issues of employee health during
their hazardous work process.
Knowledge Skills and Behaviours needed to be an effective people manager
Decision making skills
Decision-making abilities help a manager should evaluate options and also to select a suitable
and prompt line of treatment using personal judgement. Decision-making as well as problem-
solving concepts are most often used synonymously, and are not really similar. As the definition
implies,' problem solving' begins with an issue or challenge being established. The management
of a dilemma can include decision-making capabilities, while in other cases, those are all
important. Throughout a fast-moving environment, making efficient choices mostly as manager
always reflect as a very important task. Managers are required to operate constantly during
circumstances of ambiguity or minimal knowledge, which would have a huge effect at all stages
of the procedure in decision-making (Hall et al., 2019). Individuals would need to implement the
expertise as just a manager to choose the appropriate suitable solution for the environment in
which they are working as well as the type of judgment they require to render. It will typically
include seeking a compromise across the 2 conditions mentioned previously. Effective decision
skills should allow the managers to consider what data they need and the process for using it
effectively to support the judgment, and also to assist them eliminate unhelpful or biased
decisions, and to identify the measures of ambiguity and associated risk and if they are
reasonable throughout the conditions (Joseph-Williams et al., 2017). Regarding the influence of
the judgment, along with the effect on organization's overall priorities, should motivate the
managers to overcome costly errors as well as making judgments which add importance to the
company or organisation. Peter Simpson, CEO of Anglian Water shows some effective skills for
decision making which assist him to the lead the exceptional success of the company.
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Leadership skills
In the modern world of business, the task of management is becoming more difficult.
Management and leadership dynamics of the contemporary world involve operating in a world of
rapid transition as well as the rising variability of management systems. A challenging economic
environment and rising global competition should also be tackled by management teams. In
order to be effective, emerging technology, the information economy as well as the adoption of
smartphones, greater openness, growing customer expectations and natural resources issues all
lead to a powerful and dynamic combination of difficulties that executives must navigate (Hall
and Rowland, 2016). The CIPD study demonstrates the universal necessity for strong skills in
leadership and management. The results suggest that even on aggregate, a one/fourth of the
employees has line management duties throughout the review. Developing the right leadership
and organizational qualities is just the first phase; it is extremely necessary to be able to
implement such abilities successfully throughout the work environment. Finding demonstrates
that UK management and leadership development implementation appears to have been largely
informal instead of systematic (Asghar and Oino, 2017). CMI research stresses the significance
of integrating the growth of management and leadership across professional career. Wilton et al
figure out that the biggest efficiency improvements are generated by managers actively
embracing employees to facilitate the realistic implementation of training throughout the place of
work. The CEO of Ocado, a supermarket in UK has the proper skills of leadership which assist
him to become the most paid CEO of United Kingdom.
What HR process underpin and support management when it comes to effective
performance management?
Performance Management Review
Managers, reviewing the performances within the organisations, can be said to be as the formal
function or assessment through which the managers evaluate the work performances of the
employees. The managers also identify their strengths and weaknesses along with offering the
employees with proper feedback for improvement and setting erudite goals for their future
performance. These are also called appraisal of performance by evaluating the strategic skills of
the employees. Organisations conduct annual performance reviews within the entire workforce in
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order to maintain the employee productivity (Chawla et al. 2016). Companies tend to move
towards a regular feedback management system through which the managers of the companies
conduct reviews, quarterly, monthly and even weekly. The performance management further
enables the employees to understand their existing skills and the importance or need of refining
them accordingly. Through this process, the employees can also get to realise the demands of the
companies and how they can incorporate necessary skills aligning with the goals of larger
companies (Saratun, 2016). Reviewing the employee performance effectively, enables the
managers to identify and recognise issues before they become difficult to be acknowledged and
overcome, encouragement towards growth and development. Also, enables in realising high
performance levels of the employees, communicating about the expectations of the company
with the employees for better performance and the process of fostering employee engagement
(Kennedy, 2020).
Figure 1: System of Effective Performance Management (Source: Van Dooren et al. 2015)
In order to become an effective manager, an individual needs to be consistent and efficient in
managing the employee retention as well as their working capacity complying with the gals of
the organisation. The employees need to be clearly outlined about the organisational goals and
objectives by the managers while hiring them. Implementing proper feedback policies are
necessary in order to perform effective performance management within a company (Pollock,
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2018). Maintaining a friendly relationship with the employees further help in building up the
retention level along with the productivity. Focusing on the processes of the company, an
effective manager aligns with the business and communicates with the workers efficiently.
360 Degree Appraisal
Employees need to procure the appraisals, and the feedbacks are needed to be in a far manner in
order to enhance the employee engagement for the betterment of performance management. The
feedback and guidance provided by the supervisor further helps the employee to retain the
performance skills and the responsibilities they are provided with (Kim-Soon & Manikayasagam,
2015). The author further elaborated that, having feedback and better performance management
is possible while the employees of the retail industries will have an intricate job satisfaction and
so as to build a professional performance engagement. The unique characteristics of 360-degree
feedback utilizes multiple sources which further makes the process of feedback evaluation more
detailed and precise so as to maintain the performance management (Nielsen, 2018). The author
further elucidated that, the 360-degree feedback mechanism works in the process of employee
engagement used to retain the performance of an industry and thus, covers all the facets of the
employee execution (Kanaslan & Iyem, 2016).
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Figure 2: 360-degree Appraisal (Source: Karkoulian et al. 2016)
Moreover, it has been stated that the analysed approach of the multi layered feedback provides a
vast distinction between the 360-degree feedback technique and the other methods presenting the
overall positive and negative outcomes (Campion et al. 2015). 360- degree feedback mechanism
to be the involvement of the employee receiving feedback from several sources that might
include staff reporting as well. 360-degree feedback has several significant importance over
single rated feedback methods rather depending on the perceptions of the individual people or
employee (Hosain, 2020). It is considered to be one of the standards of the performance appraisal
process that gradually affects the improvement of the performance management strategy of a
company.
Recommendations
The performance of an organisation is influenced and is driven by the organisational workforce,
as the business leaders of the managers acknowledge the link between the talent and performance
of the employees. The managers should be effectively focusing on cultivating talents through
managing the performance and skills of the employees (Raymond, 2017). Flawlessly managing
and maintaining the employee retention using the HR processes that support the effective
performance management, will be beneficial for the overall business management of the
company. Using behavioral profiles can also increase the employee retention and performance,
which would further enable the company to gain better productivity.
Conclusion
People managers are one of the most valuable assets of an organisation as they deal with the
most critical resources. On the basis of their people management skills, knowledge and behavior,
they lead, manage and control groups of people influencing and motivating them to reach the
desired organisational goal. Working in accordance with the HR management and implementing
different performance management techniques, ensure the managers to successfully evaluate and
analyse individuals as well as organisational performances. While managing a group of people,
line managers come across various contemporary issues while dealing with people management.
Thus, complying with the different HR processes that support the management of the company
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during effective performance management, the company managers can flourish the business
through managing the productivity and organisational goals.
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