Analysing People Resourcing and Development in Biscuit Manufacturing

This case study provides a comparative analysis of people resourcing and development practices in the UK and German biscuit manufacturing industries. It highlights the differences in sourcing strategies, skill levels of the workforce, and production processes between the two countries. The UK relies on standardized, mass production with unskilled labor, while Germany focuses on customized processes with skilled workers. The study identifies strengths and weaknesses of each approach, emphasizing the importance of training and development for enhancing employee skills and productivity. It concludes with recommendations for UK biscuit manufacturing companies to improve their training strategies and retain top talent, ultimately improving their competitive edge.

People Resourcing and
Development

Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Overview of case study................................................................................................................4
Analysing people sourcing and development practices that are used by UK biscuits
manufacturing companies............................................................................................................4
Explanation of people sourcing and development strategies that are considered as a weakness
or strength for UK biscuit manufacturing organisations..............................................................5
People sourcing and development strategies of German biscuits company as strength or
weakness ....................................................................................................................................5
Comparison and contrast between UK and German biscuits manufacturing companies ...........6
Discussion of training and development strategies can use by UK biscuit manufacturing
companies for enhancing the skills of their employees ..............................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Employee resourcing can be described as a practice used by organisations to ensure that
their human capital retain for a longer period of time as well as perform in a productive manner
(Armstrong, 2020). Differential organisations follow various strategies to manage their
workforce efficiently. Employee resourcing is a vital part of human resource management which
essentially focuses on the process of recruitment, selection and retention processes. Whereas
employee development concentrates on providing learning and knowledge to personnel for the
effective establishment of organisational goals this project report is based on a case study
whereby it people sourcing and development strategies are evaluated in a strategic manner.
MAIN BODY
Overview of case study
This case study is based on an investigation performed by focusing on production
processes of biscuit manufacturing units of three different countries which are Germany, France
and UK. It delves into the production processes as well as related workforce at those
manufacturing units. It demonstrates the understanding of differential types of workforce who
are working at those manufacturing sites.

Analysing people sourcing and development practices that are used by UK biscuits
manufacturing companies
People sourcing practices essentially focuses on recruitment, selection, induction, talent
and career management of employees at workplace (Bajer, 2017). It is an aim for organisation to
persuade their employees for higher level of productivity as well as gaining value proposition. In
UK, biscuit manufacturing organisations follow the production processes which stances on mass
practices. These companies produce their products for mass public using standardised production
process. For these production system, they do not hire skilled workforce. Biscuit manufacturing
companies at UK recruit skilled workers only for setting up of their production process and
unskilled workforce for just following their orders. This type of model has helped them to
generate more sales and also increases their productivity. Biscuits manufacturing plants at UK
are more automated and ready for mass production in a standardised manner. Through this UK
biscuit manufacturing companies incurs less cost in their production which in turn led them to
compete with other countries on the basis of price. Due to recruitment of unskilled workforce,
they reduced their operational and working capital cost in a significant manner. With the practice
of this model in their business operations, they are lacking an opportunity to bring any
modification and develop their employees. As they have to work on pre-determined and set
standards for production of their products in large batches, they are unable to make any
developments.
Explanation of people sourcing and development strategies that are considered as a weakness or
strength for UK biscuit manufacturing organisations
At UK biscuit manufacturing establishments, managers source people through an ineffective
means. They also do not posses any skill or degree which help them to improve their
productivity level. They have automated machines for efficient use of their standardised
processes which is a strength for them. However, shortage of skilled workforce at manufacturing
units can be a weakness for them. Although, their productivity level are high and they do not
want expensive skilled workforce.
Unskilled workforce suits their standardised mass production processes. But in order to
increase their productivity level in order to cater enlarging needs of people, they have to source
efficient skilled workforce. Unskilled workforce at UK biscuits manufacturing companies are not
capable of repairing the machineries at the time of breakdown which creates huge losses for

them. They have to wait for technical professional for the repairing of the machine. This has also
waste the workers time and has a significant impact on their productivity. Practice of recruiting
unskilled workforce led them to face a limitation of untrained employees that would create
problems excessively at the time of emergency downtime (Banks and Hart, 2018). Even
supervisors at UK biscuit manufacturing companies do not posses any vocational and technical
qualifications. Unskilled workforce is dependent on supervisors for learning and development
which can hamper their performance as supervisor is also not well-educated as well as
experienced. For curbing their weaknesses thy need to train their unskilled workforce in order to
enhance their performance level. It is desired for them to develop strategies in order to enhance
the employees in relation to their desired skills.
People sourcing and development strategies of German biscuits company as strength or
weakness
At German biscuit manufacturing companies, managers follow customised processes
whereby they produce small batches of their product. They also recruit skilled workforce for
understanding the customised processes adopted by the organisations. They source employees
from trusted websites as well as follow systematic procedure for personnel recruitment and
selection. They recruit their supervisor on the basis of their technical skills and competencies
which helps them to maintain proper care of maintenance of their machineries. Workers at
German biscuit manufacturing unit are professionals and experienced of performing as a
apprenticeship at the bakery. They are also trained and well-experienced in their profession
which aids them to support the production process in an effective manner. Through their
experience and technical skills they are capable of taking care of maintenance of machinery. This
practice assist them in curbing the extra cost spent on repairs team.
This has also helped them to minimize break downtime and productivity level of their
workforce. Skilled workforce and their manufacturing model is consider as a strength for them as
they assists them in securing competitive advantage in market (Jaakkola and Hallin, 2018).
Through efficient and skilled workforce organisational managers can easily bring changes and
modifications in their business operations. Through this, they can also plan growth and
development plans or strategies in their production process. This also help workforce to instil
confidence in management for their self-development practices.

Comparison and contrast between UK and German biscuits manufacturing companies
These is a huge difference between biscuits manufacturing units of UK and Germany due
to standardised as well as customised processes respectively. At UK biscuit manufacturing
plants, unskilled workforce is hired without systematic procedure of recruitment and selection.
Whereas, at biscuit manufacturing units at Germany, skilled workforce is hired who have posses
degree or diploma in their field of expertise. At UK biscuit manufacturing plant, standardise
processes are used and production is performed on the basis of mass demand. At the
contradictory, in German biscuit production processes, customised processes are used and they
only produce a medium batch of products that too are based on level of demand of people. At
UK biscuit manufacturing processes, small number of workforce is hired due to practice of high
reliance on automated practices and less on manual processes. Whereas, at German
manufacturing unit, customized process is applied which calls for high manual practices and
skilled labour. Their workforce is skilled which helps them to lessen the machine breakdown and
get it repaired in an easy and quick manner through their present capable supervisor
(O’Donovan, 2019). On the contradictory to this, at UK biscuit manufacturing processes, their
supervisors are not capable of fixing these issues which can hamper their productivity level. At
German biscuit manufacturing unit, they left a scope for developing as well as bring
modifications in their processes in an effective manner.
They have scope of performing varied experiments in their processes due to
customisation processes and product extension (Pandey and Et. Al., 2021). Whereas, this has not
been preferred at UK biscuit manufacturing processes as they follow a standardised procedure.
At UK biscuit manufacturing organisations, workers experience frequent breakdown in their
machineries which has adverse impact on their productivity as well as wage level. UK based
biscuits manufacturing establishments are more efficient due to their automated and standardised
processes. At the contradictory to this, German biscuit manufacturing companies assume that
they produce a differentiated product with the help of their skilled workforce and ficus on
premium market.
These two processes at UK and Germany are also similar in some aspect as they both
follow the set procedures in a diligent way. These two have secured competitive advantage in
their own field of expertise that is standardised and customised processes. These processes are
similar in terms of catering the differential types of needs of the people residing in these two

countries. In UK, people's demand is concentrated on basic biscuits with simple coating of
chocolate as well cream or jam. Whereas, in Germany, people's demand is essentially focused
decorated and multi-textured biscuits which are filled with some kind of jam or having different
layers (Resourcing, 2018).
Discussion of training and development strategies can use by UK biscuit manufacturing
companies for enhancing the skills of their employees
In UK, biscuit manufacturing companies essentially focuses on producing the massive
units of their products through an automated and standardised process. For these processes, they
hire unskilled workforce and do not provide them any sort of training. In order to improve their
production processes, it is needful for them to develop strategies for providing training to their
existing staff that help will help them in increase their productivity level. Training and
development assist organisations in retaining top talent and improve productivity levels of
employees. Various strategies that can be used by UK biscuit manufacturing organisations are
discussed below: Benchmark against the competition- It is imperative for organisational managers of UK
biscuit manufacturing units to assess the competition in market. It is desirable for them to
use social media sites for assessing about their competition as well as how people have
perceived their processes (Taylor, 2018). With the help of assessed information,
managers can plan how and in what aspect they are willing to train their employees
which would help them in increase the productivity level. This would help them in
enhancing their performance level as skills are developed on the basis of competitor's
portfolio. Get management buy-in- It is desirable for organisational managers of UK biscuit
manufacturing companies to make top management a part of training program. They
should be engaged effectively in providing motivation to employees. It is important for
top management to made the training compulsory which help unskilled workers to
improve their competencies in an effective manner (Warburton, 2018). Through this top
management motivates their employees for upgrading their skills that would help them in
future.
 Establish metrics- Only implementing training programs is not sufficient but its effective
monitoring is also necessary for its success (Taylor, 2021). Managers of UK biscuit

manufacturing establishments can track the training program through some matrices such
as cost of training and their influence on company goals. This can be tracked with the
help of varied software.
Managers of UK biscuit manufacturing companies should provide training to enhance technical
skill of their unskilled workforce which helps them to have knowledge regarding machine
breakdown and its repairs. This practice not only improves skills and competencies of employee
but also aids companies in lowering their cost at time of machine breakdown.
CONCLUSION
From the mentioned information, it has been ascertained that people sourcing
encompasses of varied processes like recruitment, selection, retention and many more. It is
imperative for organisational managers to perform this processes effectively as it aids them to
retain the talent for a longer period of time. It is important to provide desired skills and
competencies to workers which helps in enhancing their performance. There is a huge difference
in biscuit manufacturing companies in UK and Germany. This difference is due to standardised
and customised processes a well as skills differentiation in workforce of these two processes.
These processes are similar too as they both are catering diverse demands of people residing in
different countries.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Armstrong, M., 2020. Armstrong's Handbook of Strategic Human Resource Management:
Improve Business Performance Through Strategic People Management. Kogan Page
Publishers.
Bajer, J., 2017. Digital transformation needs the human touch. Strategic HR Review.
Banks, S. and Hart, A. eds., 2018. Co-producing research: A community development approach.
Policy Press.
Jaakkola, E. and Hallin, A., 2018. Organizational structures for new service
development. Journal of Product Innovation Management. 35(2). pp.280-297.
O’Donovan, D., 2019. HRM in the organization: An overview. Management Science, pp.75-110.
Pandey, M. and Et. Al., 2021. Resourcing and value creation: A case of sharing economy model
at the base of the pyramid. In Sharing Economy at the Base of the Pyramid (pp. 197-
218). Springer, Singapore.
Resourcing, C. B., 2018. Future Skill Development for LIS Professionals. AUSTRALIAN LAw
LIBRARIAN. 26(3). p.152.
Taylor, S., 2018. Resourcing and talent management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Taylor, S., 2021. Resourcing and Talent Management: The Theory and Practice of Recruiting
and Developing a Workforce. Kogan Page Publishers.
Warburton, D., 2018. A passionate dialogue: community and sustainable development.
In Community and sustainable development (pp. 1-39). Routledge.