Toyota UK's HRM: Recruitment, Selection, and Employee Relations

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This case study reviews HRM practices at Toyota UK.

HRM Case Study Review
1

Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................3
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................4
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................8
Task 3.......................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................12
Reference List.........................................................................................................................13
Appendix.................................................................................................................................15
2

Introduction
Human Resource Management (HRM) is a logical and strategic approach for
employment and effective development of people in an organisation. Human resource
department is responsible for employee recruitment, employee relations, development,
training and appraisal. They are concerned about the development of people by offering
benefits and reducing risks. HR has the key qualities such as leadership quality, problem-
solving capability, maintaining the company’s ethics, has good communication skills and
expertise in his/her work. The major goals of HRM are in modifying and implementing
the human resource strategies, which will contribute to the development of business
status and ensuring the recruitment of skilled and talented individuals.
3

Task 1
You are to produce a report answering the following questions. It has to include
referencing where appropriate to support your explanation.
Introduction
This report will be written based on the HRM practices of Toyota, UK. It is a car
manufacturing company and is responsible for the sales and marketing of their vehicles
nationwide. In this report, the purpose and function of HRM in the context the chosen
organization will be given. Further, various approaches to the selection and recruitment
process will be highlighted as well. The benefits of a chosen HRM practice will be given as
well, and appropriate examples will be provided. Here, the benefits of both the employees
and employers of Toyota, the UK will be discussed. Lastly, justification would be given
based on the chosen HRM practice and the degree to which it can increase the productivity
and profit levels in the organization.
1. Define HRM and explain the purpose of HRM in an organisation.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is one of the essential sectors in any organization
because it deals with the entire selection, recruitment and training of employees. The
development of an organization depends upon the quality of the HR department. It
emphasizes upon employee performance, and therefore is responsible for developing policies
and procedures for an organization. They make use of a strategic approach to meet the
objectives of an organization. The primary purpose of HRM in an organization, as in this
case, Toyota, is to create a balance between the organizational practices and laws of the
government. The ultimate purpose is to achieve success by training and developing the
employees. The department also looks after the prevalence of any form of discrimination and
unfair practices in the organization.
2. Identify and list from your reading about HRM, the various functions of HRM in an
organisation
In an organization like Toyota, the HRM department conducts its functions at three levels.
The three levels are managerial, operative and advisory functions (Torrington et al., 2005).
The following reading materials have been considered in order to gain knowledge on the
various functions of HRM:
 Human Resource Management Strategy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
4

 Human Resource Management. New York: Free Press
 Strategy and Human Resource Management. Basingstoke: Plagrave
 Strategic Human Resource Management: A Reader. London: Blackwell
Publishers.
 Human Resource Management. Harlow: Financial Times.
These functions have been highlighted below-
● Managerial functions- The HR Manager is responsible for performing certain
fundamental managerial function such as organizing, planning and directing the staff
members in the department (Paauwe and Boon, 2018).
● Operative functions- It involves the specification of the duties and responsibilities
that the HR manager should entrust upon the workers (Bamberger and Meshoulam,
2000). It is also concerned with matters of compensation, employment, development
and personnel maintenance (Beer et al., 1984).
● Advisory functions- The HR manager also need to perform advisory functions,
which involves training and educating the employees (Boxall and Purcell, 2003). The
HR manager is a professional in this arena and needs to advise employees regarding
organizational policies and procedures (Schuler and Jackson, 2007).
3. Select two from your above list and explain them in detail.
The HR department is responsible for various operations in an organization. Among the
managerial, operative and advisory functions, two functions have been discussed in detail
below-
Advisory Functions- The HR manager mainly plays the role of an advisor to the
departmental heads and the top management in an organization. In case of Top
Management, the HR manager advices them on various programs, procedures and policies.
They also provide advice on maintaining good relations with other co-workers and
functioning by maintaining employee morale. In the case of Departmental Heads, the HR
provides advice on job analysis, workforce handling and performance appraisal (Lussier and
Hendon, 2017).
Managerial functions- It mainly involves planning, controlling, directing and organizing.
During the process of planning, HR requires knowledge of the labour market and need to
eradicate forecast shortages. While organizing, the HR manager needs to design the
organizational structure. Activities of personnel are assigned and delegated. While directing,
5

the HR manager needs to motivate their employees and look after personal programs to
accomplish the goals of the organization. The manager needs to motivate the employees on a
continuous basis. Controlling can be a challenge for managers. They are supposed to observe
and critically evaluate the behaviour of employees by maintaining personal audits (Your
Article Library, 2014).
4. Identify various approaches to recruitment and selection.
The recruitment and selection procedures in Toyota are:
 Applying online, by uploading an individual’s CV
 Interview
 Written test
 Multiple-choice question test (Careers.toyota.co.nz. 2019).
5. Select 2 approaches among each of recruitment and selection and explain them in
detail highlighting the strengths and weaknesses.
Interview process of recruitment is one of the best methods to check the prompt reply of the
candidate and their way of expressing the views. The strengths of this method are useful for
judging if the individual has good communication skills, determine the verbal fluency, can
assess the knowledge of the individual about the job, short duration method and timesaving.
The weakness of the interview method is only subjective assessment can be done, the
decision can be taken within few minutes, if the person fails to express their views then may
lose the opportunity and not an as good assessment as a written test (Larkin and O’Connor,
2017).
In the other, handwritten test is proved more effective in selecting a candidate for Toyota
Company. The strengths are the candidates can express their views properly, and the
candidate gets time to evaluate the question. The weakness includes time-consuming
assessment, and many arrangements are required for the written examination like - hall room,
paper, pen and many more (Machin and Vignoles 2018).
6. You are to select an organisation and identify various HRM practices in that
organisation and list them.
Toyota’s HRM practices and working culture focus on maintaining a lean culture (Alpenberg
and Scarbrough, 2016). It has been observed that people tend to thrive or excel in a lean
environment. In this type of working culture, employees need to be more straightforward and
possess problem-solving skills. They can make continuous improvement by collaborating
with others. Toyota has understood and realized its importance. While hiring and developing
6

the employees, it can be beneficial. The various HRM practices in Toyota involves-
 Hiring people who have competencies
 Defining the concept of competencies, which involves work ethics, problem-solving
capabilities, teamwork and effective communication
 Coaching the employees
 Removing the ones who refuse to grip the high-performance cultural norms and ethics
(Klinvex, 2019)
7. Select more than one practice and explain the benefits for both the employer and
employee providing appropriate examples for each type within an organisational
context.
Toyota’s working culture is focussed on selecting and retaining the right kind of people and
the benefits of two HR practices have been provided-
Hiring competent people- Both the employers and employees would be benefitted when an
organization adopts this practice. The employer can give fewer recruitment efforts. Moreover,
the employee can review their own competencies and align it with the organizational
requirements.
Coaching employees- In an organization like Toyota, coaching can be beneficial because the
employee feels empowered and get motivated to work. In addition to that, the employer is
able to identify development opportunities and strengths of an individual. Moreover, the
employees feel appreciated and recognized when they feel that their HR managers care
enough to put the effort into their training and development (Huang and Hsieh, 2015).
8. Now, give details of how your selected practices will benefit your selected
organisation in terms of profit and productivity. Justify your answers with examples.
It can be stated that it would be beneficial for Toyota to keep on hiring competent employees
who would be the right fit for the job. The company’s profitability, cost-effectiveness and
productivity would increase because the HR managers would not have to waste time behind
training the incompetent people. When employees recognize the importance of teamwork and
commitment, it becomes easier to carry on with the job role. If employees in Toyota perform
better, they would also receive excellent benefits like overtime payment and insurance
benefits. By hiring qualified and experienced staff, Toyota can further expand its operations
in new international markets.
Conclusion
7

The entire report has been written to understand the concept of HRM practices in the
context of Toyota, UK. Various purposes and functions of the HRM department have
been identified, and a few of them has been explained as well. The benefits of an HRM
practice for both the employees and employers of Toyota have been evaluated in the end.
8

Task 2
Produce a poster to answer below-given questions.
1. What are employee relations?
The employee relation is related to the methods and approaches to enter with other employees
in the organisation. Communication is needed when dealing with the person or a trade union.
This involves handling terms and conditions, arising issues as well as different practices in
employment (Armstrong and Taylor, 2017). As per the human resource department in
Toyota, all the employees are required to allow the same values regarding diversity in
cultures. To provide sustainable growth in the organisation, Toyota has an excellent working
environment, which is providing a safe and secure surrounding. Toyota provides teamwork
for enhancing the communication skills in between the employees as well as increasing trust
towards each other. HR department promotes the women workforce in Toyota, along with
providing support to maintain the work-life by supplying childcare and family health care.
They provide skill training to the recruit employees, to enhance their interpersonal skills,
personal management strategies and develop an internal labour market (Jil.go.jp. 2019).
2. In detail, explain with examples of its importance in HRM decision making.
Maintaining a good and healthy relationship between the employees in Toyota is a
prerequisite way of success. A strong relation between the HR and the employees and
between each employee leads to high productivity and gives satisfaction. From 2003, Toyota
has recruited near about 800 differently able people in a different workplace. They provide
equal opportunities for all the status of people in society. Good employee relation means the
workers of the organisation should feel safe, secure and retain their identity during their
working hours. As in Toyota Company, the HRM decide to provide a safe workplace,
training to the employees for enhancing their working skills and equal opportunity for all
people. These decisions help for the development of the company by increasing the sales of
Toyota cars over the world. The key principles of Toyota are to respect the employees and
their teamwork, which gives them high productivity (Toyota.co.jp. 2019).
3. You are to identify and list various employment legislation that is key for an
organisation.
The employment law is known as labour law; these rules are framed to keep the workers safe
and ensure them equality and unbiased. These laws are implemented to protect the
employee’s desires as well. The 2019 employment law acts in the UK includes:
9

a) London living wage (all boroughs)- £10.55 an hour (England living wage is
£9.00)
b) A national living wage (NLW)- £7.83 an hour (from age 25 and above)
c) National minimum wage (NMW)- £7.38 an hour (from age 21 to 24)
d) Statutory maternity pay (SMP) - £145.18 per week (33 weeks); they get 90%
of their salary for the first six weeks.
e) Statutory redundancy pay (RPS)- £508 per week
f) Statutory sick pay (SSP)- £92.05 per week
The equality act 2010 states that the Toyota Company should not discriminate by their sex,
age, religion and race. The health and safety in the workplace act define the organisation
should maintain zero hazard record. The Toyota Company has a zero accident record. STOP6
(Safety Toyota 0 Project 6) is the activity of Toyota to protect six kinds of accidents such as
death due to the falling of heavy object, due to vehicles, electrocution and caused due to
heated objects (Theukrules.co.uk., 2019).
4. Explain how these will have an impact on HRM decision making. Discuss the pros
and cons of each of the above-discussed legislations.
The HRM of Toyota Company should keep in mind these laws, then decide the process, and
guide the employees. According to the labour dispute in 1950, Toyota develops mutual trust
between workers and management. The advantages of the above legislation are it ensures the
unbiased relationship with all the workers, and it prevents conflict (Toyota.co.jp., 2019).
There are proper guidelines for the workplace, which will prevent discrimination and
maintains the ethics of each. The training programs will help employees to understand their
duties and the company’s regulations. This will prevent the chances of a worker strike. The
cons of the laws are the employee has to have even if he/she is not working. This will
increase the cost, and it takes time to monitor whether everyone is secure in his or her job
environment or not (Getrevising.co.uk. 2019).
Refer to appendix for Poster
10

Task 3
1. Select a business organisation and give an introduction.
The selected business is Toyota, UK. Toyota is a subsidiary car company of Toyota Motor
Corporation. This company looks over the marketing, sales and customer relations of the
company. Toyota has around 400 employees within the enterprise (Toyota UK, 2019).
2. Identify two vacancies in your selected organisation.
The two identified vacancies that have been observed within Toyota have are:
 Operations Manager
 Quality Manager
3. Create job specification and person specification for your selected job vacancies.
Operations Manager
Job specifications:
 This job role will require the candidate to over the operations process which will
include inflow and outflow of raw materials
 This position will require the candidate to report directly to the management.
Person specification:
 The candidate must have a master’s degree in business administration with a
specialization in operations.
 The candidate must be able to look over multiple issues within the operations chain.
Quality Manager
Job specifications:
 This position oversees what kind of materials are coming in within the enterprise and
how employees can optimizes and using it
 Their job duties include helping the employees improve on their quality by informing
them where they lack
 They must prepare a performance report and based on that evaluate which candidates
are improving a period.
Person specification:
 They must have a master’s degree in commerce from a reputed college within the UK.
11

 They must have calm demeanour so that they can assess the situation well and find
faults.
4. Mention what recruitment and selection methods will be appropriate for those
vacancies and support your justification using theory with appropriate referencing.
The recruitment and selection methods that will be appropriate for the above-mentioned
vacancies will be:
Offline Job Posting – Since both of these posts is a high profile position, because of this
offline advertisement is a better option. With the help of this recruitment method, a large
candidate pool can be assessed.
On the Job Assessment – Both of these positions focus on direct interaction with the
employees so that there are efficiency and improvement. Therefore, it is better to access the
capabilities of the candidates straight on the job so their abilities can be assessed (Brewster et
al., 2016).
Both of these methods can be justified through the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs theory
(Cherry, 2014). Within this theory, there are several stages i.e. self-actualization needs,
esteem needs, love needs, safety needs, physiological needs. When assessing both the
candidates for the above-mentioned job roles, then it will be ascertained that what factors
they consider the employees when trying to optimize their productivity. This will be
especially vital in the case of the quality manager since he will be responsible for the
betterment of the quality of the employees directly.
12