People Resourcing & Development in UK and German Biscuit Firms

This report provides an analysis of people resourcing and development practices within the biscuit manufacturing industries of the UK and Germany. It identifies the strengths and weaknesses of resourcing strategies in both countries, focusing on differences in workforce skills, technology adoption, and production approaches. The UK emphasizes mass production with a largely unskilled workforce and automated processes, while Germany favors customized production with a skilled workforce and manual processes. The report compares these approaches, highlighting the impact on productivity, quality, and market competitiveness. Furthermore, it suggests training and development strategies that UK biscuit manufacturers could implement to improve the skills of their workforce and enhance overall performance. The analysis concludes that while both countries have achieved competitive advantages through their respective strategies, adapting and investing in workforce development is crucial for sustained success.

People resourcing and
development

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY .................................................................................................................................1
Overview of case study................................................................................................................1
Analyse people resourcing and development practices used in biscuit manufacturing firms in
UK................................................................................................................................................1
Explanation of people resourcing and development strategy which are strengths and
weaknesses of biscuit manufacturing companies in UK..............................................................2
Explanation of people resourcing and development strategy which are strengths and
weaknesses of German biscuit manufacturing.............................................................................3
Comparison of UK and German biscuit manufacturing organisations........................................3
Training and development that could be use by UK biscuit manufacturing to improve skills of
workforce.....................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
People resourcing comprises of attracting and recruiting personnels at right role at right
time and at minimum cost possible. It is associated with utilising reliable workforce planning
information and understanding accurate sources of measures to explore diversifies talent of pool.
At strategic stage, people resourcing facilitates organisations to research link among micro
contexts and development of human resource and corporate strategies. Effectively carried out
strategies can impact choices of organisations about how to employ and reward human resources
for their contributions (Almeida, Frino and Milosavljevic, 2020). This report identifies and
analysis strengths as well as weaknesses of resourcing and development strategy of biscuit
manufacturing companies. It highlights the needs for training and development to improve skills
of employees in biscuit manufacturing.
MAIN BODY
Overview of case study
The case study focused on understanding role of national training infrastructure and
government policies in evaluating practices of biscuit manufacturing companies of UK,
Netherlands, France and Germany. In case study they were compared on basis of variables like

workforce skills, technologies and production level. It assess varied type of workforce employed
at different manufacturing sites and their quality as well as productivity.
Analyse people resourcing and development practices used in biscuit manufacturing firms in UK
People resourcing measures primarily aims at recruiting, selecting, guiding and
controlling of staff at workplace. Major focus of organisation is to develop their human resources
to encourage their employees to yield higher productivity in order to achieve competitive
advantage. Within UK, biscuit manufacturing companies focuses on mass recruitment as they
create goods for large number of public thus they do not require qualified skill force. They went
for people who can understand the process of operation at manufacturing sites and who have the
potential to work harder (Banks and Hart, eds., 2018). Biscuit companies also hire qualified
workforce for the purpose of installing manufacturing units and to lead unskilled staff as well as
to outline activities that needs to be done by workforce. This practice of hiring has assists them
to maximise their sales, performances and productivity. These organisation who adopt this
measure are more centralised and autonomous as well as carry out flock production in systematic
manner. By implementing this model, biscuit manufacturing organisations in UK enjoys less cost
of production which provides them competitive advantage in competing on basis of price with
other nations. As they recruit unskilled manpower, this decreases their working capital and
functional cost. This method is more efficient as it emphasis on economies of scale and
standardised mass production. But this practice in management also resulted in fewer
opportunities to bring any changes in operations as well as makes it difficult to provide training
and development to unskilled workforce. These organisations works on specified set of activities
and standard of manufacture as they produce in in mass batches, hence it makes it difficult for
them to adopt new measures. Also, there were lack of process workers and supervisors which
reflected in production technologies and system of workforce.
Explanation of people resourcing and development strategy which are strengths and weaknesses
of biscuit manufacturing companies in UK
Biscuit manufacturing organisations in UK adopts ineffective measures to resource
people. As they are not skilled or do not have any major qualifications, it simplifies management
role to enhance their productivity levels. UK manufacturing have high degree of advanced
technologies so that they can easily mechanise, automate and standardise process of production.
These plants enjoys competitive advantage of centralised mass production and economies of

scale which seems to be pursuant with workforce skills (Cheetham, 2022). Small group of large
number of employees helps in setting up production process and unskilled workers follow those
specified routines. This benefits organisations to reduce overlapping of work and minimise time
which by outlining required activities in advance which resulted in higher efficiency.
Recruiting unskilled manpower to carry out mass production process also leads to
creating some weaknesses for biscuit manufacturing organisations in UK. Machines downtime in
such firms is generally longer, resulting in over timing and frequent shortfalls. Unqualified
workforce are not able to perform routine maintenance or to repair machines temporarily. These
manufacturing units has to stop process of production until skilled and qualified technicians
come in. This resulted in wasting staff time and cost of organisations as well as negatively
impact their productivity. The supervisors also do not have any qualifications related to
vocational or technical knowledge. This practice of hiring unskilled manpower leads companies
to face the threat of untrained staff which create problems at time of emergency (Cooper, 2021).
These plants also does not able to focus on customisation and quality required by consumers as
well as are not flexible in nature to solve issues arises at production unit. In order to effectively
mitigate weaknesses, manufacturing units needs to provide necessary training to its manpower to
improve their performance level. They can also create strategies and effective planning to
improve skill set of employees.
Explanation of people resourcing and development strategy which are strengths and weaknesses
of German biscuit manufacturing
In German biscuit manufacturing organisation, management adopts personalised
processes wherein they manufacture small batches of commodities. They practice more efficient
practice of recruiting where they hire personnels on basis on basis of their skills so that they can
understand customised process of operations. Organisations resources staff from trusted sources
and adopts centralised process of recruitment and selection. Management checks technical and
vocational skills as well as competencies of of individuals hiring as supervisors so that they
efficiently carry out regular maintenance of machines. German biscuit manufacturing companies
employees are professional and experienced individuals which are working at bakery as part of
their training programmes (Faubert, Campbell and Osmond-Johnson, 2018). There knowledge in
said profession helps them to enhance production process in systemic way. This practice aids
them to reduce extra cost of company which they otherwise spent on repairing of machines. By

utilising their knowledge, experience and technical skills, German biscuit manufacturing
organisation is able to reduce cost of maintenance of equipments.
Hiring skilled workforce in manufacturing units of German decreases break downtime
which impacted productivity of employees. As they focus on customised production process, it
becomes difficult for them to carry out mass production. Also, any change in production
activities is faced by resistance from workers as they work on same set of skills. Regular
maintenance of machineries leads to wasting time of workforce which further affects their
performances (Kabwe and Okorie, 2019). With help of skilled workforce, German biscuit
manufacturing can encourage its workforce to adopt to better measure which will further
improve their productivity. By this they can also make strategies for growth and development in
manufacturing units which will boost workforce confidence and self esteem.
Comparison of UK and German biscuit manufacturing organisations
It has been evaluated that there has been big difference between UK and German biscuit
manufacturing units. The differences assessed are on basis of manpower, technologies and
production. In biscuit manufacturing of UK, unskilled manpower is employed and not in
systematic ways. These companies recruit and select individuals on basis of their potential to
work hard. On other hand, German biscuit manufacturing recruits individuals on basis of their
skills, experience and qualifications in said field. At UK biscuit manufacturing, manufacturing
process are more standardised and carry out mass production. Whereas, in German biscuit
manufacturing, production process is more customised and small number of batches are
manufactured in one time as per demand (Morgan, Stewart and Bennett, 2020). In UK biscuit
manufacturing units, less number of individual are recruited as they put more emphasis on
automated measures and less on manual ways. But in German biscuit manufacturing firms,
management focuses on personalised process which puts great emphasis on adopting high
manual practices and skilled workforce. They employs more qualified workforce which aids
them to reduce accidents of machine breakdown and repair it in less time under supervision of
technical team. On contrary, UK biscuit manufacturing organisations supervisors are unable to
repair issues in machineries which further impacts their productivity. At German biscuit
manufacturing unit, there is a scope of training and development of employees and bringing
alterations in operations as demanded by market. These units carried out experiment activities

and product expansion due to customisation manufacturing. But UK biscuit manufacturing
prefers standardise process where the set of activities remain same.
In German biscuit manufacturing, organisation focuses on creating differentiated items
with assistance from its skilled and qualified workforce and aims at capturing premium share of
market. Whereas, UK biscuit manufacturing firms faces regular breakdown of machineries
which further hampers employees productivity. But with all the differences, both biscuit
manufacturing of UK and German are related to some extent as these both adopts fix routines in
effective measures (O’Donovan, 2019). Both the manufacturing units have succeeded to gain
competitive advantage in their respective market by adopting standardised and customised
procedures. These processes are implementing as per varied types of preferences of consumers
living in these two nations. Within UK, consumers demand are more on basic biscuits with not
very fancy coating. On the other hand, Germany people preference is more towards fancy,
decorated and textured biscuits filled with jam and having various layers filled with cream.
Training and development that could be use by UK biscuit manufacturing to improve skills of
workforce
UK biscuit manufacturing organisation primary focus is on mass production of products
by adopting automated procedures. For this purpose, they recruit unskilled personnels and puts
them in operational practices without giving them necessary training. To enhance skills of
employees, it is required from biscuit manufacturing firms to create strategies for impelling
training to current manpower which will assists them to improve their production activities
(Owen, Zhang and Arratia-Solar, 2020). Properly executed training and development process
helps companies to hold top talent in management and enhance their performance level. Several
strategies which can be used by UK biscuit manufacturing firms are mentioned underneath:\
Qualified management- UK biscuit manufacturing units can make their top management
a part of their training and development program to create a path for other employees to follow.
Organisation should strive to maximise their participation in training activities which will
motivate employees to do so. Firms can also make training and development activities
mandatory for unskilled manpower to enhance their competencies. They can share vision of firm
with employees to encourage them to carry out manufacturing activities systematically.
Handle competition effectively- It is essential for organisations of biscuit manufacturing
to evaluate extent of competition present in industry. It is suggested to utilise techniques like

social media to examine perceptions of people about their respective process (Sutter, Bhatt and
Qureshi, 2022). With that data, they can plan effective strategies to train their workforce which
will aid them to become socially responsible organisations. This will also help workforce to
carry out activities different from their field of expertise as they will gain knowledge about all
tasks of production.
CONCLUSION
As per above given information, it is concluded that individual resourcing includes
different process such as application, induction, recruitment, selection, training, retention and so
on. It is necessary for management of organisation to conduct this processes effectively as it
helps them to retained their valuable employees for long run in order to get competitive
advantage. It is essential to provide training to employees to improve their skills and
performance to meet the desired goals of company. There is big difference in biscuits
manufacturing businesses in Germany and UK. These differences is because of customised or
standardised process along with differences in skills of employees related to these processes. As
well as these procedures have similarity too as they both are occupying various demands of
customers of different nations.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Almeida, S., Frino, B. and Milosavljevic, M., 2020. Employee voice in a semi‐rural hospital:
impact of resourcing, decision‐making and culture. Asia Pacific Journal of Human
Resources. 58(4). pp.578-606.
Banks, S. and Hart, A. eds., 2018. Co-producing research: A community development approach.
Policy Press.
Cheetham, T., 2022. ‘A sad story of delay and obstructionism’: the impact of external
relationships on the resourcing and development of Bletchley Park during the Second
World War. Intelligence and National Security, pp.1-18.
Cooper, R. G., 2021. Accelerating innovation: some lessons from the pandemic. Journal of
Product Innovation Management. 38(2). pp.221-232.
Faubert, B., Campbell, C. and Osmond-Johnson, P., 2018. Enabling Educator Professional
Development Through Resourcing: A Pan-Canadian Perspective. International Studies
in Educational Administration (Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration
& Management (CCEAM)). 46(2).
Kabwe, C. and Okorie, C., 2019. The efficacy of talent management in international business:
The case of European multinationals. Thunderbird International Business
Review. 61(6). pp.857-872.
Morgan, S., Stewart, M. and Bennett, T., 2020. Simplifying COSHH and improving chemical
safety. Process Safety and Environmental Protection. 137. pp.66-72.
O’Donovan, D., 2019. HRM in the organization: An overview. Management Science, pp.75-110.
Owen, J. R., Zhang, R. and Arratia-Solar, A., 2020. On the economics of project-induced
displacement: A critique of the externality principle in resource development
projects. Journal of Cleaner Production. 276. p.123247.
Sutter, C., Bhatt, B. and Qureshi, I., 2022. What makes resource provision an effective means of
poverty alleviation? A resourcing perspective. Organization Science.