Assignment on HRM

Assignment on Human Resource Management INTRODUCTION Human resources are the most significant assets of any business organization in terms of skills and abilities. They are the individual, personnel or workforce who are responsible for managing the whole task of an organization successfully. Their task includes selecting, recruiting, vetting, hiring, on boarding, promoting, paying and administration of whole organization. So, human resource management is the department of an organization that deals with looking after the proper management and ensuring the best work practices in place at all times. HRM is also regarded as human capital management responsible for developing and implementing strategies and policies of the organization. “HRM is a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using an array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques” (Storey, 1995). British Airways is a well publicized UK based airline company which carries the most international air passengers other than other airlines. This company portrait the perfect human resource management practices with its excellent group of HR leaders. In this assignment, some basic important factors of the human resource management practices of British Airways will be discussed. Maria Da Cunha is the Director of people and Legal of the company who practices excellent management style. She encourages employee engagement in all aspects at workplace to achieve organizational goals and objectives successfully. The company develops and implements modern HR tools and techniques to gain competitive advantage and become the no. one employer choice in the industry.

TASK-1 (ONE) P1: Explain the purpose and functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing an organization. A reputed company like British Airways, considers employees as the lifeblood of the organization. All the employer and employees of the company maintains good democratic policies and employee engagement. Workforce planning is the process where the business links the workforces with its desired outcomes. It determines the experience, knowledge and skills requirements and chain up the right number of people at the right place on the right time. For effective workforce planning and resourcing, the purpose and functions of HRM are discussing below:

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The primary purpose of HRM is to identify the vacant positions of the organization and then hire members of staff. So, planning is the first function of HR department which includes anticipating vacancies, planning job requirements, job description and determination of the sources of recruitment.

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After establishing objectives and developed plans, organizational structure must be developed and designed to carry out various operation. This function includes: grouping into personnel activity, assignment of different functions, delegation of authority and co-ordination of activities.

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Motivating employees is another important function of HRM. The purpose of motivation is to encourage people to work willingly and effectively to achieve the goals of the organization. Motivation can be given through career planning, salary administration, ensuring employee morale, developing cordial relationships and provision of safety and welfare requirements.

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To ensure that the right people with the right skills are hired for the right job, proper direction, controlling and monitoring must be ensured by the employers. These serves as other important functions and purpose of HRM. This phase is concerned with observation and comparisons of results with the planned standards and corrections of the deviation may occur.

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For developing good competency, training and development is essential functions of HRM. Employees must be trained to perform their job effectively. Training and development programs provide useful means which assures that employees are capable of performing efficiently at their acceptable levels.

So, the purpose of human resource management in British Airways is to plan, develop and administer policies and programs for the effective use of human resources which is concerned with people at work and their relationships within the organization.

P2: Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection. Recruitment and selection process is very crucial for an established business like British Airways. Recruitment process involves in identifying organizational needs to employ someone up to the point at where the company collects applications for the vacant positions. Then the selection process involves in choosing suitable candidates from the applicant pool to fill the post. There are many sources of recruitment and selection such as internal and external source of recruitment, job analysis, job description, person specification, competency framework and methods of selection.  Internal Vs External Recruitment: Internal recruitment means the supply of manpower is done within the organization whereas the external recruitment process involves in hunting the prospective employees from outside the organization. Both the approaches have some strengths and weaknesses. They are: 

Internal recruitment is faster than external recruitment as external recruitment consists of many stages like- advertising, collecting applications, screening and short listing them,

conducting many tests, interview, training etc. whereas internal recruitment doesn’t need anything. 

Internal recruitment is much more cost effective than external recruitment as external recruitment process requires huge amount of investment.

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The scope of fresh talent is limited in internal recruitment but the organization has many choices to look for talented candidates from outside the organization in external recruitment.  Job Analysis: Job analysis process involves observation, critical incidents, diary, checklist, interview and questionnaire. These methods also have some advantages and disadvantages. Observation provides firsthand verified information but it requires skilled unbiased observer and time consuming process. Through interview qualitative data can be examined but difficult to combine data from disparate interviews. Diary and checklist is inexpensive but may not include all important parts of work. In questionnaire data is standardized but responses may be incomplete.  Job Description and Person Specification: Job description provides concise information about a particular job. This process attracts qualified candidates but people with disabilities may be deprived in this process.  Contingency Recruitment: It is an agreement between the recruitment agency and the employer to fill a specific vacancy and the recruiters get paid if any candidate gets selected in the company. Although this is very easy and faster process, it also bears risk for the agency because there is no guarantee of payment if additional competition comes from the job seekers.

P3: Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organization for both the employer and employee. British Airways is successful in the airline industry because of its excellent HRM practices among all people of the organization. For improving employee productivity and efficiency, they use a new employee engagement mobile app ‘My Team’ which is trailed with 3,000 employees via 250 line managers. This is very innovative practice to engage all employers and employees in one frame and ensures employee interactions on the right time. In this organization, the benefits of different HRM practices for both employer and employee are explaining below:  Performance Management: This is one of the effective HRM practice run by any good organization like British Airways. They use a mobile app through which the employer can monitor and direct the performance of his subordinates. Employees can also get the instant supervision from their employers at the right time.  Training and Development: Humans are the most valuable asset for an organization as they operate the whole business. So, it is very important to make the employees more skillful and train them based on their competency level accordingly. Training and development enhances employee performance and make them more productive.

 Relationship Management: Teamwork and better working environment enables good relation between employers and employees. The HRM develops a suitable working culture within the organization which creates cordial relationship among employees. This creates better understanding between employer and employee and can easily ask for assistance to each other in case of any problems.  Greater Profitability: When all the employers and employees work in a productive manner, it would be very easy to gain organizational objectives and competitive advantage. By directing, controlling and motivating employees, it produces superior performance which increases the profitability for the business.  Flexible Working Options and Practice: It is one of the major HRM practice for an organization which promotes flexible working hours and job rotation options for an employee. Employees and employers can work in a comfortable manner as they can be able to manage their personal and professional life in a good way. This also enhances employee loyalty and promotes positive behavior within the organization.

P4: Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organizational profit and productivity. One of the main goals of HRM is to increase organizational profit and productivity by maintaining well developed HR practices. HRM practices differ according to business type and culture of the organization. British Airways is well known for its innovative corporate culture and HR practices. However, in terms of raising organizational profit and productivity the effectiveness of different HRM practices are evaluating here: Performance Appraisal: Performance appraisal is a process of evaluating, measuring and influencing an employee’s job-related attributes, behaviors and outcomes. The purpose is to manage the people of the organization and meeting its goals. Through this system the supervisor can get the opportunity to specify to employee that the company is interested in their performance and development. This recognition may work as a positive motivational influence which increases employee productivity and with better outcomes it also raises the company profitability. Career Management: Career is a lifelong process of career planning which entails choosing and setting personal goals and developing strategies to achieve them. A well established company like BA holds on-site workshops where both the employers and employees learn to take the charge of their careers, beginning with assessing their interests, abilities and values. The company also establishes employee career centre and individual learning accounts, give open business briefings, maintain internal job and talent banks which increase employee morale and has significant positive impact on their productivity. This leads to greater profitability for the company in the long run.

Training and Development: Training helps to develop an employee’s skill tremendously. A trained employee has better knowledge about their job role and performs more accurately. It helps employee to perform his current job effectively and efficiently and make them more aware about their future responsibilities. Organization is also benefitted by good level of profitability through superior performance results of its employees. Recruitment and Termination: When there is a vacancy the organization recruits talented candidate from outside or internally within the organization. Candidates hired from competitors business can deliver the valuable information about the competitors and get the competitive advantages. Internal recruitment works as a motivational factor for employees to perform his best level and increase his productivity. But by sacking an unproductive employee, the business can be run in a more profitable manner. Reward System: This practice is very effective to increase organizational profit and productivity. Employees get intrinsic or extrinsic rewards for their superior performance. This leads to their job satisfaction and also increases their productivity. Employees get motivated to work willingly to meet up the targeted standard. This system helps to sustain in competitive business environment and gain profit in the long run.

TASK-2 (TWO) P5: Analyze the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-making. Employees are the main driving force of an organization. Good relationship among employees is very important to build a suitable working environment. If all employees work together as a team then there will be better outcomes in the business. Similarly, a decision will be more efficient and accurate if it is taken collectively by mutual agreement of employees as they share their views, ideas, opinions and thoughts. Good relation leads to more employee engagement in work. Organization should build an environment which encourages effective communication among team members and work with each other. In terms of decision making, there are certain stages which are also influenced by employee relation in the organization. The steps of HRM decision making are illustrating below:

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The first step of HRM decision making is defining and analyzing the problems. Most decision starts with some sort of problems. Good relations enable employees to work collectively and can easily identify the problems.

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After identifying the problem, employees need to find out the ways to solve the problem. Healthy employee relation at workplace extracts best out of an individual. An individual must be assigned responsibilities according to their interests. Involve the team members so that they can share their thoughts and views to develop alternative solutions of the problems.

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The third step is to evaluate the alternative solutions. If all employees work in a team, there are new ideas and outcomes to evaluate the problem effectively. There would be a team leader who would gather all the alternatives and evaluate them along with the democracy of the employee.

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After evaluating the alternative solutions accurately, employees together select th best solution of the problem. Employee engagement is directly tied to employee’s sense of value and ability to give feedback about the best solution.

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When the best solution is being identified, the next step is to implement the decision accordingly. Organizations whose employee strongly believe, firmly belong and creatively contribute to the improvement efforts have an operational advantage when implementing the action plan or decision.

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The final stage is to follow up whether the decision properly implemented or not. If proper implementation is not done properly, then the employee should follow up about gathering more information to execute the evaluated decision or explore additional alternatives. Through true engagement or effective communication of employees a HRM decision making can be efficiently done which is beneficial for the organization.

P6: Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decisionmaking. All business uses some sort of employment laws and legislation. Employment legislation is a broad area covering labor law and collective bargaining. Basically, it is an area of law that deals with legal rights and duties of employers and employees. It also governs employer-employee relationship. These laws are composed of both federal and state laws including many different subjects which serve a common goal to protect worker’s right. In BA, the employment standards legislation offers minimum standards where employers are employers are free to develop policies or practices which also enhance the corporate culture. The legislation system has significant impact on HRM decision making as it is related to employee rights and responsibilities. The key elements of employment legislation and law are identifying below:  Equal Pay Act 1970: This act protects the right to get equal compensation and equal treatment for both male and female employee in terms of their position and conditions of employment.

 Sex Discrimination Act 1975: In the UK, this act protects the discrimination between men and women in terms of their gender or marital status. This act also protects the rights in other areas including training, employment, harassment, education, provisions of goods and services and other disposal of premises.  Race Relation Act 1976: This act put off discrimination on ground of race which includes color, nationality, religion, ethnic, employment position, education etc.  Disability Discrimination Act 1995: If any employee has disabilities, s/he should not be discriminated under this law. Employers should develop reasonable adjustments to help disable employee.  Employment Relation Act 1999: this act helps employee to develop and maintain cordial relations between employer and employees.  Work and Families Act 2006: This act helps to protect the rights of employees to take maternity or paternal leave, adoption leave, flexible working arrangements to care for adults etc.  National Minimum Wage Act 1998: In the UK, all the workers should get minimum wage under this act. Workers age over 25 should get £7.50 per hour, workers aged 21-25 should get £7.05 per hour, and workers aged 18-20 should get £5.60 per hour.  Data Protection Act 1998: This act helps to data processing on identifying living people and the legislation of data protection maintaining its privacy.  Employment Tribunals Act 1996: Employment tribunals are the tribunal public bodies in the UK. Under the act, the tribunal part resolves disputes between employers and employees regarding unfair dismissals, employment inequities and redundancy payments. All this acts have very crucial impact on HRM decision making because if the laws and legislations are maintained strictly, then the employees will be sincere to their work and they can make decisions efficiently.

P7: Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific examples. For accomplishing organizational goals and objectives, the employers uses different application of HRM practices. Today British Airways is successful because of its excellent practice of HRM applications in the organization. Some of the applications of HRM practices in work related context is illustrating hereafter:  Recruitment and Selection: It is the process of sourcing and qualifying candidates for vacant positions of the company. It is very important to employ the right people at the right position on right time. The HR team put advertisements on social media and the job seekers send their CV applications. Then the employers shortlist the qualified applications and call them up for the interview and other assessments. The applicants have to sit for aptitude tests and after passing out the other assessment stages, then finally screened candidates are interviewed. Then the employers recruit the most talented candidate from the applicant pool who is best suited for the company.

 Reward System: This is one of the effective ways of job satisfaction for an employee. After evaluating the job performance, the employers provide some benefits or rewards. This reward system works as a motivation of an employee to work in a productive manner for achieving the job target and objectives. Employees may get intrinsic or extrinsic rewards such as: wage, salary, security, treatment, promotion, profit sharing, gain sharing etc. The use of reward system in two types of job contexts which are popular in the UK are discussing below: 

Blue Collar Labor Job: This refers to employees whose jobs are largely involved in physical labor such as factory or workshop. Some blue collar occupation requires high skilled personnel and they are formally trained and certified such as plumbers, aircraft mechanics, cabin crews, electricians and structural workers. These kinds of staffs in British Airways are benefited with rewards. They get extra working hour payments, bonuses, increments and other benefits.

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White Collar Labor Jobs: This refers to employees whose job involves in mental or clerical work such as in an office desk job. Their job is knowledge intensive, non-routine and unstructured. They are highly skilled, educated and trained professionals such as accountants, bankers, attorneys and big agency professionals. In British Airways, all the pilots, official managers, architects and engineers are white collar workers. They also get intrinsic and extrinsic rewards like bonuses, performance achievement rewards, infringe benefits, profit sharing, increment, promotions etc.

Such HRM practices in organization motivates employee to work in a competitive manner and makes them more productive. This is also related to greater profitability of the company.

CONCLUSION British Airways is a highly reputed and competitive company in the aviation industry in the large UK. Years after years they are operating their company successfully for their competitive HR policies and practices. The human resource management of the company is very efficient and all the employees and employers work taking the company to the peak. This assignment report has covered some significant areas of human resource management which demonstrates the ways to succeed in a business operation.