HRM

Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 1

Task 1: Introduction: This assignment is based on Unilever. Throughout this assignment, human resource management functions, policies and practices to manage people. For Unilever people management is the key to success because this is a service organisation and therefore human resource manager make all functions, policies and procedures to make sure employees are valued and contributing to the achievement of organisational goals and objectives. In fact, winning people is the core of their strategic approach. 1.1: Distinguish between personnel and human resource management (P1) According to Mullins (2005) human resource management and personnel management is key the same in terms of managing people. However, they are uniquely different the way they manage their people. Personnel management means applying activities to achieve organisational objectives by using people skills in an agreed contract. Whilst, human resource management is about putting a systematic approach to define, and implement human resource strategies to achieve organisational performance by training and developing people, policies and procedure. According to Torringtong, et al (2008) PM and HRM have following differences  From time and planning perspective, Personnel Management (PM) is short, reactive and applies ad hoc approach to managing people. In contrast, human resource management (HRM) is more long-term, applies proactive, strategic and integrated approach to people management.  In HRM, psychological contract is gained through employees' commitment, trust and respect. In PM psychological contract is gain through compliance with rules and regulations of the company.  In PM, employers have to apply external control such as close supervision and put rules, policies and procedure to follow whereas in HRM employees are encouraged to take own responsibilities and self-controlled.

Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 2

 In HRM, employees and employer have high level of trust and respect because people are treated as human being but in PM, employees are regarded as a means to the end and treated as machine.  In PM management uses bureaucratic organisational structure, decisions are made by higher level management without consulting line managers and employees. But in HRM management involved line managers, employees in decision making process. HR provides flexible roles and responsibilities.  In PM management focus on reducing the cost of operations such as downsizing whereas in HRM management emphasises on maximum utilization of people. 1.2: Functions of Human Resource Management (P2) Human resource management plays important part in managing people. Mullins (2005) says that HR manager carries out following functions as mentioned below.  Human Resource Planning: Unilever plans in advance about the number of employees required for specific roles on right time with right skills, experience and knowledge. It is essential for Unilever to have plan about human resource so that goals and objectives can be achieved.  Recruitment and selection: Once HR planning is carried out Unilever recruit about the vacant position in different channel such as online, agencies, graduate fair etc. recruitment is essential to attract pool of candidates. After receiving candidates applications Unilever select the best employees to fill the vacancies.  Induction, Training and development: Unilever provides induction to all newly join employees. The company also provide training to develop job related skills and knowledge. This helps employees to perform the duties as expected as a result employees contributes to achieve organisational goals and ojectives.  Salary and rewards: Unilever provide very competitive salary and reward to keep their employees motivated and satisfied. Motivated and happy employees work with heart and mind and complete the job on time.  Ensure health and safety, and welfare: Unilever ensures that employees are safe in the workplace. Line manager play vital role to make sure that employees are working Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 3

with less fear and stress in the workplace. Line managers provides guidance and support to all employees. 1.3: Roles and Responsibilities of a line manager in HR department (P3) According to Mintzberg, line managers plays vital roles in any organisation. The key functions of line managers are as follows Interpersonal role: Line manager leads the team, liaison with people in the organisation and represent the higher management as well as bottom level employees. Informational role: Line manager communicates information, receive information and play the role of spokesperson. Decisional role: Line manager works closely with employees and takes responsibilities to provide required resources, support and manage conflicts in the workplace. The above mentioned role and responsibilities are related to implementation of policies and procedure of the higher management. Specifically, human resource managers design people related policies and process. For example, we have seen from the previous section that HR Department carries out HR planning. In HR planning line manager provide information about the number of people the department required. Not only that line manager also provides feedback on what skills and knowledge is essential for the job. Because line manager carries out performance appraisal and able to know what skills employees have and what further training and development need to be in place to improve employees knowledge and experience. This means line manager helps to design training and develop programmes. 1.4: Impact of the UK legal and regulatory that affects on HRM (P4) UK has very specific and clear legal and regulatory framework for employment in the workplace. Some rules and regulations are Discrimination Acts, European Working Time Directives, Minimum Wage, and Data Protection. These legal frameworks have huge impact on human resource management practices. CIPD (2012) found that, HR functions such as recruitment and selection, management are not allowed to discriminate any potential employees on the ground of age, gender, sex, race, disability.

Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 4

HR managers must make sure that employees are paid a minimum national wage. This minimum wage is reflected on employees pay slips. Furthermore, HR manager ensures that regardless of their age and gender they are getting equal pay for equal work. That is according to equal pay act (1970) employees with same work are paid equally regardless of their gender or race. In fact, discrimination law covers basic areas such as age, gender, disability, race, religious and sexual orientation. In performance management, line manager carries out performance appraisal and make sure that they are fairly appraised. This means line manager has roles in all areas of human resource management functions. Task 2: 2.1: Importance of human resource planning for Unilever (P5) According to CIPD (2012) human resource planning (HRP) is a systematic process of ensuring that a company has right number of people, in right place on right time with right skills, knowledge and skills. For Unilever, HRP is critically important because the company has goals and objectives to achieve. According to Unilever's website, company aims to double the business. Therefore, Unilever needs people to work in different departments including marketing, finance, research and development, human resource management, and production. If business expands, then Unilever must plan in advance to make sure they do have enough people to carry to different tasks. In Unilever, many people should be retiring, leaving from the job and waiting for promotion. In such situation HRP helps to take decisions such as to whom to promote. If 2000 employees are promoted then those 2000 vacancies need to be filled up with new employees. This leads to recruitment and selection process. Additionally, HR managers need to conduct training and development for new promoted staffs. This clearly reflect that HRP has a clear line with other functional areas of HRM. HRP helps to determine supply and demand of employees from inside and outside of the company. As business environment is changing all the time and therefore Unilever may not find people with right skills and experience. Therefore, HRP planning is essential to respond the changes in the labour market. In the UK, though there is high unemployment rate but Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 5

lacking in skills and knowledge. This means a proper HRP helps Unilever to take many decisions. 2.2: Stages of Human Resource Planning (HRP)- P6 According to Armstrong (2005), these are the stages of HRP  Define organisational strategy- In this stage a company carefully considers vision, mission and strategic objectives to achieve. The strategic objectives many be improving market share by 10% over the five years. In fact in initial stage it is all about business strategy and business plan for medium and long term.  Assessment of business environment: This is integral part of HR planning. Organisations carries out PESTEL and SWOT analysis. PESTLE stands for political, economical, socio-cultural, technological, environmental and legal factors. PETEL information helps to understand labour market situations, purchasing power of customers and changes in employment rules and regulations. Internal environment helps to assess company's strengths such as finance, high quality products or services, or weaknesses such as lack of advance technology or high turnover.  Forecast Demand: The first and second stages provide information about number of people required. Demand forecast also emphasizes on the quality aspects of HRP.  Supply Forecasting: In this stage HR manager assess the number of people available internally in the first place. However, sometimes it may not be possible to supply requires staffs internally then HR managers forecast external supply. 2.3: Recruitment and Selection Process of Unilever and Tesco (P7) Recruitment and selection process at Unilever The process begins as mentioned below: Job Analysis: In the first stage Unilever determines roles, responsibilities, skills, knowledge and experience. The roles and responsibilities is known as job description and competency framework which lists knowledge, experience, skills and set of behaviour to carry out the specific job. This is known as person specification. Therefore, in first stage Unilever define job description and person specification. Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 6

Advertise the vacancies: In second stage, Unilever, advertises the vacancies in different media such as company website, internal magazine, notice board and word of mouth. Unilever also conducts job seminars and fair, advertise on local newspapers and trade magazines, University recruitment etc. The main aim is to attract potential talents. It is important for Unilever to attract a pool of talent people. Therefore, Unilever has provided required information on career website. Short listing and selection process: After receiving application, the HR system automatically shortlisted based on job roles and skill fits. After short-listing and do online psychometric test. This stage helps to filter possible potential candidates. HR manager then conduct a series of interview process such as telephonic interview, panel interview, and assessment centre. Job offer and Induction: After selection Unilever offers job to the candidates and arrange for induction programme. Recruitment and Selection at Tesco According to the corporate website, Tesco is one of the largest supermarkets in the UK. It employs 530000 employees. It has hundreds of established brands and its own value brand. It serves millions of customers in a week and serve in more than 12 countries. It has very sophisticated recruitment and selection process. Tesco need people in different department such as store, supply chain, and head offices.

Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 7

Source: Times100 According to Times100 case study, Tesco firs publish their vacancies on Website and local newspaper as well as ask potential employees to drop CV in stores. Shortlist: Tesco screen all the applicants CV to find the best candidates from the pool of the talented people. Interview: Once the candidates are shortlisted then they are invited for the first round interview. Invitation for attend assessment centre: The selected candidates are invited to attend assessment centre while unselected candidates are send an unsuccessful letter. Second round interview: After successful completion of assessment centre, candidates are invited for second round interview. Job offer: The successful candidates are then receive job offer and contract 2.4: Effectiveness of Recruitment and Selection of Unilever and Tesco (P8) According to ACAS, an effective recruitment and selection depends upon several factors such as  Efficient- It should be cost effective in terms of methods and sources  Effective- It should produce enough number of suitable candidates without excess and ensure identify the best match with organisational culture and candidate job profile  Fair- This is the process is right in terms of decision making are on merit and free from favouritism Importantly, both organisations have used human resource planning (HRP). HRP helps to assess future supply and demand, formulate training and development programmes, and flexible work pattern such as part time, full time, contract etc. In terms of Efficient, Unilever uses online application system that helps in reducing advertising and administrative costs. Similarly, Tesco has also online recruitment and short listing system that eventually fastened the process. Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 8

Both companies have successfully attracted a pool of potential candidates that matched with companies culture and beliefs. It is better for both companies to have employees matching with norms and values. Finally, both companies have used a wide range of selection methods such as assessment centre, panel interview and final interview which ensure a fair selection. Unilever and Tesco have considered the legal aspects of employment such as equal opportunity and diversity. Both companies provide equal opportunity regardless of their age, gender, and disabilities. This clearly indicates that both companies have an effective recruitment and selection policies and procedure. Task 3: 3.1: Link between motivational theory and reward (P9) There are many motivational theories such as Maslow's, Hertzberg, Taylor's theory, and Vroom Expectancy theory. According to Mullins (2005) all motivation theories have link with reward. In other word, rewards has a link with motivation theories. Armstrong (2006) suggested that the reward can be financial and non-financial. The financial rewards includes salaries and benefits. The non-financial rewards includes sick leave, training and development, promotion, challenging task, recognition, trust and respect. Specifically, motivational theory of Taylor argues that employees are motivated by financial rewards. Taylor proved that if employees are provided money then employees are motivated. Money motivates concept is further supported by the work of Maslow. Maslow says that human has 5 levels of needs. The first need is more related with financial rewards. However, once the first needs are fulfilled, money no longer motivates people. The second level of needs related to job security and social needs. Maslow also suggested that non-financial rewards such as tam work, sense of belongings, and challenging tasks. The financial and non-financial reward is supported by Hertzberg two factors theories. The first set of factors includes relationships with supervisors and colleagues, salary, security, and personal life. Hygiene factors are more related to financial rewards. Additionally, motivators are recognition, responsibilities, and sense of achievement. Motivators are non-financial

Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 9

rewards. From the above examples we can see that motivational theories have link with rewards.

3.2: Job evaluation and other factors determining pay (P10)

According to Mullins (2005) job evaluation is the process of determining a basis of the relative importance of jobs. In simple term, job evaluation is the assessment of the relative worth of various jobs based on jobs contents and person specification. The aim of job evaluation is to determine relative pay. Job evaluation is carried out by using different methods such as job ranking and job grading. Job evaluation helps to reduce inequalities in salary structure because people would like to know how they are paid in the company. Therefore, job evaluation provides consistency in pay structures. In the workplace individuals are working with specialisation such as Change management or Merger and acquisition expert or redundancy expert. According to CIPD (2013), the pay structure is determined by so many factors such as  Line pay with business Strategy for example encourage high performance  Increase pay according to career progression  Ensure the fairness and lawfulness in pay structure  Match with number of grades, level or bands  Pay can be match with the width or span of each grade

3.3: The effectiveness of reward systems in two different work contexts (P11)

Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 10

According to Armstrong (2005) an effective reward system is a strategic approach. This means strategic reward should based on designing and implementing for long term policies and practices to support business effectiveness and employees motivation. We have discussed in previous section that reward has linked with motivation which means company has to think about develop total rewards. The key elements of effective reward system is  Clearly communicate with all stakeholder about the reward system  Define performance related pay and measurement criteria  Ensure rewards helps to attract, motivate and retain talent  Use total rewards such as flexible benefits, career development, autonomy at work, recognition of achievement, motivating workplace environment, flexible working hours, challenging work  It should be contingency approach which means rewards should be tailored to the match with organisational culture, and meet the needs and expectations of employees  Reward should be to improve good employees behaviour  It should focus on people that is reward should recognize that people are key for company In fact, specifically in two different context High performance: In high performance context, management should reward according the performance related pay. This means management should have clearly mentioned how performance is going to be measured and accordingly will be paid. For example, in some sales company, sales representatives have to meet sales target and they are paid based on percentage. Underperformance context In this situation, management can offer for training and development. This is also a part of reward. However, management must make sure that employee will achieve performance after Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 11

training. Supervisor should provide continuous feedback and support and engage employee to achieve the target. 3.4: Monitor employee performance (P12)

According to Armstrong (2005) performance management is a continuous process. Performance management should aimed at performance improvement, development and manage behaviour. Performance is measured through performance appraisal. It is a formal assessment and rating of employees performance on regular basis. Performance appraisal is generally carried out by line managers. In performance review, line manager first discussed with the agreed individual objectives. Individual has a clear idea about what is being expected. The popular method of performance is 360 degree feedback. 360 degree feedback involves gathering information from individual's self assessment, feedback from line manager, feedback from line manager of line manager, peer review. In performance appraisal, line manager focuses on five key elements.  Measurement- In this stage line manager assess performance against agreed objectives, behaviour and attitude  Feedback- In this stage line manager provides information on individual performance and progress. Line manager also provides information on what went well and what went wrong as well as what improvement is required.  Positive reinforcement- line manager positively encourage and support individual. line manager provides a constructive feedback on what might be improved.  Encourage two way communications- line manager encourages individual to talk and exchange information. Line manager asks individual on how he can improve performance, and the support he/she require to improve the performance  Get agreement- line manager and employee get into agreement on what need to improve and sustain performance. Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 12

Task 4:

4.1: Identify the reasons for cessation of employment with your chosen organisation (P13)

In Unilever the company will terminate employees for any one of the reason as mentioned below: • If employees have not capacity such as mental problem, skills and behavioural problems • Misconduct such as miss behave with colleagues, line manager and customers etc • Legally not fit for job • Dismissal from the job for any reasons such as wrongful, unfair or justified • Termination from the job for many reasons such as resignation for personal and professional reason, termination of contract, and redundancy In Unilever all employees receives staff handbook. Employees have been given all the information about the miss conduct and gross conduct. The gross conduct pushes management to terminate employees from the employment. However, handbook also provided information about appeal procedure if they believe unfairly dismissed from the job.

4.2: Describe the employment exit procedures of two different organisations including your chosen company. (P14)

Exit procedure of Unilever

Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 13

The exit procedure of Unilever is clearly mentioned in contract paper. Unilever has standard procedure in place. Once employee resign from the company, HR manager invites for attend exit interview. Unilever provides two options. First, they invite to attend exit interview with HR manager and the line manager. Second they sent an exit interview questionnaires which employees needs to fill up and send to the HR Department. In both cases Unilever focuses on gathering information such as when employees started thinking to leave the organisation, about positive and negative about the management practices, working environment etc. HR manager manages consultation session and training session to convince and persuade employees. Line manager asks the leaver to train other employees before he leaves the company. HR manager asks the leaver to handover all the properties to HR department HR manager clear the account. Exit procedure at Tesco In Tesco, Line manager first does informal interview with employees regarding reason for leaving from the company. HR manager asks individual in writing the intention to leave from the company. Line manager then does informal meeting with people and provides consultation. Employees have to train other employees he/she leaves the company Employees have to handover all property.

4.3: Consider the impacts of the UK regulatory framework on employment cessation arrangements. (P15)

Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 14

UK has regulatory framework on employment cessation. The regulation is to ensure employers do not terminate wrongfully or unfairly. UK has given right of law of contract and statutory protection to all employees. Employment Right Act 2012 has supported employees in terms of unfair or wrongful dismissal. Employer must ensure that employees are terminated with a valid reason to avoid any unpleasant consequences such as tribunal or damage of reputation. There is two specific situations employees leave a company. Voluntary cessation is situation where employees resign from the employment on own willing. Involuntary situation where employee are terminates because of downsizing or rightsizing, disciplinary action, closure of branches etc. According to Employment Act 2012, employers must provide equal opportunity and not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, sex and sexual orientation etc. This means it is unlawful to discriminate any employees in employment practices of recruitment, selection, training and development and dismissal. Armstrong (2005) suggests that employer should follow a series of steps to make sure the cessation is lawful.  Employer should provide information verbal warning  Send formal written warning letter  Send formal final written warning letter  Allowing employees to appeal

Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 15

Reference: Armstrong, M. (2005), A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practices, 10th Ed, London: Kogan Page CIPD

(2012)

http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/employment-law-faqs/equal-pay-

provisions.aspx CIPD (2012) http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/workforce-planning.aspx Kona Kai (2013), [Online] Available at http://www.konakai.co.uk/ [Accessed on 18 June 2013] Mullins, L. J. (2005), Management and Organisational Behaviour, London: Pearson Education Limited Torrington, et al (2008), Human Resource Management, London: Pearson Education Limited. http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/dismissal.aspx http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/recruitment-overview.aspx http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/strategic-reward-total-reward.aspx

Safiq Islam HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ID: 10971

Page 16