Unit 18 Human Resource Management Sample Assignment

Introduction

Each of the organisations in any of the industries in the world are dependent on the efficient and effective utilisation of the various resources available to them for the successful completion of all the business operations of the corresponding organisation. The wide range of resources available to an organisation includes the employees working in the organisation who are considered to be the human resources of the organisation. Each of the organisations in any of the service industry is heavily dependent on the employees working in the organisation i.e. the human resources available to the organisation. In the effort of the organisations to optimise the usage of the human resources, they develop and implement various human resources strategies in the organisation. One of such strategies to manage the human resources of an organisation is the human resource management strategy. This is a process included in the business model of all the organisations in the service industry which allows the management of the organisation to effectively and efficiently manage the various human resources available to the organisation. Thus this process ultimately leads to increased efficiency and performance of the employees in the workplace and hence the increase in the profit of the organisation. In this report we will focus on the healthcare and social care industry of UK. The report also focuses on one of the organisations operating in the corresponding industry with the name of “Care UK” (Buchan, 2004).

Task A

a) Role and purpose of human resource management

The process of human resource management in a healthcare organisation is the process included in the business model which is responsible for the efficient and effective utilisation of the human resources available to the organisation. The Care UK organisation working in the healthcare and social care industry in UK provide a number of services to people in need of help in the society due to old age, diseases or any other health condition. So the people working in the Care UK organisation have to communicate and interact with the people in the society who consume their services. The role of the human resource management process in Care UK involves the activities of recruiting and selecting suitable candidates to work in specific business activities in the organisation. This role of the human resource management process of the organisation serves the purpose of ensuring the recruitment and selection of candidates with suitable skills and expertise required for the corresponding business activities of the organisation. This in turn serves the purpose of ensuring that the brand image and status of the organisation is maintained in the service market (Fallon, 2013). The process of human resource management also has a role of managing the various training and development activities of the employees working in Care UK. This role of the HRM process serves the purpose of keeping in the skills and expertise of the employees up-to-date with the latest technologies and procedures in the market. This in turn allows the employees working in Care UK to serve the consumers in a better and more efficient way. The process of human resource management in Care UK is also responsible for the dismissal or separation of the employees from the organisation. This role of the process of HRM in Care UK serves the purpose of optimising the separation process in the organisation which allows the termination of the employment of the employees to be a smooth process (Fallon, 2013).

b) Human resources plan based on an analysis of supply and demand

The latest analysis of the supply and demand of the human resources in the healthcare and social care industry of the UK suggests that demand of the human resources of the various organisations in the corresponding industry is growing day by day. The increasing demand of the human resources is due to the heavy involvement of the corresponding resources in the various business processes of the organisations. This analysis also reveals that the supply of the human resources is not adequate in comparison to the demand of the human resources in the healthcare and social care industries. This analysis of the supply and demand plays the most important role in the preparation of the human resource plan of the organisations which is developed as part of the human resource planning process of the corresponding organisation. The high demand of the human resources is causing the Care UK to focus on attracting the potential employees in the market and retaining the existing talented employees in the organisation. Thus the human resource plan of the Care UK focuses on the attraction of the potential employees and retention of the employees in the organisation. The human resource plan of Care UK tries to effectively attract the talented individuals in the market and retain the talented individuals in the organisation by providing a number of good employee benefits. The employee benefits program of Care UK assures the employees the below mentioned benefits of the employment with the organisation (Gowen, 2006).

• Attractive rewards program
• Proper work-life balance
• Good compensation package
• Proper recognition for good performance
• High quality workspace
• Proper health and safety of the workplace
• Opportunities to advance in the corresponding field
• Opportunities to diversify the expertise and work experience
• Trustful and helpful work environment

The inclusion of suitable plans in the above mentioned aspects of the employment of the employees allows the organisation to attract a number of talented employees supplied in the market and to retain a number of talented employees in the organisation to satisfy the demands of the various business functions of the organisation (Beardwell, 2004).

c) Current state of employment relations

The concept of employment relations is concerned about the relationship between the employees working in the organisation with the management of the organisation and with each other. As discussed earlier, the importance of the human resources in the healthcare and social care industry is quite high as the employees of the corresponding organisations directly interact with the consumers of the service and are responsible for the health conditions of the consumers. The efficiency and performance of the employees in the organisation depend on the mental state of the employees which in turn is affected by the workplace environment in which the employees perform various business operations. The workplace environment is affected to a large extent by the relationship of the employees along with the management of the organisation and each other. The current state of employee relations in healthcare and social service industry is maintained by a number of employment laws and regulations established by the government and other regulatory bodies. The Equality Act established in the United Kingdom requires the management of the organisations in the country to treat each and every employee of the organisation equally. This allows the maintenance of positive and strong relationship between the management and the employees of the organisation as every employee is treated as any other employee irrespective of his or her position, role and responsibilities (Harris, 2007). The current condition of the employee relations in the healthcare and social care industry includes the maintenance of trade union in the organisation. The trade union is a group of employees of the organisation with a common set of objectives and demands. The trade union of the organisation selects one or more than one leaders who are responsible for interacting and communicating with the management of the organisation on behalf of all the employees in the trade union. This concept allows the management of the organisation to collectively bargain with the union leaders regarding the satisfaction of a number of demands of the employees (Khatri, 2006).

d) How employment law affects the management of human resources

The employee relations in Care UK are maintained and managed by various employment laws and regulations established by the government and various regulatory bodies in the UK. Some of these employment laws are mentioned in this section.

• National Minimum Wage Act: This law established by the UK government defines minimum wages for the employment in the United Kingdom depending on the age of the employee.
• Working Time Regulations: This set of regulations in the United Kingdom defines the normal working hours in the United Kingdom for every organisation in each industry.
• Employment Rights Act: The Employment Rights Act established in the United Kingdom requires the management of all the organisations in the country to provide some rights to the employees which in turn sets the quality of the relationship between the employees and the management.
• Health and Safety at Work Act: This act established in the United Kingdom requires the management of the various organisations in the United Kingdom to maintain the health and safety of the workplace of the organisation. Well managed health and safety of the workplace in the organisation creates a positive working environment, which in turn leads to positive relationship of the employees with each other and with the management of the organisation.
• Trade Union and Labour Relations Act: This act established by the government of United Kingdom provides a number of guidelines for the organisations in various industries regarding the creation of the trade unions in the organisation. This act also manages the relationship of the management of the organisation along with the trade union of the organisation and provides guidelines for the management of the process of collective bargaining (Veld, 2012).

Task B

a) Job description and person specification

This section describes the job description and personal specification for a job in the healthcare industry. This section is describing the job description and personal specification of a healthcare support worker for the Care UK organisation operating in the health and social care industry (Buchan, 2004).
Job Description
Job Title:Healthcare Support Worker
Reports to: Care Manager
Workplace: Care UK, Colchester Business Park, Colchester
Working hours: Flexible hours, including evenings and weekends
Responsibilities:

• Escorting the patients to the correct room for various appointments
• Assisting the in-house patients with their personal care
• Maintaining the privacy of the patients and their relatives
• Assisting with the dressing and undressing activities of the patients
• Maintaining the cleanliness of the beds in the organisation
• Assisting the medication schedule of the in-house patients
• Ensuring the cleanliness of the rooms and bathrooms in the organisation
• Ensuring the scheduled change of bed sheets, cushions and curtains in the rooms in the organisation (Fallon, 2013)
• Assisting in the activity of distribution of foods and fruits among the patients in the organisation
• Overviewing the dusting and mopping activities of the rooms in the organisation
• Ensuring the safety of the patients living in the organisation
• Contributing to the security of the organisation and the patients present in the organisation

Personal specification:

• Good amount of experience in a reputed healthcare organisation in the same role
• Good communication skills
• Ability to express the feelings in a proper and effective manner
• Ability to follow guidelines of the organisation and instruction of the supervisor
• Ability to work as a team player
• Ability to maintain professional behaviour in the workplace
• Eagerness to help the patients regarding their various queries
• Ability to maintain and quiet and calm behaviour in situations of high pressure
• Ability to undergo various training and development activities included in the business model of the organisation (Gowen, 2006)

b) Comparison of the selection process of different service industries businesses

The various organisations in the healthcare and social care industry in the United Kingdom implement different kinds of selection and recruitment process to select suitable candidates to work in various business processes of the organisation. This section describes the selection and recruitment processes of two healthcare organisations in the United Kingdom, Care UK and National Health Services. Both the above mentioned organisations in the healthcare industry in the United Kingdom implement and use different selection and recruitment methodologies. The selection process of Care UK involves the initial screening process of the CVs. This process allows the management of Care UK to screen and eliminate some of the applications for a particular vacancy in the organisation based on some of the generic information present in the CVs of the candidates who applied for the job. The selection process of the National Health Services (NHS) involves the process of filling up the application process as the initial activity in the selection process (Veld, 2012). This application forms of the candidates provide the management of the NHS with the required information regarding them, which in turn allows the management of the organisation to eliminate applications of the candidates who are unsuitable for the vacancy in the organisation. The second activity of the selection process of both the organisations is the same, which is the process of interviewing the candidates selected in the initial activity of the selection process. The process of interview involves a number of activities of making the selected candidates go through a number of predefined and pre-structured questions which allows the interviewer to analyse and understand the level of expertise and knowledge of the candidates in the corresponding business functions. The third activity of the selection process of Care UK involves the activity of analysing the performance of the selected candidates in a simulated real time scenario. But the National Health Services involves the process of making the selected candidates go through a process of group discussion (Bartram, 2007).

c) Contribution of training and development activities to the effective operation of the selected service industry business

The processes of training and development in the business model of the healthcare organisations allows the employees of the organisation to enhance their skills and talents in the relevant technical and business processes. The training and development processes of the organisations allow the employees of the healthcare organisations in the healthcare and social care industry of the UK to satisfy the growing demand of the latest and advanced business strategy of the organisations. The training activities arranged by the healthcare organisation allow the employees of the organisation to enhance the skills they are currently using in the business process they are currently using in the business process they are working in the corresponding organisations. The process of training allows the employees in the healthcare organisation to achieve better position in the same business process in which they are working. But the process of development allows the employees of the healthcare organisation to learn new technologies and new skills which allows them to switch to a different technology or business process with more opportunities (Harris, 2007). The process of development allows the employees of the healthcare organisations to pursue the various business processes in which they are interested in. This allows the employees in the healthcare industry to achieve greater positions in better business processes. Hence the processes of training and development in the healthcare organisations allow the employees to have more efficiency and performance, which in turn leads to better profits of the organisations in the market in terms of number of sales of their products and services. So the training and development processes in the healthcare organisations allow smoother completion of the various business processes and activities (Beardwell, 2004).

Conclusion

This report describes the roles and responsibilities of the process of human resource management in the organisations of the healthcare and social care industry. The report describes some of the major processes included in the human resource management module of the business model of the various organisations in the healthcare and social care organisations such as the selection process of the employees working in the organisation, managing the relationship between the employees in the organisation, implementation of the human resource plan in the organisation, the training and development activities for the employees working in the organisation. All of these roles and responsibilities of the human resource management process makes it a very important module of the business model of the healthcare organisation (Bartram, 2007).