Unit 18 Human Resources Management Assignment for Service Industry

Unit 18 Human Resources Management Assignment for Service Industry

Introduction

This unit 18 human resources management assignment for service industry helps us get a wide perspective on the aspect of human resource management. The difference between Personnel management and Human Resource management has been analysed. The roles and responsibilities of line managers in Virgin Media have been determined. The various reasons for human resource planning have been provided along with the various stages involved in human resource planning. The link between motivational theories and rewards and Virgin Media has been determined and the various factors determining pay at Virgin Media has been provided. The effectiveness of the reward system of Virgin Media has also been analysed in detail. With reference to the case study, ‘The Chicken Master’, the various ways in which cessation of contracts can be done has been highlighted along with the consequences that would take place of Faisal’s claims were proved to be true.

Task 1

1.1 Differentiate between personnel management and human resource management giving examples in two suitable organisations.

Personnel management and  Human resource management are distinct functions that can be easily differentiated in the corporate world. Personnel Management is more of a mechanical process which gives a lot of emphasis on the aspect of getting work done by the staff or employees of the organisation. A monotonous style may be associated in this style of management as the core area of belief lies in the amount of output and less emphasis is provided on human working conditions and sentiments. Personalisation of the work force is prohibited and a strict adherence to company guidelines and policies are maintained. Bureau critic Leadership may be associated with this kind of management and reservations are maintained with regards to manager subordinate communication. (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Human Resource Management on the other hand aims at judiciously preserving and depleting the available company resources which includes assets and the workforce and a lot of importance is given to valuing human emotions and sentiments and provide favourable working conditions to the employees that would allow them to perform to the best of their abilities. A great deal of flexibility can be associated with the prevalence of democratization of the work force. Emphasis is laid on employee development and training for the accomplishment of organisational objectives. A great deal of human resources management practices can be associated with Virgin Media. Employees are given full freedom to voice their opinions and a lot of emphasis is provided on employee engagement. Employee suggestions are valued and team work is encouraged as Virgin Media as an organisation thrives on innovation. (Virgin Media, 2016)

1.2 Assess how human resource management functions help your chosen organisation in achieving its purpose.

Virgin Media is one of the several modern day organisations that believe in having an employee oriented module for the general mode of operations for the company. A lot of importance is provided on acquiring innovation within the system and that is the reason credible work environments are provided to the employees. Employees at Virgin Media are always encouraged to excel and strive for being the best. For this purpose, the management structure that has been designed also does not involve any levels of autocracy or bureaucracy involved. The personalisation of the employees is considered significant and a lot of importance is given on employee engagement. (Cipd.co.uk, 2013).  Employees are never made to feel left out as the value attached to each employee idea and opinion is tremendous. The employees make it a point to provide their piece of relevant suggestion to the management as they understand how important it might be for the company. Virgin Media makes sure that the suggestions are dealt with perfectly as each employee input is rationally and feasibly evaluated for the purpose of execution and any opinion which matches all prescribed criterias is implemented and this altogether does wonders to the motivation of the work force. The channel of communication that exists between the management and the subordinates is very penetrative and a lot of loyalty is associated with the subordinates with regards to the top management. It is this form of management that resides within Virgin Media that helps it in acquiring all its objectives and purpose.    (Cipd.co.uk, 2013)

1.3 Evaluate the role and responsibilities of line managers in your organisation or familiar organisation and how it supports human resource management functions.

The line managers in Virgin Media are mainly given the responsibility of overlooking the daily functions of the operational staff level along with the subordinate employees. The line managers act as guides for the junior level employees and offer their valuable supervision wherever necessary. The main guidance is offered to those employees who do not possess an executional power and a lot of importance is provided by the line manager on the quality of operations. The process of evaluation of staff output is carried out by the line managers and effective feedback that is generated is reported back to the top management. (Hayre, 2015). The line manager is also given the role of ensuring that the maximisation of productivity can be achieved but at the same time not giving rise to employee grievances. The morale and motivation of the staff is the responsibility of the line manager as he has to ensure that every employee grievance is taken care of and the best possible working environment is provided to the employees to work in. Apart from this, the line manager overlooks the everyday functions of the workforce. The optimum level of knowledge with regards to customer service is provided to the staff so that they can be groomed in the particular sector right from the early days. The line manager is also entrusted with the duty of recognising shortage in the development process of any employee and adopting all the means that takes care of all the employee shortcomings and requirements with regards to both  personal and professional development.  (Hayre, 2015)

1.4. Analyse how legal and regulatory framework impact on human resource management.

The various legal and regulatory frameworks that have an impact on the human resource management include the legislations carved out in the Equality Act, Sex Discrimination Act, Race Relations Act and National Minimum Wages Act. The Sex Discrimination Act, 1975 prohibits any discrimination made on a man or a woman on the basis of the gender they carry or the sexual orientation that they are inclined towards. This includes all human resource management functions starting from recruitment to promotion and appraisals. The Race Relations Act, 1976 ensures that no discrimination is done on the basis of racism or race of a particular individual. Any discrimination made on the basis of this ground will be regarded as violation of legislative guidelines provided under this particular Act. The National Minimum Wages Act, 1998 ensures that a fixed or a bare minimum amount is applicable for payment to every individual who offers his or her services to a particular organisation and the rates payable are as per the standard guidelines provided under this act. According to this a fixed amount has to be paid to every individual that works for the organisation. The Equality Act, 2010 is one of the best enforcers of laws with regards to any discrimination done towards the employees at work place. Discrimination is protected on various grounds that includes like race, sex, pregnancy, maternity, etc. (Butler, 2016)

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Task 2

2.1 Analyse the reasons for human resource planning

Human Resource Planning is significant in ensuring that all organisational procedures are well aligned so that company objectives can be efficiently met. Proper Human Resource Planning will make sure that all the requirements are well assessed so that the immediate ones can be acquired and the less significant ones can be kept back for achievement later. Demand forecasting is possible if proper steps of planning are introduced. A proper analysis of the environment is possible as both the external and the internal environment of the company is analysed. Human resource planning ensures that whatever resources are present with the company is judiciously used so that not too much depletion of resources is possible. (Aslam, Ali & Habib, 2013). Proper Planning also ensures that the organisation is blessed with the most potent and competent employees as it ensures that before employees are recruited, they are evaluated properly and only on repeated confirmations is an employee chosen. Effective employee retention programmes and strategies can be developed as a result of proper planning and the pertinent training and development programmes can be adopted. Proper planning also ensures that the relevant and the most updated infrastructure and technology is provided to the employees in order to be in sync with the pace of technological revolution. A proper and a more effective budget can be allocated as all the pertinent factors can be taken into consideration while preparing the budget. These are the basic reasons why human resource planning is so important in today’s day and age. (Aslam, Ali & Habib, 2013)

2.2 Outline the stages involved in planning human resource requirements

The various stages involved in planning human resource requirements include the following:

• Human Resource Supply:\ The competency and relevance of the present workforce is assessed and evaluated in this stage where various factors are closely analysed and assessed. Among the aspects that are evaluated include the type of work functions, kind of employee work force, level of credibility of the working class, etc. This is done to ensure that the current mode of operations is the efficient one for the company. (Gupta, 2010)
• Future Human Resource Demand: This stage considers all the factors that might lead to a future anticipation of resources or future demand. Various incidents like pre-mature wind up of an organisation, ill-liquidation, insolvency, etc ensure that demand for the future is stimulated and various steps are adopted in order to ensure that future human resource demand is met properly.
• Forecast of Demand: In this stage, strict adherence is maintained with the set of policies or guidelines that has been designed as all organisational stimulation of demand is based on the set of strategies that have been determined. It is not an easy task to efficiently forecast demand as every minute detail has to be paid attention to in order to ensure that the correct forecast has been made.
• Strategy of Sourcing: Every employee must be having some kind of discrepancy or weakness in their responsibilities arising out of some deficiency or the other within the employee. Proper development programmes are designed to ensure that all these shortcomings are addressed and the weaknesses sorted. (Gupta, 2010)

2.3 Compare the current recruitment and selection process in the organisation with another organisation you recommending

The recruitment and selection procedure of the current organisation is compared to that of  Virgin Media group.  Virgin Media adopts new age principles while recruiting their people as innovation is one thing that they focus on. The element of fun is very important and they incorporate the same in the recruitment process. The selection process is highly informal in nature with the candidates given full freedom to express themselves. The traditional interview and assessment tests are not conducted in Virgin Media, instead a bulk of other mechanisms are adopted. Audio visual videos are shown to the candidates and their reactions are noted. Through the videos, real life scenarios are depicted of a salesman of Virgin Media and all the job roles and requirements are vividly described in the video. This not only helps in choosing the right candidates, but also clearly tells the candidates as to what exactly is expected of them and whether not they can oblige the company with similar work ethics. Once the audio video round is done, the candidates are asked questions and urged to comment on whatever they made out of the video and whether or not the candidate has it in him to exhibit certain and similar levels of skills like that of the sales people in the video. Assessment is also done on the answers provided by the candidates when asked as to what they would have done in the same situation. Thus we see that the recruitment and selection procedure undertaken by Virgin Media differs from the traditional and conventional ways in which an organisation would generally recruit candidates for selection.

2.4 Evaluate how effective is the organisation recruitment and selection techniques with another organisation you recommending.

The traditional or conventional means of recruitment is adhered to by the current organisation where the entire selection procedure consists of the interview over the telephone followed by an interview which is face to face. In such a style, competent candidates may be acquired as a result of an experienced interviewer but complete transparency cannot be achieved with regards to the absolute true attributes of the employees and also it may not be completely clear to the employees as to what it would be like to work for the organisation. Virgin Media on the other hand adopts a recruitment style that is innovative and highly interactive. As a result, the candidates are always high on spirit and exhibit a freer attitude. The candidates as a result feel that they are more at home and exhibit their truest form. They also get a clear idea as to whether they are good enough for the job or not as many a times an employee might genuinely that he is not fit for the role and this makes things easier with regards to the entire recruitment system. Employees can be assessed more accurately as well because the answers and reactions derived from them are all reactive in nature to the audio visual material that they are subjected to instead of the thoughtful and contemplative reactions that is provided in the case of the current organisation in the form of responses to the interviews which are both telephonic and face to face in nature. Therefore I feel that the recruitment and selection techniques of Virgin Media are more effective in nature.

Task 3

3.1 Assess the link between motivational theory and reward at Virgin Media or your chosen organisation. Your answer must show if you think there is a link, what connects the two.

Herzberg had developed a motivational theory of his own which is also known as the Hygiene theory. According to him in every organisation there exists two set of factors that direct the levels of motivation present within the organisation. They include a set of factors called satisfiers and another separate set of factors called dis-satisfiers. The satisfiers ensure that there is the prevalence of high levels of motivation within the organisation. The dissatisfiers contribute to the overall de-motivation of employees. Herzberg stated that this trend is prevalent in all organisations and hence it is the same in the case of Virgin Media. (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2016). Within Virgin Media, the main factors that exhibit the prevalence of motivation among the employees or the satisfiers include employees voluntarily accepting new responsibilities, unity among co-employees and colleagues, complete commitment in ensuring that organisational objectives are properly achieved, their growing concern about the quality of work in the organisation, etc. The list of factors that contribute to the de-motivation of the employees or dissatisfiers include ordinary performance with regards to time keeping, increasing levels of absenteeism, prevalence of diminishing levels of customer service, etc. The rewards provided to the employees in Virgin Media include the Aspire field pay reward scheme, private health-care, effective life insurance policies, and additional pension benefits, etc. There is various staff saving schemes present within the organisation as well. This is the link between a motivational theory and the levels of motivation and reward inside Virgin Media as the prevalence of the two distinct set of factors validates the link.  (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2016)

3.2 Evaluate the process of job evaluation and other factors determining pay at Virgin Media or your chosen organisation.

Knowledge pool helps in the evaluation of the entire job training that is provided at Virgin Media. Knowledge Pool initiates a lot of performance review sessions which includes weekly service calls and quarterly reviews. The levels of effective customer service provided by the employees of Virgin Media are calculated by the Net Promoter Score Metric. One of the main jobs of the employees of Virgin Media is to offer high levels of customer service and the proper evaluation of the same is done through the Net Promoter Score Metric. (Knowledge pool, 2016). The two main factors determining pay at Virgin Media include performance and expert opinion for implementation. Employees are always encouraged to better their standards and transform into a more credible employee. When a employee excels in his performance, it is duly recognised and financial perks are made available to him accordingly. However payments can be affected if a particular employee exhibits high levels of under-performance for a considerably long period of time. Another factor determining pay is the amount of opinion and participation exhibited by the employees within the organisation. The employees who exhibit the highest levels competency with regards to sharing ideas and opinions are regarded higher than other employees. The payment provided to him is also settled accordingly. The employees who are able to provide the highest or the most favourable levels of customer service is regarded higher than someone who has not provided the optimum level of customer service. These are the various factors determining pay at Virgin Media.

3.3 Assess in different contexts how effective is the reward systems at Virgin Media or your chosen organisation.

Virgin Media recognises the fact that reward system is very significant in ensuring that the employees are always motivated to perform for the company. One of the schemes that is involved is the ASPIRE field pay and reward where every net promoter with a score of 9 or 10 is warded 10 pounds. (Ward-Howell, 2016). In order to retain employees, Virgin Media ensures that they recognise the excellence in performance of the employees. One of the methods involves NPS Hero championship where all the individuals who have scored a perfect 10 is appreciated with a letter of appreciation. The recognition scheme SHOUT helps in thanking those individuals of the business who have lived their lives based on the values of Virgin Media. One of the ways of employee engagement includes the forum known as VOICE. One of the main ways of attracting talent is by determining training and development programmes for employees. Training programmes helps employees feel that their personal development and advancement will not be hampered and this really attracts them as a valuable proposition. One of the development and training scheme is IGNITE which is an online portal for the field based staff especially and it can be accessed from home as well. The introduction of super vans was another instance of reward schemes where the top engineers of Virgin Media were duly rewarded for providing unparallel customer service for a considerable period of time. (Ward-Howell, 2016). These are the various techniques incorporated by Virgin Media in different contexts such as retention, motivation and talent attraction.

3.4 Examine the methods Virgin Media or your chosen organisation use to monitor employee performance

Virgin Media as of now has a few avenues where there is enough data to measure the actual performance of the employees. In the avenues where there is not enough data, the performance measurement can be a little patchy. For this reason, a new data management system has been adhered to by  working with  Credit 360. This has been done with the eventual objective of improving the overall reliability, robustness, effectiveness and audit ability of the entire data management system.   (Assets.virginmedia, 2009). Virgin Media aspires to take part in BitC’CR Index’ which is a one of a kind benchmarking process which can be an effective way of understanding what is lacking in the organisation with regards to the human resource requirements as well as asset and equipment management. This will help in acquiring all those factors that is required for Virgin Media and also effectively point out the deficiencies. Not only this, it will also help in establishing the strong points of the organisation. Thus a gap analysis can be done and the resulting gaps can be aimed to meet by this particular employee performance system. These are the various methods by which Virgin Media looks to effectively measure or monitor employee performance. (Assets.virginmedia, 2009)

Task 4

4.1 Identify the reasons for termination of Faisal’s employment contract with The Chicken Master and generally explain other reasons for cessation of employment.

The various reasons for the termination of Faisal’s contract include the following:

• Faisal consistently kept the front of the kitchen dirty and filthy.
• The food of the restaurant was not of the highest quality and very little amount of supervision was provided to the employees.
• Despite of Bob trying to improve the performance of Faisal, there was hardly any improve in the performance of Faisal.
• Faisal was caught watching Pornography during working hours and mailing his wife and attending to his daughter’s needs during work hours.
• Violated the guidelines of the employee handbook that prohibited the use of office equipments for personal use.

The reasons for cessation of contract include:

• Low on Finance: One of the reasons for cessation of employment includes the dismissal of an employee when the company is not making usual amount of profits and as a result is delving into losses.
• Conduct: An employee can be dismissed if an employee breaks the employee code of conduct and adopts measures that violate the norms and ethics.
• Performance: An employee is entitled to dismissal if he shows no improvement in his performance over a considerable amount of time even after repeated attempts of employee development from the management. (Johnson, 2016)
• Attendance: An employee can be dismissed if he or she ingenuinely takes advantage of leaves and take an off even when nothing is wrong with them. Genuine reasons are fine but if an employee takes advantage of situations, then he might be entitled to dismissal.

4.2 Describe the employment exit procedures used by The Chicken Master and another organisation of your choice

The various exit procedures used by The Chicken Master include:

• Violation of the employee handbook.
• Repeated levels of under-performance exhibited by Faisal
• Lack of personal hygiene
• Violation of company policies with regards to the usage of office requirements
• Inappropriate means adopted at workplace, in this case Faisal’s addiction to watching pornography at workplace.

A few exit procedures that are used by Virgin Media include Misconduct, lack of performance and etc. An instance that can be made a mention of includes the case when Virgin Media dismissed its employees on late return from India. An employee had failed to provide proper evidence of his late return from India to the UK and not proper justifications was given by the employee. Apparently he had missed a flight back from India and this resulted in the delay. He was dismissed on the basis of insufficient evidence provided by the person. This was a dismissal based on the exit procedure of misconduct as the employee had apparently violated the code of conduct of the organisation. (Xperthr.co.uk, 2011)  

4.3 Consider the impact of the legal and regulatory framework on employment cessation arrangements with an organisation such as The Chicken Master if Faisal’s claim was proven to be true.

Faisal’s claim was that Bob had dismissed him on discriminatory grounds as he had appointed a woman under the age of 40 as a replacement for the post. According to Faisal, Direct discrimination was made by him on the grounds of age. The Equality Act, 2010 of the UK clearly indicates that no kinds of discrimination will be tolerated at work place and the various protected characteristics include age, sex, marital status, pregnancy, race, colour, etc. If Faisal’s claims are proved to be true, then Bob might be charged of violating the legislation of the Equality Act where he might be alleged of harassment at workplace. The tribunal in charge of all these matters may ask the company to revise or reset its policies and ask them to adopt measures for effective training and development of the managers. Bob’s ability may be tagged as insufficient for the role of a manager or owner and effective replacement may be asked to establish or Bob would have to considerably improve his ability on employee management. It has to be kept in mind that these situations will only arise if the claims voiced by Faisal prove to be true. The recommended policies by the tribunal or any similar governing body will have to be incorporated or adopted by The Chicken Master. (Legislation.gov.uk, 2010). This is the impact of legal and regulatory framework on The Chicken Master if Faisal’s claims were proven to be true.

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Conclusion

The biggest difference between Personnel and Human resource management is the fact that personnel management is highly mechanical in nature and does not take into account human emotions and it’s the opposite in the case of human resource management. The various  safety legislations that have an impact on the HRM practices involve The Equality Act, Race Relations Act, Minimum Wages Act, etc. The various stages involved in HR planning include Current HR Supply, Future HR demand, Forecasting of demand, Sourcing Strategy, etc. The recruitment process of Virgin Media is more effective because of the level of transparency involved. The Herzberg’s theory of motivation can be related to the organisation of Virgin Media and the various reward systems include schemes like SHOUT, VOICE, IGNITE, etc. With regards to the case study, ‘The Chicken Master’, if Faisal’s claim is proved to be true, then Bob will have successfully violated the norms of the Equality Act 2010.

References

Armstrong, M & Taylor, S (2014), Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, Kogan Page.       
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Aslam, H, Ali, N & Habib, B (2013), Human Resource Planning Practice in Managing Human Resource: A Literature Review, International Journal of Human Resource Studies, Vol: 3, PP: 201-215.
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Butler, M (2016), Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law: The Equality Act 2010 and other anti-discrimination protections, Spiramus Press Ltd.
Cipd.co.uk, (2013), Virgin Media dial in to staff with engagement forums, [Online], Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/pm/peoplemanagement/b/weblog/archive/2013/01/29/virgin-media-dial-in-to-staff-with-engagement-forums-2009-02.aspx, Accessed on: 30^th July, 2016.
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Hayre, A (2015), Human Resource Management. Roles of Line-Managers and Stages of HR Planning, GRIN Verlag.
Johnson, R (2016), 5 Ways to Terminate a Contract, [Online], Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-ways-terminate-contract-16020.html, Accessed on: 30^th July, 2016.