Unit 22 Managing Human Resources Guest model assignment

Unit 22 Managing Human Resources Guest model assignment

Introduction

Human resource management is an important part in every organisation to influence the ability of employees and to manage the different workforce at one place according to their skills and capability. Waitrose is a leading chain in British Supermarkets having 350 branches across UK which owned largest employees and food retail division. Therefore the systematic study for dealing with human asset is needed. The function of management starts from recruitment, selection, training and measuring the performances of the organisation as per benchmark standards. HR management is responsible for managing and executing the employees and their behaviour. The current report will focus on Guest model of HRM and Storey’s definition of personnel management and IR practices. It will also explain the model and types and use of flexibility at workplace. The report will also highlight about the laws and regulation and Equal Opportunity Act that is applied in human resource practices in Waitrose. At last, it will depict the method of performance for employees for monitoring the performances and health and safety issues along with its impact on human resource management.

Task 1

1.1 Guest’s model of Human Resource Management

Human resource management is the management of human resource; it is the prime job of an organization to maximize employee’s performance in service of an employer’s strategic objectives. According to Guest, there are two dimension of human resource management in Waitrose, these are hard-soft and loose-tight. Soft HRM is related to the movement of human resource and it has a very large emphasis on the humans. It deals with the utilization of the inner talents of the employees, concerned with the goals of adaptability and flexibility (Brotton.et.al, 2012). Soft HRM is associated with the goals of flexibility and adaptability, whereas hard HRM stresses on calculative, quantitative and business strategy aspects of managing. Hard HRM focuses on the importance of strategic fit, where human resource practices and policies are closely linked to the objectives of the organization. Hard HRM emphasis on the need to manage employees in a way that it adds value from them, it focuses on measurable criteria, quantitative, control and performance management, while HRM is based on human relations, and treats employees as valued as a source of competitive advantage through adaptability, commitment and high quality.

The model of HRM showed by Guest is commitment based, it says that:

• HRM is the  strategic management of Waitrose
• Focuses on the needs of the individuals rather than collective force
• HRM enables the organization to become more flexible
• HRM seeks commitment to organizational goals.
• Employees are the asset of the organization, to be positively utilized.

This Model focuses on a distinctive approach in the selection and training, which actually matters; it is linked with the high performance and commitment of the employees. The perspective of this model is that the HRM is distinctively different from traditional personnel management; here commitment has a direct relationship with valued business consequences. He also said that relation between commitment and high performance is very difficult to establish, employee relationship is viewed as one between individual and the organization. (Alfes.et.al, 2013)

1.2 Storey’s definitions of HRM, personnel and IR practices

Storey presented a theory which discussed how traditional personnel management changed into human resource management. Personnel management considers employee as expense and tries to minimize the expense. While human resource management in Waitrose consider employees as a human resource, which has aim to develop and improve this resource. As compared to HRM, personnel management has a very limited scope. Organizations like Tesco gives more importance to organizational value and culture, employee follows organizational mission statement. On the other hand personnel management has emphasis on organization customs, norms and practices (Storey.et.at, 2014). The approach towards HRM has been through lots of changes in the years and is moving ahead to accomplish the same. In starting phases, HRM leads with humanistic thoughts, which tells that progress of an individual in a business is a key task of administration. This approach made to think that person ought is not to be observed like a resource and up to an extent progress of the worker is the accountability of the manager.
Personnel management believes in strict monitoring on employees, which is not required in Waitrose. They believe in an environment where employees work by themselves. The decision making in personnel management is very slow as compared to HRM. Tesco considers human resource as the asset for the organization; the manager takes on board their subordinates for the fulfilment of mutual objectives. In personnel management, the contract of the employee is clearly written and employees have to follow agreed contract very strictly, the contracts are very strict and cannot be modified in any condition. HRM policies are not as strict as personnel management, the manager and superiors can go beyond the contract also. Over the years, customized partially trade oriented outlook has observed progress of individuals as the main asset for getting good performance in the business.
Personnel management is basically a record keeping function at operational level, PM maintains fair terms and conditions of employment, efficiently managing personnel activities. HRM stimulates development of the organization by facilitating the causes of problems and promoting the employees to expand their knowledge, it also develops organizational innovation by improving an employee’s creativity. (Storey, 2016)

1.3 Implications of line manager and employees of developing a strategic approach

There are lots of implications for both line manager and an employee at Waitrose when developing a strategic approach. Line manager collects approaches with overall leadership style, organizational culture, goals and business policies. HRM aspects changing the leadership style, hierarchy in senior management, rotation of responsibilities and departments can present lots of implications since line managers has to avoid devising approaches.
For employees at Waitrose, the implication range from fluctuation of remuneration, job security and bonuses that are based on their contribution and performances to the success of the team member.  Although line managers have been involved in managing HR, it is within HRM that their involvement has been placed centre stage as a core element of HR approach (Hill.et.al, 2014). The participation of both line manager and employees is always re-assessed, as responsibilities are changing every day.

Task 2

2.1 Models of Flexibility in Waitrose Organisation

Flexibility in an organisation refers to the ability of the management to shift the employees to other duties and responsibility within the organisation. The change in the organisation is done for the benefit of the both employers and employees to achieve the individual and business needs. Flexibility at workplace enables the Waitrose organisation to decide when the changes should take place (time), where it should it take place (location) and how employees will work (manner) to meet the objectives of business. There are mainly three types of flexibility models i.e. functional, numerical and financial flexibility model. Waitrose organisation uses functional flexibility as the employees work in teams to adapt the changes in the current conditions and requirement which can be done through training, development and outsourcing. For example: multi skilling. The main strategy to use this model is that the employees become resourceful and show their fast growth in jobs (Cogin and Boedker, 2014).

The model focuses on the outsourcing, sub-contracting, self employment and agencies temporaries. These are external people of the organisation but affect the functioning of the organisation. The internal model focuses on the different job sector. With flexibility model the organisation could enhance the productivity, job satisfaction, work life balance, profitability in long run, retention of employees, employee’s loyalty, less absenteeism etc. that would help in achieving the objectives of the organisation. Waitrose can use other model of flexibility in their business which would involve multiple shifting, overtime schedules etc. to meet the standards of workplace flexibility (Chang et.al. 2013).

2.2 Types of flexibility

Flexibility is an important tool for implementation of new ideas for efficient functioning and operations of the business so that resources can be used to maximum for achieving the competitive advantage. There are different types of flexibility in the business environment. Waitrose can use this type for flexibility because this organisation owned largest employees in his business.

• Numerical flexibility- This type of flexibility gives authority to the management to adjust the quantity of labour to manage the fluctuations in demand pattern of the labour. By using this flexibility, manager would know the requirement for labour and they can enter into short term contracts with the labour at the time of tip season. The other benefit would be that the managers could manage the demand and supply activities efficiently (Bamel and Stokes, 2016).
• Functional flexibility- The most resourceful type of activity for the Waitrose organisation as it focuses on multi skilling and team work to meet the desired objectives. The main purpose to use functional flexibility is that it put the best people at the best place to have a best effect on the services of the organisation. On the other hand, organisation would pay employees on the basis of performance rather on standard pay structure.
• Financial flexibility- It refers to the ability of the organisation to counter on sudden expenses and investment opportunities. It is usually used to analyse the cash holdings and investment in terms of costing. In management term it also manages the cost of external labour market. The objective is this flexibility is to ensure the workings of the functional and numerical flexibility (Florén et.al. 2014).

2.3 Use of flexible working practices for both employer and employee

In the current scenario, the flexibility at workplace is important to manage the work life balance that could improve the demand of the work as well demand of the home life. The use of flexibility for employees would be that they will be more productive in their work that would be beneficial for both employee and employer. The employee will get job security and job satisfaction which will improve their performance and thus retention for long time in the organisation. With flexibility, employees also get motivated to adapt the new changes in the environment and they will not resist taking the new opportunities. For motivation, managers consider the needs of individual employee and help them in fulfilling their needs (Hughes and Stephens, 2016). Flexibility involves flexible working hours, work from home and use of technological equipments, performance based incentives are the key points that promotes flexibility for employees at workplace.
The Wait rose employers are benefited with the use of flexibility as their operations would not be interrupted due to less absenteeism, retention and commitments of employees, maximum use of available resources. With the flexibility, employers are in position to attract the qualified workforce for their business; they can hire experienced staff of the competitors business by assuring flexible firm advantage. Further, employers can save their fixed cost in recruitment and selection criteria.

2.4 Impact of changes in the labour market

Human resource are the key drivers of any organisation whether production or service organisation. Therefore to manage the human resources the organisations had framed the separate department for managing the human staff. Waitrose is the leading food retail division having 350 branches across UK owning largest employees division in his business so the organisation would have a great impact of change in the labour market and has to face this impact. The impacts can be positive and negative on the operations of the business. The positive impact would be the employees will be able to adapt the changes with the flexible workplace practices and management will get the advantage of hiring the diverse and qualified workforce by attracting towards their organisation for flexible workings (Forde and Slater, 2016).
The other impact could be of the technology advancement, sometimes it has seen in organisation that employees are not ready to adapt the new technology may be because of lack of knowledge and business skill. The manager has to give training sessions to the employees which is time and cost consuming process which affects the organisation operations. The positive impact of technology would be that it able to attract the customer towards their services by providing online services that would increase their profits. Flexible model also explains on the importance of hiring the employees through hiring agencies which would save the cost of Waitrose on training programs. The other impact would be on flexible working is that female candidate or employees are given equal chances (Baruch et.al. 2014).

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Task 3

3.1 Forms of discrimination at workplace     

Discrimination is a detrimental treatment towards a person which is done mostly on the basis of sex, colour, race, age, etc. The forms are discussed more effectively below:

• Discrimination based on race or ethnicity:  The discrimination which based on race is strictly prohibited by law, but still at workplaces it exists. Employee experiences racial discrimination in the form of harassment around the work place, called as racial slurs or having critical remarks made towards them regarding their looks, skin, skin colour and appearances. Other racial discrimination includes negative or preferential treatment, which is passed up for a promotion or being paid at a different rate because of race (Nadal, 2013). Waitrose does not discriminate their employees on the basis of race and ethnicity, as it is a very big crime.
• Discrimination based on sex:  Sexual harassment is one of the biggest discrimination which is very common at work place. Sex based discrimination may also involves preferential or negative treatment, which may be passed over for a promotion, or due to gender inequality, both men and women can be the victim of this. Positive action approaches which encourage or offer support specifically to men or women and this positive action is allowed under sex discrimination laws
• Discrimination based on religion:  Religion based discrimination involves treating an employee unfairly because of religious association. Waitrose make reasonable accommodations for religious employees, regardless of their religion, which may include flexible scheduling to allow them to worship, allowing them to wear clothes associated with their religion, allowing them to follow a religion’s grooming policies, so it does  not make an undue hardship on business.
• Discrimination based on disability:  Disability discrimination arising with a faster rate, employee with a wheelchair or one of his/her hand is not working, is discriminated from other employees, which is a crime and there are laws against it in UK. Waitrose provides special sitting arrangements for such disabled employees; care is taken at every moment. Employer may ask for a certificate of disability from the employee to provide them other benefits due to their disability.
• Discrimination based on financial condition:  Financially rich employees discriminate with poor employees. This develops a sense of complexity among them, which affects the working efficiency and makes the morale of employees low (Grollman, 2014).
• Discrimination based on age:  In this discrimination, employees make groups according their age groups. Young employee makes their group and tries to avoid old age employees, which disturbs the working culture of the organization.

3.2 Practical implications of equal opportunities legislation

Equal opportunities policies are been used in workplace to protect employees from any type discriminatory,  it promotes an idea that every individual has a right and equal chance to apply for jobs, promotions and get job benefits. Through this equal opportunity legislation, discriminations like gender, single parents, sex, religion, race; disability has been reduced a lot. The success of the new legislation is promoting equality will also be influenced by various political, social and economic factors, with initiatives within organization (Sowell, 2015). Due to practical implication of equal opportunity legislation, the benefits are as follows:

• Employer may be responsible for any type of sexual harassment of employees at the workplace
• It will include definitions of indirect discrimination and particularly of indirect discrimination on the basis of gender.
• The definition of pay to exclude pension rights.
• Provision for organizations to take a positive action to promote equal opportunities for disabled people and women.
• This act would set up an equality authority, which will work to eliminate discrimination and promote equal opportunities for all. (Barack.et.at, 2013)

3.3 Comparison of diversity and equal opportunity approaches

Diversity means using the employee’s skills and capabilities in best manner to perform the different task in the efficient way and equal opportunity means giving equal opportunity to every employee irrespective of discrimination at workplace. Both have different approaches in the functioning of the Waitrose. Diversity manages the available resources at minimum cost and increase the capacity of employees (Richard et.al. 2013). The chief comparisons between the two are:

Table 1: Comparison between Equal Opportunity and Diversity Approach

Task 4

4.1 Comparing the methods of managing the performance

Evaluating the performance of the employees is an important task for the management to know the efficiency of the human resources. With this the Waitrose is in condition to know the requirement of training and development sessions. There are different methods for measuring the performances are:

Management by objectives- This model is in trend, the organisation uses this model to distribute the work between the management and teams. The objective is to fulfil the goal of the business by linking with the individuals goals of the teams to meet the benchmark targets. The benefits if using this method is that the results are pre-determined (Shields et.al. 2015).

Rating method- This is the common method for monitoring the performances. Waitrose monitor performances through the feedback process and then rate the employees on the basis of the feedback. Feedback are usually collected from customers through mails about asking about the employees services, their behaviour and interaction with them etc. and can also be collected from the internal employees also.

360 degree feedback- It is the most efficient and commonly used tool in the current scenario of the global organisation. In this employee or manager receives the confidential and other feedback from around the people. It helps in understanding the strength and weaknesses of the employees. Though it is difficult to implement but prove to be fruitful in knowing the behaviour and competencies of the employees for monitoring the performances. Feedbacks are collected in the same as in rating method (Van Dooren et.al. 2015).

 4.2 Welfare approaches followed by organisation

The organisation needs to motivate the employee for the effective functioning of the organisation. For that the welfare culture at workplace plays an important role in Waitrose organisation. The organisation also promotes this activity on their part to maintain their image worldwide. This is done through providing flexibility in working hours, special advantages to female employees like safety and security, equal participation in decision making etc. Waitrose follows two types of approaches for welfare:

Intra mural facilities- The organisation use this welfare approach within the Waitrose. The facilities like:

• Healthy working conditions at workplace (Lamba and Choudhary, 2013)
• Safety and security with medical benefits
• Canteen facility, RO water drinking, provident fund, library facility etc
• Labour committee like trade union to resolve the labour issues and all other facilities that are specifically framed by the UK government for the welfare of employees.

Extra mural facilities- These facilities are outside the Waitrose organisation. Like:

• Transportation facilities
• Medical and health care facility
• Maternity benefits to female staff
• Entertainment and cultural events & programmes
• Sports activity like swimming, indoor games, sports events etc.

The above welfare activity will improve the productivity of the Waitrose employees which would help in achieving the targeted outcomes for the organisation (Teti and Andriotto, 2013).

4.3 Implications of health and safety legislation on human resource practices

The UK government has provided various guidelines for the health and safety of the employees as human resource practices in the organisation. Waitrose organisation lay down these guidelines in their business to take care of the valuable human resources. The HR manager needs to show their concern about the health and safety of the employees. The importance of this issue is that the employees should aware about the health tips through visits of renowned doctors in the training program. The managers should involve in the interaction with the individuals on the environmental topics. They can even incorporate the study about the behavioural science which can be circulated through the business journals and business magazines (Celma et.al. 2014). The employees should have knowledge that how to response in an emergency situation or in the event disaster.
Waitrose organisation had to place the heavy safety equipments like fire extinguishers, alternate site locations, waterproofing tiles to avoid the flood situations etc. though the cost of deploying this equipments are heavy at initials but it is necessary to gain the employees trust and job retention and job satisfaction in long term achievements. The management can show their responsibility through commitments and well being issues of the employees through following the self assessment standards. The policies and well being practices should be framed by the human resource management to improve the health of the employees. Other heath facilities like clean drinking water, hygienic canteens, sanitary toilets etc. should be maintained (Wilton, 2016).

4.4 Impact of issues on practices of human resources in current scenario

There are several issues that would impact the practices of human resources in the Waitrose organisation. This are:

• Change in Management- Though many organisations may not focus on this issue but the due consideration should be given to this in every organisation. It had a great impact on the personnel management to face the change initiatives. The HR professionals should continue to provide the training to exploit the competencies of the individuals to deal with the change (Kehoe and Wright, 2013).
• Leadership Development- Firstly the leaders should be efficient enough to move the team in one direction. It is mostly identified that the leadership development is the strategic issue for leading and retaining the employee. The leader should support the performance and culture of the organisation to gain market position. Managers should take the initiatives to take the role of leaders to assist the human resources practices in positive way to achieve the viability in long run.
• Technological Advancement- In today’s business environment, technology is the forte for the organisation to maintain the sustainability and achieve competitive advantage. Technological tools would have a positive impact in Waitrose by meeting customer’s demands and offering them discounts and informing them about the fresh arrivals through organisation websites. Though on contrary the organisation need to spend their funds on acquiring the ICT tools and providing training to the employees to adopt the new techniques instantly in their jobs to maintain the exiting image to the newer heights (Alfes et.al. 2013).

Conclusion

In the current study, the report had described about the human resource management as an important part for the effective functioning of the Waitrose. It had summarised the Guest model of HRM and Storey’s definition of personnel management and IR practices concisely. Further, it had highlighted the models and types of flexibility at Waitrose workplace along with its execution. In the next task, the report had put emphasis on Equal Opportunity Act and determined the measures for monitoring the performances. Finally, it had thrown the light on health and safety issues at workplace with its impacts on human resources practices at Waitrose.

References

Books and Journals

Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), pp.330-351.
Bamel, U. and Stokes, P., 2016. Flexible HR Practice. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management.
Barak, M.E.M., 2013. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.
Baruch, Y., Sayce, S. and Gregoriou, A., 2014. Retirement in a global labour market: a call for abolishing the fixed retirement age. Personnel Review, 43(3), pp.464-482.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.
Celma, D., Martínez?Garcia, E. and Coenders, G., 2014. Corporate social responsibility in human resource management: an analysis of common practices and their determinants in Spain. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 21(2), pp.82-99.
Chang, S., Gong, Y., Way, S.A. and Jia, L., 2013. Flexibility-oriented HRM systems, absorptive capacity, and market responsiveness and firm innovativeness. Journal of Management, 39(7), pp.1924-1951.
Cogin, J.A. and Boedker, C., 2014, January. How HRM adds Value to a Firm: The Mediating Effects of Flexibility and Capital in the Service Sector. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2014, No. 1, p. 10094). Academy of Management.