Responsibilities of a Human Resource Manager in different work sectors

PART 1: Recruitment and Selection

Task 1: Knowledge (LO 1)

a) Explaining the Aim of Workforce Planning and the Role of the HR Manager in Workforce Planning and Rourcing for Woodhill College

HR managers play a vital role in the development of workforce planning and build several kinds of strategies for its successful growth in society. According to Ash et al. (2013, p. 94), an HR manager is a key element for the organization as it recruits and hires well-skilled and well-trained employees to the company. Employees are the backbone of an organization, so it is the HR manager's responsibility to hire efficient workers in an education institute like Woodhill. HR managers build several strategies for selecting and recruiting employees and management, such as giving job vacancy advertisements on the internet, in newspapers, and magazines, and putting hoardings in the street.

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An HR manager needs to make freshers and job seekers aware of the job vacancy in the company; hence, it is through the process of marketing strategies. The main purpose or aim of the HR manager for workforce planning at Woodhill College is to fulfill its goal and target as soon as possible. The goal of this organization is to fulfill the crisis of employee deficiency in the company. As stated by Van den Brink et al. (2010), p. 1460, deficiencies in the staff and employees will hamper the growth, stability, and progress of the organization. It is through the HR manager that the company will be able to achieve its goal successfully and reach its success. The HR manager selection process helps the company to get optimistic, well-qualified, well-deserved, knowledgeable, well-trained, and well-skilled workers; even the HR department provides essential training to the workers for organizational success.

The resources plan of an HR manager is quite vast and influential for an institute like Woodhills College; it is the main HR manager's responsibility and role to recruit efficient workers in the company. To fulfill this criterion, an HR manager follows important rules and policies before selecting and recruiting workers. HR managers work under the law and policy of the government; they follow some of the important acts like the Equality Act of 2010, the Sex Act, the Raising Act amended in 2010, and norms of ethical values before selecting and recruiting candidates for an organization. HR managers have to select their employees without any biases, partialities, discrimination, or racism; any kind of discrimination based on religion, culture, tradition, caste, creed, color, ethnicity, or gender should be strictly avoided by an HR manager (Rees and Rumbles, 2010, p. 170).

Through the HR resource process, the workers get good working conditions, their fundamental rights are maintained, flexible working hours are provided, they get skilled training, compensation, sick and maternity leaves, and if any conflict or issue occurs for an employee, it is HR manager duty to solve it immediately. Furtmueller et al. (2011, p. 245) mentioned that the employees, as well as the company, get massive and important help through the role and resources of the HR manager. It is an HR manager's role and responsibility to verify all the qualifications and personal details of the employee before hiring in the company. An HR manager of the company conducts the final round of the interview and it is totally in its hands to recruit the employee The communication skill of an employee plays a vital role in the recruitment process of HR. HR of Woodhill College needs to play its role and responsibility properly and use its resources efficiently.

b) Explaining the Weaknesses and Strengths of Different Approaches to Recruitment and Selection

The recruitment and selection process for employees comprises two aspects: its strengths and weaknesses. According to Hays and Singer (2012, p. 31), companies get several kinds of benefits through the recruitment and selection process of an HR manager; the manager plays an integral part in an organization's growth, success, and stability in society. The importance of strengths in the different approaches of the selection and recruitment process is as follows: it is through HR manager strategies that the company goals and targets are achieved. Companies such as Woodhill College get efficient, talented, smart, energetic, well-skilled, good communication skills, and well-qualified candidates for their company. Workers are the pillar of an organization; without their hard work and efficient talent, the organization will not be able to achieve its goal and success in society.

The company, as well as its employees, get several benefits and advantages through the different approaches to the recruitment and selection process. As stated by Salas et al. (2012, p.75), good working conditions are provided by the company, scope of promotion and incentive is high, flexible working hours are provided, skilled training free of cost is also provided to the employees, funds, compensation, holidays, sick and maternity leaves provided, and most importantly, an employee cannot be terminated without discussion with HR manager. Any kind of disparity or conflict occurs between the employee-manager, who takes instant action to resolve it.

Several kinds of weaknesses are noticed in the recruitment and selection process through its different approaches; this creates a negative impact on the performance of HR managers and hampers the workflow. The weakness of the selection and recruitment through different approaches has many aspects; some of them are as follows: Many times it has been found that the employee does not submit their original documents and lies about their personal and qualification details. In that case, the company recruits inefficient workers, and as a result, the workflow of the organization is hampered, and the entire blame of workers not performing well is put on the HR manager's head. Marketing strategy for the recruiting and selecting process is considerably expensive and time-consuming; most of the time it has been seen that the right candidate does not respond properly, and lots of time is wasted searching for the right candidates at the right time (Saks and Burke, 2012, p. 120).

Searching online for candidates creates quite a stress to the HR department for selecting the candidates; most of the time, workers do not respond or do not come for an interview, do not receive phone calls from the recruiters, and sometimes speak rudely with the recruiters also. Therefore, these are the important strengths and weaknesses of the selection and recruiting process through different approaches. An HR manager of Woodhill College must look after all these criteria for fulfilling the goal of the college.

Task 2: Application (LO 4)

As Woodhill College has experienced major staff turnover, it is looking for an efficient teaching assistant. The college requires an English professor at the college. The major skills required for the English professor at Woodhill College include reading efficiency, speech clarity, active listening skills, and critical thinking ability. The professor needs to guide and assist the students with learning strategies. Identifying the complicated problems students face in their daily lessons and resolving those effectively is another criterion for the English professor. The professor needs to have the assessment ability to monitor the performance of the students and assess them based on their skills. The professor needs to foster creativity and innovation among the literature students to make them competent to deliver better perspectives on the lessons they are learning.

a) Creating a Job Advertisement for an English Professor at Woodhill College

b) Identifying Suitable Platforms to Place the Advertisement

Apart from different job websites, the most suitable platform for placing this advertisement is all the local newspapers and magazines of the region. Considering the impact of digital platforms in today's time, posting this advertisement on different blogs of reputed educators and academicians will be a highly effective option. Other than this, social networking websites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook will be ideal platforms for placing this advertisement to catch the maximum attention of teaching professionals.

c) Preparing a Job Specification and Person Specification for the English Professor

Job Specification: The candidate must be able to teach courses related to the English language, linguistics, literature, and comparative literature. The teacher needs to moderate the classroom discussions more efficiently, prepare the required course material, and prepare and deliver the lectures to both undergraduate and graduate students. Moreover, the professor needs to maintain an attendance record. Planning, evaluating, and revising the curriculum along with the course content needs to be done under the supervision of the professor.

Person specification: The candidates must be creative, alert, and flexible for work-working lex situations. Moreover, they should have planning and team-building efficiency. The candidates must have strong communication skills. On a personal level, the candidates must be patient and consistent. Among the special skills, the candidates need to have supervisory skills and stress management skills.

PART 2: Employee Performance, Development, and Reward

Task 3 (LO 2)

a) Explaining the Difference Between Training and Development

Human resource management has two major operational areas that include providing training to the employees and ensuring overall development. The department aims to improve the productivity of the employees in all sectors of an organization. According to Olexova (2014, p.96), training gradually develops the skills and knowledge of the employees, helping them to grow as better performers. On the other hand, development is a process under which the entire workforce of the organization grows and ensures the productivity elevation of the organization at the same time. In the case of Tesco, both training and development are required to retain the existing employees.

However, the newly appointed HR department of the company needs to consider the basic differences between the training and development process. As per Phillips and Phillips (2016, p.56), training is considered a learning process that enables the employees to grow their skills and knowledge, whereas development can be regarded as an educational process that looks at the overall growth of the employees. Training is a short-term process, while development is needed for long-term impact. Development is a more career-oriented process, while training is job-oriented. The prime objective of development is to prepare the employees for future growth, whereas training aims to improve the performance of the employees. Training is related to specific jobs, whereas the development process encompasses the improvement of the overall knowledge of the employees.

b) Explaining How Changes in Customer Expectations Affected Tesco and Its Need to Train Staff

As Tesco has grown as one of the biggest retail outlets in the United Kingdom over time, customer expectations have also developed at the same time. Tesco has already diversified its business and expanded from its primary products like grocery to insurance and banking services, telephone equipment, electrical goods, and more. With the concept of ‘one-stop shopping,' Tesco has become quite successful in catering to customer needs. However, as the new product lines have also included, Tesco needed more qualified and skilled employees to meet customer expectations at every level of their service. To satisfy the customers with better service quality and tell them about the new product lines, employee training became a mandatory option for Tesco.

 Other than this, when an organization goes for geographic expansion, the choices and preferences for services become diversified automatically (Albert et al. 2010, p.316). To understand and cater to the needs and expectations of the customers, Tesco needed to train its employees and infuse the understanding of the demand structure more prominently. Moreover, they needed to train their employees regarding how to approach the customers with the new product range Tesco has incorporated in all their stores.

c) Describe the Methods of Training of Tesco

Training needs to be a systematic approach that can enable organizations to make employees more proficient and competent over time. According to Hays and Singer (2012, p. 65), organizations need to prepare strong strategies that will keep the employees prepared to highlight their best results in difficult times. Following the traditional yet advanced approach to training, Tesco has started two different training processes that include both on-the-job and off-the-job training. To carry out the off-the-job training, Tesco made the employees attend several training courses conducted by professionals and experts within as well as outside the organization.

Among the on-the-job training methods, shadowing is the most significant approach where the existing employees in specific job roles help the trainees understand the work process (Teece, 2010, p. 173). Apart from shadowing, Tesco has also incorporated coaching and mentoring methods where the employees with high designations advise and train the trainees to combat the problems related to the job and motivate them to find out the solutions by themselves. Job rotation is another training process that helps the employees fulfill the required job targets by changing their positions.

d) Explaining the Process of Identifying Training Needs

The general process of identifying the requirements of the training is set based on the organizational objectives. In the case of Tesco, as the organization is on the verge of expanding its business, understanding the diversification approaches is the prime organizational objective in the present state. To achieve the business targets, the organization needs to segregate the training needs between the in-store and off-store employees. In the case of in-store employees, the basic organizational demand is to make them competent enough to understand the customer needs of the new stores.

According to Bock et al. (2012, p.281), employees with a strong set of skills and knowledge are more prone to resolve workplace issues more promptly compared to the government. In the case of Tesco, the employees needed to train about the profiles of the new customers from the new locations, and based on that, they will be able to submit their requirements for the inventory. Other than this, the training team of Tesco needs to identify the knowledge gaps of the employees that need to be fulfilled to make the employees competent to fulfill the development needs of the organization. Moreover, the employees are required to get training on the diversified culture, approach, and language of the customers that will help them to improve their service quality in the new zone.

e) Evaluating the Advantages of Tesco and the Employees in Organizing a Training Program

According to Cardy and Lengnick-Hall (2011, p. 215), structured and well-organized training programs are considered the approaches and techniques utilized to improve the skills and potential of the employees. It is quite evident that a systematic approach to training is reflected in the performance of the employees along with the prompt growth of the organization. In the case of Tesco, the organization monitors the employee performance more closely and evaluates their performance based on the performance feedback. To derive optimum advantages of the structured training process, Tesco has put the employees in different scenarios and provided them with the necessary support that is required to perform the tasks.

Both the employees and the organization have derived enough advantages that help them to cater to the customer needs more proficiently. Moreover, the employees have achieved in-depth knowledge regarding the professional approach to dealing with customers. The training provided by the experts enabled the employees to improve their efficiency level in their existing job roles. As a result, the employees have received the required motivation to retain their jobs with the organization. The ability of the employees to deal with crises utilizing the knowledge and skills they get from structured training has made the organization more competent than the competition. In the long run, the employees have become the prime assets of Tesco as they learn to resolve the challenges.

f) Indicating the Extent to Which You Think the Training Has Achieved a Return on Investment

Whether any specific training process has successfully achieved a return on investment or not is being assessed based on a few determinants. Direct cost, indirect cost, employee efficiency, performance growth, received income; behavioral change, and productivity are some of the key determining factors that justify the success of any training process (Phillips, 2012, p.13). In the case of Tesco, the structured training program has delivered positive outcomes and ensured continuous growth in the company's business.

Over time, it has become quite evident that Tesco has achieved positive customer reactions for their successful service quality in both in-store as well as non-store business sectors. In the current year, the total profit achieved by the organization is over 3 billion pounds. Moreover, in the United Kingdom, Tesco has established around 2,200 stores and created small expresses of Tesco by breaking down their previous structure of hypermarket style. Considering this statistical approach, it can be said that Tesco has successfully received its return on the investment. Their noticeable growth in business operations also justifies that the training infrastructure has helped the organization fulfill its objectives successfully.

g) Suggesting Approaches to Flexibility That Tesco Can Utilize to Expand the Business

To expand the business, organizations are opting for several flexible approaches to increase the benefits derived by the organization. According to Sandhya and Kumar (2011, p.1780), the continual success of a business is determined by various flexible approaches adopted by organizations for generating sustainable benefits for employees. It is also essential to adopt the flexibility approaches more sincerely and push them beyond the statutory minimum. In the case of Tesco, there are some flexibility approaches it can introduce for retaining its employees and ensuring the successful expansion of its business. Firstly, the adaptation of advanced technology is highly required to ensure increased productivity from the employees.

Moreover, it is required for Tesco to select its locations for business expansion more prominently so that both the local employees and customers find it easy to make Tesco stores their first preference. Blending with the diversified shopping habits of the customers and offering products based on specific requirements will prove to be a flexible approach for Tesco as well. Incorporating newly generated societal values and considering the constantly changing demographics are the other two major flexibility approaches that will help Tesco expand its business successfully. Retention of experienced employees, encouraging female employees, increasing the participation of the employees, and promoting the trainees to achieve the organizational objectives are the other options for flexible approaches that will accelerate organizational growth.

PART 3: Employment Relationship

Task 4 (LO 3)

a) Analyzing theImportance of Maintaining Good Employee Relationships and Evaluating Its Impact on the HR Decisions of ITV

An organization must promote healthy employee relations for the sake of sustaining the core organizational structure intact and effective. According to Carleton (2011, p. 461), strong employee relations not only help in the process of employee retention, but they ensure organizational growth. Strong relationships and bonding among the employees let them share their values and significantly promote their behavior within the workplace. The practices related to employee relationships increase the productivity of the employees and provide deserved recognition to the employees. Moreover, the practices involving employee relations help the human resource department in developing organizational policies.

As per James and Mathew (2012, p.85), to make the employees competent in dealing with complex organizational environments and outperform, the human resource department of the organizations fosters the employee relationship. The most common practices HRM performs are related to communication within the organization. Downward communication is the very first system the HRM incorporates to foster strong employee relations under which the employer communicates with the employees. The upward communication, where the direction is directed from employees to the employer, is the less practiced employee relations operation, whereas the horizontal communication, involving the employees of different levels, is the most effective communication process to strengthen employee relations.

ITV has adopted its technique of maintaining an employee relationship, as its approach to creating strong employee relations is related to the engagement of the employees. The organization follows a series of combined methods that include collective bargaining and consultation with the elected representative of the employees. Moreover, the organization focuses on engaging the employees directly. As the success of the company has been quite essential for the past success of the company, HR tends to utilize direct communication methods for fostering employee engagement. ITV has used the intranet, popularly recognized as Watercooler, that provides online updates related to the organizational news daily. Moreover, the company engages the employees who remain offline most of the time by sending out weekly updates regarding the company.

The HR also enters collective consultation with the employee representatives as they generate information regarding the overall workforce of the organization (Bal et al. 2013, p.550). This process enables the HR of ITV to get relevant information related to the level of changes becoming effective because of the involvement of the employees. The HR has prepared 15 groups of consultations for different business purposes. On the other hand, ITV also utilizes the method of collective bargaining to involve employees in new work practices. As a result, the company derives significant benefits related to change management and makes the employees feel respected.

The specific approach of the company helps HR to follow a systematic pattern for strengthening employee relations. At the first stage, the HRM delivers the proposals, grants the feedback and responses from the employee representatives, and takes the necessary actions. However, the collective bargaining approach does not ensure satisfactory engagement that is prepared based on the responsibilities of the line managers, the HR policies, and the effective horizontal communication process among the employees of ITV. Other than this, the absence of a negotiation process further complicates the actions that HR needs to take at some points while dealing with critical employee issues.

b) Identifying the Key Elements in the Employment Legislation and Explaining Its Impact on Itv's HR Decision

Employers adopt several HR practices to ensure prolonged business growth and strong employee retention. The regulations related to employment legislation have left a significant impact on the multiple levels of HR practices in ITV. Some of the major employment legislations that have an impact on the HR practices of ITV include Health and Safety regulations, Agency Workers regulations, and Time Directive regulations. Moreover, the Dismissal and Redundancy Regulation is significant legislation related to employment that influences HR practices in crisis (Markos and Sridevi, 2010, p. 91).

However, HR does not take account of these regulations in most cases, as they do not count legislation as the key driver for carrying out the practices effectively. The employers and human resource management that follow the legislation minutely to carry out the functions related to staff management, employee retention, and maintaining morale often become confident (Teece, 2010, p. 192). As ITV does not follow the employment legislation minutely, the organization often faces the fear of litigation. Moreover, HR practices often fail to comply with the legislation because of its informal approach to HR practices. In various cases, the HRM feels that informal practices can lead to strengthening the relationships among the employees and successfully establishing managerial autonomy (Carleton, 2011, p. 465). Communication regarding the regulations and policies is highly required for strengthening the formal culture within the organization. However, the direct communication process taken up by ITV does not include the exchange of information regarding legislation.

Conclusion

Based on the above discussion, it can be summarised that human resource management has some fundamental contributions in carrying out the work process more efficiently. The discussion has highlighted the functionalities of human resource management in different organizations. Moreover, the discussion has focused on the three basic functionalities of human resource management individually, which include recruitment, selection, employee development, and employee relationships.

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Reference List

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