Assignment on Human Resource Management (HRM)

 

Abstract/Executive Summary

 HRM is the most important element of an organization which helps the organization to reach its desire goal. HRM do a lot of jobs from recruiting to cessation. British Gas is the biggest and well reputed energy company of the UK and they are supplying various kinds of products and services. HR manages the recruiting, motivation and reward and cessation. HR makes British Gas a unique company in the UK and they are far away from other energy suppliers.

Introduction:

Human resource management means the management of a business’s or an organization’s human resource. Its task is selection, attraction, training, rewarding, assessment of employees and forecasting organizational culture and leadership and ensuring compliance with employment and labour laws. HR also makes a good relation with collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and other labour unions. Human relations movement create HR which creates business value through the strategic movement of the employees. At the beginning of HRM, it was only responsible for benefits and payroll administration works. But later company consolidation, globalization, technological advancement and research, HR now concentrate on strategic initiatives like talent management, planning, mergers and acquisitions, succession planning, labour relations, industrial and diversity and inclusion. A newly setup companies have trained professionals or non HR personnel, but big companies have well trained and specialized HR professionals for individual departments. Now there are many institutes or education centres to teach this profession and most of the organizations arrange training to teach HR to their employees.

British gas is the UK’s best well known energy brand and largest energy supplier. The UK energy market is very vibrant. Clients are looking for better deals and if they find better services and deals they switch suppliers. So it is very competitive market and all organizations are trying to provide better services and products. For providing better and better service and products they must have skilled workforce otherwise it is quite impossible to reach its desire goal. HRM helps to get skilled workforce and trained and operate them in most effective ways to get the organization’s goal.

1.        Personnel Management and Human Resource Management

Personnel management and human resource management is quite similar but there are some philosophical change. Personnel management mainly related to administrative works like obeying with employment law, dealing with payroll, and handling related tasks. On contrary, Human resource is responsible for controlling and managing the workforce which has direct contribution to the success of an organization. Human resource has more working scope than personnel management. Human resource management is responsible to develop and incorporate personal management tasks of the workers to increase the reputation of the organization. It helps an employee to maximize his efficiency. Personnel management includes traditional and routine administrative works.

Human resource is proactive, which involves continuous development of policies and functions to improve an organization’s workforces. Personnel management is often considering as a self-regulating function of an organization. On the other hand, HRM is an integral part of whole company function. Personnel management is the single responsibility of an organization’s personnel development. With human resource, all the managers are working together to reach the organization’s goal and they work on their personnel department. Personnel management motivate employees regarding bonuses, compensation, simplification of work responsibility and rewards to improve their performance. On the other hand, HRM hold this performance.  

In British Gas, all individual departments are responsible for their own personnel tasks which are prescribed as personnel management task; when all the departments work together to reach British Gas’s goal with maximum employees effectiveness then it called human resource management task.    

The HRM is responsible for those specific functions like

·          Recruitment

·          Benefits and compensations

·          Training

·          Reporting

·          Performance management

·          Personal administration

·          Leadership development

·       Legal compliant processes

The HRM function plays the role of caring unit of the human capital which allow the organization internally efficient and to stay competitive in external market. It is a continuous investment of money to train current stuffs. HRM function is generally considered as a reliable business partner of an organization. Without creativity HRM function is really worthless; creativity introduce functioning value to management population to have a trust. The HRM function is about a trust. To build trust and rapport among the management population it needs time. HRM has a vision and it always works upon that and other managers especially line managers’ help HRM to reach its goal. For getting perfect result or reaching its desire destination, normally it takes 3 years. HRM works as a finance department of an organization as it develops procedures, processes and tools for the line and top managements to conduct and mange the process in their individual department.

  

Line managers are those to whom every employees or team report directly and who is responsible to inform his higher management level about those teams or employees. Line manager is a bottom line manager.  Line managers monitor employees and give their reports to their department heads. All employees are related to HR department, line manager and employees organization. Line manager plays an important role in recruitment. If line manager needs employees for his work, he first informs HR and then HR analysis the field and mange some people to recruit. Line manager plays an important role in selection of employees as he takes the interviews. After the selection of employees, he provides sufficient training or mange some training as if he can’t train them directly. In most of the cases line manager need to communicate properly to HRM. Line manager monitors employees’ performance in workplace. If any employees need any kind of incentives or special training, line manger inform HR or his departmental head to provide those to increase the efficiency of employees. If employees work effectively, it is easy to reach the desire destination of an organization. Line manager always has good connection with HRM. Line manager do day-to-day people management, quality checking, work progress monitoring, operational performance measuring, customer dealing, allocating work and rotas, providing technical expertise, managing operational costs and so on.

          

Legal framework in HRM acts, Retrieve on: 30/12/11, Available on:http://www.docstoc.com/docs/27083226/LEGAL-FRAMEWORK-IN-HRM--ACTS

HRM has various legal and regulatory frameworks on stuffing, compensations and benefits, employee regulation and employee maintenance and welfares. For stuffing there are various acts like the child labour act-1986, the employment exchange (compulsory notification of vacancies) act-1959, the apprentice act- 1961, the contract labour (regulation and abolition) act-1970 and bonded labourer (abolition) act-1976. For compensations and benefits there are some acts like the payment of wages act-1936, the minimum wages act-1936, the payment of bonus act-1965, the equal remuneration act-1976. Employee maintenance/welfare acts are the factories act-1948, the employees provident fund act-1952, employee’s state insurance act-1948, payment of gratuity act-1972, the workmen’s compensations act-1923, the maternity act-1961, the nines act-1952, the plantation act-1951, the motor transport workers act-1961, the Indian electricity act, the pesticides at, the boiler act, the environment protection act. The employee regulation acts are the trade union act-1926, the industrial dispute act-1947, the industrial employment (standing orders) act- 1946, the sales promotion employees (condition of service) act-1976.

                         

  

Legal framework in HRM acts, Retrieve on: 30/12/11, Available on:http://www.docstoc.com/docs/27083226/LEGAL-FRAMEWORK-IN-HRM--ACTS

1.      Those legal and regulatory frameworks have a great impact on HRM. HRM needs to follow those acts in the business environment. If HRM does not follow those acts, if anyone inform it to any law enforcing force, they will take immediate steps against the company. So HRM are responsible to practice those acts in the organization for smooth operation.    

2.

The human resource planning process begins with considering the organizational strategies and objectives. Then both internal and external assessment of HR needs and supply sources must be evaluated and predictions build up. Human resource planning process is very important for British Gas. British Gas is the largest and most promising energy supplier in the UK. British Gas needs to maintain the competitive position of the company within the energy market. UK customers are very dynamic and they are always looking for better standards and services. For providing highest standards and services British Gas needs high-level skills and expertises. Highly skilled HRM will help to select those people for BG. After selection those people need top quality training to compete with other companies and learn new technologies. British Gas is doing good profit in the UK because they provide high standard of products and services with competitive price. British Gas has top class engineering team and they need more highly skilled engineers. HR planning process help to recruit those engineers and it is really cost effective as they are skilled they need less training. HR planning process help British Gas to do more profit and maintain its high standard of service and products.  

1.1   

Human resource planning is very important to meet business goals and gain a competitive advantage over competitors. It compares the present condition of the organization with its destination for the future, and then it determines what changes need to do to meet those goals.

                         Overview of the human resource planning process

Retrieve on: 30/12/11, Available on:http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=stages+of+human+resource+planning+process&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CGcQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrews.edu%2F~schwab%2F384plan4.ppt&ei=BNf_TsjEDsuVOtymqLIB&usg=AFQjCNEcTM1vh1eeCIyV2VESRwULYnxnEA

HR forecasting tries to determine the demand and supply for different kinds of human resources and to forecast areas within the organization where there will be labor surpluses or shortages.

There are 3 steps of forecasting

·          Forecasting the demand for labour

·          Forecasting the demand for supply

·          Determine the labour shortages and surpluses

Forecasting HR requirements or demand analysis predict future stuffing needs. This is determined by managerial estimates, sales projections, simulations, vacancy analysis. Forecasting HR availability or supply analysis predict the worker flows and availabilities. It was determined by doing labour market analysis, personnel ratios, Markov analysis, skills inventories and succession or replacement charts.

1.2   

British Gas: if there is any vacant position or they are intended to recruit new employees then they give the advertisement in their webpage or newspaper. They ask for online application submission or dropping their application to the HRM office. After receiving the application they informed the applicant that they got the application and it is being progressed. Then it will be reviewed by their recruitment team or the recruiting manager. If the applicant experience and skills match to the job criteria then they call him for a telephone interview. Sometimes they will take the interview in their central assessment venues. This interview contains behavioural and technical competency and other assessment tools like work-based scenarios, role-plays, presentation and group exercises. In the interview session applicant must bring his passport, driving licence or proof of address. If he become successful or unsuccessful in the interview they will informed. Successful candidate will be informed to join to their company whereas unsuccessful candidate’s information will be stored in their data base system. They will inform later if there any other vacancy or they will get job alert at regular basis. A pre-employment check was done to the successful candidates regarding their current/ previous employment, criminal record check, education, credit reference check and proof of relevant qualification. After checking those record successful candidate are enrolled for training. They keep all the information for future recruitment. If any vacancies match the skill and experiences they call the person for an interview. They have job alert system.      

EDF: First of all they don’t take any CV and people have to apply online. After applying online they are informed and the recruiting team make a short list and asked for an interview session. Recruiters are very eager to take face to face interview. In interview session they will ask the interviewees some job related questions and their future goals and aims.  Most of the procedures are same but here unsuccessful candidates need to ask for feedback copies and their interview is more technical related and they take only online applications.

2.4

The main objective of recruitment and selection is to recruit dynamic and outstanding employees for the organization. Both of the companies are trying their best to recruit technical personnel like engineers, technicians and so on. Both of the companies are determined to provide best service among their clients.

Effective recruiting and selecting procedure

 Both companies follow this procedure which is very effective and time saving and cost effective and modern. Both of them give importance on online recruiting rather than traditional recruiting. At their first screening they short those who are really eligible.  They follow the most effective ways of recruiting and selection procedure. Both of the companies have those procedures like analysis of position & recruitments, candidate generation, pre-screen (phone and web), testing and evaluation, behavioural based interview, reference checking, pre-project orientation evaluation, optional client interview & site tour, confirmation of placement and last successful placement. But optional client interview and site tour are not applicable for both of the companies. 

3. Rewarding employees in order to motivate and retain them

1.1   

Management can motivate employees by using different tactics and policies. Different strategies, tactics and policies have different motivational impact on diverse people. The success of motivation depends on the uniqueness of the situation and the diversity of the concerned group. Motivation is important for improving the performance of employees. There is a positive and direct relationship between employee work motivation and reward. Reward is directly proportion to employee work motivation. Better the reward, the higher levels of motivation and higher levels of employee performance. Most of the employees think that the rewards are not appropriate according to their needs. Most of the time promotion process is too slow. The quick rewarding of employees may motivate them and improve their performance. The lack of communication is the main barrier of employee’s motivation. If management communicate reward to employees in proper ceremony on time, they will be better motivated. 

Equity theory explain that any employees can be motivated and happy by their present situation one day but if the scenario do not change according to his efforts he become unhappy and de-motivated. Employees can get financial rewards like salary, pay, perks, expenses, bonus and commission, benefits, pension arrangement and other non financial rewards are reputation, recognition, praise and thanks, responsibility, interest, travel, stimulus, training, sense of achievement and advancement, development and promotions.    

1.2   

Job evaluation tries to make a systematic comparison between jobs to determine their relative worth for the purpose of making a rational pay structure. Job evaluation stats with job analysis and finish at that point where the value of a job is ascertained for achieving pay equity between jobs. Job evaluation doesn’t fix the pay scale but provides the basis for evaluation a rational wage structure. It tries to access the jobs. The job evaluation process has those steps: gaining acceptance, creating job evaluation committee, finding the jobs to be evaluated, analysis and preparing job description, selecting the method of evaluation and classifying jobs.

There are two factors which determine the employee’s pay: external and internal factors. External factors are labour market, cost of living, labour unions, government legislations, the society and the economy. The internal factors are company’s strategy, job evaluation, performance appraisal and worker himself or herself. Job evaluation helps to determine satisfactory wages differentials among jobs where performance appraisal helps award pay increase to employees who shoe improved performances.   

1.3   

There are different kinds of rewards like financial, social, psychic, extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. Employees can get financial rewards like salary, pay, perks, expenses, bonus and commission, benefits, pension arrangement and other social and psychic rewards are reputation, recognition, praise and thanks, responsibility, interest, travel, stimulus, training, sense of achievement and advancement, development and promotions.

Reward effectiveness can be assessed by measuring of employee attitudes, analysis of pay market positioning and staff turnover rates. Less well know measures are length of service, vacancy rates, absenteeism rates, job refusal rates and other business metrics. Those are the measuring factors to assess the effectiveness of rewards in various organizations. For an example, if any organization have employees who left their jobs frequently, and vacancy rate is relatively high, or absenteeism rates are high or job refusal rate are greater than we can decide their rewarding system is not up to the mark and non-effective.

1.4  As the HR Director, examine the various ways through which the BG cans device strategy at monitoring performance.

As the HR Director it needs to monitor employee’s performance at regular basis. There are five ways to monitor performance. Those are:

 Number 1: watch employees work which is the most effective ways to monitor an employee’s performance. It is the direct monitoring system where anyone can identify what is going wrong in an employee and how he can do better.

Number 2: ask for an account: it is one-on-one conversation with every employee where director can ask the progress from the last conversation.

Number 3: ask employees to use self-monitoring tools to help director keep track of their actions

Number 4: Review work in progress on a regular basis

Number 5: hearsay: director always rely on hearsay inadvertently.

As a HR director, need to ask questions regarding employee’s work not about the person. Need to ask question regarding description, details and don’t need to believe what you hear.

4. Mechanisms for the cessation of employment

Cessation of employment can happen for various reasons in British Gas: resignation, layoff, merger/ buyout, for case or poor performance.

Resignation: An employee can give his resignation in any times for many reasons. He has to give an exit interview to determine the cause and a written resignation documents.

Layoff: if British Gas faces loss they can layoff their employees. If the company is facing financial problems or a particular job no longer is needed, it may lay off employees in fair and legal ways.

Merger/ buyout: if British Gas merge with other companies or they buyout their companies, employers may lost their jobs but some employees offer a severance package.

For case: any employee can terminate if he violates the company policy, rules and regulations or behave such a manner which jeopardise the co-workers or the company.

Poor performance: if any employee performing very badly, BG can terminate him or her from the position.

  

1.2   

British Gas and EDF are following same procedure in employment exit. This procedure is describing below:

Preretirement Termination:

1.      Resignation: an employee will submit a written resignation to the department with a minimum 4 week notice.

2.      Completion of exit interview: Employee has to give a secret exit interview at the HR service centre.

3.      Filing for return of retirement system contributions: Employee will fill up a form regarding retires system return.

4.      Insurance: state group insurance coverage (dental, health, disability and life) cease ib the last day of the month in which the employee is in a pay status.

5.      Return identification badge: employee must submit his id to the department of HRM.

6.      Tax sheltered annuity of deferred compensation plan

7.      Unemployment compensation

Retirement:

1.      Applying for retirement

2.      Health and dental insurance

3.      Social security benefits

4.      He has to follow previous 1,2,5 steps

Reduction in force: he has to follow the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 steps

Dismissal: he has to follow the same as reduction in force

Death: the death of a current employee or an employee who has been terminated or retired for less than 90 days, the department should inform the HR service centre.

1.3   

There are various legal and regulatory acts on employment. When the HRM employ a new people both of them have to sign some agreements. They have to follow some rules and regulation. It is not easy to cease any employee suddenly. The employer must follow some rules before ceasing. If any employee does something wrong then HR can take immediate steps to cease him according to the law. If the employee does not get proper feedback for his ceasing then he can apply again to reconsider the case. If the ceasing process become illegal HR will face some problem.    

  

Conclusion:

British Gas is the largest energy supply company of the UK. They are operating all over the UK and they are well recognized for their quality of service and products but they have to compete with other rivals. For getting the competitive market they are always to improve their products and supply. They recruit best energy engineers for their operation. For that reason they need very strong HR. The HR is responsible to gain the company goals. Personal management and HRM is very important for a business organization. British Gas is doing well at the moment and if they keep this pace in future, they will operate all over the world with good reputation. 

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