HRM: A Comprehensive Analysis of Human Resource Management Practices at Royal Dutch Shell PLC

HRM

List of Figures

List of Tables

Introduction

This task has a fundamental relationship with the review of HRM activities, which are under transformation in the human resources of this organisation. With the participation of operational management commitment, the strengths and deficiencies of the company's HRM activities will be measured. Internal and external considerations in this paper will therefore be discussed, but in particular, the regulatory structure will be considered, how the organisation involves these models in the legal and ethical enhancement of its business practises. Ultimately, work opportunities will be created on the basis of vacancies and management criteria.

TASK A

1. Organization Profile

The selected business organization is Royal Dutch Shell PLC and the company is operating in UK (Royal Dutch Shell PLC, 2020). Royal Dutch Shell PLC is a UK listed company which is operating under oil and gas industry and it has become international energy supply company among different countries in the world (Royal Dutch Shell PLC, 2020).

Products of Royal Dutch Shell Company

Figure 1 Products of Royal Dutch Shell Company

(Royal Dutch Shell PLC, 2020)

Values of Royal Dutch Shell Company

Figure 2 Values of Royal Dutch Shell Company

(Royal Dutch Shell PLC, 2020)

2. Human Resource Management

   1. Introduction

Human resource management is an important element of each and every business organization since humans or employees are the most valuable and critical resource for every organization though there are many resources available (Torlak & Ragom, 2018). Human resource management functions play an important role in every organization via integrating human resource with organizational goals and objectives and effective human resource management is important for the successful achievements of organization (Torlak & Ragom, 2018). There are different types of functions comprise in the human resource management tasks and those functions facilitate to achieve organizational objectives such as higher level of performances, effectiveness, efficiency, gain and maintain competitive advantage, enhance market share, loyal employees and so on (Torlak & Ragom, 2018).

2. Purpose and Functions

   1. Purpose of HRM

The purpose of the human resource management can be define as the process of improving the contribution of human resource or employees to the achievements of organizational goals and objectives through managing them strategically, ethically and socially ways (Armstrong, 2017). With these factors in mind, it is important for a committed team to ensure that the right people are assigned to the right job, and that every work at Royal Dutch Shell has its own importance. Human resources are often the most valuable commodity for every organism worldwide, and it should be the second most important activity after operation for Royal Dutch Shell to manage human resources. Consequently, this core human resources management team needs ample expertise and knowledge in this area. The HR team also handles workers in the opposite direction. The HR team is responsible for ensuring the appropriate remuneration of all workers and how they are handled as well as for addressing any disputes between employees and managers within the company Royal Dutch Shell.

Figure 3 Objectives of Human Resource Management

Figure 4 Role of Human Resource Management

2. Functions of HRM

Figure 5 Functions of Human Resource Management

According to the above figure, there are two main functions available in HRM and they are managerial function and operative function or in the other hand, functions of HRM have divided in to two parts as managerial functions and operative functions (Armstrong, 2017).

3. Functions relevant to Workforce Planning and Resourcing

Human resource planning is the first, basic and one of most important function in human resource management. Poor planning or ineffective planning causes to create whole organization in threaten situation on negatively effect on the success of the organization. There are few functions relevant to human resource planning as follows,

• Analyze objectives

• Review on current human resource

• Demand forecast

• Estimate gap

• Formulate plan

• Implement plan

• Monitor, control and feedback

(Bratton & Gold, 2017)

Talent Planning

Talent planning is a comprehensive strategy that structures how a company plans for hiring, retaining, and developing their current and future employees.

• Steps in Talent Planning

• Align with the organization’s business goals 

• Implement and use talent analytics

• Determine critical hiring needs and create a hiring plan

• Identify high-potential employees 

• Develop your employees

• Establish retention strategies

• Build a long-term employer branding strategy (Berger & Berger, 2020)

3. Nature and Scope of HRM

   1. Nature of HRM

Nature of Human resource management are,

• Pervasive Force

• People Oriented

• Action-Oriented

• Future-Oriented

• Development Oriented

• Enhance Employee Relations

• Interdisciplinary Function (Bratton & Gold, 2017)

2. Scope of HRM

The scope of the human resource management can be defining as very wide and it can be defining in three aspects as below,

• Personal aspect – According to the personal aspect, scope of the HRM refers to human resource planning, recruitment, selection, training and development, promotion, remuneration, performance appraisal, motivation and so on.

• Welfare aspect – According to the welfare aspect, scope of the HRM refers to provide different welfare facilities to employees and some of facilities are meals, transport, and accommodation, insurance, medical, rest rooms, lunch rooms, wash rooms, health and safety and so on.

• Industrial relation aspect – According to the industrial relation aspect, scope of the HRM refers to relationship between management and unions, union members, grievances handling, dispute management and so on.

(Jayasinghe, 2016)

3. Recruitment and Selection

   1. Theoretical Background

Recruitment can be defining as a process which finds and hires most suitable and appropriate candidates for the organization in order to perform a specific task or tasks with the purpose of achieving organizational goals and objectives. Recruitment can take place within the company or outside the company or both and therefore there are two main recruitment methods available as internal recruitment and external recruitment. (Armstrong, 2017)

Recruitment Process

Figure 6 Recruitment Process

Selection is a different concept from recruitment and selection process refers to the selecting or choosing of suitable person to fulfill the vacancy. Selection process facilitates to select suitable persons while eliminating unsuitable persons and select most appropriate and relevant person who has expected requirements. (Armstrong, 2017)

S election Process

Figure 7 Selection Process

2. Evaluation of Recruitment and Selection

There are different approaches available to recruitment and selection and organizations apply most suitable method or methods which fulfill their requirements. There are two main approaches available as internal and external and both methods have strengths and weaknesses itself.

Internal recruitment can be defined as the method of fulfilling available vacancy from within the organization rather than going beyond the organization boundary.

Internal recruitment: This technique defines employing employees internally in Royal Dutch Shell. As HR knows the performance excellence of the main workers, the beauty of this strategy is that the process becomes smoother.

Promotion of freelancers to permanent job: Promotion is an effective approach to transfer an employee from a lesser role to a better position, with more amenities, tasks, rank and benefits being distributed. Other approaches to internal recruiting include transitions from one department to another, employment of retired workers, posting of work ads internally, referrals to employees and past applicants.

• The strength is that this is an economical and rapid operation. Moreover, e-recruitment is not required because workers have a clear understanding of their duties and their work. This approach motivates employees also to work hard to increase working ties at workplaces and to boost employee engagement.

• The weakness is that the current recruiting of highly qualified candidates is promising. The spectrum is limited, because it is not desirable to fill all critical vacancies. There are problems among employees with those who are not promoted.

External recruitment:

Interview: This technique involves hiring workers from outside the company Royal Dutch Shell across a variety of approaches, including direct recruitment, job exchanges, employment agencies, marketing, campus recruitment and word-of-mouth ads. The method is of great significance for organization, as it greatly eliminates losses caused by errors such as unmotivated and inexperienced employees.

• The strength of this recruiting strategy is that it encourages profitability for job seekers who are increasing the branding of Royal Dutch Shell. There is no intrusion and HR managers have the chance to choose the best candidate from the wide pool of applicants who are appearing.

• The weaknesses are that due to long screening processes, high costs and a significant demand for rewards or reimbursement from external applicants, the process takes time to complete (Jayasinghe, 2016).

4. Importance of Human Resource Management

Employees or humans are the most important and valuable resource for each and every business organization and it requires existing at least one employee though the organization is fully automated. Humans have different and unique characteristics which are not available by other resources and therefore it requires managing human resource for the success of the organization. Therefore, there are mass importance and advantages are providing by human resource management to the organization.

The success of the organization is depending on the success of the employees and it requires recruiting most appropriate and relevant individuals who has ability to work to achieve organizational goals and objectives successfully. Training, learning and developments are relevant to the human resource management and facilitate to enhance and upgrade current level of knowledge, skills and capabilities and then they become more effective employees for the organization. It is important to create and maintain long term and strong relationship with employees and effective employee relations facilitate to enhance productivity, effectiveness and efficiency of employees. Conflicts are natural when there are more people working together with utilizing same resources for achievement of common goals and objectives. Conflict management is another important output of human resource management and it will ensure that there are o more serious conflicts arise within the organization which negatively effect on organization success, employees and other physical resources of the organization.

Benefits for employees

Employees are considering as internal customers of an organization and therefore every organization need to aware on their internal customers and need to satisfy internal customers before going satisfying external customers. Employee satisfaction also an important aspect in human resource management and it also provide mass advantages to the organization. Satisfied employees are working toward on achievements of organizational goals and objectives successfully and they become loyal to the organization rather than moving from the organization. Performance appraisal is also and value added service which apply in the human resource management function and it analyze performances of employees and encourage employees to work in better manner through providing guidance and identifying their weaknesses. Human resource management facilitates to integrate all functions of the organization with the purpose of achieving organizational goals and objectives successfully.

Benefits for employers

HRM practices of Royal Dutch Shell can also impact employers, with the following factors being certain of the advantages for employers of HRM practices:

• Motivated Employees– HRM is also used in all kinds of ways to improve workers. One of these advantages of HRM is that workers in Royal Dutch Shell are driving more inspired. This improves the overall efficiency of the company.

• Training and Development- This HRM practise greatly enhances workers' abilities and skills of Royal Dutch Shell. An overall improvement in employee skills will contribute to a larger and more talented group of workers who will significantly benefit the employers and the company.

5. Elements of Human Resource Management

There are different types of elements available in human resource management and followings are some elements with the application of Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

Recruitment and Selection

The Royal Dutch Shell PLC applies as follows,

• Vacancies in shop floor operations (machine operators, line crew, drivers etc.) - gives first priority to internal recruitment and selection and uses paper advertisements.

• Staff (Assistant) Executives (Managers) and above level (DGM, GM, CO, CEO)- uses and internet and Head hunting. (Annual Report-Royal Dutch Shell Plc, 2019)

Performance Management

Royal Dutch Shell PLC performance management conducts quarterly or frequently and checks goal settings and level of achievement of that goals. Organization applies feedback method and collects or gets feedback continuously and review and considers employee individual and team actual or real achievement when setting goals and objectives. Managers trained and give responsibility to evaluate, coach and develop their employees and they should focus on employees.

Training and Development

Royal Dutch Shell PLC applies different training and development methods to different level of employees. Floor employees such as machine operators, line crew, drivers and so on received training and development based on their level of skills and knowledge. Management level employees received training and development as a mix of on the job trainings such as job enlargement, job enrichment, special projects, out bound trainings, job rotation within same organization, within country or between countries

Reward and Recognition

T

• Welcome Suggestions and new ideas

• Social Recognition

he organization is applying different types of rewards and recognitions and some of them are as follows,

• Peer to Peer Recognition

• Promoting Wellness at the Workplace

• Gift of Acceptance

• Outdoor Meetings and Celebrate achievements

(Annual Report-Royal Dutch Shell Plc, 2019) (Royal Dutch Shell PLC, 2020)

6. HRM practices

   1. Evaluation of HRM practices

There are different practices available in human resource management and each and every practice has some benefits on the organization as well as employees. Final purpose and the aim of each and every function is to achieve organizational goals and objectives successfully within given time period in expected level.

• Providing security to employees – This is referring to the employee security. Employees are like to work in a health and safety environment and then they feel free to work without any fear on their lives and then the organization can maximum output from the employees.

• Hiring right people – Right people can achieve expected outcomes by the management of the organization and the employee can remain as a loyal employee if the employee is the right and most suitable person for the position.

• Fair and performance-based compensation – It will create satisfaction on employees regarding management actions and their equality and the organization also can get the benefit from the cost which spend for the compensation.

(Armstrong, 2017)

TASK B

Employees relations can be defining as the effort of business organization to create, maintain and manage relationships between employers and employees of the organization. An organization need to create and maintain long term and fair relationship with their employees. Employee relations are considering as one of important factor which impact on the employee satisfaction and employee motivation. Therefore, Royal Dutch Shell is aware and giving attention on creating and maintaining good and strong relationship with the employees. The main and core objective of employee relation is to improve relationships between employers and employees as well as employees and management and the collaboration within the organization. (Armstrong, 2017)

Importance of employee relations

Employee relations have direct and positive impact on employee engagement of the organization Royal Dutch Shell. Employee relations play crucial important role in creating employee engagement and organization which have better employee relations are comprises of engaged employees who work toward achieve organizational goals and objectives successfully. The Royal Dutch Shell can apply some employee relations techniques in order to enhance employee relations as well as employee engagement and some of them are Share, review and update employee expectations, Encourage open communication to identify obstacles and issues, Don’t neglect consistent feedback and recognition and Encourage discussion and sharing of thoughts and so on.

Employee satisfaction is another importance of employee relations and employee relations facilitate to enhance employee satisfaction. Satisfied employees are working toward on achieve organizational goals and objectives successfully and provide their effort and commitment do relevant tasks in relevant time at right quality (Mashhady, 2021). Employee satisfaction then will enhance employee performances, productivity, effectiveness, efficiency and then it facilitates to Royal Dutch Shell to make higher level of profitability. For example, employee retention also increased and employees are like to working in an environment with relevant facilities including employee satisfaction, employee engagement and employee relations. Employee relations facilitate to retain loyal employees with the organization and relationship between employees and managers will create loyal employees for Royal Dutch Shell for the long term success (Armstrong, 2017).

Good relationship between employees and managers will create low amount of conflicts among two parties and it will save employees time as well as managers’ time. In Royal Dutch Shell few workplace conflicts create happy work environment and then employees and managers can willingly work within the organization. Then the organization become happy place for all which encourages coming to work and work happily. Reduce the absenteeism rate and turnover rate of employees.

Impact of Employee relations on Decision Making

Generally, decision making is a function of managers and some managers may get the support of employees and their ideas when they make decisions. Employee relations facilitate to create, build and maintain strong and long term relationship with employees and managers or employers. Employee relations create a trust between employees and employers and long term relationships naturally create mutual trust among two parties.

Managers give chance to employees to make decision which relevant to them or give chance to provide their ideas on the decisions which will take by the managers (Hayes, 2021). Employee relations create the platform to managers to reach employees and get a clear understanding on them and then the managers can get to know what are the real requirements of them, what their current level, what they expect, what they actually need, what kind of situations they are facing, what are the problems they are facing and so on. Then managers can clearly take relevant and required decisions to solve their current issues, to provide their requirements, to enhance their performances, to upgrade them and so on.

According to the Royal Dutch Shell PLC,

• They are considering as their people (employees) are vital for the success of the organization.

• They maintain healthy and long term relationship with their employees.

• They maintain dialogues with employees and get their employees ideas and recommendations when the management make and take decisions (Berger & Berger, 2020)

1. Employment legislation

   1. Key elements

Employment legislation can be defined as the body of laws which regulate the relationships between employees and the employers or managers. There are different types of elements included in employment legislation and some of them are as follows,

• Equal employment opportunity

• Affirmative actions

• Sexual harassment

• Working time regulations

• Wages and remuneration

• Working conditions

• Trade unions and other industrial relationships

• Welfare, safety and health

• Social security

• Special provisions for other occupations or groups

The above mentioned elements in employment legislation create mutual agreement and arrange between employees and employers. The employees and employers come to an agreement about above things in the employment legislation.

• Sexual Harassment– These laws cover all Royal Dutch Shell workers who may experience sexual abuse in the workplace.

• Working Time Regulations– This legislation makes rules to discourage any employee overwork.

• Minimum Wages and Earnings– Any employee of Royal Dutch Shell has the right to a number of salaries and income regardless of the job they perform.

• Working Conditions– The minimum level of working conditions under which workers work is controlled.

The consequences of HRM decision-making that these elements of labour law have are very important for Royal Dutch Shell. One of these consequences is the decisions taken to create designs of the workplace and safety measures of the workplace. Infringement of the requirements would result in civil penalties. Since the primary purpose of these laws is to protect workers from discrimination and injustice of any sort, the HR department needs to concentrate on developing concrete workplace techniques and policies to avoid those problems (Armstrong, 2017). Another area of influence is the payrolls and other employee benefits. This influences the decisions taken by human resources managers because during their job scheduling these considerations must be integrated in order for the company Royal Dutch Shell to comply with these laws.

2. Influence on Decision-making

The management needs to take decisions on opportunities to employees by considering employment legislation. According to the employment legislation, each and every employee has equal employment opportunity and need to consider when decision making. As an example, assume that, the management of the Royal Dutch Shell company management has decided to give a promotion and they have chosen an employee and that employee has personal relations with two managers in the management team. There are some other employees have applied to the promotion and some of them have more qualifications than selected person. At this time, the management has breach the legislation and term regarding equal opportunity on every employee. The organization need to aware on the employment legislation also when they take decisions (Javaheri, 2020).

The management and the employees have come to an agreement regarding working conditions, working tm regulations and wages and remunerations and both parties need to comply on those factors. The management can’t change working times, regulations as they wish in any time.

Some organizations are refusing to build and work with trade unions while some are accepting. The organization can include their decisions and conditions regarding trade unions in their employment legislation (Liu, 2021). The management needs to consider on the legislation when they are making decisions regarding trade unions. As an example, assume that Royal Dutch Shell Company has suspended two employees since they are dealing with trade union activities. But in the employment legislation, the management has given permission to employees to maintain their trade unions and work in fair manner rather than providing negative impact on the organization performances, goodwill and reputation. The management needs to consider the terms in legislation before they take a decision regarding employee suspension.

The management has agreed on wages and remunerations in the employment legislation and they need to consider and aware on that when they make and take decisions regarding wages and remunerations of employees. As an example, assume that the management has agreed and mentioned that the lowest level salary in Royal Dutch Shell Company is USD 100 per month. The management cannot take a decision to reduce the salary of a person below USD 100

(Armstrong, 2017).

Figure 8 Part of Employment Legislation of Royal Dutch Shell Company

2. Trial run of Recruitment

In here, it is going to apply a human resource management function to the organizational context and selected function or practice is recruitment and selection. The recruitment and selection practice will apply to the “Accounting Administrative Assistant” in Royal Dutch Shell Company.

1. STEP 1 – Background

Recruitment and selection process take place after the organization has identified a requirement or need. The Royal Dutch Shell Company has two ways of recruitments such as below,

• Students and graduates recruitment Vs experienced professionals hiring

• technical and non-technical hiring as well as family friendly

• careers

• technical and non-technical hiring as well as family friendly

• careers

• technical and non-technical hiring as well as family friendly

• careers

• technical and non-technical hiring as well as family friendly

• careers

• Technical and non technical hiring Vs family friendly careers

Student - The Royal Dutch Shell Company provides Graduate programme for graduates who looking for full time employment. Provide train on the company operations. After completing the training programme, then eligible for the full time job. The company provides leadership programme also.

Professionals – Can use the job search tool which is available in Royal Dutch Shell Company official website.

2. STEP 2- Recruitment Process

Figure 9 Application Process of Royal Dutch Shell Company

The applicant needs to search in company’s official website and if there is a vacancy, the person can apply and otherwise the person can join to the Shell’s “Talent Community”. The applicant needs to make an account for them and need to attaché their resume and cover page and need to fill following details also.

• First name

• Last name

• Address

• Country

• State/ Region

• Postal code

• Mobile number

• E mail address

Then the management will create small pool of applicants and select the suitable person or persons among them.

1. First they arrange a telephone interview for the selected small pool (Duration approximately 45 minutes) (Javaheri, 2020)

2. Then they conduct behavioral structure interview, scenario-based exercise, a professional interview or even a presentation assessing their competencies.

3. Then the applicant need to face an aptitude test process, a registration process, medical check-up process, fitness process and completion and submission

4. Then the company selects most suitable and appropriate person.

3. Job Description

JOB DESCRIPTION

ACCOUNT ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Job Title: Account Administrative Assistant

Department: Finance Department

Reports to: Finance Manager

Summary

Assist Royal Dutch Shell Company’s accounting department with numerous daily accounting activities to assure all customer payables are accurate and promptly processed, proper filing, spreadsheet updates, collate invoices for mailing, faxing and emailing, compiling receipts and invoices for payments, assisting customers promptly with accounting questions, incident reports, etc.

Duties and Responsibilities: include, but are not limited to:

• Collating and mailing, faxing and emailing invoices and statements

• Copy, files, collate a/p, payroll, vehicle maintenance

• Update and maintain various spreadsheets

• Close out reservations for invoicing and payments

• Charge credit cards and run daily batches

• Fax and email request for charges and follow up with companies

• Update affiliate files, as needed

• Assist with payroll

• Assist with processing cheques for delivery to employees

• Contact employees when needed to obtain information for billing

• Assure all driver paperwork is properly processed

• Work on various projects, as needed

• Able to work under stress, in a high pace environment, which includes deadlines

• Able to work on windows 8 computer systems, understand basic spreadsheets, Google docs a plus

• Ability to learn and work proprietary software

Qualification:

• High school diploma

• 1 year experience in Oil and Gas industry

Acknowledgment

This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee incumbent in this position. The Employee may be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested.

Designation	Signature	Date
Account Administrative Assistant
Finance Manager
Human Resource Manager

4. Interview

Designing Interview Questions – Need to answer questions which relevant to behavioral, competency and situational categories. Behavioral and competency questions for evaluate candidate's experience, job skills and personal attributes and situational questions for act of the candidate in the interview.

Sample interview questions

• Tell me about your self

• Tell me about a goal you set and how you achieved it.

• What are your strengths and weaknesses?

• What are your short term and long term goals?

• How do you know about this vacancy?

• What do you know about this company?

• Give me an example of when you took the lead at work.

5. Job Offer Letter

25^th October 2020

Jack William

Dear Jack

Congratulations! The Royal Dutch Shell Company is pleased to offer you the position of Account Administrative Assistant.

Reporting to Finance Manager on 1^st of November 2020. Your basic salary will be USD 1500 per month. Your working hours are 8.00 a.m to 5.00 p.m from Monday to Friday.

Please sign the enclosed copy of this letter and return it to HR department by 28^th of October to indicate your acceptance of this offer.

Sincerely,

…………….

Harry Jacob

Human Resource Manager

The Royal Dutch Shell Company

Conclusion

The assessment will take based on the particular purposes, for which the key requirements are preserving diversity and strengthening relationships, and no workers can be chosen without them. This will allow people to have greater legislative capacities. Management and workers are negotiated on working conditions, working conditions and pay, and these factors must be respected by all parties. Management cannot at any time adjust working hours, rules that they like. Some organisations refuse to build and operate with syndicates while some agree. The organisation can include its trade union decisions and conditions in its labour laws. When making decisions on labour unions, management must take into account the legislation. Managers give workers the ability to make choices that matter to them or give their suggestions about the decisions the managers take. Employee relationships provide a forum for managers to meet and appreciate workers and managers can then learn what their real needs are, what their current position, what they are expecting, what they really need, what kind of circumstances they face, what challenges they face and so on.

References